Tokushi Avatars Closing, Offering All Items in Single Super-Package

By Bixyl Shuftan

While some prefer to stick with just one kind of avatar, some will occasionally change to something else for an occasion such as themed party or a holiday. A number of people I know have collections of avatars, furred, dragon, tiny, and others. I myself have a collection of avatars that I've gotten over the years, though in the past few haven't many many purchases.

Among the last avatars that I've gone out and purchased was a mesh tiny fox made by Tokushi. I preferred using this tiny to the Wynxworks ones popular at the Raglan community as they didn't need a separate set of dance animations, but could use the same ones as human and furry avatars. This wasn't my first avatar from Tokushi. Earlier, a friend of mine had gotten me one of their "Possat" avatars as a gift. I'd also see a few people in other avatars of theirs, such as their Racoon and their "Qwhilla" which stood out due to it's huge tail. In the words of Second Life Avatar Review Files, while they did some avatars well represented among avie makers, they were also known for making avs with "fantasy backgrounds and personal creations, as well as unique avatars of animals that people don’t usually consider."

Unfortunately, there will be no more designs from Tokushi. On Wednesday, in the Sunweaver and Furry Fashion groups, I began hearing that the company was effectively closing, with everything they had made being sold in one single package. Toki Cure and Racush Cheeky had the following announcement on the store's Furaffinity page:


At long last and after much thought, we have decided to give the news that we will be closing Tokushi avatars on Secondlife for now. It was a hard decision to make, as we both have enjoyed creating for SL, for so many years. But time constraints and new projects online and off have made it impossible for us to continue on at a pace we are happy with. We may still offer simple avatars and accessories from time to time when we are able. But there will be no planning or time frame on anything we may create. We will still post here and on the Tokushi group chat when we do have something new.

We are bundling EVERYTHING we have made up until now into one pack for 3000L. This includes all avatars, all accessories in all colours. Some of the older avatars will have broken scripts/bugs, and we will not be updating/fixing these issues. But they will still work for spare parts! Our sim has been shut down, but the pack and any new things we make will be sold directly on the marketplace.

The link to their bundle on Marketplace is  - https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/The-complete-Tokushi-collection/12567748 . Everything else has been taken down. So if you wanted just one or two of the avatars, that's no longer an option.

On the other hand, or paw, you can now get them in all the colors available. There were the following packages, most of them bundles or "fatpacks" of a particular avatar or item, in the bundle: Ailtar avatar, Air Spirit avatar, Anubis avatar, Aquatic Dragonet avatar, Armadillo avatar, Candi Ears, Chinese Crested avatar, Corvid avatar, Dragon avatar, Fae Wings, Fantasy Ears, Feline avatar, Fear Fox avatar, Floof Pet, Floof avatar, Fnuff avatar, Fox avatar, Griffin avatar, Hell hound avatar, Inca-Ren avatar, Jackal avatar, KiteMod avatar, Le'strap gloves, Otter avatar, Phoenix avatar, Photo-Synthic alien avatar, Possat avatar, Pumpkin Pup avatar, Qwhilla avatar, Raccoon avatar, Reindeer avatar, Rhebuk avatar, Scarfs, Wrist wrap, Squirrel avatar, Steam pants, Sugar glider avatar, Tiny bat avatar, Tiny fox avatar, Tiny Horse avatar, Tiny Possat avatar, Tiny skunk avatar, Tiny zebra avatar, Weedy Sea dragon avatar, Wildhond avatar, Wool hats, Zela avatar, Legging "n spats, and Unicorn parts.

That's a lot of avatars. So what's the catch? The catch, as the owners stated in their press release, is that some of them have bugs and glitches. For instance, trying on their sugar glider, the head was misshapen. Two I tried on, the Anubis (jackal) and Chinese Crested Dog, had the jaws inside the head. I had to bring up my inventory, click on the part in there, and move it to a more proper place by hand. For some reason, when I logged off as the Anubis and came back the next day, I had to readjust the jaw again. I've never had to do that with any avatar before.

