Month: November 2009

queenbrat

help my inventory please!!

   I really need to spend a lot of time working on my inventory in SL. Every time I start working on it someone interrupts me or I remember something I need to do. I am up to over 69,000 things. I don’t think I will ever again be one of those under 20,000 in inventory people but am hoping to reduce it by say 10,000. Most of all I just need to organize more. I haven’t had time to work on organizing outfits into folders. I also bought inventory storage boxes but never used them. It really is a lot of work. I used to do a lot of hunts and my inventory exploded and then I started modelling. Well, all models know we need a lot of stuff for modelling. So I now have a ton of gowns, other clothing, accessories, poses,etc. I don’t even want to think about how much money it cost.

QueenBrat modelling my new gown

    Above is me modelling my new gown on the House of Beningborough runway. I love this gown. I love purple. I’ve been wanting this gown for a while so I finally just bought it. This gown is called Confetti.

   In my next post I will include my interview I had to do as part of MRI Challenge #3. It was a fun challenge. The hardest part was deciding who to ask to interview me. SL friends are so great. Always there to help when you need it. Speaking of MRI, please don’t forget if you read this to vote for me please. http://wp.me/pyh5c-uw I have been shamelessly asking everyone I know and even people I don’t to vote for me. It means a lot to me. If you have time to vote thank you in advance.

queenbrat

my awesome day

oh my gosh that's me again

    Today was a great day for me. My hubby went out-of-town so I can stay online and play tonight. Just kidding, that’s not why it was great. Today was great because it was one of those few modelling days where everything went right. I competed in the Le Charme Fashion contest and made it through to the semi-finals. I was second actually out of the 8 of us which is not bad. I was chosen for the week for the JCNY Showcase and I was picked to be a finalist at House Of Beningborough for the November Model Awards. I was also looking around JCNY and found a second picture of me on the wall! I was shocked. There are two pictures of me on the wall now at the store. I had to take a picture of course lol. Who knows how long it will be there.

    I had show practice today and it went well. No lag for me, which is unusual. I didn’t have much of a lag problem when I competed either. That’s quite unusual. With 8 girls competing and an audience I expected more, but wasn’t too bad. I have found that closing out everything on my pc except SL in these situations and reducing my draw distance to 64 has helped tremendously. Out of all the tips that I posted last week, those 2 things are what works the best for me. I always restart SL too,but that’s a given.

   As I said before days like today are rare so I will enjoy it while I can and be thankful and grateful for every opportunity. Oh, and don’t forget if you read this to please vote for me in the MRI competition. TY http://wp.me/pyh5c-uw

queenbrat

How to get the best lighting

   In real life, professional photographers and models know that things like whitefill reflectors are flattering for people, and take advantage of this in their photo shoots.

   Advances made in SL graphics allow residents to have their own ‘whitefill’ without having to use a face light.  Follow the steps below so that you can get optimized lighting conditions, too.  These tips are all over SL so not sure where they came from and can  have some slight variations. Once you enter these settings, play with it until you achieve the best look and are happy. If you are like me, you don’t like the ugly gray shadows. See your avatar the way it was meant to be seen!

1.  Open your Environmental Editor.
(Menu bar > World > Environment Settings > Environmental Editor)

2.  Go to Advanced Sky settings.
3.  Click the New button.  Type in Nicelight or whatever you want to call it and click OK to save your new lighting preset.

4.  In your new  preset, go to the Atmosphere tab.  Make the following changes on the sliders:

Blue Horizon:
R:  0.10
G:  0.32
B:  0.66
I:   0.66

Haze Horizon:  0.00

Blue Density:
R:  0.04
G:  0.04
B:  0.04
I:    0.04

Haze Density:  0.00

Density Multiplier:  0.19

Distance Multiplier:  27.0

Max Altitude:  1315

5.  Go to the Lighting tab.  Make the following changes on the sliders:

Sun/Moon Color:
R:  0.29
G:  0.28
B:  0.32
I:    0.32

Sun/Moon Position:  1.000

Ambient:
R:  1.00
G:  1.00
B:  1.00
I:    1.00

East Angle:  0.00

Sun Glow:
Focus:  0.17
Size:     1.75

Scene Gamma:  1.15

Star Brightness:  0.00
6.  Hit the Save button to save your new settings. That’s it! The light on your avatar should now appear even and smooth, making your avatar look its best!

queenbrat

MRI Challenge #3 and you go girl

    Well we got our assignment number 3. The last for the semi- finals. We have to get votes for our picture from last week. Our before/after Miss Refined picture on the MPI website. 100 votes for max points. So I’m not above shamelessly asking anyone who reads this to please vote for me. If you know anyone else who would vote, that’s great as well. 100 votes is a lot. The other task we can do is have a friend interview us and post it here. I will do that too and post it. Here is the link to vote for me.  http://wp.me/pyh5c-uw

  I’ve been looking at my schedule for the next few weeks. It is going to be crazy. I have an average of 3 shows that I am in a week. I did 3 last week too. I love it though. Runway is still my favorite thing to do. Auditioning for a show and being chosen is always a thrill. Not to be arrogant, but I get picked the majority of the time I audition. But, whether I am picked or not I always give it my best. I can’t do more than that. 

