My Celebrity Collage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Errr..... I look like who?

Exclusive Tiffany Series Jewellery for Relay For Life 2008

I am pleased to bring you the next pieces of The Tiffany Range, an exclusive "one-of-a-kind" set in Pink Diamond & Platinum which is being sold by silent auction at the DiS Momento RFL Benefit Auction in aid of Relay For Life 2008.

The Tiffany Stud Earring

Weighing in at a mere 126 prims each, the subtle design of the Tiffany Studs add class to any outfit. In spite of the number of prims, careful design and build technique has ensured that these gems won't lag you down, their combined Avatar Rendering Cost being only 62.

"Sophistication and class ooze from every twinkling gem"

The Tiffany Drop Earrings

Glittering diamonds set in the finest platinum fall in two strings from a large, rare Pink Diamond encircled by precision placed micro-prim diamonds to form an earring that few will surpass.

"Luxury, elegance, and decadent sexuality in equal measure."

The Tiffany Necklace

The simplest of the Tiffany necklaces but no less beautiful The Tiffany Necklace is hand-built for a perfect fit.

"Strings of naturally twinkling prim diamonds closely encircled her neck, the fine Pink Diamond coming to rest gently between her collarbones, highlighting her soft delicate skin, kissing her most sensitive of places"

The Tiffany Pendant

Using two attachment points (chest & spine) this exquisite piece boasts a combined weight of 346 prims, an ARC less than 50 and two pendant types, to suit shapes of all proportions.

"His finger trailed along the necklace's fluid line, moving down between the soft curve of her breasts, his eyes resting on the large pink gem as it rose and fell with each beat of her heart"

The Double Stranded Tiffany Necklace

The necklace of every woman's dreams, this 417 prim jewel should be worn to be seen in.

"The perfect wedding day gift for your bride, it's beauty can only be enhanced her own."

All pieces in the ~flirt~ Tiffany range have been hand-built for a perfect fit, with consideration for your in-world comfort by causing minimal lag (ARC less than80). Be the first to own a Tiffany set in an exclusive Pink Diamond & Platinum setting and help a cause which touches all of our lives, American Cancer Research, through Relay For Life 2008. The silent auction continues until noon on Tuesday 15th July at the Metro Models Agency in Second Life.

A full range of ~flirt~ Tiffany Jewellery will be available from the "Say I Do" Bridal Expo from Thursday 17th July.

~flirt~ Relay For Life Tiffany Rings

Flirt is pleased to be offering four limited editions of The Tiffany Ring for Relay For Life 2008. Available at the ~flirt~ mainstore, all proceeds from the sale of these versions will go directly to RFL and American Cancer Research. Please give generously, thank you.

The Tiffany Ring :: RFL Platinum & Pink Diamond Ver.1

The Tiffany Ring :: RFL Platinum & Pink Diamond Ver.2

The Tiffany Ring :: RFL Platinum & Pink Diamond Ver.3

The Tiffany Ring :: RFL Platinum & Pink Diamond Ver.4

slurl to ~flirt~ mainstore

~flirt~ Tiffany Ring

The Tiffany Ring was designed for a dear friend of mine, JoshuaSteven Schism as an engagement ring for his now fiancée, Carly Corleone.

As we talked about the design it became clear that he wanted something out of the ordinary, something that she could show off and be proud of, something a bit different to the rings commonly available on the grid. He left the details to me. As I browsed the net for ideas and inspiration it becaome clear in my mind that I wanted to make something that was slightly ostentatious, something that, in the real world, would be coveted and way above the price bracket of average Joe's like Josh and I, but was still elegant and classy. Something in the vein of the classic Tiffany designs... and, well, diamonds are a girl's best friend! Of course, the design evolved during the creative process to become something unique, but in naming the final design I wanted to reflect the source of my inspiration, credit where credit is due, and the Tiffany Ring was born.

