Recent Articles
The Beauty Avatar “Catch Your Beauty” Photo Contest
Jul 4, 2008 Contests 1 Comment
My favoritest person ever is having a photo contest! And being the photographer that I am, I feel it is only my duty to help pass along the good news! I just love photo contests. *excited*
Culled from the Beauty Avatar blog:
-HOW TO SUBMIT:
1) Take a picture of you and/or someone else that wears AT LEAST one *Beauty Avatar* Item (Skins/Eyes/Clothes/Shoes)
2) Upload it on Flickr.com (you can create your account for free, if you don’t have it yet)
3) Include in the description:
-the name and colour (or skin tone) of the items used
-the name of the photographer
-the name of the model(s)
4)Add the photo to *Beauty Avatar* Gallery Group on Flickr
www.flickr.com/groups/beautyavatargallery/
5) Join *Beauty Avatar* updated group in-world
6) You must have the rights to use the photos you submit.-PRIZE:
Each month, between all the photos selected to be displayed in our gallery at World of Beauty, we will choose 1 PHOTO OF THE MONTH that will be:
- Announced on our update group
- Announced on our blog beautyavatar.blogspot.com
- Displayed in our store and gallery
and will win:
- 5,000L$ in cash
- 2 Beauty Avatar Skin
- 1 Beauty Avatar Outfit/Dress
Let’s get to snapshootin’, ladies (and gents)!
M&R Birthday Suit Skins: Ohm Nohm Nohm
Jul 1, 2008 Skins Leave a comment
I was fortunate enough to do the store posters for Rosemary Galbraith and Mimi Coral’s new skin line: M&R Birthday Suit! Released yesterday at Rosemar (SLURL), these skins are absolutely, stunningly gorgeous (pictured above, click for bigger image).
I am incredibly pleased about these skins because not only are they beautifully textured (the skin texture’s fantastic), but the nipples are actually quite nicely done throughout each skin tone. You know, sometimes you can just tell that a nipple color is… off… when the skin tone changes? These delightfully do not have that problem. Yay for uniformity!
Another couple of perks you’ll realize with these skins is that, aside from the abundance of make up availability, you are also presented with two options: freckles and pubic hair. Yup… these skins are definitely a new breakthrough for the lovely Misses Galbraith and Coral.
Interested in trying out a demo?
Come grab them here!!! There are twelve skin tones to choose from! At $1000L per skin, and again… freckle and pubic hair options… there’s bound to be something to fit even the most picky tastes. And don’t worry… I’ll be reviewing these skins in all of their gloriousness just as soon as possible. :)
Rosse Animations: Need NEW Full Perm Sex Poses?!
Jun 22, 2008 Animations 6 Comments
Today’s post will be about sex.
No, really.
Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex.
More importantly: Rosse Animations‘ (SLURL) new sex poses! Buy them full perm, buy them copy, just plain buy them… they’re hot. *drools*
Siryn Rosse (the owner of Rosse Animations) just opened shop a couple of weeks ago, and is looking to take the full perm animation industry by storm. I must say… he’s doing a swimmingly good job! His animations are fluid, INCREDIBLY well aligned, include facial expressions, and (get this) fitted for both male/female… AND… male/male couples! (Note: When you get to the store, there are two teleporters inside… one will teleport you to the Male/Male animations, the other to the Male/Female animations).
A little preview of some of the animations: (click for larger image)
The animations can be bought in 1 of THREE available permission types:
1. Full Permissions — These will cost $3500L per pose (pictured above)
2. Copy — These will cost $1000L per pose.
3. Mod/Trans — These balls are $350L per pose.
So what are you waiting for?! If you’re a furniture builder, or just looking for some new poses to try out in the bedroom, head on over to Rosse Animations (SLURL) and indulge yourself a bit. Oh, and bring your partner and try out the “Ride Him” animation… *drools*
Enjoy!
PS: I should also mention that Mr. Rosse has established a “Rosse Animations Verified Designers” group in an attempt to prevent his animations from ending up in those annoying “Business in a Box” deals. You must apply for group membership (application available in the store0, and I strongly encourage anyone interested to check out the information notecard. Here is a quick run down:
Established original furniture designers may buy my poses with copy/transfer permissions enabled. You will have to agree to not resell my poses with copy/transfer permissions enabled, or as part of a poseball set or business-in-a-box package.
