Merry Christmas from Siyu

I wish you a very merry Christmas, a happy holiday, and a day with loved ones and friends.  I asked Masqueraderie what they wanted from Santa (Siyu Claus?) and most loved the idea of snowy antlers.  So I'm happy to offer a gift to you that you can wear all winter long.

After having so much trouble getting myself to work, antlers were a delightfully simple and joyful thing to make.  These are mesh, but resizeable and moveable.  The snow on top is a separate object, so if you like, you can turn the snow transparent and wear them as normal antlers all year 'round.

You can pick these up in the notice history of Masqueraderie, which has no entry fee.  Merry Christmas, I hope these give you joy!

Unseelie Mask

In my Unseelie Masquerade post, I posted teases of the mask I wore that was subsequently awarded to Lady of the Unseelie, Yukio Ida.  Now I can happily present to everyone the mysterious and otherworldly mask of the Unseelie.

Creating this mask was an exercise in overcoming a creative block.  I pulled it like a stubborn weed out of my head, and it fought me every step of the way.  Fortunately, with my friend Selos and the freedom of Zbrush's Dynamesh feature, I put together every permutation I could until I found something that I loved.

The Unseelie mask is inspired by the delicate leather masks of more modern mask makers, and inwardly I've always associated the intricate tendrils and airiness leather allows with dark fairies.  I came up with the basic shape of the mask very quickly, but put it aside as it lacked the regal complexity I was after.  However, after trying a dozen other ideas that I didn't like anywhere near as much, I came back to it.  I decided to try and jazz it up more, but I still liked the original's sinister simplicty.  I realized with a very easy adjustment I could compromise and have both the version that was fit for the royalty of the Lady of the Unseelie and the more conservative base.

I separated the mask into two pieces, a mask and a headpiece.  They fit together so that when both are worn, it looks like one fabulous mask, but the pieces can be separated if need be to have a simpler mask or a delicate diadem.  They compliment each other but look lovely apart.

This mask is just one of the two I made for the party, but unfortunately I'm having a bit of a creative fit over the male mask.  Usually, I release the two together, but seeing as how this one is ready to go and the other still needs work, I decided not to keep you waiting.  Plus, this mask is unisex, and certainly holds well on its own.

Out now at the store
On the marketplace

The Unseelie Ball (Aftermath)

Dawn breaks and the fairies return to their realm, and I'm left to sweep up the fairy dust and clean up the spiders the drow always seem to leave behind. Another enchanting night, full of revelers and as always, amazing costumes!

The enchanting Nicole Tigwald

The magical Sonya Marmurek

The effervescent Evangeline Miles

I know what you're wondering though.  You're thinking to yourself "But Siyu, if everyone was so fabulously dressed, who could have possibly be voted to have the best costume in such a crowd?".  Well, as always it was a tough decision but the noble host of the court crowned their Lord and Lady of the Unseelie.  A consistent favorite, Aceius Hax, and the wickedly toothsome Yukio Ida were lucky enough to take home both the title, and their prizes.  The new Unseelie masks made especially for the event.

Lord and Lady of the Unseelie, Aceius Hax and Yukio Ida

The masks are as of now not complete, but I'm working on finishing the male mask and adding colors for the female one. However, they still made suitable crowns for the new Lord and Lady of the Unseelie. As always, I was dragged from my hole appreciate an excuse to socialize and spend time doing something other than work for a change. I love sharing my music with you, catching up on news and dancing the night away. I want to thank all who attended for brightening my night and making the party what it was: a success, but most of all a fun gathering of friends.

Siyu in an outfit by Evangeline Miles and wings by Violaine Villota

The Unseelie Ball 2012

As I recover from my crazy working stint, and subsequent goofing off in Guild Wars 2, October arrives and with it, my favorite season! Every year, I simply must throw a Halloween masquerade. With my elven ears, a new breed of fairies and elves of the Seelie court emerged. Elegant creatures of whimsy and fantasy capering in opulent clothes, playing at the politics of the fae. However, in the undercurrents of the fairy world there is a darker place. Where the creatures of the deeper forest hold their own court to play against those that dance in the light. The Unseelie fae...

You're cordially invited to join your fellow members of the Unseelie court in a dance of wings and gossamer. The dark fairies, the goblins, the bogarts and creatures of the vicious, mysterious night will be made welcome in the halls of Illusions. On this night, two of the court will be elected the king and queen of the dark fae, so be sure to regail yourself in your finest raiment, in case the honor fall to you! Two previously unreleased masks will be your coronations, along with 1500L Angel Cards to spend at your royal leisure.  Masks are required, what if the Seelie fae found the true identities of the Unseelie hidden in their court?  But have no fear, the mask shown in the invitation will be provided free of charge as a favor.

