200 - Norse oars

Dim Sum wonders where the oarsmen were. Were they off pillaging and plundering? Why didn't they drop anchor? Would they miss their boat when they come back?


I couldn't resist the rhyme. Sorry. :)

The ship is "Drakkar Ship Combat 1.9" by Linteus Dench (Ars Navalis Virtual Shipyard).

Learn how to view 3D photos like this.

location: Realm of Asgard

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNRISE - Island cusp (modified)
water: Glassy

199 - Goin' a sailin'

First mate Dim Sum meows at Captain Cerys as if to say, "We're ready to push off and sail away, Cap'n."


When I logged in, I saw this pink-attired kid nearby and I walked past her. Then as I was about to derender her, I realized it was Cerys Collins, owner of the sim. So I asked if she would stand still for an hour so I could include her in the pic, and she graciously agreed. Good thing I read her name tag first! :D

Oh, I should have taken a close-up shot of Cerys' human face. She has this cute innocent face and she parts her lips sweetly once in a while and bats her eyelashes. It really is charming. I thought it was a full mesh avie, but she said it's a hybrid.


Cerys also has a white cat avie, but with a black witch hat. But we figured people would get confused about which one Dim Sum is. :D  So she went back to her human form and hopped on the sailboat with me.

The sailboat is the "Oceanic" by Motor Loon.

model: Cerys Collins (cerys.celestalis)
location: Collins Land

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Damage down (modified)

198 - The red bike

Dim Sum figures that if they sell sunglasses for babies, maybe they sell sunglasses for cats? "The future's so bright... I gotta wear shades...."


I wasn't really planning this to be so bright, but the mailbox was too shiny that it looked out of place in realistic windlight. But that's what photography (or any art) is anyway; you let the subject and the medium dictate what it would look like. Right? :)

The bike is "Decorative Ventura Bicycle - Red" by FrankLee Anatra ({what next}).

location: Collins Land

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Lo Light 03 (modified)

197 - Waiting for a star to fall

Dim Sum tries to shake the melody stuck in her head.... "Waiting for a star to fall and carry your heart into my arms, that's where you belong, in my arms, ...."


I was originally going to title this "Fallen star" because that strip of light going down to the big star decoration reminds me of a comet. But this song came to mind and it's one of my favorite songs in the 80s.

location: Collins Land

Technical notes

windlight: Fine Day (modified)

196 Bridge outriggers or bridge wings?

Dim Sum pauses in the middle of the long span and wonders if fishing is allowed from the bridge. Not that cats need permission to do anything they please.


I'm not sure what these triangular supports are called. I figured they were the equivalent of buttresses that support old cathedrals, but they're not on land. So, maybe they were more like outriggers that keep canoes from toppling over, but they're not touching the water either. So, maybe they're wings. :)

The texture on the barn gave me a bit of trouble, like anti-aliasing isn't working, no matter what setting I choose. Hmmm, maybe I messed up a hardware setting.

The sim opens to the public on October 1.


location: Collins Land

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SCIFI - Morphirizon (modified)
water: Phototools- Ship Light

195 - Behind the cattails

Dim Sum plops her head on the mysterious man's knee and takes a nap, while he scratches her behind the ear and rambles on about being discreet with "your mistress Opal." She twitches her nose, wondering how to explain that cats have worshippers, not masters or mistresses or owners.


UPDATE: I was told that "anon" means a donkey's son in French. So, changing "anon" to "anonymous." *sigh* I should learn French.

No, his name is not really "[anonymous]". He didn't want me to use his name. I also had to turn off the nametag display for the settings picture below. But he's also the reason why it took me almost 12 hours before I could post this. Well, him and sleep and other household tasks. Not that I'm complaining.... :)

model: [anonymous]
location: Alki

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] BIG SUN - Slips through walls 5 (modified)
water: Pond (modified)

194 - Il Mare

Dim Sum looks out over the wonder and tries to remember where she had seen that house before....


