Xeriko's Attic: A mixed virtuality - Xeriko's Attic

Trashy

Erm... yes that's me. A little bit trashy, yes I know, but hell I think it's good to send the tailor on vacation from time to time. And blond. So what? I only care for the hat, to which the photos make no justice.  Actually, I went to a.C. Store looking for another hairdo, but I thought it was a little bit  expensive, so I settle down to this one, which was better for my budget.

By the way, is it me or is the so called economy crisis hitting Second Life hard, or a.C. Store prices are going up like mad? I mean, 420L for some hair is... you know, above average. Being an avid skin collector, I also noticed they released a new skin (not sure when exactly, but it was new for me), and was tempted to buy at least one. But then the 2300L price tag left me stone dead. I hope they're not facing financial problems.

And yes, I'm in need of some photography lessons. Blame SL light for now... I'll see what I can do about that. Details for the outfit as follow:

Vest+Shirt: Aitui - Tokyo Intake Coal
Pants: Aitui - Reborn Slacks - Low Rise (Smoked Maroon)
Shoes: Urban Bomb Unit - PornStar Hi-tops (black)
Gloves: SiniStyle - Taped Fingers

Right ear piercing: Muism - Mix #02
Left ear piercing: Muism - Mix #03
Nose Sticks: Primitive Design - Naughty
Nose ring: Vand - Star Piercing
Mouth Piercing: Primitive Design - Sweet Sin
Right bracelet: BroGear - Keyboard Keys
Left bracelet: Ekstras - Linkx Dark

Tattoo: HUZ - Kanji Krazy

Skin: Aitui - The Redeemer
Eyes: MADesigns (new Intense eyes)
Shape: my own (as usual)

Avatar Rendering Cost:  1269.

And the hunt is on

Ok, let's see if this time it's truly something different. A hunt for males only... well, the gifts at least. Come on girls, I know you're making it too. Actually, I think you will outnumber us anyway. There are 151 stores participating in the hunt, well over the 15 that would be my ideal number, but hell, you have 30 days to finish this.

Starting point: KMADD City, with some fabulous gifts (including eyes I already bought... shit).

You can read more about this hunt in the Make Him Over Hunt website. Congratulations to the organizers for thinking about us poor little male creatures of Second Life.

Eyescapade, part 2

I have to admit that I never thought I would enjoy posting about eyes so much. I can even say that in the few days I've been eagerly exploring this less documented fashion avenue, I've become addicted to irides and pupils. What was only supposed to be a casual search to replace my aging eyes has turned into a hobby, one that I'm  pleased to embrace and pursuit because it's probably one of the less expensive accessories you can buy. For the price of a single skin --usually around 1500L to 2000L for a high quality one-- you can easily get 15 eyes and leave some cash to pay the weekly tier.

Since I mentioned Endeavor in my previous entry, I think I should start this batch with that shop. Visiting their main store at Takaraduka, you will find that half the second floor is filled with peering peepers, available as single units or complete sets. Prices start at 120L for one of the older pairs and go up to 300L for the most recent offerings: the Shiny Eyes Pro collection I'm testing, which is also the most natural looking one on display (pictured below in one of the darker samples).

Endeavor eyes may be on the expensive side of the business, but let's see what they add to your inventory before concluding so. First, each package includes three editions: small, medium and large. The small one is larger than other designers' specimens (also referred to as "normal eyes"), so take that into consideration if you're looking for or really need a small iris. Actually, scale variation between them is quite subtle, being noticeable only when comparing the two extremes. The medium size, in turns, comes in five variants (yep, as you read it), depending on which side you want your glance to focus on: left, right, up, down or straight ahead. Weird, isn't it? But well, it do adds versatility and flexibility.

All the line has a well drawn capillary system defining a conjunctiva, as the Tuli and Mojo products do, but it also adds another interesting and unique element not found in other eyes I've reviewed: a blue reflection in the upper half of the iris, simulating what would happen if a person looks up under a cloudless sky. A very charming effect I may say, and an extra step into realism.