But not every avatar was glitched. Their (anthro) Dragon avatar looked fine to me. Taking a look at the HUD, one could change the eye color, as well as an option to have the tongue sticking out. Smoke was coming from it's nostrils, and there was an option in the HUD to have it breathing fire. When one flies with it, the wings flap. I also saw options for the hands, such as extending the index finger only, and some for the appearance of the wings. Fans of "scalies" should appreciate this particular avatar.

It's notable that most of the several avatars I unpacked, the containers were not to be rezzed on the ground, but worn briefly and automatically detach when the contents were in your inventory. The one for the Bilby avatar looked like an Australian didgeridoo, which when worn looked like you were playing it. For those who don't know, a bilby is a kind of Australian marsupial. And like it's animal counterpart, the avatar has the characteristic long nose and ears. It's AO has it normally crouching on the ground on all fours, occasionally standing up on it's legs. It remains low to the ground when walking about. The avatar also came with a pair of detachable antlers.

These are just a few of the avatars of many in the bundle. The Second Life Avatar Review Files website reviewed several. Unfortunately, as of the writing of this article, the website appears to be down. One will have to access the Wayback Machine Internet Archive to find the list, which is less than reliable and has a number of missing images. Their Twitter feed, which is still up, has a couple reviews, of the Rhebuk and the Zela.

So if you have the cash, I recommend you get this avatar package. While some may be glitched beyond use, and some will need to be tinkered with, you can't beat the volume for the price. It is a shame that the reason for the deal is that this is almost certain to be the end of the line for the company.

*Addition* I was told by a friend that part of the money made by the Bilby avatar was donated to a conservation program for their real-life counterparts.  So this avatar did more than just stand out. Each one purchased, at least before the company closed, made life for the marsupials it was based on a little easier.

Bixyl Shuftan

Meshing Around in Second Life

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

It is my great pleasure, to be back writing about my adventures in Second Life. Being the "been there, done that" type, it was only a matter of time before I got back on the road again. Contemplating a good adventure to commence with, each idea seemed to be countered by, haven't you already "been there, done that".  Then, I remembered that I am in the middle of an adventure and dying to tell the world about it. This adventure involves MESH, but don't worry. You won't even need the latest viewer, to read about it.

This December will be my 6th anniversary in SL.  Somewhere in the middle, they began introducing mesh clothing and avatars.  As a clothing designer/vendor, I had become adept at making clothing for basic female avatars with add-on breasts (implants), so was in no hurry to go the mesh route, at least until they got all the bugs worked out. A trickle of mesh clothing did begin to find it's way into my inventory and, before long, became my preferred choice.

 I also have a whole collection of furry avatars,but when I searched the Market Place for something new, I kept seeing all these new mesh brands and they were cuter than dimples on a bunny rabbit. When the descision was made to get a mesh avatar, naturally, I wanted the brand that had the most available mods. The clear winner of that race was the "Kemono", by Utilizator. There are also many add-on parts, that add to the ways you can mod it. I have six heads for mine.

 When shopping for mesh clothes, I now ask, will it fit both my basic and mesh bodies, is it full perm, so I can sell or share my mods and is it so cool that everybody will like it.  Looking for the next clothing to make mods for, I decided to go to the source, Utilizator.

When the LM to their main store was clicked, a grand adventure began.  The landing spot puts one in a large, two story shopping mall, with 40-50 shops, centered around the Utilizator store. The mall is called "Annie May Haven" and all of the shops cater to Kemono and other popular anime avatars, like "Rainbow Bunny" and "BG Feline". Some of the shops were familiar, since I had bought from them at Marketplace.

As if having all those shops in one place wasn't enough of a great adventure, this mall has an additional feature, that makes it very usefull to anybody that is into these cute little avs.  At any given time you come, there will be a large gathering of cute avatars, between you and the main store. They're like walking store dummies, previewing the avs and clothing. Their social conversations, among themselves, sounds like a bunch of teen aged kids, but keep this in mind. If you want to learn something about computers or anime, ask a kid. I enjoyed talking with them and even invited one to my home, to see how civilized furries live.

Doing an inworld search for "mesh clothing" places we find 1178 selections. For "mesh anime clothing", 401. Researching this article, I spent an evening going to as many as possible and none could compare with Annie May's. I bought several outfits there, but I'm not asking you to buy anything. All I'm selling is a great adventure.