   I was given a notecard on what to do about lag in a show. One of the suggestions was not to complain about it. I told the guy who sent out the tips that, thats not going to happen. I have no problem at all with another model saying wow lags bad or watch the lag, work the lag or anything else. Obviously if someone was complaining constantly it might get annoying, but that’s never been the case that I have seen. As I told this guy, women might complain but we root each other on, cheer for each other. That’s a bonding experience. That’s being a team for women. We give each other pep talks. We don’t talk about it killing morale to mention an issue. I don’t think that talking lag is a contagion that spoils the whole show like this guy told me. We know lag is a part of shows. I don’t think people blame their performance problems on lag when it isn’t true. I know lag does crazy stuff sometimes, so I would never think someone was faking it. I think guys can learn from us girls. Don’t worry, we will cheer you on too.

queenbrat

photography vs model looks

 
QueenBrat HOB entry
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
QueenBrat HOB entry
  •  Today was a slow day for me. I worked at JCNY and HOB like usual, but I didn’t have to rush to rehearsals and shows. I took some pictures for my entry into HOB this week. My own pictures. Two of my pictures are above. I love taking pictures and once I learn how to use Photoshop they will be better. I can add text in Photoshop but that is about it. I wanted to take a class that’s starting this week but because I am in so many shows over the next few weeks I can’t do it. Some of my friends routinely make their own backgrounds and they are amazing.  But, Photoshop or not I keep trying. Often some contests in SL are about how amazing the photographer is and not about the models. If you want to hire the photographer that’s fine but to me, most contests should be about how the model looks. How attractive is the model. Do they style well and pick the right fashions?  But, I’m not running these contests and they can do what they like of course. I’ve seen pics from some great photographers and the model looked terrible. The purpose of the picture was about being artistic and not how the model looked.  I’ve seen  some great pictures too, of course. It’s all so subjective though. What I think looks terrible sometimes, other people love, and probably vice versa. We don’t all have to agree. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Mine happens to be right. Just Kidding.
queenbrat

marketing me

QueenBrat on the runway at JCNY

   Well here I am again on the JCNY runway right after our show today. It was laggy but went well. This beautiful gown was from our sponsor this week Miamai. This is the third week in a row I got a great gown. Gowns are my favorite things to wear. Probably because I can’t recall the last time in rl I wore a gown.  A customer told me once that I lived in the wrong place because I don’t wear gowns much. She was from NY and I am from the midwest. I agreed with her lol. 

    So I submitted my entry for MRI challenge 2. I am worried about it though because I have never in my life done anything marketing related and am not sure I was even in the ballpark. We had to create a 10 point marketing plan for our blog. This is all foreign to me. Two weeks ago I did my first blog and now I am trying to create a marketing plan for it. But the idea of basically marketing myself, marketing my blog which contains my thoughts, is not something I had ever thought about doing. It was an interesting challenge. I like challenges. Challenges are how we learn and grow. I won’t say it was fun though. Marketing is not fun to me. Which I hope isn’t insulting to business people. I don’t mean it to be insulting, it just isn’t for me. But I am sure there are things that interest me that other people would find uninteresting.   

    I was picked for the show where I wear the darker skins. I am excited. I love being in shows. I did 3 shows in 3 days this week. Fashion shows are my favorite modelling job. I was called a show hog by an agency owner once. I try to get into every show I can. I don’t see what is wrong with that. Does it upset other people? Maybe it does. I thought it was rude when he said that though. I would think most models try to do as much as they can. Agency owners should be happy that their models are out there and working and encouraging them.

queenbrat

race in SL

   I want to talk about something that’s probably a little controversial, race in SL. I went to an audition and the requirements were dark skins. I have no problem whatsoever with making my skin dark for a show. I’ve talked before about my willingness to change my avatar for a show so that the designer is happy. It doesn’t bother me to be dark or light or anything needed.  I was actually surprised that some people don’t want to do this. I don’t see the big deal. But, what’s worse to me is it seems fairly prejudicial to outright refuse to change. I know there are people who play SL from all ethnic backgrounds and I wonder how they feel about it. I don’t think prejudice is any more acceptable in SL than it is in rl. I’ve heard from people who felt others were prejudicial towards them. It just isn’t right. If we can’t make our skins dark for a few hours that just makes me sad. But to be prejudicial towards others in a game, in SL, makes me mad. We are all equals. My white avatar is not better than a black one. To me all are welcome on SL and all should be treated equally because the person behind the avatar, is just that, a real person with feelings. I know other ethnic groups face prejudice in their real lives and isn’t it sad they can’t even escape this in SL.

