The Ever-Turning Experience Of Joel Eilde

 

By Netera Landar

 

“If I want to make the listener cry, I add Indian music. If I want the listener to rock out, I add Arabic music.”
---Joel Eilde
 

 

It was a Friday afternoon when I ran into Joel Eilde. I had just left an Amforte set on Kona Beach. Amberle would be singing at Nevermore at 4 PM, so I teleported there. Shortly after arriving at the entrance, Joel said “hello.” He reminded me that I’d interviewed him for the Metaverse Tribune ten years ago. What a good memory he has. He was also a guest on the Netera Landar live chat when his band was called “Dragonfly.” That was years ago on Terric when I had a chat studio.

Branded as “Joel in Real Life,” his band’s vibe is “ambient, world, spiritual music with enough edge to keep it off the speakers in supermarkets and elevators. Joel said so himself. 

Joel is so easy to talk to. He’s like the friend you’ve known for 15 years. Catch his video for “Crimson Seas” on Instagram. Joel sings and plays acoustic guitar. The harmony and violin accompaniment have a Scottish vibe. (https://www.instagram.com/p/CO6RTxcDyVd/)  You will be easily swept away by the music. 

 

Joel’s also a member of Red Heaven, an experimental rock, metal, and blues band. I am personally more drawn to this band's music and have attended Joel’s gigs at both Nevermore and Hammerhead Harbor Club. He also performs regularly at After Dark, Templemore, The Octagon, and Feed A Smile. Red Heaven’s music has been featured on Second Life since 2011. He has performed over 3,000 shows on the grid since then. It’s all original music.

I think I’ve listened to “The Ever-Turning Wheel” about seven times. Why? Because the music is unlike anything I’ve heard. The best way to describe it is as a blanket woven from nature, relationships, memories, time, friendships, and the rejection of conformity. 

 

I touched base with Joel Tamas of Ontario, Canada, to learn what makes him tick and when music’s rhythm first filled his mind and soul. He stated that he’s been a musician since he was 14. He took guitar and bass lessons when he was younger. 

“My musical life and my inner ‘spiritual’ life grew up together, and, because that inner self is what propels us to make art, the two sort of evolved in parallel. You can see it in how my songs have always mirrored the spiritual condition I was in at whatever point I wrote them in the last 43 years. As I grew and my mind opened to subtler and deeper understanding, my music did too.”

Joel said that as time passed, in his 40s, he took jazz improvisation and flamenco lessons. He worked with real masters.

“Drummer Aaron Ferrera, for one, who grew up with me and taught me a lot of rhythmic concepts that a guitarist probably wouldn’t pick up on his own,” Joel said. “I owe him a great debt for that. I also worked with sitar master Anwar Khurshid for several years, and I learned a lot about classical Indian music from him.”

Joel established Red Heaven and writes all the songs, music, and lyrics. You can purchase his music on Bandcamp (https://redheavenlive.bandcamp.com) and through Apple Music. You can listen to his first single, “Martyr,” and watch the video at https://redheaven.ca/martyr.

I wondered why there were two bands and asked Joel; he replied that “Joe in Real Life” was formed in 2018 because he couldn’t keep all his music under a single band identity any longer. 

“On one hand, I’ve done so much hard rock and experimental music, but on the other hand I also love creating gentler, ambient world music…so I do both. It really was too confusing for listeners to figure out how to receive the material. For instance, sometimes I would finish an alt-metal gig, and then, when I came off stage, someone would approach me wanting to buy a few CDs,” he said. “I would then have to explain which CD’s sound like what they heard on stage and which CDs were all hang drums and meditative bells, etc. It was too confusing, so I split the product line and now market it under two different brand names to make things clearer.”

He brings his rocker energy to Red Heaven. He admits that’s where he puts his dark music, the thunder and lightning. He describes Red Heaven as if Tool and Kate Bush had a baby that grew up in Istanbul. He says it’s a weird way to describe it, but if you hear the material, it makes sense.

“Joel in Real Life” has a “world music” vibe that would work well for meditation or reflection sessions. If you were to ask him, he’d say it’s inspired by his interest in the Bahai Faith’s philosophies and concepts. Red Heaven is more autobiographical.

When you hear him perform a song online, it begins with parts he develops himself. He brings the parts together in his studio and tries them out on the crowd in Second Life.

