Give a Warm Reception to coldLogic's New SL Mesh Fashions

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

coldLogic [Teleport to ColdLogic in ZYRRA] is a brand new all-mesh venture from Janie Marlowe, Zyrra Falcone, and Damien Fate that has a lot of fashionistas in a flutter. If those names don't ring any bells, here's a little background info: Zyrra was a prim hair innovator from the bad old (pre-sculptie!) days of SL, while Janie ran Mischief for years but more recently relaunced as Jane, a shop that had some of the first mesh clothing releases. Damien of course is the force behind some of the first and most popular mesh fashion templates, as well as being the original designer behind Loco Pocos, and the father of an adorable baby boy named Linden. But it's not just the all-star designer list that has people talking.

Because of the way that mesh and textures interact on a well made piece of mesh clothing, I decided to photograph these pieces a little differently. I've cropped these shots close and put the sun behind me so you can see the shading and detail without shadows or anything else too distracting. Without mesh, none of these pieces could look even half as good as they do, and this is definitely the clearest with the Kelley jacket, pictured above. Every crease, fold, flap, and button is modelled and textured to make it stand out with striking realism.

Keep reading to see two more favorites from coldLogic up close!

The gathered/crimped creases in the Mattison dress are nearly heartstopping if you're used to texture-and-prim dresses. Textured, those creases would be a zig-zagging, smeary mess, and sculpted this dress would be a blobby, rigid nightmare. The way the fabric of this dress stretches over the chest and gathers at the neck is particularly fascinating to me-- It's a beautifully elegant detail that I just can get over no matter how long I stare at it.

The real triumph of mesh fashion remains the tight-fitting skirt. Prim skirt pieces have always looked strange, and default skirts swell your hips and backside unless you wear a specially slimmed-down alternate shape. Mesh skirts fit close to the avatar and allow for the kind of styles and detailing that neither a default skirt nor a prim skirt could before, like the pleated sections of the Hemlock skirt I'm wearing above. It's almost mind boggling to realize that something that seems so simple was practically impossible in Second Life less than a year ago.

It's worth noting that coldLogic also uses the Standard Sizing measurements, so every item comes in 5 sizes based on average measurements gathered from a designer-run survey (though if you're in doubt, don't forget to demo first!) The store may be packed with people right now, but don't let that put you off-- you can always browse the coldLogic Marketplace storefront here, or soak in their designs via their gorgeous Flickr stream here!

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Alright! This all looks ACE. Now, please tell me they won't be marketing to just females! Please please please!

[Damien Fate]

Thanks for the excellent write up, we're all super excited and happy to see the products so widely appreciated!

@Adeon: We definitely want to do menswear (I definitely want some for my avatar). We'd like to do a larger release for men rather than just one item here or there though, stay tuned :)

[Pussycat Catnap]

That first screenshot looks really nice (well they all do)

Going to have to check this out.

[Chestnut Rau]

The clothes are so amazingly realistic I have to admit to a bit of "the uncanny valley" effect. I wonder if I am the only one?

[fatladysings]

Mesh is still just a gimmick. Fix other things please LL.

[jo yardley]

I just hope someone starts making 1920s mesh clothing soon!

[elizabeth (16)]

that skirt is fabulous woohoo!

[Eve Kazan (internet crash::: Back very soon)]

i'm impatient to see it inworld :p

[Marianne McCann]

@jo.yardley - and 40s fashions - and ya, something f'r the kids like me.

@fatladysings - Also, cars will never replace horses, and televisions are just a fad.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Amazing clothes. Bought a few thousand lindens worth of outfits.

DON'T MISS that the shop next door is also a mesh clothing store.

[Shug Maitland]

Has anyone tested these clothes against the Parametric Deformer (as it stands now) and/or, are any of the "standard sizes" the standard avatar (Ruth, basically)?

[Pepys Ponnier]

So what do these look like when one sits or uses an AO? Glitching?

[Emily Lang]

For those interested in making clothes with such realistic draping, you should really check out marvelousdesigner dot com.

[HALEY Salamon]

mesh really ?? I wont be seeing it in my viewer ,, and I DON'T CARE ,,,

[foneco zuzu]

Quote:
Mesh is still just a gimmick. Fix other things please LL.

mesh really ?? I wont be seeing it in my viewer ,, and I DON'T CARE ,,,

Unquote!

I don't agree! I think mesh can be used s one more way to build!
BUT I WANT IT FIXED!
And by that i mean:
Mesh viewers seems to be incompatible with Nvidea graphic cards.
I already asked but nobody answers, so ill ask again!
Did any that has a Nvidea graphic card, manage to, disabling in viewer settings, AA and uncheking anisotropic filtering (AF), via Nvidea control panel, make the graphic override the inbuilt viewer settings?

