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Ajay McDowwll

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Everything posted by Ajay McDowwll

  1. Ajay McDowwll
    I can still be lagged to death by a jellydolled Dinkie. I promise 🙂
  2. Ajay McDowwll
    Just a note here that being a Dinkie does not exclude an avatar from an INCREDIBLY high complexity, nor does using a system avatar. I've seen Dinkies with complexities well over 100K, and the same for classic avatars. It's more about the clothing and accessories than anything else.
  3. Ajay McDowwll
    Tonight at Chasers we're featuring DJ Kawyn Galaxy from 4-6PM SLT -- come on down and join us! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Froog/27/180/250
  4. Ajay McDowwll
    Heya, gang! Some of you already know I serve as the manager to a club in Second Life called Chasers Pub. I figured I'd toss our events in here, just for grins 🙂 We've got three DJ sets coming up today (Sunday, May 24th), including one themed event at 6PM SLT: 2-4PM SLT: DJ Kawyn Galaxy, rock (veers darker/ alternative/ some metal) 4-6PM SLT: DJ Shayla Juran, rock and pop (usually 80's, 90's, and today) 6-8PM SLT: DJ Beast, rock (more metal/ alternative) - Mythical Creatures! I'm going as a faery because... well, I already have an outfit put together plus lame 😛 The only restrictions on avatars are that they need to be clothed (i.e. no bits showing -- if you're a fox, your pelt is sufficient, etc), and no over-large avatars. Dinkie/ furry/ non-human friendly 🙂 Shoot, I hosted as a dragon for my first set working there, so they're pretty flexible. Come on and join us! And if I'm not there and you'd rather I were, IM me and I'll TP my pixelated hinderparts on over unless I'm truly hung up 😄 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Froog/27/180/250
  5. Ajay McDowwll
    Heee -- that works! And I love my stupid boat, and its very silly name 😄 It brings me a weird amount of joy, lol
  6. Ajay McDowwll
    Skell, thank you for doing this! I pass out your blog link to just about everyone new/ newly returned who's having their brain explode due to mesh (went through that myself lol) and your new entry, as well as its follow-up will be FANTASTIC for folks 🙂
  7. Ajay McDowwll
    It's another two-fer today :) The first is raw, using my SL photo settings/ photo tools only, and cropped to remove the couch one of my neighbors accidentally pushed slightly out of her wall: Since the raw shot was a bit dark, I tormented the picture in Photoshop by adjusting curves and hitting up Auto Tone: I should have adjusted the pose a bit, but I didn't notice it until I opened the picture in Photoshop and at that point I didn't want to be bothered with going back to re-do the shoot. I'm a slacker :P
  8. Ajay McDowwll
    Awwww.. thank you! And yes, the lighting on #2 is definitely better. SL default lighting without full-on "photo settings" that I have saved is somewhat problematic at times 🙂
  9. Ajay McDowwll
    I took both of these today, the only difference being the first was between High and Ultra graphics settings and had no shadows on, with no ambient occlusion, while the second was at Ultra graphics setting with shadows, ambient occlusion, and DoF turned on. The differences are amazing, at least to me, although I like both 🙂 No other processing, except saved to JPG rather than PNG so I could upload them both size-wise. Taken in region default lighting; fortunately, it was just after dawn 😛
  10. Ajay McDowwll
    Thanks, Kira! It's a neat set, and I love how it worked out in this picture I know!!! I was even playing around with it yesterday when I was dancing at a club, as the light wasn't flattering on my avatar (and I wasn't even TAKING pictures lol). And thank you Oh my goodness, is it ever -- never again will I struggle to create a stupid glowing ball lol. Just move the sun Thank you, Marigold As a side note, I love that the forum censorship software makes us have to dance around to spell legitimate words, like the name of a bird... hee!!! Sorry this took me so long to respond to, all; yesterday was a beast of a day. I was at the physical office to perform essential functions, and what usually takes 3-4 hours ended up taking 7-8.
  11. Ajay McDowwll
    I love the differences these tweaks make, and also the candid look of the picture Fantastic!!!
  12. Ajay McDowwll
    On mobile and I can’t thumb type to save myself, but will respond when I get home to my desktop, everyone!
  13. Ajay McDowwll
    Also, feel free to IM me as well 🙂 I’m at the physical office this morning, but I should be inworld by 3 PM SLT at the latest... possibly by 2 🙂
  14. Ajay McDowwll
