Vero Modero: Lady in Armor

VM: Lady in Armor

A time to celebrate, II (Warm Animations and Vero Modero)

Vero Modero Severine Gown

The gown as a mini

Continuing the graduation celebration from the last post---after tango, rather than changing into another formal gown, I used the Vero Modero's Severine sans skirt as a mini-dress for romantic evening on a warm Summer night.

Antique Outdoor set from Warm

Warm is offering an Antique Outdoor set at the Designer Warehouse's Cookie Jar event.  At 250L it's half off at this limited time event.  The set has male and female sits, a breakfast setting and, as shown below--red wine for romantic evenings.

The table is to prims as are each of the four chairs though more or fewer can be rezzed.

Taxi to the Cookie Jar

Lillesand set from Warm Animations

And on to the end of a perfect day...

The Lillesand bed set (bench just visible, left) from Warm Animations comes in both PG and Adult versions.  The PG version, reviewed here contains 132 Animations in 66 Couples Poses, 1 Stand Scene, 4 lay scenes and 2 Couples dance.

Lillesand, Norway

The bed evokes the romantic seaside town in Norway which derives it's name from the Norse lillesandr, 'small sandy beach.' 

The Lillesand bad by itself

The Lillesand set comes in Adult Transfer or Copy, and PG Transfer or Copy.  As is standard practice, the copy versions are more expensive than transfer and adult, having more animations, is more expensive than PG.


 Because both the bed set and this blog are PG, this review must end here... ;D

The Morning After

To check script usage, I rezzed a dozen beds and a script counter.  The Lillesand bed weighs in about where one would expect  a bed with this many animations and options but the low script run time indicates it's far better scripted than average.



 In detail:

Warm Animations Antique Outdoor Set***
Warm Animations Lillesand Bed Set (PG)***
Vero Modero, Severine Gown (less skirt)***
Just Designs JD Cruel heels, in black
Swallow Lion Classic Collar
Swallow Lion Earrings
Rose pin in dark red from Rieco Rose

 *** Review Copies

A time to celebrate...

The least episode of this blog left off just before the final exam runway show for the Miss Virtual World Academy's course.  Two days later a notecard arrived from CariLynn saying "THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS HAVE RECEIVED ENOUGH VOTES FROM THE JUDGES TO GRADUATE" and was overjoyed to find my name on the list.  To celebrate, a night out for tango, wine and romance!

Vero Modero Black Pearl Gown

 This black lace creation by Turkish designer Bouquet Babii is appears almost sheer on top with detailed textures.  The elaborate train comes to a tight finish at the skirt's bottom so it is highly danceable without tripping your partner up in silk and skirts.

Vero Modero At Ocho Tango

Ocho Tango is one of the wonders of SL.  The music stream is tango, the windlight custom and amazing (pick up the hud at the entrance) and it's an exquisite build both indoors and in the pampas beyond.

Taxi: Ocho Tango

Elevacion

The ocho in Ocho Tango is a figure 8 traced by the follower's foot as she moves across the floor

In Detail:

Vero Modero Black Pearl Gown***
Swallow Lion Classic Collar
Swallow Lion Earrings
Rose pin in dark red from Rieco Rose

 *** Review Copies



To be continued...

MVW 105, Day 3

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ MVW 105/Final Exam, Day 3 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

10AM SLT, 25 September, 2013===2AM Tokyo time 26 September, 2013

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The runway event is the culmination of the three day long final exam for the Miss Virtual World Academy's final exam.  The exam, MVW 105, is taught by Frolic Mills and the judges are MVW faculty and/or other experienced models or designers.



This assignment this time: Alexand McQueen 2014 Couture--Elizabethan influenced outfit and a runway walk with 3-5 poses done over 30 seconds.

"Mix match and recreate....If I look at you and it looks like Alexander McQueen designed that...."

The final product:

Alexander McQueen 2014 Couture, Elizabethan-influenced

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▬▶ CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES

The process: Went jumping around to [SyS] men's, NYU for the Ryan jacket demo, Solidea to look at headpieces. Then Boudoir for head pieces and Ricielli for shoes.  Nada.  Looked through my Period/Vintage notecard and also Fantasy/Gor notecards.  Checked Wunderlich for Elizabethan but everything was too historical, not McQueen enough.

Finally searched Marketplace for 'head piece' and discovered the Rho dress Aliza Karu and went to look.  The headpiece was all white but modifiable so had found the first and hardest element.

