Sunday, January 14, 2018

Innovative Products Of The Year

We are starting a new year with 2018 and looking back at all the products and destinations we have featured on our Innovative Product & Places Board (Located in the lobby of ISL Headquarters).
Each month our team finds the most innovative products and exciting destinations and feature them on the board with an LM or link to the places or products and added information.  We went through all of our choices from this past year and BBX Designs had more entries than any other designer.
We have written our praises on the talented creator, Aymec Millet many times in the past 5 years for the luxury yachts, clubs, homes and water vehicles because of the extreme attention to detail, high quality furnishing and animations and the high resolution textures.
We were really enjoying our cruise on the extravagant Queen Luxury Yacht by BBX (and still think it is the best luxury yacht in SL!) When they introduced the Dream House and we were blown away.
One of our favorite features with the BBX Designs' houses and clubs is the surrounding landscape with lawns, sidewalks, docks, etc. that makes it easy to blend the structure into your sim or in most cases even use it as a floating island.  Also the added vehicles such as boats, jet skies, cars and helicopters are outstanding bonuses.
THE DREAM HOUSE is a fully loaded mesh home that includes a one click day/night change system. Top quality furniture with HQ animations throughout and decorations.  Each object features precise lights & shadowing for that realistic effect. The Dream House comes with dozens of amenities such as the large living room with fireplace and high quality furnishings with great animations, Full kitchen with running water and animations, Bathroom with working showers and items like shampoo and perfumes, a library area, dining room with animated dining table and drink and food rezzer, Jacuzzi, large indoor swimming pool, fully stocked bar, spacious bedrooms and much more.
The exterior of the Dream home includes a large garage, yard with winding sidewalk that takes you to the dock and a helicopter pad. 
The house comes with a luxury yacht, speed boats, jet skies, a sports car and helicopter.  5 total vehicles that are drivable and very high quality with great details.  They come with a rezzer for temporary use or you can rez them and leave them.
You will appreciate all the thought that went into the Dream House and all the details like working blinds and curtains, running water on all faucets and steam, lighting effects, a great security system and of course the awesome couple and single animations throughout.
The Dream House by BBX is our choice for the most innovative product of 2017.



A close second place was the LUMIPro 2017.  The best photography tool and HUD in SL. LUMIPro is a HUD worn by the photographer that controls all aspects of lights worn by the model or yourself.  The photographer can adjust position, color, radius, etc.  You can use it no rez sims!  The built in posing system controls ten models independently and again, without the need to rez for pose stands.  It contains both projectors for perfect shadows and the best eye management system on SL as well as a camera and scene management system.  It come with 121 pose/positions.  LUMIPro is the
first available lighting system to use projection prim capability.  Since it's introduction, the LUMIro has changed photography in SL and is now a top seller.  Plus, Free updates!  They are always improving and adding to the LUMIPro so this is the only photography tool you will ever need.




Toys For Tots-Our biggest year yet!

Our annual Toys For Tots drive was a huge success!  A big thank you to all the businesses, stores and clubs who participated.  Our team hit the streets in early November to distribute the official Toys For Tots kiosks and we are happy to report that everyone we approached not only accepted the challenge but exceeded way beyond our expectations.  It was a close race but the winner of our grand prize was Jason Amoit, who's sim wide events collected the most amount of donations.  We nearly doubled last years totals which proves that Second Life residents are the most caring and generous people in the meta-verse!  Because of you, thousands of deserving children were able to experience a very merry Christmas.  You all rock!

Friday, January 12, 2018

2018 A New Year!

A few months ago, ISL group lost a valuable member.  Eliza Blackburn's passing was devastating to us all and we halted production both in-world and online for the past few month's.  We know Eliza would have wanted us move forward with our group endeavors and charity work so we have had meetings to discuss this new year.
Thank you to everyone for your patience and kindness and we have many great things planned for 2018.  RFL and Rock Your Rack events, highlights on some of the new and exciting features in SL and our annual fashion and media awards.
Stay tuned for a great upcoming year!

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Happy Independence Day America!

Celebrate Independence Day and participate in a good cause at the same time at the 4th Of July Street Fair RFL Event sponsored by the Old World Artisan Guild.  The beautiful old world style sim has shops and booths from over 50 designers and creators with gatchas, free gifts and more.
Mokihana/137/110/0

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

12TH ANNUAL SECOND PRIDE FESTIVAL 2017

The Second Pride festival is going on now through July 2nd celebrating gay pride in the Second Life community.  This is the 12th year for this worthy event.  Don't miss the awesome party with live performances, rocking DJ's and tons of activities.  There are amusement rides, a Japanese Garden, shopping and much more.  See the full schedule here:
http://second-pride.com/

Come show your pride or come support the LGBT community and celebrate diversity.














Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Making Money In Second Life For Beginners

Several months ago, our team wrote a complete guide to making money in SL with suggestions for making pocket change or SL shopping money to earning enough Lindens to cash out and pay a few real life bills.  I received a message from a new resident who had read the blog.

     "Hi, I read your blog about making money in Second Life and followed the instructions about
 starting off working in a club as a host or dancer/stripper.  No one would hire me because I look like
"A noob".  I shopped at freebie places to find skins, hair and clothes but still it was not good enough. I can not use any real life money to buy the new avatars and accessories so I have to earn it in SL, yet I can't get hired anywhere without an updated avatar with expensive mesh body, skin, hair and clothes.  How can a newbie earn money to buy a new avatar if no one will hire a noob?"

That's a great question. 

If you are just starting out in SL and can't or do not want to buy lindens with a credit card or paypal, there are several things you can do to earn and save enough money to buy a nice looking avatar.  None of these will give you a lot of money quickly but with patience, you can earn enough to buy a nice mesh body, skin and hair in time.

Money Tree's:
This is great for all new residents in SL since you must be under 60 days old to earn $L's from a Money Tree.  Find money tree locations and wait for it to "bare fruit" and get paid. (Note: There are not many money tree's left in SL so if you use search and type in money tree, you may get locations that no longer have one.)

Earn2Life:
  The E2L Network is easy but time consuming.  You complete online surveys and web offer's and get paid $30-$350L.  They also have Pay4Visit offer's.  You visit select places in Second Life and stay there awhile and get paid through their HUD into your SL balance.  This is a good way to explore SL and get paid doing it.  Also, Pay4Picks.  You put a place in your "picks" on your profile and get paid after it has been there for 30 days.  Sign up to E2L and begin earning today.
http://www.e2l-net.com/

Gold Hunt:
  You go to select sims or a Gold Rush Event and hunt for gold coins .  You get a free Land Finder Hud on SL Marketplace here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Linden-Gold-Hunter-HUD-Earn-Linden-by-hunting-for-coins/2265556
There is also an online Gold Hunt Lands List.  Search and find gold coins then go to the Gold Tokens ATM machine and cash out.  For more information visit their website here:
http://www.goldtokens.net/games/gold-hunt

Fishing:
There are several different fishing games that you can earn lindens.  One is the "Fish Hunting Game".
Go to one of the many sims hosting a Fish Hunt buoy and start fishing and earning lindens.  Get a free starter fishing pole and worms here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Linden-Fish-Hunter-Beginner-Rod-Yellow-Earn-Linden-by-hunting-for-fish/2617200
This a progressive game. The more you fish the more earn.
Find more information on their website here: http://www.goldtokens.net/
"Virtual Fishing" is another fishing game that earns lindens.  You can wear a HUD for locations or get them from the website.  This fishing game earns less than the Fish Hunting Game by GoldTokens but you can earn around $5L at each buoy.  Get your free Virtual Fishing Kit here:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Virtual-Fishing-Kit-v22/6020807
"SuperFish" is another fishing game that earn lindens.  You are limited to 30 casts per locations and the average earnings for each location is $10L.  Get your free SuperFish Rod and HUD Kit here:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/SuperFish-Rod-HUD-Pack/7481949

Magic Crystals:
This is an easy way to earn Lindens but a little time consuming.  Find the crystals locations then click on a crystal.  It will start count down, Say 225 Seconds.  Stand next to the crystal and after the 225 seconds, the lindens will be paid directly into your account.  Get your free HUD here:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/MAGIC-CRYSTALS-MONEY-HUD-Earn-Lindens-playing/3809599

Gold Piggy Hunters:
Find a location with a gold piggy here: http://www.goldpiggyhunters.co.uk/goldpiggyhunters/locations.aspx
Click the gold piggy and wait 5 minutes and earn $1L, then you will get a suggestion for the next Gold Piggy location.  If you have time to spare, you can earn around $10L per hour.




Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Basic Building in Second Life - Easy Step By Step Instructions PT. 1

When I first started Second Life I went through the steps on Help Island to learn how to edit items, and what the red, green and white tiny squares and arrows did, etc.  I wanted to learn to build and purchased a book online called "Second Life: A guide To Your Virtual World."  It was a good book and has helped many creators learn to build but I am a hands on learner.  I needed to be instructed step by step.  What I needed was a "Building In Second Life For Dummy's".  Then I met someone who was willing to teach me.  She made it easy by not assuming that I already knew terminology or even the basics.  I have returned this favor with many residents through the years.  Recently, I had someone ask me if I could write these instructions on a notecard that she could read and learn on her time frame.  So I am putting these instructions on the blog to hopefully help others.