The other extra element included as part of the bundle is a set of scripted prim eyes intended for short distance viewing, as in close up photography, for example. According to the instructions, these balls use a high resolution texture to reproduce extremely rich details. But not only that: touching the prim eye (yep, like fingering your eyeballs, oh, my gosh!) a menu will pop up, letting the wearer fine tune the eye's direction, just as you manually do with the five medium versions. The ones I bought had some "mechanical" problem, and the script didn't work. Fortunately I caught  Mif Yifu online, so a few minutes later I had a new set of working eyes.

When I saw those prim eyes in the folder, I was like "What would I do with these?" At first I didn't think they have any practical use at all, other than pure vanity (Look mom, I have prim eyes!!!). But then, I realized there was something else that perhaps designers were not necessarily aware of or did not  plan when they created these artifacts: Why not use them to give this perfect world a little twist? Thus,  I decided to use Endeavor eyes to model some optical conditions present in our RL experience. For instance, strabismus (exotropia and esotropia pictured below) and lazy eye.

Even if you don't have a commodity such as a scripted eyeball, you can accomplish the same goal with a regular counterpart. You only need to manually rotate each prim until you reach the deviation you wish to register. So in that respect, you don't specifically need Endeavor eyes to visit the orthoptist. Small shops such as J&S also offer prim eyes for less money (99L for a pair of layer and prim eyes), though they're not so well stocked. Basically, J&S eyes are mutations of the same iris, only varying in hue. Though they don't display a well defined conjunctiva, they do show depth to accommodate some reality inside that skull cavity.

But to conclude this treatise in ocular conditions, let's talk about heterochromia, or having different colors in the two eyes. Though it is said to be uncommon in humans, we denizens of this virtual world, fond of sporting cat's tails and cow hoofs, are in no need of sticking to the natural trend. So wearing two different sets of prim eyes (one in each hole, please) may add to our repertoire of options.

Second Life should not be all about immaculate beauty. There's plenty of space for diversity and phenotypes.

Mono-toned

While I get in the mood to do another post about eyes (and I still have a lot of stores to include), let me spend some time adding the details of what I'm wearing right now... another black and white outfit... if you haven't guessed by now, hehe.

Here are the details, from head to toes:

Hair: Uncleweb Studio (Uw.st) - Al (black)
Vest: Sweetest Goodbye - Ok Go Wine + Black
Shirt: Sweetest Goodbye - Ok Go Black + Grey
Pants: Meriken Co. - Moire!!! (black)
Shoes: ROT - Polished Boots (black)

Right ear piercing: Cyanide - Methanol
Left ear piercing: Infernal - Diaberie Hoops (I don't know where the hell are this people now)
Nose Sticks: Primitive Design - Naughty
Mouth Piercing: Primitive Design - Sweet Sin
Bracelets: JHZ - Hi-Class

Tattoo: dEVOL - Crow Message to the Earth

This time, eyes are from MADesigns (new Intense eyes), skin is from Belleza, Miguel line (as usual), and shape is my own.

Avatar Rendering Cost:  983.

Eyescapade

So I wanted to review eyes. I didn't know why... but I guess it has something to do with those new eye collections recently introduced by various designers, and by the fact that I rarely change that part of me (I'm talking about the eyes, ok?). I have dozens of everything else, yet I only use a couple of those chromatic balls. Why's so?

I think I've been using the same pair of eyes for over a year+ now, without feeling any significant urge to try something different. After all, we only have a pair of eyes, don't we? (not counting contact lenses, come on...). Yet, it is evident that the ones I've been wearing for so long are showing their age. While the rest of the world bear peepers with some 3D look, including reddish veins and conjunctivitis (yep, we'll talk about that later), my iris has been floating on a perfectly white sclera that more than once has scared the hell out of me. I mean, why does that ball has to be so plain and bright? It almost glows in the dark...

Well, I guess I got tired of my bleached eyes and decided to try something new and up to current trends in iris design. So yesterday I went eye scouting and visited several shops that have them for sale. Unfortunately demo eyes are not as common as demo hair --yes, they are there, but usually the samples aren't particularly the best of the crop. Only one store had demo eyes of their newest line (Endeavor). I think that's very convenient, since the pictures on display rarely present what the eyes will look like on you because light conditions vary a lot from place to place. So it is a big plus if you can try them under different settings before buying.