Used gold leaf texture to mod about 60 prims on the headpiece to the right shades of gold.  And for the inner lining of the headpiece, a white brocade

For the white dress, used 'Lady in White' from Violator:

Photographer and model: Wicca Merlin

And for gold cuffs/bracelets: VIOLATOR 'Just a Formality' Gold bangles

Couldn't find a pleated or brocaded corset I liked to to get a Tudor look, used a gold metal corset from The Plastic  "The Achilles."  Borrowed a brocade effect from the Leda gown from deviousMind and finished with white hose and ankle boots from Bax Coen.



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▬▶ BODY


HAIR
To get the hair, used an unusual hair base from MiaMai which has a nice part and from Amacci, the Betsy hair bun (retinted and resized) to fit up under the headpiece

NAILS
Mesh V5 Nails from Jamman shifted to gold.

SHAPE
Because it is a system skirt, had to shift the butt to size 0 but still ran into a problem with the Achilles Corset from The Plastic.  It's mesh but without an alpha.  To keep the skirt from clipping through, ended up having to set saddle bags to 0 as well. Pushed breast size to 48 to fill the corset.

EYES
'Surprise' bleached white eyes

SKIN
League Isla skin in pale



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POSES

Poses from Manifeste.  The sequence yields a 365 degree turn but at the cost of some clipping through on the brocade, especially on the fourth pose.

Starting: **Manifeste** - Model_187
Pose 1: **Manifeste** - Model_186turn
Pose 2: **Manifeste** - Model_166turn
Pose 3: **Manifeste** - Model_189
Pose 4: **Manifeste** - Model_162


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SCRIPTS:


BAX Ankle Boot White Leather R foot 320kb
BAX Ankle Boot White Leather L  foot 224kb
BAX Ankle Boot White Leather R leg 112kb
BAX Ankle Boot White Leather L leg 112kb
Jamman Nails L 64
Jamman Nails R 64
DV C System HUD 48
Walk replacer 16
Huddles Quick Pose 16

Make a backup copy of the BAXes and then killed the scripts in them.  With just the nails, DV C, Walk Replacer and Huddles, scripts weigh in at just 200kb.


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And done....with 2 hours, 45 minutes to spare.  Time for a cuppa, a relog and deruth and then off to the BOSL Fashion Dome by 2AM.

MVW 105, Day 2

A cocktail dress....

The styling challenge for day two of the MVW modeling course final exam is a cocktail dress and a short runway pose set.



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In detail:


▬▶ CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES


ISON Flight Bodycon dress in red

Skye-Qi  Reticella Lace Layer, circa 15th017th century, SS, retinted

N-core LULU Group Gift 2013 Heels

Chop Zuey Misery and Oreos set: collar, earrings and bracelet

NYU Minimal Bold Ring, in black
Exclusive at l'accessories

Jamman V5 Ultra Mesh Fingernails

Mock Bella Vetro Gloss in Guardsman red lipstick




▬▶ BODY


Dura Boys&Girls Hair #36 in black

Maitreya Mesh eyelashes

Tuli--Eyelash be gone! alpha

Skin: League Isla Medium natural

Shape: Anne-Made Things

Eyes: IKON 'Surprise' Eyes in White




▬▶ AOs and COMMS

DVC System HUD
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Group-private-chat-DVC-talkie-walkiecommunicator-Hud-for-fashion-shows/2197991

Huddles

Walk Replacer




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POSES


**Manifeste** - Model_206
**Manifeste** - Model_222
**Manifeste** - Model_197
**Manifeste** - Model_222 &**Manifeste** - Model_228 in sequence
**Manifeste** - Model_225


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SCRIPTS:


NYU Minimal Bold Ring 192
N-core LULU heels  128
Misery & Oreos Collar  112kb
Misery & Oreos Bracelet 112
Misery & Oreos Earring 96
Misery & Oreos Earring 64
Dura Hair 64
N-core LULU heels L 64
Wedding Ring 64
Jamman Nails 64
Jamman Nails 64
DV C System HUD 48
Walk replacer 16
Huddles Quick Pose 16

Total 976kb

Scripts won't matter much on Day 2 but for the main event on Day 3, keeping them low is vital to minimizing lag and worse, crashing and coming back ruthed.

MVW 105, Day 1

Assignment: "DRESS YOURSELF AS MODERN, RELEVANT MODEL OF TODAY."

And so the dreaded MVW 105 course begins again....