 

"Sha"

The Kemono Avatar

By FoxytheJamie

 The Kemono av is an anime based, furry avatar, with a bit of human mixed in. This avatar has become one of the more commonly owned avatars in Second Life, and is one of the best avatars on the grid.

Not only can a furry wear one and still be in a furry avatar. But a human can wear one, and they too will still be in their avatar choice, of human. It is literally the best of both worlds. From customizable skin, to hide-able body parts. Literally, you can hide individual parts, like the upper part of your right thigh, and so on.

Not only does the top hud allow you to customize expressions, it also allows you to customize individual eyes, your mouth movement, and even eyebrow movement.

The bottom hud is just as good or maybe better. It allows you to hide your neck, chest, arms, thighs, knees, lower legs, and ankles and feet. And that's just in basic mode. In advanced mode, you can hide a total of 40 individual pieces. As well as allowing you to change your hand position, skin, tail movement, leg type, and allowing you to turn on and off PG parts.

Not only that, but this avatar boasts at least 200 unique clothing articles, that can make, creating an outfit a breeze. All in all, this avatar is truly one of the best in Second Life.

Jamie

Xymbers' Avatar Reviews: The DreamCrawler Dragon

By Xymbers Slade

Waltzing about the social islands one afternoon I ran into a mesh dragon that looked remarkably like a Seawolf, and I went "Oh, did Seawolf update their dragons to mesh?" -- well, they didn't; this dragon is by DreamCrawler, and at a hefty pricetag of $4700L (!), you're going to have to decide for yourself whether the price is worth the avatar. According to the 50-some positive reviews for the various breeds of this particular dragon (for each breed), I'd say the avatar creator is making quite a lot of $L.

This dragon follows the rest of the DreamCrawler line of avatars; you buy the dragon and get a few "soul gems" that determine its color (buying a dragon gets three gems, each with a different base texture that goes over the dragon mesh). You wear the dragon (itself a solid black blob until you pop in a soul gem), wear the variety of horns (several types) or ear fins (one type) you like, then wear a soul gem and boom, the dragon mesh is colored. This dragon currently has three styles: "Nocte" (mostly reds, oranges and blacks, making me think of volcanic dragons), "Voluptas" (Purples and blues that make me think ice or crystal), and "Marenostrum" (blues and whites mostly, ice drakes).

I grabbed myself a Nocte, popped in a soul gem and went to wander some sims. The animations on it are exceptionally well done and I got a lot of compliments on it. If anyone whined, it was about how the claws appeared "clipped" instead of full-on claws, but you can only do so much with mesh and that's just a minor thing. Flying is good, and every so often the animation has the dragon doing a little mid-air flip if you're hovering idle somewhere. The dragon does not come with a saddle but I think with a little bit of work one could be modified to work with the dragon. The breath weapon is customizable, with three different breaths (fire, frost, or poison gas), and the colors of the breath weapon are editable (one color for starting particles, one for ending particles).

It's not without its flaws. The hud has an expressions tab that has the names of the expressions in a tiny, almost unreadable font that almost requires the hud be resized, especially if someone has bad eyesight (on the plus side, my experience was that dreamcrawler avatar huds are slow to respond... not so with this one). When in flight, the head bobs and weaves, meaning you're not getting a direct line from your breath weapon, but a spray/blast all over the place like a firehose. There's no talkjaw, but this seems to be a theme with mesh objects, so I can let that slide. If you want more colors you have to buy more soul gems, and last I checked, extra color schemes were $999L each for a pack of 3. That's expensive when the easier way would be to add a colorchange hud like the mesh dinosaurs of Prehistorica... which would allow for individual customization of various parts of the dragon rather than just layering over one color scheme.

If anything, the real "flaw" is its price. I do not think any avatar with the current level of SL-tech is worth nearly $5000L. A well made dragon like the dragon from Spider Productions is half that (and has options for biped or quad when the Dreamcrawler is just a quad), and this DreamCrawler dragon certainly fits the definition of well-made. That's really the only reason (other than the "blurry" low rez hud, or at least it was blurry to me) that it gets Four Dragon Hoards out of five. If you can afford it, great, because you won't be unimpressed by it. If you can't afford it, there are cheaper just as good mesh dragons out there.

