Showing posts with label X-ZONE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label X-ZONE. Show all posts

20130205

016 - Purple lilies on the beach

Where's Dim Sum? #016 - Purple lilies on the beach

Dim Sum basks in the warm sun on the beach amid ... purple lilies?

Actually, the more interesting thing about this spot is that tree with the rock disc.  I have no idea what it is, but maybe an ancient recording of some king winning a battle.  Or so I imagine anyway.


location: X-ZONE


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Dorm Light 01 (modified)
water: Phototools- Ship Light

Depth of Field:
View angle: 0.727
FOV: 44.7
F-number: 14.41
Foc Length: 638
Foc Time: 0.8
CoC: 10.0
Resolution: 0.78
Aspect Ratio: 1.33

Still playing with DOF and I think I'll continue in this direction for a while.  What I am thankful for is that my work with stereoscopy has taught me how to compose a shoot for depth.  And that makes DOF more interesting.

Again had problems with the shadows on the prims of the plants on the side of the rock.  The fuzziness helped a bit.

20130204

015 - Lady of the Mist

Where's Dim Sum? #015 - Lady of the Mist


Dim Sum meows at the wispy figure.

Besides looking for Dim Sum, look for the Lady of the Mist too.  If you go to the sim, use a windlight that's not too bright or you'll miss her.

location: X-ZONE

Selected as the Second Life Pic of the Day on Feb 5, 2013!  Yay!

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- B/W Light 03
water: Pond

Depth of Field:
View angle: 0.75
FOV: 70.0
F-number: 116.0
Foc Length: 600
Foc Time: 0.8
CoC: 10.0
Resolution: 0.78
Aspect Ratio: 1.33

After the bully incident (see below), I gave up on adjusting the windlight fog and went with the original windlight version, then focused on DOF to enhance the depth.  And I found the perfect DOF for the scene.

I swear it's a Second Life snapshot and that it's unprocessed.


Bullied by a griefer

I wasted time with this one because of a griefer.  The spot I was in was fairly isolated and I was actually flying because I couldn't sit or stand where I wanted Dim Sum to be.  It took me a while to position her in just the right spot and it's difficult to be precise when you're flying.

I had the composition set up and I was experimenting with windlight, when some eagle avatar with a Santa hat started going back and forth around me.  I could tell he was trying to get to the same spot I was, because that's what I was trying to do earlier.

I didn't want to risk losing all the positioning (my avatar and my window) that took me a long time to do, so I IM'd him and asked, "What are you trying to do?"  (His profile says he speaks English, as well as other languages.)  Instead of responding, he continued his attempts and hovered above me, then slammed down on me.  So my avatar was no longer in the right position nor in the right rotation.  And to fix it, I'd also lose the window positioning with the composition I already worked on.

Then he ran away, so I chased him.  I had to do all the work all over again anyway.

I guess he thought I would do the same to him, because he tried to sit on something.  (He's been in SL for more than 5 years; he knows what he's doing.) Unfortunately, he sat on one of those rolling logs on the water, where you try to keep your balance.  (I didn't know they made those things!)  Anyway, his supposed-to-be-invisible avatar feet started running in place over the log before he finally fell into the water.  It was so comical, I kinda felt sorry for him.  So I left and went back to my spot.

The jerk came back and stayed nearby.  I made my avatar invisible and tracked him on the radar while I worked on the settings.  Unfortunately, when I wore the avatar prims again, the level of detail was low because my cam was far away and I couldn't move it closer to force it to rez properly.  And I wanted to hurry up and take the picture before he decides to attack me again.  So Dim Sum is a bit misshapen in the photo.

I know, I should have AR'd him.

014 - Timeless love

Where's Dim Sum? #014 - Timeless love


Dim Sum watches the rusty old lovers endlessly turn round and round on the handless clock.

location: X-ZONE


Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] NIGHT - Flyer (slightly modified)
water: Glassy

Depth of Field:
View angle: 0.42
FOV: 44.7
F-number: 19.47
Foc Length: 549
Foc Time: 0.8
CoC: 10.0
Resolution: 0.78
Aspect Ratio: 1.33

I love the floating lanterns both in the tree and on the water.  To make them pop, I had to go with a nighttime windlight.

20130203

013 - The tent

Where's Dim Sum? #013 - The tent


Several times, while I was playing with windlight and DOF or mucking with the camera controls to get the composition I want while keeping the DOF focus on the tent, someone would walk into the scene, walk over to me, and stand there for a long while, like they're itching to start a conversation.  I waited for them to say something, but they don't.  Thankfully, people *do* read profiles!

No, I don't say "go away" in Dim Sum's profile, but I send them to several links, including this blog.  So, either they got distracted by the links or they decided they didn't want to end up in my picture of the day.

Maybe people get fascinated by a cat avatar that's not a neko.  And this cat has the same attitude as a real one.  ;)

Hey, you're blocking the view.... Ho-hum....

(I'm kidding!  Seriously, it's just an RP attitude....  Well, okay, it's not too far from the truth, depending how much sleep I had the night before....)

location:X-ZONE


Technical notes


windlight: [TOR] SCIFI - Rimmenthal (modified again)

Depth of Field:
View angle: 0.55
FOV: 44.7
F-number: 17.7
Foc Length: 302
Foc Time: 0.8
CoC: 10.0
Resolution: 0.78
Aspect Ratio: 1.33


The cool thing about this sim is that the foliage is dreamy.  Yep, dreamy.  The first thing that came to mind was that it looks like a watercolor scene.  I was looking for windlight that would enhance the watercolor-ness of the scene and accidentally clicked the windlight that I saved from the #007 shoot.  I had to modify it a lot more, and I still haven't found the windlight that would make it look more watercolor-y.

There was a dark tree behind the tent that would have added a nice balance of darks and lights, but when the sun is at a certain angle (any angle that's not straight behind the camera), the prim lines show and the shading is different on each face of the prim.  So it looked very unnatural. Solution? I de-rezzed it and darkened the sky instead.

Here's one with the dark tree still there. Admittedly, this looks more watercolor-y because it's brighter.  Dim Sum was also in the first position in this photo. And there's that dead tree branch on the upper left corner.


And here's a mosaic with increasing features.  (I tried to make an animated gif, which animates from my hard drive but doesn't after I upload it to Blogger.  I'll figure it out later.)
  • Frame 1: plain with selected windlight
  • Frame 2: plus atmospheric shaders on
  • Frame 3: plus lighting and shadows on (but shadows is set to "none")
  • Frame 3: plus DOF


370 - Eggs and bunnies and peeps (360°)

Dim Sum joins the peeps who wanna be bunnies. At least for Easter. For non-US folks, "peeps" are marshmallow candies shaped l...