Conclusion to our two week charity drive is tonight!

Details on the event at the end of this post!

Preface: For those who don’t already know, my wife (SL’s own Shai Delacroix of Casa Del Shai) and I (Kriss Lehmann of Botanical) both live in Manila, Philippines,  a city that was recently devastated by Typhoon Ketsana (or Ondoy, as it was called here).  We were extremely lucky and escaped the brunt of the typhoon’s effects, but so many others were not so lucky. Countless people lost their homes, some their lives. Pets, livestock, nothing was spared.  The aftermath of the heavy flooding left by Ondoy was terrible , and it’s impact will be felt for a long time in this region.

In order to help, my wife and I joined forces with Miabella Foxley (who is so much more prepared and experienced with mobilizing the SL community) and began distributing donation kiosks to all willing hosts to begin the process of collecting funds to donate to the Red Cross Philippines to begin a two week typhoon relief fund drive.  As badly as we wanted to immediately run out and buy supplies, many others had the same idea, and for the past couple weeks, stocks in our local stores have been extremely low.  We hope by donating to the Red Cross, we can do what we can for shelters to be built, supplies from better stocked areas be purchased, and mobile water distribution stations to be erected.

In addition to the donated funds, my wife and I are donating half of the Botanical and Casa del Shai Second Life earnings for the duration of the drive to the cause.

Second Life community response has so far been overwhelming and I am looking forward to publishing the final numbers of the fund drive.  I have seen a small part of the numbers, and it looks to be truly impressive.

Tonights Event!

As a wrap up event for the fund drive, Bethany Heart (owner of the Pemberly sim in Second Life) and Phemie Alcott (SL performer and owner of The Firefly Cafe have agreed to arrange and host a 10 hour Typhoon Relief Benefit Concert.  An amazing list of live Second Life performers have agreed to donate all tips generated to the fund, and many great Second Life stores have also donated items specially priced for the event, the results of which will also be donated 100%.  Participating stores include Addict, Aitui, Aoharu, Bohica, *Boom*, Botanical, Doux Petit Dahl, Duboo, Kenzie Co, Lelutka, The Loft, M. Fox, Minettes, Miseria, Modd G, Mudhoney, !ohmai, Pididdle, Pixel Mode, [[Shade Throne]], Silhouette, [skream], <SMP> and even more!

The event is going on AS I WRITE THIS at The Firefly Cafe on Pemberly.  I’ve heard some terrific music and seen some VERY cool things for sale.  For my part, I have put together an exclusive package for the event, called the Super Mega Copy Halloween Pack, including (all copyable) Hanging cobwebs, Spiderweb Groundcovers, Pumpkins and the newly released Split Rail Fence.  All Copyable, Proceeds directly for charity, and for tonight only… $L750.

NOTE: location should be “Pemberley/237/130/26″ SLURLS are updated!

Head over to The Firefly Cafe on Pemberly, pick up some terrific items, and listen  to some of the best live SL musicians around!

Update! The show was an amazing success, with $L411100 donated in tips alone. Amazing. Bethany has told me that she intends to keep the vendors up until midnight, SLT so you have a little more time to come by and check out all the great items people have contributed to the cause!

 

Finally! A new Release!

Quiet and unassuming, the humble country fence would never have crossed my mind as something to create for Straylight or release for Botanical.  Landscaping is Landscaping however, and even the things you don’t suspect can make a big impact in your landscaping designs.  With that in mind, I humbly present to you the Botanical – Split Rail Fence (Aged).

A carefully detailed, rustic wooden fence in kit form.

Included in this product is:
1 fence section – 2 prims
2 corner sections – 5 prims each
2 end pieces with stones – 3 prims each
2 collapsed end pieces – 2 prims each

All pieces are copy/mod so one kit will go a very long way.

I pride myself in releasing only the best content I can in Second Life. Every product I provide to the public through Botanical is a product that I personally use and love.

I hope you will love it as well!

You can see and purchase the fence in Second Life at Botanical at Straylight, or purchase/give as a gift on Xstreet.

 

New Release: Mid Winter Oak

I’m pleased to announce the release of a new winter tree for Botanical, the Mid-Winter Oak. This tree has a rich brown bark texture, with newly fallen snow clinging to it’s surface.  The bare branches show it’s very last autumn leaves strugling to hold on, as the winter season sets in.

This tree includes an additional two prim root set, also with snow, to be used at your disclosure, as well as two shadow prims, one suitable for snowy terrain, and one for grass.

I’m very proud of this release, and I hope it finds a place on your land

Mid Winter Oak is available at the Botanical store starting at L$150 and on XstreetSL starting at L$175

Seasons Greetings!

