Santa knocks at the door of Musashi-Do

Christmas is coming, and at last my long awaited vacation from school begun. I'm having a great time feeling immersed in fashion from head to toe (on wednesday we went to see RoccoBarocco's showroom, it was awesome even if his style of clothing is not exactly the same as mine.. i felt like a stain of black oil in a sea of colors :P), but sometimes it can be stressful too! Anyway while I'm waiting to put on the shelves my new fashion releases, all Musashi-Do and Musashi Motorsports shops have been "dressed up" for the occasion.
Also, just like last year, my customers will be able to find free full permissions (copy/modify/transfer) gift wraps in a vendor on the counter at the Musashi-do Main Shop. There are twenty different ones to fit every taste and style, but feel free to modify them to fit your purpose in any way you might like.
Last but not least, if you're a member of the Musashi-Do Newsgroup group, be ready, because a sign of my appreciation will be coming your way on Christmas eve's night. If you're not a member of the group yet, you're still in time to join!
Anyway, i'm done designing for the night (well, the "night" carried over to 3 PM in the day after it seems...) happy holydays to everyone!

Musashi Motorsports Opens on Motorati Island

Thanks to Pontiac that decided to provide residents of Second Life with land on Motorati island to develop their projects (I think this is a very important step on the right direction on behalf of a real life corporation, that finally understood that it's name alone is not enough to draw traffic to it's venue. Well done Pontiac!), I opened two new shops there. A Car shop where customers can find (and test drive for free) the whole range of Musashi Motorsports cars equipped with the brand new (and already extremely popular, it seems) Raiden Mk.2 engine, and a Fashion Shop, in wich the fashion aware driver can find top quality clothes to dress both while driving and while resting.
I have big projects for the Musashi Motorsports Fashion brand, by the way. As of now the shop features the same line as all Musashi-Do shops, but soon will develop it's own apparel line. Stay tuned!

The Raiden Mk.2 ROARS!

It's done at last. Finally all the Musashi Motorsports cars are equipped with the new and powerful Raiden Mk.2 Engine! It was a terribly long haul, but i'm very satisfied with the results and the features included.

Here's a full list of features that you can now find in my cars:
- Realistic 6-speed sequential transmission
- Dynamic steering system
- Realistic Drifting behavioir
- Full featured HUD with touch commands, analogic and digital speedometer, gear indicator and day/night switching
- Variable output engine with three power settings: city, sports and racing
- Variable traction control with three settings: none, mild, full
- Variable stability control with three settings: none, mild, full
- Improved deactivable sim border crossing ability
- NOS nitro injection system
- Seats two avatars
- Guest driver system
- Passenger eject system
- Exclusive P-Freeze precision positioning system
- Opening and closing canopy (roadster versions only)
- State-of-the-art server friendly scripts
- Rotating wheels and turning front wheels
- 9 specific custom sounds, changing when you gear up and down
- Extensive visual effects, including exhaust smoke and flames and tire tracks on the ground
- Compatibility standard that allows users to replace the engine with other Musashi Motorsports Raiden engines
- Bonus decorative Musashi Motorsports Key and Keychain

Pretty nice, isn't it?
Expecially the P-freeze positioning system is something i really like, it allows the driver to move the car around with great precision without editing it, awesome for taking pictures and when one gets stuck or goes off the road :)

As always the cars are available at the Musashi Motorsports Shop

If you already bought any of the old Musashi Motorsports cars not equipped with the Raiden Mk.2, please do not purchase the a new one (unless you want a different model/color of course). The new ones are to considered an update and as such you don't need to purchase them. Just send me an IM and I will teleport you to my office as soon as possible, where, after seeing you rez your old car as a proof of ownership, I will give you the new edition of that car free of charge.

Also a group called Musashi Motorsports Owner club has been opened. The owners of my cars will be invited to that group and will be able to receive updates and new versions of the engine to play with.

Now, after this looong scripting and test driving haul, I better go back to my workshop, I have a lot of fashion designs on sketch. I just ("just" uh? ^_^;;) need to translate them to their digital version now. I missed fashion design, and even if car scripting is great fun, I'm definately happy to be able to go back doing that. So stay tuned, news in that field will come quick!

Christmas is coming!