Resellers and retailers of BIB (business in a box) will not be accepted into Rosse Verified Designers group. Membership is restricted to reputable original furniture creators ONLY. If your application was rejected, you will be told why.
The GREENE Concept
Jun 21, 2008 Furniture Leave a comment
Woo hoo!!! Furniture!!!
I’m here this morning (and will likely be here until this afternoon… I have SO MUCH blogging to catch up on, omg) to tell you about this fantastic new furniture shop, featuring a carefully crafted, innovative “meeting” couch known as the San Jose.
The store? The GREENE Concept (SLURL, OnRez, SLex, Blog).
Let me tell you how it started (culled from the GREENE Concept Blog):
Three months ago, Ivanova and myself started to talk about creating a furniture business in SL. On March 27, we paid the first rent for our workshop, and in those last three months we were very busy making concepts, building prototypes, working on textures and designs, making budgets, discussing prices etc. And now, finally, we went live!
The San Jose couch, the brainchild of Ivanova Shostak and Peter Stindberg, is absolutely perfect for those group meetings, gatherings, etc and actually kind of reminds me of the half-circle couches I see so often at clubs in real life. The couch will seat up to five avatars at a time and will randomly select one of three available poses upon sitting. Do you hold board meetings? Need couches with a little “flare” for your club? Looking to add a little touch of group-seating elegance to your home? These are definitely the couches for you.
There are currently 12 different colors/textures available for the San Jose: Anthracite, Cotton, Denim, Green, Jade, Mint, Ocean, Poppy, Red, Royal, Suede and Velvet. My personal favorite would have to be the black (velvet?)… but all of the colors are so beautiful and vibrant, there’s bound to be one for every taste. I know EXACTLY who else would love the red one! *smiles innocently in Codie’s direction*
The couches are available in two different permission options: copy/no-transfer ($800L) and no-copy/trans ($350L). What are you waiting for! Head on over to the GREENE Concept (SLURL) and try out one of these fantastic couches yourself!
Firefox + Greasemonkey = Lurve
Jun 16, 2008 Tutorials 2 Comments
I wanted to share yet another little gem of information which, if you haven’t discovered it yet, will change your Flickr-addict lives (if you are, in fact, a Flickr addict that is).
Two things before we begin:
1. You must use the FireFox browser in order for what I’m about to tell you to work. You can download it here: www.mozilla.com. You can feel free to download either the current stable version 2, or the beta FireFox3 version. I use FireFox 3. If you don’t, or have never used, the FireFox browser before — I’d recommend, at the very least, giving it a try. It’s wonderful and in my opinion, much more intuitive than the current IE7. Bonus! — FireFox DOES work with Mac OSX, as does everything I am about to tell you. So users with Macs, feel free to indulge yourselves as well!
2. Brace yourself. This is seriously ~life changing~. *ungh! giggidy!*
———————————
Now, let me begin by explaining one quick thing.
How many of you out there, really hate submitting a picture to one Flickr group at a time?
*raises hand* I do!!!
I often find myself wanting to submit a photo to 30 groups at a time, and find that I generally had to sit there and click that stupid “Send to Group” button over…and over…and over. It’s mind numbing and unBELIEVABLY counter-productive. Which brings me to what I want to tell you about today.
The Greasemonkey plugin for FireFox, and the Flickr Multi-Group Sender script. You will need to download both in order for them to work.
“What do they do?” Well, I’m glad you asked!
Someone I used to be dear friends with introduced this to me last year some time, and I haven’t been able to live without it since. I imagine, if you take the time to set it up, you will have the same reaction. THIS IS HOW FLICKR WAS MEANT TO BE USED!!! DO YOU HEAR ME YAHOO?!?! Now, down to the nitty gritty:
1. Download FireFox!
For those of you who want the stable FireFox2:
Click here
For those of you who want the beta FireFox3:
Click here
Note: I’ve been using FireFox3 since its beta release, and have encountered no problems.
There are Windows, Mac OSX and Linux options on both downloads, so rememeber to download whichever you need!
Now!
