One of the most valuable resources available to you in Second Life is the people who surround you. A community, always willing to help and offer a guiding hand. Ryker Beck is one avatar who has first hand experience of this resource. A talented, and respected artist, Ryker is also a jewelry creator who recently released the first of an anticipated new line of Second Life skins. A featured (SL & RL) Avatrait artist who has had feedback on her photography through her Second Life journey. Ryker has recently used the very popular outlets of Flickr and Plurk to her benefit as she created Eden, her first skin.

I managed to grab Ryker for a chat in her busy schedule to discuss her progression in Second Life and how valuable the other residents of Second Life have been to her advance into the skin making world.

How, when and why did Ryker first come to Second Life?

I originally began playing Second Life around November 2006. Ryker was born on February 22, 2007 (after I decided I really hated my initial SL name). I began playing the game when a real life friend mentioned it to me in passing. It got what I can only assume as the usual answer of, "What's that?" That led to Googling, Googling led to account creation and well... you know the drill. :P I had no idea the amount of content creation and artistic possibility that was in store when I first rezzed onto the grid. Now, I'm glad to be able to look back and see the things I've done, how the metaverse has changed, and how much more evolved everything and everyone has become.

Can you tell us a little about your Second Life achievements?

My achievements, hahaha. Hmm. Let's see. Well, I am first and foremost an artist and photographer, having started photography in SL in April 2007. I've been featured in Vain Inc Magazine as artist of the month, took third place in the Stiletto Moody photography contest, had a very successful exhibition at the Avatrait Gallery, was a participating artist at the real life exhibition "Renascimento Virtual" at the National Museum of Anthropology in Florence Italy, and have had pieces published in a real life book, "Avatrait: From Second Life to
Florence", among other mentions and achievements.

I began crafting jewelry in January 2008, and launched my first store on January 1st (formerly known as Beck's Fine Jewelry). Eventually, real life took over a bit, and I stopped releasing new products for several months until October 2008 brought the Jewelry Exhibition. It was then that I really kicked back into high gear, and created 10 all-new pieces of jewelry, and a one-of-a-kind set for the silent auction at the expo. It was at the expo that the brand "Genesis" was truly born.

I followed, with great excitement on Plurk as you shared the concept, and initial drawing of Eden, your first Second Life skin, can you tell us a little about the process that brought us, Eden?

Eden was a two year dream in the making. Ever since first rezzing on the grid, it was my ultimate ambition to make skins. I always thought that when I did, I could finally say, "Veni, vidi, vici," and be truly happy with where I had landed in my content creation ambitions. I can't even explain the excitement when I finally found the inspiration to sit down and start creating my first skin. Long, long days of hard work and burying myself in Photoshop and neglecting pretty much anything and everything. It was a single-minded, bee-lined track to the finish marker. The name Eden came from the theme I am maintaining with Genesis. Eden sort of just... "fit" as the first name for a skin from my brand, however it didn't hit me until about a week before release that that's what she just had to be named.

How valuable was the feedback from Plurk and Flickr to your process with the skin model?

Oh, the feedback from Plurk especially was invaluable. I was able to get a substantial pool of beta testers, honest and on the spot feedback, and a plethora of pictures of people wearing the skin so that I could see it on other shapes and pinpoint trouble spots. I received around 30 notecards of feedback and photos, many with very useful tips and pointers of what could be better and what was fantastic about the skin. It was from that giant pool of feedback that I made enhancements and adjustments to the beta skin, and thus Eden was born. She was in no way a single-minded project, and despite having made her, I can't take complete credit for her final state. There are opinions from about 50 total people resting on that skin. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

What's the future for Ryker Beck's skins?

I am currently working on a new skin, Candace. She is a much more detailed, very catwalk-y skin that I aim to market more at the glamour model industry than I did with Eden, which was a much softer, girly skin. Candace is currently in the beta testing stages and should be released, hopefully, in early to mid May. I already have a plan for a third skin which will also be in the works soon, along with ideas that have been bounced off of me by my lovely and talented sister, Vernice Burks, to make a child skin. And of course, a male skin is in the future too.

For any would-be skin creators out there, can you share any tips you learned along the way?

Don't rush it. Go with your gut. Get feedback! It is the best tool in your arsenal. Invest in a good resource photo website meant for skin creation and 3d texturing work, unless you intend to fully hand draw your skins (or in my case, do both). And above all, find your niche... the quality that will set you apart from the rest. Never stop learning, always keep growing, and never give up. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Victory belongs to the most persevering."

*All images reposted with the kind permission of Ryker Beck*

Just when you believe Linden Lab the creators of Second Life do not actively listen to the paying residents they never cease to amaze you. Whilst facing one of the biggest PR Disasters of recent times, Linden Lab have taken a miraculously large step back and have reassessed their desire to enforce Dazzle, with no alternative option, upon the residents of Second Life.