Having been a bit reclusive lately while scripting the new engine for my Musashi Motorsports cars (that will be released tomorrow night, at last), and having been busy with fashion design school, it's nice and refreshing to see a bit of festive atmosphere, anticipating my much awaited winter holidays (wich I'll spend working on SL anyway, for the ones that like my fashion designs don't worry, I didn't forget about you, quite a lot of news are incoming in the next weeks).
Here's a nice view of Via Montenapoleone (wich is well known as being the main designer store street in Milano and the heart of the so called "Square of Fashion") as seen from one of the balconys of the school I attend. As you can see the christmas lights are already up and lit (in the morning, talk about energy waste...) creating a pretty cute and merry atmosphere.
It's almost time for my mid-morning coffee, the Bar Cova (the one with the teal tents in the background) is definately waiting to give me a small part of my coffeine ration.
In the meanwhile, in the Vittorio Emanuele gallery, neightboring the Duomo Square, Swarovski placed down an immense christmas tree all decorated with shiny crystals, a truly awesome sight, expecially in the evening.
I definately love the festive atmosphere of christmas, and I'll make sure to decorate my shops as well in the upcoming days, I already have a few ideas that might prove nice.

Musashi-Do sponsors the opening Gala at centering place

While you wait for the release (should happen tomorrow evening) of the new Raiden Mk.2 engine for all Musashi Motorsports cars you can go to the opening gala for Centering Place, an extremely interesting and valuable volunteer initiative for counseling and support. During the gala literally DOZENS of Musashi-Do and Musahshi Motorsports items will be handed out to patrons, so be sure to be there and show your support to the girls at Centering Place. You can be sure, they deserve it.
The party will start at 2 PM (on december the 1st of course) and will be held here. Don't miss it!

Musashi Motorsports cars to get a new heart...

Someone might have wondered, in the last few days, if I was swallowed by oblivion or anything like that. The truth is, instead, that I was working on a "secret" project that now is in an advanced development and testing phase. Soon all the Musashi Motorsports cars will be equipped with the brand new and powerful Raiden Mk.II Engine. The new engine sports a long list of rather interesting features, like full HUD control, guest drivers list, a variety of handling and speed settings, able to satisfy both the relaxed driver and the fast&furious racing pilot, further improved sim crossing ability, the revolutionary "Time Freeze" feature and a few other things.
Stand by in the next few days for release (as always you can join the Musashi-Do Newsgroup group to receive real time news). Of course previous customers will be able to receive a completely free update to upgrade the Musashi Motorsports cars they already own with the Raiden MK.II engine.

Musashi Motorsports Drive Around the (SL)World 2006, Leg 5

After a little hiatus needed to develop proper snow tires, the Drive Around the (SL) World resumes today for it's fifth leg. The team is ready, and has checked the mechanics of the car in every little detail. Driving on frozen asphalt can be tricky, so everything must be perfect to avoid a disastrous crash.
Our Race Queen for the day will be Queenie Extraordinaire, awesome DJ and newest of the Musashi-Do models. Most definately a beauty.

It will be mainly a night-time race, ran for the 90% in the beautiful snowy sims around the Zermatt Lake, starting from the Isabel Infohud, across the orient bridge, to the intersection in Larsen, where I'll turn North to make a long detour along the coastline. I'll skim the rocky sims in Clarksburg and Steamboat and then I'll turn left back in the snowy ones in Jernberg. Proceeding across the Mieto mountain pass, i'll reach the intersection in the corner of my home sim of Anton, where i'll turn left again, and speed south-east to the goal in Benham.
The sims are fairly old, but many of them are empty Linden owned land, so the lag should be low besides near the Isabel and Wengen infohubs and the Popular barbie club in Refugio. The road should be frozen all over, but the maintenance conditions are said to be fairly decent.


I'm finally ready to start the leg as the car is positioned on the road. Queenie is there ready to see me off and wish me good luck. Despite the frozen conditions of the route ahead, i'm confident on my new show tires.


START! I step on the gas pedal and quickly gear up as my car darts on the road in front of the crowded Isabel Infohub, the roar of the powerfulm 500 HP engine attracts the attention of the nearby newbies....

As i feel the familiar grip of the wooden planks under my tires, I cross the Orient bridge, surrounded by cliffs, a dam, a castle and even a galleon...


I climb a steep hill in Kania and my tires loose contact with the asphalt momentarily as the GTX jumps! The snowy environment finally surrounds me as I fight for a second the instinct of stepping on the brakes, an action that would for sure send me in a disastrous spin.


It's nightfall as I reach Belmondo. The grip on the frozen asphalt becomes a little weaker but remains steady as I reduce the speed slightly and turn on the headlights, passing in front of a nice victorian style mall.


The sky becomes darker as Grishin and it's beautiful architectures surrounded by the snow disappear behind me. The lights of my car, refracted by the snow in the darkness, create an almost romantic atmosphere. That's why i love snow sims...


