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Welcome! This is Trilby Minotaur's blog about art and fashion in the virtual world of Second Life.



Sunday, October 16, 2016

Godiva Ride

Reenacting Lady Godiva's famous ride started out as a fundraiser for Relay for Life. There's a Lady Godiva ride coming up on Nov. 2 in Caledon that's just for fun. Here's a photo from 2011, and I'm the one in the back with wings.


We didn't have a lot of choices back then: long flexi hair, high saddles, PG skins. We have more options now, thanks to mesh. Hair can be rigged to us, so it doesn't blow in the wind as we ride. So really, what does one wear? Well, here's a thought:


This hair doesn't show anything. Unfortunately, the way it's rigged interferes with the excellent horse from KOT. The mesh of the hair goes wonky. The AKK mesh riding horse is lovely, works well, and you can ride sidesaddle if you prefer. The only drawback is that the AKK horse is very high in complexity, which means lag. Without the horse, my complexity is 28K. I'm wearing hair, a Catwa basic mesh head, the Maitreya Lara body, and a couple of bracelets. Riding this horse brings my complexity up to nearly 300K. If everyone wears something similar, there's going to be mega lag.

A note on complexity: on older viewers, complexity is the same as ARC, which is avatar render cost. It's basically how hard your computer has to work to draw these avatars, hence lag if it's time consuming to draw very many.

Fortunately there are alternatives. There are many rideable animals out there.  To check your complexity, at least on the Firestorm viewer, go to the advanced menu, then performance tools, then avatar complexity. Lower is better. For any crowded event, I can usually be in the 30-40K range, and I try to be under 100K if I have a special costume or if the event requires fancy dress.

My inspiration for this blog however was a horse. This has got to be the best value out there. This horse costs 99L, and for that you get it in 3 colors. Its legs move when it walks, and it grows wings when it flies. It's not as pretty as some of the more expensive horses, but its complexity is under 30K! If walking with a minimum of lag in a crowd is important to you, I highly recommend getting one of these. Besides, it's a Godiva ride. Who's going to be looking at the horses?  :D  Here's a photo:


My total complexity here is about 55K. This leaves me plenty of room for accessories:


This is merely a suggestion. If you want to ride your high complexity horse, and you've got a new computer, ride it by all means. I pass no judgements. Besides, if lag is an issue, you can always lower the complexity that your computer renders. You can turn everyone off and have virtually no lag. The complexity slider is in the quick preferences menu in Firestorm.

I hope to see you all at the ride! Check the Caledon Events Calendar for details.

Credits:

Hair is from Caverna Obscura. There are other options, search for Godiva Hair on Marketplace.
Wearable horse from Tomato Park
My accessories came from outfits I already had, so I'm not going to link them. The flowers are in a gacha at LODE. Search for lode on MP and lots of gacha resell accessories come up.

Wind light: Trilby's Day (one I made with the editor)



Thursday, October 6, 2016

Crying My Catwa Eyes Out

Catwa recently released an eye pack to go with their mesh heads. It comes with an elaborate hud that lets you resize the eyes, add glow, make them look at something, change the texture, and even cry. Catwa eyes will work with any head, but all the features may not work with other brands. They are great for photography, and for role play. Here I am, broken hearted, in a fairy forest, alone and desolate.




You may need to go into full screen on the video to get a good look at the tears.

Credits:

I'm wearing my usual Maitreya body and Catwa Amy mesh head
Mesh eyes pack from Catwa
Eftelya 1 eye applier from Euphoric
Gia lip applier from Lara Hurley
Vamp skin applier from YS&YS at WLRP
Fuchia Crown is from LODE, and in a gacha at Shiny Shabby
Boho Dress and Necklace are from Arisaris 
Yua hair is from Monso

Location: Enchanted Forest by Keira Blackthorne at Caledon Moors
Wind light: Phototools Moonlight 05

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Another Event Another Outfit

My Grandmother collected teacups, and I have her collection now, displayed on a three tiered table in the parlor. I like to put teacups in the environments I make in Second Life. Sometimes they are up for awhile, sometimes I take them down quickly. Lately I've been working on a giant teacup installation. The teacups spin, of course. You can walk up a teacup/teaspoon trail and have tea at the top, at least you can until I have another idea. My teacup extravaganza is the setting of some of the following photos.


Here I am in the teacup garden. A giant teapot pours tea, and it flows down the hill until it becomes a waterfall of tea, and flows into the riverways of Caledon.

I never wanted to be modern. In my head I'm living in the 1890s. In my grandmother's day, it was the fashion to be pale. Even as a child when my friends were out getting tans, I stayed inside and read books. I went to We Love Roleplay today to try on the skin I'm wearing. It's a very pale gray. Can you tell I like to exaggerate? Another thing I like is birds. Trees too. I had to buy this dress, which has a skirt made of roots with birds flying around my head. I felt I needed a theatrical pose to go with it, something like a circus.


I made the bird tattoo on my head a few days ago. Here I'm trying to fly with the birds in my dress. Up! Up! Through the teacups! They circle me. Teacups spin, birds swoop, terns turn.

Credits:

Fuchsia Crown from Lode (gacha prize) @ Shiny Shabby
Yua hair from Monso
Abadon dress from Zibska @ WLRP
Yarrow shoes from Empire
*YS&YS* Warrior Skin Vamp Tone @ WLRP
Lara Hurley lipstick Gia
Maitreya body

Location: Trilby's Teacups

Windlight: several from the Torley SciFi series