‘Tis the Season to be Shopping. And in the course of my hunt for truly unique
Gifts, and I came upon an amazing store called Heart and Soul. In an adjoining
workshop, I stumbled upon Abbbadon Soulstar and his partner Q-Baby, hard at
work building the latest in animated furniture.
As they stopped for lunch, I was able to chat with these amazing
builders.
Josh (Thomas1 Bellic) (JB):
So tell us, Abs. How long have
you been in the business of animating furniture?
Abs™ (abbadon.soulstar) (AS): I started building and
animating prim furniture way back in 2012. I had a few items on Marketplace and
then I met Q-Baby! We partnered on a few
projects. I did the animating and she did the texturing. We quickly figured out
what we are a match made in heaven!
JB: You have
literally hundreds of animated pieces in your store. Where do you get your
inspiration?
AS: Q-baby and I play
off each other really. We get inspired by a lot of things. Real life furniture
pieces, our interest in role play, and thinking about unusual places and ways
to get your groove on.
JB: Do you build your
items from scratch, or do you take existing items available elsewhere and
spruce them up with animations?
We have several partners who make exclusive mesh items for
us. We also work with partners for custom animations when we want something
really special for a piece. We will use mesh kits if they are great quality or
an item we have really been wanting to see animated in SL.
JB: OK Abs… tell
me…and I promise to keep it just between you and me….(and our 40,000 readers
each month)…..what are some of your personal Favs in animated furnishings here?
AS: My favorite
animated item is usually the one I'm currently working on LOL. Maybe it's my
OCD but I spend a lot of time thinking out the menu and how animations can flow
together on each piece. Q-baby obsesses over colors and textures and getting
things to look just so. We are both really invested in making sure each piece
we put out is amazing. But to be fairly
specific, here are just a few items I'm really proud of that I’d like to
mention with a little background on how they came together.
1- H&S~Girl Power-Pole & Lap Dance Sex Table
v2: This was a very fun project we
worked on with our partnering Mesh Creator and Animators/Script writers to
bring the vision I had to life. This item is a great club or home piece. The RP
is well thought out and gives our customers the ability to take it to the next
level of RP.
2- H&S~Passions Complete HUD: Here we took an old idea and breathed into it
new technology and features never available back in the MLP Script sets and
XPOSE days. Avsitter which is the
current gold standard in script sets is feature rich as well as adaptable. Clever script writers can write plug ins to
even further enrich the features available...ok ok i'm slipping into "Nerd
mode" lol... But it was fun to put it together so a customer can wear a
very small HUD on the corner of the screen and literally RP anywhere they can
rez the pose balls that the HUD generates.
3- H&S~Truths & Dares V 1.2.: Back in my early SL days there used to be a
really fun game created by a fellow who is no longer in SL. Jpose built a Truth
& Dare game based off the MLP script set.
It was a really fun ice-breaker party game. Of course, it was a bit
naughty; which made it even more fun "grins". What we did with that idea was bring it into
today with loads of awesome animations. Avsitter as the base engine, and a very
clever script set that employs algorithms to match players up gives them
choices of selecting some pretty funny truth questions or dares and to be as
naughty as they wanna be. The game automatically levels up the heat the longer
you play. And there's also the menu option to "increase the heat"
should players like a faster pace. We have it in 2 languages and have been
offered by several customers to translate it into their language because they
have enjoyed playing and would like tonshare it with their native speakers.
JB: As you know,
there is no shortage of places here that sell adult animated furniture in
SecondLife. What is the “Heart and Soul”
difference and why should people come here for all their animated furnishings
needs?
AS: I think our name,
Heart & Soul, sums it up. We aren't just pushing out items in assembly line
style. We really take time to think about who is going to be using our pieces.
So, we tend to put our hearts and souls into the menus, animations and textures
trying to make them the best they can be. As I look around SL I see cheaper
pieces but you aren't getting the quality animations and well thought-out menus
that makes our stuff so popular. We both are very proud of our work. Our policy
and goal since starting Heart & Soul Designs has been 100% customer focus
and the best customer support available anywhere.
JB: Do you ever run
Sales or have special “Members Only” good deals?
AS: Oh yes, we love
our VIP Members! Every month we do a new release item at least half off for our
Members. For major holidays we will do half off or more for the entire store.
For Christmas we did a sweet little holiday rug at a deep, deep discount. Our
Members loved it!
JB: Tell me about
Indulgence Island? What can visitors
expect there?
AS: Indulgence Island
is the adult sim below the store. It's a tropical paradise for anyone who wants
to use it. We sprinkle it with our creations so folks can use them before they
buy. But, mostly it's our way to give
back to the SL community. We allow residents to rez their own toys, open boxes,
and just relax and use the sim to do what SL was created for...have fun! The
only rule are we ask people to not be rude to other visitors and no child or
under age avatar visitors.
JB: Do you host
events there, or is it more for people who want to get “Far from the maddening
crowd”?
AS: We have
free-lance DJs who do their own events. It's a great hang out when people are
there and a peaceful beach when there aren't.
LOL. We let people throw parties
for their friends Rez days other celebrations whatever they want to do.
JB: You have added
animations to everything from John Deere Tractors to Motorcycles, and from
Spinet Upright Pianos to Hot Air Balloon baskets. What new things can we expect to see
animated in the coming months?
AS: Spring time will
no doubt get the creative gears into motion again. I feel a hot tub coming on
in the near future. Sometimes Q and I riff on each other, spit-balling crazy
ideas until we say "Hey.... that's a project!" Hence the creation of the Redneck Hot Tub
LOL. A tractor tire filled with dirty water, floating beer cans and ashtrays
and oh yeah and some hot animations!
JB: Is there anything
else you would like to share with our SL Enquirer Readers?
AS: Q and I are
regular folks. We are here to have fun like everyone else. We don't do this for a living other than SL,
we do this because we enjoy it. It's fun
to share our creations with folks and know they are having fun with them like
we are.
We appreciate our partners and customers more than we can
express. We think SL is big enough for more than just H&S so we encourage
people to be creative and pursue their passions and most of all Jeffrey Epstein
didn't hang himself. LOL
Sooooo..There you have it folks. Whether you are helping to
build the grid’s next Adult region, or merely outfitting your back-porch deck,
for the finest in animated furniture available anywhere in SecondLife, be sure
and check out the stock at Heart and Soul. Even if all you are doing is
shopping, plan a sizable chunk of time for your visit here. There is SOOO MUCH
to see and try out here. And don’t forget to rezz a Hot Air Balloon for the
ultimate in ballooning pleasure.
Be there. Aloha!
JB
Heart & Soul Store
SURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fontana/133/94/2501
Indulgence Island
SURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fontana/201/210/24
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