February 28, 2011

I seem to have misplaced January. It can't be gone already! I'm slipping in my February monthly update just under the wire! (Why couldn't it be a leap year? hehe)

I Hope everyone had an awesome Valentine's Day filled with lots of hearts, flowers, chocolates and a lil somethin' extra. (The "something extra" is my favorite part! hehe) I was thrilled to have received an "honorable mention" in IMVU's Valentine's Day contest for my sweethearts Ball Dessert Table mesh. Considering all the wonderful meshing talent here, and the fact that I haven't been at meshing very long, it was quite an honor to be among the few meshes that received some recognition.

So what's new? Well, lots of new meshes and a couple of bundles! Be sure to click here to check out my latest collections.

Now You Can Shop Bonkolina in 3-D!

Inspired by great public rooms like MissVix's "Meshers Warehouse", I decided to open my own shopping mall to showcase my meshes and selected bundle collections. If you enjoy my derivables and other products, please put the Bonkolina Mall on your list of public rooms to favorite. When you get there you'll be able to see a lot of my derivables and products all at once. You can also make purchases, gift or add items to your wishlist without ever having to leave the room through the interactive signs. Check it out!

Please Note: The Mall is a bit heavier than your average public room, so to make things easier to load for yourself and everyone else, it's important to remember to remove voiceboxes and other non-essential items that add kb's to your avatar. This is will help speed up the room load for you and others who come in after you.

A BIG THANK YOU to my sweetie Rhett for his help with building the XML for the interactive signs! Without him I don't know if I'd ever have gotten those finished before June, lol. Love you baby! Mwah! (Check out his catalog Here.)

Like My Products? Show your support with this free sticker for your homepage. To get one, just send me a message! (Shown Full Size below.)

You might say "But Bonk, I want to be even more helpful!" Well, I have something for you too! A cool banner to display in your public room that has a link to my catalog & HP! How do you get one? It's easy! Just send me message and you'll find it in your inbox in no time!

Thanks for stopping by today! Time for me to get back to work!

January 3, 2011
Another year down! Wishing all of my friends and loyal customers a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year! Despite the changes IMVU has foisted upon us, and in some cases because of them, business has been very good for many creators.

The Holiday Ball Bundle was a smashing success, surpassed only by the Night Rain Bundle, which sold incredibly well. On the heels of that, are the Reflections and Vintage collections, which, though fairly new, are also going very strong right now. This may be the "Year of the Bundle" for me!

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who purchased or derived from my products, and enabling me to continue doing something I truly enjoy! Keep checking my catalog for new items in the coming year, I plan to stay very very busy!

But...But...what about hair?
Several people have inquired about adding new styles to my catalog of hair (currently over 600 products!), and why I don't create as many as I once did. The short answer is that since I've started meshing, I'm finding it more profitable to focus my efforts on creating derivables. The profit margins on hair are very very small and the catalog is already swamped with hair products, so it's also very competitive. I had to make a choice of what to concentrate on, and I am finding my meshing efforts significantly more rewarding than hair texturing. Perhaps at some later date I will return to hair by creating new hair meshes, but as I'm still a relative newbie to meshing, I will continue to hone my skills before I tackle that.

Requests
It's always very flattering when I'm contacted by an imvu'r about doing custom work, and I really really hate saying "no". Unfortunately, at the moment I have many projects in the pipeline and many new things to learn. While I would absolutely love to accomodate every request, the reality is I simply can't right now. I'd still love to hear your ideas, comments and suggestions though, so keep those notes coming!

November 19, 2010
I may be slacking off on my updates, but that's because I've been hard at work creating new meshes and items for this years Christmas Bundle! The Holiday Ball is for those who prefer the refined elegance of velvet, gold and carved wood. Sit back and enjoy the "ooh's and aah's" as your guests arrive for your holiday party. This will be the "must have" bundle for the holidays, so make sure you get one before your friends do!

New Room Meshes and FANTASTIC DERIVATIONS!
Since my last update I've submitted a number of meshes, including several rooms. A runaway favorite is the derivable "Club Swanky" and I've been seeing some wonderful design variations from some of the most talented texture developers, Check out what these creative folks have done with my mesh!