The Dreamcrawler dragon can be found on the Marketplace (here).

Avatar Review: 1st Act Mesh Werewolf

By Xymbers Slade

In thinking along the lines of "Go Mesh or Go Home", I decided to go through my old landmarks and see if any other of my favorite avatar makers had also gone mesh. Cue 1st Act, makers of werewolves. I've spent quite a lot of $L on their werewolves (their originals --- the "big buff wolf" in my pictures --- cost 1950 $L per color of wolf and I have over a dozen) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they too had "gone mesh" with a new variety of werewolf.

The starting werewolf comes in three flavors (each for 1250 $L) --- Timber, Shadow and Arctic. Off to one side, there's also a vendor for re-skinning (at 650 $L a skin) where you buy a little hud that you click to change the basic color of the body. Simple and easy. There's a shop next to the vendor that has basic mesh clothes to fit the body (I settled on a dress for 450). The hud for controlling the wolf allows you to control the expression of the wolf (there's about a dozen programmed expressions, and five different hand positions) as well as controls for the ears, eyes and mouth.

Missing from the hud is a howl or snarl sound effect gesture like from their originals as well as an option for coloring eyes (those are now human-esque and need to be bought separately (at 150 $L per variety, coming in black background with "rich color", natural, evil eyes or cybernetical), but I think that's just a minor nitpick as the mesh is really well done. My only real nitpick is that the mesh isn't easily editable; in an effort to make my female wolf a bit bustier, nothing changes from the "edit my shape" menu when I go to edit (well, the shape changes but is hidden by an alpha layer; the mesh doesn't change with the avatar shape as the two are different things).

So that's that. A short and sweet write up on the new 1st Act mesh werewolves which I am going to rate at 4 dragon hoards out of 5 --- I think the skins and the clothing could be a bit cheaper, and I would have liked to see a few more gestures like snarling, scratching, tail-flicking, etc. It's a good choice if you want to upgrade your avatar to a mesh skin (that and it's hard to find clothes  for the female bigger buff original versions that -aren't- harem wear, so I was looking for something new). These new mesh wolves can be found at the 1st Act Main Store.

Xymbers Slade

The Kattoan Avatars

I haven't been inworld much, playing Minecraft and other games and all, but when I heard that Kinzart Kreetures had a new variety of Hyena out (Kinzart being one of the places I avatar shop often at), I came across something... unusual. Something I hadn't seen before, and after being on Second Life for five plus years, anything unique or that stands out is rare for me.

Enter the Kattoans. These are small avatars that look like, well, a mammal, at first look. I wasn't quite sure what they were. They're mesh avatars with a wide variety of colors. I grabbed a lime green one and was referred to as a muppet, so I grabbed an almond-color one as well. I was impressed with the avatar overall, and could actually envision a tiny civilization of these guys elsewhere. They're only a little bit bigger than the largest of the Meeroos, and I could -easily- see them as befriending the 'roos for companionship.

I tracked down the avatar creator, one Athau-xan, also known as 1000 Carlos, and we sat down to a brief interview.

Xymbers Slade, "These are some pretty neat avs, 1K. Where did you come up with the idea? (smile)"

Athau-xan, "Most of my inspiration came from Spiral Knights, mainly. I also threw together a couple different art-styles from around the N64-era."

Xymbers Slade, "Can't say I've heard of that... sounds like an anime. It's still very unusual and it was enough to draw my attention away from the hyenas I was after for the time being. Were they difficult to create? I hear mesh isn't the friendliest thing to work with."

Athau-xan, "They weren't too difficult to make. How long it actually took me to make them is hard to say, as I just worked on them a little bit whenever I had spare time. I purposely kept them really low polycount because, artistically, it looked better, and I wanted them to use as little resources on the sim as possible."

Xymbers Slade, "What exactly are they supposed to be, besides a very unique race? Kind of like... I don't know, a groundhog or something? Or a fuzzy rodent of some kind, perhaps?"