Beginning Basic's:
You must be on land that you can create objects or a sandbox. (A sandbox is a public sim or parcel that anyone can build or rez items.  Just search "Sandbox" and choose one.  If it's too crowded then teleport to another.)
*Please note that menu's may differ slightly from the picture I have depending on your viewer.

1. Point your cursor to a spot on the ground and right-click.  You will get a pie chart, choose "Create".  A menu will appear and you’ll see some geometric shapes that you can use to create.


For this lesson, click the box/cube shape then click the ground again and a prim box will appear.  The box will have a light wood texture.  Congratulations, you just made a prim box! 
Now right click the box and the pie chart will appear again.  This time choose "Edit". You will see Red, Blue and Green arrows.  These arrows allow you to move the object to the left, right, up and down.  You will also have the long gray dialog box with tabs that say General, Object, Features, Texture and Content. In the General tab write something like "First Box" in the name slot, then click the "Object" tab.  This tab is the one you will use for most of your basic building.

Below the Features and Texture tabs, you see the word "Box" this is the shape of the object you are editing. Touch the arrow next to the word "Box" and you will get a drop down menu with different shapes. Scroll down to "Sphere" and click on it.  See what happens?  The box is now a ball shape.  Now select Box again and its back to the cube shape.  On the Object tab you will also see "Positions (Meters)  this will become important when you learn advanced building.  SL uses the metric system for measurements.  The position values tell you where the center of the object is relative to the basepoint of the sim you are on. The X increases as you move from west to east, the Y from south to north, and the Z from down to up. Below that is Size.  The box default size is .05 or .25 meters. We will discuss that in part 2 of this building lesson.
Now back to your box.  You want to make it bigger. While still in edit mode press Shift and CTRL at the same time.  The arrows are now small box shapes in red, blue, green and white.  Click on the blue square and while still holding Shift & CTRL left click and hold it down also, now only the blue square shows up.  Drag the blue square up or down.  See what happens?  You made it shorter and taller.  Also the value increased and decreased in the Position and Size dialog box.  Bring it back to it's original size and lets try the green square the same way, this will allow you to stretch the box from the left side or right side.  Try the blue square pulling it towards you or away from you.  As you can see pushing the blue square flattens the box like a poster or picture.  Now try the white squares.  As you can see this keeps the box's shape but makes it larger.  For this lesson, make the box larger to about 1.17500 x 1.17500 (Does not have to be exact for this lesson).
Congratulations.  You can now stretch and resize.
Now we will texture the box.  While still in edit mode go to the Texture tab.  You will see the color is the default white and the texture is the default like wood.  Put your cursor on the white rectangle and push.  A color chart will pop up.  Choose the dark red then click "ok".  Now your box is red and so is the rectangle under color on the menu.  Press the rectangle again and when the color chart pops up choose the dark blue now your box is blue.  Touch the rectangle again and choose the white color from the chart and your box is back to the default light wood.  Now below the color is Texture with a square that has the light wood.  Put your cursor on that square and press.  Now your inventory shows up on a side menu that says Pick:Texture at the top.  For this lesson we will be using a texture from your SL library.  Scroll down to Library and choose from the Fabric folder.  Choose Fabric - Zebra Skin, then "ok".  Now your box has a zebra fur texture.  Notice the square on the dialog box under "Texture" also has the Zebra texture.
Congratulations, you now have a zebra skin box!



Set the box aside for now and we will begin lesson 2.
Point at the ground and right click and choose "Create" again from the pie chart only this time choose the sphere shape then click the ground.  You now have a ball with the default light wood texture.  Let's texture the ball.  Repeat the steps above but this time let's choose "Fabric - Basketweave from the library fabrics folder and click "ok".  Now click the color and choose a light blue color and click ok.  It should look something like the pictures below:


Now we are going to take this ball and make a bowl. Click the objects tab again.  You see the shapes dialog box now says "Sphere".  Below that is "Cut Path" and below that is "Hollow" with up and down arrows.  Click the "up" arrow and keep pressing it until the dialog box says 95.0000.  What happened was the ball is no longer solid, now it's hollow.  Now go up to the Cut Path arrows and press the "Up" button until it reads 0.5000.  This should have cut the sphere in half.  Now open your inventory tab and go down to Library, scroll down to Misc Textures folder and find "Blue Plasma"
Drag that texture to the inside of your bowl.  Now it should look like the picture below.