  So get your act together if you read this and are one of these people. We are all the same inside and there’s no excuse for prejudice. If people have another excuse for not changing their skins to dark I’d like to hear it. If it isn’t prejudice what is it then?

queenbrat

Lag in SL

   So, I was in a fashion show on Friday and Saturday and the lag for the show on Friday was terrible. For my last pose my avatar wouldn’t even turn around. The lag for the Saturday show wasn’t as bad just small delays.  Lag is present in every fashion show. Models just have to work around it, work through it and accept that it does odd things sometimes to you. Here are some well-known tips for reducing lag in SL. I realize this is a long post but there is a lot of good advice here. I can’t credit the originator of these tips as I have gotten them in many places in SL. Whoever originally did this list thank you. Some people have said it’s from Monica Balut, if so, thank you Monica.

1)  Clear Your Cache:

    a.  Prior to the Show use  Edit -> Preferences -> Clear Cache.  Close the viewer -> Restart the SL viewer.   Once restarted, open your Inventory, and in the Search bar type a long string of characters like “***********”.   This forces SL to immediately reload your inventory.  Give yourself at least 15 minutes.  This can take some time especially if you have a lot of items in your inventory.

    b.  After your inventory items have reloaded, Cam out into the audience and showroom to reload all the textures in that area.
   
    c.  Try on all the outfits you will be wearing in the show to make sure everything can attach.

2)  Edit Your Preferences Settings:

    a.    General
        i.    Show Names -> Never (if you can get by without seeing the names of your team members)
        ii.    Start Location -> My Home (if you crash on the runway, you do not want to rez back there in the middle of someone else’s walk.
        iii.    Small avatar names -> Hide My Name on My Screen, Hide All Group Titles -> checked
        iv.    Show Online Friend Notifications -> unchecked

 b.    Network
        i.    Maximum Bandwidth -> A mid range setting is probably best.  If too low, your pipe to the internet is too small.  If too large, you may be trying to take more data in than your computer can sustain.  If you are experiencing high packet loss, you may want to reduce this setting. (Monitor packet loss with View -> Statistics Bar).  If you find yourself “rubber banding” (your avatar walking a short distance and suddenly snaps back) this is a sign of packet loss.  If this is happening first try to do everything described below.  If it continues, reduce your bandwidth setting.

        ii.    Disk Cache Size -> Set to the maximum that your hard drive can sustain.
       
    c.    Graphics
        i.  Set the Quality and performance slider to low.  If you have trouble seeing if you are in a dark place, World -> Environment Settings -> Midday.  This is one of the most important things you can do.  It reduces significantly reduces the work your computer must do to render the scene.

        ii.  Check the Custom check box.  Further set the following:
            1.  Shaders: Uncheck everything
            2.  Avatar Rendering: Check: Avatar Impostors and uncheck the rest
            3.  Draw Distance: 64
            4.  Max Particle Count: 0
            5.  Move all remaining sliders to low
            6.  Lighting Detail: sun and moon only
           
        iii.  HARDWARE OPTIONS – Click to open menu
            1.  Uncheck Anisotropic Filtering
            2.  Antialiasing choose Disable
            3.  Uncheck Enable OpenGLVertex Buffer Objects
       
       iv.    Check “Run SecondLife in a Window” and consider reducing the size of that window as you would when running any program in a smaller than maximum window.
           
    d.    Audio & Video
        i.    Turn off the sound by clicking on the speaker icon to the right of the master volume.

        ii.    Uncheck all the other boxes
       
    e.    Voice Chat
        i.      Uncheck the Enable Voice Chat box.
       
    f.    Communication
        i.      Uncheck everything you can get by without.