I try hard to retain control of my 500 HP beast in the lag as i skim the guard rail passing in front of the crowded Barbie Club, there must be party!


As I speed uphill to enter Jernberg, I spot a beautiful crystal structure towering on the nearby snowy hill... Someone definately put a lot of effort and art in building that...


My engine growls in powerful undertones as I keep it in the lower gears to cross the Mieto Pass, so high that i'm surrounded by heavy clouds.


At the bottom of the pass I step hard on the breaks and corner tightly on the intersection of Anton. Beyond the river my shops can be seen towering in the darkness. Home sweet home...


The snow around the scenic Zermatt lake, probably the most beautiful mainland location of Second Life, gets a red hue as day breaks and the sun raises over the horizon...


It's dawn over the Linden owned chalet in Wengen, but many newbies are already up and about, playing and meeting the parking zone in front of the lake.


The sky becomes brighter as I speed over the river bridge of Eagan, heading towards the goal of this leg...


Entering Heaton I see a beautiful fountain on the side of the road. It's always interesting to see such nice builds hidden where you wouldn't expect them. It's like discovering a pearl in the sand.


And i eventually reach the goal in Benham, the road in front of me is blocked by a massive snow wall, since the Lindens didn't bother continuing it in the newly created sims that lay beyond. A beautiful gothic sculpture stands nearby. This leg is done, stay tuned for the next one!

Help us Save Tiffany!

Right now there's an ongoing auction (it'll continue until tomorrow, saturday, at 8PM SLT) to help Tiffany, the daughter of one of our Second Life Residents, fight cancer.
You can find info on the campaign on the savetiffany.com website.
At the auction you can find many designers item, between them some are even one of a kind, like the Chocolate Goddess formal gown. You'll never find it anywhere else, do don't miss the chance to get it while doing a good deed.
Also actioned we have the Musashi Motorsports Zero GTR-1, the direct descendant of the Zero GTX that you see featured on the MusashI Motorsports Drive around the (SL)World (that will be resumed today) and the very first unique prototype of the upcoming Zero GTR series of race cars. As an one of a kind offer, i'll personally pauint on the texture any sponsors that the high bidder might want, to make it his very personal race car, or the representation of his business in the racing world!
You can find the auction here! Come here and help us Save Tiffany (and if you are a designer i think i'm still in time to donate your items for auction, send an im to Madame Maracas about that)!

A new little Freebie from Musashi-Do...

I just made a completely free and full permission item out of a sudden inspiration, a Fuchikoma from The Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku Kidotai). Feel free to drop by and grab a copy in front of the Musashi-Do Fashion shop. Have fun with it!
posted by Shiryu Musashi on Anton using a blogHUD : [permalink]

A new Musashi-Do Shop in Le Cadre

I've been invited to set up a little shop in Le Cadre and i immediately took up the chance, expecially due to the awesome urban look of the building i was offered. My friends know well i have a very soft spot for urban architecture. So here it is, the new Musashi-Do Le Cadre Shop, surrounded by the shops of many other talented designers. It definately looks cute, at least in my own biased eyes :P
posted by Shiryu Musashi on Le Cadre using a blogHUD : [permalink]

An awesome Halloween party... in a kilt!

Right now i'm at an awesome halloween party organized by my friends at ASpiRE! Lots of cool people and cool music here, i'm sure it'll be a fun night. I sponsorized the event (alongside quite a lot of other designers), so a lot of Musashi-Do clothes and Musashi Motorsports cars will will be given away.
Also, my customers will be able to see a sneak peak of the work in progress version of the Evolution edition Highland Wind, in all it's flowing flexi splendor. I'm wearing it, doesn't it look good on me?

Drop by if you have time, you won't regret it :)
posted by Shiryu Musashi on Ilideu using a blogHUD : [permalink]

A Fire Dragon for Cancer Research

Tomorrow , Saturday October 28th, at 4PM SL time, Silver Motorsports Complex will run a fundraiser auction to support the American Cancer Society and the U.S.O.

At the auction the new unique Musashi Motorsports Fire Dragon Special will be available, so come bid on it and on other beautiful items donated by many talented designers! See you there!
posted by Shiryu Musashi on Silver Island using a blogHUD : [permalink]

The new Musashi-Do website is officially open!

At last, after a few days of hard work, the official Musashi-Do and Musashi Motorsports website is open, alongside with a complete graphical restyling of my Blog. I have to say I'm quite satisfied of the result, expecially since it took just four days to set everything up, including learning the Mambo front-end from scratch. God bless the ones that programmed it. They sure spared me a lot of hard work and a much worse result in the case i had use my poor html knowledge to make this site.