2. Download the Greasemonkey Plugin for Firefox!
If you downloaded FireFox 2:
Install the plugin here.
Note: This plugin will claim that it works for Firefox2-3. It’s lying! If you download the latest version of FireFox 3, then follow the instructions below:
If you downloaded FireFox 3:
Right-click and save this file to your hard drive! Once you have it downloaded, open FireFox and double-click the XPI file. It will install the plugin to your Firefox browser. Note: If this *DOES NOT WORK*, please let me know! I have a working xpi script at home, I can host it on my website if I need to.
Once the plugin is successfully installed, a little monkey will appear in the bottom right hand corner of your status bar at the bottom of the Firefox browser. This is how you know the plugin is installed correctly.
NOW!!! (again!)
3. Download the Flickr Multi Group Sender script for Greasemonkey.
This is the easiest step of them all. Simply go to this page, click the black box in the upper right corner that says “Install This Script”, and it will install the script to Greasemonkey (you should get a little message next to the monkeyhead that says “Script Installed Successfully”).
Once that is done, close and restart FireFox.
4. This is the part where your life changes.
Go to your Flickr profile and click on any one of your pictures in your stream. NOW… hit the dreaded “Send to Group” button. A scripted window should appear with a list of all of your groups. You can hold the control button to select multiple groups (up to 30 of them, I believe). Once you have selected all of the groups you’d like to submit your photo to, click the “Add Photo” button, and watch as this nifty little script begins sending this one photo to all of the groups that you selected, ALL AT ONCE! There are other things you can do with this script (such as save lists of groups you’ve selected), but I’ll let you guys read up on the script to learn how to use those.
—————————————
So, there you have it! No more submitting photos to one group at a time. I hope this is useful to some of you out there!!! I sure know it’s been life changing for me. LOL
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comment stream. I’ll try to answer them as best I can!
SL5B: Alienating the Family Culture
Jun 12, 2008 Art, Events 4 Comments
It is with great discontent that I write this blog post today.
My good friend, Stephen Venkman, has been turned away by Linden Labs for his proposed art exhibition at this year’s SL5B celebration. The reason? Portraying Second Life children in his artwork.
Venkman has long been a parent in Second Life, along with his partner (and another terrific friend of mine), Kimberly Mirabeau. Both are respectable, well established artists in the community. Venkman continuously provides his Flickr stream viewers with cherished glimpses into his Second Life, which includes his four children.
The following images are just some of what were submitted by Venkman to be shown in his exhibition at SL5B (more can be seen on his Flickr stream):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenvenkman/485783560/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenvenkman/1196854938/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenvenkman/2370931063/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenvenkman/2371325102/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenvenkman/2370404377/
I see nothing wrong with any of these. As a matter of fact, I see a sweet, honest, genuine portrayal of family life in Second Life. It is because of Venkman’s wonderful family and his fantastic stream of family imagery that I was inspired to build my own family. I now have a beautiful daughter (Kylei Benoir) and a fantastic fiancee (Belmakor Pintens), without which my Second Life just would no longer feel complete.
I sincerely and whole-heartedly feel that Venkman’s family photos should be allowed in SL5B. In a world where bestiality, slavery, BDSM, rape, and murder are all entirely possible, to disallow wholesome photos of a parent and child is simply repulsive.
Thankfully, other friends of mine, Shoshana Epsilon, Sue Stonebender and Baron Grayson are all backing Stephen, 100%, as are all of us, his friends and family.
Shoshana Epsilon has donated her space in the SL5B exhibition to protest the alienation of child avatar with adult avatar portraits. Details may be read here, and for those of you who don’t wish to click an extra link, the details are as follows:
I want to donate my display to a protest. If you have any clean and wholesome family-type RL pictures that YOU OWN ALL RIGHTS TO, please send them to me in-world. I will heavily moderate the pictures, so not all pictures will be allowed. I expect good quality art pictures that are wholesome. Credits will be given to the photographer.
