in search of SL's BEST designers

new here and would like opinions on the BEST of the BEST designers in SL!!! Who does the best houses, avatars, clothes, events, scripts, landscaping, clubs etc?

"Best of the Best" is a false idea, since people have different tastes, needs, desires, and wants. There are lots of fine designers in Second Life, and each one has a unique style.

I've never cared much for that kind of "singling out". It reminds me of the "Teacher of the Year" competition that school districts love so much. Meaningless, in my opinion, because it leaves out a lot of good people and artificially (and often incorrectly) elevates one above the rest.

While I have no problems with contests of this kind, this question is left so wide open as to hurt feelings everywhere.

It a low-prims build worse than a highly detailed, high prim design? It gothic better than fantasy? Are fish better than french-fries?

It makes me kind of twitchy, since I've seen this backfire over and over before...

Marcos will tell you he's the best at shiny, but his bearded face merely conceals his LIES.

He's pretty good at avatar shiny, I'll give him that

I don't see any harm in suggesting a few of one's favorites. There is no contest involved here, just someone asking for personal opinions.

Starax Statosky and Stormy Roentgen make excellent sculptures.

Maxx Monde makes buildings that appeal to my taste.

Sadly my memory doesn't want to provide the names of the creators of some of the nice things I have seen because I have never spoken to the makers, and I remember the names much better if I have some personal contact with the maker.

I just saw someone at the Welcome Area in a very well made dress by Munchflower Zai.

Jai Nomad makes good buildings.

Psyra Extraordinaire makes wonderful avian avatars.

I am getting the name Grey Mars in mind about avatars. Does that sound correct?

Miroslaw Bukowski makes good avs and builds other nice things as well.

Rather that single out a specific person, I would just say go to Abbotts Aerodrome for good aircraft.

I have already plugged Jonqulle Noir's clothing today, it won't hurt to do it again.

Fly around, see what you like, then ask who did it. There's your "best of the best".

I did that, and lo and behold, my list was very different from most of the names you see posted on these forums from time to time.

For finding good builders and scripters one place to look is in the sandboxes. You can find many a wonderful build there, and sometimes meet the builder in person.

Eckhart Dillon makes some nice scripted objects, you can find him in the sandboxes from time to time with a bunch of cleverly programmed robots or guard dogs and other clever things of that sort.

For scripters check the groups that have the word script in the title and look at the member list, some of them are good script writers.

Also for scripters read the scripting tips forum. Jeffrey Gomez has produced a number of impressive scripts he has posted there or in the script library forum, and there are many others as well. If you are thinking of hiring someone for custom work, scripting or otherwise, reading how people behave in the forums can give you at least some idea of how they might behave. Off the top of my head I would suggest Catherine Omega, Christopher Omega, Wednesday Grimm, Strife Onizuka as being good scriptwriters, but there are many many others. I have no idea if any of the people I mentioned are taking new assignments or not, so don't misinterpet me about that.

Flying around and looking is just one way to find things. Another way is to ask for suggestions in the forums, like you did. For doing the flying around approach I would suggest a flight aid script to speed up the flying process.

Another method to find some popular producers is to use the popular items listing at SLexchange and the sellers list link at SLBoutique.

The Gallery forum is another good place to find things that other's have found noteworthy enough to post pictures of.

Bill Stirling makes some great looking buildings.

My dear girl, so silly you even have to ASK! It is I, Barnesworth Anubis! Derrr

Thank you Suezanne *fween!* And yes, Grey Mars (or was that Gray?) is who you mean.

But really, indeed, the question is all a matter of opinion, it's a world of opinion out there, and one person's gold is another person's garbage. What may be the most gobsmack-wonderful-makes-the-world-move-artsy-amazingly-perfect-build-or-clothes-or-whatever thing.... may in the eyes of another be nothing special, or sometimes even offensive.

Starax Starovsky (I think I spelled that wrong!), Hudson Stryker, Toy LaFollette, Daryth Kennedy, Michi Lumin, Marcos Fonzarelli, Kage Seraph, Huns Valen, YadNi Monde, Satu Moreau, Everest Palmerstone, Snark Serpentine, and RacerX Gullwing... those are some of who I consider awesome builders (apologies to those I missed!)..... but remember, some rare people that are gonna be offended that they were forgotten or excluded... Which is why I bolded the 'some' back there.

Two people I would say are great designers.

Kage Seraph - By far needs no introduction. Great work from him can be found everywhere! Just today I saw a woman sporting a great looking Golem Flight version (Which I have yet to memorize the name of) in the sandbox, along with a couple of other Nitro's! Exceptional work for any builder!

And one person whom I feel hasn't gotten enough recognition yet, although maybe I'm wrong...

Slade Onizuka - GREAT great (mech / tech / something else with an ech) builder! I've admired his work since the day I saw it! Great, great stuff. I've seen everything from full body robotic makeovers to replacing only a few limbs while making it look like it's meant to be there! Style all his own! And btw, his gasmask rocks!

Wow - I got plugged. Yay.

I'd also advise browsing the Game Dev islands/plots for names. Some of the names here are participating, as well as several others not listed that do good work. And while you're at it, come visit our game in Game Dev 3!

Id like to think im pretty good at weapons and mechs and armor...that type of thing, if you want something made send me an IM in game or check out my shop Novum inc.

edit: pffft i read a list of all the builders you guys liked and im not on there PFFFFT ! jk...