“Once the song is ready to transition to a recorded release and/or an album, that’s when I get more serious and bring in the pros. Aaron Ferrera and his son Jacob Ferrera have both provided years of top-end drumming work for me. On a rare occasion, I bring in drummer Mike McNeil,” Joel said.

He told me that Anwar Khurshid plays all the sitar we hear. He’s also brought in MJ Cyr, Chimwemwe Miller, Olga Zoubkova, Bruno Randimbiarison, Dergham Aqiqi, and Liz Aday to sing with him. I know that Liz is a Second Life singer. For violin, he called upon Hannah Michel in the early days of the band, and, later, Marie-Claire Saindon. For harmonica, he brings in Marc Seguin. 

“I mostly play my own bass and guitar tracks, but when I wanted something special, I’ve brought in Tom McMahon (bass) and Trevor Lubin (guitar). On the new album, Trevor plays mandolin, which is an instrument Red Heaven has never used before. It sounds really great, too,” Joel said.

On stage, he’s worked with a long list of players, but has settled on a lineup he really loves. Jacob Ferrera on drums, Maddy O’Regan on violin, Trevor Lubin on guitar, Cyrus TR Orkish on bass, and Ally Bruneau on vocals and guitar.

“What’s cool is that, despite each one having vast experience and top-level skill, they’re all actually on the young side. So, I get all the amazing youthful energy, but each has the artistic mastery of much older, seasoned players. These guys are like my desert island band lineup. They are absolutely stellar in every way. I mean, when you see them doing their thing in full effect, they’re incredible. I’m very blessed to have them,” he admitted.

When Joel’s in Second Life, he sings and plays guitar live. He uses backing tracks for the things he can’t do live. He focuses on performing as a singer and guitarist, but it’s impossible for him to simultaneously play drums, bass, a second guitar, a third guitar, sitar, violin, and sing his own backups. He creates all the tracks he uses. Even though it’s recorded, it’s still his music and his performances and those of the people he hires. 

Besides attending many of Joel’s gigs, I’ve added Red Heaven’s “The Ever-Turning Wheel” to my personal “tune into music” sessions. I love how eclectic this digital album is. Of course, Joel wrote the songs. I asked him to tell me about them, and he said he could probably write an encyclopedia about each one and still not cover everything.

“I will tell you that there are a lot of old songs on ‘The Ever-Turning Wheel’ that I’d been wanting to record and release properly for years, and some for decades. ‘The Invisible World,’ ‘I Could Love You Better,’ ‘What I Am,’ ‘The Closest Thing To Love,’ ‘Now in Love,’ and ‘Ordinary People,’ had all been waiting around for a long, long time for their chance. And I decided ‘The Ever-Turning Wheel’ was an opportunity to get them released the way they deserved. There were lots of new songs too (‘Messages From The Storm,’ ‘Becoming,” et al), but when I close my eyes and think about that album as a whole it feels to me like a retrospective on 30 years of songwriting.”

Once the album was done and dropped, there were no songs left from his youth or bygone years waiting in the wings to be released. So, the upcoming Red Heaven album, “Let The Dead Things Die,” features songs no older than 2-4 years old. He wrote all the new songs within a short window of time.

“It’s one reason why I think the new album is going to feel both fresh and unified in a way previous albums didn’t.”

 

 Whether he’s dressed in a kilt or in a T-shirt and jeans, you will become immersed in the Joel experience. So put on your headset, adjust the sound, and sit back and get lost in his music. You will find Red Heaven’s discography at redheaven.ca.  Help support Red Heaven through patreon.com/RedHeavenLive. I signed up, so now if I miss one of his SL gigs, I can hear the show and see the titles of the songs he sang.

Red Heaven’s albums include:

(2013) AMPLIFICATION

(2015) MOTH

(2020) ECHOLOCATION

(2021) MEANWHILE

(2022) THE EVER-TURNING WHEEL

(To be released on Oct. 10) LET THE DEAD THINGS DIE

Netera Landar 

 

Reader Submitted: Interview With SL Wrestler Alpin Criss

 

By Charlotte Williams

 

Welcome to In Conversation with Charlotte: Beyond the Ring, Inside the Mindset.

I'm Charlotte, and in this series, I sit down with personalities from the Second Life wrestling community to discover who they truly are, what drives them, and the stories behind their characters.

Today, I'm joined by Alpin Criss, a man many consider the Godfather of SL wrestling.

