The Celebrity Trollop interview
by Pixeleen Mistral, fashionable reporter
Recently, Celebrity Trollop took time from her busy schedule for an interview about the pixel clothes scene in SL, IMVU, HiPiHi and elsewhere. Celebrity also mentioned what promises to be a very interesting event - The Virtual Fashion Summit - a conference for virtual fashion designers, texture artists, prim sculptors, committed virtual fashion watchers and shoppers this coming June.
Pixeleen Mistral: Celebrity, you have been a huge figure in the SL fashion scene - where do you see that going? what is next?
Celebrity Trollop: I think Havok4 and Windlight are going to be the next major technical things coming down the pipe from Linden Lab. A lot of content creators are going to have to adjust to those differences between the SL of now and the SL of 3-4 months in the future.
Pixeleen Mistral: is this going to help the fashion scene or hurt it?
Celebrity Trollop: In general I think it'll be huge leap forward in terms of framerates, avatar appearance and general grid stability. But on the other hand, most fashionistas have a pretty huge wishlist of flaws they wish would be addressed.
Pixeleen Mistral: *nods* how are you spending your time lately? is SL your main thing?
Celebrity Trollop: Mostly I've been running around IRL looking for a new job; but when I've been in SL its been mostly on Second Style business. I do spend most of my time in SL, but I also like checking out some of the other VWs - IMVU, or the really rudimentary fashions in places like hiphiphi
Pixeleen Mistral: tell me about the fashion scene in IMVU
Celebrity Trollop: It's pretty active. One big difference between SL and IMVU is that in IMVU you can use some other's creators work as a basis for your own extension. This is called a "derivation" and when you sell a work like that both you and the original creator get some of the fake money they use.
Pixeleen Mistral: wow
Celebrity Trollop: It's also a bit more limited in the sense that the avatar model on IMVU is a bit more limited than SL's. Everyone knows SLs avatars are a bit long in the tooth, but IMVU has a pretty simplistic avatar model.
Pixeleen Mistral: how is business in IMVU - are you making money there? what are the prospects for growth?
Celebrity Trollop: I'm not active as a content creator there, but there really is a thriving content scene there. Some SLers who are pretty well known also have work for sale in IMVU too. Starley Thereian is probably the best known SL content creator who also works in IMVU from time to time. In fact, some of her skins on IMVU have the same makeup as her Charmed skins in SL.
Pixeleen Mistral: what about HiPiHi?
Celebrity Trollop: Everything's still in flux there, of course. A lot of the content creation is a little bit undefined because the platform itself is still under construction to a large degree. But I think there's eventually going to be a really thriving content scene there too -- as long as its not too heavily censored by the Chinese government. That remains to be seen - how independent content creators will be treated there.
Pixeleen Mistral: what sort of thing will they censor? we know LL hates Nazi imagery - do they have similar sensitivities?
Celebrity Trollop: I think if you make t-shirts with that iconic photograph of the lone man in front of a line of tanks in tiananmen square from 1989... probably not real keen on that sort of content.
Pixeleen Mistral: probably free taiwan is also off limits
Celebrity Trollop: Or Free Tibet. [smile]
Pixeleen Mistral: what about really naughty sexy things? a lot of people like SL to try on sexual fantasies
Celebrity Trollop: Hmm. Hard to say, but I'd bet that's probably not something the Chinese government is eager to read about in the foreign press.
Pixeleen Mistral: I understand you have a conference coming up - can you say a little about that?
Celebrity Trollop: In June I'm organizing a RL conference about pixel clothes in my home town of Minneapolis MN. http://www.virtualfashionsummit.com It's the "Virtual Fashion Summit." I'm hopeful I'll be able to get some representatives from other VWs to talk about the fashion scene in those places. I think it would be kind of cool to see some Second Life-only content creators branch out into some other environments.
Pixeleen Mistral: will you cover how to migrate from one virtual world to the next?
Celebrity Trollop: Hmm - we are accepting proposals for both speakers and panel discussions, plus attendees will have the opportunity to arrange their own sessions about whatever topic they want to discuss. I felt like that was something really missing from SLCC (for example.)
Pixeleen Mistral: Well, SLCC seems like it is really over - I think the interesting things will be in other conferences now
Celebrity Trollop: To me SLCC seemed like a conference that was half-way between a business-y conference for suits and a hard core Star Trek convention. It didn't seem to have made of its mind which one it was.
Pixeleen Mistral: that is not a good thing - you have to know your limits
Celebrity Trollop: Plus being the pixel clothes nerd, that topic in particular got really short-shrift at last years SLCC... so that was one of the reasons I thought maybe having a conference just about pixel clothes would be a good idea.
Pixeleen Mistral: I think you are right and I think the pixel clothes thing is HUGE- I mean - this is how we present ourselves in the metaverse
Celebrity Trollop: Definitely. It's also just a fun way to explore a lot of different clothing genres without a lot of risk. Ideal body, hundreds of different types of clothing, probably even hundreds if not thousands of different types of avatars. So no doubt that fashion is and will remain a huge content field in just about every VW platform.
