Is this the future of content creation in Second Life? Recently the Lab has focused on better integration between Second Life and the web. Delaney Whippet’s Mirrorlabs flash based skin creator is a mashup match made in heaven to illustrate the way it can work. (You may remember Delaney’s funky-cool clothing line Microphage which made a splash in 2007.)
Using Eloh Elliot’s open source BSD licensed skins, Delaney built a flash interface to layer PNGs textures onto an avatar mesh in real time so you can see exactly how it’ll look before anything’s imported into Second Life. You can control the skin tone, blusher, lip stick, eyeliner, eyeshadow and glitter and use custom color selectors to precisely add the color combinations you want.
Once you have a skin you love, you can export a set of demo textures for free as shown to the left – or you can visit Delaney’s sales kiosk at her store parcel on Saturn and purchase a set of full download codes (skins are L$500 for singles, with discounts for bulk purchases) to download textures ready for direct import into Second Life. Since these are textures that you own and import yourself, you get them full permission (naturally!) so you can give them away to your friends, n00bs or random passers-by.
Here’s the skin I designed on the website as it looks imported into Second Life. Since the site is still in “early alpha release” there may be glitches in order fulfillment, but once you use a download code on a skin, you’ll be able to attempt downloads on it more than once – and Delaney has been really good about responding to customer service requests.
Future enhancements are planned and include adding things like custom tattoos, additional base skins and more. Delaney is actively seeking feedback for other ideas. You can read her full list of plans by checking out a blog post here.
Seen above: Skin by Mirrorlabs, Saturn (155, 17, 29); Phoebe Lingerie by Shai Delacroix (Autumn) Casa Del Shai (148, 127, 692); Donna Platform Shoes (Tartan) by Kookie, Juicy (30, 69, 24).
Now that is just freaking cool and you’ve got me wanting to go lingerie shopping in SL…again.
This looks an awful lot like the one SODA has..
I agree Sioxie, and Charlotte has it with her own created skins, instead of with Eloh’s. I think that makes it still pretty unique and avantgarde
hey, is it a bit similar to the one Soda has – except it puts actual textures from SL on the avatar model and manipulates bitmap textures on the fly. Soda’s is more of a flash order form for custom, high quality skins that are original and created by hand. I was experimenting with manipulating textures on the avatar mesh around the same time Soda Skin Designer came out ( http://www.doomandjune.com/microphage/?p=116 ) so this is an extension of that project. I am more of a programmer than a skin artist, and my intent is experimenting/exploring new capabilities of flash/ actionscript/sl and automation, So, at first, they may seem similar because they both use flash and deal with skins, but Soda Skin Designer allows you to order custom work by an artist- Mirrorlabs is a experiment/tool to allow people to create skins on their own.
Delaney
As a new system of creating custom skins, it’s a pretty nifty development, and I think the possibility to see it on a 3D model is a great asset…. maybe even possible to store your own shape specs in the future so that you can actually see what a skin would look like on yourself? Or am I fantasizing things that are so not feasible?
No, that is definately feasable and is an excellent suggestion. I am adding to the list of stuff I am researching. That’s so cool. ! Thanks!
“I was experimenting with manipulating textures on the avatar mesh around the same time Soda Skin Designer came out ( http://www.doomandjune.com/microphage/?p=116 ) so this is an extension of that project.”
I had overheard that you asked SODA’s owner several questions regarding how she accomplished her web application. Just to be fair – I do think that what you did is rather unique, but no where in this post or anywhere else do you mention what you gained from Charlotte Morelett. I personally don’t care – alls fair in business really, but being close to Charlotte and knowing what went on – well it makes me think twice about sharing information with anyone in this regard. I know that we should all be guarded and never let people have information that they could potentially run with or harm us – but as a fellow developer and artist what happened there was a little bit on the “grey” side of things.
I think that you should credit her with at least helping with the ideation or at least note that you did have a conversation with her that led you to this point. Otherwise I view what you did in the same vein as Apple and Microsoft and what they did to Xerox.
I do believe that if you pair up with the right partner though – this could potentially “revolutionize” the skin industry here in SL. It might even do the same for clothing really.
Sioxsie, that is not correct. Charlotte did NOT help me with any ideation, and a conversation with her did not lead me to this point. I have a the complete transcript of emails, exchanged between us in which i am suggesting ideas to her / inquiring if she is automatically creating the textures then later provided her with an illustrated examples of how to do it. In my origonal email I stated that i had thought of a similar idea but didn’t do it yet because i didn’t know how to automate inworld delivery. I have been creating actionscript projects along this vein for many years and do not have to ‘grill’ anyone for information on how do anything – i can simply use google and find any actionscript info i need. I am sorry that your friend has lead you to believe that I stole / borrowed an idea from her, or received ANY information from her. I have a full transcript of our email exchange, if anyone would like to read it please contact me at gbtunney [at] mac.com .