If we all show up looking amazing and can't see each other then what's the point?  Hopefully with a couple of guidelines we can strut our stuff and move well enough to dance!  When assembling your outfit please:

Check your Avatar Scripts

This info can be found in Place Profile->About Land->Script Info->My avatar. Check the list to see if there's any scripts you're wearing that you could delete from copiable items or remove, such as HUD's, resizers, invisiprims (switch to alphas!) etc. Your total script memory total should be as low as you can get it, under 100kb would be ideal.

Keep your prim count low

I just ask that you leave the extra fluttery petticoat layer at home, and not wear the 256 prim wings with your alpha flexi hair made of 180+ prims. Remember, you're going to be on a sim with a lot of other avatars.

Back in 2008 I did a very similar themed masquerade to this with my Goblin Masque, and it was so much fun I've been wanting to play with that theme again.  Considering that it's now been four years, it's probably fresh to most folks anyway.  I hope you'll join me there!

Illusions Unseelie Ball 2012

October 27th, 4pm SLT
Held at the Illusions Event Hall on Carnivale
Costume contest winners will be announced at 6pm SLT

A Non-Second Life Project

Despite my silence on this blog I've been working hard and steadily on a long, involved project.  Here's the unfortunate twist though... it's not for Second Life. 

Arenanet, the company behind Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, made a post a few days after my birthday announcing that they were scouting for character artists.  Creating things for Second Life is not too different from what a character artist does, and it's where I imagine myself moving on to when working on Second Life no longer becomes an option.  I've played Guild Wars for six years now and I've been watching Guild Wars 2's development like a hungry hawk, and over that time I've come to greatly admire Arenanet as a company and community of creative people.  This simply was an opportunity I could not pass up. In fact, I knew I'd never forgive myself if I didn't give it a try.

Rather than requesting a resume and portfolio, they simply issued a challenge.  Create a viable game asset based on a piece of concept art. This sort of open ended offer is perfect for someone like myself who comes from a rather unconventional professional background.  Self taught, self employed, no formal education for 3D modeling , no certificates and no "proper" job experience aside from retail.  That doesn't matter, though, when all you need to do is show what you can do.

Unfortunately, I wasn't 100% sure I could do it, as the criteria listed were just a bit beyond what I'm comfortable with.  I'm used to a luxurious budget of high polygon counts, glorious, rich texture maps full of UV space, and being able to put all of my detail directly into the geometry of an object.  But I wasn't going to let that stop me.  As I made my model I made countless revisions, reiterations, and learned a lot of new things about uv mapping and low poly modeling and spent the past two and a half months straight working on nothing else but the armor design.  As I'd get sick of looking at one thing I was able to pick a dozen other little details that needed doing, and I did each of them about four times over as I found that it had too many faces, or a UV map had to be updated, details that didn't project, a texture bleeding into other islands and on and on. Two and half months of this.

But again, I have a passion Guild Wars, and I love Arenanet, and the very idea of being able to work for them or with them was the only carrot I needed to keep going.  Every day I hadn't finished was another day I was nervous I had missed my chance, and as the days kept going by I decided to set a hard deadline for myself.  No matter what, I'd finish before the GW2 headstart launch.

Guess what?  The headstart launches tonight (13h 32min from now as of the time I'm writing this).

I finished last night.  (Album)

I sent it to them, and now it's out of my hands.  I don't even feel that nervous, because the thing I was most afraid of won't happen now.  I was most afraid that I would miss my chance, that I would pass up this opportunity without even trying.  I have faith that if I'm ready, they'll let me know, and if I'm not I will have many more months of working in Second Life to hone my skills for the next time.

It's Siyu's Birthday!

The 17th is my real birthday (as opposed to my avatar's birthday which I've sadly forgotten two years in a row, now).  So, to celebrate, I've set my vendors to offer double Angel points on all purchases!  If you have an Angel card, wear it while purchasing any item in the store (excluding the bargain basement) and it will give you 20% back as points to spend on any other item in the store.  For example, purchasing an item for 500L with your Angel Card worn will give you enough to get a 100L item for free!  When redeeming your points, just side click the vendor and select "use card", and the vendor will treat it just like cash.

If you don't have an Angel Card, you can just pick one up in the atrium right next to the new releases for 0L.  No excuses to miss out on the chance to pick up something you've had your eye on!  The vendors go back to normal at the end of the day, June 18th.

Illusions in the Mesh Around Hunt!

I was approached by BellaStarr of the Ego Company a little while ago about a new hunt for only mesh items.  Normally I turn down hunts as I haven't had much luck with them and don't like to dig up the time to make an item.  But, since so many people are still shy about mesh I felt it might make an impact to show them how familiar and easy it can be to wear.  Rustling around my mesh work-in-progress folders turned up my lovely top hat that I made as a doodle, released as a holiday freebie and then never finished.  Part of what was hanging me up was a mix of wanting to work on other things, but also never being quite happy with the textures.  It was the perfect thing to pick up and give a bit of spit shine to.

