Frenzoo. Games with Style.

Sculptris - amazing free new 3d creation tool that imports to Frenzoo

It's a hot topic around creator and virtual world circles at the moment.

A week ago, a fantastic tool called Sculptris was released as a free download.  Unlike more complicated 3d packages, this lightweight program makes creation intuitive and easy to pick up, akin to modelling virtual clay. Check out what can be done with it:

If you're a keen gamer you'll probably notice similarities to the awesome Spore creature creator from EA, except this can be generalized to any type of mesh, not just creatures.

The good news is that it outputs a format that is easy to import into other packages and then imported into the Frenzoo.com web 3d world.  In fact within 20 minutes of installing the tool we had created our first mask from scratch and it was live in world:

 

Made in minutes. Scary huh?

 

Imported to max, polys reduced then uploaded (no texture, just testing)

Bingo, it's live in Frenzoo, ready to scare noobs

It's exciting to see these types of user friendly 3d tools starting to permeate around the net.  No doubt we'll see lots of weird and wonderful Sculptris works showing up in Frenzoo.com soon...

Long live creativity!

1st mini-machinima contest - winners!

TIP - Wait a minute for all images to open

After the release of the new feature on Frenzoo a couple weeks back (lets you video capture into an animated GIF file), the enthusiasm was high so we thought it a good idea to hold a special contest: "tell a story in two 3 second clips"

Well yesterday the 1st animated snapshot contest wrapped up, with judging from Koinup CEO Pier Luigi.

There were a number of great entries.  One of my personal favorites was this by NAME, showing a Neko taking revenge on its owner:

Also, the 2nd place from SmileCorin showing a student dreaming about her future dreams:

Finally the winner, Marcynha with her Susan Boyle inspired 'Talent' entry:

Big thanks to Pier for judging, and congrats to the winners, and everyone who entered!

We may end up holding this as a monthly contest, as it was a lot of fun...

Facebook connect, 3d machinima and more

There has been a lot of interesting discussion about the pros and cons and different approaches of linking real life identity and virtual world avatars.  Our take on it is that it should be the users choice and freedom to link up their avatar with real life identity or not.  In reality there will be users who fall into both camps - those who want a true escape from their real world and those who want friends in world to be able to know and connect with their irl identity.

With that in mind, we just launched our first phase of Facebook Connect in our online world Frenzoo.com, which allows users the option to create a new account using Facebook, and then also option to use real-life name and age or not. 

Creating an account using Facebook Connect is a breeze, just a couple of clicks and literally in seconds you're good to go.

Soon we'll also add ability to link existing accounts to Facebook Connect as well as post snapshots, contest entries and more to your Facebook wall.

Speaking of updates, a number of other new things just launched in the last few days:

A new mini-machinima feature that lets you take animated snapshots in GIF format. It's a lot of fun and easy to use for everyone. For example, one made by our Brazilian ztylist Marcy:

We also have a launched a brand new chat system which is much faster and convenient to access - it all runs in a single browser window, like Meebo or Facebook.  There is a new chat bar at the bottom of each page where you can start and switch in and out of different chats. 

So far users seem to really like it, apart from the new bugs of course, we still have polishing to do this week!

Gaze into my 3d avatars eyes...

Eyes convey emotions, capture attention, they are a spotlight onto the soul...

You can't change the eyes you were born with but you can in virtual online worlds.

A new contest on Frenzoo has you making your own avatar, making your eyes look striking and capturing the look in a great snapshot...

The variety of entries has been fascinating...some created their own custom eyes using the 3d web design tool, others bought from the great creator collections in our VIP shop...

The looks ranged from Monstrous Victorian...

Contest Entry by Dr Octagonapus

To Crystal Anime...

Contest Entry by Hugh

To Futuristic Fairy...

Contest entry by Icey

To Dark Clown...

Contest Entry by Kimber

With just under 100 entries, voting was a tough choice, but personally I chose the look by Kimber for its wild and outrageous take on the theme.  Winners will be announced next week, it should be a close race!

if you haven't already, create a free account and join in with your take on eyes!

3d avatars in 2d manga!

I have to admit something: I love manga!   Every week I will without fail catch up with the latest Naruto Shippuuden from Japan..

So it was pretty awesome when one member of our 3d online world Vergina decided to host Frenzoo's first Draw Your 3D Avatar In Manga contest where you...

make your own avatar...

...then draw it in manga (Japanese comic) style...

