As regular readers of Rez will know, I am mostly found wandering the Second Life network as a 'normal' human avatar however I do also have a penchant for different avatar shapes notably Loco Pocos and Tinies. It was with this knowledge that fellow Rez writer Voodoo Buwan approached me with his latest discovery, namely the BUBU.

The brainchild of Logan Skytowner and Edge Axel the BUBU avatar is larger than a standard tiny avatar and generally with less of the 'aww' factor mixed in. These are highly customisable avatars which come complete (for the modest fee of 250$L) with all the templates and textures for creating your own skin as well as the exceptionally effective (and cool) spraycan for changing skins. The skins and accessories on the market are all very reasonably priced and offer avatars a different style of appearance.

Armed with my BUBU avatar I headed in the direction of the newly created main store for BUBU where I caught up with Logan Skytowner and Edge Axel, in possibly the most fun interview I've ever done for Rez Magazine, and asked them about the BUBU including the future and possibilities you could experience with one.

Trinity Dechou: Firstly, please explain what a BUBU is and how it came into creation in SL.
Logan Skytower: Well, the BUBU is an avatar, made specifically to create your own distinct, stylized look. It came into creation because I love all those little Vinyl DYI toys, but couldn't get any good ones around where I live, in real life. So I decided to sculpt my own and that's sorta where Edge came in and told me I should make it an avatar.
Edge Axel: Yeah. I was like "LOGAN, DO IT! DO IT, DO IT!" And he's like "Omg, okay! :D"
Logan Skytower: That's basically what it came down to :)

Trinity Dechou: How long has the BUBU been available to buy in SL?
Edge Axel: Seventy-four years!
Logan Skytower: Hahahaha, nice, Edge, nice. It's been available for round about 7 months now.
Edge Axel: Wow - It's sure felt like seventy-four years..
Logan Skytower: Absolutely. It has made me an old, old man.

Trinity Dechou: Had you had any content creation experience in SL before you started to make these avatars?
Logan Skytower: Yeah, loads, actually. Quite early on in SL I started hanging out with Aemilia Case of Philotic Energy and Fusemelon fame and she got me into learning sculpts and making clothing. For about 8 months I had a little clothing store called Felid Disrupt, which basically taught me how to do textures, sculpts, and all those things and that's sorta how I figured out how to make the BUBU. The only thing totally new to me was animation. And scripting, so for that last part I hired a scripter, who is now my steady scripter and also consistently for hire, Lillium Elcar.
Edge Axel: I help to script when I can. I'm not as great as Lillium, though - she's fantastic!
Logan Skytower: I have Edge for my crazy fun scripting, like jumping cars and whatnot, and Lillium for my serious scripting, like how to make an encrypted channel to send the textures over when the spraycan paints the avatar.

Trinity Dechou: So there are also accessories which go along with the BUBU, can you explain a little about what those are.
Logan Skytower: Most accessories so far have been made by Edge Industries, owned by Edge here, like the rideable animals and the BUBU car. I pretty much had nothing to do with that, except help testing them and watching them be built. My own big accessories are only just starting to come out, like the army set. And essentially, it's attachments to help personalize your BUBU. Or vehicles to share the BUBU fun with your friends.
Edge Axel: Yeah - as Logan said; I've got the two rideable animals, the horse and the turtle - those were just experiments I guess. They weren't built to go on sale, but I guess I changed my mind. Oh! And the car. There'll be more stuff, better stuff - I'm still learning. :D

Trinity Dechou: Yeah sure, it's all a learning curve of new experiences with a new product, have you each learned any new skills because of the BUBU and if so what?
Edge Axel: Oh, definitely - I've picked up some sculpting skills and texturing skills - and with scripting, I guess that's a given since everytime you script you're going to pick up something new - more often than not, anyway.
Logan Skytower: That absolutely goes for me, yeah. My sculpting and texturing has had to improve so much during the whole process, to create the things that I had in my head. For instance, looking at the Tier 1 skins, as I call them, the ones you see in the vendors , are now, in my opinion quite bad, especially compared to my new work. And sculpt wise, I've just learned so much, just learning how to do oblong sculpts, to keep prim count down and keep the BUBU lowlag. And of course, animations, like I said before, were completely new territory.
Edge Axel: Oh! Yeah, I'm learning about animating, too! :D