Botanical: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Straylight/127/104/24
XstreetSL: transfer version
XstreetSL: copy version

 

Ephemeral

Poid Mahovlich pointed me over to Second Life composer Dizzy Banjo’s blog, where Dizzy documents the short machinima “Ephemeral”, a haunting audio/visual tale co-written by Dizzy and Poid, filmed on the Princeton University sim (designed by Poid), and using apparently all Botanical Green Fir trees for landscaping.  It is a very beautiful film, and I am honored to even have been mentioned in the credits!

Link to “Ephemeral”

Link to Princeton Aspire sim in Second Life (requires the Second Life client)

 

EXEMPLARY Customer Service and Integrity in a Second Life business(Botanical).

“…I wanted everyone to know that Botanical not only makes great products, but they back it up with customer service that is just as wonderful.”

I am thrilled with this glowing post by Belial Foulsbane about the customer service at Botanical.  The full post can be found on the SL™ forums (may require logging in to view).

 

Faxed to Linden Lab: DMCA NOTIFICATION

I wish to report what I feel in good faith is an instance of Copyright Infringement. The infringing material appears on your service.

My items that I believe have been infringed upon are in particular:

* – Botanical – Emerald Forest Tree 1
* – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Straylight/138/87/24
* – ‘creator’ name: Kriss Lehmann

The infringing items are:
* – All trees on simulator
* – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Delicious%20Prospect/228/222/46
* – ‘creator’ name: Sephiroth Lusch

I have a good faith belief that the use of the material that appears on your service is not authorized by myself (the copyright owner), my agent, or by operation of law.

I declare under the perjury laws of the United States of America that this notification is true and correct.

*update*
The original notification was for a first set of trees that also used my sculpt textures. Those were removed by the group owner who was renting the Sim, only to be replaced by new trees, this time not with my sculpts, but still using tthe stolen textures. I’m leaving my DMCA report to stand for these as well.

At the same time I was on the sim documenting the trees, KatanaBlade Anubis, Samurai Estates Founder, was also there, having Sephiroth remove textures that were stolen from her builds on Samurai Island.  I would recommend banning this person from all estates, if you value your own content.

 

More Machinima!

Nicely done machinima with an extremely epic soundtrack, all that is missing is a *movie voice* and would have thought it was a trailer for 2008’s summer blockbuster!

Check it out here

 

New Release! Botanical Butterflies

Hello All! I took this week to wrap up some old projects that had been around the workspace for a while, and ended up having a lot of fun in the end.

In this release, I’ve included 14 butterfly and moth emitters.  The butterflies are temp rez, animated, and have an approximate 10 meter area. Along with some of my favorite species that I wanted to include in Straylight and Wintermute for some time, I’ve added two special species that will have immediate homes: Flame and Liquid Butterflies   The Flame species has a nasty way of dropping little bits of itself around.  When you get a whole group together, things get REALLY hot!  The Liquid butterflies are often found around streams and playing in and out of the waterfalls.

Stop by Straylight and see for yourself! 

 

More Prim Saving Releases!

As of yesterday, I have officially released what I’m sure is just a beginning in the Botanical Crystals series.

• 18 Crystal Colors
• 4 Crystal Styles
• Particle and Light effects
• 24 Packs of 12 Transferable Clusters
• Single and Multi-Color Sets
• Options for view optimization

All sets include beautiful crystals with a prim count ranging from 1 prim to 3. The largest cluster boasts 64 facets and is only 3 prims. Check out the photos below, then come see for yourself at Botanical!

Like what you see? Come see for yourself at Botanical and enjoy nature re-invented!

 

Botanical New Releases: Palms, Ferns, Grasses

As I had mentioned in the previous post, Sculpted Prims allow us to truly bend the old rules of landscape designing. To this end, I am happy to announce the release of 8 new items to the Botanical catalog, starting with SL’s favorite type of tree, the Palm.

Two Palm tree styles in 4 variations and 3 prims each! Available right now are the Mexican Fan Palm set and the Coastal Palm variety. Extremely low prim and hand detailed with sculpted and normal prim textures.

Even if the world is a beach, you can’t just have trees, however!

That is why I have also introduced one of my favorite creations, the 1 prim plant! Green and Yellow Dune Grass is currently available now at Botanical, and continue the low prim, high detail theme. I have been told from various customers that they have saved upwards of 400 to 1000 (yes, one THOUSAND) prims, just by switching to Botanical’s palm tree and grasses. This is fantastic news. Besides, what use is a tropical getaway, if you don’t have prims left over to really enjoy it?

4 Forest and Tropic Ferns, 1 prim each!

This is just one of the 4 new fern releases that I have made at Botanical. Like the dune grasses, this release boasts a 1 prim sculpted design, and creates an excellent filler for both beach and woodland areas.

These new releases and many more can be found exclusively at the Straylight Botanical store! Come to shop or just to explore, and truly see nature re-imagined!