Pixeleen Mistral: I think this is also why there is so much grass roots work in this area - I mean its really cool how lots of people make clothes - there is so much to choose from. I'd have bailed out on SL 6 months ago were it not for the shopping
Celebrity Trollop: hehe
Pixeleen Mistral: but it seems like there is a malaise in the SL fashion scene lately - or am I imagining it?
Celebrity Trollop: Hmm - I think a lot of veteran content creators are having some burn-out. The advent of wide spread content theft has also demoralized a lot of designers.
Pixeleen Mistral: its sad
Celebrity Trollop: Yes it is.
Pixeleen Mistral: is there anything else you want to tell the Herald readers?
Celebrity Trollop: I'd just say if you're feeling a little burnt out on SL for whatever reason, play around with some of these other virtual worlds. IMVU and There.com for example have opportunities for content creators to make and sell pixel clothes too. And besides, it doesn't hurt to take a step back from SL just to recharge and get away from all of the drama.
Those avatars scare me.
Posted by: Tenshi Vielle | February 19, 2008 at 11:26 PM
"Pixeleen Mistral: probably free taiwan is also off limits
Celebrity Trollop: Or Free Tibet. [smile]"
I thought it was "Free Texas."
Posted by: Razrcut Brooks | February 20, 2008 at 06:46 AM
Whoa... Goodness knows the SL avatar model desperately needs improvements and wider variation (please vote for VWR-1258, everyone!), but IMVU is wretched if those photos are any indication. All the worst stereotypes of bad anime...
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | February 20, 2008 at 08:13 AM
I was on IMVU for a brief moment until I decided how teen it really is. IMVU are for a younger crowd and hey if you want to tap into some $$ there then go for it. Second life may look "long in the tooth" But IMVU just makes people look ridiculous.
Posted by: Aya Pelous | February 20, 2008 at 08:50 AM
and all the hoopla over ageplay in sl? wow they really need to head over to IMVU. looks like a haven for those freaks.
Posted by: Ann Otoole | February 20, 2008 at 09:02 AM
"I think Havok4 and Windlight are going to be the next major technical things coming down the pipe from Linden Lab."
Newsflash hon... those were the PREVIOUS major technical things that ALREADY came down the pipe.
Posted by: NEWSFLASH! | February 20, 2008 at 03:13 PM
IMVU looks creepy
Posted by: anonymous | February 20, 2008 at 04:45 PM
I tried IMVU for around a month, and that was 2 years ago. Looking like a Bratz doll held no appeal for me. And the speech bubble method of communication - gah, so Disney!
Keep your IMVU, kiddies. I like my SL as my Vampire's playground.
Posted by: Winter | February 20, 2008 at 06:04 PM
Test, please delete this post.
Posted by: test | February 20, 2008 at 06:54 PM
*blowkiss Celeb!*
workit gurl!
Just wanted to let folks know if you plan to use IMVU to make some cashola, might wanna take a gander at this furst:
http://brace-coral.livejournal.com/105445.html
And yes its very TEEN there and the avies are so scawy! *shudders*
Posted by: Brace | February 20, 2008 at 10:07 PM
IMVU clothing and body parts look like what THERE had to offer in the beginning.
"What's 'There'?" you ask.
Exactly.
Posted by: Ava Cartier | February 21, 2008 at 03:06 AM
Hey brace...
So basically, half the money which you're forced to accept is effectively counterfeit. That right there I would consider a reason NOT to even start with IMVU content creation. Not to mention, the "Derivation fee" thing... what exactly are you paying these "meshers" for anyway? I mean, are they making new avatar meshes or something? Or are these people that just know how to use IMVU's avatar map? Well considering that I actually have 3D graphics experience I should go over there sometime and enjoy ripping off other people. IMVU seems more like a scam if anything.
I do, however, like one thing about IMVU avatars, they look cartoonish by default and this has been something very annoying to try to represent in Second Life. Before sculpties it was practically impossible outside the realm of ultra-chibi tinies... but even then the body shape loves to distort if you look anything near cartoonish.
P.S. About object creation, learn to use Blender. That's how I learned 3D graphics. I'm serious, Blender was my first program.
Posted by: KMeist Hax | February 21, 2008 at 08:02 PM
Well the derivation thinger isnt as rippy offy as all that.
Its just something for those who are getting started, or who dun wanna learn all the whatever it takes to mesh.
Its sorta like getting a full perm table or somethin in SL, then adding your own textures on it and then selling it. The mesher automatically gets part of your upload fees (or sales I forget), cuz like they MADE the table in the first place - and you get the rest of the sales.
somethin like that.
But yeah, that whole predit/fake moneh system is a big red flag if you wanna try to make any money over there. Its just not worth it at this point.
Ty on the Blender thing... I have it on my compy, but never got around to checking it out. mebbe I will someday ;)
(And if anyone is wondering why the IMVU avies etc look like THERE avies etc:
Its cuz some folks who started THERE jumped ship and created IMVU)
Posted by: Brace | February 22, 2008 at 09:43 AM
I got two words to say about these things in that teenchat IMPU or whatever:
UGLY
Posted by: XP | February 22, 2008 at 12:37 PM