how to make a caspervend voucher for gachas!

what you will need:
caspervend
the caspervend giftcard system
a little time
patience for my dumb ass trying to do a tutorial.

first note, all of this info is laid out in the caspervend wiki giftcard section but for some reason when i read the wiki it seems over complicated, so i hope this will make it easier to understand.

this tutorial assumes you already know how to set up a simple vendor for your content

make your gacha items, package them, and place them into your caspervend server, you will want to make sure they are perm’ed as no transfer, and copy, as if they were normal items in your shop not a gacha. these are the items the voucher will be redeeming.

you will then need to make them into “products” on the caspervend page. i usually make the rare (since i do rare fatpacks) and then create “variants” for the individual gacha items.

you can price them as your pull price or at zero, it doesn’t matter since no one is going to be paying for these items.

back to second life!

inworld you need to rez a vendor, and i have also rezzed a giftcard but if you’ve never done this before you will probably need to rez a fresh one. i use headless vendors so mine don’t look like caspervend but they are.

it does not matter what picture is on your vendor we are just going to associate it with the products we made on the casper page. you can do this one by one or you can rez a vendor for each product if that’s quicker for you.

click the vendor and hit admin. it will give you a link to go to

now we’re back on the casper website. change the vendor name to whatever the gacha item is and then on the “single product” drop down find your gacha item that you made in products.

now we’re back in sl. rez a fresh giftcard, it will yell at you to make it and the script no copy, do that or it won’t let you do anything until you do. i made myself a gift card with all perms set so that i don’t have to do that more than once. that’s all up to you. name the giftcard whatever your item is and put VOUCHER or something like that at the end so you can keep up with it in your folders and stuff.

after you get that done you just type set product, it will ask you in hover text over the card to touch a vendor. you will then click the vendor you just made

(mine has an image on it because i used the card before i took this picture)

after you click the vendor it will bring your dropdown menu down but you can ignore that safely, you will see that your giftcard now has a small picture with a “buy now” button below it in one corner. you can now take that object into your inventory… it is a voucher and can be redeemed only once by your gacha players.

finally load it into your gacha machine of choice.

when the customer receives your voucher, they can choose to either resell/trade/gift/ect the voucher to others as it is no copy. when they wear it and click the button (default says buy now but you can make your own button if you want) your caspervend server will send them the copy, no trans version you put in there. thus removing the need to trade in products. more happy customers! win win all around!

while this might seem like a daunting task at first, after its set up it goes pretty quick. i kept a vendor and giftcard rezzed out on my platform at all times and would just change names and reassociate it to different products as needed.

i also used this method to distribute items to my bloggers, as it would make it so they were in my redelivery system and were able to retrieve products i sent them without having to ask me for a manual redelivery, it also allowed them to receive updates without me having to do it by hand. lots of great uses!

17/365 “what the hell are you?”

17/365 “what the hell are you?”

17/365 : what the hell are you?

 

i haven’t been taking the time to post all of my 365’s but today’s i would like to dedicate to something that i feel is becoming a bit of confusion in my second life, and i want to set the record straight, and hopefully give some information on something that many of you might not have any experience with.

when i joined second life, i thought it was a community for furries, like furcadia, because the people who showed second life to me were furries, and we stuck to the furry areas. obviously my base avatar was human, but i thought that furries were the majority. once i started exploring on my own and realized this was not the case, i started to assemble avatars based on my more humanoid role playing game characters from p4rgaming.com. nimil, torch, and 5880, as well as just fiddling around with an avatar that slightly resembled myself but not.

for me, second life became a place where i could visualize people i had written about for years.

in real life, i’ve always been the weird one, the “freak”. the little goth kid, and the weird girl with the weird fashion sense. this obviously traveled with me into second life, but beyond that, i was given the option to augment and change my physical form at will.

this is what made me a shape shifter.

every day i log into second life and i am given unlimited options of what i want to look like that day. most days i dress my mood. shitty day? dead girl or demon chick, happy day? silly cartoony furry avatar. or what ever my close friends are dressing as, i can match them or at least wear something complementive to their appearance.

