Day 78: Snow Bunny and Fur Trims

Its winter time...time for the snow bunny to come out and play! :)

Today, I put on my fuzzy winter jacket (and cute winter skirt) to hit the slopes of Second Life. But surprisingly, *GOOD* ski areas are hard to find in SL!

By far the best one I found is Nakiska Ski Club. For both skiing and snowboarding, Nakiska cant be beat.



OK, just like in RL, you need some equipment to ski or snowboard. Fortunately, there are vendors all over Nakiska that sell skis and snowboards.

For skiing, you can purchase a basic set of skis for $35L (thats about 12 cents US). So get it! :P You need to wear a pair of non-prim shoes for skiing, because the skis are feet attachments. Otherwise, you will find yourself barefoot when you put your skis on :) Also, you should turn on "Always Run" by selecting the World menu at the top of your screen, and making sure that "Always Run" is checked. Then just point your skis downhill and move forward :)



Skiing feels sorta like skating. Even on the scariest slopes, you will feel well under control as you glide down the snow.

Nakiska has a nice ski run with timers. They have competitions there as well.



But who wants to be under control? That's why there are snowboards! :)

There are 2 versions of the snowboard. One is by the Lindens, which is a freebie. The other is by one of the owners of Nakiska (a really nice lady who I bumped into tonight!) Her snowboard sells for $5L (thats less than 2 cents US). They are both available in Nakiska at the bottom of the hill. I personally like her board more, but try both and judge for yourself!

Unlike skis, snowboards have a definite mind of their own. And if you are not careful, you may find yourself airbourne and on your way into the next sim (I did that a *FEW* times!).



See that thing in the picture that looks like disconnected rain gutters? Well, theres a *REALLY* big version of that in Nakiska for snowboarders :) Try it out! But be careful, theres a very wicked turn in the middle. If youre not careful, you WILL end up in the next sim :)



After a long day of skiing and snowboarding, there is a steam room conveniently located on the premises! So stop in and get acquainted with your bikini again :)

To come to Nakiska, go to the Search menu at the bottom of your screen, select the Places tab, and use "nakiska" as the keyword. To go there directly, here is the SLURL: Nakiska (209,35,125).



Wengen is another popular ski slope in Second Life. It is conveniently located next to the popular Chalet Linden. Unfortunately, Wengen's ski lifts are currently not working, so you would have to fly to the top of the hill (just follow the lift cables).



Wengen does not have nice facilities like Nakiska, but it does have one thing going for it: a really, really, long drop! Unfortunately, you cannot use snowboards here (you cannot rez objects at the top). So you would have to stick to using skis. :( Nevertheless, it is quite a run!

So while you have your skis on, give Wengen a try! You can get there by clicking on the Search button, selecting the Places tab, and using "wengen" as the keyword. Here is the SLURL: Wengen (99,233,94).



I have wanted to do a winter/ski outfit for some time now. However, I knew that it would be a tough build project because it required 2 things I have never done before:

First, a winter jacket should be fluffy. That means it needs to be prim-based. It is reasonable easy to cover your arms using a series of tori. The arms consists of both forearm and upper arm attachments.

The body is a whole other matter. I also did the body with a series of tori. But making the tori fit without making them too bulky (because I got too enthusiastic about certain chest sliders in Appearance...) is the tricky part. But because there are a series of tori covering the body, each could be sized differently to fit the body. I used 2 more tori running vertically to cover the front edges.

The second new thing is fur. I knew a proper winter jacket needs to be fuzzy :) Whats the fun if its not? But I have never made fur trims before. Until today, I wasnt even sure how to do it. And it was quite a learning process today.

First I needed a fur texture, complete with an Alpha Channel for the all important transparent areas.

I searched the Internet for a fur texture and finally came on a couple articles about making your own. Basically, create a new document in Photoshop (I made it 512x512 pixels).



Draw a small white circle in the middle. Then select the Smudge tool, set Strength to 93, and start pulling lines out from the center. It helps to put a colored background on a separate layer so you can see the lines better.

Once you have enough fuzz, its time to build the Alpha Channel. You want to use the actual fur texture as the Alpha Channle. But in order to do that, it has to be set against a black background. So make a copy of the fur texture layer. Put the copied layer against a black background and merge the 2 layers. Then use the merged layer as the Alpha Channel (create an Alpha Channel, then cut/paste the merged layer in). Now, turn off the merged layer, and turn your original fur texture layer back on.

You are now ready to export the file in Targa format and upload to SL.

To create the illusion of 3D fur, first you need a really flat square. To do that, you need a weird SL trick. Create a sphere. Change the Dimple B=0.950. Now change the shape to a box. Set Z=0.010. You notice how flat it is (less than .01M).

Now, apply a completely transparent texture to it (a texture with a completely black Alpha Channel). Then apply the fur texture to the 2 main faces.

Then go to the Texture tab and select "Full Bright" for both faces. This is important, or your fur would not appear to be as fuzzy.



Next, create a furball by placing 3 of these flat fur textures on each of the 3 axis (X, Y, and Z). Link the 3 together to form a furball.

Finally, place the fur around the item you want to trim. Note that you will need to place the furballs relatively close to one another to give a fuzzy appearance. And remember that each furball has 3 prims. My jacket hood alone has over 100 prims. But its so warm and fuzzy! :)

P.S. In case you dont want to (or dont have the software) to do the above steps, I put a copy of the fur texture and a sample furball as a freebie in the Sirena store. You can Search under Places for keyword "sirena", or here is the SLURL: West Sunset (160,50,22).

P.S. Come on...cant go jumping down the slopes without shooting a video! :P