A Personal Note.

I suffer from this disease. If this video touches your heart like it does mine, please contribute to a child walking for a cure this summer. If you can't find one of those, the link in the video works too. This disease affects EVERYTHING. Please let's stop it from affecting anyone else as fast as humanly possible. Thank you and blessings.

Tapestry ~ My Parent's Place - Modeling Real Life Structures

Brochure: This home was inspired by my parents RL house, a very well textured design this has one room downstairs, a nice kitchen with lighting and a gorgeous formal upstairs. All of this done with Tru 3d textures.

This house is 25x30 and wieghs in at 47 prims.

Story: So after I finished Sandra's Place I thought it might be interesting to try and model real life houses I was familiar with. In all actuality at this point I was running out of steam and was trying to find inspiration anywhere I could. I had noticed these textures at TRU and really liked them so I used my Parent's new home as a floorplan model for this design. I learned quite a bit about building from this one, stairs were a new process and setting up the flow correctly took quite a bit of work. This is a nicely detailed little home but like most things it looks almost nothing like it's real world counterpart. Making the transition from Real Life to Second Life is actually quite difficult.

The kitchen in this unit was actually quite an experiment for me, using a commercial lighting script. I'm not entirely happy with it but it did teach me even more about scripting and the effect of lighting on good design. The scripts themselves are no modify so I can't learn exactly what he did to create them, although I've reverse engineered it since. I can understand why he did that but it took alot of effort to get those hanging bulbs to look right and I've not used the script since in any of my builds.

One major problem I see alot of new designers make is not making rooms big enough. The biggest Prim building block you can make in Second Life is 10 meters square. This seems big enough and so many builders make their rooms exactly that size. The problem is that the camera bumps into walls at that size, the adjustment level is enough to drive most people crazy. A small adjustment to 12 meters square seems to solve all camera related problems, but it means you have to use more prims. I've gotten into the habit of making large open rooms, and if someone wants to make them smaller then they will. I believe that's why you see so many open or studio floorplans in Second Life. Then again, we buy houses with roofs and it never rains, so maybe it's just genetic. Or maybe we don't want those flying avatars to see what we're up to.

Sandra's Place Townhouse - Modern Minimal Elegance

Brochure: I know most of our builds so far have been gothic or dark. Looking for something more modern? Something that dosen't scream denizen of the night? Then our newest build may be for you. A one bedroom brownstone rowhouse in the tradition of New York Living or San Francisco row houses this quality small house is extremely well textured and the ivy walls scream of the charm of it's residents.

This was built with layout and ease of use in mind, made with the inspiration of the friend whose name it honors.

This townhouse is 10x27 meters and fits on a 512 lot more then perfectly, it takes 46 prims and is designed as a nice first home for that small plot of land without sacraficing quality or beautiful construction.

The Story: So, yet another foray into making beautiful builds for new landowners, this is essentially a re-imagining of Anya's Keep but it presented its own unique challenges. At the time I was designing this I had entered the Second Life land market as a realtor. I was buying large plots and putting down small house like this and Anya's and then reselling them for about 10% more then I bought them. I was having some good success with this strategy and someone noted that a row of Anya's Keep properties looked like San Francisco rowhomes. Also at the time I'd just gotten back from a real life business trip to New York City and had loved the feeling of it's old brownstones.

So inspired I began trying to replicate that in this walkup. It really did turn out well and the lessons I learned I later went back and reincorporated in Anya's Keep. But it was an experience in more modern textures and how they work. I really learned how to use the texture offsets in this build. I now am aware that textures have at least as much to do with the build as actual construction. I've seen people do amazing builds but use more prims then they need to because they aren't using high quality textures. On the reverse there are builders who don't make things look architecturally sound because they think the eye candy will detract, it's really a balancing act on each build.

I've been truly surprised at the lackluster sales of this build, but I think it stems from the smaller size. Small size builds don't sell well because of the market. This is a truly attractive place and I'd love to show it to you, test rez it. If I ever go back to selling fully built small parcels this will be the house I put down for people.

The Future of the Web - Or how a 15 year old changes everything!

For awhile now people have been pointing at Second Life and saying that this is what the future of the web looks like, and to a large degree I concur with that statement, but it's always had a bit of a problem in that it needs it's own infrastructure to use and isn't seamless to the way we interact with the larger internet now. It's obviously of importance, after all Reuters has a full time reporter working in world and several countries have opened embassy's there as if it's a new nation.

Now comes exciting news, a 15 year old working on the Teen Grid of Second Life has created an implementation of code that allows people to explore from within a web browser in a limited fashion. This allows people to be in Second Life without the requirements of a 3d graphics card and even possibly allows for nearly universal use without regards to machine requirements. This may not make a huge difference for me as I mostly design buildings and this implementation isn't set to allow people to fully realize the personal space they can have in Second Life, but it's an incredible step in the right direction and can only grow. Best part is it's open source so it will be cleaned up and expanded. I'm linking to New World Notes which has the best coverage of this achievement and you can read their coverage here.

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Because Free is a Very Good Price.

I have a personal problem. Stuff that's easy for me to create I don't tend to sell, thinking that anybody can do it... I create things as experiments or just for my own personal use all the time and a week later I find it on SLX or in world for sale. So I've started to change my mind. Most of the items I am talking about are relatively easy to create with a bit of research into scripting or some basic build skills, but some people aren't interested in building, they just want to enjoy Second Life and buy the items they like.

