Category Archives: Features

Phototools Tutorial – Take Back Your Windlight Control

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PHOTOTOOLS TUTORIAL PIC 1

There are very few things I have hated as much as I have loathed the changed to the windlight settings in the new UI. I deal with them, as do you, but basically, what a pain in the ass they made it.

On plurk the other day, my friend Isa linked to PHOTOTOOLS which is a Firestorm plug in that you can use to wrestle back control into one easy interface option and make your photoshoots so much simpler.

First of all, go to Phototools and DL the plug in.

Follow the instructions it gives you in the zip file. You will be replacing some of the files in your Firestorm skins folder. I made a copy and put them in a handy dandy folder. It’s very easy and took me about two minutes.

Now, restart Firestorm and hit the QUICKSTART button at bottom right. You now get a different menu.

You will see that your camera control options are a bit different now too. For your windlight settings you have rocker arrows as well as drop downs.

A quick tap of water and sky arrows gave me a completely different look. But there’s more. Continue reading →

Tutorial – Editing Jewelry When You Cannot See It

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may09b_013

I love Boom’s fabulous pastel ombre backless tees at Collabor88. The come in all shades of pastel and are as fresh as springtime. Before choosing this jewelry from Bliensen & Maitai, I tried on several other options, a couple of them falling so deep into my torso they were not even visible. This made me think it might be useful to share a few tricks for dealing with that dilemma.

There are a few options, some people try to cam inside the body and select the jewelry. I find that so frustrating because sometimes I can see the prim to select and SL will not let me select it because there’s another prim in the way. I used to go to edit mode and make my shape short, raise the necklace over my head and then restore my shape again. Not my favorite options. There are easier ways to do it.

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Ground Offset, where have you been all my SLife?

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Screen shot 2012-05-04 at 7.57.10 AM

In the picture above, you can see that my hands are in the globe. I can fix that in Exodus as easy as 1, 2, 3.

  1. Click on the quick preferences in the lower left
  2. Find the ground offset option
  3. Shift it up or down to shift position to the right spot.

Screen shot 2012-05-04 at 7.57.01 AM

And there you have it, hands out of the globe. By the way, this is even better at helping when your feet sink in some prim terrain or float above the stairs. Now let’s please see this in every viewer.

Chiaroscuro – a Lighting How-To

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MiaMai Sweet

Reader and blogger Isabelli Anatine asked for a tutorial on how to get a chiaroscuro effect in Second Life photos and so here goes. First I started out the making myself a projector as I already explained how to do in an earlier tutorial Lighting, Shadows and Projectors, Oh My!.

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And the Fabbie Goes to…

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It's Only Fabulous

This post is a Fabbie!

It’s been a while since a blog post left me aching with laughter, but I read a priceless post last night that will become a classic of Second Life blogging. Penned by Harper Ganesvoort from Around the Grid, this post brings us the Genesis of Second Life.  I won’t quote too much, because you really need to follow that link above and read the entire thing for yourself, but just to give you an idea of what you will find, here’s a small sample.

In the beginning Philip created the Grid.  And the Grid was without form, and digitally void; and darkness was upon the face of the screen. And the Code of Philip moved upon the chips of the memory.

Now get thee to Around the Grid posthaste!

Pink.. It's My New Obsession.. Pink.. It's Not Even a Question..

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Hellllllooo!!! Happy Mondddaaayyy!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and stuuuuff!! So… I was in a pink mood today.. Not to mention.. I have the song Pink by Aerosmith stuck in my head.. lol.. SO! Yea.. Also.. New mesh hair from [Elikatira] for the winnnn!! hehe but.. Take a look for yourself!! <3333

PINK!! It was love at 1st siiigggghhhttt!! lol <3 me some Aerosmith.. But yea.. I am a little off the topic.. Continue reading →

SL Weekly Words Challenge Week 2: Retro Chic

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I am clearly using the words retro-chic a bit tongue in cheek today, but I mean he’s got a POLAROID.

Yeah, you know what we did with that. 🙂

WE TOOK PICTURES WHAT DID YOU THINK I MEANT?

The SL Weekly Words Challenge is a weekly blogger challenge where I pose a word or words and you take that word and depict it with an image. There is no right or wrong way to do this challenge. Pictures can have avatars or not, it’s about what that words mean to you.

So feel free to participate. And there is no deadline, no rules, just something to inspire you besides “what shoes go with this?” which is why I created the challenge in the first place. Thanks to you who left me comments asking me to keep going. I needed a kick!

There is a FLICKR group too for funz.

The SL WWC Returns: Let's Kick It Off With "What You Love"

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It took me a few days into the New Year to get my head in gear but now I’m ready to face 52 weeks of Word Challenges to stretch my blogging brain.

This weeks words are “What you Love”.

So then, what do you love?

Taken at Gilmour (125, 161, 22)

The SL Weekly Words Challenge is a weekly blogger challenge where I pose a word or words and you take that word and depict it with an image. There is no right or wrong way to do this challenge. Pictures can have avatars or not, it’s about what that word means to you.

So feel free to participate. And there is no deadline, no rules, just something to inspire you besides “what shoes go with this?” which is why I created the challenge in the first place. Thanks to you who left me comments asking me to keep going. I needed a kick!

There is a FLICKR group too for funz.

Merry Christmas Sequoia Nightfire

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Sequoia Nightfire_004

Sequoia Nightfire was so busy keeping the Peace One Earth hunt train on the tracks, she had no time for guest styling before Christmas, but what a few days here or there? My parents once got a Christmas card that arrived in July 18 years after it was mailed. It came with a note from the Canadian postal service explaining that it was discovered when a desk was pulled out so they could paint behind it. Which raises the question, which is worse, not painting for 18 years or painting around the desk and not pulling it out for 18 years? Of course, coming so late, that card got so much more attention than if it had come 18 years earlier with the rush of Christmas cards. Somehow I think, though, if Sequoia Nightfire had been the picture on the face of that card, it would have glowed right through the envelope and out from behind the desk so they saw it and pulled it out and mailed in on time.

Sequoia Nightfire_002

I mean look at that red! I thought about making a box and covering it with wrapping paper and having her pose as the bow! This magical red dress is from Sascha Frangilli of SAS – Sascha’s Designs. It is one of those see it to believe it dresses with the flowing panels of semi-sheer fabric that seems alive.
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