Tracing the Threads of History and Fantasy

Serenity

June 24, 2025

Today I will be subjecting you to another video experiment. That is, shorter snippets cut together and with a voice-over added afterwards. In some ways it is easier than just filming and talking at the same time, but in other ways it is not. And I really need to do something about the zooming and panning…

Anyway, this is not about my trials with video in SL but about the latest releases from Dutchie and Landscapes Unlimited, with bonus appearances by Wasabi (new cute hair with a little shell ornament) and alaskametro (new FREE skin at the SL22B Shop & Hop). Dig into the video first and then you’ll get some added detail and credits below, as well as some bonus images.

Dutchie’s Yoga Mat features 61 solo yoga animations, 6 flowing sequences, including one with 57 animations, and 11 color options. It uses PBR materials for realistic detail and the animations use Bento hand poses and subtle facial expressions.  There is also a Friends, Class and Solo Pack which includes 5 differebt marts: Solo, Duo, Trio, Four, and Class (up to 7 avatars). 

The Emmental Solid Sky Landscape by Landscapes Unlimited includes four layouts, all with square flat areas for building and with four seasons each. The landscape covers a whole region, including 1,5 x 1,5 km off-sim sculpted parts. It uses PBR materials (but has legacy textures too) and includes two resolutions. The water is animated and several different options can be selected via the menu.  It is currently sold at a 50% discount (until June 30th).

Rorbuer by Fanatik

November 28, 2024

The latest release from Fanatik is a beautiful recreation of the Rorbuer, traditional fishermen’s cabins from Norway. These red-painted cabins sit on stilts and look out over the breathtaking beauty of the Norwegian fjords. I did not have any fjords available, but the Patagonia sim surround from Landscapes Unlimited gives a suitably dramatic backdrop vista. I also used one of the islands from Fanatik’s Land Shapes set, but since those do not (yet) have PBR textures, I switched the snow texture for a new one from Studio Skye to better match the beautiful PBR textures on the Rorbuer buildings and docks. The final result makes me crave snow, which alas is not something we got a lot of on the west coast of Sweden in November. Rain, on the other hand…

Anyway, the Rorbuer release consists of two sets, one with the buildings and the stilts and another with docks, stairs and lanterns. The work on the PBR wood textures is fantastic, it looks so real close up, and the interiors are just as good as the outsides, very rustic and cosy. The buildings have separate snow add-ons and the docks and stairs have a regular and a snow option. But be aware that they ship without the scripts in to make them leaner by default, so to change them you need to add in the included script to your linksets. But there are clear instructions included!

Southern Seas

January 30, 2024

The latest release from Fanatik is called the Azores and includes two large rockformations with mirrors of each and both summer and winter textures. The smaller of the two features a passage through and I thought it would look particularly good at sea.  Here I have it setup (together with both versions of second rock formation) on the Solid Sky Landscape “Kingdom of Islands” from Landscapes Unlimited. The beautiful ship I have featured many times before, but it has a permanent home on this sky landscape; its “Neptune’s Revenge” from Rustica.

Autumn Abode

November 02, 2023

Out now at FaMESHed is the Waterland House from Dutchie, a 17th century wooden residence with an L-shaped and open floor plan. Based on the kind of architecture that the Dutch village of Broek in Waterland is known for, this house was originally a combined store and residence. This remodelled version has taken out the wall between the front and the back of the house, leaving it open and airy. Even so, there is a private room suitable as a bedroom or office on the ground floor. Additionally, there is an open attic, accessed via a beautiful iron spiral staircase (walkable and also with click to teleport), with plenty of space. A wooden house like this can be used in a variety of scenarios and suits many different furnishing styles. It has a footprint of about 17 by 17 meters and a land impact of 103 prims.