More new-textured goodness...

Coming soon, on the heels of Katherine, the Wild:Released stamp rally prize, is Heather...


Now - funny story behind this. Alice Hoyer has been asking me for a 'just got out of bed and sluched my hair up off my shoulders' style for the longest time... possibly eight months or so - but all previous attempts (and there have been some) with my previous bank of textures all looked naff. So... now that I had the new ones available I had to give it a go... and I must say I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Alice certainly was, and agreed to model for the vendor shots in the new black.

Either way, coming out later this week!

Until next time,

Kalli

Born to be wild... and the beginnings of a new product line

Felicitations on this fine antemeridian of a Friday...

I'm going to come clean and let slip some details of the new development I've been so cagey about now that the time has come for me to start publicising.

Back in January, my good friend, and sometimes accomplice Faery Sola approached me with an intriguing offer - a stamp rally, involving a number of stores that do a really nice collection of out of the ordinary clothes, gowns, accessories, poses, skins and all the rest of the sort of thing to need to function in-world as an avatar who doesn't sit in the middle of the road. Anyway. As it happened this coincided with a long thought out plan I had (initially thought of it in October 2009) to give the brand a boot and hopefully draw in new people. How? Basically I look at my textures and realise they were OK in 2007/2008, but things have moved on drastically.

Why has it taken me five months? Well... I tell people this repeatedly, but they simply don't believe me... When it comes to 2D digital artwork, I suck. What I know about Photoshop is writable with a wedge-tipped sharpie on the back of a postage stamp; so there's been a bit of a learning curve at my end... including a month set aside to create JUST THE ALPHA MASKS...as I had to do it by hand... well.

If you look at the pic that follows, you'll see something rather unusual for SL (hey... this is me... what do you expect?) Rather than go for the conventional "dodge shine" in horizontal stripes across the base prims, I've decided to pick out the highlights in the hair to give some depth and variety... basically it shines verticaly rather that horizontally (and on a more technical note, my alphas are at the top of the textures rather than the bottoms... ;) Its been a ride, but they're working for me... even if it took nearly a month, over 200 uploads and a lot of swearing, crying and teethgnashing just to get a workable alpha(!)

The new textures themselves are only, for now, available in limited colors - 8 in fact; but of the shades I sell instore, there's no denying they're the eight most popular so I hope not to disappoint too many of you.

So... what are we looking at? For Faery's event, I'm unleashing Katherine as a prize... score enough stamps and you can claim all eight colors for free.


When the event kicks off on the 20th, there'll be two more new styles under the new dDx banner to choose from... a messy low slung bun, tentatively called Heather, and a simple ponytail which has yet to name itself. In short, look out for some new stuff next weekend!

Until next time,

Kalli

It said a lot that Savoir Hair blogged this release first...

Oops...

Confirming that Monique is out now... and there's been some movements re: some new stuff... I want to say more but that'd ruin the surprise!

Until next time,

Kalli

I'm going to hell for this one...

Announcing that yes, I have been getting off my sorry arse and have been creating again... albeit slowly... hey... progress is progress.

I have something in the bag that I *will* get done soon that you're going to want to see (although the NDA is still in effect there)... but in the meantime, I'd thought you'd probably like a heads up on a release coming out towards the end of the week. Braids... New ones. The first since Hair Fair '09, in fact...

This is Monique...



I'm posting this now as I've got a lot to say about it, and with the rush of a release I may forget... so... here goes.

This thing is, without question, the largest, most complex style I've created to date (in terms of primcount)... I knew it was unfeasible using my current methods to create anything really long and wild on a single attach point, as the 255 prim restriction saw to that. As such, I've overshot - intentionally - and yes I know some people will accuse me of lagging teh grid to hades, but... mea culpa. Monique attaches to skull and mouth - as would a hair and beard combo of mine. The result is, as you can see, some seriously long braids with dandy flexi ends.

Is it resizable automatically? Its not... sorry... but it does colorchange the beads into any one of 16 million colors, or whathaveyou. It's intentionaly non- autoresize as each prim of these things requiers a listener script to be maintained in each element. The server load of the sheer number of scripts would probably flatten most sims given time... so I've left them out. The hair is, however, rigged as fully moddable without having to fanny about dropping and collecting and so forth to get it to work.

Due to the amount of work involved, and the having to create what is effectively two elaborate styles to form one, I'll be pricing acordingly... sorry... In addition, I would ask all those who buy this beast to be gracious with it... No big events please, and be aware that there are more vertices in this thing than most game developers could ever dream of.

I know its wrong... but so many people have asked for long sculpted braids I had to do something.

Out later this week... watch this space...

Until next time,

Kalli

Three weeks late?

Um... well... got me a minute now to add something here about latest developments. I've launched the Hawkeye braided mohican, redrawn my store advertising (with plenty of advice from the irrepressable Alice Hoyer) and have started work on some new hair textures with the intention to create something that actually works low-prim, and looks a little more realistic than my current batch allow me to do.


Also working on a long set of braids that hopefully will be finished shortly - but for the meantime, its a lot of little jobs that are keeping me on my toes and away from the bigger picture - like updating the blog when I throw something out...