Sue Stonebender and Baron Grayson have submitted a call to action to the Tryst group, and are accepting action from anyone willing to submit it. Full details may be read here, but the action request itself is as follows:
ACTION REQUESTED:
Create a notecard to show your support for fellow Tryst member, Stephen Venkman, to be sent to Linden Lab as part of a petition by Sue Stonebender. Your notecard should include:
1) Notecard Title: supports Stephen Venkman’s family exhibit at SL5B
2) Notecard Permissions: Modify - no / Copy - yes / Transfer - yes
3) Notecard contents: an optional message to Linden Lab in support of Stephen Venkman’s “Family” exhibitSend your notecard to Sue Stonebender before the end of the day, Thursday, June 12th, 2008.
REASON FOR REQUESTED ACTION:
Linden Lab will not permit the display of any pictures depicting child and adult avatars in the same shot to be displayed in exhibits at the SL5B celebration, and is therefore refusing to permit Stephen Venkman to display several of the pictures in his exhibit celebrating “Family” in the Second Life online community.
I would greatly appreciate anyone willing to take action on this issue to do so. Of all the things that could be excluded from the SL5B art exhibitions, Venkman’s wholesome, beautiful, and CULTURAL display of family in Second Life is most certainly not one of them.
Thank you for reading, and for those of you who choose to do so: thank you for taking action.
Join the New Sales Consolidated Group!
Jun 7, 2008 General, Sales/Hunts Leave a comment
Hey everyone!!! So I’ve decided that naming my sales group “Ryker’s Beckonings” and having it be a group that only *I* can send notices out in is kind of malproductive. SO… I have created ANOTHER group… meant for any and all designers to join, to advertise SALES in their store!!!
I’d like this group to become a place where any and all designers can go to announce sales they will be having in their store — and not just the conventional sales! Secret sales, treasure hunts, anything of the “get something at a discount” nature.
TO JOIN THE GROUP AS A DESIGNER:
If you’d like to join the group as a designer and have the right to send notices, please drop on me (Ryker Beck) a NOTECARD with your avatar name and the store you represent, as well as what you sell. You will be given permission to send notices ASAP after the notecard is received. This will hopefully be a great way for designers to get word out about their store sales!
TO JOIN THE GROUP AS A SALE HUNTER:
If you’d like to join the group with permission to send notices, and you are NOT a designer, but a SALE HUNTER… drop a notecard on me with your name and why you’d like to be a sale hunter. You MUST give me a reason behind wanting to be a sale hunter (i.e. you frequently hunt out sales on blogs), otherwise I will be unable to grant you the ability to send notices. After I review your request, I will notify you of permission to send out sale notices if you are approved! The same rules apply to you: please ONLY SEND OUT SALE NOTICES and *BEFORE* you send them out, make sure you have checked the backlog of notices to be positive that the sale notice hasn’t been sent yet. A sale is great! But 15 notices on the same sale is not. Ya dig?
TO JOIN THE GROUP AS A SHOPPER:
Simply join the group! It is open enrollment. :) Sit back and let the sale notices come to YOU!
NOTES & RULES:
This group is ONLY FOR SALE NOTICES. Please do not send out any notices about new releases from your store (unless they are of course, on sale!).
REQUIRED for NOTICES: Please write all details of the store sale and attach it in a notecard to the announcement. DON’T FORGET to include a LANDMARK!!! If we don’t know where to go, we can’t spend our lindens at your store. So include a landmark!!! *wags finger* Pictures are also welcome, but not necessary.
This group is NOT for LAND SALES of ANY KIND. Do NOT send land sale notices.
**ABSOLUTELY NO SPAM** If you spam, you will be removed and banned. No questions asked. I will understand resent notices due to forgetting the notecard (we all do this from time to time), but I will not tolerate “COME BUY THIS LAND NOW!” or “COME RENT THIS STORE NOW!” notices. They are annoying and do not belong in this group. Do not send them. Thanks.
**IMPORTANT NOTE FOR RYKER’S BECKONINGS GROUP MEMBERS**
The Ryker’s Beckonings (Rykerized) group will be DISBANDED and all members will be ejected by next weekend. Please LEAVE the Ryker’s Beckonings group and JOIN the Sales Consolidated group! Hope to see you there! :D
Blowpop’s Latest Deliciousness
Jun 7, 2008 Skins Leave a comment
The lovely Annyka Bekkers has outdone herself this time around!
Not only has she produced a skin that is beautiful, and liiiiickable (*wink*), but she’s also answered virtually every single one of my skin-creator prayers. It’s like she just reached into my itty bitty heart, pulled out my every piss-and-moan and did exactly what I begged for.