this is why i stay in second life.

contrary to what some may believe, this is not some major lifestyle or sub culture to me. anyone can be a shape shifter. if you enjoy changing your head every day from one mesh head to another, you are a shape shifter. if some days your skin is african american, and the next day you are a pale white girl, you are a shape shifter. its that simple. that’s all there is to it. there’s no test, no membership card. you just have to enjoy your world and like to change how you look from day to day. even if you just slap on a neko tail once in a while for fun, you are a shape shifter.

of course i am sure there are some people out there that claim this as their true identity, that they do not identify as human in the real world, and instead consider themselves a shapeshifter, but that is not what i am doing. in the real world i am painfully aware that i am nothing more than a human being with one hell of an imagination. however in second life, where my options are limited only by my cash flow, i am happy to have the ability to be all the things.

how can you, dear reader, be a shape shifter? attach a tail, buy a furry avatar, try some skins that aren’t your normal tone, wear colourful hair, wear horns or non-human ears. your options are limited only by your personal imagination (and your $L). if it makes you happy, then enjoy it. don’t let venue rules, “social norms”, or the people around you scare you away from experimenting. i am completely opposed to people telling others that they cannot branch out beyond their humanoid avatars because they are usually human. you are an avatar, be what ever it is that you feel like being! in this world we are all magic. do not squash other’s dabbling in all that second life offers.

 

intermundia

intermundia

(trigger warning: please note that some of the images and text in this post may be a trigger for some, especially those who have suffered sexual abuse. please proceed with caution.)

visiting intermundia

an old friend that i haven’t seen in a long time popped into my store tonight. i was so pleased to see nebulosus severine still kicking around the grid. they gave me the lm to their latest installation and i decided to visit. you can visit by going here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kress/216/90/146

nebulosus is known best for artwork that is both beautiful, and powerful. emotional, and educational in a way. i am always in awe when i step into one of their installations and this was no different.

the main entry way is best viewed with the highest of graphics settings, so if your experience doesn’t look like mine, try bumping up your settings.

there are two small installations at intermundia right now, “too many flowers” which is nebulosus’ installation, and ars ludus by sowa mai.

i’m focusing mainly on nebulosus’ installation because i found this piece to be very very important and perfect for the way the world is at present. it really hit me hard. there is a trigger warning notecard available at the teleport so you can make sure you would not be upset by what is shown. and i will warn you also, i have a couple of images from the installation, and they involve the topics of rape, and abortion.

visiting intermundia

i don’t want to give away too much because i feel like you need to experience this for yourself. a photo does not do it justice. this installation is painful, and reminds us of what a disturbing world we really live in.

visiting intermundia

there are many quotes both powerful and sad throughout the installation and many upsetting images. the message here is clear and really there are no words for how this whole thing made me feel.

nebulosus is one of the few artists on the grid that i truly respect. most of the ones i loved have left our virtual world for others, or the real world. sadly nebulosus is soon to lose the ability to visit second life, as their computer is in poor shape. as an admirer of their work, i am also going to add this link, to help them get another computer and continue their work in second life! http://fnd.us/c/1uqae use this link to help them out and support a great artist!

so you want to remove a green screen?

so you want to remove a green screen?

so i see a lot of people asking for help with this and figured it would be awesome to do a little tutorial.

the very very very important thing you must remember when doing something like this is MAKE YOUR GREENSCREEN FULL BRIGHT!

greenscreen-fullbright

your “greenscreen” does not actually have to be green, but it must be a solid colour with no shadows.

edit the object and go to the texture tab of your edit window, then change the colour to a bright colour, its best not to use a colour that will be in your finished cut out, so if you are wearing green, avoid green, if you are wearing pink, avoid pink, ect. i find that the bright colours on the bottom row of the colour picker work best for this kind of thing.

now that your screen is prepared, take your photo, the higher the resolution the better, my photo size is 4000 x 2376 but i then cropped out the excess useless space (photo is scaled down for blog purposes)

greenscreen-photo

so now we have a photo and we need to get rid of that awful eye gouging green background so we can insert something pretty behind it instead!

