Patrice's Terraforming

Information and Rates

2008-07-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here are my current rates:

Full Sim Terraform and add vegetation: €1,000 (about $US 1,400)- Usually 10 days work spread over a month

RAW file and simple terraform €250

Per day €175 (8 hours)
Per hour €20

Those are indications, I prefer to prepare a quote and plan (that is free)

Patrice logo shot

2007-04-27T14:52:00.001-07:00

Patrice logo shot
Originally uploaded by patrice_c.

More on Toscana

2007-04-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

There has been a bunch of internet attention to the Toscana sim:
intoscana

and on italian TV

SLURL

Toscana

2007-03-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

I started another Italian Sim two weeks ago, then went to Mexico for a week's RL vacation. It was great to be warm, swim and have massages, but I missed SL, and especially Véronique. Toscana (Tuscany) is an interesting project, sponsored by the regional tourist authority.

I am working for Grocon Emoto, who is the art director, and Kitten Lulu, who is a wonderful builder. I will put some more posts and links up as we progress. This is another project where I started with RAW files, using Backhoe. Emma Nowhere is another Terraformer who is using Backhoe, and she has a good blog entry about it, and other RAW methods. She is also a dear firend of Véronique and me.

Possible Ad picture

2007-02-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

From Patrice pictures

Lesbian Mafia HQ

2007-02-25T09:03:00.000-08:00

I have been busy terraforming, and have not had much time to post. Here is some documentation of a recent terraform I did, from sketch to finished. The building was done by my pal Bjerkel Eerie. The final picture shows the opening party.

Ma Belle Femme

2007-02-13T06:31:00.001-08:00

Model test shot
Originally uploaded by V. Lalonde.

My blog is mostly about my work in SL, but today is the anniversary of the day Véronique and I got married, in October 2006. She is a wonderful partner, someone who forgives my faults, listens to my moans about work problems, and someone who makes my day complete. She is a good listener, and gives me excellent advice, both personal and business.

Véronique, je t'aime!

Psycho House!

2007-02-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

Last week, I did another small job for a good friend, ComradeX Munson. He has a small plot on an island (by coincidence, Véronique and I lived on the same island for a couple of months before moving to Iron Fist).

Comrade wanted a house like the one in the movie "Psycho". See the second photo for reference..

I raised his land as much as I could (+-4 metres on this island)and then dug a basement underneath where the house is. Then I made a stepped slope, using the smallest land tool and one click raise, and a little dock at the water. Of course that is wrong in terms of the movie, but, it gave me the best elevation.

Finally, here is a pic of ComradeX and his sweetie, September.

Forrest

2007-02-04T14:17:00.000-08:00

As I posted, I have been a busy girl, the last two weeks. A lot of the work was spent on a panther forest. There is some personal history there, I was a panther, active, for about two months, and my first big terraforming work was done on a panther forest. That ended up being lost, and I am not in the panther life any more (although my furs and weapons are still in the closet, and come out for sparring).

My friend Alice McConnell, a huntress and sister, has started a new tribe, with new land, and hired me to terraform. Usually, I do a land plan, but Alice had some very clear ideas about what she wanted; below is one of the sketches she provided me.

Patrice is back

2007-02-03T21:50:00.000-08:00

I have been totally negligent of my blog. I have a good reason... to busy doing terraform work to blog. But, I have a little time, and a lot of material to put up, so, I will be posting few times tomorrow. In the mean time here is a picture on a REALLY BIG bulldozer.

RAW files

2007-01-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

I have started using a tool called Backhoe which allows editing of RAW files using a 3D window. Only useful for private SIMS, but I think easier than using Photoshop, and easier to show a preview to clients. There is a good blog on the Photoshop method, at Primdig .

I will try to put up a step bye step on Backhoe later in the week. I would love to get a step by step on the estate division using Photoshop, if anyone has done that.

Useful link to the SL Knowledge Base on using RAW files

Ok, back to Terraforming.. but with a little sexeh

2007-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Some of my work is whole sims, like Legenda, but, I also get calls to do smaller work. A friend of a friend asked me for help with her 1024 square metre space. It is the landing spot for a skybox, and surrounded by neighbours, and +4 metres, -4 metres covenant. (That means, you can raise land 4 metres, or lower 4 metres).

So, I was watching Ugly Betty, and thinking sexy thoughts, and this idea came to mind, and I sketched it:

The nice part is the female shape suits a lower spot for landing, and a "water feature".

here is the rough finished result:

My client will do the planting of trees etc., based on some consultation. Total time from look to complete = 24 hours.
My billable time = 1.5 hours.

You can get good results with a small plot and a small budget, if you apply imagination (and as Véronique said to me, a dirty mind).

Post Sixx Girl

2007-01-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

Well this is totally not terraforming, but, I am flattered and pleased to have been chosen to be a Post Sixx girl for the Second Life Herald. Thanks to Marilyn Murphy for her encouragement and fabulous photograpy, and to the SL Herald editorial staff for choosing me.

Warning, the images after the link may not be safe for work.

More help from friends

2007-01-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

When I first started working on the island, I talked with Rexor about the theme. He said, Italian, Medieval, time of legends. I wanted to put in two beaches, a morning beach and and evening beach. I also thought, there should be a shipwreck.

I went looking for ships, and shipwrecks, and found some nice ships, but not suitable for wrecking. I knew my neighbour, Bjerkel, (on Iron Fist, where Veronique and I live), was a wicked ship builder. Bjerkel built my a great wreck in 3 days.

