“Time of my Life!”

Vintage Fair is going on at the moment and even if the oder was “pre 80s” for the theme at the event, I could not resist to do another colorful 80s post with some items and designs I found there. The center of my style this time was the cool “Discordia” top from The Annex. Certainly you can style that top in a 70s style as well, but as you can see 80s works too.

Believe it or not, the Vintage Fair is one of my favorite events in Second Life. I know many of you know I am a friend of weird and dark things, but vintage styles especially the 20s to 50s are times and styles that really touch me somehow. Maybe it is because of the music. I love Swing, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rockabilly! I do have some more vintage posts prepared, but I wanted to start with that cool top as it caught my attention from the moment I put it on the first time. The top is available in 5 different colors and made for Maitreya.

What perfectly fit the 80s look where the “Star Boots”, made by [Gos]. The certainly come with a color HUD, but that silver colors was so perfect for that look. On the picture above you can see a few more colors, but not all of the them πŸ˜‰ In total you get 15 colors for the main boot, 5 for the lining, 2 for the heel, tread and laces and 3 different metals. For the heel, if you want it the same color as the shoes, you simply can chose the main boot color as that includes the heel, too.

Another cool thing I wanted to talk about is the LeLutka Axis HUD. I know, it is around for a while, but I still get asked how I do my facial expressions apart from the ready made ones you can buy for the LeLutka heads. The HUD is not limited to LeLutka only. You can animate other brands heads as well. I tried it myself with LAQ and Logo and I was asking a friend, that uses Catwa and she said it works too. The only tricky part is expressions with the tongue involved as those seem to react a little different. Other than that, the Axis HUD worked on the other heads just fine for me (You always can try the demo). If you want the full information, you always can look at the LeLutka website (http://lelutka.com/blog/axis-hud/)

That HUD opened a new world of close up pictures for me – not only close ups but there you can see the most impact certainly, if you have the face in your focus. With the Axis HUD you can either create a fully new expression OR you can alter expressions that you already have for your head. Since my English is not the best I would like to quote something from the website that explains the most important infos of the HUD:

“Most of what you need to know about getting started can be found on the info pages which show on HUD itself when you first wear it. You can return to those info pages at any time you like by clicking the β€œi” button on the top of your HUD.

You can click and drag on the point grids to rotate each facial bone on one, two or three axis, depending on the bone. Three axis bones such as the lip bones have an extra row underneath the main point grid which you can use to rotate the bone on the third axis. There are also larger circles at the edges of the brows and lips which allow you to move several bones together. Once you have the expression just how you like it, you can save your animation set into a savorite at the bottom of the HUD if you want to recall it later.

You can also target up to three other avatars and individually set up unique facial animations for group photos or just a bit of fun.”

I tried the HUD not only o myself, but as well with my partner and me no a picture and it worked perfectly.I was wearing the “Simone” head while he was wearing a Catwa one and it worked without any issues (https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccamerlin/45078595804/in/dateposted-public/)

I was able to create way more moods and expressions, what really raised the bar for my pictures in my view. I am able to even more expressing emotions or having fun moments that without that HUD!

Last but not least – yes that again is a longer post, but there was so many details that should not be overlooked πŸ™‚ – I would like to draw your attention to my hairstyle. It was made by no.match and is called “No.Stress”. You can find it at the actual round of eBENTO. Usually I prefer blond, because of my no eyebrow trademark. But today, for my 80s look I felt I should have some more colored hair, that as well is one of the reasons for me wearing eyebrows today πŸ˜‰ For me it was the first time, that I touched the ‘unicorn’ color HUD from no.match – after seeing it I know it will not be the last time :p

I hope you enjoyed my little 80s trip as much as I did, tomorrow we will go back a little more in time I guess πŸ˜‰

Clothing

Top: The Annex – “Discordia Top – Red” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Vintage Fair

Shorts: adorsy – “Sharon Jeans Shorts” (Maitreya)

Shoes: [Gos] – “Star Boots” (Maitreya)

Gloves: L’Emporio – “Fingerless Gloves” (Maitreya, Bento)

Stockings: {Luxuria} – “Spring Summer 19 Knee Heighs” (Maitreya Applier)

