20140517

251 - Lights and lotuses

Where's Dim Sum? #251 Lights and lotuses


Dim Sum wishes people would stop walking and tripping over her while she meditates in this solemn place.


These six posts (#247 to #252) are catch-up posts. The images were taken and posted on Flickr last weekend in a big rush to take as many pictures as I could before the Fantasy Faire ended last Sunday.

The "Moon Lotus Fool Bloom With Stalk2" was created by Elicio Ember.

location: Fantasy Faire 2014 - Fairelands Junction


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Build 002 Light (modified)
water: Default (additional effects caused by prims in the water)


I am responding here to Zippora Zabelin's comment in Flickr about the lighting, because it's a bit too long of an explanation to put in the Flickr comments.

As with most of my images in this series, the lighting is more than just windlight. In fact, the windlight setting doesn't have as much effect as it normally does in most of my images.

In this particular one, local lights and glow are more at play:

1. The lotuses themselves are already bright, although I don't think they cast their own light. I think the remembrance lights on the far wall *do* cast a light, but I could be wrong too.

2. I added glow to make the remembrance lights and the tree lights brighter because they were too far away.

3. Dim Sum is wearing invisible prim lights (same as in another image) to add more light to the middle ground. (It lighted the shrub in the middle ground and the exposed tree roots across the water from it.) It's basically three light prims that are linked together and worn on her spine. They are positioned far away from her body and I adjust the position depending on how I want the scene to be lighted. These worn lights are perfect when the sim doesn't allow rezzing objects. The disadvantage is that, when she moves, so do the lights, so I have to force her into an animation where she doesn't move much.

4. The location is full -- really, really full -- of trees. I didn't think I could get some dappled light (which I love to use) through the leaves, so I was surprised when I got some on the boardwalk; otherwise, it would have just been a plain black swath by the foreground lotus. The trees made the scene a lot darker, so the same windlight would look very different elsewhere. I think all I did with the windlight is move the sun/moon so I could get just the right dappling and just enough light to bring out the fern leaves near the foreground.

250 - Adoring an angel

Where's Dim Sum? #250 - Adoring an angel


Dim Sum was literally struck dumb by the pretty angel after bumping into her. For a short while, she thought she was seeing doubles and triples, until she realized the angel had multituplets, if there is such a word.


These six posts (#247 to #252) are catch-up posts. The images were taken and posted on Flickr last weekend in a big rush to take as many pictures as I could before the Fantasy Faire ended last Sunday.

The "Angel of Temperance Statue" was created by pravda Core.

location: Fantasy Faire 2014 - Sanctum


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Meni Light 01 (modified)


249 - The caged worm and the drunken fairy

Where's Dim Sum? #249 - The caged worm and the drunken fairy


Dim Sum and the caged worm listen patiently to the frustrated fairy who decided to get drunk after hours of hunting in vain.


These six posts (#247 to #252) are catch-up posts. The images were taken and posted on Flickr last weekend in a big rush to take as many pictures as I could before the Fantasy Faire ended last Sunday.

Harmony was participating in the hunt and she couldn't find the clue in that sim, and she said maybe she should just sit down and get drunk.  :)  Funny fairy.

model: HarmonyQuest
location: Fantasy Faire 2014 - Mourningvale Thicket


Technical notes

windlight: Nacon's O-6am


248 - Tree lights at the faire

Where's Dim Sum? #248 - Tree lights at the faire


Dim Sum looks up at the tree lights, higher up than her own already high perch.


These six posts (#247 to #252) are catch-up posts. The images were taken and posted on Flickr last weekend in a big rush to take as many pictures as I could before the Fantasy Faire ended last Sunday.

location: Fantasy Faire 2014 - The Faery Court


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Build 002 Light (modified)


247 - Naked sweat lodge

Where's Dim Sum? #247 - Naked sweat lodge


Dim Sum listens to the frogs and the crickets and the buzzing mosquitoes in this marshy land.


These six posts (#247 to #252) are catch-up posts. The images were taken and posted on Flickr last weekend in a big rush to take as many pictures as I could before the Fantasy Faire ended last Sunday.

location: Fantasy Faire 2014 - Heavenslough


Technical notes

windlight: Places Greed (modified)
water: Default


20140426

246 - As the heron watches

Where's Dim Sum? #246 - As the heron watches


Dim Sum quietly observes as the heron steers the stray floating candles back into the middle of the stream.


That building is actually the landing point of the sim. I derezzed a lot of things, including a bridge on the foreground and some trees in the background.

I think I need a change of pace in this project, but at the moment, I'm stuck with little time for it, so I've been kinda on maintenance mode. My personal goal has been to stretch the capabilities of the tools to find that balance in the settings to maximize realism through depth and light. I think I need a new stretch goal. But what?

location: Nagare


Technical notes

windlight: [EUPHORIA] low saturation dull deposit (modified)
water: Default


20140419

245 - Looking "Reality" in the eye

Where's Dim Sum? #245 - Looking "Reality" in the eye

Dim Sum lives dangerously and follows the big columns until they stopped stomping.


Often, I get into an argument with Wolfgang about reality. He says there's only one reality and he doesn't understand why I don't see it his way. I repeatedly explain that reality is actually subjective, because we all experience it differently, like the blind men and the elephant.

If you haven't heard that story, it goes like this.... Several blind men have never seen an elephant their entire lives, so they go to see one. One blind man touches the elephant's body and thinks that the elephant is like a wall. One touches the elephant's leg and thinks an elephant is like a column. Another touches the trunk and thinks the elephant is like a snake. Yet another touches the tail and thinks the elephant is like a rope. One more touches the ear and thinks the elephant is like a fan. So they all go home thinking they know just what an elephant looks like.

Then they get together later and claim that the others are imagining strange creatures that don't look like an elephant at all.

No wonder we argue so often.

model: Opal Lei
location: Winter Moon


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Still Life (modified)


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...