for this we use the background eraser tool!

there are many methods for greenscreen removal but this is the one that i like the best.

the background eraser tool is hidden under your eraser tool in photoshop. to access it, click on the eraser tool icon and hold your mouse button down. extra buttons will appear!

background-eraser-tool

this is actually a good thing to remember for most of the tools in that panel. anything with a little triangle in the corner has extra tools hidden in a menu like that. just click and hold to access.

for this instance we select the background eraser tool. magic eraser tool can do a lot of this same work but in my experience the results are not as clean.

after you switch to the background eraser tool, some settings will appear in the top bar over your image.

top-options-bar

please make sure your settings mirror mine.

one note to this, the tolerance level works best on 100%, sometimes for some weird reason or another you might need to lower that tolerance, like if you are wearing rainbow hair and you can’t find a background colour not present in the spectrum of your hair texture, you could lower the tolerance to try and clean up around it without totally removing it. 100% is best though, and you might end up with weird artifacts around the edges if you don’t work with it at 100%.

now that you have that set up, all you have to do is erase!

erase

simply erase in the green area, as long as you start in the green and hold down the mouse button while dragging, you will only erase the green, the rest of the image is safe!

no-green

no green! even in the wispy hairs!

as an added step, i make a new layer under the cut out and fill it with a dark colour to make sure there is nothing left over from the removal.

checking

looks good to me!

i hope this helps! you CAN use this on white backgrounds however you might run into trouble with high lights in your image, so your best bet is to always use a brightly coloured background instead of white!

do you even sl?

its another monday meme from berry and i’m going to also steal how veenya did her blog and post pics for the answers i can post pics for.

Have you ever owned a sim in Second Life? – nope

Have you ever created content in Second Life? – yes, since 2006. my first store was called contagious designs, then when i met lucas we created LuNi Designs, later shortened to just [LuNI], after i broke things off with him i took my creations and started a store called ~SongBird~

i sadly do not have any of my ancient ads from 2006.

Have you ever driven a vehicle in Second Life? –  

i own several vehicles in second life, i am a very bad driver…

Have you ever went sky diving in Second Life? –

many times, i don’t have any photos though. it was something lucas got me hooked on and i still do it now. its not as much fun alone however.

Have you ever played a sport in Second Life? – nope

Have you ever went clubbing in Second Life? –

that’s basically what i did for the first year i was in second life…(i’m the one in the green with the tentacles) i still go now and then.

Have you ever fangirled/fanboyed someone in Second Life? – many many times

Have you ever taken a picture of your avatar in water in Second Life? –

when i got a nicer videocard in 2008 i went a bit crazy with the water reflection photos…

nereidfuck armegeddon this is hell...

find yourselfophelia

Have you ever taken a picture of a sunset in Second Life? – 

tons of those, this is one of my faves

home

Have you ever taken a nude picture of your avatar in Second Life? –

gimmie gimmie gimmie

i have a lot of naked photos, this one is my fave even if it is a horror picture.

Have you ever dated in Second Life? –

5 long heartbreaking years.

puppet and master

Have you ever had or attended a wedding in Second Life? –

tons of them.

Have you ever drank, smoked or taken drugs in Second Life? –

dirty habit 

my avatar smokes. this is the first pic i ever took of her smoking.

Have you ever engaged in sexual activity in Second Life? –

yep, plenty of that. no i’m not going to show you the photos.

