Day 310: Riverwalk

Nestled along the river that runs through the Ganymede sim is the classic SL attraction, Riverwalk Cliffhouse Arts and Attractions.

Riverwalk is a large part (but not all) of the Ganymede sim, built over time along the river banks and nearby hills...



Riverwalk is a lot of things: its an outdoor art museum, garden, amusement area, community center, and even has a casino. But you can tell that its a work of love by its owner. The builders studied architecture in Real Life, and it shows!



Riverwalk has many paths that wind into each other, both along the banks of the river and around the nearby hills.



Whereever you go, you can find art pieces along the path. Heehee not me...I mean the shiny thingie behind me!

If you are an artist looking for a place to exhibit your work, think about putting your work for display here!



You can even pick up some free flowers along the way :)



The best part about Riverwalk are these swan boats! They give you (and a friend) a 20 minute tour of the river, which provide many interesting little tidbits about the area. You can rent your own swan boat at the landing for L$5 (about 2 US cents) or just jump into a moving boat.



I mentioned amusement area, right?

Aaaaahhhhhh!!!



And get your fortune read by Madame Zola...



Riverwalk has a truly dizzying maze. It looks like it would be a lot of fun with several people, cause you can see the other people thru the gaps as you all get dizzy together!



I can never pass up one of these water slides. Whhhheeeee!



Riverwalk has a community center, and provides space for non-commercial community group meetings...



Oh, there are some private residences along the river. So look for these Riverwalk signs to see which areas belong to Riverwalk.



Theres even a firewalk show just after sunset. Thats a "natural" SL sunset, not "Force Sun" to "Midnight" :P Fortunately, an SL day is only 4 hours long :)

If you havent been here, come check out Riverwalk! Its perfect for a date :)

Click on Search, select Places, and enter "riverwalk" as the keyword. The SLURL is Ganymede (25,228,26).



So which fork do you use for eating prims? :P

Day 309: Sirena 3 Women/1 Men's Hairstyles (Tied Hairs)

Its Monday again! But it doesnt really matter, cause its summer anyway :)

All Sirena women & men's hairstyles are now online at www.SirenaHair.com. This includes links to SL Exchange and the new Shop OnRez/SL Boutique!

Since its getting hot, I guess its time to tie back those super long mermaid hairs. Maybe just a little :) So this week, its braids and tied hairstyles...



Sandy is the cute classic double braid, topped by flexi ribbons with big bows. Color-changing, of course :) The braids have a slight twist and flexi ends to make them even cuter!



Buttercup, as in Princess Buttercup from The Princess Bride :) This long straight hair has strands that are pulled back into a short braid, just because this looks pretty! Comes with a detachable flexi bow that sits just above the short braid. Will Westley/Roberts save Princess Buttercup in time? :)



Michelle is a long, beautiful flexi hair, tied on the left side with a jeweled hair pin. The hair flows so naturally, I kept flying up and down to watch it dance around :) Definitely check out the demo!



Hyde (as in Jekyll & Hyde) is the dark side of Corporate. A little dishevelled. A little wicked. But in the morning, Hyde will be Jekyll again...


These Sirena hairstyles include built-in Face Lighting so you always look your best. Just try on a demo and see the difference!

All hairstyles come in 3 sizes, (S)mall, (M)edium, and (L)arge for easy fitting and adjustment.

There are 48 textures in 12 color packs to choose from. And all hairs can be color-tinted (with 66 colors) to give you even more color choices!

Check them out online at www.SirenaHair.com or at Sirena Hair & Fashion. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "sirena" as the keyword. The SLURL is West Sunset (160,50,22).




Second Steve hasnt been the same since he went to that Goth sim...

Steve? Steve? Are you OK?

Day 307: Animation Override (AO) Tutorial

I had a *VERY* brief modeling career in Second Life during the Miss Second Life and L'Oreal beauty pageants. I learned a lot about Animation Override (AO) gadgets and modeling in SL. That was before they realized there was something fishy about me ;P

Previously, Ive written about AO's in general, putting AO into objects, and into a prim shoe. I get questions about AO's on a regular basis, so I thought it might be helpful to put a full AO tutorial together.

This tutorial will talk about what Animation Override does, the various popular AO gadgets in SL, and how to configure one with poses and walks.

Note: Im a blonde mermaid, so I cant script :P Im just trying to share what Ive learned about AO's to help residents get started. So dont ask me how these scipts actually work :)


Animation Override Overview



So why bother with AO's anyway?

In Second Life, your avatar has a set of standard animations for walking, standing, running, jumping, sitting, falling, etc. These animations are pretty nice and realistic. But they are the same for guys and girls. And hardly appropriate for mermaids! :P



And if you do modeling (or want to look like you do :D) then you probably want to have a more Sexy walk and set of stand poses.

Animation Override basically replaces the standard SL animations. You can generally choose which animation you wish to override. You can override one animation, or all of them.

For example, you can have an AO that gives you Sexy walk in your shoe, and does not override anything else. You will still stand, run, jump, sit, and fall using the standard animations; but your walk will be Sexy.



You can also have an AO that replaces just about everthing you do. In particular, mermaid AO's do that, because mermaids always have to keep their legs together :)

BTW, AO's cause a LOT of lag, particularly for the sim servers. Its far worse than any amount of bling or flexi you wear (because bling and flexi are drawn by the SL clients, not the servers). So keep this in mind in a busy sim, and be sure you know how to turn your AO's off!


Animation Files



You need an appropriate animation file for each type of animation you wish to replace. For example, you need a Walking animation if you want to replace your walk. You need a Pose or Standing animation to replace your stand. A Sit animation to replace you sit.

BTW, SL makes no distinction between different types of animation files. You can use a Sit animation to replace your walk. But you will look funny when you walk :P

SL also makes no distinction between moving and static animation files. So you can use a moving animation file as a stand. Or you can use a static pose as a stand.

So where can you get animation files?

There are 3 free folders in Sirena Hair & Fashion that have animations files: "Poseball", "Walk Animations", and "Stand Animations". Just grab all 3, and you should have a nice supply to load up an AO gadget! Dont forget to grab the "Franimation Overrider FLIP MOD" folder for this tutorial. They are at Sirena (Search/Places for "sirena") in the Tutorial Supplies area under the giant mermaid sign. Hmm...I wonder if they figured out there was something fishy about me from that mermaid sign... :P

Theres also a large collection of (sometimes interesting) animations and poses at Yadni's Junkyard.

Lastly, theres a large number of animation vendors in SL. Just Search/Places or Search/Classifieds for "animation". In particular, Abranimations and Animation Warehouse are large animation vendors with a collection of moving animations and animation gadgets. Body Talk and comPOSEure specialize in static poses, particular good for modeling.

Note that AO gadgets are not for "striking a pose" on demand, like at the end of a runway. If you are doing runway modeling, you should play the animation file when you hit your marker (Right-click on the animation file in your Inventory and select "Play in World"). Alternatively, you can use a HUDDLES Quick Pose (which costs about L$150). Unfortunately, since the HUDDLES Quick Pose is based on a HUD, it doesnt work very well under extremely high lag. You should practice in a laggy area before you actually get on the runway :)


Animation Override Gadgets

There are a number of free and commercial AO gadgets in SL. Most of them are based on Francis Chung's Franimation Overrider script (originally written back in 2004!). So you will find that most of them work in the same way.



In general, you Wear an attachment on your avatar that contains a version of the Franimation Overrider script. The attachment could be a shoe with Sexy walk, a dance bracelet, an invisible box on the hip, or a HUD.

You may very well have multiple attachments, with each one overriding a different type of animation! For example, you could have a pair of Sexy walk shoes, and an AO gadget for standing and sitting. This isnt a very good idea, because it could be buggy...not to mention very laggy! But sometimes you just have no choice (esp Sexy walk shoes with "No Mod").



For most of these AO gadgets, you edit a notecard, pick the animations you want to override, and put in the names of the animation file. Then you tell the gadget to reset itself, and voila! You are walking sexy :)

There are 3 major free AO gadgets: WetIkon, ZHAO, and the Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD.







WetIkon



WetIkon is a free AO gadget created by Francis Chung, the author of the Franimation Overrider script. Its very popular in SL, and is used by many animation vendors to sell "AO packages". For example, the mermaid AO I use from EmeraldEver's has the WetIkon gadget.

BTW, pls dont bug Francis Chung for support! She generously made these gadgets available for free, but made it quite clear that she does not provide support! Check inside the script for a list of volunteers who can help with questions or ask for help on the SL Forums.

