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

 

A very touching tribute to someone passed.

My friend Eshi Otawara showed me this extremely touching tribute to her passed husband that she made in Straylight. Be sure to read her note under the video *wipes tear*

Click to view video here

 

Second Life™ Showcase – Straylight

As part of their “Virtual Spring Break” series, Linden Lab® featured Straylight here: http://secondlife.com/showcase/blog.php?blog_category=3

I’m not sure how long it will last, with all the fantastic places around, but I really appreciate the tip of the virtual hat!

Also you can find a link to the newly opened Visit Mexico 2 & 3, which I helped landscape. http://secondlife.com/showcase/sub_page.php?showcase_category=4

 

Beautiful Flythrough Video!

Sevent Uriza sent me a link to this video she made featuring dramatic fly-through footage of amazing quality! Included in the various sims represented in the video is our very own Straylight ^^ Beautiful soundtrack on this one!

Link: sevenload.com

 

More fashion magazines and Straylight… What is up with this?

Apparently if it’s not the sim, It’s me… ladies and gentleman, I introduce you to Homme magazine, “for the finest men in SL”. Published by Arj Friedkin and Davey Hullabaloo, Homme contracted the always funny Catero Revolution to dig into all sorts of interesting details on my store and myself for Issue #3 (requires adobe reader). Be sure to check out the entire issue and pick up their past issues from the website as well. Fantastic read and a really beautiful layout.

 

Going Broke with Daphne and Tamara. Podcast Interview

I was shocked when I found out that that Daphne Abernathy and Tamara Kirshner of Going Broke with Daphne and Tamara fame wanted to interview me for their fantastic podcast series. I was more familiar with their fashion advice and wit, but they had a terrific twist.  Now that you are following their advice and looking fantastic, where do you go to photograph your avatar beauty?  Their answer is Straylight, and I had a terrific time talking to Daphne and Tamara about Botanical, Straylight, and how it all started. Check it out here!

 

It’s been a while! Botanical/Straylight News

First off, a sincere apology for those who read this blog. RL issues had been making it difficult to keep up with everything in the Botanical/Straylight universe, so let me get started in getting everyone up to date!

A Whole New Sim!

Just when I thought I was getting Straylight wrapped up, I had to go and get a new sim, and now everything is up in the air again!

Since becoming one of the most popular places to visit in Second Life, I’ve been feeling a lot of pressure to on two fronts:

• Keep Straylight a nature sim to be enjoyed visually
• Maintain enough room for Botanical, which makes maintaining Straylight possible.

There are a few ways to go about this, in my opinion. I can make individual trees and plants for sale no matter where you are in the sim. I could move the store section up in the air, providing more room to visually browse, and perhaps add teleport points from areas of interest on the ground to the corresponding store in the sky. I can add store sections to each of the major themes in Straylight, perhaps tucked out of the way, but in visually identifiable areas. I’m more likely in my mind to go with the last idea, mainly because I make Straylight as a place of “natural” beauty, and even as people shop, I want that beauty to be evident. I central store level (kind of what I have going on with the center island) IS ideal, but I only have so much space. I’m thinking that specific themed store areas with teleports and paths for moving around might be the best answer for the time being. This lets me also expand my current themes more.

There are only so many things you can pack in one spot, however, and this is where my latest purchase comes in. Wintermute. (For people who are mystified about how I name my sims, I would like to invite you to read the work of William Gibson.) Wintermute will be an expansion of the nature themes that I have started in Straylight, and perhaps break into a little more fantastical bend. Botanical will be spread out across BOTH sims, from a central location to outlying shopping/exploration areas. I wouldn’t expect Wintermute to be opening to the public any time soon, as the addition of more landspace has also forced a revision of some of my ideas for Straylight. Two sims, one store, many different worlds to explore and take home with you. That is my dream and goal for botanical and Straylight/Wintermute.

 

For the Holidays!

Hello Everyone! Kriss here to let you know about the next releases for Botanical!

BOTANICAL UPDATES!
1. Holiday Fir Trees! These are NOT replacements for last week’s fir tree release, but an addition to the line. This release is 8 trees in the style of the original nonscripted Firs, but with a few additions

• Particle lights: Each tree features the classic warm white Botanical fae particles, with the addition of two new colors, Purple/Orange and Blue
• Particle Icicles: Not your typical water freezing ice types, but those little silver strands that the cats and dogs used to pull off the tree, eat, and a couple hours later, have hanging out their rear ends.
• Temp-Rez Tree Topper: A pretty revolving temp-rez light, in the style of the Botanical hanging lights.
• Menu: Click to turn open a menu, which, among other things, allows you to turn off the tree topper, icicles, select light colors, or even set the lights to cycle through all colors.

The trees come in 4 sizes, as well as the green or snowy versions, and are Mod/Trans or Mod/Copy

2. Copyable Fir Trees. Because of the uproar caused by NOT offering copyable versions of last week’s release, I’ve reversed my decision and am now offering the Green Sculpted Fir and Snowy Sculpted Fir additionally as copyable.

