Holiday Ear Cozies

    I've been keeping very busy this holiday season in real life, but I wanted to try and do a project for everyone as a little Christmas something. Between all of my other obligations, it took longer than I had hoped, but it was important to me to finish and get it out in time, so I made the time around everything else.  

 When I told my husband I was going to be working on new elf ears, he threw out the idea of putting little knit hats on them as a kind of joke.  I laughed out loud but found the idea rather charming and the image in my head was adorable.  An elf's ears wouldn't fit under a beanie or a tobbagoner, how do elves keep their ears warm?  Wouldn't they get cold? Not if they have ear cozies!

 I threw together these cute little knit ear accessories, complete with fuzzy pom poms, just in time for Christmas.  I think Fair Isle style knitting patterns are so festive, and the white fuzzy trim evokes a holiday feeling, but they're still perfectly appropriate for any cold weather setting.  They are rigged to fit both the Sprite ears and the Sylph ears, and work on all versions of ear lobes, gauged and ungauged.  They do use PBR materials, so keep that in mind if you are using a viewer that is yet to be updated.

Originally I had hoped to do more colors and patterns, and even a matching hat, but I realized I wasn't going to be able to get it done before the holidays.  If people really like these and there is a demand for it, I could always turn them into a Real Product with actual options.  In the meantime, these are available on the marketplace and my store on the twilight for just 50L.

*~*Illusions*~* Christmas Ear Cozies: 50L

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Saturnalia, and whatever else you might celebrate.  Much love <3

Gauged Sprite Ears

     As promised, I managed to get together the gauged versions of the Sprite ears.  Thankfully, I was able to handily borrow from my work on the Sylph ears, skipping all of that pesky trial and error stuff!  These came together much faster and will hopefully bode well for future projects.

 

 

Skin by Gaupa, gauges by Chorrai, beard by  MrCoin

I've been playing with some masculine avatar shapes and treated myself to a new mesh head at the LeLutka black friday sale.  I think he's looking pretty good!  The gauges are made to fit tunnels and plugs made for Swallow XL gauged ears, and seem to work on all of the plugs I've tried, with maybe a little clipping on the back on some of them.  Pretty much the same situation as with the Sylph ears.

Skin by Amara Beauty, earrings by Faetal, cosmetics by Nuve

I had someone ask me about supporting darker skin tones, so I want to reassure all you rocking those deep colors that these ears will look awesome on you too.  I noticed that sometimes a skin might have an ear texture that doesn't line up as well with the elf ears, but a fun trick with the Velour skin tone standard is that another creator's ears might work.  Of course, there's also the three tintable ear bases in a pinch.  

I hope you check these out, I know a lot of people have been hoping for more variety in gauged elf ears and I'm going to just keep trying to plugging* away at them. 

out now on my store at the Twilight and on the marketplace:

*~*Illusions*~* "Sprite" Ears Gauged S for LeLutka Evo X: 300L

*~*Illusions*~* "Sprite" Ears Gauged XL for LeLutka Evo X: 300L

*see what I did there?

Sprite Ears

After doing all of the hard work behind making the new Sylph ears, of course I was going to make more updated ears! A special request meant I had to turn my attention to the Sprite ears next.  

Skin by Traditional Face, facepaint by Loa, hair by Sintiklia

These have a slightly more refined shape than the originals, with higher detail where it's needed and much more efficient geometry.  These are rigged to size up and down with the ear size slider, and can go from cute little pokes through your hair to big goblin-y ears.  Like the Sylph ears, these will move with the ear position settings on your LeLUTKA head HUD, and even move with animations if that sounds fun to you.

They come with the same seven sets of shading and highlight layers, meant to be worn with your Evo X ear skins as a base but also including three tintable bases if you need them.  I've seen some people wearing just the Evo X HD ear skins alone, and yeah I mean that looks fine, I tried to make sure it would, but trust me guys it looks so much better with the shading layers!  The vendor picture is shown with the Vivid Pink (Velour) skin tone which needed the "medium" highlight and shading layers.