In any case, now that the new site ( http://www.musashi-do.net/ ) is operative, and I'm free to move on to my next project.


posted by Shiryu Musashi on Anton using a blogHUD : [permalink]

A new Domain, a new Zero

As you might have noticed (if you're here) i finally registered the musashi-do.net domain (unfortunately musashi-do.com was already used, i'll retry next year) and as such the old japanwings.com domain will be set aside as an addon domain. Unfortunately there have been some problems with the linking of the two domains, so the pictures referring to japanwings.com won't work until my provider solves such problem. After the addition is done everything should go back working and the broken links should heal.
Yesterday another unique special edition of my Zero (the Black Dragon) was raffled at RockNGames's anniversary week end. The people at the party appreciated it, and the party was great fun :)
As a last side note, there was an awesome article about my fashion show on the Metaverse Messenger this week and on their NewsBlog. It was very positive and i have to say i was very flattered and happy to read it.

New (and vintage) formal gowns

Following up the announcement od the project "Evolution" that will bring to a gradual renewal of the whole early Musashi-Do stock, the vintage line composed by Ivory pearl, Lavender Cloud and Snow Rose has been revamped completely with the addition of flexiness amd brand new textures and the creation of new colors: Crimson Ruby, Emerald Forest, Midnight Romance, Crystal Sky, Black Rose, Red Diva, Pink Candy, Ebony Shadow, Sea Star and Purple Royale.
Ad the same time, I did the same process of renovation and embellishement on the other Musashi-Do formal gown, Obsidian Glitter.

Honestly the revamping of my older designs was long overdue (expecially flexiness), and will now continue at the same pace as new releases.
Of course, since i would never make people pay twice for the same product (even if revamped), customers that already bought the older (non flexi) version of Obsidian Glitter, Snow Rose, Ivory Pearl and Lavender cloud will just have to send me an IM to receive a completely free update of the appropriate color.

I have to say I'm quite satisfied both with the results of this revamping and with the new colors (actually i'm beginning to wonder why I just made ivory, lavender and white at the beginning...). Despite being older designs, the idea behind them still has the same value, and the new techniques I applied to them (shading, flexi, wrinkles and so forth) definately bring them up to par with my newest creations.

Now, on to the next project! :)

Musashi-Do Fashion show... great job girls! (and a sneak peek...)

It's done! After a very hectic month of preparations the day has finally come and gone. My first fashion show after my return to Second Life is done, and it was a success, actually much more than I could ever imagine. The sim was packed full, and there actually were even people looking from the nearby sim (God bless the position of the catwalk, a few meters from the sim's edge).
All of the Girls, Bianca and Trina, the managers of ASpiRE (a modeling agency that will go a LOOONG way, judging from the talent they shown today), all the models and the DJ, my old friend Daphne (no Dapphy, you're not old, you know what i mean :P) did such an awesome job that I was almost moved to tears. It all went basically flawlessly, from the beginning to the grand parade in the finale, in spite of the lag. I have to say that seeing them all on stage wearing my formals like that was quite the sight! It totally made up for the effort spent in the past week, while i was designing them.
Speaking of formal gowns, they are the first dive into my "Evolution" project. Basically I decided to revamp (and in some cases extend and add new colors) almost all my older sets.
My design techniques have gone a long way in 2 years, and some of my "vintage" designs are definately sub-par compared to the newest ones. This is something that definately bugs me, so i decided to rework them, adding flexiness where due, new shading, wrinkles and so forth, applying all i learned in the last two years to my earlier designs.
Of course customers won't be asked to pay twice for the same design, even if revamped, so the ones that already bought them in the past will be able to request a completely free update. So if you have an older Musashi-Do design, you may wantv to join the Musashi-Do Newsgroup group (wich is spam-free and free to join for everyone), on wich i'll post, between the other things, regular notices on the status of project "Evolution". Who knows, the next outfit to be revamped may be your favourite one :)
It's early morning here in Italy, and the sun it's raising. It's finally time to get some much deserved sleep. Buona notte!

UN Stand Up Campaign - Real Band wears Musashi-Do?

The UN Millenium Stand Up campaign has invaded Second Life, it's extremely nice to see the Second Life residents getting together to take part in such events, that definately need all our support.
There was an extremely surprising side to it too.
The Real world rock band Sugarcult held a live gig in Second Life during the event, and surprise surprise, they were wearing my Evening Revolution suits. I felt extremely honored about it, first of all due to the theme of the event, and even because i really like their music, not to mention the fact that, even in real life, they definately seem to know how to dress (at least according to my own tastes). It was definately a good beginning for a great day!