The three day long culmination of the Miss Virtual World Academy's modeling course.  For the opening day, the assignment is "DRESS YOURSELF AS MODERN, RELEVANT MODEL OF TODAY."  To that end:




Sarah Corset Dress in Red from FasterPussyCat

BSD Design Studio Chic model shoes in orange crocodile (not visible in these photos)

Miamai Latin Lover Gaucho Cream hat

VIOLATOR Leash me up Gold Black Cuffs
VIOLATOR Outrageous White earrings (re-tinted)
VIOLATOR The Gifted lashes

Jamman V5 Ultra Mesh Fingernails

[moushide] Collar

Maitreya Mesh eyelashes

Tuli--Eyelash be gone! alpha

From this angle, Frolic seems so tiny..... ;D

Tomorrow's challenge is a cocktail dress...

VIOLATOR: Summer Bouquet and Water Bloom in Red

VIOLATOR: Summer Bouquet skirt and Water Bloom top

It's late hot Summer and VIOLATOR, SL's Extreme Couture, is releasing new skirts, tops and high hotpants to help you catch the heat.  Pictured here are the Summer Bouquet skirt in red matched with the Water Bloom top.

The Bouquet and Bloom garments are new additions to the Pretaporter line at VIOLATOR.  The line offers VIOLATOR's extreme couture at a price that is anything but extreme.   These creations are the product of the mind of Soraya Vaher, a designer who works in the medium of the digital and the real.  For her RL creations, go to Finerblack.com

Finerblack, from the mind of Soraya Vaher

Under heavy development....

Preparing for MVW 105?

The MVW 105 class is the three day final exam for the Miss Virtual World Academy's basic course, which is coming up this weekend.  Is there a better way to prepare than a visit to the Psychiatric Ward?  OK, it's stressful but not *that* bad....

The ward is actually part of INNER Prisons AND ESCAPES, an exhibit at the Art India Gallery.  The Art India Gallery is curated by Quan Lavender who recently blogged my landmarks guide on her own Travelogue.

If you look closely, you can get a peek at two pieces under development at VIOLATER--the Summer Bouquet skirt in red and posture collar with OC scripts.  The skirt is part of a large expansion of the pretaporter collection that is slated for 1 September.  More to come on that....


Chop Zuey has been providing free classes to group members taught by well known and gifted instructors.  I attended October Bettancourt's Basic Photography class and volunteered as the fashion victim she used to illustrate camera angles for inworld photography.

Photograph by October Bettancourt

October took this photo from too low to illustrate a common mistake by beginning photographers.  This angle will elongate the model.

Photograph by October Bettancourt

Too far away and the focus on the model and garment are lost

Photograph by October Bettancourt

Here, the angle is too high which makes the subject look both too short and oddly proportioned because the legs appear so small relative to the rest of the body.  Note also that the composition is off because the Buddha's head is chopped off.

Photograph by October Bettancourt

The Goldilocks angle....not too high, nor too low and the background is coherent.

In detail:

Chop Zuey 'Misery and Oreos' necklace, bracelet and earrings
Jada Humby Couture's Lori Pencil Skirt
Medea blouse from Elesia Carter's Gold in the Night
N-Core FEMME heels in Noir


Chop Zuey's class schedule

October Bettancourt's October Studios Flickr

VIOLATOR, Downcrossed and Kidnapped

To celebrate VIOLATOR's Fifth Anniversary, Soraya Vaher has released four new group gifts including the Downcross Unisex set in red.

Downcross Jewel in Red

 

My friend (and Violator model) Anjelica Carling had the great idea of pairing Downcross with the Kidnapped haute couture piece, sans top.   Risquée but oh my....

Anjelica Carling, Kidnapped and Downcrossed!

I'm trying a variation on Anjelica's idea of using the topless version of Kidnapped but adding Marine Kelley's mesh ropes textured to match VIOLATOR's blood red.  Kidnap and ropes go together like....whips and chains ;D

Just add ropes....

In detail:

VIOLATOR: Downcross in red (New group gift)

VIOLATOR: Kidnapped in blood red (available in store and on Marketplace)


Taxi to VIOLATOR


http://slurl.com/secondlife/Violator%20HQ/128/128/22

Auteur à scandales

Colette, the jewelry set from Artistry by ~E~ evokes the French novelist of that name.  Elegant, even proper, yet flamboyant.  The necklace is a single strand of large pearls with pendant strands front and rear, catching the eye and drawing the viewer's gaze down....

Colette,

auteur à scandales

In detail:
 Artistry by ~E~: Colette Jewelry Set
Pose: The Muse Poses, Sappho #2, #4 and Karya #2.  The Sappho and Karya sets were exclusive at FFL.

 

Pendant strands front....

....and rear

Earrings with their secrets

 The pearl earrings have their secrets.  On closer examination, the pearls reveal an exquisite diamond nested within.