Mea culpa...

Until next time,

Kalli

This blog post has nothing to do with a certain movie...

Just covering my butt from a legal standpoint... this isn't about new releases... it's about the repackaging of some styles that have been in-world for 15 months in some cases. It has just come to my attention that in the wake of a certain, unnamed movie, there has suddenly become a large fanbase of avatars, all of whom are dressing the part, RPing and so forth... what's more, they have descended en masse to -dD- in search of braided hair. Now this, from my perspective, is very cool indeed; and actually giving me the well needed boot up the fazzoo to get on and build some more braids.

In the mean time, I have been watching the transaction history; and have noticed that a lot of these folks are not just buying one style from me... they're often buying several... so; to make life easy for them, I've boxed up two packs of four styles and am selliong them (in black only, admittedly) as a four for three bundle.

Imagery...



So there you have it... Box the first contains Sylva, Kaiba, Taylor and Laetitia... while Box 2 has Jocasta, Rush, Jordan (in both variants) and Nox.

Have at it, you tall blue people... or anyone else who has the need for several braided styles. There for the taking in Synchronicity, and also in Arborea

Until next time,

Kalli

I'm not dead... (I'm in Pittsburg)

"I don't want you to worry - I'm OK...
Just Didn't want you seeing me this way.
We tried to talk about it but we didn't understand
We never really talked much anyway"

OK... scuse me... Frank Black references aside (including the post title) but since November things have been very RL-centric for me... well... not quite... Took November (and a few days of December) out to write a novel... my fifth NaNoWriMo... and then had some stuff to do relating to RL and other machinations associated with it... then I was ill for a while... then there was the whole festive season to contend with... and... and... and...

Well... I'm sure you know how it goes - we've all been there. Basically SL had to take a back seat for a while; but I've had the opportunity to work on a few bits and pieces so now at least I can share a photo of some upcoming prototypes - a suite of three braided pigtails that I'm tentatively naming Antonia, Polly and Martha.

Pics or it didn't happen I hear you cry? OK...


Wondering whether to throw them out now... or add a couple of extra styles - something for the guys and maybe another set of braids (yes I know... it's been ages) first to cover my bases and not flit over any part of the ol' client base (because I love you all equally!)...

Still... watch this space as things are moving again...

Until next time, which with any luck won't be in March...

Kalli

It's Mira, Jim... but not as we know it...

I've always held back on making mixed color hairs before... basically because I've always been afraid it might open a real can of worms... but I really had to release a few of these for Mira, seeing as it designed with streaks in mind. So here they are - I've made 5 - and they're live now.






They went live last night. I would have said then, but I was just exhausted and immediately after I dropped them instore I fell into bed and slept for twice as long as I usually do. Stil bleary here, but waiting for the coffee to kick in...

Soo... going to get another. Feel free to ogle - and if you want to check them out instore; they're just 75L apiece.

Until next time,

Kalli

Mira now live in solids...

Well.. 2 hours late... but it's done! Mira, in solids at least, now live and in the main body of the store (tacked on to the back of the nearest pillar by the entrance as you walk in... can't miss it)

The update group's getting the demos delivered directly right now... and work continues on the the retints... here's an example... and please excuse the background... 31st of October and all!


It and the others will be out in a few days...

Until next time,

Kalli

So I was asked for a commission piece...

Strange request... not going into the finer points of it, but the long and the short of it was that after I made it, I was told I could do what I wanted with it.

Now - I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but I've tweaked it slightly... changed some prims about to make it not 100% the same and am poised on a release for it. I've named it Mira, and all being well it should be on teh shelves by the end of the month... so Saturday. It would be out tonight but the OCD's kicked in and I'm looking at it, thinking a couple of prims are still not entirely to my liking - and my standards as they are now don't allow me to throw it out quite yet.

The vendor photo, however, doesn't show the two prims I felt obliged to alter, so it's as good to go as any... So here she is... Mira...


Furthermore, the initial commission was intended to have streaks in it... well... I like this idea, so am setting about, time permitting to release a few companion variations (probably at 75L apiece) featuring some interesting highlights. As things develop I'll be sure to keep you all posted... eventually...

Until next time,

Kalli

Ruin live... and a word on cheap stuff...

Ought to have said something sooner... yeah well... mea culpa...

Just as a heads up, Ruin is now live, and has been for a week, in fact, in solid colors in the main store.


Just as a note, I've retexured the style a little since the pic was taken, and the overall effect is a little smoother.. so if you haven't done so already, it's worth checking out.

Furthermore, I'll be running a 'Red Vendor' sale for the next few days; featuring a number of styles at a marked down rate comparable to the discount prices. These styles are Niobe, DeShaun, Cliché, Shola, Seraphina and Aiodhan... so if you haven't taken advantage of the offers yet, do swing by...

Until next time,

Kalli

Movement...

Have been breaking out the tinter again and have decided to give away one of my sculptie experiments as a group gift... The Longhorn mustache...



Check the subscribeo if you like... will put up the full color range in due course...

Until next time,

Kalli