Another Zero for hyasynth

Tonight there has been another auction to beenfit hyasynth Tiramisu, i was short on time due to the fashion show, but i really wanted to contribute in my own little way, so i made the twin car to the Silver Thorn that was sold last week (to Simone Stern).
This is how the Zero Silentsparrow is born, inspired by hyasynth's own clothing brand and colors. Callie Cline managed to get it, and i hope she'll enjoy it, as much as i hope that hyasynth will be well soon.
All in all this has been a VERY hectic night, with a lot of events. I'll blog more about it later.

At last, my fashion show!

At last, the long awaited moment has come. Thanks to the ASpiRE! modeling agency, the first Musashi-Do fashion show after my return will be reality. It'll be tomorrow, Saturday the 14th, here.
between the other things, i'll finally show my latest project. Codename "Evolution", that as all good things, brings something old and something new together. What is it? I guess you'll have to wait for tomorrow to know :P

The auction for hyasynth starts now!

If you're reading this, and you want to support the talented designer hyasynth Tiramisu, that is in urgent need of medical care, click here to teleport to Simone, and bid on some of the awesome one of a kind items many designers put up for action. The turnout seems great so far, and the event just started.

Another new shop in Simone

Lately, now that I managed to settle down and place everything back in order after my long leave of absence, i'm working hard on getting a little of visibility. So new Musashi-Do shops are popping up like mushrooms all over the world. This time is the turn of a small but nice shop all dedicated to menswear in Simone.
Simone is really a nice sim for shopping, full of very talented designers, so i'm pretty sure the shop will do very well.

A Zero for hyasynth Tiramisu

Today (saturday the seventh) at 6 PM in Simone there will be an auction to benefit hyasynth Tiramisu, a very talented designer that is in need of urgent medical care. I've been asked to do an unique car to put on auction and here it is. The Zero Silver Thorn Special. This time, since Simone's audience normally caters more to girls, i decided to try a quite graceful purple and silver tribal design. I really hope the auction will go well, it's always sad to see a fellow resident and designer troubled by health problems. So please come, and bid high! :)

Another Day, Another Shop open...

I finally opened a small shop in the beautifully built and landscaped Desires Island. Very cute, isn't it? I love the Ancient theme of the place...
The shop can be found here.
I even changed the usual disposition of my vendor panels... i kind of like the scattered one.. makes the shop look more full and lively.

New Shop and new Zero, Musashi meets Barbie?

I just opened a new little shop at Barbie club, as part of my sponsorship to the club, I think it looks cute. Since the space is limited i'll just keep the latest news there. There's no need to clutter it anyway. The area is high-traffic, so it'll definately be worth it.
Also, I've been asked to make a very cute neon pink Zero, that will be called "Barbie Special" and will be sold only at Barbie Club. I'm kind of satisfied of the result, it reminded me of when i made a pink Supra (what now is called the Shoki) for Torley... good old times before the watermelon goddess jumped the fence... *sighs*

Femme Revolution released.

Following the success of the Evening Revolution suits set for men, i received many requests from girls to make an equivalent set dedicated to them, so i did. That's how Revolution femme was born.


It's probably the biggest set i've ever produced (60 pieces total), including 3 suits (pants, skirts and jackets), 21 shirts, 16 ties and 3 lingerie sets (garters, bras, stockings and thongs).

With this set i worked more on the shading/highlighting of the fabric. Many say that it's not possible to make a good lightmap without using complex (and costly) programs like Lightwave, and since i absolutely disagree i set out to demonstrate my point.
I took inspiration from my experience in painting real life miniature soldiers, in wich highlighting and shading is absolutely indispensible to bring out the details of the model. In the end a 3D mesh like those Second Life has is not much different. I tried to reproduce in photoshop something equivalent to the painting technique called "Glazing" with the use of several feathered selections and layers, and i have to say that i'm really satisfied by the result. Lightwave is definately NOT needed to make a pretty good lightmap. I have to admit that I LOVE it when i'm right :)

I made some separate sets too, in the case someone doesn't want to purchase the whole package: Suit - Black, Suit - Grey, Suit - Blue, Shirts - Spring, Shirts - Fall, Shirts - Winter, Ties - Fantasia, Ties - Classic, Ties - Glamour, Lingerie.

As always the set is available at the Musashi-Do Fashion Shop, on SLExchange, or on SLBoutique priced 800 L$.