In my last post I talked about my new tank and the Syzygy community convoys that inspired me to buy it. What I didn't mention is that the community has now formed an official 'Tank Club' with a presence on the mainland with a shiny new HQ on Jeogeot.
You can see the club house in various stages of completion in the background of several shots in the last post. Its largely done now (although I'm sure there will forever be tweaks) and well worth a visit at: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vacit/61/160/73
I also continued to tweak and change things with a new tank skin. After chatting with Imogen, I wanted to make her a 'Tabby Tank' with a tiger print pattern. One thing I'd been unhappy with on my earlier efforts was the way the pattern 'jumped' between sections (There are a total of 8 separate texture files UV mapped to different parts of the tank) So this time I set out to figure out the joins and make sure the end result was contiguous.
After much pixelsmithing in Photoshop SE I had what I felt was my best skin yet.
Tip: If you log into the second life Beta Grid you can upload textures using Beta L$ (You get L$40k) to 'preview' things. Once you know it all works you only have to pay the L$80 to upload to the 'proper' grid once.
I wasn't the only one who thought so, Samantha Glume, one of the founders and first club leader noticed my skin 'wrap' and asked me if I'd be interested in producing an official 'club' skin. The skin would also include a club logo based on the Syzygy logo.
I was delighted, and got started the club skin first. After my success with the tabby tank I wanted to do a 'traditional' green cammo pattern. I found what I wanted in the form of 'Multicam' from Crye Precision. This would be my most detailed skin yet, even using rotation and mirroring of the pattern to produce even fewer breaks between sections (in the end I don't think there were any at all).
I also had a logo to do. I didn't know if Sam wanted me to actually do it, or just come up with a skin on which to place it, but I drafted up some suggestions and was encouraged to continue.
My brief from Sam was a tank bursting through a Syzygy logo with a line of people to represent the membership - specifically the different genders and species. I took snapshots of people I saw around the clubhouse at the times I was there, and cut them out of the background to make a row of shillouettes. Since I'd finished the camo tank I took a shot of that in a similar pose to an image Sam suggested to me. Since the turret can only be turned in first person mode i had to use an alt to get the shot.
Although I did use actual club members shillouetes at the front it's not meant to be exclusive, but to show that anyone is welcome. I'd have liked to have more people on it, but it was important to keep things simple, so it could still be recognised even at a small scale.
After a few variations I came up with two versions. A detailed version, and a 'stylised' version. Personally I quite liked the latter but it seems I was overruled as most people seem to prefer the 'HD' version.
As well as my skins, the logo is also used on the signs over the building, and on our awesome animated membership cards courtesy of club member and tentacle connoisseur Mr Elric Anatine
Of course, I added the finalised logo to the tank too:
While chilling out back at the clubhouse after one run Moto (the current leader, and another of the clubs many, bright creative types) broke out her 'Nyannon' (I think I spelled that right lol) which is basically a Nyan Cat Cannon.