We want our bowl to be more shallow, so right click, choose edit from the pie chart and while holding Shift and CTRL and left click to get the little stretch squares and drag the blue square down until your bowl is the depth you want.  Congratulations, you just made a bowl.

Now we will do a little more advanced building with your zebra skin box.
Right click on your box and choose edit again from the pie chart.  We are going to duplicate the box so that we have two zebra boxes exactly the same.  While holding down the Shift button, left click on the blue arrow and drag it up.  This will copy the zebra box.  Now you should have two zebra boxes.

We ant to flatten the top box. Hold Shift and CTRL buttons down to get the red, green and blue little squares again that we use to stretch.  Click the top blue square and drag it all the way down until the box is flat.


Now edit the bottom box and hollow it like you did the sphere. In the objects tab, on the "Hollow" dialog box, click the "up" arrow and keep pressing it until the dialog box says 95.0000.  Now your box is hollow but you notice that it doesn't have a top or bottom.



Move the flat box down into the hollow box so that your box now has a bottom, you will need to make the bottom a little smaller so it doesn't poke out of the box.  Right click the flat bottom and move the red and green stretch squares in a little until the edges no longer show on the outside of your box.  Now you need to link the bottom and the box together.  Right click and edit the flat bottom piece.  Hold down the Shift key and move your cursor to your hollowed box and while still holding the Shift key, left click the box.  Now look at your grey menu box and you will see the Link and Unlink buttons, choose "Link".  Now your box and bottom are linked together so if you move itor take it into your inventory and rez it out again, it will stay together.  You notice that your one prim box is now two prims.  Congratulations, you just made a opened box.



Now we will make a snowman : )
Right click the ground and choose create, choose the sphere shape and touch the ground again.  Now you have another ball shape.  Open the texture tab and press the texture box on the dialog menu, choose from the Library file, Primitive Island - Snow1.  Now let make our snow ball a little larger by holding down the Shift & CTRL keys at the same time and dragging the little white square out a little.  Now your snowball is slightly larger.  We want to duplicate/copy this snowball so that we have 3 of them.  Hold the Shift key, put your cursor on the blue arrow and left click and drag up then repeat.  You should now have 3 snowballs as pictured below.


Now we want to resize the snowballs so that the one on the bottom is larger, the one in the middle a little smaller and the one on the top a little smaller than the middle one. Right click and drag the little white squares in or out to resize the snowballs.  Now stack the snowballs on top of each other to the way you want your snowman to look.  Edit the bottom one, hold shift, then move your cursor to the second ball while still holding Shift, left click it then the same with the top snowball and in your dialog menu choose "Link".  Now all 3 snowballs should be linked together.



Now we want to make a face and buttons for our snowman.  For the eyes, mouth and buttons, create another ball shape, color it black (Open texture tab, click on the color rectangle and choose black then ok) Then copy/duplicate that ball until you have 9 black spheres.  Resize them to make them small enough to make eyes, a mouth and buttons and move 2 of them to the top snowball to where you want the eyes.  Now link the eyes to the snowman using the steps above.
Now we want to make the carrot nose. Choose create from the pie chart and choose the cone shape.  Color it orange from the color chart and stretch the cone to make a long carrot looking nose.  Move the carrot nose to the face and place it where you want it.  Link it to the snowballs and eyes already linked.  Now move 4 of the black spheres to form the mouth and three of them down the middle ball for buttons and link them all together.  If done right your snowman should be 13 prims all together and look like the photo below.




If you have gone this far then you may want to make a hat for your snowman.  Create another shape only this time use the Cylinder shape.  Color it black and copy/duplicate it until you have 2.  Resize the bottom one to make it larger then flatten it like you did the box bottom.  This makes the hats rim.  Position the other black cylinder shape in the middle of the flattened rim and link them together.  Drag it up to the top of your snowman's head.  If you need to resize the rim or the hat top to fit your snowman better, you need to edit the linked parts.  To do this, right click the hat and in your grey menu box, check "Edit Linked" then touch the part of the hat you want to resize then hold Shift and CTRL down at the same time and drag the little white square to make that part of the hat larger or smaller.  When you get the hat just right, uncheck the Edit Linked.  Now link your hat to the rest of your snowman.  Congratulations!  You just made a snowman!



Now you have learned to create shapes, stretch the shapes, hollow the shapes, cut the shapes in half, color and texture your shapes and link them together.  Practice with different shapes and don't be afraid to experiment with the different tools.  You can always delete it and start over.  Make a habit of making a copy of all parts you create and have fun!

I will be publishing more advanced building tutorials in the future including more shape manipulation, sculpts, scripts and advanced texturing so stay tuned.