The real Colette, known for talent and her scandalous lesbian affairs, discovered the young Audrey Hepburn and cast her as the lead in the stage version of her novel, Gigi about a young Parisian being groomed for a career as a courtesan.

Audrey Hepburn and Colette

.... rode out in the desert

The Love Donna Flora event opened July 25 to raise funds for the last ditch cancer treatment of Donna Flora creator Squinternet Larnia.  To cut costs, Donna Flora was moved this week from it's own sim, Cinecittà, to a homestead which already means SL has lost a treasure in it's own right.  Cinecittà is Italy's Hollywood and the sim was as lovingly constructed as Donna Flora's period wear.

Vero Modero's Oki cowgirl combination gives me a rare excuse to revisit the most famous productions of Cinecittà, the Spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone; A Fistful of Dollars; A Few Dollars More, and: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  And rare because in the Dollars trilogy, the few female characters usually wore nothing but skin and bruises and worked on their backs.

In detail:

Vero Modero Oki outfit with robe (new)
Pose by The Muse Poses, Donna #1 (new), available from Love Donna Flora
Earrings and Necklace from Donna Flora's Old West Set



The robe from Vero evokes the iconic poncho worn by Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy.  The boots, pistol belt and cuffs are from other creators. 

[click link below to download

 mp3]

Sergio Leone by Jackson Browne

"Sergio Leone"


He came 'round here with his camera and some of his American friends
Where the money is immortal and the killing never ends
He set out from Cinecittà  through the ruined streets of Rome
To shoot in Almaría and bring the bodies home

He said
I'll be rich or I'll be dead
I've got it all here in my head

He could see the killers' faces and he heard the song they sang
Where he waited in the darkness with the Viale Glorioso gang
He could see the blood approaching and he knew what he would be
Since the days when he was first assisting The Force of Destiny

He worked for Walsh and Wyler with the chariot and sword
When he rode out in the desert he was quoting Hawks and Ford
He came to see the masters and he left with what he saw
What he stole from Kurosawa he bequeathed to Peckinpah

From the Via Tuscolana to the view from Miller Drive
He shot the eyes of bad men and kept their deaths alive
With the darkness and the anguish of a Goya or Van Cleef
He rescued truth from beauty and meaning from belief.

The Avie with No Name

 Vero's Oki is an homage to the American western from a Turkish creator which  echoes the origins of the Dollars trilogy itself--Italian films inspired from a Japanese film derived from an earlier American noir film.

'...was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you'

"Maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who has seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah"

Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah

Credits:

As The Good: Anne-Elisabeth Jane (lockedfast Resident)
As The Bad: The Avie with No Name
As the Ugly:  (it's SL fashion--written out of the script)

Wardrobe by Vero Modero and Donna Flora
Effects by Audrey Cresci, The Muse Poses

Filmed on location in Deadwood City
Score by Jackson Browne and Leonard Cohen

Abiss Canis

Abiss Canis

Abiss' new Canis bed is an original mesh creation with some 600 animations, most of which are paired in 300 couples pose pairs.  It is 18 prims in either the mod/copy or trans versions.

An unusual and clever feature of the bed is that the menus for controlling appearance and animations have been separated.  Click on the headboard to control appearance and on the mattress for animation selection.


In detail:

Abiss Canis bed
VIOLATOR Baroque Babydoll Lingerie and Leash Me Up cuffs


My partner has this bed in mod/copy so I've been able to experiment with the differences between the two and there are some important ones.  The copy version is of course, more expensive than the trans/no-copy version but the difference between the two isn't just the ability to rez multiple copies.  The trans/no-copy version has a menu for changing the colors of four areas; bed frame, pillows, duvet and mattress.  The color choices available through the menu are limited and tend towards the bold.  With the no-trans/copy/mod version however, there are nine areas that can be independently color controlled and the hues available are essentially infinite.

Breakfast in Beds

The photo above illustrates a few of the color schemes available using the copy/mod version.

His Bed

The styling is bold, even aggressive and when done all in black, the bed is distinctively masculine.  The frame of the bed is inspired by statues of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis who was commonly represented as an Egyptian jackal (Canis aureus lupaster).

Anubis statue from King Tut's tomb

 


As aesthetically pleasing as the bed is, it's not designed to be a pretty prop.  Animations are perhaps the most important reason for buying a bed and the Canis performs.

The animations are smooth and there are so so many.  It had great PG couples and three-some cuddles as well as fun activities (jumping on the bed!).  For romance, it has extended story scenes, couples anims and threesomes.  And while it has D/s anims, it really isn't a hardcore BDSM bed. Poses are set with most common avatars heights in SL-- 100 for male avies, 80 for female.