    Okay, today it's just a straight-up raw picture... and I realized I could move the sun around with the PhotoTools in Firestorm! I know this is something everyone has likely already discovered. It was a new one on me, though 😛
  15. Ajay McDowwll
    LOL -- okay, good points all Especially about PS. Lordy, that program is a beast! I've learned lots about it with texturing pre-made meshes, though, which is amusing me no end, as well as through making my own alphas, and working with the photos I take in SL. Experience really is the best teacher, at least for me. And yes, we almost look alike lol. There are variations in eye-color, haircolor, and cosmetics, but everything else is identical down to our shapes. Well except for our AOs. The girls have Erika, and I'm on Miriam. Also, when this picture was taken they were in the Genus head 1.7 and I was still in my 1.6 because updating pains my soul. I only unpacked their updated heads (they were sent out in... March? lol) because the new ones had BoM in the HUD, and there's currently nowhere to get the Genus BoM add-on at this time. Well, once I looked at the picture I really LIKED the updated head, so I sucked it up, unpacked mine, and have it on now. Photography, y'all: changing avie's lives, one upgrade at a time
  16. Ajay McDowwll
    Thank you so much!!!
  17. Ajay McDowwll
    Okay, for today's picture I got both of my alts inworld with me, a feat I'm shocked I managed on just one PC 😛 Here's the raw shot: And here's the edited pic: I hit up Image Adjustments and for once adjusted the curves DOWN, because the light setting I was using rather washed us out. Then I dragged the brightness down a touch, and increased the saturation a little bit. I also fixed the clipping (mostly) on AjayMcDowwll Alter's hair -- she's the one at the far left -- as well as erasing a fly-away that didn't show to good advantage against the background. After that was a little cropping, and done 🙂 It's not perfect by any means, and I think I could have achieved better results with something like Black Dragon, which I'm going to have to stop dragging my feet about using, but I am not displeased.
  18. Ajay McDowwll
    How I feel about random "off the street" folks coming into my homes varies according to which house we're talking about. My Linden Homes? Eh, rock on, kids. The furniture is mostly innocuous, and I decorated them in part to show newer residents what's possible in Second Life as far as the look of one's home is concerned. I don't have orbs, and I guess I really should update the description of the land to include that anyone who wants to wander through may certainly do so. The same applies to my rental off of the Blake Sea. The only folks there I've ejected had come up into my parcel so they could see me (the owners set the parcels to no-view unless you're standing in it), and were literally staring into my window for a prolonged period of time. Buh-bye. On the mainland, my husband and I own a reasonable portion of our region. We have parcels out by the Linden Road that are public access, and labeled as such. After a STEEP hill (and a border of forest trees) lies the private property. The vast majority of it isn't orbed (and I loathe ban lines with the fire of a thousand suns -- they are an utter blight, and I wish all viewers had the option to turn them off as my beloved Firestorm does) because I know it's fun to wander SL, and I like leaving it accessible for reasonable use, but I do have three bits that are... because there are some times that are pretty evidently private and I'd prefer not to have to deal with random intruders. My family-style home has an orb that's confined to mostly the master bedroom. This occurred because I had just finished wrangling my Zooby baby and had put her to bed. I got into bed myself, and right as I was about to log off, some guy decided that it was totally appropriate to TP into my bedroom, nude, wearing a giant freebie appendage. I continued my logout, in part because I was quite startled and just wanted to leave. I then logged in my alt, who also has eject/ban powers, and banned him. The next morning when I logged in, I set up my small circumference orb. This way I can put my avatar to bed (yes, I do this most nights, and I'm aware I'm a total dork) without some dude figuring me getting into bed is obviously an invitation to exchange pixels 😛 The other area that's orbed is my one mainland parcel that's no-view. It's where I go to change if I'm going to require long periods of full undress, or whatever. I've actually got two orbs there: one is set at ground level and reaches just to the top of the trees surrounding/ obscuring view into the parcel; the other covers the dimensions of our skybox. As all areas are pretty clearly private and the orbs are operating within tightly controlled parameters (I don't want to mess with random folks flying planes or whatever), I feel absolutely zero compunction in setting that sucker to a 5-second boot time.