Doesn't it remind of the movie "The Lake House" with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves? I love that movie. The original Korean version "Il Mare" is even better with its heart-rending soundtrack.

The cottage is "Seaside Cottage V2" by Cory Edo (Trompe Loeil), the boat is the "MLCC Loonetta 31" by Motor Loon, and the wooden steps are by Dop Kidd.

location: Alki

Technical notes

windlight: Places Greed2 (modified)
water: Pond (modified)

193 - Every hour is happy

Dim Sum tries to scratch off the sparkly tickly sand that stuck to her fur. She already tried to lick it off. Now she's got sand in her tongue too.


The front of the sign says "Beach Combers' Bar", which was created by Alex Bader (Studio Skye).

I have a second version of this that's blurrier, but I like the details here, so not too much DOF. The composition was a bit difficult to figure out, because I really wanted to show that sign. Then I got a nice shadow falling on the sign, framing the words nicely, but the shadow on the pole looked like a scary face :D , so I had to keep looking for just the right sun angle again.


location: Alki

Technical notes

windlight: Places Greed2 (modified)
water: [NB] Sparkling Depths

192 - Twin cliffside cabins

Dim Sum hears her tummy grumble as she gazes at the painting of dolphins and tuna.


Alki Point is one of the better known neighborhoods in the Seattle area. So I thought I'd go and visit. About half the sim is intended for live music events, but I cammed around and found this charming little spot with these charming little cabins. Like many areas in the real Puget Sound area, these cabins would be accessible only by boat, if it weren't for the teleporting and flying capabilities we have in SL, of course.

The off-sim mountains look similar to the ones in Whispering Winds; I'll have to check. But these ones are called "Y.B -sim surround landscape Dolina" by yony Bing.

location: Alki
Z&A Coffeehouse & Art Studio

Technical notes

windlight: Fine Day (modified)
water: Default (modified)

191 - Wayfarer's pass

Dim Sum sniffs the tulips but they don't smell like anything. So she decides to chew on the pretty pink petals.... Blech!


At this rate, I think I'll finish the 365 project in 2020. Sorry, folks, Dim Sum hasn't been getting much sleep lately, and you know how cats love their sleep!

I derezzed the big "guardian" in this pic because I can't get a good composition with him in the background. That's too bad, because he's kinda handsome. Oh, well. Lots of handsome giants in SL....

"Wayfarers Pass" was created by Abel Dreamscape.


location: Whispering Winds

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] BIG SUN - Slips through walls 5 (modified)

190 - The guardian at the door

Dim Sum wonders if doorcats get tipped. Or if they get toppled.


Playing with a HUD overlay again. I realized that media-on-a-prim doesn't display the alpha in the texture itself, so it's not possible to have more alpha in one area than in another. So I had to use Dim Sum's sole 10L to upload this filter/overlay.

That 10L was a gift from LL for Valentine's Day. I guess they wanted it back. But, at least, they didn't charge me interest.

The top image is the official image. That statue wasn't there the last time I was logged in, so imagine my surprise when I saw it today. The giant is called "Alesta - Discoverer Man Statue" created by Sun Fairlady.

And Dim Sum is not in the second image.

location: Whispering Winds

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Brouhatta charme (modified)

189 - White chapel

Dim Sum enters the chapel and meows. She wonders why all voices sound so angelic inside a chapel. Must be the echoes. Or maybe the stillness.


Playing with overlays on a HUD to add effects to the image. See below for the filter that I used. It's just a colored gradient (one of the preset gradient colors in Gimp in a clockwise swirl) plus some HSV noise. At the very bottom is the same scene without the HUD.

I'm going to continue playing with these HUD overlays to add more interest to the image and to see if I can simulate Photoshop/Gimp effects with just overlays. Or at least get close enough.

location: Whispering Winds

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Angles Light 01 (modified)

 

188 - Birdhouse

Dim Sum pretends she's ignoring the birds, but she's secretly scheming how to jump at them before they can fly away.