Athau-xan, "I'm not quite sure myself really, something like a mix between a rodent and a mole I guess."

Xymbers Slade, "Is there anything you wanted to do with them but couldn't thanks to Second Life, well... being Second Life?"

Athau-xan, "I would've liked to make the body separate pieces, which I could. but unfortunately SL likes to make really bad seams where parts are split, and I didn't really want the avatar covered in seams."

Xymbers Slade, "I don't know a thing about building, so I'll take your word for it. I see over there the sign for the 'Republic of Kattoa.' Do you have a grand design for them in mind or are you letting the incoming community build on its own?"

Athau-xan, "I do have my own future plans for the Kattoans. Such as perhaps an entire sim dedicated to them in the long run. I'll eventually release a builders kit when I get around to it so the community can create their own ideas for them."

Xymbers Slade, "Do you also do commissions? I know I'd like to see, say, a set of knight's armor, or something."

Athau-xan, "I am currently not accepting commisions, and I don't expect to start in the forseeable future, but I do have a knight set planned, among plenty of other outfits."

Xymbers Slade, "Ok, is Okarthel the only spot you have these available, or have you got a main store somewhere?"

Athau-xan, "Currently Okarthel is the only location to find Kattoans. I do plan on getting my own simulator for them eventually, but I cannot say when that will happen."

Xymbers Slade, "Sims ain't cheap, but I'll get behind this if one does pop up."

I could see these critters clearly in my head in their own little civilization running around. It is very rare that one can see something just "spring to life" in one's head like that. These guys are small enough to even ride the My Little Pony avatars I did a piece on a while ago, and I can see several potential possibilities in my head that this could really take off and give other avatar makers a run for their money. At about 350 $L, plus the cheap cost of outfits, they're far cheaper than most avatars I've come across. They come in a wide variety of colors and currently four mesh outfits are also available as separate purchases. One of them, the civilian outfit, being free.

Four Dragon Hoards out of five --- only because I want to give it room to grow and see where it goes. This is something I can really get behind. They can currently be found in a corner of the Okarthel sim.

Xymbers Slade

Reader Submitted: A Few Notes on Mesh

10 Gooson sent Second Life Newser a few notes about her experience with Mesh, "I've tried to explain what meshes are, what is still unknown, the in's and out's for 'almost-noobs' to explain some more about meshes."

*Addition* 10's original article had been delayed, so she sent over an updated one which reflected her more recent experiences.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* There are prims, sculpted prims and mesh-prims, well known as the avatars as we all are inworld. yes, an avatar is called a mesh. A 1 non-linked object that can move, you can bump into and walk over! that has flexible (mesh)clothes and can be textured with a Template or officially called uv-Map.

* Till this summer the avatars are the only existing Meshes in SL, but that has changed forever! by the implementation of meshes in SL.

* A mesh is a 3D object that can not be created or build in SL itself like ordinary prim builds as we're all used to.

* Like Sculpted prims they need to be created outside SL with 3D-software programs. Unlike sculpties, meshes can move with the avatar's body if they are 'rigged' (= attached to) properly to the bone-structure of an avatar. So 'flexible clothes' is possible, because they are made out of meshes instead of sculpties, which can not be made flexible or attached to a bone-structure of avatars.

* Mesh objects/3D-objects can be of any kind, a complete house or castle, avatars in any shape you can think of, trees, you name it. You can walk through them, on top of them etc, what can not be done by sculpted objects. (Sculpted prims are impossible to walk on or through if not made phantom guided by invisible helping prims, can not be made flexible, even if attached.)

* Mesh objects can be downloaded from the internet and be uploaded in SL gridwide. This will cause lots of copyright infrignements. Real life 3D designers will feel the effect of ignorant SL-residents who upload these mesh-3D-objects they've found on the internet, without paying any respect to license-agreements etcetera!!!

* Meshes can only be textured by using the UV-maps or Templates made available by the designer of the meshes and are not easy (impossible) to texture without any knowledge of graphic programs.

