[[LF] Your fave versatile facial emoters?]

@Freecilla I was unfulfilled after reading that thread because there are still opportunities to create better emoters, I just don't know where to find them yet. I've been having fun with my AnyPose, which does have effective "eye direction lock" without having to stare at a cube.

I had forgotten about the eye texture edit you mention but it's not as flexible for when I need speed. Thanks though!

[[LF] Male skins that are less muscular (no/less visible abs)?]

@Marianne Kletva is in the direction of what I'm looking for, tummy-wise! Thanks.

@Melita I'm going to check those out, yay!

@Ponder My wife suggested Pulse too, so there's a double-recommendation too. Thank you... and you are most welcome! You do realize by telling me this, you certainly aren't in the silent masses?

Stay awesome.

[[LF] Biggest, most badass group poses]

Haha, cool. Any other recs?

[[LF] Your fave versatile facial emoters?]

I do a lot of avatar photography with a combo of HUDs, and that can get pretty clunky. I've been looking for an all-in-one facial emoter that does all the following elegantly:

• Closes avatar eyes (so I don't have to agonize over capturing split-second blinking).
• Can interpolate/blend between multiple facial animations for subtle (non-cartoonish) expressions and can freeze it that way. The default facial animations are pretty exaggerated and unappealing when played "in full". I've used the old trick of right-clicking my avatar to locally freeze myself in edit mode, but that's awkward and also disables the depth of field graphical effect.
• Locks avatar eyes in a given direction so I don't have to stare at an object to fix focus.
• Relatively compact (or minimizable), beautiful user interface.

My prior experiences have included helpful threads like this. Any products you really like which do most, or even all of what I'm requesting? I think this would also help other photographers. Thanx so much. :)

[[LF] Male skins that are less muscular (no/less visible abs)?]

I've been trying to put together some slimmer male avs. Many of the great male skins I've seen in Second Life are primed for physical fitness to idealistic, muscular degrees — there's a healthy 6-pack and well-defined pecs, abdominals, and soforth.

It's been hard for me to find male skins with "no abs", representing leaner "swimmer's build"-type bodies in their 30s-40s that are still visibly masculine. (I'm familiar with femboy/androgynous looks, but that's not what I'm going for here... I've already got that type well-covered.) Even those trending towards "average" body type, altho I'm not looking for beer guts at the moment. ;) Even better if they have accompanying shapes. Any recs on stuff I should check out?

[Lights! Shadows! Depth of Field! Unlock the beauty...]

Have you seen some awesome photos and are wondering how you, too can harness the power of Second Life's advanced graphical features? Your answers are here:

• Lighting and shadows
• Depth of field

Have fun and remember to show off your creations here, that's what we're for! :)

[[LF] Biggest, most badass group poses]

A WILLOW SMITH TRIBUTE? This I must see. Thank you, Sylvia...

[[LF] Biggest, most badass group poses]

Okayyy, so I've had a lot of fun with couples poses and some small groups. But I'm on a search for the biggest, most badass group poses in Second Life. By "biggest", I mean # of avatars, like some half-a-dozen-plus conglomeration of excellence. By "most badass", I'm not looking for staid, cynical, stare-at-camera-with-no-soul crap, I want lots of attitude that screams PARTY TIME!

I've ferreted some out on the Marketplace, but am wondering if you have any faves I may be missing. (And yeah, I do intend to try them out firsthand with my alternate selves.) So hit me up. Kthxbai.

[GREAT work Renn Yifu!!! - New Library Avatars.]

You guys are shaaaaaaaarp. 'Tis awesome thy art so observant, I've shared your nice words with the Experience Design team at Linden Lab who worked with the Resident creators to make these avatars possible! They come in response to requests over time for diversity — not just diversity for its own sake, but in a world like SL, so much is possible... why not show more of that off from the get-go? I think you may have noticed our CEO, Rod, dropping some clues in previous interviews that this was gonna happen. AND SO IT HAS. PROPHECY FULFILLED.

Anyway, yeah, we plan to make these available in the registration flow and avatar selector so all new Resis will have the choice of being a windup robot, scampering freely on all fours, etc.

These aren't all, stay tuned for more surprises...

[Places I really enjoy, that I found in the Destination Guide!]

I revisited Dream Scene this morning, I have a special fondness for enclosed areas that just surround you with a particular theme, whether it's a specially-designed skybox or an entire region in a megaprim. I think part of it's because I have a fascination with theme hotels, where each room is wildly different from the next. Thanks for starting this thread, Hippie!

[Why Does Fashion Industry in SL Use "No Transfer" Instead of "No Copy" ?]

