Of Time & Avatars

Do you know why I like to change my avatar so often? Sure, it is a lot of fun, but take a look at my day for the real reason ...

As I've written on this blog before (see here), my friend Kaelin Westland makes some amazing avatars, most for her private use, and lately she's been giving me copies to photograph. This is her new Angel of Disease. Not sure if she plans on selling it, but I'm glad I have a copy just for the effort of making pictures for her.

My day often ends at 1AM local time (or later) and really begins then, too, as I manage to get about 4 hours of sleep before I'm needed by someone for something again. It really works out that my day is about seven days long and punctuated with naps. Then I manage another two to three hours of sleep before my morning chores. Then I collapse at my desk to read comics, the news, maybe play some solitaire, and tend my Neopets. I might get about 30 minutes Second Life time in.

Kaelin's Air Elemental  is one of my favorites. The translucent mesh body is enhanced by optional electric spark particle generators. This one (and other elementals) is for sale in her SL Marketplace shop here.

That is when Lunchtime arrives. After doing the usual tap dance with mom ("What do you want, Mom?" "I don't know, Cait." "How about eggs?" "No, nothing sounds good." ... and all that goes on until she settles on a muffin, a yogurt, and a banana) and making some Hot Pockets for me since I don't feel like making an effort, I can sit down again.

The Water Elemental stunned me right out of the box. The whole body is an animated water caustic texture. Kaelin provides two options for animation speed with this avatar. When I was given a pre-release set to test I was able to give feedback so now the avatar has optional water puddle footprints and other water drip particles.

From then until supper time, I do manage to access SL, but I'm up about every thirty minutes to get mom some ice, pretzels, find her spoon (her hankie, her remote, her iPad stylus, yadda yadda), do laundry, and the usual stuff.

The first of the four Elementals, Fire, has a partially texture-animated mesh body. The skin on the forearms and shins is cracked and you see molten "something" roiling underneath. Animated flames on the feeat, hands, head, and back complete the package.

The evening meal dance is much the same as the midday meal one but more often than not ends with an omelette for her and something heated up for me. Occasionally I have the time to make more of a meal for the family depending on what mom wants or if my brother brings home some food.

Some time past, Kaelin also gave to me her silver Egyptian jewelry set and I finally found the time to fit it up and try it on. Look for this to be my next Topless Tuesday outfit. I forget the details, but this is Tuty's "Lou Chocolate" skin, tinted SLink mesh hands, and Wasabi-Pills hair (the shaved-on-one-side style). I'm more impressed with this than I am with a stunning Isis outfit I picked up years ago (see it here).

Afterwards, I can then again log into SL (or do other things) but I really don't feel like doing much as I've probably not gotten in a nap. Most days for the last week I've fallen asleep in the kitchen, at the desk, or in the bathroom. When I get into SL, I'm really not in the mood to be "me" so the fun avatars come into play.

Of course, Caturdays and my Real Life iPad help keep me sane. I love it so much I got one iSL and pretend to read or play games in-world while I'm doing the same iRL.

No, I can't remember when I've watched a movie in one sitting or a TV show. My reading is usually done when I get to bed down just after Midnight after tucking mom in but I have to be awake should  she need anything last minute (as is often the case).

It is often enough just to be "me" iSL, though, and simply get away to some place out of my ordinary life, ignoring the constant aches and pains my RL body suffers, the miserable Winter weather of Maine, and just luxuriate in plush surroundings and to spend time with my loving wife, Angela. These little bits of paradise and the magic of fun avatars make my days more bearable

Kaelin's Fembot

One of the joys of Second Life is enjoying the creativity of others. Fortunately, I get to wallow in it as I have so many talented friends (far more talented than me). Honour writes better, Marianne textures beautifully, and Kaelin makes some awesome avatars – and not just the custom all-mesh ones she makes just for herself. You might recognize the name. I wrote about her Fire Giant here and her Storm Giant here. Her SL Marketplace shop is filled with intricately-made clothes and fabulous stuff for fantasy avatars (her wings are awesome), but now she's branched into SciFi with her new Fembot avatar ($529 here).

I'm in a corridor at Space Trek, an adult cosplay sim (SLurl).

This partial-Mesh beauty is Mod-Copy so you can personalize it. In fact, Kaelin tells me that if someone asks politely, she'll pass along the UV maps so you can do things like asymmetrical arms, new shades, and more. Also, some shape adjustments can be applied so while mass-produced robots should look alike, you can stand out (keep a backup copy of all parts before you go modding, please).

If you love SciFi, you must get this avatar ... or at least check out her whole shop here. As of this moment, she even has a dozen items L$10 and under, including her famous L$5 prim-resizer script loved by Petite avatars everywhere.

Beware the Fire Giant

Available for L$389 on the SL Marketplace here or in a male version here for L$359.

My super talented friend Kaelin Westland has done it again ... another giant avatar. Coming in at six meters tall, the Fire Giant is amazingly detailed. As much as I admire what Kaelin does with the mesh itself, its the skin that really sells this avatar. Her muscles just ripple and it seems that lava is just ready to burst out.

