Day: November 23, 2019

More on a Sky Tower home in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Oblivion inspired Sky Tower house in situ at the home island, and with the landing pad in use, with moorings below

When I wrote about my fiddling with a personal interpretation of the Sky Tower house from the 2013 Tom Cruise vehicle Oblivion (see Of Sky Towers and SL homes) just a few days ago, I didn’t actually expect to be writing about it again quite so soon. But here we are.

Admittedly, when I wrote that first piece, the basic design was complete, and it was already semi-furnished as I tried to work out how things would fit. At the time, I was actually unsure if it house would find its way into personal use for a number of reasons (mainly the fact we both rather like the “Fallingwater” style house and home parcel layout in place).

Looking at the house from the north island’s gardens

But as is often the way, everything came together quickly, and with the help of one of my preferred rezzing systems, it became very easy to complete a suitable home parcel layout with the new house (+ island designs) and drop it into a rezzer and also drop the “Fallingwater” layout (again, house, furnishings and islands) into another rezzer to make both pretty much “hot swappable”. So here’s a look at the results.

The house slots in between the “north” and “south” island, offering us a nice look to the west towards sunsets. This position means the house sits over the water, held aloft on a slightly off-centre pylon so that I could install moorings for boats and planes beneath it (and of course, the vehicle rezzer has been retained, to make swapping between what is moored there nice and easy). In doing this, I particularly wanted to ensure there was good clearance under the house, but the house itself would still sit below the height of the trees on the south island, so it’s not sticking out like a sore thumb.

The living space

The interior of the house offers compact living space: an open-plan lounge, dining area and kitchen, with what was in the film’s Sky Tower the medical bay / hygiene bay turned into a bedroom, while the section given over to the sleeping area in the film becoming a bathroom.

One of the things I like doing in SL is kitbashing – pulling items together from different builds to achieve a result. In this case, Alex Bader’s Skye Beach House, which I’ve had for some time, came into play. Specifically, I was able to pull apart the swimming pool and use a part of it, together with its animation system, to give some life to one of the major features of the Sky Tower – the swimming pool. Elements of the Skye Beach house and the Maven Homes Eco IV also help provide fixtures in the house: the fireplace, doors, and external furnishings.

A Side view with the darkened windows of the bathroom.

As I mentioned first time around, I skipped on including the upper level control deck from the original, and the low workshop area. This, to me, makes this design less distinctive than the original, but makes it nicely streamlined and more in keeping with the broad styles of houses found across the islands around us.

So that’s the new house for Isla Pey, and we can now happily swap between that and the “Fallingwater” derived house as the mood / season / year goes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to list to the Oblivion sound track. Again 🙂 .

Let it Snow 2019 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Let It Snow! November 2019 – click any image for full size

Winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, and for Second Life, it means regions are starting to get snowy make-overs and – in some cases – Christmas and end-of-year holiday décor has started to appear. Given this, we’re entering the time of year when a lot of winter / holiday themed regions will be subject to blog posts and Flickr photo streams.

This being the case, I thought I’d get things started here after Caitlyn and I received an invitation from Milly Sharple to visit this year’s edition of her Let It Snow! region design. I’ve actually been writing about Milly’s wintertime designs since 2014 (allowing for a break she took with them), and I’ve always looked forward to seeing them each year, as they’ve tended to offer something beautifully photogenic and with a sense of magic.

Let It Snow! November 2019

For 2019, Let It Snow! offers something a little different to previous years – at least to my eyes. There is the same winter feeling – a crisp, cold looking sky which looks as if the air entering your lungs would give you that cold, hard thrill of being alive; there’s the familiar blanket of snow thrown across hill and dale with the trees coated in frost, and there are the trappings of the season: hot chocolate, holly strung above shop doorways, lights strung across lintels and over tree branches and so on.

But at the same time, there is something that feels a little different with this year’s build. In the past, Let It Snow! has perhaps been a contiguous landscape, flowing from place to place, while the flow is present in 2019’s design, but so to is a feeling that elements of the setting stand a little apart from the rest, as if they are mini vignettes, the surrounding landscape as much a buffer between them and the rest of the region as it a means of connecting them.

Let It Snow! November 2019

Which is not to say this year’s Let it Snow is any the less photogenic than previous years or is in any way disjointed in its presentation of its different locations. There is still a lot – as always – to appreciate, from the little village square that brings with it a touch of England with its red telephone box, Royal Mail pillar box and  country-style pub, through the crystal palace crowning a flat-topped hill and the skating rink and cabins sitting among snow and frost heavy trees.

From the landing point, visitors can turn north to the village or south towards the crystal palace or eastwards across the low-lying part of the region. The latter direction leads visitor past some of the detailed touches within the region: one of the furnished cabins, stone rings, snowmen and ruins.

Let It Snow! November 2019

Scattered throughout are places to dance or to sit – one f the more amusing of the latter being the opportunity to pose with a seated snow sculpture in the village.

There are also some familiar touches to the design – motifs seen in past iterations of Let It Snow! – that help to give a sense of connection between this and the past versions of the setting for those who remember them. Chief among these is the aforementioned crystal palace, whilst elsewhere are deer wandering in the snow, and little hideaway snugs.

Let It Snow! November 2019

For those who like a little activity, the skating rink to the west of the region, while the cable car close by offers a ride up to the hilltop overlooking it, where a toboggan-style sled rid awaits those waiting to ride back down the hill.

With plenty of opportunities for photography, Let It Snow! once again offers a charming visit and opportunity to welcome in the coming winter season in Second Life.

Let It Snow! November 2019

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