Wednesday, May 25, 2011

In Which Sian Confesses She Hasn't Actually Seen Tron: Legacy

Sian hasn't seen Tron: Legacy. There. It's said. She's not actually bothered about that. But she loved the design. Sian spent weeks collecting pictures of the rubber-clad blonde Siren Gem, of Olivia Wilde's lovely Quorra, and wondered if there'd be costumes styled on the film in SL.

Silly. Before the film was even released, SL designers — loads and loads of them — had created Tron-themed outfits and Tron-themed sims. There. are. dozens. out there. Here are nine of them. And we're just scratching the surface. Sian didn't review, for instance, the Bare Rose sets (they do one based on the old movie as well as an up-to-date one) or the Karu Karu sets.

In all the pictures, Sian's collars, tattoos, earphones and jewellery are her own; she's wearing Miamai's NoAlpha Lashes 2 (L$150), various makeups by Nuuna, and you can't buy the eyes anymore (sorry). She's wearing the PXL Linda G3 Dark skins, the Pale Lips and Wine Lips variations (L$1000, L$900 for group members) — and in the inset pics, the LionSkins Nova Dark 8 skin.

Sian hardly ever wears hair. She likes being bald. She has a little bit of a thing for being bald. Besides, it tickles when it's windy.

The epic Tron blog #1

Catsuit: [Sassy!] Cyber Siren Military Green (L$0 Dark Future Hunt gift)
Boots: [Neurolab] Activa Black Electro L$650

This is the same outift Sian blogged a few days ago. Sian's only a tiny bit sorry about that. She thought she'd include it for completeness' sake.

Besides, Sian loves this outfit. The textures are beautifully designed, it's obviously inspired by the film rather than just copied, and it's free! But only for a week or two more. Grab it while you can.

The epic Tron blog #2

Catsuit: [Grafosyakuza Shop] Suit Siren Program L$100
Boots: [Neurolab] Activa White Electro L$650

The Marketplace had a hiccup when Sian ordered this, and before she could contact the seller, he'd already given it for free and wouldn't take her money.

This outfit has a lot going for it: the light textures are separate layers, and tintable. It includes sculpted attachments designed to look as much like the Sirens in the film as possible (so if accuracy is your thing, this is your outfit — none of the others are quite as close). It even has a sculpted chest attachment so you don't have the pointy-chest thing going on.

Honestly, the textures aren't quite as polished as some of the more expensive outfits, from bigger shops, but for only L$100 you can't go wrong. Apart from the limited-time-only freebie, this one is cheapest by a mile and has a lot of potential for mixing and matching with the other sets.

The epic Tron blog #3

Outfit: [Elixir] Lightcycle Purple L$400
Boots: as before

Sian thinks that Elixir might have been the first of the bigger stores to do Tron-themed outfits. It was the first one she spotted, anyhow. There are male and female versions of both the LightCycle and Siren (number 4, below) sets in lots of different colours.

They're low-prim, and nicely designed and textured.

The epic Tron blog #4

Outfit (including shoes): [Elixir] Siren L$400

Sian bought this just before Christmas and wore it for a solid month. She loves it a lot.

Cyber cheesecake

The epic Tron blog #5

Outfit: [Eclectic Randomness] White Siren L$450
Winter Ventura's shop is certainly eclectic, everything from adult and BDSM stuff down to robot avatars, toys and even a portaloo. She makes two of these, one white and one black.

As well as a beautifully textured catsuit, the set includes boots, gauntlets and backpack, all nicely sculpted and with HUD-controlled colour-changing glowy bits. And if that's not enough, you get a skin, shape, eyes and hair in half dozen colours, too, meaning that for L$450 you get a complete avatar, everything except the AO.

Oh my, though, thinks Sian, so many prims.

The epic Tron blog #6

Outfit: [Graves] Mainframe Bodysuit black/blue L$440
Shoes: [Graves] Mainframe Boots L$390

Of the complete outfits I'm reviewing here (the Elixir and ER Sirens and the Radia set are the others), this is the most expensive, but let's face it, you're paying for the quality. Beautifully textured, supplied with nice attachments and available separately in all the colours of the rainbow, in catsuit and dress versions for the girls and a catsuit version for the boys.

Buy all of them and you'll be a lot poorer, mind.

Sian particularly likes the neat little glasses with the animated display.

The epic Tron blog #7

Bodysuit: [sYs] Spectral Catsuit white/khrome L$280
Boots: as before

More loosely inspired than the other outfits, Sian especially likes the translucent panels on this set - look how you can see Sian's tattoos through the arm panel.

The epic Tron blog #8

Outfit: [Xeno Cyber Wear] Radia L$600
Nipple Tape: from [Graves] G222 Crossfire White

Sian doesn't play computer games (well, apart from that one you might know about), but understands that this is inspired loosely on a character in the computer game they made at the same time as the film.

The skirt is all sculpted prims, and the outfit includes an alpha layer that makes you disappear from the bum down. However, because it's attached to your pelvis, if you walk it swings from side to side and might look silly if your AO is not compatible. Sian solved the problem by putting a hip-fixer script in the dress and making a walk in her AO so she glides about in an eerie sort of way (you should IM Sian in-world if you have this set and want the scripts and anims she made. But say "please," because a little bit of politeness costs nothing). Sian also changed the colour of the glowy bits.

Despite its shortcomings, the concept of this outfit is marvellous and there really isn't anything like it in Second Life.

The set also includes body tattoos, which Sian is not wearing, because she is wearing her own tattoos. You can see them in this picture, though (and yes, Sian recycles poses. She's not made of Lindens):

Iso

The epic Tron blog #9

Catsuit: [sYs] Spectron Catsuit L$280
Boots: as before

Similar to the other outfit from sYs, Sian likes this one a bit more, if only because it gives the illusion of being shiny and rubbery and glowy at the same time.

Do we get a verdict?
Which one does Sian like best?

Sian loves the Graves Mainframe set (no. 6) but really doesn't feel it goes well with anything else. It's all or nothing, that one. Having said that, why would you want to mix it?

Sian thinks the Radia set is amazing and unique, but she had to put a lot of work into modifying it before she was happy with it.

The sYs sets are cheap and nicely done, and the GrafosYakuza set (#2) has those wonderful tintable light layers (which is an idea more people should have taken up) and nice attachments (it's the only one with that little battery pack thing that Gem has at the base of her spine, and the only one with a chest leveller attachment).

The Sassy! set is gorgeous and free, but green isn't really Sian's colour, and if you're not lucky enough to find it before it's gone, that's tough, really. The Elixir Lightcycle set has that cool helmet and goes with loads of stuff, but again, Sian didn't feel it suited her.

The Eclectic Randomness set is complete, exceptional value and beautifully designed, but in the end Sian is undecided between that and the Elixir Siren set for its beautiful, sleek simplicity.

In future, Sian's probably going to combine the Grafosyakuza set, the ER set and the Elixir set to create a sort of platonically perfect Siren.

You'll know when she does.

No comments:

Post a Comment