I’d like to introduce you to Tuesday from Blowpop (SLURL, Blog)!
The specifics:
Creator: Annyka Bekkers
Shop Location: Fuzzy (SLURL)
Price: $950L per makeup (4 skins) / $2850L per makeup fatpack (16 skins)
Tones Available: Vanilla, Cream, Honey, Caramel, Cinnamon, and Cocoa
Other Notes: This is where we talk about my dreams… Does everyone remember how I complain so much (I know you do) about pubic hair and eyebrows? It’s a pet peeve of many people, and creates contempt in the hearts of skin lovers everywhere. Well… we all know that Annyka is spectacular about offering options with eyebrows/pubic hair colors. With Tuesday, she’s taken it the extra step… the skins are all pubic hairless (*ohm nohm nohm*) and she is offering two underwear layers for both brown and black pubic hair options. Need hair? Throw on the underwear! That’s a sentence you don’t get to say everyday! And the eyebrows… each skin you purchase will come with your choice of brown or black eyebrows. Like freckles? She covers that too! Each makeup comes with and without freckles. My god, I love you, Annyka.
While you can see the dozens of makeup options available on her blog, I’d like to say that the Aden series in Honey is definitely my favorite.
Top down! The face is beautiful. Absolutely stunningly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that I made a shape to go with it (face pictured above). It’s simply stunning. The details are magnificent in their couture-level hand drawing (HAH, I love that phrase :P), and the lips are excellent, as they have been in Annyka’s previous releases. The nose shading seems to get exceedingly darker as the skin tone changes (it’s PERFECT on Vanilla thru Honey, but seems to get just a touch too dark on Cinnamon thorugh Cocoa), but that’s really my only nitpick. The eyebrows are much softer than those from the Mellie 3, which makes me very happy. *sighs happily*
The entire torso is spectacularly well done, I especially love the belly button and collar bone which are both EXCELLENT. The nipples are fantastic for being hand drawn, and the highlights on the chest I absolutely LOVE. They add just a little something different; that extra touch to make the art your own. Know what I mean?
Like I stated before, the genital region is hairless and beautifully done. The detail is spectacular close up, and with the added pubic hair (not pictured) for you hair lovers, it looks very tasteful. Again, there are two pubic hair color options offered with each skin purchase (brown and black)!
The legs and feet are very nicely done, with just the right amount of highlighting on the knee caps and shins. I especially love the toes, which are a big step up from the toes I normally see. I’m so glad to see so many skin designers taking extra care with this particular body part… the one that is SO HARD to get right. I applaud you all. Really, I do. The future of feet in Second Life (TM) is bright indeed!
The hand detail is excellent, especially the fingernails and knuckles. Speaking of fingernails, another thing I wish some skin designers would do (and this really is just pure conjecture) is create glove layer nail polish for their skins. Or a glove layer fingernail cover up for those who purchase prim nails. Just a thought. /endrandommusing
I LOVE the ass on this skin, especially the highlighting on the cheeks and above the crack. Those of you that know me, know that I have this strange sense of pride about my butt, and I love ANY skin that makes it look good. The lovely Tuesday is no exception. In fact, it may be the rule. Look at that ass! :P And that little mole on the left cheek? DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS! Love it.
The shoulder blades are SPEC-TAC-ULAR. I am deeply impressed by their detail and flawless lighting. The back in general is just very soft and touchable (lickable?) and even the elbows are wonderful in their detail, with those little creases on the patch of skin.
I would highly recommend these skins to anyone (especially the Honey line!). The fact that these skins come with pubic hair OPTIONAL just made my entire day. My little skin whore heart is all a-flutter. *bats eyes* Run, dash, hop, skip on over to Blowpop and grab some demos and a few skins while you’re at it! You won’t regret it.
Let Imagination Be Your Guide
May 21, 2008 Photoshop, Tutorials 13 Comments
Just thought I’d throw that disclaimer out there before I started explaining.