I know, I know. I hadn't posted for a long while because these past week or so has been crazy busy. Last night was the first time I actually got 8 hours of sleep. Another night I got 6 hours of sleep. The rest of the nights, I got 3 hours; 4 hours if I was lucky. I was getting too cranky and too argumentative. Anyway, I'm back. Somewhat normal, or as normal I get.  ;)

Over the weekend, I did a presentation "Enhancing Depth in Your Virtual World Photos" at the first annual OpenSim Community Conference to which Rhiannon Chatnoir of the NonProfit Commons invited me to talk. If you missed it, you can find the slides on Slideshare.net and you can watch the raw recording at UStream.tv.

We had so many technical issues on Saturday, which was the original schedule, that I only got to half of the presentation before my machine shut down on its own, because it was overheating. So, the wonderful OSCC staff found me another timeslot on Sunday so we could continue the presentation. The recording is from the Sunday show. It goes faster and I managed to stay online, although Buffy Beale (my coordinator and emcee) handled the slides for me. We also had trouble with the media-on-a-prim so I wasn't able to show the examples inworld, but I added some to the end of the slide deck.

This image of the day is actually similar to the example I used to illustrate the effect of DOF in simulating depth. So I just went back to the same place to take a similar picture with Dim Sum in it.

Her pass for Kingdom of Sand expired by now, and I don't know if she would be able to get another one to take more photos there. We'll see.


location: Whispering Winds

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Lo Light 03 (modified)
water: Default (modified)

187 - Desert domes

Dim Sum sits by the water, glad that the temperature has finally gone down, or she would have to jump into the water to cool off.... She would shudder at the thought, except cats are too cool to shudder about anything.


This one has an overlay texture on a HUD. (Many thanks to Angela Marie Henriette for the texture!) It looks like there's no more temporary upload in Firestorm, so I used media-on-a-prim instead (LSL script below), so I won't have to use Dim Sum's lonely 10L. :D



location: Kingdom of Sand

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Langnun (modified)

If you don't know how to create media-on-a-prim, go to the Contents tab of a prim and create a new script. Replace all the default lines in the script with the following code:

integer iFace = ALL_SIDES;  // replace "ALL_SIDES" with the prim's side number
string sURL = "http://wheresdimsum.blogspot.com/";  // replace this URL

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        integer iStatus = llSetPrimMediaParams( iFace, [
            PRIM_MEDIA_CONTROLS, PRIM_MEDIA_CONTROLS_MINI,
            PRIM_MEDIA_AUTO_PLAY, TRUE,
            PRIM_MEDIA_CURRENT_URL, sURL,
            PRIM_MEDIA_HOME_URL, sURL
            ] );
        llOwnerSay( "Status is " + (string) iStatus ); // this line is optional
    }
}

186 - Haggling with a seagull

Dim Sum wonders why she's bothering to negotiate with the seagull to get the basket of fish, when her BATNA is to eat the seagull.... Hmm.... Maybe because she's a nice cat.... Nah!


OMG, I'd forgotten how long stereo framing takes! This one took me all afternoon and all evening! But Shahrokh Dabiri asked me twice about doing stereo pairs again. But I can't do this too often!

Learn how to view 3D photos like this.

location: Kingdom of Sand

Technical notes

windlight: Places Cornfield (modified)

185 - The Blue Note

Dim Sum watches the couple twirl around and around. They're almost as fascinating to watch as a little red laser pointer dot.


I wanted to do this post yesterday, but the day was so crazy busy that I didn't have time.

Why yesterday? Because it was Opal's 7th rez day anniversary.

Why the Blue Note? Because it was where Opal celebrated her 1st rez day anniversary, and it was the first formal club she ever danced in. I have a lot of memories in the Blue Note. A lot.

models: Naydee McGettigan and Reve Monde
location: The Blue Note Retro Jazz Lounge

Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Garrigal moscheles 1 (modified)