Author Archive

I started working on a nose hook! I swear this isn’t related to the previous project but something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while now. The marketplace doesn’t appear to have hardly any competition in that regard, so why not?

The way I’m making it, is as an “add on” that can be “hooked” to existing collars (classic leather collar added to the scene as a reference).

Right now the strap uses a total of 9 separate parts to maximize its ability to fit heads:

• Nose hook.
• Connection rings.
• A 45/60/75 curvature straps.
• A straight strap.
• Rear/collar hook.

I haven’t thought yet how to make it lockable, chain-able, or if it even should be. I also should probably make a mini strap & hook setup that fits the Raider Harness Gag.

Thoughts on the variants I’ve tried to come up for the hook? So far the simplest one appears to be the best, but I’m open to suggestions!

The weather is back to being unbearably hot unfortunately, so expect a bit of a slower pace.

I’m relocating the documentation for KDC products from kdc.ethernia.net/docs/  to: kdc-docs.ethernia.net. You shouldn’t have to do anything special as the old location will redirect to the new one automatically.

I’m currently doing some server updates and separating the two makes things a little easier on me.

Yet another addition for the Avara Hood, the Nekobuta addon! This one is a bit different because it comes with cute shiny ears. The script will recover partial commands from the hood HUD to get colors and material properties matched automatically. So you can go nyan nyan or buhi buhi to your liking. And since this is a separate attachment, it works great on other hoods too ^_^.

(I’ve included an A and B version that deform differently when adjusted)

The hood skins come with a chunk of options:

• Open eyes or strict-looking pepper hole.
• Plain and seamed versions, as well as their inverted counterparts.
• A special pink and teal variant, homage to Argrim, who was the main inspiration for this project.
• You can wear it with the mouth accessible, or fully covered by a mask.

As usual, you can get it from the KDC Main Store, with the usual 10% discount, or from the SecondLife Marketplace.

Enjoy!

I’m almost done, so here is a quick little update on the hood and what everything looks like in-world. I had to write a script to customize the ears a little, it grabs the colors & shine settings from the default Avara hood, but has a few more options, like setting sections black, hiding the seam at the bottom, things like that. Nothing major really.

I’ve also uploaded each ear separately, with custom LODs, and in two variants: one is uploaded with its original blender orientation, and the other one the orientation is “aligned” with the ear base. Both deform differently when you fit them to a given head, so I figured that including both options would be helpful.

I’ve pulled two very productive days so far this week and made 30something final textures for the new hood.

I’ve maximized options as much as I could:

• Masked/unmasked.
• Open eyes/pepper holes.
• Plain/seamed (tintable+black).
• Normal & inverted colors where applicable.
• The teal/pink color scheme that Argrim uses (check their work, they draw cute latex stuff!).

All I have to do now is to complete the models & textures for the cat and pig ears.

I’m still searching for a name, I have a few terrible ideas like butaneko, nekobuta, butabana, … (please give me a better idea, or I’m gonna end up rolling with it)

I initially wanted to go for stylized cat & pig ears made from simple pieces of cut and glued latex sheeting, the first version of the cat ears looked pretty good like that. Then I made those pig ears in a more…”molded” style and while I initially wanted to make the pig ears fold down, this attempt is growing on me.

I’ve remade the cat ears to match the pig ears style… but is it good enough?

I also don’t know if I want to have a “base” on each ear. Sure, It looks good, but it is much harder to place on the hood.

I started working a bit late today and had some progress from last week that I did not have the time to post so here is a larger than usual pig hood picture dump before midnight 😛

I had a cool idea of normal mapping a sort of facemask on the covered area, with a center spine and a few creases, I might have to tweak the creases a bit to get them to look better, and also decide whether to use a single or double spine, they are both nice, but the single spine create some odd shading due to the sharper left/right divide it creates on a mesh that really is just flat.

Still tempted to use “almond” eyes on the closed version to make it more feline-like (that would make it a pig/cat pack I suppose), I COULD add both versions, but I already have a ton to make…

Give me your thoughts!

“Two hood projects in a row Kyrah? Really?”

Yes really!

I wasn’t 100% sure about it initially, but it has been growing on me.

So what is this about? I’m not sure about what the final name is going to be, but the idea is to make a “pig” hood. By that I don’t mean a mask with a snout and everything, I mean one of those hoods that have one single, large opening for the nose and mouth. I guess it’s a bit of a cat burglar style too… worth keeping that in mind.

Also, the variant with the mouth covered but nose exposed is just too cute to pass.

I’ve done a few attempts at the eye shape, the almond-type looked good, but it is a bit overdone, so I’m trying something else instead.

The Syntex hood add-on for the KDC Avara Hood is complete!

It took me a bit longer than I’d like to finalize everything (let’s blame the heatwave and definitely not my procrastination tendencies), but I think I really nailed the hybrid “hard plastic mask/soft latex hood” vibe. (It is heavy inspired by Shodan from System Shock 1-2)

It comes with the following options:

• Original, plain and seamed style.
• Normal & Inverted colors.
• Open, pepper hole and closed (blind under RLV) eyeholes.

18 different options in total.

I’m not sure if it is just me, but I get the impression that textures are compressed more on upload lately? I get a lot more artifacts in my normal maps than I normally would. Nothing I can do about it, obviously…

As usual, you can get it from the two usual places: At the KDC Main Store (10% off), or on the Second Life Marketplace. Enjoy~

Here is another hood progress update! There was another delay.

I’ve finished the geometry for good! Now comes the painful, task of combining all the textures into one he-he. I don’t remember how I dealt with ambient occlusion errors on the Malefica hood, but I made it on a previous Blender version and things have changed a bit since.

The second image is to help me draw some of the masking areas I need, but also to add some burned in details in the base texture, still working on that. It will be really subtle tho.

I wasn’t entirely sure about those connector “points” on the temples, but they don’t look too bad crunched down into a normal map. It fill the space.

You can also see the new forehead piece, it has some “vent” looking things too.