The brocade top hat is an experiment with a new feature of Zbrush that allows you to use "Surface Noise" to create patterns and effects across the entire surface of your object.  While I'm not sure it's an entirely convincing brocade, I have to admit the pattern does seem to have worked pretty well and hopefully it's a technique I can use more in the future.  The hat only comes in black for now, I might later polish it up a bit more and play with the shading to release it in the store.  I especially love the velvet ribbon and how that turned out, it looks so soft and pettable!

You can find it for free hidden somewhere in the store.  The clue is M is for Murder.

A New Generation of Ears: Your Picks!

The results from my survey are in!  I'm very pleased to say that I will be able to make a good amount of you happy with the ones that were picked, because a couple of designs stood above the rest.  The results made your preferences crystal clear, and the ones I had to make were obvious.

To those who missed having my smallest ear, I'm pleased to say that the size labeled "Vulcan" did very well, with almost 60% of the respondents saying they wanted to see them made!

It's true that sometimes subtle is best. These sweet little ears will only barely poke through your hair, and are just a tad larger than normal ears. They're a great option for if you're displeased with the ears that came with your skin, or if you'd like to roleplay as a half-elf or Vulcan.  The reason I excluded them from the original six was that I was having trouble making the same base mesh that made ears like the drow and elfin as small as I needed it to be.  But since I found out it would be worth the trouble, I managed to compress it down into the pixie size that you know and love.  I think the shape turned out great!

However, the true star of the survey results was one that got everyone excited.  From a rough concept submitted by Aiorii, these blossomed into being chosen by an overwhelming majority.  With a full 40% making it their first choice out of seven, I just had to make the curly tipped ears!

They have come to life! These ears are just adorable, with a good helping of whimsy and playfulness.  It was quite obvious they were a hit and I just hope I fulfilled your hopes and expectations.  With so many people feeling passionate about seeing these made, I felt a bit nervous!  Luckily for me though, the shape came easily and turned out to be the one that gave me the least trouble.  I love how they came out, and I've been wearing them around my build spot feeling so cute.


But, now for a twist.  I said that I would only do two styles.   I said that, but what the survey results told me is that you guys really were hungry for more.  Two other styles did very well, the long "Fae" ears had a good number of responders, and the absurdly long "Poison" ears seem to have an impassioned following.  Using my brain thing, I realized it wouldn't be too difficult to reconcile these two shapes and merge them into one amazing super shape. 

People just kept wanting longer and longer and so here you are!  I built these alongside the old poison ear to compare and align them so everything you loved about the old ones will be reborn.  They're just as large and have a similar angle, but have a dramatically better shape.  While my sketch of the Poison ear had a downward curve, I brought the dip and upturned tip in from the fae style.  The long trail keeps the shape feeling delicate and realistic and kept it from being too unwieldy.

These are the last of the basic elven ears I'm planning on doing.  I haven't ruled out, however, doing a few completely new ears.  As I mentioned before, people seem to be really excited at the prospect of semi transparent finned mer ears, or torn and chewed up elf ears.  If I do those, they will not be in the same glorious spectrum of shapes and will mostly likely be in just one or two varieties each.  I just have to decide if I'm going to start doing jewelry first or after!  But don't worry, jewelry is definitely going to happen.

Out now at the store: 300L

Pixie Ears on the marketplace
Sprite Ears on the marketplace
Sylph Ears on the marketplace

Vote on your favorite ear shapes!

Yes, I'm still going on about ears.  I've read over your suggestions, pored over your pictures, and I've put together some concepts based on your ideas!  The results are ready for your viewing pleasure.

Come vote on what you'd like to see made! 

A lot of people have also suggested and re-affirmed my suspicions: that you guys really want torn up ears and mer/dragon ears!  I'm thinking I might do two sets of each, since I love round numbers.  Twelve sets of ears is ambitious but makes such a nice, complete sounding number...

Friends, lend me your ears!

With my set of six ears all done, I know you might have a hunger for more, which is why I want to hear what you want to see!  Before I start doing accessories, I want to make sure I'm not missing any shapes.  So, I am looking for your ideas!

I'm looking for ear "shapes" rather than "types". An ear type might be a mer-person ear, torn up ear or something like that. While those sound awesome and I do hope to get to those, they can't be a part of this set due to needing entirely new base meshes, UV's and texture sets.  So what I'm looking for are shapes, variations such as being wider, longer, curved, or pointed etc.  Send me pictures or drawings of elves and creatures that have ears that just make you happy, and feel free to sketch out some yourself!  As long as the concept is discernible it doesn't matter how good you are at drawing it.  I'll take the suggestions and make concepts of my own based on the ones sent in, and then put it up for a vote.  The top two ear shapes will get made!  And then I can get going on earrings, chains and all that yummy stuff you want to perforate your elven lobes with.  Since I don't want to delay too long on getting accessories out, I'm going to make the deadline for concepts Wednesday the 9th.  You've got a week, show me your ears!