le masque diamant skin by Mesut Collins and Gia Pawpad

Friday I blogged as a brunette, earlier today I was a redhead and now I’m a blonde. I know I seem indecisive but I felt like having a little fun with my blogging. I’m going to play around with skin tones and hair colors more often, even though I have to admit I am totally liking this blonde on me. We’ll see how it goes. Feel free to yell at me and let me know you prefer me in my darker tones, I’m used to people saying that all the time. :P

The reason for this post is the new skin I’m wearing in the first picture above. ^^ It’s a brand new skin from Gia Pawpad of LoQ. She just put it in the store now. The name of the skin is Diamant and I’m wearing the pale tone. It comes with blond brows and tattoo layers for dark, black and red brows as well. Also has cleavage and pubic hair options. As you know I love to play in photoshop so I have photoshopped that pic a lot, for a raw shot of me in the skin you can check out this plurk and also remember to try on a demo before purchasing.

Glam Affair Amelie skin by Aida Ewing

Since this is my blonde post, I figured I’d also share another image I did earlier this week just for fun in a different hair and makeup. A few people immed me asking me for the credits of the image since I never blogged it so I figured I’d go ahead and just blog it.

I was also asked to show a before and after of the image. I always get two questions often: “How much do you photoshop your pictures?” and “What kind of computer do you have?” In all honesty, I really don’t photoshop my images all that much because I am no expert in photoshop at all. You can see from the image below that I don’t do much other than a bit of liquify, blur, brightness and sometimes cloning and dodge and burn.

Would you like to share a “before and after image” and reveal some of your photoshop secrets? I’m sure it’ll be a great learning experience for everyone. Feel free to blog, flickr, plurk, etc… and lemme know when you do! <3

Finally, I know it has nothing to do with this post but I wanted to plug in a new machinima I saw today and really love. It’s such a powerful film so I thought I would share it.

French machinimatographer SamLowry Hawks has created an interesting film about Second Life Avatars, check it out on youtube at this link: http://youtu.be/8denvleKQIs

Credits:
First picture:
*Skin: ‘le masque‘ diamant – pale – pink lips by Mesut Collins & Gia Pawpad
*Hair: “LoQ Hair” RedWine – Golden Blonde by Gia Pawpad
*Necklace: [LWL] Terrarium Necklace (cactus) by Faint Paulse (MESH)
*Pose: Olive Juice by Isabellagrace Baroque

Second picture:
*Skin: Glam Affair Amelie by Aida Ewing
*Hair: Truth Barbara by Truth Hawks
Eyes: Mayfly – Deep Sky Mesh Eye (Deepening Spring, w4) by Arkesh Baral (MESH)
*Eyelashes: Miamai_Catwalk Lashes_Glitter 01 by Monica Outlander (MESH)

Before I get into the two pose huds and why you may need them, I just want to share a few things about what I’m wearing.

The poncho and jeans are both mesh. The poncho is from DECOmpose. There’s also a mens version of this poncho which you can see the sexy Carthalis wearing in his post here.

EDIT: Adding a quick note about the poncho because of Indigo Alecto’s comment below: I didn’t realize there was no demo to the poncho (which is unfortunate, all mesh clothing should have demos available), therefore here is a raw shot of the poncho and also these are the sizes it comes in: regular and large (no standard sizing availble). I am wearing the regular.

The jeans are from Maitreya and these particular ones in this color are only available to Maitreya VIP group members for 50% off. Details in this post and here’s a link to the Maitreya VIP group which is free to join.

Now on to the Pose HUDs.

Pose Anywhere 2.5
The first one I want to talk about is one I’ve blogged last year and use quite often. Pose Anywhere is one of my favorite pose huds that I use very often. You can check out my blog post about it last year, Pose Anywhere 2, which has a video tutorial and some more instructions. For this post I am going to focus on the upgrade for those who already own the 2.0, can go to the Pose Fair right now and get a FREE update to 2.5. You’ll find the updater there right now and after Pose Fair it will be available in the E2 Designs store by DavidThomas Scorbal.

