Recently in Skinning Category
It was sad, but it's also liberating. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the sale, thank you to everyone who owns a Nora skin. Thank you to those of you who have contacted me personally. Thank you for your support.
Splendor is officially released and available at sezmra.com. They are also available in world for everyone to enjoy! Please visit Crestfallen(in TwentyOne) to grab yours! I wanted to try and make the in-world skins a bit special and have not included THOSE makeups in the actual .PSD release. Really, I'm just providing you with a starting point with those files. Get creative. And PLEASE - I implore you to be considerate with their use. If you have created something cool with them, by all means let me know! Send me pictures! I'd love to feature them on sezmra.com as cool things people have created!
Also, you will want to update your links for my blog - this one is defunct as of now. Sezmra.com will be the new website featuring all things Sezmra Svarog. I am hoping to get my fashionplanet feed changed as well. If you're going to SLCC next week - hopefully I'll see you there!
Thanks!
So, go grab them before they're gone for GOOD, if you're planning to!
I want to thank everyone who has participated in the sale - you're helping to keep these skins alive on the Grid somewhere!
Onto the teasers!
click for full size
Four years ago, I joined the world of Second Life and quickly put together a little business to call my own. I became an obsessive "store owner". The truth of the matter is I'm a very bad businesswoman. There's certain things required to run a business. I'm not very good at any of them, really. I enjoyed it for a while, but near the end I had to force myself to upkeep it.
If that wasn't bad enough, I'm pretty frustrated at the stagnation Second Life has continued to experience over the years, under Linden Lab's reign. Hey, I'm not saying we haven't gotten new toys - I am saying that our old ones are still covered in mud. Since most of my SL creation is based around avatar skins, and there have been no real improvements regarding that - I'm just kind of exhausted with hacking and slashing away at it all. Vendor problems, customer service, dealing with broken tools... I just don't feel like doing it anymore.
My faith in Linden Lab has officially run dry. Sorry folks. So with that, Nora will be closing permanently. Please make a note that any new whatever claiming to be "Nora" from one week from now, is not my work. If I ever return to the SL business world, it will be under another business name.
Now that the negative is out of the way, onto the positive....
All skins will be on sale for the next week('til Monday night, 8-18). $100 a pop like my usual sales. When the week is up, the store will go poofies. Some of the accessories will become freebies and be available from a small nook in Miramare. The Entice 3.0 skin is NOT just disappearing into the void. It will morph into something entirely different. Are you ready?
**I will be releasing new skins as .PSDs under a attribution/share-alike license. This is similar to what Eloh Eliot has done. In doing this, I will be able to both enjoy creating, at my own pace, for Second Life no matter what Grid it's being used on.**
In addition I will release new layers that can be added onto the base skin .PSDs. Like, makeups or scars or tattoos. And all you have to do is combine them. I also want to release some tutorials on how to do it all, and how to add your own fun things to them. Approaching skins from this angle will not only remove the cost entirely from my skins, but allow you to customize them however you want.
What I have not decided as of yet is whether or not I want to allow commercial redistribution of these altered skins. It's a very fine line to walk upon in my desires and goals with this new project. I will, of course, entertain any opinions regarding this particular detail. So, share away. This website will be updated in about two weeks, give or take, and it will house these new resources. My blog will remain intact, I'll just be adding onto it.
The previously beta-tested Entice 3.0 will be the first of these skins and will be rebranded. More skin details will be uncovered as I make my decisions regarding them. I'm excited about this and look forward to producing future work for your use in Second Life and its sister Grids.
My personal thank you goes out to everyone who has ever bought a Nora skin, supported Nora in any way, and cheered me on during the last four years. I can only hope my new contributions will be as appreciated as much - you folks make me smile!
To those who might think I'm leaving Second Life: I'm not. I'm just not going to develop content for in-world sale. I'll be taking it easier, enjoying being a PART of Second Life, and will still be DJing on Tuesdays. Hey, maybe I'll see some of you in world instead of being holed up in a studio somewhere cursing vendor scripts. That'd be a nice change of pace, wouldn't it?