Have you ever been to Bukkake Bliss in Second Life? – of course, many times #16 You at BUKKAKE BLISS

A Haunting We Will Go: Haunted Valley

A Haunting We Will Go: Haunted Valley

i refreshed my “haunted” search on second life and found a few more places have crept to the top.

haunted valley review

this is haunted valley. a nice little spooky sim complete with a dance club. lots of areas to explore, and a nice spook house on a hill.

haunted valley reviewhaunted valley reviewhaunted valley review

the grounds were kinda dull in my opinion but there is ample space for photo taking without a lot of junk blocking your view. the house was very nice and even though it was just your typical spook house set up, they actually made an effort.

haunted valley reviewhaunted valley reviewhaunted valley review

the interior of the haunted house is well decorated, leaving room for photo taking, and not ruining the ambiance with a dozen ridiculous light/sound effects. the decorations are elegant and high quality. i really want the spooky piano shown in the second photo.

haunted valley was an all around lovely sim and spook house, worth a visit especially if you are looking for somewhere creepy to take photos. i could not find any information on whether this sim was ok to travel to if you have child avatars in your family but as usual, its a good idea to ask before hand. especially since the tp point does take you in front of a dance club.

i give this sim a 4 out of 5

you can visit haunted valley here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Yasuka/174/199/43

A Haunting We Will Go: Forever After Haunted House

A Haunting We Will Go: Forever After Haunted House

spook house review number 2

welcome to another haunted house review! today i ventured to the second haunted attraction on the search listings for “haunted”. this haunt seems to be set up just for the holiday season, and did not have a specific name.

this was a typical walk though style house, with several rooms of spooky stuff.

spook house review number 2spook house review number 2spook house review number 2spook house review number 2spook house review number 2

sadly this is a very common thing to see in second life. get a big spooky house, and fill it with scripted stuff, add lights and sound and instant haunt. it is not very engaging and tells no story. there were a few nice areas that could be useful for photography, but a lot of the place is ruined by the addition of random flashing lights, and lightning inside the house which made no sense. i did like the jason pitchforking a lady in the upper bedroom, but the scene was ruined by the weird flashing purple shaft of light you see in the photo.

still, for someone who is not as hardened to horror and haunted houses, this could be an enjoyable adventure. the sim also had a spooky graveyard, as well as some shopping areas. most likely family friendly but as usual check sim rules before bringing little ones.

i would rate this a 3 out of 5

you can visit this haunt here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Happy%20Ever%20After/63/79/22

a haunting we will go: The Haunted

a haunting we will go: The Haunted

welcome to a news series i hope to keep up with for a little while! haunted attractions are my “thing” in rl and one of my dreams for SL has always been to own a haunted attraction sim or at least a parcel… so far i haven’t been able to live that dream but i do enjoy wandering around the haunted sims that pop up every year for the fall/halloween season. this series will be dedicated to those places where creepy things lurk. i’ll wander around and take some photos, and i’ll give you a good idea on whether its worth your time to see it for yourself.

the first attraction on the list is the first attraction on search when you look for “haunted” because well.. its called “the haunted”!

the haunted boasts several areas for creepy fun, including a graveyard, a carnival, and a zombie combat area.

hauntedhaunted

the carnival was sparse with a few creepy rides, nothing mind blowing. i do not recommend the concession stands…

there are two small haunted houses in this area, one is a murder house walk through and one is a spook house ride. the murder house was fun but short, the spook house ride was broken 🙁 and that made me sad because i love spook house rides in both worlds, but the train would never leave the station!

hauntedhauntedhauntedhaunted

the graveyard is your typical dark spooky graveyard. it is very nicely decorated and there are several areas that could be used for some creepy photography. i especially liked this strange stonehenge-esque area.

hauntedhauntedhaunted

the zombie combat area is a post apocalyptic city landscape with dead bodies hanging from equally dead trees, zombie rezzers are all over this area and you can run around killing them. i did not feel like zombie hunting, soooo i took these photos from the gate. it is a very cool looking area though.

hauntedhaunted

all in all i would give this haunted attraction a 4 out of 5.

the areas were well decorated and thought out, and very few low quality items were used. i did not like that the walls around the carnival area were full bright, because that really wrecked photos in the windlight setting i wanted to use. i feel like the carnival could have been dressed up a lot more. it is a bit weak compared to the graveyard and the zombie area. i could not find any information stating if it was ok to come here as a family, so adventurer beware.

stay tuned to this blog for another haunted attraction review coming soon!

you can visit “The Haunted” here http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cascade%20Falls/230/171/22