Snickers Snook Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Maybe Linden Lab is deliberately giving each of us the chance to feel superior or something. But this particular login photo really does not show off Second Life very well. The poses are, well, stiff. The guy looks like he has a rod up his .... and what is she doing with her legs??. And sit poses and babydolls just don't mix. Finally, the avatars kinda look like IMVU imports. Is that a bowl of cereal on top of the books? Or maybe it's just me being hyper-critical. Nahhhh. I think Linden Lab can do better. Don't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tari Landar Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 ROFL that looks like a posed photo of some of the dolls(if you want to call them that) my kids have. They're generic dolls that go to a playset. Like bad claymation....in fact, it's plasticmation. I have noticed that the labbies have a hard time figuring out what quality actually is, in photos. A lot of the pics they use for marketing and stuff look really bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Seelowe Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Hey Snickers, I am not absolutely sure but..I think this may be one of Torley Lindens photos. Torley is an amazingly prolific artist, teacher, thoughtful genious. I seem to remember this photo was one of an example to help describe options for photography within sl…I don't believe the avatars in the photo are the intended focal point, instead... the 'focus' of the photo is the focal point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickers Snook Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 Could be. It probably is better suited to a tutorial on focus than it is to being a login photo as an example of the wonders of SL. And oh goodie, this was my first post that was removed for moderation! Yay! But then it got restored so yay to that too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tari Landar Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 lol wondered where it went. I'm not real sure it matters who took the photo, or what it was for. It looks nothing like sl, whatsoever, and it's a pretty terrible representation of sl. Avs don't look like that, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 With viewer 3 and use of the light presets, you can get your SL looking like that. Looks like they used depth of field as well. Those avatars look pretty standard for what I see on the profiles of juat about everyone here - tall skinny humans. The poses look pretty common - though I don't personally care for them. The objects are well made. This shot is a lot better than the ones we're seeing on the homepage of SL right now of the vampire that's bent out of shape on her torso. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Jetaime Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Snickers Snook wrote: ... Finally, the avatars kinda look like IMVU imports.... I see what you mean, but even so, the SL version looks better than IMVU's. They went after the social media users with the SLums, maybe they are going after IMVU users now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charolotte Caxton Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Art-Music-and-Photography/LOGIN-SCREEN-3D-MODELS/m-p/917351#M1082 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Thibodeaux Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Why are you looking? Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deej Kasshiki Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I agree Snickers. I like and appreciate Torley's work and I don't want to specifically nail his depth of field/shadows proof of concept photo but, the Lab has come up with some pretty horrendous marketing photos lately. The current vampire on the SL main web page is just the latest example. Back around Halloween there was one promoting Marketplace with the avatar "model" wearing prim parts from two different outfits, and ghastly lighting. (And I don't mean "scary" and appropriate for Halloween, I mean it looked like crap) The current Marketplace main page "Cuddle with your loved ones" pic is pretty nasty too, IMO. The Lab would do well to take a look at any of the excellent resident-created blogs, Flickr feeds, Facebook pages, etc. to see how great their platform can look and "borrow" some ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tari Landar Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I still say the photo makes them look like dolls and nothing at all the way the majority of folks see sl. They remind me too much of playskool toys my kids have. It's not a knock on the photographer, the photo is pretty, or the work, but it most definitely does not depict sl in a way most will ever see it. But the lab has a horrid track record with the images they choose to use for all sorts of things. Sometimes I wish they'd hire actual residents to do actual shots, no fancy viewers, no fancy setups or settings that aren't typical upon joining, no fancy post-processing, but actual avs the way *most new people will actually see them. I know they want to go for "what could be", but, their vision is about as good as mine, and since I'm legally blind...I don't hold out much hope for them in that area. There are a LOT of people in sl that take some amazing photos without all the extra addons, even things like shadows are things many residents will never see. I love looking at those kinds of images. It's actually one of the things that originally drew me to sl years ago (long before this av). A set of photos someone showed me of some things in world, granted they weren't the most fantastic photos but they were quite realistic given the environment. They were what most would consider "real time", actual events taking place in sl at the time. I thought it looked fun, and I joined. There was nothing extra done to them, no special settings, absolutely no post processing. I still have those images to this day, look on them fondly at