The Tiffany Ring :: Platinum & Diamond

Shortly after finishing the ring, after Carly had said "yes" to Josh, Linden Labs announced the introduction of Avatar Rendering Cost, initially on the Release Candidate viewer, but soon to hit the main viewer. At 178 tiny tortured prims, I feared that the lag caused by such a piece, measurable by everyone around the wearer, would be a major negative incentive to anyone wanting to wear the ring, myself included. After much research, experimentation, and learning about how ARC works, I was finally able to come up with a slightly modified design that had an ARC so low it could almost be ignored (see here for details of that process).

And so, I present to you, The Tiffany Ring. Comprising a single flawless 7.15 carat Linden precious gemstone surronded by double row of 75 melee diamonds set in platinum on a band shouldered by a further double row of diamonds, the ring is available with five central gemstones - Diamond, Ruby, Amethyst, Sapphire and Emerald. With an Avatar Rendering Cost of only 20-25 (minumum possible being 10, suggested avatar total being 500-1000) this ring is the perfect way to show a loved one just how much you care. Two rings are included in the box, fitted to the left and right hand respectively, and whilst sized for the average female hand size (20), it is fitted with a resize script to ensure the perfect fit for every shape. Priced at a very reasonable L$349 and available in-world now.

The Tiffany Ring :: Platinum & Ruby

The Tiffany Ring :: Platinum & Amethyst

The Tiffany Ring :: Platinum & Sapphire

The Tiffany Ring :: Platinum & Emerald

All ~flirt~ rings are available for gift-giving, either delivered directly to the recipient of your choice, or as a transfer-only version presented in a ring box which opens and closes for romantic proposals. Please contact me (Skinkie Winkler) in-world to arrange this.

Recovery Island :: Grand Opening Today

Recovery Island is a new hangout spot for anyone in recovery from any addiction, including friends and family, and is pleased to be officially opening it's doors today, Friday 13th June 2008. Come along and look around, hang out with friends, have a dance and make yourself at home. DJ Crighton Johin will be spinning the decks between 2pm and 5pm for a party hosted by the island's founders, Coughran Mayo and Skinkie Winkler. We look forward to seeing you there!

Recovery Island

On a personal note, Recovery Island is the culmination of a dream I have had for the longest time in SL, made possible by the generosity of Preferred Family Healthcare, and specifically Coughran Mayo who have kindly allowed me to use a parcel of land on their non-profit sim. My sincerest thanks go to them.

The vision was to have a place where anyone in recovery from any addiction can spend time in Second Life, relax and feel "at home".

Chill Out

With occasional organised events and user run spur of the moment parties, I wanted to create a place where people would enjoy spending time in a "safe" environment with other like-minded people.

Curl up with a book or chat with friends

Meet for coffee

Meditate

In building the island we have endeavoured to provide different gathering areas to meet with friends in small or larger groups, and activities including group-run music streaming, dance balls, and games including the Seven Seas Fishing Game. We envisage that the island will be further moulded by it's users to become what they want it to be over time.

Seven Seas Fishing Game

Play

The Two Pines Meeting Centre is available for regular or one off use by any addiction support group at no charge.

Two Pines Meeting Centre

Set on a sky platform to ensure privacy from recreational users below, the meeting centre is accessible only from the island itself. The facilities accommodate small and medium sized groups (max. ~20 people) at present, although this can be increased should there be demand.

Meeting room

Small group area

All are welcome to come and look around the island. Please feel free to contact me or Coughran Mayo if you would like further information or to book the meeting centre.

See you at the party!

slurl for Recovery Island

Avatar Rendering Cost & Jewellery - Some investigations into reducing ARC

I was a little bit concerned when I read on the Official Linden Blog a few weeks ago about "Avatar Rendering Cost" having just built an absolutely gorgeous, highly detailed and very high prim ring. Would people want to buy fine high prim jewellery once ARC hit the main viewer?

As I routinely use the Release Candidate viewer (unless it has an unbearable bug) it didn't take me long to take a look at how big the damage was from my new design. Ouch! In the red. I wasn't surprised. But it left me wondering.... how does ARC actually work in practice, in what ways could I reduce the ARC of my products, and how would that affect the aesthetics of my work. Would I really have to resort to flat prim texture diamonds?