All the armor, also mesh, is included in the package or you can easily resize prim clothes to fit. If you need help with that,  Kaelin offers a L$5 resizing script here that is better than just about anything I've seen.

You may remember her Storm Giant avatar that I wrote about on May 9th. Essentially, this is the same avatar but with theme-specific armor to go with the fire skin. And you can also resize hair or prim clothes for this avatar as with the Storm Giant.

Still scary in the buff, but maybe even more beautiful as you can really appreciate the skin.

Kaelin has also created a truly unique alien avatar (NSFW; see it here), part of an amazing 100+ item collection that includes meticulously detailed clothes, body parts, avatars, and more. As much as I tell her that she's an amazing artist she just shrugs and denies it. I like to think she's secretly smiling and blushing but I know she's really thinking about what she can do next.

Storm Giant [Update]

Everyone is blessed with having a few talented friends and I'm no exception unless you consider that I have some exceptionally talented friends. My IM windows get a regular workout with "Hey! You gotta see ... " or something to that effect. Today my friend Kaelin caught me with "Just in time" and seeing via the Mini Map that she was at the courtyard on Lesbos I teleported down right away knowing she had to have something new with an IM like that one.

From Chat History: [13:49] Height Detector (Accurate) - Prim Height: Kaelin Westland is 2.708965 m (8 ft. 10in.) tall. (counting shoes) - Prim Height
But from measuring, she's more like 6 meters (19.6850 feet) tall, making me so happy I just the other day made my own avatar shorter so I'd need a platform to put me on eye-level.

The Something New was a Storm Giant avatar, a custom mesh demi-god with hand-painted skin and it is every bit as detailed and delicious as the smaller fantasy mesh avatars she's been making for herself of late. I don't know if she'll sell this one (find her on the SL Marketplace here) as only a few of her earlier avatar projects have gone public, but I'm sure she could make a small fortune. She does this sort of thing for fun, however, and I'm sure enjoys the challenge more than the potential income. Maybe I'll set another challenge: Create a pantheon of giants from various mythologies. I'm sure Kaelin would be far more than equal to that task.

[Update: May 10, 2010 - The Storm Giant is now for sale on the Marketplace here (L$389).]

Photo Contest?

My friend, Lesbos Security Officer, and rather talented creator Kaelin Westland proposed that the Isle of Lesbos have a photo contest to promote the wonderful beach that came with our most recent remodeling. I'd be a judge, but look at the photo below and tell me if I would have had a chance.

Normally you'd find a pixy in this bottle.

I've always liked pics where the water surface birfucates the image but it isn't easy in Second Life. I had to render this in Acorn on the desktop. The undersea area in the image needs some fishies and the transition could be more realistic. There would actually be a magnification and image shift on the bottom side. The dividing line would have more ripples, too, I feel, despite the calmness of the ocean as they are closer to the focal plane of the "camera." And the way the Snapshot tool UI is configured I pretty nearly gave up at the start. I'm going to have to start taking screen caps and going from there.

But look away from the boobs ... think I'd have a chance with this shot?

Happy Wings!

Those dancing penguins have nuthin' on me, 'cause I gots Happy Wings! My ultra-talented friend Kaelin Westland asked me to try her MICRO Flappy Iridescent Wasp Wings, a new version of her full-sized wings and they sooooooo rock! Check 'em out!

I'm at Forest Floor (SLurl) again, a gorgeous place to be a pixy.

This picture doesn't do them justice as there is no motion, but when I launch into flight they go all flappy (hence the name, I'm presuming) and look so real. But what I really like is that they fold down when I'm at rest. I love my Material Squirrel dragonfly wings, but they are always sticking out (unless I hide them). It's much better to have the wings fold down.

You can try the demo for yourself free. Just go to the Marketplace on the Web here. If you see other wings you like, contact Kaelin to ask about having them made in MICRO size. Me? I've upgraded my full-sized pixy to her wings already but for now I'm gonna fly around some more! See ya!

More (Away) Games

There was a time that a ghost -- an avatar that a simulator would continue to render even after the account logged out -- would be visible to only a few other residents and gradually disappear to all, but this one stuck around at the Isle of Lesbos for nearly a week. I first saw her standing in the spot you see and thought of playing some (Away) Games (see this earlier post) but got busy and forgot.

A little more than a day later I saw her encased in a glowing block of ice, courtesy of my friend Kaelin. The next day the sign appeared. The day after that I seriously thought about restarting the region to clear the presence buffers but decided this Away Game was just too good.

Alas, the avatar was gone the next day. Maybe the disappearance was part of the rolling restarts that hit the grid. Maybe the presence buffers were purged as part of a cleaning or when the avatar's human contacted customer support about not being able to log in. Or maybe another Isle officer restarted the region. In any case, this unique form of performance art is gone, captured only in pixels even more static that the originals. :::pout:::