WetIkon comes as a little blue and white box that attaches to your hip. You basically put your animation files into the WetIkon device, edit the "*Default Anims" Notecard in the device, then say "/ao reset" to have WetIkon read the Notecard. Thats it! (We will actually do these steps below)

You can also say "/ao show" and "/ao hide" to show or hide the little blue and white box. "/ao on" and "/ao off" enables or disables the WetIkon (good for when you are at a busy club!)

You can get the latest version of the WetIkon gadget directly from WetIkon. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "wetikon" as the keyword. The SLURL is Bisque (86,35,21).




ZHAO and ZHAO 2



The ZHAO, or Ziggy's HUD Animation Overrider, is a free HUD-based AO gadget. That means that the ZHAO attaches to the bottom right of your screen, not to your avatar!

BTW, pls dont bug Ziggy for support! If you have questions, read Ziggy Puff's Profile (see the Picks tab).

There are some advantages and disadvantages in using a HUD-based AO. Because its a HUD, its easier to use. You can enable and disable features by clicking on your screen instead of using Chat commands (like "/ao off"). But because its a HUD, it doesnt respond well in a laggy environment. But try it out and see for yourself!

To configure the ZHAO, you put your animation files into the ZHAO device and edit the "Empty" Notecard in the device. Then Wear the ZHAO, click the "Load" button and select the "Empty" Notecard. ZHAO comes with a Notecard with complete "Step-by-step Setup Instructions". Theres also an excellent ZHAO tutorial.



According to Ziggy's Profile, you can find the latest version of ZHAO at Material Squirrel Wings. This SLURL will put you directly in front of the ZHAO vendor: Winged Isle (35,83,47).



***Update: The new ZHAO 2 is out!

The ZHAO 2 adds a lot of cool features, like support for "Next Stand" to go to the next stand animation, "Stand Time" which lets you set the duration of each stand. You can also configure multiple Walks (and choose between them from a menu).

And best of all, you can have up to 12 of each animations (walks, stands, etc.). But keep it reasonable, or it might crash :P



To setup the ZHAO 2, you put animation files into the ZHAO 2 like any other gadget. But the ZHAO 2 uses a slightly different Notecard than the rest of the free AO's here.

You list the animation file names to the right of each heading, separated by a vertical bar "|". You can also blend 2 animations together by using a comma (havent tried that yet!)

I dont know how well the ZHAO 2 works under lag, but its definitely worth a try! Im *seriously* thinking about putting my mermaid animations in here! :)

You can pick up the free ZHAO 2 at Material Squirrel Wings: Winged Isle (35,83,47).


Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD



OK, the "Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD" is not actually a gadget. Its just an old version of Francis Chung's Franimation Overrider script modified by FlipperPA Peregrine (yes, the one from SL Boutique!).

BTW, pls dont bug FlipperPA for support! This script is not supported by anyone...so you are on your own if you choose to use it!

What caught my attention are the first few lines in the script: "modded by FliperPA to cut down on lag by 1000% without cutting much performance...also set to listen on alternate channel to stop server parsing everything wearer says in chat" Less lag is a good thing :)

Ive used this script reliably in high-lag situations (like the L'Oreal beauty pageant with 20 contestants and 65+ people in the sim!). I only used it for the Sexy walk, but it came on every time I went on stage. So I tend to like it :)

The downside is that this is not a packaged gadget. Theres no support for it. And there will probably not be any future improvements. You are on your own...

The good thing is that you setup the "Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD" script just like the WetIkon. The big difference is that you have to create an attachment to put it in (it can be a simple Single Prim Bracelet). You put the "Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD" script inside the attachment, edit the "*Default Anims" Notecard in the device, then say "/63 ao reset" (this script uses Channel 63, which cuts down on lag).


Commercial Animation Override Gadgets

If you have L$ to spend, there are commercial AO's out there for you :) Most of the large animation stores have packaged AO's. They are pre-loaded with animations. Just wear them and go!

There are many "special purpose" AO's, for particular avatars (like mermaids or dragons), or um...relationship situations...

A noteworthy one is HUDDLES (Search/Places for "huddles"). They have a number of commercial AO gadgets from simple posing to AO's that support dancing and can be scripted.

They are easier to setup than the free AO gadgets (just drop the animation files on the gadget, you dont have to configure notecards). However, they are not cheap. They are def the ultimate in AO gadgets. Note that these are HUD-based devices, so they may have issues under heavy lag...


Create an Animation Override Bracelet

OK enough talking...lets make something :)

We are going to create an AO bracelet using the "Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD" script. We will configure the AO bracelet to override our Walk and a rotation of 3 Stand poses.

These steps can also be used to setup the WetIkon AO (except you wont need to create the bracelet).

You will need the free "Franimation Overrider - FLIP MOD" folder from Sirena to complete this part of the tutorial. Also, dont forget the animation files in the "Poseball" and "Walk Animations" folders.



Click on the Build button at the bottom of your screen and click on the ground to rez a Box.

If you see the "More >>" button in the Edit window, click on it to see the rest of the Edit window. Go to the Object tab.

Change the Building Block Type to "Torus".

Change the following settings:

   Size X: 0.020
   Size Y: 0.080
   Size Z: 0.080

   Rotation Y: 90.00

   Hole Size Y: 0.10



Go to the Texture tab.

Click on the square above "Texture". At the "Pick:Texture" window, click "Blank" and "Select".

Click on the square above "Color". At the "Color Picker" window, pick a color for the bracelet, then click "Select".



Go to the "Content" tab.

Look for the "Franimation Overrider FLIP MOD" folder you picked up from Sirena. Drag and drop the contents from the "Franimation Overrider FLIP MOD" folder into the Contents tab of the bracelet.



If you are using WetIkon, this is where you should start. Just rez the WetIkon on the ground, Edit it, go to the Contents tab, and follow these instructions.

Look for the "Walk Animations" folder you picked up from Sirena. Drag and drop the walk animation you want to use into the Contents tab of the bracelet. If you dont know which one to use, try "Female Walk" if you want a Sexy walk, or "Power Walk" if you are a guy.

Look for the "Stand Animations" folder you picked up from Sirena. Drag and drop 3 stand animations you want to use into the Contents tab of the bracelet. If you are unsure, try these poses if you are a woman:

   *MM* Model pose 2
   *MM* Model pose 3
   *MM* Model pose 5

Try these if you are a man:

   Model Pose 4
   standing_01
   waiting



Double-click on the "*Default Anims" Notecard in the Contents tab of the bracelet. This will open the Notecard editing window.















Put the *EXACT* name of the walk animation (either "Female Walk" or "Power Walk") under the "-=Walking=-" heading. The Notecard is case-sensitive, so the spelling and case has to be exactly the same as the animation file.

Also, be sure that you dont add any blank lines in the Notecard.

Add the exact names of the 3 stand animations under the "-=Stand1=-", "-=Stand2=-", and "-=Stand3=-" headings. Now, pick 2 of the stand animations and put them under the "-=Stand4=-" and "-=Stand5=-" headings. You should not leave any of the "Stand" headings blank because SL will substitute the normal stands animations in those spots. You can choose and loaded 5 different stand animations later if you like :D

Again be sure the spelling and case are the same, and dont add any blank lines!

Once you are done, press the "Save" button and close the Notecard.



One last thing: go to the "General" tab and change the name to "Animation Bracelet".

Thats it! The bracelet is ready to go. We just have to fit it now...

Right-click on the bracelet and select "Take" to take the bracelet into your Inventory.

Look for the "Animation Bracelet" in your Inventory. It should be in the Objects folder.

Right-click on the "Animation Bracelet", select "Attach To >", and select "L Forearm".



Like most attachments, they end up in the weirdest places when you first attach them :P In this case, its probably embedded somewhere in your arm.

Right-click on the "Animation Bracelet" on your arm and select "Edit".



Go to the "Object" tab.

Change Rotation Z to 90.00.



Next, grab the Green color arrow and move the bracelet down. If you use the numbers in the top of the screen as a guide, the bracelet fits me at about "X: 0.000 Y: 0.085 Z: 0.000".

If you are using the "Franimation Overrider FLIP MOD" script, say these 2 commands in the Chat window: "/63 ao on" and "/63 ao reset" (without the quotes). It will take up to a minute to read the Notecard.

If you are using WetIkon, say these 2 commands in the Chat window: "/ao on" and "/ao reset" (without the quotes). It will take up to a minute to read the Notecard.

Note: When you first wear the Animation Bracelet, be sure you are in a place where you can run scripts (like a Sandbox).