STRAYLIGHT UPDATES!
Rumbling and Steam and Lava, OH MY! In the west of the sim, you’ll see a small pine forest has sprouted up, and running through it all… Lava? I’m testing out a future release here, with hand textured lava, flowing sculpts and botanical only sound effects. Random rumbling and steam bursts are worth turning your speakers up for. Windlight users will also notice that I’ve applies a *slight* glow here as well. I would love to know what you think!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/straylight/
http://www.b-places.com/top_locations.aspx

With love respect and honor,
Kriss Lehmann

Visit Straylight by clicking here!

 

New Releases for 2007-11-21! Fir Trees!

Hello everyone! I’m back again! 10 days after I said I would lock myself in my room and make new trees, I return bearing gifts! Well… at least the kinds of trees that you may find gifts UNDER.

BOTANICAL UPDATES!
1. Fir Trees! After a lot of cursing, uploading, additional cursing and the occassional binge on a certain energy drink that “gives you wings”, I am proud to present a line of green fir trees that I am happy to call Botanical’s. I think you will find these very singular looking and beautiful. That might actually be “quadingular” (grammar students, please do not lynch me!) as they come in 4 sizes: Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large! Sold as Mod/Trans, you can purchase singles or a pack of all 4. Prices start at L$95… yea!

2. Ok… make that “octingular”, re-read the 1st announcement and replace “Green” with “Snowy”. Yep! The same fir trees I just released have snow frosted brothers and sisters!

You can find the fir trees front and center in the Botanical store (on the middle island of the Straylight sim) or, if you explore, you’ll see their new home in the snowy north eastern section of the sim. Sorry, you’ll have to fly there for right now. We have construction workers (points at self) working on paths to the new areas.

In case you haven’t noticed, the center island store is getting pretty tight (as in “crowded”) As I keep making things to bring Straylight closer to my vision, and make those items available to *everyone* that wants to take a little bit of Straylight home with them, I have to keep pushing out the boundries of the island store. It doesn’t take a scientist (and heck… I’m not even a botanist!) to realise that something has to happen, and soon. You’ve all seen the massive tree in the dead center of the sim, and some of you may have wondered at it’s name… the “Telehub Tree”. That tree was planted a while back when I realized that I would have to have a new way to let people shop, while still enjoying the beauty of Straylight.

Very soon, the TP area of Straylight will be remapped to the middle of the Sim, and you’ll REALLY get a shopping adventure. The main map of Straylight is set up for various “themes” (I’m a theme builder, sorry… it’s just how I roll) Each theme is mapped to a particular section of the Straylight sim, and very soon, there will be a vendor board in each section, selling the items you find in that particular section. I am starting this with the Winter theme, by making the new firs available at the top of the mountain, as well as (for the time being) the center of the island.

Teleports will be made available (via the Telehub tree) for those who know exactly where they want to go, or you can explore the island and pick out things you like. The vendors will only be in one area of each theme, so as not to clutter up the beauty of Straylight, and make things a little more convenient for everyone.

STRAYLIGHT UPDATES!
It’s time to skate! If you’ve been up to the snowy peaks of Straylight, you’ll have seen our own little ice pond! I’ve added a Moopf skate vendor to get the fun started Now that I’m back in world again, look for some more nice diversions in that section of the sim.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/straylight/
11 new members and 83 new photos in 10 days for the Straylight Flickr group, bringing us to 184 members and 1246 photos. The re-release of Windlight on the First Look SL client has spawned an amazing array of gorgeous new additions to the family. Thanks everyone and join me in saying “Welcome!” to our new members!

http://www.b-places.com/top_locations.aspx
The SL community at large is still voting and still pushing Straylight towards the top of all the places to be in Second Life!
10 days has brought 60 more votes, for a total of 1306, placing us at #5!
There is a lot more coming to Straylight and I really hope I keep up with everyone’s expectations!

Straylight Botanical Update Group
614 Members! We’ll have our own Straylight Army before too long!

As you all know, the Straylight Botanical update group is NOT an SL group, and will not eat up your precious group slots. What you may *NOT* know is that this awesome piece of technology is called the “Subscribe-O-Matic”, created by MSo Lambert. A LOT of merchants have found out that you can get your word out a lot easier if you make it easier for people to hear that word. One click sign-ups, web administration, RSS feeds, the list goes on! Mistah Lambert has even made it easy for you to take the Subscribe-O-Matic for a test drive with a free 14 day trial. I believe in this system so much, I not only purchased it immediately after my own trial was up, I’m setting up an affiliate vendor to make it easy for you to start. Look for it right beside the Botanical Straylight update group sign.

That’s all for now! I have to go catch up on all my friends and shake off this energy drink buzz!

Are you already in Second Life? You can Visit Straylight now!

 

Nothing can replace the forest

I was turned on to this beautiful video by Orpheus Kurosawa, who produced a video within Second Life for a german non profit organization that tries to save the real world. I love the sound effects and movement, and of course… the message.

If you like it, be sure to send them an IM inworld!