See you soon!
I reworked the stomach today, so now I've taken some full body shots. I still have to tweak the lower stomach a bit, but the seams are done! It was a last minute decision to redo the stomach, but I know that if I just can't shake the feeling that I should change it, that I definitely should change it.
I'm sure there'll be more smaller tweaks in the next week.
Ramble, it's late, shush.
I also took this as an opportunity to compare the current Entice (2.0) to the up and coming 3.0. What a difference! o.O
Most of everything is finished. I'm going on to the tweaking stage. This is a bit of a relief, because it means the bulk of the rework is done and I can be lazy and picky without fretting over technical things.
Does that make any sense? Not sure. Seemed like it! :P
More work on the face and body today. I reworked the clavicle/tendons, which is one of those "I'm not sure" areas because it's a very integral area that I feel is noticed more often. The eyebrows are another area of discontent for me. I hate the way SL handles eyebrows and their positions... the outer brow is pretty much glued in place and sliders generally only affect the inner brow. So I can either make short eyebrows that SEEM to move better, or long ones like in the picture.
I may keep these eyebrows and just adjust the outer brow shape so it looks more curved.
Oh yeah, picture.... This is one of the new "drama" makeups which has that faux eyelash look built into it. Same WL settings as last time.
I may be sending out a test skin to a few people for feedback. I can't promise I'll implement anything suggested, but I definitely will listen and take it into consideration.skin: duh, Nora Entice 3.0 test skin, Champagne
eyes: Nora Gaze
hair: ETD
top: pixeldolls
I can't stop working on it!
Okay okay okay. Okay.
I spent more time on the face today, and I have it just about where I want it. Faces aren't hard, but I can end up spending SO much time on them if I let myself. Just a smudge here, or there.... and I notice everything. EVERYTHING. The tiniest change. Plus, some of the mapping in the face can be wonky here and there.
In any case, I made this shot to show off the new chest and neck. I personally love the new bewbs. This is taken with WL settings and NOT total-ambience. I'm not sure it'd be fair to take ambience shots when WL is going to do its thing regardless.I have no real ETA on this one. I mean, it'll be done when it's done. I'm like the Blizzard of skins, I just can't churn them out. I'll also be revamping the makeups, so that'll add on more time. I suspect 2-3 months. I'll work on it again next week... small breaks between help me notice stuff I didn't notice before.
Woo!
I'm digressing though. I was tempted to make a whole new skin instead of updating Entice(for women), but in the long run I think that offering one or two specific looking skins is what I'd rather continue doing at Nora; to maintain a style that is in line with what I offer and that isn't lost in a bevy of choices. So I decided to update Entice to 3.0. It will be a couple of months before it goes live, because I finish it and take all new product shots. I hate that last part, but whatever, necessary evil. It'll give me a chance to rearrange some of the makeups I have now into more logical choices. I'd like to make a whole pack or two of freckle-skins, for instance.
3.0 is a logical step for Entice - as a skin-designer that works at her own pace, I do learn and after staring at a skin for a year, you begin to think "You know, I could touch that up a bit". I hate the current Entice mouth, for instance. I sometimes wonder what the heck I was thinking when I did it. I'm so self-critical! :P It also gives me a chance to incorporate some of the more popular skin "features" these days. Like defining the sternomastoids (read: neck tendons) above the clavicle a bit. I could ramble on. Suffice it to say, though, I can't guarantee everyone will like the new update. It has to be done though, from a product standpoint.
Anyway, with Windlight on the horizon and being an inevitable evil, this is a good time to re-evaluate Entice for an update. WL is changing the way skins look and it can't be avoided. I spent the last few days tweaking some parts, already. I work in "Champagne" by default so that's the only preview I have to offer right now. And, yes, this shot is taken with Windlight settings, instead of my high-ambience-no-shadows setup.