Legs: [ SAKIDE ] – “Yleria” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Headphones: BONDI – “The Retro Headphones” – NEW @ Vintage Fair

Collar: -[ darkling ]- – “Angelique Collar” (Maitreya)

Upper Arms: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Pyper 69 Upper Arms”

Piercing 1: BLAXIUM – “Dangerous” (LeLutka Simone, Bento)

Piercing 2: BLAXIUM – “Jaiden Chain Piercing”

Nails: BLAXIUM – “Mikah Nails” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair &Β  Makeup

Eyebrows: Izzie’s – “Vintage Summer Brows” (LeLutka Applier)

Hair: no.match – “No.Stress”

Eyeshadow: ALMA – “Alba” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: alaskametro<3 – “New Wave” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.3”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Tattoo: ((Mister Razzor)) – “Betina Tattoo – 75%” (Omega Applier) – NEW @ Vintage Fair

Poses & Props

Poses: Poseidon – “Hip Hop” & “Idols”

Set:

Backdrop: Foxcity – “Photo Booth – Neon Storm”

Couch: Foxcity – “Tasty AF (2) Diner Sofa” (Gacha)

Speakers: Daffy’s Gadgetmania Club Equipment and Structure Designs – “-[GFX- 800]- Mesh Advanced Speakers”

Clock: Visual Magick – “Retro Neon Clock – Bepis Cola”- NEW @ Vintage Fair

Sign: Saintstreet – “Neon Lady Symbol” (Gacha)

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Wicca’s Originals @ Vintage Fair 2019

Wicca’s Originals @ Vintage Fair 2019 (June 7th -16th)

Victorian Steampunk comes to life in our latest original creation – Cecelia. This strapless minidress has a form fitting corset bodice adorned with a delicate chain, gears, studs and a bit of ruffle at the top. It is the perfect starting point for your Victorian Steampunk styling. Cecilia is designed for Maitreya’s Lara and comes with a HUD that offers you 10 color textures and 6 metal textures.

Taxi: Vintage Fair

Bird of Prey – Pose & Picture Processing Studies with DARE Poses

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Collar” (#81)

I more and more find my own fun, in playing and fooling around with poses, experimenting with angles and learn new picture processing techniques…

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 63 – “You Can’t See Me” (#63)

When I started blogging, I always saw the need toa full body shot, a head shot and maybe even some close-ups of certain accessories. Nothing wrong with that, but the longer I was blogging, the more it was kinda boring to do always the same kind of pictures for each post.

What is a very common way of blog pictures – and yes I tried that as well *grins* – is to have one big picture and then include little close up circles or squares for more details. Nothing wrong with that either, but over the time I more and more had the desire of making more artistic looking pictures, which still showcase the designers work properly.

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..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Imma Burrito” (#82)

If you have a full body shot, often enough the shoes, the jewelry or even nails often enough are too tiny to really showcase them as the full avatar gets kinda tiny when you try to have all of your body on your picture. Mostly I had the feeling then, that I had more ambience and background on my pictures, than the actual items I wanted to showcase. I thought by myself, what would be wrong to have real closeups as a full picture… sometimes maybe my head or face was missing but is that so important, if I want to showcase an item that my face is on the picture as well? Yes and no… certainly you want to show that the pictures are of yourself and brand yourself for marketing purposes, but sometimes you can even show your face in one closeup and have other pictures with certain parts of your body or furniture. I realized, that if I do that, I need to find interesting angles for the pictures, as if I just crop them they can look boring very easy.

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

I already talked about how you can twist and turn poses to weird angles and in the end they turn out as amazing crops or closeups. Some pose stores help with that kind of pictures and ideas, as they make unusual, editorial poses, which sometimes look weird if you see them as a whole or just from the wrong angle. Exactly those poses can be the most interesting if you go for crops, closeups or even interesting angles.