3)    Further Reduce Unnecessary Rendering –

  Uncheck the following to revert to the default settings when you restart the viewer:

    a.    Advanced -> Rendering -> Types
        i.      ctrl-alt-shft 3     Tree
        ii.     ctrl-alt-shft 6     Sky
        iii.    ctrl-alt-shft 7     Water
        iv.    ctrl-alt-shft 8     Ground
        v.      ctrl-alt-shft 0     Grass
        vi.     ctrl-alt-shft –      Clouds
        vii.    ctrl-alt-shft =     Particles
        viii.   ctrl-alt-shft \      Bump
       
    b.    Advanced -> Rendering -> Features
        i.      crtrl-alt F5            Foot Shadows
        ii.     crtrl-alt F6            Fog
        iii.    crtrl-alt F7            Palletized Textures
        iv.     crtrl-alt F8            Test FRInfo
        v.      crtrl-alt F9 (opt)  Flexible Objects
       
    c.   Press CTRL+ALT+D to open advanced menu, then click Advanced- Debug Settings
        i.      Type:  RenderAvatarMaxVisible
        ii.     Change the value to 15 (or lower) if you dare BUT CAREFUL it will affect your view you will not  see all avatars anymore.  Only 15 or whatever number you allow will be visible, the ones that are most near.  But it is great for lag reducing.

4)    Reduce Load on the Servers (the sim) at Linden Labs
    a.    Detach any HUD attachments that you are not going to use during the show.
    b.    Keep shoes and jewelry as low prim as possible.
    c.    Do not wear bling items.
    d.    Do not wear anything with scripts in it (except of course your walk replacer and pose player)

Here are some other helpful tips. This part of the list is from JCNY for tips when in a show.

    Other Recommendations:

    a.    Advanced -> Rendering -> Axes
        i.    Turn this on and a vertical white line will appear through the center of your body and upward.  Use this to line up with where you want to walk.  (It tends to be a little inaccurate in tight places where you can not see very far ahead, like when the camera auto zooms in over your head because of nearby invisiwalls)
   
    b.    After every wardrobe change, immediately Edit Appearance and close the window.  This forces clothes to appear more quickly.  Then rebake textures (Advanced -> Character -> Rebake Textures or Ctrl-Alt-R)
   
    c.    Avoid wearing sculpties because if they do not rez you are wearing balloons.  If you need to wear them, make sure you have a quick alternative available.

    d.    Turn off the typing animation.  This keeps you from inadvertently starting to type if you accidentally enter text in the chat box. Advanced -> Debug Settings -> PlayTypingAnim -> False.

    e.    Uncheck Advanced -> Character -> Tap-Tap-Hold to Run.  If this is checked and if you inadvertently hit the forward arrow key twice in a row quickly, you start running down the runway.  (Not cool).

queenbrat

MRI challenge 2

   So this week we found out our next challenge for MRI. The first task was to take a picture of how we look now and combine it with a picture of what we looked like as a newbie player. We could use an old picture of ourselves or take a new picture but in our newbie outfits and skins. Well, I honestly think I burned all pictures of me as a newbie or didn’t take many because I couldn’t easily think of any that I had. So I put on all my old newbie stuff. Anyone can do this since it is all sitting there waiting in your SL Library. I put those clothes and that skin and shape on and, oh- my- gosh, did I ever really look that bad? Apparently I did. Although what’s funny about that to me is, that all new players think they are just quite hot. It isn’t until you play for a little while and see how other people look that you realize you don’t look very good. Anyway, so I had my newbie picture combined with what I look like now by a friend since that requires Photoshop and I haven’t been able to develop my Photoshop skills that far yet. It is quite a striking difference when you see the 2 pictures together.

 We could also choose to do a task involving making a 10 point marketing plan for our blog. I plan to do both since we get more points for that, however, I know nothing about marketing and this is a true challenge for me. It is quite interesting from what research I have done so far.  The idea to me is still a little foreign, I only started blogging a little less than 2 weeks ago. However, I will approach it like I do everything and give it my all.

queenbrat

oh my gosh that’s me

QueenBrat, oh my gosh that's me
QueenBrat on a wall

    So today was a pretty good day modelling wise. I got picked to compete for both House of Beningborough and JCNY for the week. I had a dress rehearsal and it went well. The designer was there and that always makes me nervous because I think well, what if she hates everything that I just did, but she only made a couple requests and I was totally fine with it. I want the designer to be completely happy and the small changes made do look better anyway. So what makes this a good day you might say, well I love competing both places and when I enter it’s always thrilling when I get a yes. So today was a two yes day. I’ve talked before about how I get 5 or so no’s for every yes I hear so on a day I got two yes answers, it’s a good day. Then, when I got to JCNY I noticed there is a picture of me on the wall. I was thrilled when I saw it. I even took a picture to share in here lol.

    So I am going to keep writing in my blog. We get more points for the MRI competition if we continue blogging but more importantly than that, I like it.  I can post things about Sl and modelling that amuse and interest me and annoy me. Maybe I will be entertaining and provide information that others need.

  We got our next challenge for MRI which I will talk about in my next post.