I'm also working on the gauged versions of these, but I had a very busy Thanksgiving week and we're getting into holiday season so don't hold your breath for them, haha.  How is it December already?

The ears are out now on my store at the Twilight and on the marketplace

*~*Illusions*~* Sprite Ears Lelutka Evo X: 300L

Sylph Gauged S

After doing all of the work in making the gauged ears in the XL size, it wasn't too far out of my way to make the S size as well.  I know, I'm on a roll!  However I promise I am working on something other than sylph ears too, haha.

Shown with the Moccino Mikel skin, plugs by Valhalla

     It turns out part of the hole is rigged which took some tricky fiddling in the beta grid, but I figured out how to get a decent match.  Some rigged gauges might not work on all sizes but I tried enough demos to confidently say you should be able to wear your plugs, you just might need to tweak your ear size up or down a little if you're bothered by any clipping.  Like the XL ears, these include the male and female versions, as well as the seven skin tone shading sets, the seam fix for your LeL EVO X HD ear skins, and three tintable skin bases.  

I'm also enjoying my new meshy boy avi, I think he turned out pretty cute.  

The ears are out now on my store at the Twilight and on the marketplace

*~*Illusions*~* Sylph Ears Lelutka Evo X Gauged S: 300L

Gauged Sylph Ears and Updates

    I'm pleased with how the Sylph ears turned out, and how they've been received so far.  They're selling better than they ever have, and I'm so happy to see so many fairies and pixies living their best big eared lives.  I've been enjoying seeing the pictures shared on Primfeed of people rocking them.  Something I've noticed, though, is how popular gauged ears are, especially the ones by Luciayes Magic of Swallow.  So I decided to do some trial and error, and adapt the Sylph ears into a gauged version you can wear with plugs.

 

 

It only took me about thirty tries to get the ear lobes just right!  It actually wasn't so bad, just a lot of tiny little tweaks and peering at a side by side of Blender and my avi on Aditi.  The result is that I've tried about a dozen different ear plugs designed for the Swallow XL gauged ears from about seven different creators, and seem to have managed to get them to line up just right.  There are new bases, highlights and shading layers, but they still let you use your Evo X ear skins included with your skins. With the big hole in your ear, they now have a seam on the inside of the ear lobe, but I've added another BoM layer seam fix if your plugs/gauges happen to expose it.  Oh, and since I forgot to mention it last time, these DO include both the male and female fits for LeLUTKA mesh heads.

I'm also updating the non-gauged Sylph ears with a couple more tintable skin bases, due to some issues with color matching on darker skins. 

In my excitement to get the Sylph ears out, I forgot to mention I have been experimenting with open source PBR materials, so I updated the Agatha Witch's hat to try them out.  The felt looks very nice and much more realistic with lighting now.  However, since some people were having issues on viewers that aren't PBR compatible yet, I included the original hat as well.  There's also a free mask out right now at my Shop & Hop stall.  Don't forget to swing by before Nov 4th to grab your copy!

Illusions @ Halloween Shop & Hop 2024

Gauged XL Sylph Ears: 300L

Illusions @ SL Halloween Shop & Hop 2024

    The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are falling, which means it's spooky season again!  The Second Life 2024 Halloween Shop & Hop starts tomorrow, and I'm excited to share what I've been working on with you.

    Since July of last year I've been experimenting, tinkering, messing about and generally fiddling with some items I made that have aged rather poorly.  They were created in an age where the Second Life avatar default head was the only option.  Bakes on mesh wasn't even a glint in a Linden's eye, and rigging was a scary new technology.  I looked at them and thought "man, I should update these, how can I do that?"  also, "how can I make these better than they ever were?" 

 This path led me to finally giving rigging a go, learning all about bakes on mesh, spending far too much time messing with UV maps and becoming a content partner with LeLUTKA to bring you yet another iteration of my elf ears. 

 

     

    For something that looks almost the same as the originals, a lot of work has gone into them.  I refined the geometry to be more efficient and detailed, and since they don't need separate highlight and shadow geometry they are less than a tenth (!) the avatar complexity cost of the original Sylph ears. Thanks to LeLUTKA's content creator program, I was able to make them directly onto their Evo X heads for a seamless fit . These are rigged, so they will always be in the right position, and you can stretch and resize them using the Ear Size slider in the SL shape editor.  They will even react to ear position animations like those from the LeLUTKA head HUD that will let you make them stick out as much as you like, or lie sleekly against your head. 