Two important features Canis does have is swap, which is absolutely essential and is often neglected.  Swapping roles when the anims are reversed is less mood breaking than hopping off poseballs and switching.  The bed uses poseballs but the anims are stored in the Multi-Love-Pose scripts (MLP) in the bed rather than in the poseballs themselves.  When finished using the bed, the poses should be stopped in order to reduce unneeded lag but by plaing the anims in the MLP, it means the bed is virtually unbreakable.  Lose a poseball?  Never mind.  It will rez a replacement.

My Ball and Chain

My Ball and Chain

Many of my friends know the Landmarks Guide I make because I've looted their LM folders to make it.  I've just finished updating the August edition so yay me, no more sorting for two months.  Now I just need to update the version on Marketplace...

With this ball and chain about to be removed until the October edition, I'll be focusing a lot more on blogging and a lot less on playing the librarian. 

The Guide comes in five chapters and you're welcome to any or all:

Shopping
Vanilla (General Interest Sims)
Building/Making
Howto
Adult

IM me for free copies or check on MP in a couple of days

Anne-Elisabeth's Directories



VIOLATOR: Device Pret-a-porter Bodysuit
VIOLATOR: The Gifted collar with silver/black Leash Me Up cuffs
The Muse Poses  Eleos 2

Beachcombin'

Beachcombin'

Vero Modero Gulen Shorts and Shirt

Vero Modero Gulen Mesh Shirt and Shorts (new)
Vero Modero 40s Sun Glasses

Artistry by ~ E ~  The Alicia Earrings
Artistry by ~ E ~  Bracelet from The Allegra Set (not yet released)

Beachcombin'

They say there's wreckage washing up
All along the coast
No one seems to know too much
Or who got hit the most


Nothing has been spoken
There's not a lot to see
But something has been broken
That's how it feels to me

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, Beachcombing

Mark Knopfley and Emmylou Harris, Beachcombing

Doing things the hard way...

縛り

VIOLATOR: Rising Sin Shibari in red (new)

Slinks flat feet

VIOLATOR's new Rising Sun Shibari outfit is a challenging garment for the perfectionist.  It's lovely straight out of the box but if you want every prim just perfect for your avie, it takes some careful editing--which makes it the perfect expression of shibari.  As a form of restraint, handcuffs are far easier and more effective than ropes.  Click them shut and you're done.  For aesthetics however, cuffs don't compare to the artistry achievable in rope and artistry takes effort and self-discipline.

Lest you think it's a fetish thing, consider karate, the tea ceremony or ikebana, the art of flower arranging.  The gun is a more efficient weapon than the way of the hand, you don't need to spend years learning how to brew up a cuppa nor put some flowers in a vase.  In the Japanese arts it's never really the product that matters, but rather, the self-discipline developed along the path.

Just to make things harder...

VIOLATOR Rising Sun Shibari & Chrysalis Couture Corset

Just to make a challenging outfit harder, I've mixed it here with Chrysalis Couture Corset.  Keeping the prims out of the mesh when mixing elements from different creators can be deliciously excruciating.

It needn't be all pain though.  Here are two tips for making this garment a bit easier.  The wrist cuffs are copy/mod so make an extra copy and rename them ankle cuffs.  Attach the second set to your ankles rather than wrists and edit them into place though you might need to stretch them a bit.  Done this way, it makes skin tone matching with Slinks bare feet utterly painless.  See the top photo for what your new ankle cuffs look like.

And for a second tip, attach the collar to your avie's neck rather than spine.  SL collars default to attaching on the spine and if it isn't narrow, avie's chin or collarbones tend to clip through when your AO starts to move you.  It takes a bit of skill with moving and rotating prims to get the collar in the right place but for the perfectionist, it's well worth the discipline.

Out of season on the North Shore

Out of season on the North Shore

July is pretty meh for surfing on Oaha's North Shore and won't get really good again until November.  Still, a bad day on the North Shore beats the best day pretty much anywhere else.  Better still if you can sneak a bottle of wine into your picnic basket and go with someone special to share it with...

Beach shower (Adult or PG) from Botanical, available now at The Home Show (new)

Canopy from World's End Garden

Bikini bottom, St. Tropez Micro in black from Liv-Glam

Bandhni Hanky Top in crimson from Zaara

Summering in the Hamptons with NyuNyu Kimono and Gatsby

Summering in the Hamptons with NyuNyu Kimono and Gatsby

Floral shirt in pink rose from NyuNyu Kimono (new)

Gatsby Hat (and hair) from Miamai (new)

Kimono Tie skirt from Nyu

N-Core Delicous heels

Cameo brooch from CentoPallini