The pictures show, Bjerkel and I on the morning beach, with the wreck, and a long shot of the beach wreck and landscape.

It is not just me, me, me.. it is friends and collaborators

2007-01-04T23:19:00.000-08:00

An island, a whole sim, is a big project, and Legenda has gone fast. It would be easy to assume, from reading this blog. that I am the most active worker. I am doing my share, but, Lost Liberty, the main builder has been my ragazza, accomplice, wise advisor, link to Rexor.. a multitude of things. And, she lives in EU time, so sometimes, I am bugging her with questions, as I am going to sleep, and she is just getting up. She has been awesome. The bottom picture shows me and Lost at the site for a cafe. The top picture shows the finished cafe, about 5 hours later. Lost, you totally rock.

Work done in the last 3 days:

fix up the new gorge with a grotto, and more waterfalls, plants etc (Lost and Pat)
cafe at the North East beach
check of the shoreline, and much smoothing
shipwrieck started by Bjerkel Eerie.. more info later

Final stages on Legenda

2007-01-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

I have been busy the last few days, and have got a lot done, with the help of Lost Liberty, the builder on Legenda. We revised the waterfall, basically making one ourselves, with prims from Luna Bliss, and flopsie McCardle, my landlady and great friend. also, filled the cave under the lake, with a secret place, and made a gorge.

I usually work in my Safety Girl helmet and builder type clothes. Today, Rexor gave me a really nice present, a suit of armour- so here is me armoured up!

More Work on Legenda

2006-12-30T08:27:00.000-08:00

I got an ok to use the name of the island, and the owner, Rexor Alviso. Yesterday (the 29th) was not too productive, as SL was down most of the morning (my best time for working). But, I installed a waterfall, and created some pools an the valley leading to the bay. I also worked a bit with Lost Liberty, the builder on the project, and showed off my work to Véronique and two other friends, Looky Lu and ComradeX Munson, and took some pictures of the work in progress.

A whole island to work on

2006-12-28T23:30:00.000-08:00

Well, this is pretty exciting for me (and, I get excited when I terraform, a subject for a future post). I have a whole sim to work on, and I started today, at 9 am SL time. My client is a nice Italian man, and the island is a medieval, renaissance role playing sim. When I took a first look there was flat land, and a castle, and house. Here is a map of the layout

I made a proposal, and did a map.. I now do my maps in pencil by hand (RL). I find that way, I get a mental image of the land, which works better with the SL tools.

Today, December 28 I did the following:

1. chose terrain textures with my client
2. levelled old land, and dug out a river and lake, and two caves
3. roughly smoothed out land
4. built roofs for the caves
5. settled the house back on top of a cave

here is a picture of me and my client:

Terraforming Rules (by Patrice)

2006-12-19T14:55:00.000-08:00

The Terraforming tools are very crude, compared with editing prims. There are no fine adjustments. So, some rules:

1. Practice somewhere where you can make mistakes- not near a building, on near a property line- your work can affect your neighbour's land.

2. Work small until you know what you are doing.. use the small land selection, and small bulldozer (the tool on land, when you don't use land selection).

3. Work in small increments, and wait for the results. If a sim is busy, or laggy, the land tools may be slow. Don't click impatiently!

4. Try finding a combination, that gives you a result you like. I often use Raise, Smooth, Flatten, Raise. The mesh underneath is unpredictable. If you use Raise, Raise, Raise.. you will soon get very sharp peaks, which can be hard to correct.

5. Be very careful with Revert Land.. it will take _all_ your land all the way back, to when it was baked (probably by the sim owner)- it is not like undo, in Photoshop!

Terraforming 1.0

2006-12-16T19:07:00.001-08:00

Okies! I have shown a bit of work, and now, I want to show people some techniques. The terraforming tools in SL (at the current release) are very very basic. What I will put here, is a very simple, tryout.. kind of a "Hello World" for wannabe terraformers in SL.

Step one:
you need to own or have owner/modify land privileges. I will put a post later, on how to set this up, lets assume at this point you have it set up. The land turns a disconcerting shade of green, or red (depending on your privileges). You will want to toggle out of edit land, to check your results

Step two:
Choose menu Tools/Land and you should see something like this:

Then, click on select land, and you should be able to click and drag to select a small section:

You could then hit "Raise Land" and the "apply to section" button, and see something iike this:

My First Big Land work

2006-12-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

Back in October, 2006, I became a panther, in Gor (a role playing community in SL). After a while, two friends, Govindira Galatea, Alice Mconnell and I started working on a panther forest, for us to live in, and fight in. The land we rented, was flat and featureless

and I volunteered to do the land forming. I had done a bit, on the beach that Veronique my wonderful wife, and I live on, in Iron Fist. Doing a whole forest was a much bigger undertaking. I made a 3D model for the other panthers to see:

In my next post, I will go over some of the techniques I learned to use... but I will end this with a picture of the finished land.

About this blog

2006-12-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

I like my friend Cheyenne's blog so much, I decided to do one myself. I am going to make this blog about my business in Second Life (SL), which is terraforming, or modelling land. A bit like landscape architecture, except I get to make beaches, caves and mountains, even volcanoes!

Terraforming is not very well documented in SL, so, I will try to give examples, from work I have done, as I go along. I also hope, people will post comments and ask questions.

Welcome, and look forward to more posts soon