Pageants

it's not changed much from the old days when big name agencies hinged their reps on their presentation. of course, back then the organizers seemed to want to listen to the spectators, fans, and participants. a corrective strategy against the overwhelming lag amounted to some clever concepts but really nothing's been done to date that can overcome the sea of grey manifested when many avis get onto the same SIM at the same time.

what gives you, anyone who is going to have a pageant (modeling agencies, designers, event organizers and the like) the notion that you are serving an audience if all they can see is grey? not to mention the hard working victims of the scheme who have to be there and present, what's being done to enhance and better the technical and artistic aspect of large group activities?

as far as i can see, nothing. everything's more complex. the builds, the attachments, the scripts, the textures, everything's better and edging towards real life. except you can't have more than a few avis enjoy it at the same time. so what's to be done?

think about it.

first things first. let's live with reality. argh, i know. but really, it's gotten pretty sad when one of the best known promoters of all things beautiful inworld gives a presentation to an unlimited amount of avis to introduce the contestants for Miss Virtual World and all i get to see is, say it with me, a sea of grey.

is anyone listening?

we've had absolute marvels in design make their appearance over the years. shoes and skins, to name a few bright lights. extraordinarily gifted designers are utilizing the most powerful software to give us the most delicious feel to endow our world with beauty. how the hell is it that event organizers hit the same nail with the same hammer year after year with the same result? that's just crazy. something's gotta change.

what's the problem?

TOO MANY AVATARS IN THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME.

break it down. 1. too many avatars in the same place. 2. too many avatars in the same place at the same time.

you can have a massive amount of avatars in one place (as many as the SIM limits) but not at the same time. does that help? any ideas on how to proceed with that knowledge?

remember, we have a WORLDWIDE audience. so, the presentation should be made available for all timezones to gain the same experience. not everyone's schedule permits them to be at an appointed period of time that doesn't suit anyone but the organizer's schedule. so, throw out an event with a small timeframe window. build the event around a dynamic and immersive event suitable for the worldwide audience to attend anytime day or night. that's all i'll say about that for now, some of my own ideas of how to proceed must remain secret. you can't "borrow" them just yet so unless the advocates of industrial espionage can get their feelers into my head, i win.

secondly the experience of having a massive amount of avis at the event at the same time has to be overcome. you can run the event for an allotted time, 24/7, or for as long as the numbers prevail BUT how do you stop an overwhelming number of avis from attending at the same time? impossible?

think about it.

let's say (simply for example, we'll use the US eastern time just because) a glut of avis, more than the SIM limits will handle all want to be at the show at the same time. each of them have a limited amount of time to attend. let's say 1 hour. should they TP into the SIM and it's horridly laggy, they should be able to come back within that one hour time frame and have an enjoyable experience. does anyone have any ideas?

is there anyway to EDUCATE the audience before hand just what number of avatars attending make for a stimulating and exiting visit? is there any way to inform the idle public avatar of just what that number might be at any given moment? hmmm? is there anyway one might inform interested parties as to just how many avis are there? can anyone script out there? what's a HUD?

think about it.

and, could an alternative be provided for the avatar waiting to TP into an optimally loaded SIM? something which would enhance and focus the avis on your presentation? what might that be? well? huh? huh? huh?

think about it.

Jesus. where are all the CREATIVE organizers? did they slip away with Rezzable or is our world populated with artists just waiting for the marketing team to find them and utilize their extraordinary and innovative talents. you only have to IMAGINE how it can be and you CAN make it HAPPEN! but really, who has the time, money, and network for that sort of thing? we could just throw them all into a black box and watch them wallow in ... say it with me, ... a sea of grey.

i did manage, after only one crash, and half the audience disappearing mysteriously (heehee) to have a decently rezzed shot of one of the most impressive models for the pageant. now if i was only able to take her home.... damn, that just slipped out. aw, go ahead, steal it, it's only an idea.


Butterfli Sorbet
Miss Sweden
Miss Virtual World 2010 contestant

Cleavage

well i suppose you've seen everyone else's review on Your Skin & Your Shape by now. of course, not knowing the criteria for "reviews" that the fashionistas hold so dear they're all lucky they're still alive. having any designer promoted who is outside their complete and utter control for exposure in the world of fashion (call it a marketing campaign) would be antagonistic to their corporately driven agenda. so, it's with complete disregard to their elitist occult parameters that i write my own review of what i found at the new YS&YS. plllttttt.

catch a look in that mirror. now that's cleavage! this decolletage is made for every skin tone sold at YS&YS (you may be able to find one for yours, demos are free). it's on all layers and there's a tintable variation for those skeery oddly coloured skins. 50L$ for the bunch! take that LAQ. i was so impressed i made up my own version of the "pencil test" to show how tight they are. yes, i'm giving it away for free. you can get it at Xstreet.

enjoy your tittering. heehee.