Thats it! You should start walking and standing like a model :)


Have fun with your modeling career :)

53548-071006-452614-24

© 2007 All Rights Reserved.

Day 305: Sploland

Have you wondered where the scientists hang out in Second Life? You know, the people who can figure out how to send something to the moon. Or how many mermaids it takes to screw in a lightbulb...

Thanks to my friend Baron (who is a total scientist himself!), I discovered one of their secret hangouts! :) So heres my chance to spy on the scientists :P



Sploland is definitely a sim for people who love math and science! Its filled with interactive displays of visual illusions, scientific curiosities, and math stuff :P

If you enjoy scientific and math displays, you will have hours of fun here at Sploland! There are literally dozens of displays on all kinds stuff.

Note: Im math-challenged. Um...Im half-fish. Fake blonde. What did you expect? :P



But if you know your Pi from a quiche, this is the place for you.

There are displays that make use of SL's interactive nature to demonstrate some cool scientific principles and illusions...



OK, and then there are the occasional weird display. Scientists...you gotta love them ;P



There are even displays about SL itself. For example, did you know rubber makes a different sound in SL than glass? So cool :)



There appears to be a Cult of Pi worshippers who live here...beware!

Am I in a role-playing sim? :P



In case residents from Babbage or Caledon come to visit, they even have a Steampunk area.



Hey look: a waterfall garden and a pirate ship! Something I can understand :)

Umm...except for that weird wire thingie on the ground...



OMG, the Cult of Pi is all over this place! Beware...theres this weird voice chanting numbers if you touch some of the displays!



I knew it! These scientists have their own secret dance club! So this is where the science guys party at :)

I wonder if my Babbler translator can translate "scientist" so I can crash their parties :P

If you or someone you know is scientifically-minded, definitely come check out the cool displays at Sploland. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "sploland" as the keyword. The SLURL is SploLand (185,78,25).



OMG, worshippers from the Cult of Pi!

Day 303: Hawaii

Fun, sun, beaches, huts, and hang gliding :) Aloha and welcome to Hawaii in Second Life!

Hawaii is currently made up of 2 connected sims: Hawaii (the Big Island) and Oahu Hawaii.



When you arrive in Hawaii (the Big Island) sim, you can make a dramatic entrance by hang gliding from the mountain top...

Unless you are half-fish...in which case, you cant fly :(

Aaaaaarrrrrhhhhhh!!!



Of course, the Hawaii sims have beautiful beaches where you can surf, swim, kiteboard...

Or my favorite: lying around while IMing and writing a blog entry :P



Hawaii (the Big Island) is a pretty sim, where you can stroll/hike through beaches, trails, waterfalls...

And even have a picnic by a volcano :)



The coolest part about Hawaii are these beach huts!

You can use them for free. Thats right! Just find a hut thats not in use and you can claim it as your own.

The sim has a 10,000 minute timer (about 7 days). So you can rez objects in your hut to decorate it. And the hut is yours as long as you re-rez the objects at least every 7 days...



This is my hut for the week! Its the cute one with the red mailbox :)

BTW, these mailboxes seem to be the informal way of "claiming" a hut. To get a mailbox, just Right-click on any mailbox you see, select "More >", and "Take Copy". Find an empty hut (without a mailbox), and rez the mailbox in front of it to "claim" it for the week :)

Since there are a limited number of huts, you may not always find one available. Just check back occasionally and one would open up eventually...



All of the huts have lockable doors and privacy screens. Some huts even come partially furnished with furniture and poseballs...

These huts are provided for free as a way to build a community around the Hawaii sims. So please be respectful of the sim owners and your neighbors!



If you decide to live here, you are encouraged to set Hawaii as your Home location. To do so, you need to join the "Hawaii Sim" group (which also gives you community annoucements). Click on Search, selecting Groups, and entering "hawaii sim" as the keyword.

Then go to one of these "Hawaii Home Setting Area". Click on "World" from the top menu bar, and select "Set Home to Here". Congratulations, you now live in Hawaii :)



Heres the community center, where there are a number of things to do...

Theres a disco, games, and sitting areas. You can even play spin the bottle or mud wrestling :P



And...um...*cough* *cough* I have no idea what all these pipes are for... *cough* *cough*



The Oahu Hawaii sim next door is more like the Real Life commercial Hawaii. It even has beachfront condo rentals, just like the real thing :)



If you have an event, theres an outdoor concert stage that you can use for free! Just follow the sign and contact the sim owners for reservation.



Like Hawaii (the Big Island), Oahu has its share of beaches, waterfalls, and outdoor scenery...

Come check out these wonderful sims, join in the community, and claim your hut :) Click on Search, select Places, and enter "hawaii" as the keyword. The SLURL for the main arrival area is Hawaii (137,128,765).




Heehee you didnt think I would come to Hawaii and not go in the water, did you? ;P

Aloha!

Day 302: Sirena 3 Women/1 Men's Hairstyles (Turn on the Face Light!)

Its Monday...and you know what that means :)

www.sirenahair.com is up and running! Its a Product Catalog of all Sirena Hairstyles, with links to SL Exchange and SL Boutique. It just comes to the "Sirena Hair & Fashion" page on this blog, but I still think its cool to be a dot-com mermaid :P

(OK, this was totally my brother's idea. "I wouldnt have come up with it on my own" <<--he made me say that :P)


All the new Sirena Hairstyles now come with built-in Face Lighting! :)



Remember my Miss Second Life finals outfit? Around noon and at nights in SL, the harsh lights cast really bad shadows on your face.



Face Lighting gets rid of those shadows! What a big difference! :)

And since it's built into the hair, you dont need to use an extra attachment point for Face Lighting! You can save the attachment point for more important things, like hair accessories, prim eyelashes, or sunglasses :)

Try out the DEMO's for this week's hairstyles and see for yourself! :)

And if you dont like the effect, you can just turn Face Lighting OFF by Chat command: "/2 light off".

To turn it back ON, just say "/2 light on". (All these instructions are in the included Notecard if you ever need them :D)

If you or another resident cannot see the Face Lighting, its probably because they dont have "Nearby local lights" enabled. Click on the "Edit" option from the top menu bar, select "Preferences...". Go to the "Graphics Detail" tab and look for the "Lighting Detail" to select "Nearby local lights".



Elle is all the rage right now. Its the trendy hairstyle used by Christian Dior and other designers this season. It has an even row of bangs in front, and straight flowing sides. All the hair on the sides and back are flexis! They sway naturally as you move about...a really neat effect :)

Comes with a color-changing hair clip to accent the hair...



Caroline has a fluffy medium-length front to frame the face, and explodes to a big, long flowing tangle of hair in the back.

Comes with a color-changing flexi hair ribbon to match your outfit :)



Megan is the short, uneven cut thats great for summer or a different look! Framed by flexi locks to give it a natural look as you head sways.

Comes with color-changing highlights to add accent to your hair!



George is a bit of a jungle hair :) Long and messy. Perfect for that outdoor adventure in the wild places of SL :P


All hairstyles come in 3 sizes, (S)mall, (M)edium, and (L)arge for easy fitting and adjustment.

There are 48 textures in 12 color packs to choose from. And all hairs can be color-tinted (with 66 colors) to give you even more color choices!

Check them out at Sirena Hair & Fashion. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "sirena" as the keyword. The SLURL is West Sunset (160,50,22).




Oh my goodness...who will save me from this jungle?

Oh Geroge! Oh, watch out for that...tree!!!

Day 300: Second Life Poseball Tutorial

Im 300 days old! Eeek...Im getting old. I need some new skin! ;P



You know I have a thing for poseballs, particularly the Blue variety :P So I thought it might be fun to write about creating your very own perfect poseball :)

This tutorial will explain how the poseball script works. We will create a poseball and position it on a chair.



To complete this tutorial, you will need the Poseball folder from Sirena Hair & Fashions (Search/Places for "sirena", the SLURL is West Sunset (160,50,22)). The Poseball folder is under the giant mermaid sign in the Tutorial Supplies area.




Poseball Overview



Poseballs...you see them everywhere in SL. The blue/black varieties are typically meant for guys, the pink/red varieties for women, and other colors for either gender.

If you Right-click on a poseball and select "Sit Here" (or the replacement text), your avatar will perform the animation contained in the poseball. A poseball's animation may be a static pose, or it could be a moving animation (like a dance, for example).