His name has been woven through the history of the industry since its earliest days, through its growth, rivalries, controversies, and evolution. And with recent events bringing old tensions back into focus, this feels like the right time to hear his side of the story.

C: Alpin, welcome to the show.

AC: Thanks for having me, Charlotte

C: So we're currently in Season 28 of Overload. At the end of Season 27, TLC refused your instruction to attack The Ace, which ultimately cost him the Heavyweight Championship. Afterwards, you attacked TLC. From your perspective, what caused this breakdown between you and TLC?

AC: First, after all I'd done for him all season long, he had the nerve to turn his back on me. Then he put his hands on me. Nobody turns their back on me, and nobody puts their hands on me unless they're willing to face the consequences, and the consequences are exactly what TLC got.

C:  Wow. Well, if I was TLC, I'd be a bit worried right now. I don't really know what could be happening with him, and I'd guess I'd be watching my back.

So now you're back as an active wrestler. You've returned to active competition. So why now, and what's driving that decision?

AC: Well you see, Charlotte, El Jefe reached out to me and he made me an offer I just couldn't refuse.

I'll lace up my boots for anyone, anytime, if the money is right. But getting some payback on the likes of Vince or some of these other jokers on the Premier roster, well, that's just gonna be icing on the cake

C: Sounds juicy. So speaking of Vince Aftermath, he is the owner and founder of Premier Wrestling, and you've mentioned there's still some unfinished business between yourself and Vince. So now that we're in Season 28 of Overload, how do you see that situation evolving?

AC: Well, Charlotte, I just don't know if there's any business left. I think Vince learned his lesson. When he ambushed me and put his hands on me, he learned exactly what TLC learned, that you don't put your hands on Alpin Criss unless you're man enough to accept the consequences.

Vince got the consequences, and I don't know what was sweeter, the sound of his knee snapping or that stupid Walmart cowboy hat crushing when I dropped my elbow on it.

I don't know, maybe it was the whimpering. I'll tell you what, I knew he was the kind of guy that whimpers.

“You don't put your hands on Alpin Criss unless you're man enough to accept the consequences” – Alpin Criss

C: Dare I ask how you knew that, Alpin?

AC: You can just look at some guys. Some guys you know are gonna be tough, and then you look at Vince

C: And what, what do you see when you look at Vince? What does Alpin Criss see when he looks at Vince Aftermath?

AC: I think they say it best in Texas, he's all hat and no cattle.

C: I'm gonna leave that one there. I think that sounds like a Vince/ Alpin issue, so I'll leave that as it is. Maybe Vince will have a comeback at some time. We'll have to wait and see.

C: So, week two of Season 28 of Overload Alpin, TLC had a match against Malice, and you came out during that match. What, what was that about? What was your plan there?

AC: No real plan. You see, Charlotte, I'm a professional wrestler, and I mean professional. These other guys just play at wrestler, but I'm the real deal.

So when I have an opponent that I know I'm gonna end up facing at some point, I'm gonna watch what he does, I'm gonna study him, and I'm gonna figure out every part of his game. So by the time he steps into that ring, and he goes through those ropes, and he's gotta face me, I'm gonna know every move he's got.

C: So if you had a message for TLC right now today after you've seen, after you've been out during his match, is there a message for him or are we just keeping it a mystery for now until he has to wait to see what, what Alpin Criss brings out to him?

AC: Oh, the message is simple. Alpin Criss is unimpressed

C: TLC, I hope you're listening…

C: So Alpin, you've called yourself the greatest wrestler of all time, a living legend, and I guess this is for the ladies, a real man. When it's all said and done, what do you want the name Alpin Criss to represent in Second Life Wrestling history.

AC: Well, that's a funny thing, Charlotte. The funny thing is, it was all said and done. History was written on Alpin Criss. The book was closed. Then Katherine Blackadder died, and Mad Mike brought me back to SL with that charity show. A one in a million long shot. Now, my place in history is cemented. Win, lose, or draw, I'm always gonna be Alpin Criss.

Now, what does that mean? A guy wins a title and it makes him important. Alpin Criss wins a title and it makes the title more important. You see what I mean?

C: I do, I do see what you mean. So Alpin Criss wins a title, and it makes the title more important. So these guys coming after you today, should they be wanting to beat Alpin Criss, or should they be wanting to have a title that Alpin Criss holds or has once held?