Trinity Dechou: Yeah, talking of the skins, you actively encourage people to make their own skins for the BUBU, can you explain a little about the process behind making skins and why you encourage people to make their own?
Logan Skytower: Ah, well, that was fairly easy for me. I set out to make a DIY toy, turned it into the avatar and through the whole process I just kept in mind that I wanted to keep the idea of it being a DIY avatar.
Edge Axel: I like the fact that people can take a product and then work to make it their own kind of thing, having them add their own style to it. It's nice. :D
Logan Skytower: So, encouraging people to make their own skins comes first and foremost, more than what I make with the BUBU. Granted, I have the advantage of knowing how their made and as such how to take the customization to it's full advantage so, as such, I've made a video of the process of how I go about making a skin and made that into a giant tutorial, which can be viewed in the store. Still, I've seen some people make amazing skins with the BUBU, or just generally do amazing things, like what Edge is working on for his Halloween BUBU, which is an actual transforming Werewolf.
Edge Axel: I'm pretty proud of the werewolf so far. I learnt a lot scripting the transformation. It's far from done, though. Let's just hope I can get it out at Halloween. Haha.
Logan Skytower: And that, to me, just shows how far you can push the BUBU, ya know? That people can just go absolutely nuts on it, completely change their appearance. I get more of a kick out of seeing others work than making something myself.

Trinity Dechou: So by opening it up and allowing others to do their own things and add their own styles the mixture of BUBUs grows and helps you to develop them further perhaps?
Edge Axel: I like the fact that the Bubu can be used as a learning tool, rather than an avatar - too!
Logan Skytower: Oh, absolutely. See, my imagination only goes so far, but for instance, Helena Stringer, another business associate of mine, has made these super cute Cthulhu BUBU's that are just a complete departure from anything I'd ever do, and to see that, and see what she's done with it, to me, just shows the diversity and the enormously broad appeal it can have.

Trinity Dechou: What sort of feedback have you had for the BUBU?
Logan Skytower: Loads, absolutely loads. From people IMing me asking where I got it because it was so cute, to people telling me two, three times a day that I should make this or that skin. Overall, so far, the reception has been amazing. Just, the people who get one seem to love it, since it's also just... a little crazy. It's a strange, tiny, insane avatar with no real limits besides imagination.

Trinity Dechou: And presumably more and more people want to make their own additions and skins for their newly found avatars, roughly do you know how many others are making products for the Bubu?
Edge Axel: I think just about everyone that's picked up a Bubu has at some point made something for it, or modded an existing object to fit it.
Logan Skytower: I know exactly, at the moment. I'm still keeping track of everyone who makes skins. There is, of course, Edge Industries, who makes rideable creatures and vehicles and who knows what else to come. There's Helena Stringer of the Stringer Mausoleum, who makes insane mythical skins for them. There's Erricson Turbo who makes game related skins for the BUBU, besides his own amazing scifi/anime products, he has a Halo skin in 3 colors and a Resident Evil skin. There's Voodoo Buwan, of VooBu Skins who just opened his own little store, selling BUBU skins based on pop culture figures and that's it, really :) And, like Edge said, everyone who got one has at some point modded the BUBU in some form or way, yeah.

Trinity Dechou: Have you faced any hurdles along the way and if so, what?
Logan Skytower: Well, the biggest hurdles have definitely been the learning curve and the finding a place to sell them. I rarely do things small, so not this time either. So I wanted to open with a big store in a nice, big place. Started at VSN, the Virtual Sports Nexus, and due to problems, namely, that sim was closing down, I had to move and went over to Caisteal, FSG, the Furry Sandbox group, and for both these sims I've had to rebuild my store by the owner to "fit more with the style". At first, you take offense to that... but I understood it. It was still a hurdle though. I eventually left Caisteal because it was being rebuilt and it was quite simply taking too long and I was taking a hit, sales wise. And thus, thanks to the Amnesia club, I ended up here, at Stonehaven.
Edge Axel: Yeah, it's a little bit saddening when you need to change your store to fit the sim it's in, though - completely understandable.
Logan Skytower: Which is, why, at some point, I hope to be able to have a BUBU sim, but at the moment, it's just a dream. But we'll get there, I'm sure.
Edge Axel: We dream a lot - we were talking about having a Bubu themed theme-park in said sim. Haha. That's a long way away, though.
Logan Skytower: A long, long way away, yep. But it'd be good. So very, very good.