* Till now (end of september 2011) meshes imported to SL for the use of avatar-attachement (clothes and accessories) can not be resized and have to be sold in a few default sizes as Small, Medium, Large and extra Large. An extra big bum will be impossible to use with a mesh-skirt worn!! So for mesh-clothes residents will need to resize their shape and not much residents will be willing to. Their biggest complaint about meshes so far!!!!

* The forout spoken advantage of meshes primcount is unsure and still a big mystery (time of writing end of june 2011) while LL has tried to bring the implementation of meshes as being a prim count advantage. As a sculpted prim object, the shape can be 2 prims, imported as mesh-prim it can be 4, 6, 8 or 2 prims as well, even less as just 1 mesh object having a Prim Equivalent of 1!! So the only advantage till now is the incredible Level of Details for every 1 prim Mesh Object and for each 1 prim Mesh Object 8 texture faces. (A default prim Box has 6 texture-faces)
If a mesh-object is resized as a huge prim, it will be multiplied in primcount and still the primcount calculation isn't sure. If you add a script, the prim count will go up!! To script and or animate a mesh object, it is best to delink the scripted(mesh) prim and add it separately and use it as unlinked (coalesced) object. What will be difficult for mesh-clothes (again) and for the average user of SecondLife.

* Upload existing meshes not specifically build for SL means the following; LOD factor (Level Of Detail) needs to be adapted for the use in SL. The creator of the mesh needs to have adapted his mesh for the use in SL, this means the creator has to create 3 or 4 different meshes to establish 1 good mesh object inworld. From every distance such good meshes will be loaded properly by SL itself. If not, the object will look terrible from a small distance even if the standard LOD-factor is set to 4 or higher in your viewer's preferences. This is NOT known by the average user of meshes, creators of meshes or people who upload good looking meshes not specifically made for the use in SL. Only the 'happy' few are aware of this fact and it takes a lot of time and skills to create meshes with the good LOD-factors for the use in SL.

* The problem is and will be the coming months, is that, even in the Beta grid, nothing is sure, no conclusions can be drawn and it is all 'wishful thinking' for LL, skilled designers, business owners and residents who hope for good improvements...

*****Current experience:
Mesh-clothes are a huge disappointment for most creators and users! The resize-issue is an important part of the disappointment.

Big mesh-objects as rocks, caves, complete islands, trees etc have a prim-count problem. Even when the mesh is 'low-poly' (less tris as they call it) LL has decided to keep this stupid bug-like mistake and gives such bigger objects a primcount of a few hundred!!! or more. So the advantage of walking on or in such bigger builds without helping prims being 1 mesh object is gone and a huge disappointment for landscapers (ask Luna Bliss or Lilith Heart, Jubjub Forder). They look smashing but unable to use!!

So what's left?? Normal mesh-avatar-attatchements that don't need to move with the body of avatars, for example belts, helmets, armory, bags, etc etc. They behave the same as sculpted attachments, but again; much more room for details in the shapes themselves AND the multiplied texture-face-space meshes have compared to sculpties that have only 1 texture-face!!

For us, my hubby, it means we focus on furniture. Already awesome sculpted furniture, mesh furniture is 'fantastic', very very very good in quality and my experience; much more easy to texture because of the extended texture faces per mesh-part of a build!
I'll send you some of our own.

VIEWERS!!!!
Only the SL-viewer 3.0 and higher and the Phoenix-Beta viewer Firestorm V3 are supporting meshes. (last is extremely slow)
That means the 90% of SL-residents who use Phoenix or other third party viewers don't even see meshes as they are. Here some examples:



(pick taken with SL Viewer 1.23)





(pick taken with SL Viewer 3.0.3)

Well known is; Phoenix is working hard to support meshes, i assume (dangerous) that other viewers do the same.








The crow is a sculpted avatar, the cat is Sparky-me AND a mesh avatar!


*All stated above is written by mesh-noob herself, involved by an average 3D designer who is trying to involve himself into mesh-for-SL-use for 2 years. That the SL-mesh-forum is filled with questions, complaints, frustrations and unanswered questions will be confirmed if you visit all SL-mesh information sites available. It is all very technical, but even for the designers themselves no clarity is given or available.





http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/What_is_mesh%3F
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Costs_and_fees

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