Poseballs are typically spheres about 0.25M in size. Some have writing above them giving a hint of what they do, like "Sit", "M", "F", "Relax", "Cuddle", or "Mermaid Sunbathing" (I see the last one a lot ;P) Some poseballs respond to chat commands, like "/8 show" or "/8 hide" to show or hide the poseballs.

Most poseballs in SL use a free script written by resident Sitting Lightcloud called "Nyterave Anim8 Ball 2.1". To create poseballs with the features we just talked about, all you need is this script and an animation file.

So poseballs are great for poses in an open area (like cuddle balls) or dances. But do you need poseballs for a piece of furniture? Actually, no. You can place the "Nyterave Anim8 Ball 2.1" script and animations directly into a piece of furniture. Poseballs do have the advantage of showing that a "pose" is available. Poseballs also enable you to pose multiple avatars on a piece of furniture. Lastly, poseballs make it easier to position and rotate a pose (if you just put the script into a chair, you can only rotate the chair; if you put the script in a poseball, you can then rotate the poseball independently from the chair).

(Just in case you dont like poseballs, check out Malia's comments on this post: Theres a cool script on SLExchange called "Antiposeball" that lets you setup poses without poseballs. I havent tried it, but it sounds cool. And its only L$10 :D)

Not to mention, we can always use more Blue Poseballs in SL ;P

BTW, you may have seen some couples poseballs at clubs or animation stores that does synchronized couples dances. These poseballs use a different (not free :( ) script. There are some discussions about this in the SL Forums. If you know some scripting, it doesnt sound like a super hard script to write...just too hard for this mermaid :)



Also, Essensual Designs (Search/Places for "essensual") gives away a set of synchronized poseballs that you can use and modify with your own poses. However, the script is "No Mod". Its off to one side of the building, where the hot tub and outdoor furniture are located.

OK...lets make some poseballs :)


Creating the Poseball

We are going to create a poseball.

You need to go to a place where you can build. When in doubt, try a Sandbox.



First, click the Build button on the bottom of your screen and then click on the ground to rez a Box.

Change the Building Block Type to "Sphere". Change the Size X, Y, and Z to 1.000. (Making it big helps with positioning later...)



Go to the Texture tab. Click on the picture above Texture. Click on "Blank" and "Select" to pick a blank texture.

Click on the picture above Color. Pick a color (either pink or blue) and then click "Select".



Go to the Contents tab.

Look for the "Nyterave Anim8 Ball 2.1" script in the Poseball folder you picked up at Sirena. Drag and drop the "Nyterave Anim8 Ball 2.1" script from your Inventory into the Contents tab of the poseball.

You should see the words "Sit Here" appear at the top of the poseball.

Look for "Animated sit (bored)" animation file in the Poseball folder you picked up at Sirena. Drag and drop the "Animated sit (bored)" animation from your Inventory into the Contents tab of the poseball. (BTW, you can use any of the "Sit" animations. Im just using this one because its a moving animation...)

Go to the General tab. Change the Name to "Tutorial Poseball".



That's it! You are now the proud owner of a giant poseball.

Go ahead: Right-click on it and select "Sit Here". You should be sitting and looking bored :)


Positioning the Poseball

Now, lets put the poseball on something. In this case, lets use a chair.



Look for the "Tutorial Chair" in the Poseball folder you picked up at Sirena. Drag and drop the "Tutorial Chair" from your Inventory to the ground.

If you recognize this chair, its the one from the Tea for Two scene from the Miss Second Life Pageant. Back when I was younger :P



Move the poseball over to the chair. Because the poseball is so large, it will pretty much cover the whole chair. Dont worry, theres a reason for all this :)



Right-click on the poseball and select "Sit Here".

Depending on which way you were facing when you created the poseball, you will probably end up sitting sideways or backwards. No problem...thats why we made the poseball so large :)



Right-click in the middle of your avatar, around where the center of the poseball should be. Select "Edit".

You should now be editing the giant invisible poseball! :)

At this point, you can position or rotate the poseball as you need, while you are sitting on the poseball. This makes things a lot easier to position...



To rotate the poseball, click on "Rotate (Ctrl)" at the top of the Edit window. Then use the color wheels to rotates your avatar.



Once you are facing the right way, click on "Position" at the top of the Edit window. Then use the color arrows to move your avatar into position.

Once you are done, click "Stand Up" at the bottom of the screen.

We still have a giant poseball, so let's shrink it down to size...



Right-click on the poseball and select "Edit".

Go to the Object tab. Change the Size X, Y, and Z to 0.250M.



If you plan on taking the chair into your Inventory, you should link the poseball to the chair.

Just Right-click on the poseball and select "Edit" to edit the poseball. Then press and hold [Shift], and Left-click on the chair.

Select the "Tools" option from the top menu bar, and "Link". Now the poseball is part of the chair.

To take the poseball/chair into Inventory, just Right-click on the poseball/chair and select "Take".


The Poseball Script

Lets take a quick peek inside the "Nyterave Anim8 Ball 2.1" script...there are some interesting setting we can play with :)



Look for the "Nyterave Anim8 Ball 2.1" script in your Inventory. Double-click on the script to open the Script Editing window.

There are 6 settings we can change to customize how our poseball behaves:

POSITION - This determines where the avatar would be positioned relative to the poseball (or object containing the script). You probably want to leave this alone for a poseball, since you can just move the poseball around. But if you use this script inside a cushion or a piece of furniture, then you may need to adjust this setting to get the correct position.

HOVERTEXT - This is the text that shows above the poseball. You know...where its suppose to say "Mermaid Sunbathing" :)

SIT_TEXT - When someone Right-clicks on the poseball, this is the text that shows up in their pie menu. If you leave this blank, it will just say "Sit Here". You can change this to "Pose", "Cuddle", "Kiss", "Sunbath", or whatever is appropriate for the poseball.

HOVER_RGB - This is the color of the text over the poseball. The 3 numbers represent amounts of Red, Green, and Blue. So "0,0,0" is black, "255,255,255" is white, "255,0,0" is pure red, and "0,0,255" is pure blue.

LISTEN - This determines whether the poseball would listen for Chat commands (the CHANNEL setting below determines which channel to listen on). You can use Chat commands to show and hide poseballs. Turning this on adds some lag, so keep it off unless you really need it!

CHANNEL - This determines the Chat channel that the poseball will listen on. Channel 0 is regular Chat (so you can just say "show" or "hide" in regular Chat and the poseball will respond accordingly). Typically, you should avoid Channel 0, since theres a lot of unnecessary Chat that the poseball would have to process.

If you use anything above Channel 0, you would need to use the channel number when talking to the poseball. For example, if you use Channel 8, then you have to say "/8 show" and "/8 hide".




Congratulations! You are now a poseball expert, ready to put poseballs all over Second Life.

So go make some Blue Poseballs for me :)

53191-071006-449043-23

© 2007 All Rights Reserved.

Day 298: Second Life Triathlon

Are you feeling a little out of shape because you're spending too much time in SL like me? :P

How about training for a triathlon in Second Life? You know, thats the swimming, biking, and running thing. And if you have high-speed Internet, you can even try training for the Ironman triathlon (just kidding :P)



SL Triathlon is the brainchild of Wolfgang and Suzy Spaatz. Wolfgang's been doing this for 25 years, and has completed several Ironman triathlons (thats 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and running 26.2 miles *Yikes*)

SL Triathlon is both an actually training area for Real Life triathlons and a community.



The training program is an indoor spinning class.

In Real Life, you get on your "turbo trainer". According to Wikipedia, a turbo trainer is a device that converts a road bike to a stationary exercise bike. You press "Play" on SL's Music tab, and you are ready to follow the class leader's instructions.



During the 1-hour training sessions, your avatar sits on these exercise bikes in SL.

I suppose with the new SL voice feature, you can probably hear everyone else grunting as well :P

Classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are free, although tipping is encouraged for the instructors.



Afterwards, you can relax in the hot tub and socialize with fellow enthusiasts. At least in SL :) Its probably dangerous to use SL while in a Real Life hot tub :P

SL Triathlon is also a community of triathlon enthusiasts. They have an SL Group "Second Life Triathlon" and a forum at http://sltri.21.forumer.com. Its a good place to meet fellow athletes and talk about triathlon stuff :)



So if you or someone you know are into triathlons, definitely check this out! Click on Search, select Places, and enter "triathlon" as the keyword. The SLURL is Kona Island (30,44,22).

Hmm...I cant wait for some SL aerobics classes! *Hint* *Hint* ;P



So glad I wore my wings today!

Oooooonnneee...