This year will be Nora's 4th year of operation. I have "Nora
Appreciation Week" coming up on the 14th, so I thought I'd take a bit
to reminisce all the way back to Day One!Nora originally began as a fantasy-goth clothing store. One fateful day while visiting Le Cadre, during an event, yours truly met Kimmera Madison. Kimmera was a designer, herself, and she complimented me on my skin. My skin was my own - I had worked on it shortly after I began using SL. I spent all 250 of my starting Lindens trying to make it. So, you could say that from my first day, I was a skinner.
Anyway - Kimmera showed me some then-popular skins and what she didn't like about them... and then asked me to make her a skin. Thus it began! I made it to her liking and she was the Prototype for the first Nora skin. She did not mind that I would sell it in my own shop, which was kind of her!
This skin was essentially, 1.0 - it came in 7 skin tones, Vanilla, Caramel, Cocoa, Chocolate, Gothic Cream, Gothic Sky, and Gothic Lily. The skin was a bit too harsh all around, and the colors were somewhat too rich. I sure was proud at the time though! The biggest complaint I received about it was the stomach. Of course, I didn't have a lot of experience handpainting stomachs at the time. Heee!
You may actually recognize the makeup here - it was ripped long ago and spread around as "free". It's called Cherry Bomb. Back then I sold basic skins and then sold separate makeup texture files. It really was just a matter of time, as all thefts are in SL.
This was in 2004, sometime in the fall. I wouldn't be until 2005 that I'd redo the skin for a 2.0 release. ... 
However, I think I left out one little detail.... Samantha's lips are technically tintable with the Makeup - Lipstick sliders. I know! I didn't make a big deal out of it because Sam's lips are a slightly different shape than the "expected" avatar lips are.
The renovations took a bit longer than I expected, partly due to a surprise addition to our family.
Secondly, I've gone through with my plan to remove three Entice color tones to make more room and to be less redundant. I know! I'm sorry, but this'll be for the best. I have included a notice as well as a notecard for those who would like to know how to best replicate the now missing skins' base colors. It won't be exact, but it's close. Thanks.
And, of course, Samantha has been officially released. This skin is a bit "glowy" and features a younger face than Entice. Details:
- Four skin colors
- Three makeup sets each
- Bald and Scalp hair in four different colors each
- Two free matching hairstyles
- Tintable with skin color sliders
- Optional, tintable pubic hair layer
I've also installed a subscribeomatic unit for Nora updates. So now it's easy to stay in touch with Nora and not count your groups. I won't be removing the Nora group just yet. Feel free to subscribe, when you have time!
I'll be redesigning the store, re-organizing skins, and releasing Samantha, horray! She's only 4 months late, right? Hur hur.
Samantha has been a huge chunk of my time lately, and believe you me, it's an absolute ton of work releasing a skin line with multiple skin tones. I've done some things different with this release, including giving Sam optional hair in the four basic colors. No, I'm not talking pubes here. Heh! There will also be a couple of freebie hair styles to go with Sam. Holy crap, more bang for the buck!
She's had quite a face lift since we last saw her. Even since the Valentine skin. I really can't leave well enough alone. Probably why I take so long to make skins. Eh! I'll also be making her shape available much the way I did with Hunter/David.
See you later!
I also perused my sales statistics to see which skin might be popular. At a glance, it seems that Cinnamon is the most popular skin tone for Entice. The rest aren't far behind. I'm tempted to keep Cinnamon because of this.
In any case, my experiment went like this.
The biggest problem is each skin has a gap of "light/dark" that the next skin can't quite reach. It's close, but not exact. Latte and Cream are very similar. While Latte can look like Cream, Cream canNOT look like Latte. I tried it, it just didn't pan out.
Then I tried to see if Champagne could resemble Latte. Indeed, I got close.
Next was Almond. I'm kind of a fan of it, I don't know why. Almond didn't make a very good Cinnamon, but Cinnamon scaled back to make a somewhat convincing Almond. The skin lost a bit of color saturation, but thus is the process here.
