Gauged Elfin Ears

 Took me a little bit because RL has been a bit crazy, but I managed to get the gauged versions of the Elfin ears done.  You can now get the Elfin shape with gauges that fit plugs that are sized for the gauged ears by Swallow. 

 Skin by Alt3, Gauges by A*S, Face makeups by Aerth, Lunam, Eyes by Gloom, Hair by Doux

    You can wear any plugs or tunnels that say "Swallow S" or "Swallow XL", and although they're made for the LeLUTKA mesh heads, they might fit others, just make sure you try a demo!  The thing I'm most proud of with my ears is that you can wear your own HD ear skin layers that come included with all EvoX skins for automatic, effortless, skin tone matching.  No messing around with HUD's!  Just wear the included BoM shading layers in the strength/opacity of your choice.

Skin by Gloom, Gauges by Opalite, Facepaint by Effervescence, Eye makeup by Ivy, Eyes by Ikon, Hair by Kuni

        In other news, I will be in Fantasy Faire this year, which is coming up fast.  I will be working towards being ready for that and so you won't hear much from me until then.  I have some things I want to work towards and so many projects buzzing around in my head, but only so much time.  We'll see what I can get done!  

In the meantime, these are available now at the store or on the marketplace

*~*Illusions*~* "Elfin" Long Elf Ears Gauged S for Lelutka Evo X Heads

*~*Illusions*~* "Elfin" Pointed Elf Ears Gauged XL for Lelutka Evo X Heads

Elfin Ears 3.0 @ We ♥ Roleplay

     Last night there was a last minute call for merchants to fill an empty spot at We ♥ Roleplay, and you know what?  I had something that was like 90% done.  So, amazingly, I'm in another round of a shopping event this year. Wow, I feel like I should call my mom or something (I should do that anyway though).

I've been chugging away converting more of my old shapes, and I have been wearing my latest project around for a week or so just to make absolutely sure I liked it from all angles because these next ones are Kind of a Big Deal.  

It's the elfin ears, back in glorious rigged, bakes on mesh beauty.  The original ones were one of my most popular sets, going all the way back to the 2007 versions, so I knew I had to do these right.  I think I found a really happy balance of honoring the old shapes while refining and adapting them to what I'm capable of now.  The ear size slider gives them a lot of range but however you wear them, they're classic.

I was honestly going to chill for a little bit in order to get ready for Fantasy Faire, as merchant applications finally opened (woo!) and I'm excited to finally be properly prepared for once.  However, sometimes life slaps you in the face with an opportunity and you'd just be silly not to take it, you know?  Don't get used to this though, haha.

The Elfin ears are on sale for a special promotional price of 20% off through the month of March, only at We ♥ Roleplay! 

Also wait, what's this an about an anime?  I don't know what you're talking about, and even if I did, you can't prove anything.  Any resemblance in my vendor image to any particular fictional people alive or dead is purely because I was binge watching Frieren while working on these.

 

Mardi Gras Sale!

Mardi Gras is March 4th, so for the next week I've set a bunch of my masks on sale for 40% off!  From today until March 5th, you can come by the store on the Twilight and or visit the marketplace store to find a masquerade mask for the upcoming festivities at an unprecedented discount.

 The sale doesn't include my super old stuff like the sculptie masks, or anything in the older vendor design.  I really don't do sales like this often, so come take a look!

 

Gauged Drow Ears @ We ♥ Roleplay

For a long time, the only events I've been in have been Fantasy Faire, and the SL Shop & Hop.  Events usually require new items, gifts, donations and other demands.  Even just doing an event in April and another in October was making me feel unable to keep up, but that's starting to change.

 Every month I've been watching We ♥ Roleplay pop up on my SL feeds, a shopping event focused on fantasy and historical fashion.  I eagerly go visit and grab demos, but I was feeling a bit like the sad Squidward meme, trapped inside watching others doing something I wanted to do.  The last time I participated was in 2014, could I actually manage to make something new for another event?  

