Frenzoo. Online World. 3D Chat with Style.

Scarlett Niven Picks the Best of the Best

Scarlett Niven had the difficult task of picking the best of the best in this month's VIP Challenge. A Second Life blogger, she knows the ins and outs of cross world fashions. Who better to guest judge a VIP contest?

This month's contest challenged VIPs to create an ad for mature make-up, skins, and fashion items. Each entry received helpful feedback from Scarlett.

The stakes were high: a chance to be featured in a machinima short on Scarlett's blog, as well as an extra 200 coins to play with. 

With fame and fortune in their sights, VIPs entered many mature looks. 

The best of the best?

First place winner Misselle's entry emphasized realism and detail. 

In second place, xoxskittlesxox's was edgy and bold. 

Lo_specchio nabbed third place with a focus on detail.

 

 

Congratulations on the well-deserved winnings!

Thanks to all who entered!

A big thank you to Scarlett for judging and providing feedback. Keep an eye on her blog for the short machinima feature and interview with Misselle. 

 
   

Free lifetime VIP for There.com creators

To all creators on There.com,

Free lifetime VIP offer for all creators on There.com

We were saddened to hear the news.  It's never great when a world which you have spent time and effort investing in closes down, especially when it's a place with lots of your friends.  There.com was a fun and friendly place, and ahead of its time when it launched.

We at Frenzoo.com would like to give you a special invitation to start anew.

If you don't know, Frenzoo.com is a young and growing 3d world:

- it runs in any browser, both PC and Mac, no big program to install
- easy to use and get started
- create items using either inbuilt creation or uploading, no approval process
- upload textures, or your own 3d meshes and animations (max, blender etc)
- fun, friendly environment suitable for all ages
- creative and supportive attitude to and among creators

What's different from There.com?
- your avatar can have multiple 1 on 1 chats at the same time, in different scenes
- multi-avatar chat and scenes will be coming next month
- you can create your own items, using free coins
- you move by pointing and clicking on avatar spots.  you can add as many avatar spots in different locations in your scene as you want

Special offer for There.com creators, offer ends 31st March 2010:

- Free lifetime VIP and Pro status for all There.com creators
- Convert all your ThereBucks into equivalent Frenzoo silver coins

To claim your free special offer, email contact@frenzoo.com with:

- Your username on There.com
- Some pictures of items you have made in the last 12 months
- Screenshot of your ThereBucks amount (if you want to convert them to silver coins)
- Whether you are a texturer only, or also do 3d animation or meshing

We'll reply setup your free lifetime VIP and Pro status within 24 hours.

Thanks and look forward to seeing your creativity in Frenzoo.

PS - if you are a There.com user but not a creator, we have a special offer where you will get double the free coins and also an extra free T-shirt when you join.  Head over to Frenzoo.com to get started.

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...

Traffic mix in a browser virtual world (aka stats for geeks)

GEEK ALERT

As part of some scaling work on our new browser 3d world at Frenzoo.com we've been taking a look at our current traffic mix. 

Being a tech lover, it's great to dive into stats, especially when it's about your own site.

For example, on Monday, we had around 24GB served*, which breaks down as follows:

     51%  getPackage.php – 3D assets (avatar, scenes etc)
     16% getImage.php – item/member images, i.e. thumbnails on web pages
     7% .swf  – flash files, for example parts of chat and create tool interface, done in flash
     7% .unity3d – the unity 3D player files
     4% .js  – javascript files
     4% images  – i.e. jpg, gif, png, including contest and forum attachements
     1% .css  – UI layout styling
     10% others – i.e. php, html, text content

To give an example of how some of these are used, a screenshot from a live chat in an underwater club:

We mashup techniques, having UI elements in the 3d window as well as outside of it where it makes sense and for rapid iteration.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of the traffic is the 3d assets used for the avatars and scenes in user profiles, live chats etc - basically all pages which include a 3d window.

I'd expect that ratio to grow even more as more content is created and new 3d features released, but it will be interesting to track how that goes.

* these figures don't include web content embedded in Frenzoo user, shop and other pages, streamed directly from other servers through to user browsers. Example - embedded youtube videos, 3rd party flash games etc

Online Speed Dating in 3d

"Nervous anticipation

The frenzied typing of vibrant souls

Hearts set a flutter

Seeking virtual love

Or simply a new friend to chat with"

The first ever Speed Dating event in the 3d online world of Frenzoo took place on Sunday night and was a big hit. 

