Happy Accident – Trippy Signage

 Blog, MV-SL-General, Show and Tell  6 Responses »
Apr 262010
 

Late this week, I was experimenting with figuring out alpha sorting on Sculpted Prims, when I happened across a very strange phenomenon.  The product looks something like Lenticular printing, where the image changes depending on the angle that you view it at.

The effect is more intriguing in world.  You can see a nice big wall-size display at my mall space in Midgar (click here to teleport).  My spot is directly up the stairs on the left.  Just alt cam or walk back and forth and you’ll see what it does.

So how did this happen?  It has to do with alpha sorting and how it applies to sculpted prims.

When two surfaces with alpha channels overlap, Second Life (or any other game platform) has to determine which surface belongs on top.  The builder usually hopes that whichever surface is physically closer to the camera will always be on top, but for Second Life and other gaming programs, determining what’s on top isn’t always straight forward.  When SL can’t figure it out, we get the phenomenon often called “Alpha Clipping.”

So it happens that I was trying to figure out more about alpha sorting and how it relates to sculpted prims, because unlike most other prim types, sculpted prims can overlap themselves, so I was wondering how SL sorted an alpha channel on a single sculpted prim.  From previous experience with sculpted prims, I hypothesized that faces on a sculptie that were defined by pixels at the top of a sculpt map would be alpha sorted in front of faces defined by the bottom of the sculpt map.  So:

To test this, I created a plane sculptie, folded accordion style from back to front, then in SL, I placed an alphabet grid texture on the prim and set the transparency to 5.  As predicted, the faces at the top of the sculptie (letters a-d) were always sorted before those at the bottom (m-p).

So I got that one right.  Top pixels always show up in front of the bottom pixels on a sculpt map.  Now what I didn’t know was which pixels, from left to right, does SL put on top.  So I rotated the sculpt map by 90 degrees (I rotated the image in Photoshop, NOT the mesh in Blender.  Rotating the mesh in Blender would do nothing, as it’s the position of the pixels on the image that matters.  The position of the vertices in 3D space makes no difference.)

I had predicted, purely from logic, that SL would sort the pixels on the left above the pixels on the right.  But I was wrong. Instead of cleanly sorting the surfaces of the accordion, SL did something weird.  As you can see on the image above, on the left side of the sculptie, the front of the sculptie is sorted on front, but on the right side, the BACK is sorted in front, and in the middle there are these lines like a set of blinds.  When you cam from left to right, the lines in the middle move, so if you are looking at it from one side or the other, either the back or front image will be completely visible.

The effect reminded me of those pictures that change depending on what angle you view them at, so I figured I’d make something like that.  I made an M shape sculptie, which allows for images on both sides of the prim, and I also made an N, which only has the effect on one side, but allows for higher-quality images.

I’m not sure if there’s any practical application for this other than the “Ooo SHINY” factor, but its kinda cool anyway. I was thinking of selling some sort of kit with the sculpties and a texture with guides so people could make their own trippy signage, but like.. Idunno.  I’m really not sure how many people would WANT that.  xD

Photography in Second Life

 Blog, Show and Tell  6 Responses »
Mar 252010
 

This week, for the first time, I decided to try doing some photography tricks in Second Life.  I’ve done SOME photography before, of course, but it’s mostly been with default lightning and maybe a few local lights.  However, I found a few photos on Flickr featuring one of my outfits that got me thinking. (Here’s a link.)

I think I’ll still use default settings for my vendor images, so people see exactly what they’re getting, but being able to show off my work in a more romantic atmosphere intrigued me, so I tried to do some of my own:

This was the first photo I did, of the same character as the photos on Flikr.  I was using the Emerald Viewer since it has more windlight settings.  I took a few photos with some of those settings, but to get this photo, I actually created my own windlight settings to wash out the background and lose some of the edges on her arm (which is fun).

I showed it to a few people, and a good number of them had to look at it twice to realize that it was my avatar and not the official game model.  I thought that was a pretty good compliment.

