20130629

144 - Tir Na Nog

Where's Dim Sum? #144 - Tir Na Nog


Dim Sum listens to the eerie sounds of children's voices from far away as she sits in a strange cave with a strange eye.


This is a bit sci-fi-y, but it made me curious. When I found it, only the center part was visible above water. A post gave instructions to run to the center and touch something to bring up the rest of the build. Then I set windlight to Midnight per the instructions. I still don't get the "story" though.  :\

Built by Morlita Quan and Noke Yuitza.

location: SL10B Magnificent

Technical notes

windlight:Midnight
water: Phototools- Ship Light


20130628

143 - To forgive, divine

Where's Dim Sum? #143 - To forgive, divine


Dim Sum looks across the water at the white figure beneath the castle. She took one last look at the towering structure. Then she turned away. For the last time.


I took a break from SL10B to remember this day, to forgive, and to release the pain.

The castle was built by Alia Baroque.


location: Annon


Technical notes

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


20130627

142 - Ganeesha's smartphone

Where's Dim Sum? #142 - Ganeesha's smartphone


Dim Sum wonders if she stumbled into the Cave of Arms.


Seriously, take a look at that thing where the arrow is pointing in the center of the picture. I bet that's Ganeesha's smartphone.

It's a little hard to take pictures inside a cave. And these sculptures are kinda interesting. There are many gods and goddesses with multiple arms and many more with animal heads. But Ganeesha with the elephant head is the only one I'm aware of in real-life mythology.

To Ganeesha's right (where Dim Sum is sitting) is a squid with many arms, to Ganeesha's left is a frog with many arms, and across the room is a dolphin with many arms. All sculptures were built by Toady Nakamura.

Unfortunately, the sculptures themselves have Full Bright turned on, which severely limits what you can do with lighting to make them look more 3D and more realistic.

Many thanks to Inara Pey for the inspiration to look for the hidden treasures in the turtle.

location: SL10B Spellbound


Technical notes

windlight: Fine Day (modified)


20130626

141 - Samson

Where's Dim Sum? #141 - Samson


Dim Sum finds a new hero and meows, "I'm rooting for you, mister."


This is one of several sculptures of Starax Statosky, who is (in my opinion) one of the best (if not THE best) prim sculptors in SL. Long before sculpts and mesh came along, he took basic prims and tortured and combined them into amazingly expressive sculptures, like this one.

Sure, the more recent sculptures with sculpts and mesh are less primmy and more realistic, but I still think that sculpting with basic prims is way more impressive.

location: SL10B Wonderous

I haven't done Strawberry's memes for a while, and this one seems easy, so here goes.

Technical notes

windlight: Alchemy Immortalis - Fog Lifting (modified)


Strawberry's memes - Proportions Challenge

Strawberry wants proportions. Well, ... okay....

Height (floor to shoulder): 0.36m
Length (nose tip to tail tip): 0.76m, approximate because her tail won't keep still
Head: Too big
Body: Huggable size

Do you try and keep your avatar’s body proportionate and similar to the “average” proportions pictured above?
Dim Sum believes she's perfect and she doesn't care about body proportions. Opal and her human alts tend to have slightly longer legs. A lover told me of this Paris cabaret called Crazy Horse, where the criteria for the performers is that the length from top of head to crotch must be equal to the length from crotch to floor. And that lover is a "leg man" so I keep my avies leggy for him.

What do you dislike the most about the SL avatar mesh?
The butt! Actually, the part from the waist to the thighs. Why is it that in order for your hips to look like the normal length in front, you end up with a long butt, like it's sagging?!? If you want a normal-looking butt, you look like you're getting a wedgie in front. And if your butt is even a little curvier than a flat board, your thighs look fat at a certain angle.

Does it bother you when you see other avatars that are not proportionate at all?
It's not the disproportion per se that bothers me; most bodies in RL are disproportionate and they come in different sizes, including my own RL body.

What makes me cringe is the extreme unnaturalness that seem to be more about unoriginal fashion slavery and less about aesthetic creativity. Like the pony riders whose waist-to-hip ratio makes them look like clothes hangers with thighs separated by a mile. Or the alien-looking stick figures with enormous round heads and small eyes, worn mostly by fashion models. (Thank goodness that one seems to have faded out of fashion.)

If it's one or two people with an extreme look, it's awesome because it's original and innovative and creative and artistic. If a slew of people wear the same extreme look, the unnaturalness stands out and then it's just plain ugly.

Even though this is a virtual world and people can be anything they want to be, do you feel when they are in human form, they should try to keep their proportions close to average?
No. In spite of the cringe effect, I still think that people should be able to express themselves any way they want. I actually think that there's less originality in SL nowadays than during the early years, when more people had creative and unique avies, humanoid or not. I prefer a very diverse SL. Even if I cringe once in a while.

20130625

140 - Starring in CatTV

Where's Dim Sum? #140 - Starring in CatTV


Dim Sum wonders when she'll finally get her break and have her own TV series.


This is the Catznip parcel. The cats are the same as my decoy, created by Seu Ahn (Shop Seu). The cat TV was created by Trinity Dejavu.

location: SL10B Magnificent


Technical notes

windlight: Coastal Afternoon (modified)


20130623

139 - Second Life Express

Where's Dim Sum? #139 - Second Life Express


Dim Sum hears the train conductor call out, "All aboard!" So she hops on the locomotive, so she'd get there before the rest of the passengers. Wherever "there" is.


I tried the materials version of the SL viewer and decided to go back to Firestorm. I don't care if the SL10B bear looks better in it; I missed the phototools.

This would have been a reasonably fast shoot had I not been so easily distracted.

The wonderfully detailed train was built by Donpatchy Dagostino.

location: SL10B Incredible


Technical notes

windlight: [TOR] SUNSET - Oriental delight 2 (barely modified, just moved the sun a bit)


138 - Moths and lanterns

Where's Dim Sum? #138 - White moths


Dim Sum watches the white moths go crazy around the lanterns and wonders what catnip they ate. Then she watches the humans contort their bodies down below and wonders what catnip they ate.


This oak tree is actually a stage, so there were people dancing under the tree. And it took me hours to do this pic! First, because I kept crashing. Second, because I couldn't decide on the windlight. Third, because they restarted the sim in the middle of my shoot. Fourth, people kept appearing in my frame. Fifth, because I couldn't decide on the windlight. (Yes, I know I said that already.)

location: SL10B Captivate


Technical notes

windlight: Phototools- Angles Light 01 (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...