times too. Even with the pretty clay l ooking system hair, lovely system clothes, and not so pretty skins, was pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceka Cianci Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 it reminds me of walleye vison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickers Snook Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 I see how it's an exploration more about Depth of Field and getting things sort of surreal looking but that belongs more in a tutorial or example of work than as a login screen photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charolotte Caxton Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 They still have log in screen photos? Mine just shows destination photos, I remember the log in screen photos though, like 6 months or so ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I actually got a destination photo this morning that had all the effects going in it. Shadows, occlusion, depth, some light preset, and so on. Whoever makes those images needs to get assigned to make the homepage images too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerise Sorbet Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 That is the old login page. None of the supported LL viewers use that any more, so it is no longer updated. The current login page has a very different layout and does not use those old images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Just got it again on trying to get back from my 2nd crash at Hippistock... This: - Who makes those images, and why aren't they making the rest of SL's advertising imagery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innula Zenovka Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 As a comparison, this is the login screen and picture Niran uses for his viewer (full size original here). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 That's a nice image. I have that avatar too. A mesh somewhat cartoony cat. Everything in that image, and the images for the destination guide, can be done with standard settings in the newer viewers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innula Zenovka Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I realise they can, Pussycat. AIUI, much of what Niran does is a matter of changing the defaults, making the means of adjusting individual settings more accessable and intuitive to the non-graphics expert, through the UI, and optimising his viewer to run at higher graphics settings. I posted the picture more as example of what you can do with a log-in picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marigold Devin Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 To real people out in real world who just don't 'get' SL, this photo would look pretty blah I guess, BUT in the context it was taken - which is to show how far SL has come over the years in regards to graphics/lighting/shadows/effects etc - it's really something else. When I started in SL in 2007, with a really rubbish graphics card too, the sky looked muddy, and textures were awful. Then I got a new graphics card and saw what other people see. Now we have the choice of whether to have shadows switched on, or other effects, and can have this depth of field type of photography if we want to accentuate the subject matter, this being the couple enjoying a romantic day in the woods. Real Life or Second Life, human beings have a tendency to become very complacent and take things for granted, not truly appreciating the work that has gone into creating some pretty amazing things. There was a Flickr photo of the day(yesterday or the day before), showing light from a stained glass window reflecting down onto an avatar. No way could this have been possible without photoshop in 2007. Most people look at an image and think it's nice, or not, beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that, but looking beyond the actual photo you can often see how and why a person composed the picture the way they did, either to bring focus to something in particular, or to cast a mood using colour, shade and shadow, or reflect an era by using props and backgrounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Innula Zenovka wrote: I posted the picture more as example of what you can do with a log-in picture. Nod. Niran is, far as I know, a variant viewer-3. Which was my point to hangers on of older viewers. But also to LLs: that they themselves have the tools to do better without resorting to anything outside of their own technology. Of course I'm in part guilty here of mixing this discussion with one on the nwn blog: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/01/perfect-snapshot-checklist.html#more http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/01/new-year-new-you-image-redo.html#more http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/01/second-life-vampire-avatars.html#more I guess this is just the hot topic right now: Why can't LLs use its own tools effectively when you can get even a day old newbie to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innula Zenovka Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Yeah, the improved graphics that came along with mesh are, to my mind, at the moment, at least, far more an enhancement of SL in general than is mesh itself. What I particularly like about Niran's and Exodus, and I think the Official Viewer would do well to adopt the idea, is that they've done a lot of work on changing the graphics defaults, so stuff looks better as soon as you log in, and made the graphics settings far more accessible and intuitive by providing access to them via control panels, with associated settings grouped together, so you don't have to fiddle about finding and changing lots of individual debug settings. I'm certainly learning far more by experimenting with those than I've learned from the (very helpful) tutorials that are presently available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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