Another popular favorite mesh with texture developers is my derivable Club #960. Again, I'm constantly amazed at the ideas applied to this fairly simple mesh. Take a look at some of the unique and gorgeous interpretations of this room.

The Club #920 mesh was originally intended to be used as a fancy ballroom (In fact I derived the Vanderbilt Ballroom from this mesh), but I was astounded by the creative ideas folks came up with for what seemed to be a very traditional style room. Check out the derivations!

A big THANK YOU to all of the creators who have derived my rooms and furnture and turned them into something uniquely their own! And another big THANK YOU to those creators who respected my wish that their version not be made derivable. You have my respect and appreciation!

Now...A few things i Just gotta Say...

If you've never created meshes for IMVU before, you may not fully appreciate the enormous amount of time and effort involved in making them happen. For those of us who are still learning new things with each project, the time and effort required is that much greater. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I'm proud of the work I've done so far, and prouder still that some very talented texture developers have chosen my meshes (out of literally thousands in the catalog) to derive from. I am humbled and deeply grateful.

Then we have the downside of meshing: TEXTURE THEFT. I didn't mind it when a derive used one or two of the textures from the original, but I saw several that were EXACT copies of the original mesh. NOTHING CHANGED. (This is why many meshers use those ugly numbered textures on their meshes, even though it doesn't show the mesh's full potential.)

As if to add insult to injury, these unscrupulous "Developers" marked up the item to twice or even three times as much as my standard mark-up!

always be aware of what an item you like has been derived from - you can end up paying A LOT more for the exact same item done by the original mesher.

Make a habit of checking the upper right corner of the product page for some very valuable information that could save you credits and stop rewarding the lazy leeches who earn credits for doing nothing. Clicking on the "Derived From" link will show you where they got it and whether the design is truly their own or if they're taking credit and credits for someone else's work.

September 12, 2010
I've been slacking off on my planned monthly updates because this whole meshing thing is consuming so much of my time, so if you've been following this, sorry for the delay. If you haven't been following this, you probably don't care, lol.

Hair: Another #1!

Just when I beginning to think the hair market is over-saturated and not worth the time and effort anymore, along comes another moment in the sun for one of my hair products. It always takes me by surprise, even though in general my hair products are fairly popular. A big thank you to all the ladies who purchased my hair! Gwen is doing great in both Cinnamon Honey (#1 at the moment) and Ebony (#7 with a bullet, lol)...check out my other styles and colors!

A Derivable A Day

Since delving into the wonderful and complex world of 3-D developing, I've been working hard to build an inventory of good derivables for texture developers to have fun with. My goal has been to create one derivable per day, minimum. So far, I've kept up with that most of the time. I've learned a lot along the way, and tried to create new derivables with a lot of flexibility for texture developers to really sink their teeth into. While it's true that some of them call for as many as 12-18 unique textures, I think that gives the creative texture developer more options, which they can choose to exploit or not. For those who want quick and easy, you can always opt to use the same texture in multiple slots -- but that's a choice I want to give you with my meshes. Click here to see what's derivable in my catalog.

JULY 24, 2010
Summer in Florida! What was I thinking?! It's been hot enough to melt paint down here! Turns out to be a good thing, keeps me indoors in front of my computer making stuff for IMVU.

NYC After Dark: Big City Lovers Who Dig Purple

Since my last update I've Launched the NYC After Dark Collection, which is a club and a group of coordinating furniture items in black, purple and silver. At the moment it is a public club called "Studio DND", so if you'd like to check everything out before buying it, stop in for a visit!

More Hair Than You Can Shake A Stick At

Though I'm not sure why you'd want to shake a stick at them, or what the threshold is for being unable to shake a stick. As you ponder this, take a moment to check out the 13 new styles that have been added in the last month. Currently my color range is up to 16, so adding a new style seems to take pretty much a day to complete. I just don't know how to do things half way, lol. The Style shown here is called "Jessica" in Cinnamon Honey, and is the very same style my avi is wearing in the picture to the left. This version of "Jeccica" is possibly the only derivation that elimated all the barettes in the original mesh.