Lastly, Mocha and Truffle battled it out. I knew I was keeping Espresso, so I didn't have to fiddle with that. Mocha made a pretty good Truffle. It's not as dark, of course, but it was more "red" like Truffle is.
Below are sample images of the experiment:
As you can see, they're close! Now, this does mean that Cinnamon turned into Almond won't be able to go as light in color as Almond could; in all cases, the color slider was maxed out one way or the other in order to reach the other skin's tone.
With this particular arrangement, Latte, Almond, and Truffle would be removed, leaving Glow, Cream, Champagne, Cinnamon, Mocha, and Espresso.
I will mull over this before deciding, but it seems like the logical way to go, given these color tests.
More later!
The problem is: which ones? Several are quite similar to each other, but they're all somewhat different as well. Almond is "yellower" than Cinnamon... Mocha and Truffle are similar shades, but Truffle is "redder".
While these skins are all different, they are slightly redundant and kind of a strain on store space. So, some of them need to go.
If you're a Nora skin user - I'm asking you which skin YOU prefer. Along with sales information, I may just be able to make a decision without pulling my hair out! Hee!
Happy Tuesday! I've started troubleshooting the Samantha skin, this week. Testing is going well! While making darker skin tones is tricky, it really does help you find some areas that may need tweaking. Either way, I have a few more touch ups planned for Sam before I get to work on creating her options. Creating this new skin has had some unexpected effects on my current store-model. I've stuck to a pretty logical method of doing things, and may end up altering some of my habits with Nora. Okay, now I'm just rambling.On to the goods!
These are the last in-progress-previews you'll see of Sam... the next time you see her, it will be release time!
*lingerie: Hollee, Nyte 'n Day, Cailyn Miller, Nicky Ree
* eyes: Nora* hair: ETD, Calla
I'll be on vacation next weekend at Dragon*Con in Atlanta and will probably not get to finishing up Samantha before then. So, expect a September release!
I caved in and picked a lovely hairstyle by Calla as the new 'do for Samantha. It was really difficult to resist. There are some wonderful styles in Calla's collection. I spent a lot of time on this yesterday and have gotten a lot done on the skin. I need to go back over it and even out all the highlights, though.
Working on this new skin, even though I did just release the Entice for Men line, has taught me a few things. I've had fewer obstacles with this one than my previous skins. Skinning, at it's basic level, is still just texturing a 3D model. It's easy to get caught up in the fact that it's reproducing a humanoid form. Seams are a very interesting part of this. Some people tend to ignore seams outright. Stop! No! I'm not riding the criticism train. I'm just sayin'.
For me, seams were an immediate hatred situation. I mean, skin doesn't have seams! AGH! Right? Yeah. So, I found myself being afraid of seams, again, with this skin. This is a poor reaction and one I've learned from. While they are annoying, they aren't going away, and it's better not to be lazy and to just deal with them. In the end, I'm going to try and avoid making Samantha look like she's caged inside her mesh.
Sam is also a departure for me, as a skinner, for various reasons. She's not as soft as Entice, and there are definitely more noticeable highlights. Especially in regards to the face. Remember, glowierer! Or something! Oh, and I'll go ahead and say that her breasts are definitely more "blam!" Wait 'til you see the nude pics. Besides, there's no need to reproduce Entice and just name it something else, that's redundant. I find redundancy to be confusing, not only to myself, but to skin-buyers. Often what designers see as "different" can come across to others as "not different enough". I certainly don't want to confuse my customers. :) Samantha won't be for everyone, but, then, none of my skins are.
Bah! Previews, right?
I've pulled off my former "firmer" description. I decided to go for healthy instead of needing-to-eat-a-sandwich.
More at a later date! ...I'm not sure how this even got started; I think I decided to try this out when I was working on a new pair of lips. Either way, here's a preview of an upcoming Entice skin codenamed "Samantha". I used the current line as the basis for this skin, however, when I say basis, I mean "starting point". There's only a few things that will be similar between the two, namely secondary features like hands and elbows.
