Author Archive

Or well, high-poly ballgag “complete enough” that I feel comfortable enough moving towards the next step: the low-poly version.

And yes, I did try to integrate a nose hook but it did not work as I hoped. Ryo gave me an idea for a different approach that would probably work better, so I’ll give it a try later.

I think the improvements to my leather backing, while subtle, look pretty good. Hopefully, it will look just as good on the low-poly model.

Sorry for the delayed texture update. It took me so long because I ended up unwrapping everything 3 or 4 times over the past 3 days. I kept getting distortions in my UV maps.

I am quite happy with this result so far, the grommets on the back strap need to be tightened a little but that’s an easy fix.

I really wanted to add a nose hook… I can probably still do it, but that will require some modification of the forehead strap… Unless I find a simpler way to do it…

I’m almost finished with a rough unwrapping of the ballgag high-poly model, just enough to be able to map the important textures that I’m going to need (mainly the leather grain and the masks for the stitching, holes, and grommets). Once I’m done with that, it should be good enough to move on to the low-polygon model.

I did try to make grommets but I’m going to use my normal method for baking those into the normal map instead. It doesn’t look right.

There is one thing that still bothers me: The straps feel a little “thin”, and that’s despite the fact they have all the right measurements. It might be nothing, ore maybe that’s something I can cheat a bit on the low-poly model.

I like my leatherwork to be just a little chunkier than it would realistically be.

Not as much progress as I would have liked, I decided to finish all the strap ends with a rounded tip, with the exception of buckle straps which will end in a point.

I also tackled the VERY time-consuming task of making a version with all the strap ends folded from the inside to the outside rather than the other way around. It is kind of pretty, but it makes the contrast color a bit overwhelming…

I ended up redoing the back buckle a couple of times, the keeper is currently a D-ring but I might change it to a simple metal keeper since I do not intend on having a leash point there.

Riveting progress… I should really be careful with terrible puns like these…

So what has changed?

• Spaced the back Y straps even further, moved the fork much higher and re-adjusted everything.
• Separated the neck strap into 3 parts and re-adjusted everything.
• Started detailing the back buckle.
• Riveted (almost) everything.
• Did some quick material tweaks (backing).

As for the last picture… I don’t really like those square strap ends, so I made two variants. I’m also tempted to reverse those loop ends (I might try for the next blog update) to expose the accent color a bit more.

If I still want to add a nose hook, there isn’t much space left for one sadly >_<.

None of this is final, this strapwork is a bit of a puzzle between what I want, and what gives me good mesh break-points (for adjustment). I should have posted yesterday, but I didn’t have enough progress to show.

I’ve brought down the Y strap much closer to the nose. I’m almost tempted to bring it even lower, but that might cause problems on some avatars.

I might have planned too many “cuts” on the head, or so I’m told, so maybe I should try to simplify it a little.

I really would like to break the neck strap into 3 pieces, but I can’t think of a good way short of inserting a pair of rings and having the overhead stuff connect to them, which complicates fitting even further.

So many questions! But other than that I think it’s looking very promising at this point!

A new Monday, a new ballgag 😛

And already I’m over-engineering it. I want the ball to be swappable between various styles, so I came up with a convoluted system to show or hide the holes based on alpha masking. As if the shape itself wasn’t tricky to get right as it is 😛

There are a few advantages to this method: Only one mesh “face”, and one texture can use multiple alpha values to allow for different hole configurations in the same texture.

The 3 last pictures have a quick test texture and demonstrate the concept.

The main hurdle with this method is that I have to tweak the normal orientation of a lot of vertices to “hide” the holes when their covers are visible. You can still see them it if you look hard enough.

Texture baking also appears to be a little funky on the inside, not like it will matter too much. After all, the inside is only there to give the object depth, but it is barely visible.

So yeah, it is still the Fingerprint Padlock, but I figured that given that I’ve updated its appearance, code, and product shots, I could consider this a “re-release”? The new reader is just better, and while it is pretty niche now with the keyless lock doing most of what you’d want, it is still an option, if you want one.

It’s also in 4 colors now, that’s something right? 😛

As usual, it is available from the Second Life Marketplace and the KDC Main Store (10%off!).

Since I’m revisiting the fingerprint locks, I figured that I would do a little lock beauty pass at the same time. Specifically, the texture had a few glitchy spots that I’ve fixed. I also reduced the texture resolution horizontally and decided it was time to give the fingerprint reader a redo (on both lock types). It just wasn’t good.

If it doesn’t look better, it has at least the benefit of “reading” a lot better than the original. I’m also making a couple of colored variants for it.

Still working on the revised product pictures to go with it.

I have been a bit quiet lately, there were a lot of things I had to do IRL.

I visited my family for a few days on easter and it took a day to “recover” from it, it was a good time but very exhausting.

I’ve been trying to bring back my kanji lessons schedule under control (spaced repetition can get pretty wild if you stop following it for a few days) and that means that I’ve spent a lot of days essentially studying most of the day.

And after that there was a lot of long long overdue spring cleaning, trying to make my tiny apartment a liveable space again. To be honest, this is something I should not have allowed to accumulate, but you never really pay attention to it until after the facts. At least I did not wait until summer for this.

With my place now in a somewhat liveable state, I’ve been experimenting with VR a little. Room-scale is certainly a challenge when you live in a place that isn’t much bigger than some people’s walk-in closet. I’m not leaving SL don’t worry, this is mostly an opportunity to spend less time in a chair and be a little more “active”.

I did put down some work for KDC still. Since the change to the keyless padlock, I wanted to rewrite the fingerprint padlock, to essentially provide the same features it does currently, but better and clearer. Those that hang out in the KDC Mailing List Group probably saw me talk about it.

The real actual “change” is the addition of a built-in way to erase a fingerprint padlock without having to reset the script. People already would reset them all the time, why not spare them the trouble. Everything else is more focused on trying to make the way they lock and unlock as transparent as possible.

The other thing I want to do with it is fixing some of the problems the original texture had. I was under time constraints back then and did not take the time to really finish it up the way I should have.

And maybe make a couple more colors, so long as it remains visually different from the keyless model.