  19. Ajay McDowwll
    Thanks, Eva! My skills are a work in progress 🙂
  20. Ajay McDowwll
    Okay, so I'm working on a new profile pic for the forums 🙂 I took the one I've currently got up last night... but I'm a bit "meh" about it. The background was off, the dead-on look did me no favors, and the faceapp-added smile is currently giving me the heebie-jeebies. So! After this morning's photoshoot, I decided on this picture: I downloaded it to my hard drive, opened it in PS, went into Image Adjustment, and adjusted "Curves": Then I cropped it, added a bit of iris blur, and tweaked brightness/ contrast as well as saturation a bit to land on this: It's... an improvement? I think. Definitely an improvement over the one I've got up currently 😛 Edited to add that if this were a straight-out portrait, I'd likely go less on the cropping, because I might like that space on the left? But it's a profile pic so I went more with a centered look. Arrrrgh... my brain hurts! Another edit... seems my mucking about with saturation or something created an annoying white splotch on my forehead. Harumph.
  21. Ajay McDowwll
    I didn't know whether to like or laugh... so I picked laugh for your wordplay lol
  22. Ajay McDowwll
    Oh I know -- that's one reason I'm following this thread 🙂 I've read Skell's photography tutorial at least. Sadly, composition and everything isn't a skill I really have inately. It's one I'll have to cultivate, if that's even possible as my artistic sense is negligible. Still, there's nothing like education to at least assist in one's understanding, even if it's just from a technical standpoint 🙂
  23. Ajay McDowwll
    There are plenty of reasons to opt for a mesh head and body outside of dating. I ended up getting a mesh body within a week of my return to SL because it was easier to find clothing with one of the named mesh bodies (plus at that point I had ZERO clue how to create an alpha layer for my system body). I ended up going with a mesh head because I tried a bunch of demos for the heck of it, and finally found one I liked that would reasonably replicate my system head's features with the judicious application of sliders... well, except for the woeful profile of my nose 😛 But obviously I can live with it. Just because someone's a mesh human doesn't mean they're looking to date, and I... really kind of hate that assumption. I'm in a monogamous marriage, and I'm pretty danged clear in my profile that I'm here for friends, period. I'm not the only person in that situation, either. I like my mesh body and head for the smoother contours, for the ease of finding mesh clothing rigged for the body, and for the sheer aesthetics that please me. I personally don't give a rat's rosy rear end what anyone else chooses to use for their avatar. I have friends in the nonprofit community and outside of it who are strictly system avatars, either because their focus is outside the fashion realm, or because they prefer their system look to anything they've seen available in mesh. I have friends who typically run around SL as dinosaurs, Dinkies, and in one case, a sugar glider. It's the person driving the avatar, rather than the avatar components, who ultimately makes the biggest impression. Regarding Dinkies and the lack of complexity, I will give you that exists with the base Dinkie avatar. I happen to have one myself, because the club where I work has a Dinkie set and I find it more entertaining to attend as a tiny cat (plus that "run" trigger is hilarious!) rather than as a humanoid. I have to say, though, that I see a wide variation in ARC for the Dinkie population as well, depending on the outfits they've chosen, including costs well over 100K. I myself had to get more outfits for my Dinkie avatar when I realized my original choice ended up putting my ARC at over 60K. For a DINKIE. Newp! Not for me. Now I have an outfit that puts my Dinkie avatar at or around 20K, which is fabulous. So... it's not the human avatars necessarily causing lag; it's the complexity of the choices made by all the avatars. /endrant
  24. Ajay McDowwll

    Genus

    Ajay McDowwll replied to milania15's topic in Your Avatar

    Yes! I picked up a Lelutka Evolution head (Erin) and also the free Catwa head, just in case Genus doesn't come back and I want to change things up.
  25. Ajay McDowwll
    Dittoing what @xBaeBeex said. The Genus/ Legacy combo is a beast, apparently. The next Genus upgrade is supposed to address this, but with the current situation it's unclear when that will be released.
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