Day 296: Greenies Home

Ever wondered what it feels like to be the size of a mouse? Or (as I prefer) a pixie? :)

Now you can experience it first-hand in Second Life at Greenies Home!

So set your Draw Distance to 300 and come check out the Greenies :)

Thanks to my friend Ged for letting me know about this incredible place! Yes, its the Ged who created LoopRez and LoopRez Deluxe :) BTW, he now has a super necklace/jewelry creation tool called LinkRez. Ive been meaning to write about it, but just havent had the time. Fortunately, he has tons of info on his blog!



The Greenies Home is a "normal" home. Except its HUGE!!! By comparison, we are about the size of a little mouse. Just this living room/kitchen area is the size of the entire sim!



In fact, the only thing thats regular sized is this dollhouse...



Fortunately, we can fly around. In fact, its kinda cool to see other residents fly around. Everyone kinda look like insects in this house :)

BTW, theres a cool set of flight-assist items near the entrance. According to the note, they are testing these items. So hurry and grab some before they are gone!



Greenies are these adorably cute little space aliens :) They are all over the house causing mischief.



The details and textures in this room are incredible. Most of the objects in this room look so real, you almost want to reach out and grab them. You really have to come see this for yourself!



Be sure to look for this green glowing ball. It takes you to the Greenies mothership. You do want to go to the mothership, dont you? :P



They even have Greenie AV's for sale. Not just one, but a whole range of them in different outfits!

Fortunately, there were no Greenie mermaids :P



When you are done exploring, you can sit by the beer can and watch old science fiction movies on the Giant TV screen :) Just press the "Play" button on your movie control at the bottom of your screen.

Come check out this amazing sight. Its like nothing else in SL! Click on Search, select Places, and enter "greenies" as the keyword. The SLURL is Greenies Home Rezzable (141,16,22).



Excuse me, Mr. Greenie. Have you seen anyone blue around here? Hes about your height. A bit round...

Day 295: Sirena 4 Women/1 Men's Hairstyles (Edgy Styles and L$1 Hair for Guys)

Its Monday: Time for hair releases :)

Theres now 50 different hairstyles at Sirena! *Yay*

To make it easier to find stuff, the main Sirena Hair & Fashion page is now a Product Catalog of all Sirena Hairstyles :) The Hairstyles are alphabetically listed by style. Im working on linking them to SL Exchange and SL Boutique. Hopefully, this makes it easier to find things by name, or when SL is down :P

This week, its Edgy styles and a L$1 flexi hair for men!



Mermaids! Ever get tired of those cold seashells or starfishes? Ever wish you can just let your hair down?

Ariel is the perfect mermaid hair! :) Ariel uses 2 attachment points. The main part is a long flexi hair that have curls running down the front. These curls run seamlessly into a set of hair extensions attached to your chest. So the hair extensions will stay in place no matter how your head moves :)

The hair and hair extensions come in matching textures (including tips), 48 in all!

Comes with a set of undershells, just in case there are rezzing issues when you TP :)

Its perfect for humans to stroll at the beach! Just be sure to cover the bottom ;P

Warning: This hair is not intended for Caledon :P



Roxanne is a style with an attitude, with hair that sweeps up and back. Comes with a color-change Braid accessory...



Melissa is a fun, fluffy hair with flexis all around. Melissa leaves your ears clear, so you can wear earrings with this big hair! Comes with a Sunflower accessory...



Ever read the term "delicate tendrils of hair" in a novel? Kirsten is how I envision delicate tendrils. Lots of them :) Its a delicate style great for formal or intimate occasions. Comes with a color-change Sculptie Orchid accessory...



Dave is a longer men's style. Casual and easy-going. Dave is also flexi in the back. The best part is that Dave is just L$1 per color pack! Heres your chance to check out those exotic color packs :)


All hairstyles come in 3 sizes, (S)mall, (M)edium, and (L)arge for easy fitting and adjustment.

There are 48 textures in 12 color packs to choose from. And all hairs can be color-tinted (with 66 colors) to give you even more color choices!

Check them out at Sirena Hair & Fashion. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "sirena" as the keyword. The SLURL is West Sunset (160,50,22).



Heehee the PG-Compliant Particle-based Bikini Top is in the SL History?

So does Ariel count for a PG-Compliant Hair-based Bikini Top? :P


P.S. Do you have an American Express card?

Second Chance Trees has been selected as one of 50 finalists in the American Express Members Project (and the ONLY Second Life finalist).

If you have an American Express card you can vote for this project here: http://www.membersproject.com/Environment_Wildlife/991

The project works with an established charity to provide money to plant millions of trees, both in SL and in RL rainforests! (OMG...How are we going to fit all those trees in SL? :P)

Thanks Paull for sharing this update in your comment.

Day 293: Flexifying Your Wings

Wings: they are one of those things that you either love or hate. Unless you are a Fae...in which case, you probably have a few beautiful sets already :)

Theres one relatively easy and cool thing you can do to really jazz up most wings: You can flexify them! :) I talked briefly about how to do this on Day 45.

This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to flexify a pair of wings. If you have not worked with flexi prims before, theres more info on how they work in the flexible (flexi) prims tutorial.

Flexifying wings is a great way to better understand how flexi prims work. It will also give you a chance to manipulate textures on a prim.

You will need some wings in order to do this tutorial. Ive put together a box of wings that can be flexified. Its in a free box labeled "Flexi(-able) Wings" at (where else? :P) Sirena Hair & Fashion. Its located in the Tutorial Supplies area under the giant mermaid sign.

Alternatively, you can get tons of free wings at Yadni's Junkyard. Just note that not all the wings can be flexified...but I will show you how to tell them apart.


Flexi Wings Overview



Like everything else in SL, wings are made from prims. Most wings are built using the "Box" prim type. They are typically built with 2 Boxes, 1 for each side of the wing.

In fact, we can only flexify wings that are built from either Boxes or Cylinders.



Typically, the Box has a completely transparent texture applied to all its faces, except the main front and back faces with the wing texture. The wing texture is typically a picture of half a wing on a transparent background. In other words, the wing texture has an Alpha Channel for transparency.

Since we can make flexible prims with Boxes, all we have to do is click the "Flexible Path" checkbox, right? Unfortunately, its not that simple... :(



I can just go into the Edit window's Features tab and check the "Flexible Path" checkbox. Most of the freebie wings would start drooping strangely. Its almost like they came loose from my shoulder.

The issue is that almost all freebie wings were either built before flexi prims were introduced, or were built without flexi prims in mind...



If you just rezzed a box, change Size Z to 5, enabled "Flexible Path", and rotated it slightly to one side, it would bend down just like most of the freebie wings. Thats because flexi prims "flex" along the "Z" direction. The bottom of the flexi prim is the anchor (the part that doesnt move).



But with wings, we want the part that attaches to our shoulder to be the anchor. So we would need to rotate the wing and put the anchor (bottom) part against our shoulder.

Of course, if we rotated the wing, the wing texture would look...well...rotated. So we would need to adjust the size of the wing and its texture.

Ready to give it a try?


Flexifying the Wing

Before we start, be sure to make a copy of any wing you are working with. I mess up my wings ALL the time while flexifying them.

To make a copy of your wing, look for the wing in your Inventory. Right-click on the wing and select "Copy". Right-click on the wing again and select "Paste". You should now see 2 copies of the same wing.



Go ahead and Wear one of the wings.

Right-click on the wing that you are wearing, and select "Edit". If you see the "More >>" button, click on it to see the rest of the Edit window.

Click on the "Edit linked parts" checkbox at the top of the Edit window.

Go to the "Features" tab. Click on the "Flexible Path" checkbox.

For this particular wing, you can see that the bottom part is the anchor for the flexi prim. So we would need to rotate this prim clockwise.

(Note: In very unusual cases, some wings are built with the wing texture on the anchor side. These wings would not "flex" even if you enable "Flexible Path". We would need to move the wing texture to another face in order to flexify these wings. But because we dont own the wing textures, we would not be able to flexify this type of wing.)



Before we rotate the prim, turn "Flexible Path" off by unchecking the checkbox. Flexi prims can be really annoying to rotate :P

Also, change the "Ruler mode" from "Attachment" to "local". This means we will be rotating the prim relative to the prim itself (local), instead of rotating it relative to the avatar (Attachment).



Click on "Rotate (Ctrl)" at the top of the Edit window. The color arrows will change to color wheels.

Click and hold the Red color wheel and rotate the wing 90 degrees clockwise (until the part that attaches to your shoulder is pointing straight up).