Speaking of Meshes: I'm Making them!

After 3 years of texture developing, I had a long list of pet peeves about mesh developing (scroll way down to see a few of them!) So I decided the time had come to get my feet wet in the alien world of 3D development. It's a strange world with no signs or guides and everyone speaks "math", which has never been a strong subject for me. Undeterred by lack of geometric knowledge, I dove in with both feet. I think I may have watched every tutorial on the internet. The ones of most value were created by Nerseus, who has created a wonderful set of video tutorials that made creating furniture and poses in 3DSMax sooo much easier.

I'm learning a lot as I go, and figuring out why some meshes are harder to texture than others. My goal is to make meshes that give the texture developer maximum creative flexibility without making the process too cumbersome. If you derive from any of my meshes and you'd like to offer some feedback, I'd love to hear it. ("That sucks" does not constitute useful feedback unless you explain why, lol)

Talk Back! I'm listening...

Nothing gives me a bigger thrill than getting your feedback, ideas and suggestions. (Ok, well...not counting food and sex.) While I may not reply to every single comment, please know that I do read them and appreciate that you take the time to send them. It's not only a great ego stroke, but it lets me know what you like, what you don't like and what gets your attention. Your feedback, either in private messages or public reviews, greatly influences what I do next and I am most grateful to have it!

Question of the month: How do you decide which icon to click on when shopping the catalog for a particular item? For instance, when shopping for items like hair that come in many styles and colors, what draws your eye most? The color? The Style? The animations? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

JUNE 23, 2010
It's been pretty busy in Bonkolina world, so I haven't had a chance to do an update in a while. I'll try to summarize what's been happening in the last 6 weeks since my last update...

The Regal Wedding Promo Bundle: "Palo Alto, we have a problem."

I have decided to withdraw my Regal Wedding bundle from the IMVU promo bundle deal. I had a number of issues with the process. they wanted to cut a lot out of it so they could maximize their profit and give as little as possible to their users. They told me I had to get the retail value to under 12,500 credits. This was well after they accepted it, and I had done the screen shots & video that featured all the items in the bundle.( I held a screenshot party to populate the scene and make it look like a real wedding, so it wasn't something easy to recreate.) Yet, this topic never came up when they accepted the bundle (they knew what was in it), accepted the screenshots and communicated with me on other issues.

It was no secret to them what the bundle was worth, and that amount included imvu's whopping 50% markup. To come in at their magic number would have substantially reduced the bundle down to maybe 6-7 items, stranding the other items that were designed to go with it while the promo items were in lock-down and not for sale in the catalog.

They suggested another option was to reduce my markup. As a rule I operate on slim margins because I can make it up in volume. Plus, in all cases, IMVU is making more on my products than I am, and often more than the original mesh developers. The total cost of the bundle without IMVU's profit would have reduced the cost by more than half and would have been well within budget for the whole thing. IMVU wanted me to reduce my small margins even further, but they wouldn't even consider reducing theirs. I was not going to reduce my profit nor was I keen on the idea of whittling the bundle down to nothing. So, I withdrew it and will not be submitting another promo bundle any time soon.

More Real Men!
Added a few more men's styles, including "The Hitman", which turned out to be a pretty big hit! It's available in all 5 shades, though black is doing extremely well. Go figure.

Also added a couple of other new styles for men, including "Poet" , "Jock" and "Motorhead".

Club Cosa Nostra Bundle Complete!

Finally got all the products done for this collection and it's now available for sale as a bundle! Host your own "Mobster's Ball" in an authentic looking mafia hangout. Click the icon for more info.

Hair Apparent - Plus new shades!

Added several new styles in the standard 12 shade color range and introduced some new colors in two styles. "Bonkolina's Dazzling Duets" combines your favorite shades in one hairstyle. It's a trial run at the moment, and if you like them (based on sales and reviews) I will add more styles. In the meantime, feel free to send me feedback on other colors you might like to see. If I use your suggestion, you get the first product free!

User Question: Why don't you do more styles in your colors?