Trinity Dechou: Nice, Getting a new avatar and brand out into the public in SL can be quite hard, can you explain the ways you've tried to increase the visibility of BUBU?
Logan Skytower: Oh, absolutely. For that, I have to thank Achariya Maktoum, Helena Stringer, Selos Dae, Aikea Rieko and Terry Toland. Achariya just gave me a gameplan, essentially, which was to gain visibility, tease the public, via IHeartSL.com with teaser images. And to contact some "popular" designers to create Limited Edition launch skins, which turned out to become Helena Stringer of Stringer Mausoleum, Aikea Rieko of Plastik and Selos Dae of TRAP skins. And Terry Toland has been blog covering the BUBU from day one, on her own personal blog. Helena managed to get all her groups to show up on launch day and all of that has just been an amazing experience.
Edge Axel: I ran around and threatened people, telling them if they don't buy Logan's product - I'd come to their house and stab them with a potato! ..I'm kidding :D

Trinity Dechou: Obviously it's been very well received by the community and the other designers what's on the cards for the future of BUBU?
Edge Axel: Rocketships, laser-beams, flying squirrels! Yes. We're going there. :D Well, I might - I don't know about Logan.. Hehe.
Logan Skytower: Oof, that's actually a tough question. I don't have a particular path to take the BUBU. I just sorta... make it up as I go. The army stuff was just an experiment, turned out nicely and I released it. Then there's the LoveSuit series which just came out which was a suggestion by a friend, he told me to make it and... yeah. I just sorta do my own thing and hope that people like it and keep liking it. I know one thing on my gameplan at the moment and that is that there are new Limited Edition skins coming, for Halloween.
Edge Axel: I'm hoping aliens will invade. I haven't had any luck convincing Logan yet, though!
Logan Skytower: I have yet to make a proper alien skin, without looking too much like Greenies.

Trinity Dechou: Well thanks guys for a lovely new avatar with great potential for customisation and a wonderfully fun afternoon and interview
Logan Skytower: You too, absolutely, and thank you for interviewing us!
Edge Axel: Thanks a bunch. It's been fun. :D

Undoubtedly one of the most common complaints on the Second Life JIRA is the ability to have a separate body art/ tattoo layer. Of course this is not the only JIRA request regarding clothing layers on avatars. However, recently at Nyx Linden’s office hour, information was released that could dramatically change the way we wear our clothes.

Currently the clothes we wear are baked together and uploaded as six textures (head, eyes, hair, upper body, lower body, and skirt) to the servers, from where our friends and fellow residents download them to render our appearance. As well as this being done, a fail-safe has been in place, which also downloads from the server the separate layers, in case a baked texture is not available (this is why editing appearance can help you bake for other residents). Obviously downloading the unbaked layer textures, which are rarely used, is a demanding resource hog. However Nyx and BigPapi Linden are implementing changes to address this. In the future, hoped for release in RC 1.23, when you change your outfit, your client will bake one complete version of that entire outfit (including skin) which viewers will download only instead of that and the individual layers, as it does now.

Not only will this improve the speed at which you download clothing textures, as layers won’t be downloaded as well, it will also open the door for major future developments. You will be in control of how your avatar looks and in the future you will potentially be able to wear anything you want in a tiered manner. At the moment, if you wear tattoo’s on your ‘under’ layers you can’t wear actual underwear. Once the baking developments have been implemented and completed with a rollover period for older clients, you should be able to wear clothes anywhere, even if you wish, wear your underwear outside your pants.

Nyx also announced that as part of these changes, Linden Lab will also look at having a 4th channel in the baked textures, allowing for alpha masking (also another common JIRA request), meaning parts of your avatar will be able to be hidden. This development will hopefully stop transparency issues on many attachments, for instance sculpt shoes and prim avatars, providing you can remove the invisi-prims they currently use.

