20130531

120 - Moonlit stream

Where's Dim Sum? #120 - Old stump


Dim Sum watches the moonlight flicker in the water as her ears perk to the sounds of the night.


This is the Studio Skye parcel in the Home & Garden Expo. I love this forest build. The paths fork and twist and turn and go up and down in gentle slopes. You can see many of Alex Bader's sceneries, but they are are so integrated with the rest, that you won't easily recognize them.

I think I'll be in this parcel again tomorrow.

location: Home & Garden Expo 2013


Technical notes

windlight: Alchemy Immortalis - Dark Misty Night (modified)
water: Default


20130529

119 - Cheshire

Where's Dim Sum? #119 - Cheshire


Dim Sum watches the giant blue cat as it fades in and out of view. "What's so funny?" she asks and wonders if she had something stuck between her teeth or on her fur.


Still at the Home & Garden Expo in the parcel for Meeroo. It has an interesting tea party scene on the ground, but it was too busy for a good composition, so I gave up on it. The whole parcel has an Alice-in-Wonderland theme, sans Alice.

location: Home & Garden Expo 2013


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Build 007 Light (modified)



20130527

118 - Circus dogs

Where's Dim Sum? #118 - Circus dogs


Dim Sum keeps her distance from the cage of strange dogs. Would the tiger dog and the cheetah dog regard her as friend or as foe?


The Home & Garden Expo is going on now until June 2nd. This is another Relay for Life event.

This particular plot is occupied by Amaretto Ranch Breedables, and it's the most creative display that I've seen in the expo so far. A few other cages are around the big tent with unusual animals. This one has four dogs who are spotted strangely. In the picture, you can see the giraffe dog, the zebra dog, and the tiger dog. A cheetah dog is hidden from view.

location: Home & Garden Expo 2013


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Thalia Light 02 (modified)



117 - Stand 4 Love

Where's Dim Sum? #117 - Stand 4 Love

Stand4Love Opal Lei et alts


Meow meow meow meow.... (I meow 4 love.)


I discovered this campaign when I saw this pic by Bouquet Babii, so I followed the links to the Stand4Love website and decided to do a pic with Dim Sum.

They require a square pic, so I did another one for the "Where's Dim Sum?" series at the usual size.

They also said a plain white or black background. And, well, ... technically, the background prim *is* plain white, but I was playing with projectors again. See the words on my arm and on Dim Sum? :D

Okay, since I'm playing around with this, I might as well do Strawberry's tutorial meme from the past week before she publishes the next one.

Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Build 005 Light (modified) + projectors


Strawberry's memes - Teach Something

Strawberry says, "Teach me something." To be honest, I wasn't sure what I could teach, because almost everything has been taught out there. But I'll talk about how I used projectors with this photo and include tips as well.

The only reason I started playing with projectors is because I was thinking of using them for my SL10B build. This is the second photoshoot I've done with projectors. The first one wasn't particularly PG, but if you want to take a look: closeup, zoomed out, and combined.

It's really very simple. (I'm glossing over the details here.)

1. Change your graphics settings. Turn on Local Lights, Atmospheric Shaders, and Advanced Lighting Model and choose SunMoon + Projectors. Set your windlight to a nighttime one until you know your projector works.

2. Create a projector.  Or two or three. It's just a prim. Be sure to set the rotation to all zeroes, and the light would come out at the bottom (negative z-axis). You can rotate it again later to point it at your subject. Then go to the Features tab of the Edit dialog and check the Light box. You're essentially creating a prim light. You can choose the color of the light and choose the texture that would be projected. You can play with the FOV to blur the texture too.


Now the tips:
  • If you use a temporary texture, it won't work. (Trust me, it took me hours trying to figure out why it wasn't working.)
  • If you don't turn on the Advanced Lighting, you wouldn't see the second (texture) box to the right of the Light checkbox. You'll have to close the Edit dialog and open it up again, or edit something else and go back to the projector prim.
  • You can use the blank texture to get a plain square patch of light. Or create a texture with a white circle (or many white circles or even any shape you want) for a spotlight effect. A cylinder will not make a round-shaped spotlight.
  • If you stretch one side (x-axis or y-axis), the light (and texture) will also stretch.
  • You can get some cool effects, if you angle the spotlight against a wall (instead of projecting it straight on), and if you use several and overlap the projections, and if you add color to the light.
  • Browse the web for tips on how to position lights in real-life photography. Try them out or set up your own.
  • Try different windlights with your projectors. They can be daytime ones too, as long as they don't overwhelm the projections.
I'll continue playing with projectors for a while, so I'll have more samples to come.

20130525

116 - Where's baby?

Where's Dim Sum? #116 - Where's baby?

Where's Dim Sum #116b - Where's baby?


Dim Sum questions the bunny with the lone ear, "What happened to the baby?" But the bunny just looked down on the ground with his lone button eye, which would shed a tear if it could. And the baby carriage infinitely repeated its tinkling music while an invisible baby cried out faintly.


This is the baby carriage and the old stuffed bunny that I mentioned in my last post. See if you can find the spider. :)

Two again. After I completed the first one, I zoomed in to get a better look at the bunny and decided I liked that pic better.

location: Gehena Vampire Clan


Technical notes

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



20130523

115 - Garden triptych

Where's Dim Sum? #115 Blacks and whites triptych


Dim Sum attempts to start a conversation with the Siamese cat, who seemed too preoccupied with grooming herself. Dim Sum jumps off the ledge and walks over to the black cats instead.


I think this is my most favorite spot in the entire sim. It has a lot of very interesting and very unexpected details, besides the two black cats and the Siamese cat... a bird cage with books inside it and butterflies coming out of it... a toppled blue-and-white ceramic teacup... a worn chair with a bloody handprint... a ball of yard with bloody knitting needles... candles inside a teardrop-shaped cage... three tables each with a tea set and wrought iron chairs... an old wooden wardrobe... a baby carriage occupied by a black spider... a dirty stuffed bunny... pink antique rose vines rising above brambles....

It's almost like poetry in the form of a garden. Or a maybe a mystery novel.


location: Gehena Vampire Clan


Technical notes

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


114 - The requisite castle

Where's Dim Sum? #114a - The requisite castle

Where's Dim Sum? #114b - The requisite castle


Dim Sum listens to the leathery flapping and wonders how those rodents got their wings....


I completed the first one and decided it was too cliche; I'm sure it's the most photographed structure in the sim. So I did a second one.

location: Gehena Vampire Clan, (a) and (b)


Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNRISE - Turtle island (modified twice)
water: Raymond's Water At Night (only for b)




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...