As far as the theme, she's firmer, younger, and her skin is a bit glowier. She'll come in 3 tones, with quite a few options out of the gate. Here's a small preview. She isn't finished, but I couldn't resist. I have no idea when this will be launched. It was kind of a spontaneous decision. :)
I haven't seen this mentioned on any of the fashion blogs I read, so I'm curious if anyone knows about it.
There's a Skin Expo from the 10th-17th at the sim GIVENCHI. I can't teleport there, myself, due to the usual SL instabilities, so I'm not sure what's going on, right now. However, there's supposed to be Runway shows featuring skins and several skin-makers selling their wares(me included, har!).
The idea had/has potential and I'm interested in knowing how the Expo fares. It may be a good spot to get a good look at lots of different skins, all in once place.
As promised, here's a few previews of some of the upcoming facial hair. Note that these are only 3 of the planned 12 different skins coming soon! The options will be the same for both Hunter and David. The first set(3 skins) will be available later this week. Woot!
So, stay tuned!
Sigh.
Well, no fix yet, however while the 'Net has been sucky, I've done a bit of work on some Summer newness for Entice. Just a preview, really.
(the FAB hair is from ETD's Aveda line)
As promised, I'm posting some six previews of examples of what to expect when Entice For Men is released.
Now, granted, these are not completely final; some tweaking has been done since these were taken. I'm obsessive, I know. In any case, the options themselves will remain. Remember, we're working with two skin sets here, and each will have the same options, but remain individual.
Hunter
Recap: muscular, toned and pretty manly. Here we have the regular face, a scarred face, and an older face with mustache.
David
Recap: "svelte", and not so toned. As far as the face goes, it's smoother and the eyebrows are thinner. Here we have the regular face, a goatee of sorts, and simple eyeliner.
Back again tonight/today with preview round two!
This is skin two, codenamed "David". There's only a few things different in this one, but I find them to be significant. One major complaint I've always had with the men's skin industry is the abundancy of "muscle skins". That's a whole realm of discussion I don't wish to get into or light a fire under.
Either way! This time around I wanted to offer more than one look for guys. "David" is less defined and smoother. Facial options will be the same between the two skin types, as well.
Just doing what I promised; posting some previews! I'll have more tomorrow, as well...
This is skin one, codenamed "Hunter". It features your classic ruff and buff manliness, the two faces here are two of the options that will be available.
The second is actually a stubble+soft wrinkles option. It's kind of hard to see in the image, now that I look back on it.
Tomorrow! Previews of skin "two".
See, I mean it when I say I'm working on the new skin! Of course, this is just a preview courtesy of Photoshop... using the ugly standard model. I need to get my tablet out and define the wrinkles a bit more(yeah, I still use my mouse for most of my graphic work), but that's the general idea of what I'm going for. This is just one of the face options, don't worry, I'm not just making grandpa!
So yeah, back to work.
Another Wednesday, another release! Yes, I know, "Quit with the bindis already!", huh? Well, here's another, this one's called Tearful, and features a nifty eye shape for the more adventurous bindi wearer. More funky bindis like this are expected in the future.
Since the first thing I got started in, as a merchant, was fashion, I'm trying to melt back into design work. I am by no means a good designer, but I enjoy my attempts. I have never worked with prim skirts or flexi skirts until now. It's more of a practice run that I liked quite a bit. It's called Fillig and comes in 6 colors; blue, red, green, yellow, off white, and black. I imagine I'll be making more flexi-prim goodies soon. :)
Okay, a sneak peek of the up and coming male skin, which is so totally not in any final stages yet so squee at your own risk. :) This one is wearing some good ol' stubblestuff. Theres still tons more work to do, like, skinning his legs , and lots of head choices. I'm shooting for the end of April or middle of May. There will be two versions of the skin, and each will feature colors close to the current Entice skins.
I'm also still processing Entice updates - so if you contacted me, don't worry!