During the last Ferosh Fashion Weekend, I discovered a pose store, which I basically know for a long time but kinda lost out of the view over the time – to be honest I do not really know why…

Chance Greatrex, owner and creator of DARE poses, has a very special vision for his poses. They are really out of the box and different to so many I found on the grid. Just the fact that all his poses have each a unique and story telling name, shows that there is way more behind his poses than just an animation πŸ˜‰

Pose Studies Dare 1

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 62 – “The Struggle Is Real” (#62)

Lately I got s pose set called “Face Hands”, which probably was made with the intention to feature a hand/face combination for example for makeup and nails, rings or hand jewelry. They re perfect for closeups and different angles and while snapping I even had a hard time to sort out the ones I love the most, since I cannot overload a post with over 20 pictures*snickers*

Β Since I wanted to do a pose study, I decided to go for something simple but still with ym personal twist for the outfit. I realized, that La Petite Morte has a sale going on where Voshie gives her skins away for 100 lindens! As I still do experiment with my new Catwa head and do not have much skins for it yet, I TPed over to the La Petite Morte and took a look. I was very surprised as I just expected older skins to be on sale, when I realized there are as well newer ones with appliers for several mesh heads and bodies!

Pose Studies Dare 3

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Bedtime” (#78)

I have to admit, I have a weakness for fantasy skins even if I am not able to use them too often, but for pictures they always add something special to the whole look. When I was looking around – after I found the TP to the sales room… typical me… – I immediately fell in love with the “Belle” skin in diamond. It comes with a Catwa applier and when I tried the demo, it looked so stunning that I could not resist to get me one πŸ˜‰

The face has a wonderful ornament around the eyes and the lips are one of the most stunning lips I ever saw on the Catwa head. With the light purple/grey touch and a shimmering finish, the skin screamed for something mystical or fantasy looking.

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

To not disturb the view on the body too much I went with the “Siren Set No. 1” by Pixicat. The tight fit on the Slink Physique and the minimal covering of the body was just perfect for a poses and skin showcase. The cool “Bird of Prey” head-piece, we made a little while ago for a themed event, and it just went perfectly with the rest of the look, even if it is a pity that it covers the amazing eye makeup of the skin… that requires another post with this incredible, amazing skin soon I guess :p

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 55 – “Now You See Me” (#55)

The cool finger rings I found at the last round of On9 made by [Since 1975] and I am pretty sure they will be at their main store now.

For the hair I wanted something pulled back, what did not interfere with the head-piece too much and so my choice fell on a ponytail from [taketomi].

Pose Studies Dare 4

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Damn Hot Coffee” (#80)

What as well took me a lot of time lately was polishing my picture procession. I played less with windlights and tried more to work with a graphic program to post process my pictures by painting and drawing certain things like shadows and lights and as well I tired to find new techniques to create certain effects. Fog was something I really wanted to learn for a long time, something that looks realistic and not just painted on and edgy looking. As well, how I can create shadows without using the SL shadows, or my shaky hands to draw fuzzy lines πŸ˜‰ YouTube has a lot of offers for learning new things and from time to time it is really exciting to test something new, like green screen against white screen shots and the possibilities you have with those kind of photography.

So for this post I mixed clean pose studies with interesting angles and new techniques of picture processing and even if it took me a while it was a very intensive learning time, which I really enjoyed πŸ™‚

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..::DARE::.. – Runway pose 18 – “Edgy Leaned Feet Apart” (#18)

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Set No. 1” (Gacha Item at their main store)

Headpiece: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Bird of Prey Mask”

Hair: [taketomi] – “MamiPlared_Bento”

Nails Rings: [Since 1975] – “FangRings”

Shoes: :)(: (Pixelfashion) – “Slavia Shoes” (for Slink high feet)

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Bella”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Poses: ..::DARE::..

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 49 – “Floppy Wings” (#49)

In a certain mood… playing with poses

White Room 4

Sometimes I really do like just roaming through my poses to see, if I can find any inspiration or develop some ideas based on poses.

This time I just put on one of my favourite fantasy skins lately, the “Amalthea” skin from La Petite Morte. I rarely saw such a light skin that still had all those wonderful details and it is still not white, it has a very dreamy tone.it comes in different versions, which follow an inspiration of the “Last Unicorn” One of them even has the darker star on the forehead where the unicorn of the enchanted Princess Amalthea is supposed to be, like we saw it in the movie πŸ™‚

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The cool tattoo comes from TAOX Tattoos. I found it at the J&A Expo this year and with the amazing details and the huge size all over the body, I have to admit it pulled my view on that brand as i never heard about it before. As a tattoo addicted, you never can have enough places for good tattoos πŸ˜‰

TAOX provides appliers for nearly all popular mesh bodies and as well an Omega applier. The pack does not include any default avatar layer so you only can wear it with one of the mesh bodies.

