Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Marketing Methods: Nicola Escher's Mannequins


If you run--or are thinking of running--a Second Life fashion business, one of the constant challenges is how best to display your wares.

Well, Nicola Escher has a nice tutorial up on her site about how to create a mannequin on which to showcase your creations. It's not new, but if your business is young and you're looking for something you've not tried before, perhaps this is it.

It's not the easiest of methods, and requires multiple steps both in SL and in PhotoShop, but the end result is clever and interesting.

Essentially, you need to take a screenshot in SL of an avatar wearing the item you want to put on display, then take that image into PhotoShop in order to actually make the mannequin. Rather than try to explain the process, I'll send you over to the tutorial, but suffice it to say that the end result, which involves cutting out the background in the original screenshot, can, if done well, look great: A static figure wearing your fashion with a clear background so that whatever is behind it in the store actually looks like it's behind it.

And since one of the keys to attracting customers is giving them a good shopping experience, and keeping that experience fresh, this can be yet another arrow in your quiver.

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