So anyway, I decided to try it out with a few of my other avatars and make some promo posters to set up in my store.

The only thing I did in Photoshop to any of these was add the logo.  Everthing else was done entirely with Second Life’s windlight and anti-aliasing.

Of course, that means the image with the three Cloud Strifes was done with the help of a couple friends in someone else’s back yard.  <_< But after I finished and uploaded all of the promos to show them off, one of those friends was so impressed by the photography that he decided to buy two of the avatars.

I’ve also set the images up in my store along with a cleaner vendor layout, and my sales SEEM to have increased, but it’s hard to tell since it’s only been a few days, and you might attribute the increased sales as a result of the store redesign and not solely the photos.

But don’t underestimate the power of good photography!  There’s no better way to market your products than by having nice, clear images of your work.

Why I don’t take commissions in Second Life.

 Blog, Business  14 Responses »
Mar 232010
 

Only months after I first started building in SL, I got my first request for custom work.  Someone wanted uniforms for a military in their roleplay group.  They would pay me L$3000, and in return I would give them a full-permission copy to distribute while I would never sell the uniform to anyone else. Call me naive, eager to please, or just easily impressed by a number as ‘large’ as 3000.  Whatever the case, I took the job.

This was my first experience with working for peanuts.

After about a month’s worth of building with a hawk watching over my shoulder, I finished and vowed never to do that again.  But then someone else told me they would pay L$3000 for a custom avatar.  They still didn’t want me to resell, but they didn’t want full permissions.  For some reason, this seemed like a much better deal, even though the job took me just as long to finish.

A long story short, the last two custom commissions that I took were over two years ago.  The client paid $75 US for each.  After that I have refused to take on any more commissions in Second Life.  Why?

Because $75 US for a full, custom outfit is still peanuts.

Doing the Math

If I’m working at a good pace, it will take me a week to sculpt up the pieces for a full outfit and fit them, and then another week to texture everything.  This is if I’m working roughly 12-hour days, 5 to 6 days a week.  Different outfits take different time-spans, but for the sake of this post, lets say that on average, I work about 120 hours on a single outfit.  (This is probably an underestimate.)

Minimum wage in the United States is currently $7.25.

So if I was to charge minimum wage to create a custom full outfit, I would have to charge over $800 US.

Now the catch is, that’s MINIMUM wage.  No one who does commission work charges minimum wage.  They charge more.  An illustrator might get paid $500 US for a single magazine spot that might have taken him about 10 hours to do.  That’s $50 an hour.  And what’s more?  They keep the copyright for the image.  They’re only selling the license to use it, and if someone else comes by and says “Hey, we’ll pay you $600 if we can use that illustration you did,” the artist can sell the license again!

The reason they charge as much as they do?  Because they HAVE to in order to survive.  They aren’t creating art for pay all the time.  They also have to promote their work, talk to clients, do paperwork, PLUS they’re self-employed which means they have to pay a larger percentage of their income on taxes than people who are employed by a company.

Translating to Second Life

I’m not saying that Second Life builders should charge $500 to create something for someone while retaining the right to resell.  That’s silly.  The reason Illustrators do it is they may only sell the license one or two times per illustration.

But the idea is still this: Whether it’s Second Life or real life, the talent and the time is still the same.  I still have to take time to promote my store, to talk to customers, to make updates, to write up these tutorials and so much more.  And I’m still self-employed, which means a nice chunk of my income goes to taxes.  Then on top of that there’s paying for the sim, a premium SL account, mall spaces, etc.

The only thing that’s different between RL business and SL business is the economy.  Second Life is a micro-economy.  A thousand Linden dollars is less than $4 US in the Exchange.  On the flip-side, $1000 US is about L$259000. To expect someone to pay $1000 US for a custom outfit is unreasonable from a Second Life perspective, but to work for any less than that is unreasonable from a real life perspective.