Content theft is one of the biggest problems facing Second Life. With the current system, all layers being downloaded as well, it opens the doors to special clients built to steal textures. Once these changes have been implemented single layer textures of other avatars will not be sent to the viewer, therefore clothing content theft will be made harder.

In an environment where Linden Lab are often brought into question over the grids stability and ongoing improvements, these developments (which should start rolling into place soon) will effectively kill two birds with one stone.

Anyone who has seen me wandering around the grid, either hanging out or searching for my next story, will know that if there is one thing I don't really try to achieve with my "look", it's cuteness. However, with the current love affair that SL is having with the Tiny avatar, I, like everyone else, want to get involved, especially with all the great things and adventures that are available within the tiny community (much like the Loco Poco's treasure hunt that we explored recently). So I decided I would go on a bit of a shopping spree, to see if I could find myself a tiny avatar that was not quite so, well, cute. A badass Tiny, if you will.


The first thing that caught my eye was Tedwood Portsmouth's "Death of Tinies costume" (200$L). However, while this neat little outfit, with it's Terry Pratchet inspired name, has a superb gothic charm, and would make the perfect Halloween costume for any Tiny, it still requires wearing a frankly adorable animal avatar underneath, thus making it not exactly what I'm looking for.


I decided to move away from the gothic, and try out something a little more funky and futuristic. After much searching, I found the "Tiny Kabuki Robot" by AKIBE Sixgallery(300$L). This highly detailed avatar combines intricate traditional Japanese patterns and costume, with funky neon robotic styling. However, maybe it's the fact that it's samurai blade is purely decorative, or perhaps it was the quirky cartoon blinking eyes, but when I took the avatar down to the neon city of Insilico, I felt that, although it looked fantastic, it was hardly intimidating and wasn't really making anyone take me very seriously.


Maybe what I needed was something with more muscle. More macho. So what could be better than a tiny wrestler! "Mary's Tiny ;; Fukumen" by makitan Kidd(110$L) matched the bill superbly, turning me into a mini-luchador totally ready to mix it up with any other Lycra clad warriors. I felt the need to try this out, so I headed down to Second Life Championship Wrestling's Ambrodome Arena, where there happened to be a match on. I hung out amongst the audience and the other wrestlers, thinking, "Well, Rey Mysterio can be short and a champion?". But the nail was hammered into my badass wrassler image when Katheryn Blackadder, winner of the match that night, spotted me, and said "Check out the lil luchador! How Cute!". Failed again, I guess.


Back searching again, I decided that if anyone could make a tiny avatar with attitude, it would be a brand called "Fucker Family". "Skeleton Boy" by Karshr Demonia(150$L) mixes urban street style along with a dark supernatural monster charm. An undead dude with punk sensibilities. You can even buy a rock and roll guitar or bass, that plays a kickass riff when you type. What could be more badass than that! I was all happy to call it a day there, and say that I had found the avatar I'd been looking for, but it just so happened that I had bought a gift for someone that I couldn't transfer. I called the creator over to my land, and was discussing the problem, and once I'd finally come to an agreement with her, as a parting comment, she turned to me, and said "btw, your avatar is very cute". ARGH!

So, I decided, I needed something that could never be called cute. Something that, regardless of size, would strike fear into the heart of any avatar. I needed to get properly scary. And then I found it:


"Evil Clown Tiny Avatar" by Jenne Dibou's Mechanical Toy Factory(490$L) is NOT cute. From it's automaton metal skin, to the burning red eyes and little razor sharp teeth, and the fact that it is an evil clown, it has everything you need to intimidate any avatar you bump into. Pleased that I had finally found something that no-one could call cute, I started showing off my find to my friends. And they all agreed that it was indeed a completely uncute tiny. They also agreed that unless I changed out of the avatar, they might feel the need to run away screaming.

So, in conclusion, it is possible to find a tiny avatar that is not cute. However, whether it is possible to find such an avatar, without your friends hiding behind sofas and pretending not to be around when you call, is quite another matter. I guess there are worse things than being cute.