Over the last few days I have done some "research" - a.k.a. playing with prims. Some of the things I have learnt about "ARC in practice" aren't obvious from the Linden Blog, and some seem to be in direct contradiction. Having chatted to a few designer friends about my findings, I decided to write them up on my blog, so as to share them with the SL(TM) community - perhaps you might find this stuff helpful, or it might help you in your own research.

A quick summary of the key things I've learnt.

• Transparency is THE single major contributor to ARC. It counts for a score of 4 for each PRIM FACE it is used on - so, a transparent cube counts for 24 in ARC.
• ARC is not always directly related to number of prims in an attachment (see below)
• Shiny & Glow add to ARC on a per prim basis, but far less significantly than transparency.
• Shiny/Glow/Transparency are "all or nothing" costs - low shiny costs the same as high shiny, glow of 0.01 the same as glow of 1.00
• Multiple attachment's total ARC is not equal to the sum of the individual attachment's ARCs if they share the same texture(s) - the cost is for unique textures (see example below)
• I've not considered flexi-prims at all as I don't use them. Sorry.
  

Regarding prim counts and ARC

The most surprising find, for me, has been what seems to be a direct contradiction to the explanations I've read regarding ARC. From the Official Linden Blog ::

"All attachments are then looked at on a per-prim level. The prims are weighted as follows:

- 10 base points for having the prim."

From this, it would seem that any attachment would therefore have a minimum ARC of 10x(number of prims). My experiments, measuring ARC directly, in-world, showed that to not be the case. I didn't test this with normal sized prims as I work with tiny prims, so this is perhaps a feature of tiny prims, their smaller size costing less rendering power, or perhaps it's a bug in the ARC software, or even just me! (I'm blessed, lol). But, certainly for jewellery it seems that high prim counts do NOT in themselves mean a high ARC! Good news for jewellers (and jewellery lovers)!

OK, enough writing, time for me to show you some visual examples. I've written a summarised explanation beneath each picture with the simple maths used.

In the first of the two examples, I have used a simple set of jewellery and looked at what happens to the ARC as I add individual pieces. The jewellery used has no glow, shiny or transparency (~flirt~ Laynie Necklace & A'Dior Earrings Set in Plink).

:: Image 1 ::

:: Image 1 ::
Baseline (clothed) ARC = 479

:: Image 2 ::

:: Image 2 ::
Baseline (clothed) ARC = 479
Baseline + Necklace ARC = 494
Therefore::
Necklace ARC = 15

Necklace has 84 prims
Total Prims = 84

:: Image 3 ::

:: Image 3 ::
Baseline (clothed) ARC = 479
Baseline + 1 earring ARC = 494
therefore::
1 earring ARC = 15

Earring has 7 prims
Total Prims = 7

Note :: An earring of 7 prims has the same apparent ARC as an 84 prim necklace.

:: Image 4 ::

:: Image 4 ::
Baseline (clothed) ARC = 479
Baseline + 2 Earrings ARC = 504
Therefore::
2 Earrings ARC = 25

Earrings are 7 prims each
Total Prims = 14

Note :: Two of the same attachment does not equate to twice the additional ARC, presumably as no new UNIQUE TEXTURES are added.

:: Image 5 ::

:: Image 5 ::
Baseline (clothed) ARC = 479
Baseline + Necklace + 2 Earrings ARC = 514
Therefore::
Necklace + 2 Earrings ARC = 35

Necklace is 84 prims
Earrings are 7 prims each
Total Prims = 98

Note :: Again, the total additional ARC is not equivalent to the sum of it's parts. Textures are only counted once, however many times they are used.


The second example also shows how ARC appears to be unrelated to total number of prims in the attachment. More importantly, it shows how ARC can be significantly reduced, with minimal change to the appearance of the jewellery, certainly not enough difference to be noticeable at un-zoomed distances.

I have used the ring mentioned right at the start of this post. The first set of images are of the ring as I'd originally designed it. These are compared with a copy of the ring which is unchanged apart from removal of all transparency and shiny. I've called these "High ARC Version" and "Low ARC Version" respectively.