So my solution is to simply not accept custom commissions.

Statistics Specific to Me

In the first month of sales, my latest avatar sold 86 times at my top two in-world locations, bringing in L$94600 (about $365 US). (Update: March and April sales were both over L$100,000 for this avatar.)  While the sales per month will probably decline eventually, she will still sell.  Last month, the other four avatars in my ‘top sellers’ brought in about L$15-20,000 ($58-78 US) a piece, and they are fairly consistent from month to month.

I don’t post this information to brag.  I’m sure there are plenty of other people on SL who make the same sort of money or more, and while I consider myself skilled, I don’t think I’m that special.  I only give you this information to bring home the point that on Second Life it makes more financial sense for a builder to spend their time working on things they can resell than in doing custom commissions.

This is why I do not take them.  No matter how sweet a person you are or how awesome your design may be, I CANNOT take on custom commissions and still survive as a business person in Second Life.

The Sculpt Blender Mission

 Blog  1 Response »
Mar 212010
 


The basic mission of this site is, of course, to help people learn how to make sculpted prims for Second Life and other SL-like grids.  But more than that, I want to inspire people to push themselves, to expand their knowledge and experience beyond the instructions given on this site.

Don’t just read the tutorials.  And don’t just follow everything I do step-by-step.  That’s not the best way to read these tutorials or ANY tutorial.  If I could give any advice to help people get the most out of this site, it would be this:

First: The best students are those who don’t quite believe their teachers.  I’m not perfect.  I’ve made mistakes in previous versions of my tutorials, and I may STILL make mistakes on the current ones.  If you think you see a better way to do something, TRY IT.

Second: Use reference and gather inspiration.  I am not saying that you should copy things, but even the best artists will look at the interesting shapes of trees before drawing trees, or look for the essential qualities of the texture of a pear.  Did you know that zipper teeth have different shapes depending on the material they’re made from?  What’s the difference between the weave of the fabric on your shirt and on the fabric on your blue jeans?  What does the leather of your shoe look like up close?  How does it look far away?  Do you know off the top of your head?  Did you think to look?

Third: You have not reached your full potential.  You never will.  I never will.  But we can get closer to it if we work diligently at improving our skills. The joy that an artist has in his or her work has less to do with the finished product and more to do with the process.  While the finished product does give a sense of fulfillment, the real joy comes from the doing.  We are constantly learning, constantly exploring our own style and potential.  Perfection is an ever-elusive goal, and even if, by some miracle, we were to achieve it, I believe any artist would soon abandon it to look for a new form of perfection, for there are many.

Fourth: Measure yourself against those who are better than you.  This doesn’t mean you should belittle yourself for not being ‘good enough,’ but you gain nothing by praising yourself for being better than someone with less skill.  Instead, look to those who are better and praise yourself when you reach the next level, then pick a new target and get back to work.

Fifth: There are limitations with sculpties and Second Life.  Certain things cannot be done.  But every limitation has a work-around.  The work-around may not be perfect, and you may not find the best solution the first time around.  If necessity is the mother of invention, then limitation is its father.

Sixth: People are doing new things with sculpties every day.  I don’t know everything.  You may know even less, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t learn something that I don’t know yet.  There are endless possibilities, endless opportunities, but the only way you’ll have a chance at them is to A) actively do things that will make those opportunities more likely (ei: experiment) and B) keep your eyes open for things that you didn’t see before.

Seventh:  Be professional.  There will be times where you get some harsh, and even rude criticism.  There will be people that you disagree with.  Things will happen which seem unfair.  But don’t be rude back,  don’t send nasty notecards and IMs, and don’t gripe.  To quote a very wise man, “There is no situation in life so bad that complaining about it won’t make it worse.”

Am I sounding preachy yet?  I apologize.  But really, the key to becoming an amazing sculpty artist is not just a matter of gaining skill.  It’s about changing your entire mindset and becoming a professional, creative, and inventive craftsman.