I'm happy to say that yes, Illusions is in the February round of We ♥ Roleplay!

     Skin by Reshade, Hair by No Match, Earrings by Sigma, Facepaint by Effervescence

 

 

     I was able to finish the gauged versions of the Drow ears, which like my other ear shapes come in two sizes that correspond to the gauged ears by Swallow.  You can wear any plugs or tunnels that say "Swallow S" or "Swallow XL" with them.  They're made for the LeLUTKA mesh heads, but they might fit others, so just make sure you try a demo if you're using another brand.  The thing I'm most proud of with my ears is that you can wear your own HD ear skin layers that come included with all EvoX mapped face skins for automatic, effortless, perfect skin tone matching for any skin.  No messing around with HUD's!

 

Skin by Tutti Belli, Tattoo by RiotzInk, Earrings by Faetal, Facepaint by Loa

Now that I've had a chance to shop around and see what other people are doing, I realized my brand could use a little zhuzhing up, and so I have made some tweaks to my vendor design.  The last time I updated it was 2017, so needless to say I was past due to join this decade.  There were plenty of elements that I liked about it, so it's not radically different, but hopefully it looks a bit cleaner and a tad more modern.

You can find all of the Drow ears on sale for 25% off at We ♥ Roleplay until the 28th. 

Third time's the charm: Drow Ears

       In 2007, I was just starting out making content full time and learning how to sculpt in programs outside of Second Life. I was figuring out a work flow and doing my best, teaching myself as I went and making plenty of silly mistakes. Back in those ancient days of sculpties and bling jewelry, I made a bunch of elf ears and one of them was the Drow shape. I had in mind a long angled ear inspired by the Blood Elves in WoW, or famous dark elves such as Drizzt Do'Urden. Of course, since I was new to sculpting and sculpties themselves were not exactly the most refined method of artistic expression, my first attempt was pretty primitive. I also didn't know any better and scripted them with dozens of different skin tones corresponding to various skin designers that were popular at the time in a laughable attempt at comprehensive skin matching. 

    In 2012, when I was starting to get my feel for sculpting in mesh, I did another run of ears that used a color change HUD and customizable shading that I'm still pretty proud of.  I still sell them, but they are made for the SL default head and use multiple layers of geometry to create the shading and highlight layers.  In the era of mesh heads being the norm and complexity scores being a thing of concern, they're showing their age. So we come to now, where I've really reached my stride working with mesh, and Bakes on Mesh has allowed me to make those shading and highlight layers a part of the texture and not the geometry.  My ears can be a mere 1500 to 2000 complexity score and be more detailed than ever, and offer the feature I'm most proud of, automatic skin tone matching.

    This is the fun part of coming back to the same ideas over the years, and seeing how my skills have evolved along with Second Life's features.  I can see how I was doing my best at each stage of both my and SL's evolution, and now I can offer up a new form for you all to enjoy.

 

Shown with Lavu B's Xanda skin, Hair is No Remote by No Match 

To me, the Drow ears have always been the tall and high angled shape of the most aloof and insular elf.  Since they're rigged, you also can use your shape's ear size slider to shrink them to modestly poke above your hair, or stretch them to go full blood elf and nearly rival the Sylph ears in size  I've been having a lot of fun wearing these around.  The picture in the vendor is unmodified, but some adjustments to your environment settings or lighting will probably be needed to get that truly seamless look.  These come with the same seven sets of shading and highlight layers meant to be worn with your Evo X HD ear skin layers, but also include three tintable bases if you don't have an Evo X skin.  

 They can be found at my store on the Twilight and on the marketplace

Drow Ears for Lelutka Evo X Heads: 300L

If you're one of the OG's who remember my old pair of sculptie ears, feel free to IM me, send me a picture, and pat yourself on the back for sticking with something (anything) this long.  And for sticking with me ♥ Much love

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