It is often the case when wandering the Second Life network you begin to feel like everything is 'old news'. You feel like you have been there, done that and seen everything there is to see. Suddenly along comes a unique new experience. Loco Pocos is such an experience. Not only a full range of innovative products but also an interactive, informative and exciting island to explore.

Loco Pocos is the brainchild of Damien Fate, an experienced and well-respected content creator in Second Life. Loco Pocos, which roughly translated means “crazy tinies”, are highly modifiable and customizable Second Life avatars. The avatars are fully sculpted and come complete with a HUD, which allows for full personalization and also complete control over the avatars appearance, gestures and sound sets. Out of the box Loco Pocos are very reasonably priced with a large range of base animals. The store offers accessory options, which automatically work with the HUD for those wishing to further their enhancement.

Loco Pocos is however much more than your average store, as Damien has said, "Sims can be so much more than just a store, avatars can be so much more than just prims." The main centre of the island is the magical tree named Rokeden and the whole island centers on a story, that of Captain B. Bonnik. Bounty hunters gain more insight to the island and its inhabitants. The treasure hunt is an extremely clever and interesting way to spend time, it captures the explorer’s imagination and each new level offers a new task to complete, from deciphering codes to jumping across lava pits with falling platforms.

It is obvious from the island and the beautifully crafted avatars that Damien has spent a long time working on this unique user experience. I managed to speak to him and asked some questions about this concept.

Trin: What was your inspiration behind Locos Pocos, both the avatars and the island?

Damien: I always try and bring new things into Second Life and wanted to create a new way to customise avatars, as luck had it I was contracted to build a small avatar for an unrelated project (which I can't discuss yet) and it got me thinking about applying this idea to tinies.
Loco Pocos was born with the creation of the first one, Benny (the rabbit), with Benny I worked for around 2 months on implementing new ways to customise an avatar that is fully sculpted and a whole new expression system. After increasing the Loco Pocos avatar range to 10 avatars I decided I need a store for them, but I was so confident in the avatars and the product in general that I wanted more than just a store, a whole island with an experience as rich and exciting as the avatars themselves.

Trin: Who is Captain B. Bonnik and what was the inspiration behind his story?

Damien: Captain B. Bonnik is one of the individuals who found the island and the giant legendary tree, the Rokeden. There was no individual source of inspiration for his story other than the island itself and what would a greed driven pirate like himself get up to on the island. I just kept in mind certain facts about the island (which are known only to me) in mind when I wrote the story, it practically wrote itself. The name B.Bonnik is a play on "Bubonic", the infamous plague.

Trin: Can you tell me about the work involved behind the creation?

Damien: I wouldn't be able to count all the hours of work that went into the project, but I can say I lost a lot of sleep! The avatars were 3 months work, and the island was 2 months work. All were completed mostly in my spare time until the week run-up to the opening date, in which I worked 15 hour days for over a week to meet the deadline and make sure the product was ready. I had a lot of help from some awesome beta testers who worked with me for a month and of course my wife, Washu Zebrastripe was there to keep me going!

Trin: What has your feedback been?

Damien: Feedback has been insanely positive, I always knew that Loco Pocos avatars and the island were special, and had confidence in them - but nothing could prepare me for how overwhelmingly enthusiastic people became about them at first sight. Loco Pocos has been mentioned on blogs all throughout the internet, with some very passionate followers such as Torley Linden and Gabby Panacek who were so excited that they contributed greatly to the project's publicity.

Trin: What is the development plan for the future?

Damien: I plan on releasing new content every week, this weekend (Saturday 18th July) I will be releasing 10 more avatars, male and female versions of a Fox, Warthog, Mole, Squirrel and Rat along with a new kind of accessory for Loco Pocos, pants! The following two weekends will see more accessories being released.
In a month or so I will begin to expand the island experience, it currently takes around 2 hours average to find all the journals and complete all the puzzles, I look to double that adventure time with the next expansion.

Loco Pocos is unlike any other store or island; it is a very memorable experience in Second Life. The question is not should you buy a Loco Pocos avatar but when should you buy a Loco Pocos avatar, it's an experience everyone should have.