AO Heaven

"Oracul.

remember that name. it's daiz Papp's brand of extra ordinary animations and poses with a premium quality fluidity of motion. now, you would think these animations should enter the market at an exhorbitant price level commonly attributable to the motion capture crew. not so. daiz has chosen to provide us all, including the poor hapless newbs who come to the world to play and have fun (not to make it a professional or commercial venue). and what extraordinarily fun animations they will find too.

if you don't want your avi to stand there looking like an LL system dork you have to have some animation overrider. daiz provides her own, fantastically priced too, but i prefer carving my own. it's easy. i've customized Francis Chung's freebie AO (you can score mine over at my place). i've added Antoinette Lioncourt's sexywalk animation to start you off.

here's all the system animations you can override with Francis' script. go to Oracul and fill your AO up. warning, give yourself lots of time cause there's plenty there and all are so scintillating and varied you'll be there for a while. (mind you don't get duplicates as some of the poses are in more than one stand.)

Walking
Running
CrouchWalking
Flying
Turning Left
Turning Right
Jumping
Hovering Up
Crouching
Fly Down
Standing
Standing 2
Standing 3
Standing 4
Standing 5
Hovering
Sitting
PreJumping
Falling
Soft Landing/Landing
Standing Up
FlyingSlow
Sitting on Ground
Floating
Swimming Forward
Swimming Up
Swimming Down

to get your AO to work, just open your "*Default Anims" notecard from within the object delivered to you (either at Francis' place or my own vendor box at Choerom. i've named mine *BEHOLD* Designs: AO. Francis' is called Wet Icon) and type in the animations name into the slot you want to override. of course, you have to drag the animation from your inventory into the Content tab for the object too. they are copyable and modifiable (you can rename them) so no worries, it won't disappear from your inventory when you do.

now since i've made my AO object transparent (so you can wear it on any attachment point, including as a HUD) you'll have to turn on your transparency viewability so you can get inside for the notecard. holding down all three keys simultaneously: Ctrl-Alt-T allows you to see transparent objects, hold Ctrl-Alt-T again to turn that mode off. you'll have to zoom in pretty close to see mine, it's a 0.01m transparent cube. learn to cam girl!

you don't have to fill in all the system animation slots, of course you can! try it out with all the variations available to you at Oracul if you want. she's conveniently named hers to match the system animation hers override. oh, and did i say they were cheap, cheap, cheap? okay, inexpensive then. for 4L$ you can't get a better stand pose. in other words, making your own customized avi show is not going to break your Linden bank.

my only complaint/bitch (see photo above for the professional B girls) is that the animation priority for most of the stuff i've tried is set below 4. :( this means that when you click on anything or edit anything your avi gets distorted by the system level animation and it sorta breaks the immensely entertaining joy your daiz enabled avi gives to the world.

Xstreet New Products

well thankfully i have this blog to post my Xstreet wares. seems the New Products forum has poofed over at the new forum. if it's there, it's useless the way the forum is configured. meh. who needs thousands and thousands of hits?

anywho, the animation is a simple idle stand having your avi move her weight from side to side. i did a video of it's movement so you'll get a better feel for it. i think it works well. it's built with Qavimator using 30 frames to construct the whole scene. it runs at 7 frames per second. (only took me three uploads to get that right).

i configured the "ease in" to be 0.2 sec and the "ease out" at 0.6 so it transitions from one animation to the other nicely. you know how some animations "snap" from one to the other? it's the ease in or ease out settings to blame for that. IM me if you would like it customized to your own needs. i won't trash the other .bvh's on my desktop just in case. have fun.

it's a freebie on Xstreet with the copyable version at the *BEHOLD* Designs shop on Choerom.


oh, that's the Loch Ness monster in the vid. seen on the Scotland SIMs. lookitup.

Highlight not Floodlight

in my wandering of the grid i'm encountering an increasing number of avatars that attach some ungodly floodlights to themselves that not only light their beautiful faces but the environment too. maybe the beta Snowglobe viewer's shadow settings over emphasize the lighting features. turning OFF the shadows (renderdeferred=false) seems to improve this situation but hey, who wants to live in a world without shadows? come on people, turn down your facelights. it's really a simple task.

there are 3 settings to any light. intensity, radius, & fall-off. fiddledy sticks. keep your radius within reason. the default feature is 10m radius. how's about you take a look at changing that to fit the intended design. you are not trying to light the whole room. or are you?

here's my subtle attempt. both pictures (on/off) taken under midnight settings.



you can find the freebie (xCopy/xMod/xTrans) on my Xstreet account and the copyable version at Choerom.