Here’s what you can expect in the update: (totally stealing this off a notecard in the folder)
HUD now has an Organize button that leads to a convenient pose organization page where you can:
– Delete pose packs
– Rename pose packs
– Make backup copies of pose packs
– Delete individual poses from pose packs
The Pose Installer will allow either “install/replace” of an entire pose pack, OR an “Add” mode, where you can easily add poses to an existing pose pack already in the HUD.

It’s also easy to transfer all your current poses from your old hud into your new hud. Took me just a minute and I’m all setup with my new hud now.

If you don’t already own the hud from before, I suggest you pick it up from Pose Fair soon because it’s on special for L$549 at the fair, retail price is L$649.

Animare
The next hud I want to talk about is Animare. I don’t have much experience with Animare, but I did use it for this post and I have to tell you, it’s a lifesaver. Sometimes there are just some really fantastic poses I would love to use for my blog posts but I can’t because they don’t suit my body shape. Either my hand or another part of my body is misbehaving itself. This is where Animare comes in handy. You can use it to adjust any poses you have inworld, easily and within minutes. I got my hands out of my body in both these images very quickly and easily.

But that’s not all you can do with this hud, there’s so much more.
- Check out the Animare website for all the details.
- Buy the hud on marketplace
- and check out the detailed video

I hope you find both these HUDs as useful as I do. Don’t forget to check out Pose Fair soon. <3

Credits:
Skin: *League* Jen Dark Feline (Cleavage C) by Nena Janus
Face tattoo: -tres blah- Face Paint (Slash & Dot) by Julliette Westerburg
Hair: [Shag] – Pussy Galore (roots) – bittersweet by Sebastien Aries
*Top: DECOmpose – MESH Her Bandito Poncho by GutterBlood Spoonhammer (MESH)
*Jeans: Maitreya Zipper-Skinny Jeans * S Dirty by Onyx LeShelle (MESH)
*Necklace & Earrings: je suis africain by Julia Merosi
*1st Pose: flowey. by Flutter Memel (Available at Pose Fair)
*1st Pose Hud: Pose Anywhere 2.5 by DavidThomas Scorbal (Available at Pose Fair)
2nd Pose Hud: Animare Pose & Animation System by YT Recreant
Location: Pink Flamingo (Found on Koinup Places)

I fully admit to stealing the above image from the one and only Botgirl Questi. I stole it because I was inspired by her post and absolutely agree with her sentiments towards Mr. @SecondLie.

I too have had lots of days where I laughed out loud at his hilarious tweets. One of my favs was when he stuffed a meero for Thanksgiving. Then there was the time where he shared some very valuable information about George Clooney that I used to my advantage. So even though at times he made me cry, I loved reading his tweets so much, I eventually ended up proposing to him. Alas he turned me down (the bastard).

Now the day has come where @SecondLie has announced his departure. Twitter will just not be the same without him, but you can help make his curtain call more meaningful and constructive. For every LOVE to this post on his SL Profile, he will donate a penny to Relay For Life. Botgirl announced that she will match his contribution, and encouraged others to do the same. So Chestnut Rau and I have also decided to match his contribution. Please take a moment to give this post your love and let’s see how much we can raise!

Farewell @SecondLie, you will be dearly missed. <3

If you previously had a Google Friend Connect widget on your non-blogger blog, you may have noticed that it stopped working on March 1st. Google Friend Connect has now been replaced by Google+ Pages. In this tutorial I’ll be sharing how you can create your own Google+ page for your avatar, brand or blog.

With all the commotion of Google disabling accounts of SLers and with lots of uncertainty still in the air regarding this topic, I believe the best way to have a presence on Google+ is to create a Google+ page for your brand or avatar.