Theres a trick that may help you rotate something exactly 90 degrees. When you click on the Red color wheel, you will see a white circle with tick-marks appear. If you move the cursor outside this white circle, you will notice that the wing will only stop at the tick-marks. This is really handy for rotating things by an exact amount.

I have a short video clip about this trick (in this case, its about hair).



Once you are done rotating the wing, lets do a quick check to make sure we did it right.

Go to the "Features" tab and click on the "Flexible Path" checkbox. The wing should now flap down. Dont worry if the wing is drooping. We will be adjusting Gravity, Tension, and other settings to make it more realistic later. The important thing is that the anchor side is against your shoulders.

OK, click on the "Flexible Path" checkbox again to disable flexi. We still have a couple more adjustments to make...



Because we rotated the wing by 90 degrees, we need to resize the wing and flip the image so the wing looks normal again.

Click on the Object tab. Look at the Size Y and Size Z settings. If they are the same (as in this case), we dont need to do anything :)

But if Size Y and Size Z are different, we would need to switch the 2 numbers.



Go to the "Texture" tab. Click on "Select Texture" at the top of the Edit window. This enables us to edit the texture on each individual face of a prim.

Click on the wing we just rotated. You should see a circle with a cross in the middle on the wing texture. This tells us that we are working on that particular face.



Change the "Rotate (degrees)" to 90. The wing texture now looks much better :)

How did I know its 90 degrees? Well, I used this super duper formula... Or maybe I just pressed the little up/down buttons on the Rotate box to see which way to go. Take a guess how I did it :P



Now do the same thing to fix the texture on the front side of the wing.

Go to the "Texture" tab. Click on "Select Texture" at the top of the Edit window. And click on the wing texture in the front.

Change the "Rotate (degrees)" to -90. Remember that super duper formula :P



Now we are ready to flexify the wing :)

Edit the wing again (be sure that the "Edit linked prims" box is checked). Click on the wing we just rotated.

Go to the "Features" tab and click "Flexible Path" checkbox. I promise we can keep it on this time :P

You notice that the wing kinda droops. Thats because of the Gravity setting of "0.300".



Go ahead and change the Gravity setting to 0. Taadaa! No more drooping :)

Try walking around while wearing the wing. If you have a big wing like mine, you will notice that it kinda bends back too much as you walk. We can fix that by adding some Tension to the wing.

Edit the wing again (be sure "Edit linked prims" is checked). Change the Tension to about 8. This should give the wing a much nicer feel.

Do you think the movement of the wing is too rubbery? Try playing with the Drag setting. A setting of 0 would make a very bouncy rubbery wing (try it :D). A setting of 10 makes the wing move in slow motion. I typically have mine at around 8.

Finally, would you like the SL wind to affect your wings? If so, turn up the wind setting.



I will leave you on your own to do the other wing :)

Dont worry, its exactly the same as the one your just did. You might need to do that super duper formula backwards though :P



BTW, theres a well-known display issue that affects transparent textures. This happens when 2 transparent textures are behind each other (like when you look at a pair of wings sideways). You will notice that the textures might flicker or act strangely.

This display issue is called "alpha sorting". Because wings have to use transparent textures, theres not much that can be done to fix it. So try not to look at the wings sideways :P

Enjoy all your new cool flexi wings! Heehee try not to hog all the attention in the clubs ;P

P.S. Sukiri mentioned in his comment about using Puppeteer to move your wings :) I totally forgot about this, but its such a cool idea! Thanks Sukiri...

You can use Puppeteer in combination with flexi. By moving your wings just slightly, it will cause flexi wings to flutter. Ive seen it a couple times and its a really cool effect :) The best part is that the Personal edition of Puppeteer is free. So you can try it out!

13594-071006-530780-84

© 2007 All Rights Reserved.

Day 291: Multi-Media Arts Center

Looking for some live events in Second Life? Come check out the Multi-Media Arts Center, or MMAC for the "in" crowd :)



The MMAC is a number of different venues all under one roof. From a Jazz bar for couples dancing...



To "The Underground" dance club, with live DJ's and themed dances like Funk Fridays, Sock Hops, and Groove Sundays...



For live concerts, theres an outdoor Open Air Theatre...



And the main World Stage concert area.



Theres even a comedy club at the Comedy Link.

Have you heard about the time those 3 fishermen caught me in their net? (OK...Id better stick to making hair :P)



Theres the Screening Room, where they screen Indie short film.



The really cool thing about the MMAC is that it sits at the corner of 4 sims: Somerset, Shouldice, Chapala, and Cranston. That means there can be events going on in several areas at the same time without a lot of lag!

Also, the World Stage is setup across 3 sims. The stage and some of the audience is in Cranston. But there is also audience seating in Chapala and Shouldice. So the World Stage could host really big events! Such a cool idea :)

For a schedule of events, check the calendar on the MMAC website. Theres something happening everyday of the week. Generally, the best live events are the ones listed with actual start times.

To come to the MMAC, click on Search, select Places, and enter "mmac" as the keyword. The SLURL for the main entrance is Somerset (230,200,66).



Blue Poseball! Darling, where are you?

Day 289: Under the Toscana Sun

Dear Mom,

It's market day in Cortona.



The piazza is an ongoing party,
and everyone is invited.



I eat a hot grape
from the market,
and the violet sweetness
breaks open in my mouth.

It even smells purple.



I wish I could stay longer, but
the bell reminds me of time.

"Ding-dang-dong, " the bell
says, instead of "ding-dong. "

-I wish you were here.
-Love...

Under the Tuscan Sun



I never thought I would ever be standing under an olive tree in Tuscany, Italy! Heehee thats the cool part about SL :) And no jet lag!

Thanks again to my blog friend Ana for telling me about this really great place! How does she find all these cool places? :)



The Toscana sims are here to showcase the beauty of Real Life Tuscany, Italy. I saw the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" a bunch of times: Im sold already :)

Toscana reminds me of a garden or nature sim...



It has its share of poseballs and beautiful scenery to stroll through...



And a gorgeous beach to sit and watch the waves go by...



And thanks to the magic of teleporters, you can jump into the high-tech disco or the Tower of Pisa...



Theres a sorta business area above the sim (also accessible by teleporter).

Dont I totally belong on the Red Carpet? ;P



Actually, the Red Carpet leads to an art exhibit by several modern Italian artists...



The creators of Toscana did a wonderful job of capturing the beauty of the countryside. So bring a friend and come take a stroll. Just dont buy any old farmhouses on impulse :P

To come to Toscana, click on Search, select Places, and enter "toscana" as the keyword. The SLURL is Toscana (174,217,25).



So who's this Tuscan cutie? :)

Day 288: Sirena 4 Women/1 Men's Hairstyles (Outdoor Summer Hair)

Its Monday! Time for more hair :)

Theres now a brand new Sirena Update Group for new product announcements, gifts, and whatever we can come up with :) This group is just for Notices. I promise no more than 1 or 2 a week (the second one would be for special members-only stuff :D).

To join for free, click on Search, select Groups, and enter "sirena" as the keyword. Select "Sirena Update Group" and click on "Join (L$0)". Thats it :)

BTW, if you dont like a particular group title over your head, you can always change groups (or turn it off). Click on Edit from the top menu bar, and select "Groups..." Click on the group you want to switch to (or "none"). Then click "Activate".



Summer is definitely here! So this week, its a mix of mostly shorter hairs for the outdoors...



Gwyneth is the ultimate beach hair. Two short ponies tied with color-changing flexi ribbons. Each side can be a different color. So go wild with dipped hair and a colorful bikini :)



Pink is named after the color and the singer. Definitely a hair for trying out those wilder colors :)



Grace is a formal hair for those outdoor summer balls. With graceful curls that surround a bun in the back, kept in place by a pair of jeweled hair sticks with gemstones. The gemstones are semi-transparent with facets, just like real gems...



Henna is a long, layered hair. With wavelets of hair falling down the back. Comes with a textured headband that can change color as well!



And who said guys cant have flexi without a ponytail? Alex is a casual summer style, with a set of flexis in the back. Looks so much more relaxed on a surfboard :)

All hairstyles come in 3 sizes, (S)mall, (M)edium, and (L)arge for easy fitting and adjustment.

There are 48 textures in 12 color packs to choose from. And all hairs can be color-tinted (with 66 colors) to give you even more color choices!

So check them out at Sirena Hair & Fashion. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "sirena" as the keyword. The SLURL is West Sunset (160,50,22).