The amazing horn on my forehead, was made by AiShA for the last round of the Enchantment event. For the hair I wanted something wild but still innocent and so my decision fell on the “Pocahontas” hairstyle from LeLutka. With the lightly windblown touch it looked perfect to the innocent vulnerable look of an enchanted unicorn πŸ˜‰

White Room 1

But now back to ‘random posing’ πŸ˜‰

Sometimes I really do like to go through my poses and just make it a challenge to shoot every pose I opened with the outfit I am wearing

That sometimes means to change the angle, if some parts would look awkward.Β  As well you can turn and rotate the pose stand to get an interesting angle. At times I get a weird feeling or view, but I still snap it, because sometimes later, when I work on it, it becomes more interesting as I thought on the first view πŸ˜‰ Shadows can do a big part as well to hide minor issues or errors. If nothing help, you always have the possibility to crop your picture. That as well sometimes gives a neat new view as originally thought. Sometimes you maybe just safe a shot with cropping it and other times the crop looks way more expressive and interesting.

Certainly it is easier, when you wear something that sticks close to the body. Some gowns or dresses can make a challenge like this nearly impossible. The “Siren ” ensemble from Pixicat was perfect for that purpose.

White Room 2

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Nr 1” (Gacha @ Main store)

Unicorn Horn: AiShA – “Armor Unicorn Horn”

Hair: LeLutka – “Pocahontas”

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Amalthea Skin”

Tattoo: TAOX – “Kenza”

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

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The last unicorn? Maybe not the very last…

Last Unicorn 3

The last round of Enchantment was themed after the amazing movie “The last Unicorn”.

I love that novel since I was a child, even if it makes me cry every time I watch it πŸ˜‰

When I styled for the idea of the Unicorn theme, Anderian was IMing me asking what I am up to and we came across that we kinda had the same idea about a themed picture. Then she asked me if we would not wanna do something together and I did not have to think about before I said yes πŸ˜‰

I love doing pictures with Anderian and have pictures done by her for magazines and events. She is so creative if it comes to picture compositions, sceneries and photo sets… simply adorable πŸ™‚

I jumped over to her platform and she already started building this awesome dreamy and colorful scenery. Since she should not do all the work on her own we decided to snap both and work on the pictures and if you would like to see hers just take a look on her Flickr.

I will put my style details in the end and would just like to let the fantasy do magic with some parts of the lyrics of the title song of the movie done by America.

TUNES

Last Unicorn 1

The Last Unicorn

When the last eagle flies
Over the last crumbling mountain
And the last lion roars
At the last dusty fountain
In the shadow of the forest
Though she may be old and worn
They will stare unbelieving
At the Last Unicorn
Last Unicorn 7
When the first breath of winter
Through the flowers is icing
And you look to the north
As the pale moon is rising
And it seems like all is dying
And would leave the world to mourn
In the distance hear the laughter
Of the Last UnicornI’m alive, I’m alive
Last Unicorn 4
When the last moon is cast
Over the last star of morning
And the future has passed
Without even a last desperate warning
Then look into the sky where through
The clouds a path is formed
Look and see her how she sparkles
It’s the Last Unicorn!I’m alive, I’m alive
I’m alive
[Lyrics by America]
Last Unicorn 2
Details
Outfit: Candy Doll – “Vixen Bodysuit” (Gacha Item)
Hair: no.match – “no.magic”
Necklace: Noble Creations – “Crystal Necklace”
Horn: AiShA – “Unicorn Horn”
Hooves: AiShA – “Unicorn Legs”
Skin: .la petite morte. – “Amalthea Unicorn NB”
Eyes: Soul – “Oculus Dusty Orchid”
Body: SlinkΒ  – “Physique”
Model & Photographer: WiccaMerlin
Last Unicorn 6