1. Registering: Go to https://plus.google.com/u/0/pages/create to create a Google+ Page. You will need to create a Google account in order to do so, if you don’t already have one.
2. Choosing a category: Choose the appropriate category for your brand, blog or avatar. I created my Google+ Page for my blog therefore I chose “Product/Brand” and then “Website”. You can choose the category that best suits you.
3. Customizing: Once you’ve registered and chosen a category, you will be asked to customize your page’s profile. This is your chance to add a tagline that describes what your page is about and add your logo or profile pic.
4. Editing your page: To further customize your page, you will find a blue “Edit Profile” button on the top right hand corner. Once clicked you will go into an edit mode where you can add further information about your page. You can click each section, fill in the info and then choose how you want that info shared.
5. Posting: Now that you have your page all setup, you can start posting content on it. You can share your images and blog posts just by simply uploading or linking. The only drawback about this is, unlike Facebook, you can not feed an rss feed to your Google+ Page (as of yet). So for now, for every new release or blog post, you will need to go and manually add it to your page.
6. Promotion: Now that you no longer have a Google Friend Connect widget on your sidebar, you can replace that by creating a widget for your Google+ Page. You can create a similar badge, as the one you see below, in just a few simple steps from the Google Developers website here.

Linden Lab® also has a great presence on Google via their Google+ Page. I did a post recently that contained a list of all the social networks Linden Lab is participating in, check out: SL™ Gets Even More Social.

Finally, don’t forget to Follow and +1 my Google+ Page to interact with me there. I visit it everyday and keep an eye on it. I also have a Google+ Profile which I also use from time to time.

I hope you found this tutorial useful. I have also done a Facebook Page tutorial that can be found at this link.

» For more of my tutorials, check out my tutorials page.

Are you looking for a way to get your SL™ brand more exposure? Social Media is an inexpensive and easy way to get the word out. I will be sharing two tutorials about creating and maintaining Facebook and Google+ pages with very little effort.

Creating a Facebook page for your brand or avatar is the perfect way for you to have a presence on facebook without breaking the Facebook TOS. With so many facebook users, it’s the perfect social network to ease into using and see immediate results from. Just follow these six steps!

1. Registering: Go to http://facebook.com/pages/create.php and login to your facebook account. If you don’t have one, you will be asked to create one. If you like, you can use your RL account to create it (that’s what I have done) and no one will know that you are the owner of that page. You can keep the administrators of your page private.
2. Choosing a category: Choose the appropriate topic and category for your brand and/or avatar. For avatars I’ve seen people usually choosing one of these categories “artist” “public figure” and “fictional character” like I have on my page. For Brands I’ve seen people choose “Photo” “Clothing” “Games” however “Product/Service” is usually the most popular. If you’re setting up a page for your blog, there is also a “Personal Website” option as well. Once you choose a category, enter in the name of your avatar, blog or brand.
3. Editing your page: Once you create your page, you’ll notice an “Admin Panel button” on the top right hand corner of your page. Once clicked, it opens up a top menu right above your page where you can then go into the “Manage” menu and edit your page. In the new window, go through each tab on the left and make sure every section is filled out to your liking. Remember to pay close attention to the “Your Settings tab” and make sure to check your posting preferences so you are posting as your avatar and not with your RL name, if that’s how you created the page. This is important if you wish to keep your RL name private.
4. Automatic Posting: Now that you have your page all setup, you need to start posting and sharing information about your avatar or brand. The easiest way to do that is, if you already have a blog, flickr or some other sort of rss feed that you can plug into your page using an app like rss graffiti, you can setup the app to automatically share your posts as soon as you publish them on other networks.
5. Interacting with your followers: As you build up more of a following, this is a great place to interact and/or get feedback from people that appreciate your brand. You can ask them questions or share information.
6. Promotion: Finally, it’s time for you to start promoting your facebook page. The best way to do that is to tell people about it. If you have an inworld group for your brand, send a notice. If you have a blog or website, post about it and visit the Social Plugins page to create a Like Box (like the one you see below) enabling your visitors to like and start following your page.

Once you’re on facebook, you may be interested in seeing what other SLers are doing on there as well. Here’s another post I did about SL Brands that already have a presence on Facebook via their own Facebook pages.

Linden Lab® also has a great presence on facebook via their Second Life facebook page with over 200,000 followers. They post daily content, ask questions and share images from other SLers. It’s a great community to be a part of.

Finally, don’t forget to like my facebook page and interact with me there. I visit it everyday and keep an eye on it. Thank you to all those that are already following my posts there! <3

I hope you found this tutorial useful. I have also done a Google+ Page tutorial that can be found at this link.

» For more of my tutorials, check out my tutorials page.