    One of the most annoying things with any item that's supposed to match your avatar's skin is fiddling with color matching.  Even when you think you have a good match, different lighting conditions will sometimes show a seam.  Getting the right color is a pain!  So I think the most silly and downright obsessive feature I just had to do was to remap the UV's of my ear's mesh to match with Evo X ear skins.  That's right, instead of using my own damn textures like a sane person, I decided I just had to make them match the ear textures that come with your favorite skins.  So, if you are wearing an Evo X skin when you wear these ears, they will automatically match your skin.  Now, I won't pretend it's perfect, my mesh is dramatically different from a human ear and there is some wacky stretching and odd positioning of details and highlights on some skins.  That is why I made separate bakes on mesh tintable highlight and shadow layers that will help add definition in the right places.  They come in seven different intensities for a wide variety of skin tones, and you can mix and match them.  If that doesn't work out or if your skin didn't come with an ear skin layer, then no worries, there is also a tintable base layer included with them if you need to do a manual color match.  

     Another must have feature is of course, is being able to wear earrings!  I have made sure to position the ear lobes so that they are comparable with the default LeLUTKA human and elf add-on earrings.  Rigged earrings made for the LeL ears should work with these no problem.  Of course, I have plans to release my own but life is chaos, we'll see.

I've learned a lot from these, and spent far too much of the little time I have nowadays griping out loud asking "WHY is it doing THAT?.  With the help of some patient and friendly QA testers who helped me put them through their paces, I'm finally happy with the results.  I'm hoping to make more supporting content for these, and now that the hardest work has been done, convert more styles of ears over.  However, I don't want to be too ambitious, so I will not say they are definitely coming, but that's certainly what I'm hoping for right now.

These magnificent head appendages are available at the Sugarplum sim at the Halloween Shop & Hop for 20% off, or on the marketplace if you don't feel like teleporting.

*~*Illusions*~* Sylph Ears LeL EVO X: 300L

Illusions @ Fantasy Faire 2024

 

 I have to say it's nice to be back at the faire again. This year I actually made it.  Of course, I still didn't finish all of the things I wanted to, but I have one new thing!

 

Agatha is a whimsical yet refined witch's hat in sophisticated wool felt.  It's accessorized by a grosgrain ribbon bow that can be changed to white, grey or black, and tints beautifully.  I actually experimented with making this hat with the same BOM options I did with the Ladro mask, but found the grey and white texture options to tint so well there was no point.  The hat itself comes with my usual flight of rainbow colors, and is an excellent addition to any witch's wardrobe.

However, if that isn't enough colors for you, I put together this special rainbow coloration as my RFL gift.  100% of the proceeds for this item will go to Relay for Life.

Illusions can be found on the ethereal and beautiful Avalon sim, yet another stunning build by the talented Mr. Alia Baroque.

Illusions @ Fantasy Faire 2024

Illusions @ SL Halloween Shop & Hop 2023

It's time for this year's Halloween Shop & Hop!

 If you stopped by the SL20B Shop & Hop the offerings will be familiar, but there is a free gift out for people to enjoy.  I was rummaging in my file folders for abandoned projects and found this charming, unreleased Halloween Batty mask which was perfect for the season. 

    I honestly don't know if I've sent it out as a gift before, but if you're so hardcore that you actually have a copy of this mask already, it might still be worth grabbing as I made a couple of improvements and it will be a lot smoother with better LOD's.  

 

My big achievement this round, however, aside from releasing the Ladro Mask, is that I finally brought my stall design out of 2008 and into the mesh-tastic present.  I had some architectural elements I created when, once upon a time, I thought I would actually finish a new sim build (pour one out for broken dreams), and realized they could find a new life here.  I know I can do better with more time, but this will do for now.