A throng of ladies and hardy band of brave guys engaged in this, the first large scale chat event, and by the feedback a good time was had by all.  There was some drama when the number of chat sessions went way up during the event, but the engineers sorted it with admirable calm (phew - no broken hearts)

Two ztylists enjoying a new found connection 

ps - many thanks to Brad, the organizer of this fun first speed date. I'm sure it won't be the last <3

First Sci Fi contest... we have winners!

After the success of the first user created contest in our online world which was to "draw your avatar in Manga", the second one was also very popular..

Just finished, the theme was "Sci Fi" and it was an interesting challenge:  create your own unique futuristic avatar picture and accompany it with your own original back story.

There were many great entries ranging from brooding low tech to cybernetic elevation, and in the end the winner was the talented Yoki Chan, who came up with the sexy and deadly Gadget Lady, on a mission to destroy the world (she must have had a bad day?!)

Take a look at the video with some of the best entries... live in style and prosper!

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 ^_^

Frenzoo at SLCC 2009!

Last week, Frenzoo was a part of the 3^rd annual Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco, California. The SLCC is the largest virtual world convention combing art, business, education and non-profit industries to share ideas and learn about new technologies. It was a great opportunity to meet people from different gaming platforms and was interesting to learn about many different activities within the metaverse.

During the convention I held mini demos and received great feedback from the con-goers! Many were surprised to see a browser based creating tool for the first time. They were excited about the ability to edit and create your avatar items in real time and to do all of this without downloading a heavy application! Others found it really easy to use for a person unfamiliar with creating in 3D. In addition to the browser based create tool, they loved the idea that Frenzoo supports Second Life creators promoting and importing their products and individual designs.

When I wasn’t partaking in demonstrations, I had the chance to attend a workshop held by Second Life fashion designer MadamG Zagato about transforming your avatar fashion into real life clothing. Turns out making your own clothes takes more time and work than virtual ones…hmm, I think I’ll stick to shopping for avatar fashion for the time being. Another panel I attended called History & Future of SL Fashion was held by Avenue Magazine. I learned about the past and future of the Second Life fashion industry. 

Other panel speakers I met during the convention include Dr. Yesha Sivan a professor from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, speaking on the Business panels, Paisley Beebe producer of the SL talk show Fabulous Fashion TV and Catherine Linden of Linden Labs.

 

Avatar: Welcome to the Dark Side of 3D

So we had an interesting debate in the Frenzoo office last week, about the introduction of fantasy / scifi skin colors to our 3D Avatar Community...

This request had originally come from members who wanted more darker skin tones, but our artist karlt, a fan of anime and sci fi culture had mocked up several other different colors including electric blue, apple green, midnight black...

But there were concerns...

On one hand, there was the opinion about wanting to keep the site more realistic and fashion & style oriented.  The way that argument was that: introducing lots of "weird" colors would change the site's feeling and be unappealing to those who like to dress up with beautiful realistic fashion and cosmetics.

Well then on the other hand, we had already started up the marketplace via our Pro program and it would only be a matter of time before we support avatar body and skin imports, so if we didn't add these colors, someone else would, and still those fantasy styles would appear and potentially "put off" others.

The counter argument was that fantasy colors would be more difficult to find in the marketplace compared to directly in the skin adjustment interface, and putting it there would set the wrong impression..

Well after a bit of back and forward, at the end of the day we just thought... "it looks so cool" and if we feel that way, then others probably do as well. So it made sense to release them and give our community the choice to love or hate them.

And the reaction? Great! There are now many of our ztylists who are very happy with the new skin colors and creative possibilities.  And surprisingly very little negative reactions.  I think we all learned a nice little lesson from this: when in doubt, go for more creative freedom - let people make of it what they will.

One of my personal favorite looks from the skin colors is the super dark other-worldly looks that have been popping up... here are some of the highlights from our members: NAME, Kay V and Glittergirl:

 

I wonder what will come next...

Begging for Gold Coins!

I'm always running out of Gold Coins on Frenzoo...

Yes, somehow even as an admin I always somehow seem to spend too much in our 3D avatar shop and end up back at zero again.

Whether it be reckless purchases of virtual motorcycles or mobile phones or just designer threads...

Well the good news is that now all you generous people can now donate me Gold Coins via the shiny new "Send Gold Coins" feature.  I'm excited!

Other awesome things we have updated today:

- Tons more skin colors including Fantasy styles, think Mystique or Shrek...

- Find a ztylist search

- Contest pics in your profile

- Take off worn items in the shop

- New emoticons

I'm excited!!

Check out all the good stuff here