I was just flying around at 4 a.m. looking for some fun when I found myself at the South Estates, at a place owned by Shawdi Murdock.

The furniture in there in fantastic! This looks to me like statue quality furniture. The texturing is excellent. I would suggest checking it out as a fun thing to look at for pleasure even if you aren't in the market for furnitue.

I haven't seen any other furniture that strikes me like this. I may put some pictures up in the Gallery but it will have to wait till tomorrow.

The interior of the store also makes use of the pre-made textured-in shading and lighting in the walls. That is a striking effect that I have read about in the forums but not seen and been aware of until now.

Shawdi Murdock deservers kudos for this quality of work.

BelGarath Stern makes clever scripted games and other scripted objects. BelGarath made a Simon game that he sells on one of the web based search engines. BelGarath just showed me a multiplayer card game he made, complete with tables and seats and cards, and also a puzzle tile game he said he made in an afternoon. He also showed me an advertising system still in progress. The advertising system uses multiple scripts in multiple objects communicating via email. This level of complexity means to me that he must be a good scripter, if the objects work correctly. And from what I have seen of his work, they do work correctly.

When you see objects doing things that you think are neat you can usually look in the contents and find the name of the script writer. If the script is buried where you can't find it or don't feel like looking, you can always IM the owner and creator of the object and ask them for information on tracking down the script writer.

Animations - when you see animations that you like I don't know of a way to find who made them other than to ask the person whose av is being animated. This is an advertising problem for animators. I get tired of repeatedly asking people who made this or who made that, plus constant questioning of that sort kinda disrupts normal conversation. With built objects you can always see who made the object, no need to ask anyone, or even to have the owner around or online.

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More good stuff.....

Vudu Suavage makes some right cool items, right now I am looking at a multi-eyed vicious looking thing named "So rested he by the Tumtum tree" - ah, this must be a Jabberwock - guess I'd better watch out.

This Jabberwock was out near the Giant Snail Races, an effort of RacerX Gullwing. The original thread poster asked for the best in events, and I will nominate RacerX Gullwing's Giant Snail Races for a place in the list. Dem snails am very silly.

For best events I can't possibly leave out Primtionary. Jamie Otis has done Primtionary many a time and I had great fun playing. Primtionary is to me "the" quintessential SL game because it demands use of the build editor. When I play I get so stressed out while building I can hardly move. Anyone who runs an organized Primtionary game deserves a round of applause, and Lazerus Gltterbuck has a game scheduled for 4:00 Saturday June 3rd and so gets a hearty clap clap.

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Yet more good things -

Particles by Candide LeMay - a beautiful flower - Candide may be giving some particle classes, possibly, if so you should check them out if you want to learn about scripting particles. Candide advises me that Eltee shoud get a plug for particles, that would be Eltee Statosky, who wrote one of the scripts that is widely used as a basis for particle systems created by many other SL residents.

Zindorf Yossarian is putting together a fantastic looking space station in the Cordova sandbox sim, it made with lots of shiny and smoked glass, and looks great from both outside and inside.

One thing about looking for good stuff in SL, you have to look fast! The nice space station I just got through writing about didn't stay around much longer that the time it took me to write the sentence mentioning it.

I would add Eva Virgo's buildings, particularly alhambra palace and pompeii which are simply stunning.

Sky Everett makes brilliant furniture.

Psyra's bird avs are second to none, especially his phoenix.

Alexa

If you are interested in the best designers (and of course this is all entirely subjective) one should check out the 6 amazing designers showing a couple of their fashions each that exemplify the theme "Summer Palette"! Whether you're shopping for SLFashion or just planning colours for your beach house, the show is sure to be inspirational! BC Models will be strutting their stuff (thanks Brace!)

Hope to see folks out! Beyond that: there are soooo many fabulous designers out there. It is easy to get stuck on the ones who post a lot (and they rock) but it is equally worthwhile to wander around and scout for new talent. I often wander around random malls and look through vendors and everytime I scout for new talent, I find it!

(sorry for the shameless plug, btw. but it is an honest answer to the question! lol) oh! and you can also check out the spa after the show and see the work of two talented housebuilders: Kathryn Jackson (also good on kitchen appliances which she vends at Luna) and Devon Quirk (who made the gato house art gallery at which today's designers will vend their gear!)

I am one of the 3 Best spacecraft/capital ship builders in SL. The other two being Avena Marshall and Mazer Ludd. Some say cap ships have no purpose in SL.. The Corellian Engineering Corporation, the group all 3 of us are in, are changing that as I type.

I am also a fan of starcraft and make loads of Terran stuff, so far I have a marine, a dropship, wraith, (full scale) Terran Battlecruiser, Siege Tank, and Bunker.

The group Edifice Rex includes many of the people mentioned so far. The purpose of the group is to collect the names of these many "bests" and foster friendly competition, sharing of ideas, etc.

Kimmera Madison for womens clothes

Sezmra Svarog for awesome custom skins

Is this a Men in Black joke?

Excellent store created by Damanios Thetan. The building's structural style has some nice twists and curves in it, and the texturing works really well. I think this would be an example of using textures specifically designed for their use in a building in SL as opposed to just dropping on some generic textures like I would do.