 

The Shop & Hop runs from October 5th to November 5th, and my other items available are 20% off while the event runs.  Come grab your Batty mask, and lots of other goodies!

Illusions can be found on the Tinseled sim

Ladro Mask

It's a spooky season surprise!  I have another release, just in time for October, and for Fallen Gods' 16th anniversary celebration.  Unlike me, the distinguished Mr. Baroque never took a multi-year hiatus which makes his achievement certainly worth celebrating.  He and his partner were kind enough to invite me to have a spot in the marketplace on Selidor and that was good motivation for me to finish up a project I've been working on in drips and drabs.

Something that surprised me, once I started paying attention to my market listings again, is that of all the things that I sell in my store one of my old sculpted masks from 2011 (!!) was still selling pretty regularly.  While that's quite a compliment, I realized if that's still selling then it's about time people have a mesh option.

The Ladro mask is a classic rogue's style bandit mask, made of supple leather and tied behind the head with a knotted cloth.  Included is a version of the mask without the sash as well, and two different fits for masculine or feminine faces.  One has a pronounced brow and wide forehead, the other has softer features.  If that's not enough options for you, I also am trying out something fun with Bakes on Mesh.

While it's been out for a few years now, Bakes on Mesh is new to me, and after learning about it and seeing what it's all about I decided to experiment with it.  I figure everyone else is used to it by now but just in case you're out of touch like me or haven't been paying much attention, here's the basics:  When you wear an object, instead of using a texture from inventory, you can now assign it to read a texture from a wearable clothing layer.  If you wear both the object and the clothing at the same time, the item looks to the clothing layer for its color information and updates it along with your skin and other worn textures to show the viewer one, "baked on mesh" texture to download.  Now, the cool thing about this is that there's virtually no limit to how many clothing layers you can wear, which means that, without any scripts or extra geometry, you can have a tintable base layer underneath a shading and highlight layer, allowing you to infinitely customize the color as you wish.

 

    In the past I've considered doing this with actual geometry layers, in fact I did do this with my ears, but decided against it as a common practice because that much extra weight on your character was... well, quite gauche.  Now we can have the best of both worlds: any color you'd like, but without losing the fidelity of the texture details.  You'll notice, though, that I am also still selling this as a scripted mask with my usual texture choices.  I am still experimenting with BoM and not willing to completely swap over just yet.  Let me know how this works for you, if it was easy to use, and if you prefer it to the scripts.  I think some of my pre-made textures are still nicer than some of the similar colors I got with tinting, but if people really like this I'm willing to start implementing this with existing designs.

And, before you ask, yes I've been working on this for the elf ears!  It's still in progress.

The Ladro Mask can be exclusively found on Selidor for the next few days, in the beautiful marketplace there.  It will be released more generally on October 5th at my store and at the upcoming  2023 Halloween Hop and Shop.

Ladro Bandit Mask: 325L

Illusions @ the Second Life 20th Birthday Shop & Hop

Second Life is turning 20 this year. I remember a time in 2006 where I signed up for this odd not-a-game game, when people who had joined in 2003 seemed like they had been around for ages.  I marveled at the venerable last names like Thereian and Midnight.  I now get to be one of those dinosaurs I guess, figuratively and literally, as there are some really cool dinosaur avatars out there now.  There's actually only eight of us Suens left who show up in search (though I know there may be others with their profiles hidden).  It's pretty amazing to me that Second Life has grown and evolved so much in that time and not only stayed active but remained one of the largest virtual worlds out there.  I know I've put it aside for a long time but it's actually really cool that it's just been there still doing its thing, improving and advancing.

Since I missed out on Fantasy Faire, I felt like I should join in the celebration. Illusions is a part of the celebratory SL20B Shop and Hop, and everything at my stall is 20% off!  With my long term inactivity, I haven't exactly done any sales in a long time so enjoy it while it lasts!

 

 

You can find my stall on the Snowflake sim and I've put out a lot of great stuff.  I know my store's look is pretty dated but I'll get around to that eventually.   You can grab the new Curia masks for 20% off while Shop & Hop runs.  It goes until July 11th, so swing on by before then.

Illusions @ SL20B