The reason why I don't do every style that's popular is simply because I don't like what some meshes do to my textures. It's unfortunate because there are lots of great styles out there, but the mesher got a little overzealous with smoothing and the result is all the detail and highlights in my textures get lost. There are only a few meshers out there who somehow manage to achieve smoothness without destroying the texture, and I tend to favor those. they look just as good close up as they do in the tiny icon pics. OccultBaby is my favorite mesher because of this, though I have used others depending on the style. So the bottom line is, if it's not a good mesh for my textures, I won't derive from it, regardless of how popular it is, nor will I modify my textures to look passable on them. I'm not shooting for "passable", I'm shooting for "WOW". I'm always on the lookout for good hair meshes, so if you're a mesh developer, let me know when you have something new!

May 12, 2010
The party's over, and birthday 2010 has been one of the best ones ever, at least from what I can remember of some of it. Hehe. Thanks again to everyone for all the good wishes and presents and just for being the great people you are! And a belated Happy Mother's Day to all you muthas.... Ok, back to work!

Make them an offer they can't refuse...
Maybe it's because I watched both Godfather movies recently (Godfather III doesn't count), or maybe it was because my kid had to dress up for theater class as Don Vito Corleone...whatever the reason, I decided I wanted to do an upscale old-world style mob nightclub. This one is based on a great Prince Charming mesh, and includes a back office, a VIP lounge and a bar so you don't have to go out hunting for one. It's called "Club Cosa Nostra".

I'm currently working on some items to go with the room, and right now the following items are or will be available soon:



Aspetto! there will be more!
(Pre-emptive Disclaimer: Before anyone goes off on Italian stereotypes,
I am of Italian descent and I am not offended. Don't make me send Luca Brazzi to your house.)

Oh Gawd, Not Another Tropical Retreat...
Well, yeah. I saw this mesh and I just had to do it. It's an AP-Rated room due to some goofy poses but the house and the grounds just had too much potential to pass up. Besides, tropical settings relax me. for this one I was heading for a more mature, upscale, british west-indies look, but I was also thinking about Hawaii too. So it's got a little bit of everything...check it out.

May 2, 2010
I have got to be the luckiest avatar on IMVU to have found such wonderful friends! one in particular has brought me more joy than I ever thought was possible in this cartoon land. Last night Rhett hosted my first ever IMVU birthday party, and it was simply amazing! I know the effort involved in putting together a birthday bash, so mere words could never express how grateful I am to my sweetie for all he's done to make me feel extra-special! They dont' come any better than you Rhett, thank you baby! MWAH!

L-R: Back: Dukie, Bri, Rhett, Dave. Middle Row: Emz, Vikk, Me, Mel Front: Beans, Angel, Di & Missy

The second seating included some other good friends! The gorilla on the left is Fugs, to his right Anya & Cap, and Ms. Alyoprah on the far right, striking a pose...hehe

Thanks to everyone who attended or tried to (I heard the room was full at times and some couldn't get in). It was wonderful to celebrate yet another year of life with such good friends! The Presents were great, but your presence was even better! From the bottom of my bottom to the top of my top: THANK YOU!

April 28, 2010
Where did April go? Seems like this month just flew by! Since my last update I've added 9 more styles, in all 11 colors so you do the math...lol. I'm getting into a groove now, so the only thing i need to avoid is burning out.

The Reds Are Here! No, not the baseball team...I'm talking about that red hair I've been promising to get around to doing. Introducing 3 shades of red hair that attempt to capture what actual red hair tends to look like -- which is not that HIDEOUS red you've seen the catalog. I don't know anyone with hair that color in real life. I'm starting out with 3 of the more popular styles to see how you guys like the colors, since I tried to capture a range from light to dark. Please be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think!

summertime...and the livin' is...
Fabulous. Especially if you own my beach house collection, which is 32 items all designed to work in harmony. The house has some neat features, like switching from daytime to night, opening and closing the large windows with a trigger and walk around animations. All of the items in the bundle follow the color theme of the house. I know the bundle carries a hefty price tag, but it's there for those who want one-stop shopping. So check it out, you might find a thing or two you simply can't live without...;-)

