Day: May 23, 2020

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the Eighth Anniversary of the Cosmopolitan Shopping Event (Part II)

You might be interested to learn that I was one of the people who won a free Second Life avatar name change in their recent contest! (I did pay to upgrade another avatar to Premium to change her legacy name; I posted about that saga here, with detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to change your legacy Second Life avatar name.)

So please allow me to introduce you to Asako Kiyori (formerly stuck with the rather unfortunate moniker of Zelda Leeming):

Asako is wearing:

Mesh Head: This is a static (non-Bento) mesh head called Du by Altamura, which I picked up a couple of years ago as a free gift at a small shopping event whose name I have forgotten; I picked a skin tone on the included HUD that matched the Jenny body below).

Mesh Body: the Jenny Altamura mesh avatar head and body I picked up as a hunt prize from the 2017 Women’s Only Hunt; the Jenny mesh body is now available at the Freebie Megastore at London City (free; one skin tone; has Bento hands and head; more information here); but please note that you cannot remove the head if you pick up the freebie version in London City!

Hair: Nebula by Firelight Hair (a former Advent calendar gift; the Firelight group is free to join)

Blouse: Never Surrender blouse in midnight blue by Entice (a free Advent 2019 calendar gift which is no longer available, but you can pick up the same blouse in a purple colour as a free Stay at Home Club gift at the Entice store).

Pencil Skirt: Moon black pencil skirt by Virtue (if I remember correctly, this wardrobe staple was one of the free group gifts from their Advent calendar one year; the Virtue group is free to join, and there are almost 50 group gifts at their gift wall at this exact SLURL).

Pumps: Jai pumps by Rowne (free group gift; group is free to join; these shoes come with a HUD with 15 different colours to choose from, to match just about any outfit).

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR: FREE! (As you can see, it pays to visit the Advent calendars at some of these stores every day in December!)

So, I decided to take my newly-renamed avatar over to the second round of the 8th anniversary of the Cosmopolitan shopping event to vacuum up some fabulous freebies to augment her wardrobe (here’s the SLURL; you will have to join the Cosmopolitan Club & Lounge group for free to pick up all the gifts).

Here are three dresses from the event that I quite liked!

First up is a sexy little red dress called Kiss – Red Star, from the AVALE booth—perfect for that (virtual) night out on the town!

Next is the 8th anniversary gift from Little Fox: this fun. curve-hugging, bubblegum pink Terry jersey dress! You can easily dress this versatile piece of clothing up or down as you desire with the right shoes, jewelry, and accessories:

Finally, we have the cozy brown knit Christie dress, the gift from Eternus, which comes with a separate gold-and-leather belt as shown here. You could easily wear this as a sweater over a pair of jeans!

This second round of the Cosmopolitan 8th anniversary shopping event ends on May 30th, 2020, so don’t delay, head down today!

Happy freebie shopping!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: More Gifts from the Stay at Home Club

I thought it was time to give an update on the many new gifts that are available from The Stay at Home Club website. In almost two months, so many stores have decided to participate in the project that the website is simply groaning with high-quality freebies! I showed you some gifts already, but it’s high time to show you some more!

The website now breaks down all the dozens and dozens of free gifts into seven broad categories:

I think the spirit of this whole enterprise can best be summed up by Pink Pearl (SLURL), who placed the following heart-warming sign in her store:

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The gift from Pink Pearl is this cute pink workout set, which includes the top, matching shorts, and sneakers which you can wear with or without socks. The socks come in short and long lengths. On this Altamura Juliet avatar, I am wearing the Maitreya top and the Slink shorts, socks, and sneakers (Altamura bodies have Slink-compatible feet):

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You’re all set for your next virtual treadmill!

Some stores, such as Versaci (SLURL), have been extremely generous with their Stay at Home Club gifts!

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Here is the Beckie hair, a gift from Versaci (which comes in a fatpack of colours), paired with the Stay at Home gift from 7 Deadly S[k]ins, the beautiful Akyla skin, which comes in both Bakes on Mesh and as an Omega skin applier:

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Another store that is generous with Stay at Home gifts is AlaFolie (which has moved, here’s the new SLURL), which now has four different Stay at Home Club gifts in their store!

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Here’s the lovely Manon dress by AlaFolie, which comes in two patterns as shown, and even includes matching Omega applier panties!

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This fun yellow-and-aqua-blue Pineapple dress, another Stay at Home Club gift from AlaFolie, is also a keeper!

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There are quite a few gifts for male avatars, too! Here is the raglan V-neck T-shirt by ikr! (SLURL), which comes in a variety of sizes to fit most male mesh bodies (including the EX MAXCHINA Davide body shown here), in four different coffee-themed patterns:

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In fact, I am so impressed by all the freebies available via The Stay at Home Club website, that I have now added it to Ryan’s All-In-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life, where I condense all the freebie fashionista advice I dispense on this blog into a single handy blogpost with my top tips to style your Second Life avatar while spending as few Linden dollars as possible!

Happy freebie shopping!

Wolf3D’s Ready Player Me Creates a 3D Avatar for Mozilla Hubs from a Selfie

Some examples of avatars created using Ready Player Me

Wolf3D, a company that specializes in making personal 3D avatars for games and virtual worlds, has released a new browser-based program called Ready Player Me. Ready Player Me allows you to create a personalized 3D avatar for use in Mozilla Hubs, using as your starting point a single selfie from your cellphone or webcam!

(You might remember Wolf3D as the creators of a mobile app called Virtual You, which High Fidelity released to create a 3D avatar for use on the now-closed social VR platform. This app was withdrawn from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store when HiFi essentially ceased operations on Jan. 15th, 2020.)

Using Ready Player Me could not be easier. Simply visit the website, click on the blue Create Avatar button to get started, and take (or upload) a selfie. You are then given an array of options to change your skin, hair, eye and eyebrow colour, and hairstyle, facial hair, shirt and eyeglasses. After only a few minutes, here is what I was able to come up with:

Once you are satisfied, just click the checkmark in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and it saves the avatar, giving you a URL which you should bookmark somewhere for later use and re-use.

To use your newly-created avatar in Mozilla Hubs, open a world, click on the three-bars menu in the upper left-hand corner, and click on Set Name & Avatar:

On the Name & Avatar screen, click on Browse Avatars:

On the Browse Avatars screen, click on Avatar GLB URL in the upper right-hand corner of your screen:

Enter the URL you received from Ready Player Me, and click Accept:

That’s it! Here’s what my customized avatar looks like in Mozilla Hubs:

I am hoping that we will see Wolf3D-made avatars pop up in other social VR and virtual worlds! It’s such an easy way for somebody to create a personalized avatar.

P.S. Starting with this blogpost, I have created a new category called Mozilla Hubs, since I find myself writing about this platform more often. I will try to go back and add my older blogposts about Mozilla Hubs to this category, but that is going to take a little time, so please bear with me!