In Frenzoo you can create a 3d avatar and customize it buy creating and/or buying clothes, accessories, skin & cosmetics, animation poses etc

We thought it might not have that wide appeal but we were dead wrong!  Looks like it really tapped into a deep creative nerve of the members in the community.  The contest got plenty of high quality entries, ranging from cute to gothic in style:

Congrats to the runner up Angelkiano from Netherlands (entry above) and the winner, CS from U.S.A., with her winning entry:

Frenzoo avatar:

Manga version:

Congrats to all the entrants and winners... can't wait for the next one ^_^

Make your own avatar makeup!

A world first at our new online world of 3d avatars, Frenzoo...

For a while Frenzooians have been able to play the fashion designer game and make clothes and accessories, even virtual hairstyles. That's great, but there was always some similarities in faces, some spark of uniqueness was missing... well not anymore.

Now we have taken the leap and opened up avatar face & skin creation for everyone, for free!

Makeup, tattoo and eyes created for free by Frenzoo members

This is the first web 3d makeup creation tool, how cool is that?! It's only been released for under one week, and as you can see in the pic, we've already we've seen some brilliant creations from the community.

To use it, simply log into Frenzoo and head over to the "create" section.  There you can pick from different templates and then use our web creation tool to arrange graphics and create your look, and save when you're done.

Makeup creation web tool on Frenzoo

VIPs can also bypass the web tool and directly import their own completed texture files, which they have created in Photoshop or GIMP for example. 

Speaking of VIPs, one of our new VIPs (and IMVU creator) RisaLisa is also pretty happy about the news and blogged about it: "Face Fings For Frenzoo":

"I’m so glad we can make face tats/eye contacts on Frenzoo. I like making add-on makeups!" - Risa

Well, we're happy too!  Massive ups for makeup creation..woot!

Creating your avatar fashion - and saving it!

Another big news day on our free virtual chat and 3D design community...

Lots of people use our site to create fashions for their 3D avatars, but one of the biggest requests from nearly everyone has is to be able to save their creations.

Often it's so they can go to the shop and buy more graphics to complete their work, or to resume designing the next day if they run out of time on that pariticular item. Or just to be safe and avoid any dropped Internet connections - we've all been there right?

Whatever the reason, we agree and have been working hard and have just launched our new "save" feature in our web "create" tool.  Everyone can now save and resume their work at any time, and best of all it's free.. full details on the forum.

Enjoy creating and saving the world!

Spock avatar on Frenzoo!

As an avatar world with easy content creation, it's fun (and occasionally cringe worthy) to see the amazing things people come up with on Frenzoo.

Well up to now we've seen Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Freddy Mercury and Barack Obama and now its time for...... New Spock!

Talented ztylist Kay V has created her homage to "New Spock" from the new Startrek Movie!

Do you like it? 

We think it looks totally geek chic!

Want to sell your own avatar fashion? Get VIP or go Pro!

Big day at our avatar style community, Frenzoo.... after hunkering away in secret we have just launched our fashionable VIP and Pro programs!!!

VIPs get heaps of extra benefits including massively huge lookbook, special 3D items and their own store!  If they are the creative type, they can sell their own designs, and get creator points and shiny, shiny Gold coins!

Also, all hail the new Pro pass!  Pro 3D Creators can import items, fashions animation and templates from 3D Max 8, and other platforms via a Collada importer.  Opening up a whole new marketplace of content, Frenzoo will never be the same again!

Very important people around the world reacted to the news...

Barack Obama - "these initiatives are vital to world peace and prosperity. I for one am looking forward to selling my new line of brown suits"

Miley Cyrus - "Oooh i wanna be a VIP...can i, can i?  I'm so excited my head hurts now..."

Edward Cullen - "When I'm not busy being moody, I create dance moves in 3D Studio Max 8, I'm a Pro!"

Nami from One Piece - "I can earn gold coins?!  I'm in!"

Seriously though, we're really excited and already several have taken the plunge and upgraded. Can't wait to see what our new VIPs and Pros come up with!

^_^

An Avatar Art Alliance! Koinup & Frenzoo joint contests

As an avatar community centered around creativity and style, we're super big fans of Koinup.com. 

No, it's not a retro arcade gaming e-zine, it's a Web 2.0 site - one where people share their art work and experiences from tons of different virtual worlds and 3D games such as The Sims and Second Life... and now Frenzoo!

Our two sites are now collaborating for a couple of awesome competitions...

Firstly there is a contest running now on Frenzoo which is all about producing avatar art snapshot using the colors of the koinup logo (a mighty fine one if we may say so)..  and that will be followed up with a contest to run on Koinup where Frenzoo art can be submitted and voted on. 

It should be a lot of fun, check out the avatar art contest here and get involved!

ps - here is a great entry from 3D Ztylist - Coocies in the contest, yay!