Cause i can have my computer running AA32, AFHq16, on anon mesh viewer, any of them (v2/firestorm pre mesh, phoenix and so on)!
But i cant make same on any mesh viewer!

So ill not use mesh viewers, not cause i dislake them, but cause i cant make the program, show me all as i want!
And i dont give a f... about why any asks that i dont need those settings, MY EYES KNOW WHY!!!

[fatladysings]

@Marianne

The car and the tv were revolutionary. Mesh? Not so much. Let's keep it in context.

[Pussycat Catnap]

"So what do these look like when one sits or uses an AO? Glitching?"

No.

It looks absolutely AMAZING!

Look at my feed for some images. I put one on flickr and 2 in the vanity thread on the forums also (all same images, only missed flickr for the second one because I was late to work today from putting up that image on the other places. ;) ).

https://my.secondlife.com/pussycat.catnap
(stalk me on my feed all you want, somebody's got to - but that's my inworld presence and I don't argue or debate inworld, but I will mute people who insist on bringing out of world debates into inworld. Which has only happened 3 times in 5 years. O.o)

One dancing and one in a pose that has my legs slightly apart as my body wavers with arms moving.

If I was a machininma (sp?) maker, I'd put up animations. But I don't even know how to record a film out of SL... O.o

I tried sitting on all my furniture, I tried various 'photo static poses', I cycled my entire AO, I even ran around on my 'cat-like' all 4s run animation in the shop, tumbling through people. :)

Works on my dance pole, and with my hip-hip/reggae dances (I keep my old club's intan in my house now). Also held up on the various worship / prayer poses in my church build.

MY ONLY COMPLAINT with mesh dresses is that unlike flexi, they won't sway with wind, and they won't "keep moving" past your motion like a real flowing skirt would.
- But on the other hand, they -never- pop through your clothes, and they stay on you when you sit instead of fall through.

The store next to one in this blog is actually out the front door and across the commons to the left. JANE - very similar, as if the two artists are working together. Both have decent prices. JANE is a little cheaper; individual items in the 150-250 range, whereas the one in this blog (forget the pesky name) is about 50-100 more.

I spent about 7,000L last night before I noticed how many things I'd bought... /ack!
- I've never shopped like that before in SL. But having everything right there in the shops, with free demos, and then 'wear to unpack' boxes - too easy to get my instant gratification going...

[Takuma Kawashima]

@ 'Mesh viewers seems to be incompatible with Nvidea graphic cards.'

nVidia 3600 on one laptop and 6200 on the other - both let me see mesh perfectly in Firestorm and Phoenix...

[foneco zuzu]

Takuma, read what i posted!
I can see any mesh i want, be on Sl or Open sim!
I can see it using any mesh viewer, be singularity, Cool viewer, Exodus, Rlv, Niran's, Catnip, the mesh viewers i have on my computer!
What i cant manage to have is:
Seeing ALL in world, as detailed as on a non mesh viewer!
Inbuild viewers max AA= 16
Inbuild viewers max Anisotropic filtering=4

Using Nvidia control (there is at least 1 blog explaining how any can make Sl much smoother, if you use the Vga settings instead of inbuild viewer one!)
I can override (disabling the inbuild AA and AF) and make the viewer shows ALL (not only meshes, but all you see in your screen) at AA=32 AF=32 or 16HQ

That means one thing, if you have a high end LCD, you will notice the diff in detail and all will look less cripsy and much more detailed!

Now when you try to do that with any mesh viewer, what will happen is that AA and AF are disabled, NO AA NO AF!

The only way you can have, is to use the inbuild AA and AF, 16 and 4, when on a non mesh you can use 32/32 or 16hq!

So its not about not seeing meshes, is about seeing Second Life as an amazing graphic experience (Just look at my flirk page to see how i see things, as i don't use photoshop when i take my photos!!!)
Is about being able to sustain 4h straight in front of my computer enjoying, or have to stop after 30min cause my eyes are being stressed to much i have to log out!
Is knowing I can use the best settings with a non mesh viewer and have to stick with settings that no other game or tool uses for more then 10 years!
And im sorry if you never tried to see the diff of using 32AA and 32AF or 16HqAF or if you cant notice any!
But i can and i notice!

[Pussycat Catnap]

On my iMac, which I think is not nVidea but ATI (I don't know to be honest), I run with anti-alias at 8x most of the time, on v3.

Frame rates for me only suffer when I turn on shadows, ambient, and depth - but are still manageable.

ps: I don't use photoshop for any postwork - just to crop images for forum posting. I always viewed 'shopping it up' as cheating back when I did 3D art, and like to see things 'as rendered'.

[iarita]

There is already a SIM, all built in Mesh! I've seen a post on this blog, saying that there is little material on Mesh in Second Life, but now, we already have where to visit. SIM Unique Megastore