AC: Well, that's, that's just it, Charlotte. It doesn't matter, you know, a guy wrestles me, a Champion wrestles me, anybody wrestles me, and it's something on their bucket list. They can go and say, "I wrestled Alpin Criss."  And that's the difference. You see? That's what I'm talking about.

That's what they mean when they call me a Legend. Everyone else is just wrestlers. Even the Champions are just wrestlers. But when you wrestle Alpin Criss, you're wrestling a Legend.

“A guy wins a title and it makes him important. Alpin Criss wins a title and it makes the title more important” – Alpin Criss

C: So in saying that, Alpin, do you think that's how other wrestlers view you as a living Legend, as the greatest wrestler of all time? Or do you not care?

AC: All I know is whenever I log on to Second Life, whenever I'm in world, whenever I step into any arena in the virtual metaverse, I'm contacted by everyone.

People beg me to have matches with them. People who own feds, people who run feds, people who have been in this business for 15 years, since the beginning, they reach out to me. They all want a match with Alpin Criss, and that's the difference. That's why I'll always be Alpin Criss, and everyone else will be just everyone else.

C: Alpin, if you could ask anyone in the wrestling, SL wrestling community one question, who would it be and what would you ask them?

AC: You know, I already asked, and El Jefe said the right thing with the right number of zeros behind it. Now Premier's roster gets to deal with the consequences, and I'm gonna have fun the whole time, and I'm gonna make a lot of money the whole time. Vince has gotta deal with the consequences.

TLC, Ace, Derek, Moe, Chris, Dany, DHA. I don't even know who else is on the roster, but they're all gonna have to deal with it. I can keep going. All I need to ask is, are they ready for Alpin Criss?

C: Are they ready indeed? Is anybody ready for Alpin Criss? It remains to be seen.

Alpin, it has been an absolute pleasure having you here today. Thank you so much for being in the studio with myself, and thank you for your time.

AC: You are so welcome. Thanks so much for having me, Charlotte.

 

That was Alpin Criss, the Godfather of SL Wrestling.

A man whose influence can still be felt across the industry he helped shape, a legacy that continues to echo through Second Life Wrestling today. And if our conversation proves anything, it's that while history tells us where we've been, some stories are still being written, and some legacies continue to shape what comes next.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Charlotte, and this has been In Conversation with Charlotte.

Check out this interview on Youtube: https://youtu.be/7hWZD3LJ0C8

 

After the Cameras Stopped Rolling

Although the cameras had stopped rolling, our conversation hadn't. With the formal interview behind us, Alpin was just as candid, reflecting not only on his career but on the philosophy that has guided him since the earliest days of Second Life wrestling.

C: During the interview, we spoke a lot about the legend of Alpin Criss. It made me wonder - when Alpin Criss first stepped onto the scene, what did you want people to feel the moment they saw you?

AC: A small taste of what wrestling is to me. Not whatever passes for wrestling these days. I wanted them to experience a small taste of what wrestling was.

It's a short but telling answer, one that perfectly captures how Alpin views the industry. For him, wrestling has always been about preserving something he believes has gradually been lost over time.

One subject I was particularly interested in exploring was the man behind the character. Alpin Criss has built a reputation as one of the most recognisable personalities in Second Life wrestling, but how much of that confidence is performance - and how much is simply who he is?

C: How much of Alpin Criss is really you? Where do you draw the line between the man and the character?

Alpin didn't hesitate.

AC: I probably turn the volume down on SL. Talking through an avatar is different than talking to someone face to face. So Alpin is really a watered-down version of me - filtered by the technology - but he's still all me.

He was quick to point out that there are still a few obvious differences.

AC: I've got a much better wardrobe than Alpin in real life. A lot more tailored suits. I'm not blonde, either. And I'm about ten pounds lighter than Alpin's 242. I'm lifting every day trying to get there, but packing that much muscle onto a six-foot frame isn't easy - and I'm not interested in going on the gear.

It's a surprisingly grounded response from someone whose on-screen persona projects unwavering confidence.

One thing that has always separated Alpin from many of his peers is that he didn't just compete in Second Life wrestling - he helped redefine how it worked.

C: You created the Alpin Criss Pro-Wrestling System (ACPWS) back in 2007 and recently upgraded it. What inspired you to build it in the first place?

For Alpin, innovation has always begun with the same question.

AC: I see a limitation in Second Life and ask myself, 'Is there a way to do more?'