I’ve zipped up every last one of my Photoshop brushes and uploaded them to my web host. Don’t ask me why, I actually have no idea (it took 2 hours to upload them all). Considering every brush in this zip file can be found on Deviant Art, some people may just consider this “eliminating the need to browse”. However, I often get asked where certain brushes can be found, etc. So… to better answer that question, I will simply give you a direct link: you can find them all right here (you *MUST* right click and SAVE to download the zip from my blog).
I am sure by now, most of you know the drill. You should unzip this zip file into your Adobe/Presets/Brushes folder. The zip file contains sixty-two (62) categorized folders of “types of brushes” (what can I say? I’m a hyper organized freak — it’s a flaw). The categories include such gems as:
Abstract
Coffee (rings/stains)
Clouds
Eyelashes
Fractals
Grass
Glowies
Hair (pieces and drawing)
Lightning
Mist
Moons
Smoke
Space
Sparklies
Stars
Tears
Water
Wings…
…among many others. It is nearly 1 gig of brushes uncompressed, so be sure that you have ample space on your hard drive.
First thing you will need to do is unzip this folder into your Brushes presets folder in your Adobe Photoshop directory. This folder is generally located here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop X\Presets\Brushes. When you unzip this archive, you will see 62 folders, each titled appropriately, unzipped into your Brushes presets folder.
Once you’ve done that, open Photoshop and follow along!
1. Click on your Brush tool in the menu bar on the left side of your screen.
2. Above this menu bar, you will see a small icon of the brush you currently have selected, with a small arrow to the right. Click on that arrow.
3. By clicking on this arrow you have brought up a list of your available brushes, and a slider bar called Master Diameter, among other things. To the right of this “Master Diameter” slider is another small, circled arrow. Click this arrow.
4. A list will expand. Now, you’ll notice that this list is quite huge, and undoubtedly consumes your entire screen. In the very first column of this list, there is an option called “Replace Brushes”. Click this.
5. A window will open allowing you to browse to your newly installed brushes. Browse to your Presets/Brushes folder, where you will see all 62 folders that you just unzipped. Open one of these folders and select any brush set you like. Once you have selected one, click the “Load” button. This will replace all of your current brushes in the list with the newly selected set of brushes.
“But wait! How do I get my default list of Photoshop brushes back, Ryker? You know, the one with the hard brushes, the soft brushes, and those annoying leaves that never go where you want them to?”
6. To reset your brushes to the Photoshop defaults, Repeat steps 1 through 4 above **HOWEVER** — instead of choose “Replace Brushes” from the list, choose “Reset Brushes”. This will reset your brush list to the Photoshop defaults.
I hope this isn’t too confusing! Happy downloading!
PS: I’m sure a filing system which is intuitive to ME, may not necessarily be intuitive for YOU. Hopefully, all of the folders in this file will be easily labeled enough that you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for. Enjoy!
I Adore This Hair
May 21, 2008 Fashion, Hair 1 Comment
While shopping with some friends at House of Heart yesterday, we ran across an avi who was wearing a -stunning- hair style. Being the hair fiend I am, I simply had to A. do my research on the creator, and B. get my ass over to the shop to buy it.
I would like to share not only the hair style I ran to this store to buy, but also a couple of extremely cute clothing items available for purchase there as well: namely, the tights and shorts in the picture below (details on teh outfit are under the picture… you know the drill!). The shop’s name? Shop Seu (SLURL).
After doing my research, I found a few blog posts on the glorious world wide web that mention Shop Seu. A few of them, should you choose to read up yourself (and I would…and have!) can be found at Fashion Victim, Soigne, and Linden Lifestyles.
While hair color selection is pretty sparse in Shop Seu (SLURL), the ones that are available are positively stunning. The hair in question that I simply -had- to have??? The sexy long hair in black… available for only $170L. Happy shopping!
Top: S.Y.D. - Brown Plaid Outfit / Basic Tank Top
Shorts: Shop Seu - Short Pants in Brown
Tights: Shop Seu - Taitsu Taight in Red
Shoes: Urban Bomb Unit - PornStar Xtra Hi-Tops Multicolor v2
Necklace: House of Heart - SoHo Necklaces in Gold
Hair: Shop Seu - Sexy Long Hair in Black
Eyes: MADesigns SOUL Eyes in Pale Grey
Skin: Celestial Studios - Vogue Skin Vamp/Enchant in Bronzed