Warning: Soapbox Moment
This goes out to all of the nice people who work very hard on creating meshes for the rest of us to slap our textures on. Some of you are truly superstars, and I am in awe of the things you can create out of nothing. Some are still in the learning process, but showing lots of promise. For all of you talented people I have only a couple of small requests:

• If your mesh is mapped for graphics to be placed precisely please provide a texture map as a guide. I can't tell you how many hours I'll get back from trying to re-invent your vision by mapping it myself. Make it easy to turn out great derivations from your mesh.
• Please don't try to stretch a texture too far. I've seen this a lot in hair and it prevents me from doing certain styles because it completely obliterates the details in my graphics and makes the hair either too "stripey" or just blurred. Hair should look like hair, not a beach ball.
• The mesh should look great from ALL angles. I've found this to be a common problem with hair meshes in particular. Put as much effort into making the back look as good as the front. I've passed over some apparently popular styles because the back looked...well...not great
• Scale matters! if something is supposed to be a "cottage" it shouldn't look like an airplane hangar when an avatar is in it.

I could go on but those are probably the most important things I'd love to see from meshers. I salute anyone who chooses to take on meshing because I know it's very hard work, but the rewards are enormous when your meshes are popular with texture developers. Make us happy and you can quit your day job... :)

April 21, 2010
It has been a super busy week! Since the smashing success of the Christina Hair, I've been seeing more of my hair products showing up on page 1; in fact at this writing there are now 2 in the #2 and #3 slots. Other styles are also gaining attention as 11 of my hair products are among the top 100 Female hairstyles right now. That, combined with record sales tells me you're digging my hair! Just what I need, encouragement...hehe

Question: Why do my blondes have a "blue tinge"?
Answer: They don't. It's the lighting in the dressing room. There is absolutely NO BLUE tinge in any of my hair textures, I promise. The product photos are what the hair looks like in normal lighting conditions.

REQUESTS
You've got them! Thanks to everyone who has been writing me to tell me how much you enjoy my hair textures! I wish I could honor every single request that I've gotten but with 11 colors and a few other projects I barely get enough time to chat, lol. However, I am keeping track of them and as time permits, I will try to get to at least some of them.

Yeah, but what about Redheads?
I know there are at least a few people who have been wondering why I haven't done anything in red shades yet. I don't have anything against redheads, I just haven't had the time to get around to developing the textures yet. But I do plan to do that, so don't be an impatient redhead because I'm going to get you...;)

Bundle News!
My regal wedding collection was accepted as a promo bundle. This is my first foray into the world of IMVU promo bundles and it may well be my last if it isn't worth my while. Look for the Regal Wedding Bundle June 25th for all you June Brides. I'd also like to extend a BIG THANK YOU to the following people who participated in my Screenshot Party and helped make the photos look like a real wedding! Rhettjames, Emmerz76, Duke1121, Mustangman07, mustangscoffeebean, missymarch, fugawi, Anyareese, capncanuck, melbilicious, Sweetcandielady, windydey and Lato. You guys are the best! Check out the video while you still can...

March 27 2010

Just made a few changes to my page to incorporate a slide show gallery and of course, I've added this page. Hopefully I'll be updating it regularly.

In the "woohoo!" department:
Christina Cinnamon Honey has been the #1 Hottest Selling Female Hair Product for the last couple of days and placing at #16 overall in the female products category. A big thank you to everyone who purchased it! You know, there are other colors...lol.

Speaking of Colors...
I've received a couple of messages concerning "blue or greenish blue streaks" in the blonde shades. They are not coming from the hair texture but rather the lighting in the dressing room. When you wear the hair in a room with normal lighting, there will be no blue streaks. hopefully imvu will correct the lighting in the shopping dressing room but for now i'm gonna hold my breath, lol.

Brunettes are Here!
I've just launched the first 3 styles in 5 new shades made just for brunettes: Chestnut, Mocha, caramel, espresso and ebony. There will be more styles coming soon so keep an eye on my catalog or facebook for updates!