He recalled that when he first encountered SL wrestling, it relied almost entirely on pose balls.

AC: I tried it and was completely deflated. I asked myself, 'Is there a way to move around the ring and still animate two avatars?' ACPWS was born, and wrestling changed.

That same mindset later led him to develop the Alpin Criss Pro-Boxing System.

AC: Boxing back then was basically Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. I wanted knockdowns, offence, defence—an actual boxing game. ACPBS was born, and boxing changed too.

Listening to him describe those early years, it becomes clear that innovation has always been every bit as important to Alpin as competition itself.

When I mentioned the name SugarCube, Alpin immediately smiled.

Although many associate SugarCube with the introduction of the first targeting system, Alpin was quick to explain that Sugar's contribution came almost entirely behind the scenes.

AC: He never wrestled with SLCW/DCWF. He just appeared, helped with scripting, and disappeared again. He was a huge help because I had no idea how to script back then.

According to Alpin, the targeting system fundamentally changed what was possible inside the ring. Being able to register multiple avatars and switch targets at will suddenly opened the door to tag team matches, referee bumps, multi-person contests, and match types that simply hadn't been possible before.

Looking back over nearly two decades in the business, I was curious what Alpin considered the biggest challenge.

C: Looking back, what was harder - mastering the technical side or finding your place in a growing wrestling community?

His answer came immediately.

"The politics."

Competition, he explained, had never intimidated him.

AC: I've always been athletic. Champion swimmer. Champion wrestler. Track. Tennis. I was raised with a blue-collar work ethic, and I've always been competitive as hell.

For him, the real challenge wasn't performing inside the ring - it was navigating the people around it.

AC: I'm a straight shooter. I say what I mean, and I stick to my word. Politics was always the hard part.

Whether you admire Alpin Criss for his accomplishments inside the ring, his innovations behind the scenes, or simply his unwavering confidence, one thing is difficult to dispute - his influence on Second Life wrestling continues to be felt nearly two decades after he first arrived. Love him or disagree with him, Alpin remains one of the defining figures in the history of SL Wrestling and judging by his return to competition in Premier Wrestling, he has no intention of becoming part of its past just yet.

If you'd like to learn more about Alpin Criss, watch Premier Wrestling, or explore the ACP Wrestling and Boxing Systems, you'll find the relevant links below.

To see Alpin in action, check out Premier Wrestling and purchase tickets: https://www.premier-wrestling.com/

To purchase the Alpin Criss Pro-Wrestling System (for free): https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/ACPWS-EDGE/28222411

To join our Discord: https://discord.gg/uJKzK78yz

Charlotte Williams

 

Corey In The House, SL Avatar Statue Builder

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

I recently heard about someone in Second Life who makes quality statues of avatars, Corey In The House (jjws888 Resident). 

 

My friend Nydia sent me to a teleport to his place in the Dog sim. After initial greetings, "Welcome to Agora II," he told her, "You should check out the museum while you're here Nydia." We went into a building with a sign "Agora Sandbox." "Welcome to the Agora sl history museum" someone greeted. Among the items there was "The Linden World Gem," created in the days of the Beta Grid, in October 2002. There were also some older maps. Someone commented there was also some "genuine fetted inner core stuff." I heard Corey speak at one point, "Oh, (name) this doesnt belong in the museum, but I'm putting it down to get people to come inside the museum."

Eventually, Nydia, Corey, and I left the others behind and headed to  a skybox in Collaborative Build, BaikUn. It was a gray globe around a gray platform. "Okay," he told Nydia, "pick out your pose for me while I switch viewers." "Okay," Nydia responded, "Is this hair okay, or remove it?" Corey answered, "Unfortunately its flexi-prim hair so we cant keep it. You will have to add it (to the statue) after the fact if you want to use it." I asked, "What can be done about the hair?" Corey told me, "Well the model will come out normal and she can place the hair on the model, like putting a wig on it, as this technology doesnt work well with flexi-prims, semi transparency, or super thin and small objects. The whiskers will have to go too for example."

Then Nydia found another problem, "Aw crap, this head doesn't had a hud." "You talking about the blinking?" "Yeah." "It does use an old form of animation that doesnt freeze when i pause the world, so if you could turn that off it would be great. But I can carefully work around it if you can't." "Yeah, no hud to stop the blinking, sorry." "It is what it is. We can work around it. Remove your whiskers for me and get in your pose and we can begin." "Whiskers?" Nydia facepawed. "You have very tiny whiskers on your face." "Damn!" "If you cant get rid of them then its not a huge deal either." I cammed over, then commented, "Just BARELY noticable as I cam around." "I can always edit them out," Corey spoke. "Sorry," Nydia responded, "I am neither a builder OR a modder. I know JUST enough to ruin things." "Okay are you happy with your pose then?" "Yessir." 