Given that almost no other store had demo eyes, it means I had to buy at least a pair from every shop that had something appealing. That imposed some limitations as to what to include in this review:

• I only chose natural looking eyes because those would be the ones I might wear regularly. This limitation corresponds to one trivial thing already expressed: I'm paying for what I'm reviewing. Therefore, since I have a limited amount of cash, I better get items that could be regarded as money well spent, instead of getting cool oculi that would seldom see any use.
  
• I only picked up single units. There are several shops carrying attractive eye collections, but they only offer them bundled for one price.  That is the case of FNKY!, for example. They have eight sets of eyes, most of them very good looking, yet you have to buy the whole package even if you're only interested in one color. It isn't that bad if you consider each set sells for 500L  (that's as low as 23L per item), but at least I know I would be trashing half of them right away (all those red, purple, peach, orange and in-between shades). Other shops usually sell sets for well over 1200L, not a practical choice for me. But if you're into modeling, sets would be a smart option.

For the photos, I'm wearing a darker skin (Belleza's Mathieu - Tan) and a new shape I made with eyes a little bit more open to enhance contrast and have more iris exposed.

To begin with, let's go to Miriel. I have two reasons for picking her first, the most important one being that designer Miriel Enfield is going out of business in the next few weeks as stated in her own blog just today (read), so her eyes will be a thing of the past once that happens. She doesn't say why she's closing down her beautiful sims, but if you want any of her products, better hurry up before it's too late. The second reason is that these have been the eyes I've been wearing for months uninterrupted. I lost my newbie eyes to Miriel, so to speak. They were (and still are) so bright and vivid that I couldn't resist their gaze. I'm also fond of eyes with mixed colors, so the Midnight Sun (below) have become part of my identity. The second ones are the Duotone Summer Wood.

The only aspect I don't like that much in these eyes are the plain sclera (the white orb) --as I've said before--, but other than that, they are lovely. Miriel's Eyes come in two sizes: Normal (pictured above) and Standard (below), which go to the large side. At the time of purchase you have to select which ones you want, since they are sold separately (50L for a pair).

There's also a great set of some 19 or 20 free eyes at Miriel's main store, both normal and standard; same high quality as the non-free versions.

When I decided to write this short review on eyes (hell that sounded as Disney on ice...) I asked a few friends who were their favorite eye designers. Among the most frequent replies was Tuli, so I head there next to see what the fuse was all about. And I think it's the price. Tuli's eyes are also 50L, a pretty low price in the iris market. Photographed are Steel eyes, from the Luminous collection.

A favorite among female skin wearers, Tuli Asturias' collection is not so extensive as her flesh offerings: only four lines of four eyes each. What strikes me most about these eyes is that they are marble-lous: they look like polished marble, that is. That makes them less shiny than other eyes, or kind of soft or even dull. Nevertheless, they are also among "people's most wanted" because they have a life-like blood vessels area making a distinctive conjunctiva (I guess that's a plus for photography). Some people find the veins a little bit too conspicuous; I say they're more like a little bit inflamed, but well, allergies should also have their presence in SL to make this virtual world more real, isn't it? But then, the veins, coupled with a normal iris and a small pupil makes them one of the most anatomically complete eyes in Second Life. If they were more lustrous while keeping the 50L tag, they would be marvelous.

Tuli's fans should also consider visiting Mojo Real Eyes. This little shop offers normal size eyes with well defined conjunctiva... sans conjunctivitis. Price is higher, at 79L for a regular pair (with light, they called them), or 179L for two variants: the same one in the regular package, and another pair named "without light", to be used in conjunction with a "something something" device (included) designed to produce six different light effects. That may be perfect for photography, but for everyday use, the regular variant is the way to go.

Mojo's motto is "The best eyes in SL". From my point of view they are pretty close to that deed. Italian haute couture has always been esteemed among the best of the world. I'm sure these eyes are also another example of that "padronanza".

More on eyes soon, so stay tuned...