Case in point: I made a photo frame that cycles randomly through all the photos loaded into it's contents. This is a classic script almost directly from the example given on the LSL wiki. The only thing I had to figure out was how to make the texture cycle on only one face rather then all of them, but some noodling and it was done. I created these for my house, so I could look at all my snapshots and share them with my friends, I didn't even think about selling it. However I'm now seeing these things around for sale between 150L and 700L depending on degree of customization. So.... not to be a crook, but I'm giving mine away as lucky chair prizes and free gifts to loyal customers. I'm considering selling them for small prices such as 100L. It took me all of 20 minutes to build. Is this unfair of me? Am I undercutting other people out of the market? Or is it unfair for them to take a pretty universal script example and charge a ton for it? I just don't know. It's one of the interesting things about running a business in Second Life, do you undercut and get a bad reputation among your peers, or do you do what you have the skill for and price according to what you will take for it?

Keep in mind we're not talking about freebies here, although in my opinion they aren't worth a whole lot, copying and pasting a script isn't hard to do. I just don't know.... so this is an experiment. My photo frame is a free give away in my Lucky Chair and I'm going to post it on my vendor at 100L. This is all I think I can charge for it, in fact if you want to know how to build one I'll even tell you. If you aren't interested, it's there for you to grab. I'm truly interested in your feedback on this article, drop a comment, first 10 people to drop a comment on this post with their Second Life name get not one, but two free items! (One of em will be the photo frame.)

Pricing - to Lower or not to Lower?

Well, lame Shakespeare paraphrases for titles notwithstanding, I've been convinced by those I trust that I price too high. I was under the impression that buildings were rare purchases so that they needed to be priced higher as a result... after all why would anyone buy more then one? I've been corrected. Like so much else in this new world, peoplc like to change houses almost as often as they change clothing. So my pricing has actually kept me from being an impulse buy. The other issue I've had with lowering prices is that I don't want to be seen as 'cheap'. I work really hard on my buildings and designs, and I didn't want people to associate me and my work with the quick buck fly by night type of operations I see way too much in Second Life.

So, I've been convinced, all my prices have been lowered quite a bit, this is reflected on SLExchange and my store in world. I hope that prior customers won't use slings and arrows, and I hope it attracts new customers like a rose of any other name.

See, tried to stay with the Shakespeare and it still dosen't work.....

Independance Day

Happy Fourth of July. I know my readers come from all over the world and so you may not know the significance. But in the States we celebrate this day as Indpendence Day, the day we decided to become a country. So I hope you all are with family or friends and that some form of fireworks goes off in your life.

I thought about talking about the freedom we enjoy in Second Life but really I just want another beer. Treat each other with respect and enjoy your day.

The Semi-functional Starter Guide.

OK, so people have asked me, "What do I do if I want to get started in Second Life?" Assuming you haven't yet been in the game at all the first thing you should do is click the link to the right or above and join. Now, if you are willing to be a nomad, which 80% of the people do, then that's it. But the real fun in my opinion starts when you spring for the 'premium' membership and get a piece of virtual real estate all for yourself. That really lets you build and enjoy the toys that you can't use so much if you continue the hobo existance. Currently 512sm parcels are running around 6-8000L. Which under current exchange rates is around 20-30 US dollars. You pay $10 dollars a month for the premium membership. And you can probably earn that money in Second Life itself, so really you're not looking at much of an expense. If you compare it to other Massive Multiplayer Online experiences it's a deal.

How do I earn money in Second Life you ask? Well, if you have your first land I recommend buying a nice house or castle, such as Anya's Keep, or something else (From my designs of course!). After that a good way to earn money in Second Life is by selling the stuff you like. Most people in secondlife will pay commission through catalogs or affliates. If you want to sell my items I offer a catalog that pays 10% commission. To make $10.00 US in a month you have to basically earn 3000L. That isn't difficult under many jobs in SL.

I realize that I built this post in reference to my business, and I'd be pleased if you decided it was worth a shot, but truly, premium membership has its benefits. Give it a try, can always cancel if you dislike it.

Anya's Keep ~ First Land Elegance.

Brochure: This is a small size castle tower built with all the comforts of home, one bedroom, gorgeous textures, a glass dance floor and lovely arches for your own stained glass. All packaged in an easy rezzer. I tried to bring in hints of victoria with the glass tower, reminiscent of greenhouses.

This was built with layout and ease of use in mind, made with the inspiration of the great friend whose name it honors.

This castle is 30x10 and fits on a 512 lot more then perfectly. It takes 43 prims and is designed as a nice first home for that small plot of land without sacraficing quality or beautiful construction.


Story: Anya is a nomad, and has never had a home of her own. But she's an amazing roleplayer and probably my best friend in Secondlife. Anya's Keep was once again an exercise in taking the theme of my other two castles and making it fit on a parcel that is often known as 'first land'. Though they have discontinued the program it used to be that occasionally first time purchasers of land could get 512 sq, meters of land for a deeply discounted price. The houses available for that space have to be very prim efficient because they don't have alot to space. As a result they are often the worst designs possible. Throwaway houses. I didn't want to go that route so I built this. It's tight, due to the size of first land parcels there isn't alot of room, but it still has the glass dance floor and a very nice bedroom. I'm proud of it and Anya loved it.