 

"Okay now we move out of the photo dome so it's only Nydia," Corey told me, then turned back to the vixen, "Nydia please refrain from typing in local as your mouth still moves since it's animated the old way as well.  Okay Nydia, IM me your opinion on this (image link)." After about half an hour, "Okay we're all done here." "Thank you Corey," Nydia spoke, "Bix you may want to talk to him Now while you have him *laughs*"

 

I would have a few words with Corey, "It;s not all the time but sometimes a lot of time is spent in what I call pre-production, where we have to make subele changes to the avatar to get it ready for (the) photoshoot." "It's understandable different avies would take different amounts of time," I responded, "especially if there's small complications like the hair." "Nydia isn't like a usual client with new mesh stuff, so we have to account for her old-style animated head and her flexi-prim hair. They also removed their flexi-prim parts for the photoshoot so they could add them on later. It's a rare circumstance for sure. But I do what I can."

 

"I'll spend about 20 minutes taking photos from a bunch of different angles," Corey would say about the process, saying Nydia needed, "219 images takes. Nydia's (appearance) is simple so we didnt need to break 300." I asked how many pictures would an avatar need, and he answered, "(It) depends how much clothing, you tail size, height, etc. It's a bunch of different things, but the more detailed the more pics it usually takes."

It was about this point he asked me to pause the conversation, logging off to switch viewers, and we ended up teleporting to a racetrack where friends of his, furry and human, were having a friendly competitive race, "OK now I'm available. I just have to play the waiting game while the model gets generated." 

 

I then asked how he found out about Second Life and what brought him here. Corey answered, "My friend in high school was a hardcore furry and told me about it. He told me you could have sex and make money and I thought that sounded pretty sweet. But I stuck around because I realized the depth of the customization options. I could do so much and implement my talents so quickly into the virtual world by uploading stuff. That's basically it." 

"Sounds like your first days were eventful, and you kept finding more to do." "I managed to get introduced to this guy who made sculpted furry heads, and he asked me to design a logo for his new furry club called YIFF. The club is still open and they still use that logo. So, I'm a little proud of that." 

 

"I see on your profile, you call yourself a 'former SL hobo'?" "Homeless and living the backpacking lifestyle. I still rock the look sometime but I have an SL home now. So it wouldnt be fair to continue to call myself a true SL hobo, not any more anyway."

 

Asking if the club logo led to more work, Corey's response was, "Not too much more. I hung out with the furries of SL for many years, taking month and years long breaks while playing Second Life. I learned to make my own models when mesh became a thing and made a little money. But it's not like riding a bike. I totally forgot most of what I learned to make totally original mesh. But with what I do now, I'm in blender an awful lot."

 

"So, when did the idea of making statues come about?" "It was a few years ago. I was in this sandbox called Candlewood, now known as Sandbox Not Found, (and) there was this girl who was trying out 3D scanning objects in real life like flowers and other plants. Then she tried doing the same with in-world objects like linden bears and people's avatars. They didn't come out well, but I saw so much potential in it. So I experimented for several months, trying different techniques and softwares and just experimenting, seeing what worked and what didn't. 

 

"Eventually I became confident enough I just went up to people and asked if I could make them into statues. They weren't very good at first, lots of holes and errors I didn't know how to fix. But I needed the practice. Eventually someone asked if they could pay me for one, and I said of course. Once I got paid for that first statue, that's when i realized I could make this into a thing. And I became (to my knowledge) the first person to use 3D photogrammetery, a technology used for physical spaces in the real world, with the virtual spaces of Second Life. I just had to make sure the camera of SL mimicked the specs of a real camera, and the software picked it up like if the avatars were real physical objects. 

 

"I just kept doing it and the word spread. Most of the feedback was very positive, I've only had two examples of people reacting negatively about it. Well, to my face anyway. I've heard stories of people thinking what I do should get me banned, someone even approached Linden Lab about it in one of their round-tables, and as long as I wasn't copybotting or ripping anything there wasn't much reason to do anything about me. What I do follows the TOS in regards to photography, as that's basically all I'm doing." 

