Author: blue

Darktable

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After my post about my Wacom tablet and mediocre drawing skills, I thought I’d show you two more pics that I did just for my Flickr account.  Both of them were intended to teach myself about a wonderful piece of freeware called Darktable.  This is a photo processing program for Linux and Mac OS X (and vague Windows support), and it’s a rather marvelous piece of software.  You can do all types of interesting post-processing with it.  I’ve barely scratched the surface with the possibilities it opens up.

This first photo was taken when I got very interested with what you can do with point lights and the shadows that can be generated in SL with them.  Now, of course, I use point lighting all the time in my photos.  I even wrote up a very basic tutorial on how to set up lighting for a shoot.  I used Darktables to play around with the contrast to get the shadows to pop more and to add even more light coming through the window that I got with the photo I took in SL.

In the second photo, I used Darktable to desaturate the image and add photo grain, and again played around with lighting curves to get the look that I wanted and to darken the shadows.  I’m pretty proud of both results, even though they’re so different and similar at the same time (did someone mention “bum”)!

 

Drawing skills

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Sometimes I take photos for my Flickr account without any intension of turning them into blog posts.  Mostly, I do it when we have huge events in Eden and Nandi wants someone to take pics so we can post them to the club’s Facebook page.  But sometimes, I take them just for myself.  Or to challenge myself to do something new.

Late last year, I bought myself a Wacom tablet for drawing in Gimp.  My main focus was better photo retouching with the pressure sensitivity a tablet brings.  But one of the first things I found myself doing with it was drawing hair, as I’d been inspired to give it a go by the work of one of SL’s best post-shoot artists, Angi Manners (warning, NSFW).

Here’s my first ever attempt.

I’m not a great artist, but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out!

For a list of clothing, you can see a previous post on the blog.

P.S. Did anyone notice that this was a lazy way of not doing a photo shoot today? 🙂

Alicia

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“I think you have your dress caught in your garter belt!” Aeon said when she saw this dress 🙂

This is a clever mix of fitmesh and applier clothing, specific to Maitreya Lara.  There is not even an Omega applier for the stockings!  It was an MM prize at Ko-H, and I expect it will be available again on their board as they tend to cycle through a number of items.  Visit the store and have a look!

My hairstyle is by Alice Project, and at the time of writing is still available on their MM board if you want to slap it 🙂  It comes with an essentials HUD with a nice color selection, although the red is not my favorite.

Lies White Lingerie

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Well done applier lingerie!  I’m spoiled with fitmesh lingerie, but sometimes a creator comes out with effective looking lace in appliers, and Lies have managed it in this case!

My perspective editing in Gimp could be better, but it’s better than a blank mirror, don’t you think?

There are system layers for the bra, panties, stockings and garter, and a Maitreya applier for them too.

My hairstyle is a gift at Hair Fair, which goes through until July 16th.  You still have a few days to go and grab the gifts and get some new wonderful styles.  Don’t forget to grab a bandanna there too to help support Wigs For Kids!

  • Lingerie: White Lingerie with Maitreya Applier by Lies
  • Body: Lara by Maitreya
  • Hands: Slink Dynamic
  • Hair: Katherine by ICONIC

Morissette

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More pink?  At least it’s pastel and not hot pink 🙂  This is another hunt item from WOH3 (yes, I’m still opening them!)  I chose a free gift from Hair Fair 2017 to go with this.

And yes!  Hair Fair is on!  Hair Fair is one of my favourite events of the year.  It’s for a great cause, and a percentage of all sales goes to Wigs For Kids, which is a very deserving charity.  Run and have a look around, get the gifties and at least a couple of bandannas and show your support!  It sure makes me feel good about the Second Life community as a whole when I read letters like this!

This dress comes in sizes for Belleza, Slink, Maitreya, TMP, and a one-size-fits-all fitmesh for classic bodies.  The detailing around the panels is really well done, and you can see from the picture above it’s not just texture!

My hairstyle is from Astrology, a new designer to me.  They have a really awesome HUD system that lets you pick 20 colors from their full range, but you only get to do it once, so you have to pick carefully.  This is a great idea, as most designers do HUDs in blonde, red, brunette, etc.  With Astrology’s system, you can pick from all of them and get a mix of colors perfectly suited to you, all in one HUD!

Additionally, to my surprise, this hairstyle was modify, which means you can tint it too.  So if you are wise in your HUD color choices, you can do nearly any color you like!

Melani

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Here’s a unique little bustier from ViSion.  It’s their group gift for July.  The ViSion group is FREE to join, so run and get yours!

The floral front is very pretty and the little metal studs around the top are fun (and they come with a HUD that lets your set the metal color or hide them too).  The back is done with bold straps in a pleasing diamond pattern.  Sizes include Freya, Isis, Venus, Lara, Hourglass, and Physique.

Pink Chevrons

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This is another swimsuit hunt gift from WOH3.  The hunt is over, but I still have quite a few unopened gifties to show you!

Sizes included are fitmesh for Lara, and Slink Hourglass and Physique, plus it comes with a little pink unrigged bow for the front that I haven’t worn.  You know me and pink, right?  And the swimsuit is enough 🙂

I took these photos on the 4th of July, so if you look closely, you can see my flag nail polish hehe

Eden tanktop

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I’m sure you’ve seen me mention Eden before.  It’s a fabulous club for girls, whatever your orientation.  Recently, our lovely boss Sabine appointed me one of the Head Angels!  Wow!  I felt really honoured.  I’ve been busy helping Nandi the club manager there.  Anything to take some of the load off her.  And I was involved in the recent redesign of the sim, helping Nandi terraform and lay everything out.

As staff you get asked lots of questions by people.  A girl stopped by a little while ago and I happened to be wearing a very old Eden logo t-shirt from 2014.  She asked where she could get a copy of the shirt, and I said, “Oh I’m not sure, the giver used to be on the dance floor, but I can’t remember seeing it for ages!  Perhaps it’s in the freebie shop?”

We went and looked, and no, it wasn’t there either!  So, unfortunately she left disappointed.  If you’re reading this, whoever you were, I’ve fixed the situation by recreating the shirt, and updating it to fitmesh sizes too!  Yay!

There are fitmesh sizes for classic avatars, and body specific mesh for Lara, all three Belleza bodies, and Slink Physique.

You can get your free copy if you are a member of the Sisters of Eden group.  Stop by and ask me or one of the other helpful staff for a tag to get yours!

Foxy in Blue

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This was an MM board prize from Zombie Suicide.  I’ve shown you the yellow version before, but I like this one even better with the fishnet overlay on the skirt.

It’s all one piece, and there are sizes for classic, Belleza, Slink Physique and Hourglass, and Maitreya.

I went looking for a different hairstyle than the long long one I wore in the previous post, and I found this one that I hadn’t worn before!  It’s very cute and has rigged and unrigged version, and three different styles of bangs that are resizeable to ensure they frame your face.  It also has a multicolour HUD that is mostly in pastel shades, but fortunately there was a nice ginger in there!  Yay!

Baby Metal

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OK, I’m not sure where I would wear this, but in the interests of complete reporting, here you go 🙂  This outfit was another hunt item from WOH3.

The bra, panties, and shirt and all separate fitmesh, and come in sizes for Freya, Isis, Venus, Lara, TMP, Curvy, Fine, Hourglass, and Physique bodies.