Theres so much to do this summer! Lets start with "sitting at the beach doing nothing" :)

Day 286: Creating Flexi Prims Tutorial

Ever since flexible prims were introduced in Second Life just over a year ago (around April, 2006), things have not looked the same. Flexible prims, or flexi prims, enable certain types of prims to bend or flex in reaction to movement or the SL wind. This feature enables designers to create objects with a more realistic feel. Today, many hairs, clothes, plants, decorations, even mermaid tails :) contain a few flexi prims. (And I helped stuff many of them in there ;P)

Theres a great article on Flexible Prims in the SL Knowledgebase entitled The Way of the Flexible Path.

According to the SL History Wiki, flexi prims are a client-side effect. That means flexi prims would not cause lag on the server. So dont feel too bad about using them :) But like anything, if you have too many complex flexi prims, it could slow down the computer of any resident who could "see" your flexi prims.



This tutorial will talk about how flexi prims work and the settings that control them. We are also going to create a set of flexi prim ribbons for wearing around the wrist.


Flexi Prim Overview



So what exactly are flexi prims?














Currently, flexi prims can only be made from Boxes and Cylinders. A flexi prim is a Box or Cylinder with a checkmark in the Flexible Path box. Thats it :)

If you dont believe me, try it:

Go to somewhere that you can build. When in doubt, try a Sandbox.

Click on the "Build" button on the bottom of your screen, then click somewhere on the ground.






You should see a wooden box appear. In the Edit window, if you see the "More >>" button, go ahead and press it to get the rest of the options. Click on the "Features" tab. Then click on the Flexible Path checkbox to check it.

Thats it! You just made a flexi prim :)

OK, you are probably wondering why nothing is happening. Thats because our box is not moving and its not set to be sensitive to the SL wind.

So click and hold on the red arrow and drag the cube back-and-forth. You should see it jiggle like a cube of Jello :)

Before we proceed, lets change our box a little so we can see the effects better.

Right-click on the flexi prim box and select "Edit". Make the following changes:



Go to the "Object" tab and increase the "Size (meters)" setting for "Z" to 3.000.

Change both "Taper" "X" and "Y" to 1.00.














Go to the "Texture" tab. Click on the picture above "Texture". At the the "Pick:Texture" window, click on the "Blank" button and click "Select".

Click on the picture above "Color". At the "Color Picker" window, click on the dark blue rectangle on the bottom and click "Select".

OK, now it should be much easier to see our box flex :)





Flexi Prim Settings

In general, there are a few things you should know about flexi prims:

* Only Boxes and Cylinders can become flexi prims.

* Flexi prims only flex along the Z-direction. The "bottom" of a newly rezzed flexi prim is the "anchor". The "anchor" doesnt flex. The rest of the flexi prim flexes around the "anchor". You can always rotate a flexi prim if you need it to flex in a different direction.

* The longer a flexi prim, the more it will flex. Really short flexi-prims dont flex well (they just kinda jiggle a little).

* Flexi prims are phantom objects (you can walk right through them). Also, anything you link a flexi prim to will also become a phantom object.

* You can torture a flexi prim just like any other prim, except Top Shear doesnt work. So you can use Path Cut, Hollow, Twist, and Taper on a flexi prim.

So what are all those settings under Flexible Path?

Each setting controls an aspect of how the flexi prim behaves when moved. Lets run through them and see what they do.


Softness

Have you ever played with a long candy cane (one still in its wrapper)? If you break it in the middle, you can move the broken end around a little bit. If you break it a couple more times, the candy cane becomes even more flexible.

Think of a flexi prim as a stick with a number of joints in it. The stick can bend a certain amount at each joint. So if the stick has more joints, it can bend more.

The Softness setting determines the number of joints that a flexi prim has. It can be either 0, 1, 2, or 3.



A setting of 0 is a really stiff flexi prim with just 1 joint at the anchor location.



A setting of 3 will flex very well, provided that the flexi prim is long enough.

Note that a high Softness setting creates work for your computer (and anyone who can "see" your flexi prim). If you have more than a couple flexi prims, avoid using a Softness setting of "3". In general, a Softness setting of "2" works well for most things, from flexi skirts to flexi hair.

Try changing the Softness setting and moving your flexi prim around to see the effects.


Gravity

Gravity determines how much downward pull there is on the prim. The setting can be anywhere from -10 to 10.



A Gravity of 10 means a prim thats bends towards the ground. If we rotated our flexi prim sideways, it would point straight to the ground. It will still respond to movement, but will try hard to get back to the ground. Perfect for that heavy flexi skirt you dont want to fly around too much.



On the other hand, a Gravity of -10 gives a strange upward pull to the sky. Sorta weird anti-gravity. Try it on your flexi hair when you first get up in the morning :P


Drag

Drag is kinda tricky. Drag determines whether a flexi prim will snap into place quickly or in slow motion. The setting can range from 0 to 10.

A Drag setting of 0 means there is...well...no drag. So the flexi will whip around freely.

On the other hand, a Drag of 10 makes the flexi action like its in slow motion. Have you seen those flexi skirts that take forever to fall to the ground? They have a high Drag setting...


Wind

Wind is a cool setting :) It determines how much the "wind" in Second Life affects the flexi prim. Yep, theres a wind that constantly blows thru SL. It changes direction all the time. And the strength of the wind varies as well. And oh BTW, the SL wind goes right thru walls (so its blowing indoors as well :P).

The Wind setting gives your flexi prim a natural movement. This is great for hair. It's especially important for stationary flexi prims, like flags or ribbons; otherwise, stationary flexi prims wont move at all.

The Wind setting can range from 0 to 10.

A setting of 0 means the SL wind has no effects on the flexi prim.

A setting of 10 means the flexi prim will flap wildly to the slightest SL wind. It will also be very sensitive to direction changes in the SL wind. Great for things like ribbons :)


Tension

Tension determines how stiff the flexi prim is. It sorta gives the flexi prim a backbone. The Tension setting can range from 0 to 10.



A setting of 0 means there is no tension. The flexi prim will be like a piece of string with very little stiffness. This is what ribbons should be set to.



A setting of 10 means a very stiff flexi prim. It will act almost like a spring, and will try to maintain its shape.





X, Y, and Z

The X, Y, and Z settings gives a push in the respective direction. The settings can be -10 to 10, so it could be a positive or negative push (or pull, so to speak).

Note that these settings are always relative to the sim. So they have very weird effects when used on attachments. Um...picture a piece of hair that always wants to point towards the west :P For the most part, these settings are not very useful for attachments. The Z setting is almost identical to Gravity (so you might as well use Gravity).

For stationary flexi prims (like flexi prims on buildings), these might be useful in creating an effect. For example, you can use the X setting to make a flag point towards the east, unless theres a very strong wind in another direction.


Making Ribbons



Now that you know how flexi prims work, lets make one of my favorite attachments: flexi ribbons :) We are going to make a simple ribbon for wearing around the wrist. Because ribbons are suppose to be flexible, they are a great way to get started with flexi prims.



Click on the "Build" button at the bottom of your screen, then click on the ground. You should see a Box appear.



Go to the Object tab. Change the "Building Block Type" from "Box" to "Torus".



Change the following settings:

   Size X: 0.050
   Size Y: 0.100
   Size Z: 0.100

   Rotation Y: 90.00

   Hole Size X: 0.50
   Hole Size Y: 0.10



Go to the "Texture" tab. Click on the picture above "Texture". At the the "Pick:Texture" window, click on the "Blank" button and click "Select".

Click on the picture above "Color". At the "Color Picker" window, pick a light/pastel yellow color (or any color you like). Click "Select".



Next we want to make a copy of the Torus and turn it into a ribbon.

Press and hold the [Shift] key. Click on the Red arrow and drag the arrow to the right. This will create a copy of the Torus.



Go to the Object tab. Change the "Building Block Type" from "Torus" to "Cylinder".

Change the following settings:

   Size X: 0.050
   Size Y: 0.100
   Size Z: 0.600

   Rotation X: 0.00
   Rotation Y: 270.00
   Rotation Z: 180.00

   Path Cut B: 0.480
   Path Cut E: 0.520

   Hollow: 95.0

   Taper X: 0.00
   Taper Y: 0.00



Here comes the fun part :)

Go to the Features tab. Click on the "Flexible Path" checkbox to turn the ribbon into a flexi prim.

Change the following settings:

   Softness: 3.000
   Gravity: 0.500
   Drag: 5.000
   Wind: 1.000
   Tension: 0.000



Use the Red arrow to slide the ribbon into position behind the Torus. Use the Blue arrow to move the ribbon up and down as necessary.