 

"Banned? For making statues of people with their permission?" I asked. "Ignorance is a powerful thing, some people just have very strong opinions about things they know very little about." "They didn't know you were doing so only with permission?" "Copybotting is a Second Life taboo, one of the few that can get you in actual trouble anymore. And people would assume that's what I was doing. One creator of a mesh head even approached me, someone told them i ripped their work. Once I explained what I did and showed them an example, they immediately understood it wasn't that. And we had a nice conversation about it. I've only ever gotten one Karen who told me I was reported and I was gonna get banned and I deserved to be sued. I tried to explain to her what I did, and I think at once point she understood. But her pride was too strong that she ended up blocking me instead of admitting fault in any way. As it only happened once, I look back on it with humor."

 

I then asked how many statues he made, "I think about that a lot, and I believe I've done about 150 at this point. Maybe more, maybe less, but in that ballpark. I used to only be able to do one photoshoot a day and take about three days for a model. But since I learned so much doing so many, I can do multiple shoots a day and have a simple model ready within a day."

 

Corey stated there are three options of model available, "based on how difficult each one is to do. A low-prim statue captures the basic shape and look of an avatar, but I don't spend time doing close-ups of detailed accessories, so it only takes about 10 minutes to do a photoshoot of that. It's the option for people who want a statue cheaper or with reduced land impact. The Deluxe statue option is me trying to cram as much detail of your avatar into my photos, so I take extra photos to capture small details as well as big. The third is the same as the deluxe, but I pose your avatar in a t-pose and rig it so it's fully animated. That one takes the most effort, I completely taught myself how rigging works in blender, and when people give me glowing reactions to their finished animeshes, I know that effort was worth it." Of the prices, Corey would say, "It's 3500 for a low-prim model, 8000 for a deluxe model and 12k for an animesh."

I then asked about the challenges of pre-mesh avatars. Corey responded, "After doing so many statues,I learn what I can do and what I can't. The way SL hair used to work before mesh hairs were an option don't mimic how real hair works, it creates the illusion of hair using many small paper-thin flexi-prims. And just because it fools our eyes, doesn't mean it fools a computer. So I have to take each person and view them like a computer would, adjusting things accordingly." "What's the best remedy for that?" "I run into all kinds of issues with people's avatars, each one requiring some little or big changes. Sometimes I have to say no to people with too many things that aren't compatible.But when you run a boutique business, you have to have some rules. I do my best to include everyone who wants a statue though, and I haven't turned away many people at all."

 

I would ask whom among his clients stood out. Corey responded, "Well I attracted the attention of Madpea over a year ago and have done statues and animesh for a few of their quests. They were using NPCs with models that didn't really fit into the SL artstyle. Once I showed up and showed them I could make NPCs using real avatars, they were immediately interested. I haven't done work for them in a while, but their heist quests are filled with my work. I've also done work for the owner of the Crack Den and a few other RP sims to create AI-powered roleplay NPCs that remember who you are, which I think is a perfect use of what I do"

I asked, "So what else do you imagine you'll be doing with this in the future?" He responded, "I'm just happy people like what I do and enjoy the end product I made them. So I'm happy to make them as long as people want them. It certainly looks interesting on a resume."

When asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, Corey answered, "The funniest thing about my rise was how I advertised. Before anybody knew who iI was or what I did, I would set up illegal stalls in big shopping events. I would attach a ramshackle stall to myself along with a few examples and just stand in an empty spot where a seller would go. People would come by, ask questions about what I did and such, I did this at every shopping event I could get access to. Got banned a few times, but it's all part of the hustle. The biggest sucess I had was at Abnormality, the furry shopping event. The owners let me stay probably because they thought it was funny or clever. But I haven't had to do that for a while. I get pretty regular work from word of mouth alone. Of course, happy to share what I know with people."

Not long after the interview, Corey would finish Nydia's statue. Nydia was so impressed, she would order a second one, this time of the character with her name in the "Switched Destinies" novel. Both can be found at the Happy Vixen Beach Club. If you have tags disabled, you might think it's really her. With real life often keeping her away from the club, Nydia would comment it's one way she can always be around. Her partner Brandi Tungsten would also get a statue, setting hers up at Club Squeaks.

 

So if you want a statue of yourself, get some Lindens together and message Corey.

 

Bixyl Shuftan