As I documented in April, Dazzle caused major concern across the Second Life network. Its bright user interface could be held accountable for eye strain and migraines, also not ergonomically suitable for those users with varying degrees of colour blindness. The complaint was not specifically against Dazzle it was against the inability to easily revert to the old style, or for a user friendly option to skin the client, if Dazzle affected you with the health issues mentioned above. With a massive amount of votes and comments on the two Dazzle specific JIRA entries (VWR-5059 & VWR-5080) it now seems that Linden Lab have actually listened to the worried residents.


In the latest Second Life Blog post Ramzi Linden has announced the release of RC11 with 39 crash fixes and the news that Linden Lab will not ship the Release Candidate until it has working skin-ability.


"To start, we are now developing a solution to VWR-5059 - “Ability to switch between the new/old theme” - and will ship that before finalizing the official Second Life Viewer 1.20.

Therefore, in the coming weeks please look for a couple other iterations of this Release Candidate, but perhaps not as frequently. We will deliver an RC12 and RC13 before finishing this 1.20 Release Candidate cycle."

Linden Lab may have taken their time but I am sure I and the hundreds of non Dazzle supporters are both in favour and in shock at this latest development. Potential PR disaster almost averted.

“We’re pleased to announce First Look: Dazzle, a “refresh” for the Second Life viewer’s appearance which makes the UI (User Interface) more accessible and pleasing.” – Second Life Blog

Hailed by some as the new friendly user experience that Second Life desperately needs, Dazzle is a new brighter User Interface. It uses new buttons and symbols and has many ‘under the hood’ changes to ease customisation in the future. With a barrage of complaints however, is Dazzle all it’s cracked up to be?




Dazzle UI










Old UI






The original blog entry, posted by Torley Linden set out the following questions and relative answers:

"What if I don't like Dazzle?
This is understandable, particularly because Second Life's UI has basically been the same for several years. Change can be hard if you're accustomed to the way things currently look and have been with us for awhile…. we’ll pay attention to your constructive criticism and use it to refine Dazzle further

Will I be able to revert to the older UI?
When Dazzle is in the main viewer, then no, you won't be able to revert easily. On the surface many people like Dazzle however, with more and more posts, comments and worries being voiced at Benjamin Linden’s (Director of User Experience) office hour and on the JIRA, in answer to Torleys previous question – What if I don’t like Dazzle? Simply we don’t know the answer; no one appears to be listening to the very ‘real’ health issues it brings to the fore."

Dazzle was mentioned originally in February and has been in development since then. I spent a few hours researching the effects a bright user-interface can have on its user, ie you! I was quite shocked at the results I achieved in a matter of hours; a company like Linden Lab SHOULD have access to this information as freely as I do, especially considering there is a department qualified in User Experience.

“Whether characters are legible or not depends on contrast, that is, the difference in brightness between the text and the background.” - Ergonomics for Beginners: A Quick Reference Guide by Jan Dul.

“Dark colors maintain the focus on the images - bright colors can distract the eye and take the focus away from the images. Adjusting to the varying degree and the frequency of light changes can cause eye fatigue, headaches and mood swings. “ – Agfa Healthcare - The Benefits of Color and Style

“In short, to avoid dazzling and prevent eyestrain (your own or your users), try to keep all surfaces at the same brightness by matching the overall brightness or dimness of your screens to the office environment. If users typically use your software in brightly lit offices or if they type from bright source documents, use light or off-white backgrounds. If your software is used in dim or dark areas (air traffic control towers, for example), use dark backgrounds. If you can't find out what the background will be, you might want to include two backgrounds, one light and one dark, with your program.” – Fast Consulting

There is no template in place for the average Second Life user, many people are in-world at night, in a darker environment, with less or no natural lighting. However corporate companies and some residents play during the day time in areas of high natural lighting. As shown from research in this model ONE UI is not sufficient and two should be provided.

Another consideration you should bear in mind when looking at Dazzle is the blue on blue colour scheme. As stated in the Fast Consulting reference work “Your eyes cannot focus clearly on blue”.

"Since yellow and green wavelengths come into focus at the retina, they require the least accommodation from the eye (this is the reason for so many yellow and green monochrome monitors a few years ago). Red wavelengths, on the other hand, come into focus a little behind the retina and therefore seem to "pop out" of the background. Since blue wavelengths come into focus in front of the retina, blues seem to fade into the background." – Fast Consulting

There are far better colour combinations for the use of blue; “On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB), the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange” – Wiki

Second Life will be made skinnable in the future, ie users can include their own colour combinations to suit themselves. A wonderful step forward but surely Skinability should happen before people have no option but to use Dazzle? According to the Viewer Roadmap the answer is no, Dazzle takes priority over everything else.

Linden Lab is placing great strain on their customers. With over 6 million user accounts the global cross-section MUST include people with colour blindness and migraine sufferers to name but a few.

“Some history behind this: over the years, we’ve heard a lot about how difficult SL can be to use, notably how scary the “old-style” UI looks. Cryptic icons, low contrast, and “things you click on that don’t do what you expect them to do” are all frustrating to newcomers, and at last — Dazzle’s here, because we want to make it easier for you.” – Second Life Blog

I am sure many agree with the sentiment above, however ‘scary’ and ‘frustrating’ are not in any medical journals I can source. Migraines, colour blindness and fatigue associated with bright User Interfaces are however.