:: Image 6 ::

:: Image 6 ::
Baseline (clothed) ARC = 479

Baseline + "High ARC Version" ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring, ARC = 1705
Therefore, "High ARC Version" ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring ARC = 1226

Baseline + "Low ARC Version" ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring, ARC = 489
Therefore, "Low ARC Version" ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring ARC = 10

Number of prims = 178 (both versions)

This huge reduction is ARC is from JUST turning off shiny and transparency on any prim that used them, no other changes were made.

:: Image 7 ::

:: Image 7 ::
"High ARC Version" Ring in build mode :: note number of prims = 178

:: Image 8 ::

:: Image 8 ::
"Low ARC Version" Ring in build mode :: note number of prims = 178

The following images are taken at full zoom in the same light settings. Whilst the snapshot hasn't been optimised for aesthetics, these images give a good comparison of the changes in appearance with removal of transparency & shiny (as well as showing up all the flaws in my workmanship :p).

:: Image 9 ::
"High ARC Version" ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring

:: Image 10 ::
"Low ARC Version" ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring

What the photographs don't show is the slight reduction in "twinkle" between the two versions due to the semi-transparency of the diamonds , an effect that I, personally, like.

So, where does all that leave me?

Well, I will, and already have, be making some changes to the way I build and how I sell my designs. I don't think it is up to me as a designer to tell my customers what they should or shouldn't wear, or if they should or shouldn't be aiming for a low ARC at any given time. However, I can inform them of the rendering cost of my products, and I can give them choices.

As of this week's release, all jewellery I design will have it's ARC at the end of it's name ie. ~flirt~ Tiffany Ring [ARC10], so that customers can see, before they buy an item, if they can sensibly wear it in the way that they wish. Where it is appropriate I will include low and high ARC versions in the folder/box so that someone could, for example, wear the low ARC version of their engagement ring whilst shopping and clubbing, but put the high ARC twinkly one on for special occasions or photographs.

I would LOVE to see other designers follow suit. The most bizarre things have extra-ordinarily high ARC's. A guy I was chatting to today at a party whose initial ARC was over 10000 found that the major cause was..... his prim ears! Who'd have thought it! As a designer I feel we have some responsibility to not put things out there that are that lag-inducing without fair warning now that we can measure this so easily.

I'd love your feedback and thoughts.

Your vote needed - PJira issue [#MISC-1124]

Do you, like me, keep an eye on the Fab-Free or FREE*STYLE blogs/groups and take advantage of the fantastic freebies designers make available to their groups? Do you have "IM to Email" turned on? If so, you may well have come across this problem and, like me until this morning, not understood there was a bug underlying it.

It seems that if you have joined certain groups, Muism, magi take shop, and 369 amongst them, even if you have left the group you may receive offline emails from the group owner saying "You have a message from [Group owner's name] waiting for you in Second Life. Log in to see it." This was NOT sent by that person, and they are completely unaware of it.

Despite it not being their fault, the persons named in the emails have been the recipients of abuse regarding this. To quote from one profile ::

"I've received IMs abt emails saying there r msg from me waiting for u in SL. If u don't see msg from me after logging on, it's definitely SL playing tricks on us. I've logged ticketsss to Linden. It's a technical issue NOT caused by me but if I could walk into Linden lab to pull the plug I would. So if u want this to stop, log your tickets too. I am usually not rude but I have to ask u to STOP IM or sending me notes on this & if u swear at me, I promise I will report the abuse. "
[Name withheld so not to worsen her problems]

If you have received ANY of these emails, or even if you haven't, but think this should be fixed, I would urge you please, take a few minutes and vote on [#MISC-1124]

If you have never voted on the Public JIRA, below are instructions::

1. Click HERE
2. At the top left click on "log in"
3. Log into the JIRA using your normal second life name and password
4. You will be taken straight back to the correct page for [#MISC-1124]
5. Look at the column on the right hand side
6. Scroll down until you see "Voting"
7. Click where it says "Vote For It"
8. Your name will be added to the list of voters

Linden Labs prioritise which issues are addressed in which order partly on how many votes the issue receives, so PLEASE, make a small difference and vote. Thank you.