Notice that a flexi prim moves differently than a regular prim. When you move a regular prim, you are moving the prim relative to its center. When you move a flexi prim, you are moving the prim relative to the anchor side (the side that doesnt flex). This also works the same way for rotation.



This is an optional step (but kinda important). Ribbons tend to look better in a group. So we are going to make a couple copies.

Press and hold the [Shift] key. Click on the Green arrow and drag the arrow to create a copy of the Ribbon.

Now go to the Texture tab and pick a different light/pastel color for the new Ribbon.

For better effect, try going to the "Features" tab and varying the settings for the new Ribbon. This would make each Ribbon respond differently to movement and the SL wind. For example, try these settings on the new Ribbon:

   Softness: 3.000
   Gravity: 0.100
   Drag: 3.000
   Wind: 2.000
   Tension: 0.000



Once you are done making additional Ribbons, its time to link them together so we can wear it! :)

Right-click on one of the Ribbons and select "Edit".

Press and hold the [Shift] key and click on all of the other Ribbons.

Finally, click on the Torus. Make sure that you click on the Torus last (this will be our Root Prim).



Click on the "Tools" option from the top menu bar and select "Link".

All of the Ribbons should be outlined in blue. The Torus should be outlined in yellow (which indicates it is the Root Prim).












One last thing: We want to change the Name.

Right-click on the Torus and select "Edit".

Go to the "General" tab and change the Name to "Ribbons-Left".

Finally, Right-click on the Torus and select "Take" to take it into our Inventory.


Fitting the Ribbons

Its time to try on our new Ribbons...

Find the "Ribbons-Left" object in your Inventory. It should be in the Objects folder.

Right-click on "Ribbons-Left" and select "Attach To >" and "L Forearm".



When you first attach most objects, they usually show up in a funny spot. In this case, they are embedded in my arm :P



Right-click on the Ribbons-Left object and select "Edit".

Go to the Object tab and enter the following changes:

   Rotation Y: 90.00
   Rotation Z: 270.00



Use the Green arrow to slide the Ribbons-Left down to the wrist. If you use the numbers in the center of the screen as a guide, the Ribbons-Left should be at about X:0.000 Y:0.109 Z:0.000.

Right-click on the Ribbons-Left and select "Detach". This will detach the ribbons and "save" the changes we made. From now on, you can simply "Wear" the "Ribbons-Left" object.

Thats it! You have created your very own flexi ribbons.

Try playing with the various settings to see how they affect the ribbons. This is a great way to understand how flexi prims work...

Once you feel comfrotable with flexi prims, try these tutorials: Flexi Prim Skirt and Flexi Prim Hair Part 4.

Have fun making things move in Second Life :)

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Day 284: A Night in Bollywood

I recently heard about the opening of the brand new Bollywood sim in Second Life.

I have always wondered where all the Indian guys have been hiding :P So I made a saree and went for a visit :)



Bollywood is a major center for the Indian movie industry. Its sorta like the Indian version of Hollywood (not sure if thats the right comparison...) But Bollywood certainly seems to produce a whole lot of movies (more than Hollywood, according to my Indian friend).

Thanks to my Real Life Bollywood connections, I had the chance to see a few of these movies (and still crying over Devdas :P).



The Bollywood sim is a beautiful build, setup like a walled garden.

It appears the plan is to make Bollywood a destination for Indian visitors in SL. There are stalls for vendors where you can buy Indian clothing...



And what looks like a cinema under construction (hopefully to show Bollywood movies when completed)!



There is the Dhoom dance club, playing the latest Indian hits :)

If you are interested in events at this club, check out the "Bollywood" group (click on Search, select Groups, and enter "bollywood" as the keyword).



And they have a cool Harmonium (a piano-like thing) that controls a particle fountain. You can have a particle light show by playing notes on the Harmonium...



Bollywood is still under construction, so not all the activities are working yet. But hopefully, it will be a cultural hotspot once things are done.

Meanwhile, if you want to check out a piece of India in SL, click on Search, select Places, and enter "bollywood" as the keyword. The SLURL is Bollywood (163,52,27).



I made a new outfit! Heehee Ive always wanted a saree, so I just couldnt resist :)



Try a Super Dosa, the ultimate in taste! :)

Day 282: SS Galaxy

Ever wanted to take a cruise (or take another one, but hate those lifeboat drills :P)? Now you can have the cruise experience in Second Life!

Welcome to the SS Galaxy!



Galaxy is 3-sims in size...Just like those monster cruise ships today!

SS Galaxy is basically a set of residential/commercial sims. The Fore and Mid sections of the ship are residential. And the Aft section is commercial.

The main entrance into the ship is in the Aft section. This is the main reception area and during certain hours, theres even a live ship's officer to greet you :)



The ship is truly massive! So be sure to consult the wall maps (which are fortunately all over the place).

You can also use the teleporters to get around. Each section of the ship (Fore, Mid, Aft) has its own teleporter. The teleporter will take you directly to the cool spots in each section of the ship :)



Lets start at the Fore section!

Theres the Starlight lounge...a cool place to relax and have some champagne and caviar :P



A wedding chapel, in case you meet that perfect someone on board :)



And a dance club called the "Boiler Room", where you can go dance with that special someone :P

BTW, certain areas on the ship are restricted to residents (I think that includes the "Boiler Room", unfortunately...)



The Mid section has a beautiful Atrium Garden that runs along the length of the bottom deck...



It has a huge pool with a cool slide, and an ice skating rink behind it...

Even go jogging: Yes, really, jogging. Theres a long jogging path around the top deck of the ship. There is a pole that lets you rez a jogger poseball. If you use the poseball, you will jog all the way around the ship. Try it in heels :P



There is also an art gallery and a couple lounges, including one with one of these Holodeck thingies that draw a whole scene around you :)



The Aft section is all about shopping. Its basically a gigantic mall with 6 decks of shops!

When you are done with shopping, you can enjoy a cup of coffee outside at the Sunset Cafe...



Or play a game of chess...



And the best part...the Zodiac Ballroom, where you can dance the night away under the giant dome...

There are also exclusive free gowns and tuxes available :)



Just like a cruise ship, there is even an event schedule...so you wont get bored during the cruise :P

Keep in mind that the SS Galaxy is a set of residential/commercial sims. So you can actually rent a cabin and really have the whole cruise experience. But also be aware that some residents do "live" here, so be nice when wandering around outside their cabins :)

The SS Galaxy is really really big, so it will take some time to get around (unfortunately, flying is disabled). But keep those teleporters in mind will save a lot of time!

To come see the SS Galaxy, click on Search, select Places, and enter "galaxy" as the keyword. A good place to start is the Galaxy AFT (this is the main entrance). The SLURL is Galaxy AFT (63,32,21).



I have ALWAYS wanted to do the Titanic thing on a cruise ship :)

Warning: I fell off the ship twice while trying to do this :P

Day 281: Sirena 4 Women/1 Men's Hairstyles (Fantasy Hairs with Sculptie Flowers)

Is it Monday already? Time for the latest batch of releases :)

This week, its a group of fantasy-inspired hairs with some realistic sculptie flowers!



"...Rapunzel had wonderful long hair, and it was as fine as spun gold." This super long flexi hair (yes, flexi!) falls below the knees in the back. Comes with a textured sculptie iris (so real, you can almost feel the petals :D).



Blossom is a long flowing hair that frames your face like a flower blossom. Theres a small hair clip on each side with textured peach flowers (even have the little pollen thingies in the middle :P)



Christie is the ultimate headband hair, with a set of headbands that reach all the way around the head (this wasnt easy to do, considering you can take these headbands off!). Comes with 2 color-change headbands: plain and checkered, for whatever suits your mood :)



Keira is a wavy long hair, brought together by a jeweled hair clip in the back. The gems on the hair clip can change colors...in case you dont like diamonds :P



For the guys, its Havana nights in this short flexi pony. Just the way I would picture a jazz player playing Salsa on a hot Cuban night ;)

All hairstyles come in 3 sizes, (S)mall, (M)edium, and (L)arge for easy fitting and adjustment.

There are 48 textures in 12 color packs to choose from. And all hairs can be color-tinted (with 66 colors) to give you even more color choices!

So check them out at Sirena Hair & Fashion. Click on Search, select Places, and enter "sirena" as the keyword. The SLURL is West Sunset (160,50,22).



Um...so where are all those cute jazz players playing Salsa on a hot Cuban night? :P