I like seeing the ingenuity that's arisen in gifting: from the Marketplace's buy as gift option to inworld gift kiosks. I also see places that offer alternate permissions, so you can either buy a "no transfer" or "no copy" version. Understandably, I've heard from creators that they wish there were ways to automate this, especially if they're extremely prolific — setting so many checkboxes is a p-a-i-n. Still, there are times you may want to give a gift directly, or modify it in some personal way.

I tend to prefer "no transfer" due to the above possibilities, and also because I can be such a clumsy clodhopper in my inventory, modifying an original when I should've made a backup (another thing that should be automated better). I miss when we could save copies of items as a NEW outfit instead of just links to them.

[Depth of Field question]

Melanie, fiddling is often necessary experimentation! I often don't have much of a clue myself when starting out, but through many processes and narrowing down what I like, I find cool stuff to share with others. And those are looking great, in particular the expression of you hugging your cat with horizontal shadows cast across makes me go awwww.

What pose are you using for "say cheeeeese" with the closed eyes? That looks like a lot of fun!

Also glad to see you playing with tilt-shift, I've hearted the "miniature/doll look" in the "real world" for years and attaining it in SL has made me incredibly happy.

[A Matter of Scale - How scale affects content creation and land ownership in Second Life.]

Is there a compilation of inworld locations that demonstrate the correct proportions Penny describes? I see some examples, but a list in the original post to expand "Existing sims..." — or something others can contribute to like a wiki page — would:

1. Help Resis who agree with these ideas to support each others' firsthand work, and
2. Demonstrate to the curious who don't "get it" yet why it matters, hands-on.

Like precedent of other cultural trends/movements that've become wider adopted over time despite initial resistance (as Seth Godin said, it's the lizard brain), it seems like there's big potential here for an advocacy & awareness group, if something like that hasn't already been established. (And I know Penny's done much previous explaining about proper scaling.)

[Japanese Attire?]

Another cool place I recently found out about is the aptly-named Tokyo Girl with some elegant-looking modern fashions.

[Enhancing SL Photography, where should I go, what should I read?]

Some jagged edges (distinct from your avatar's polygon count) can be taken care of in advance with Antialiasing, which isn't turned on by default but should be on capable computers! As we get more advanced graphical shaders in the SL Viewer, more effects that would've previously had to be post-processed and added in are available from the outset. Such as depth of field with the new lighting and shadows, which has enabled us to get more control over focused areas.

One of my fave "unglamorous" Photoshop controls is Shadows/Highlights, which has helped save many a dull-looking, too-dark, and washed-out shot when more common features like contrast won't do.

Rick, your GF must feel really special. Do you have specific "looks" you're trying to recreate? Example real-life pics, even? That'd help others point you in the right direction.

[SL Photography]

Friendly greetings FrankiePalmero! I wish this defect was made more clear ahead of time (because I hate taking snapshots only to find them ruined when I browse them on disk). I've seen the same bug, or at least, similar bugs before. One thing I did that helped — while costly — was to get a bigger monitor so I could capture at a higher resolution to begin with. Then you have more freedom to crop out unsightly crap, too, not to mention seeing more of SL in general.

Also, I seem to recall these seams show up due to conflicts between how several graphical things are rendered. What Marianne mentions might be because a long time ago, a tradeoff was made to have ripple water appear correctly.

One thing you can try: in PREFERENCES > Graphics tab, click the Hardware button and disable Antialiasing if you have that on. Then restart the SL Viewer and test. The drawback, of course, is edges look jaggy without antialiasing, providing little or no benefit to shooting at a higher resolution. (Antialiasing used to work fine with high-res snapshots but complications in the aforementioned graphics rendering pipeline has led to where we are today.)

[What makes an virtual (art)object truly noteworthy - help a student with his bachelor degree]

Many of my favorite creations combine simple features in powerful ways. This affects usability, aesthetics, and other important attributes. For example, a chair becomes easier to sit on if it's enabled for a one-click sit action. Something we obviously don't think about in the "real world", but is uniquely important in SL.

And yes, interaction is paramount. There's stuff you can look at, and there's stuff you can do stuff with too — I like unexpected surprises when I click or otherwise make something happen with an object.

I like to get a strong sense of the creator's personality in their art. It doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, but I like seeing objects that are the top of their form by getting so many things done right in a cohesive package. Even one that's marketed beautifully, it shows how much care was put into the product from how it's presented to the positive emotions I associate with it upon usage.

As for "SL-culture specific items", look for Linden Bears and hippos.

And I really like sitting on this badass throne for the above reasons, right about now.

[Depth of Field question]

Melanie, glad you're enjoying DoF! I'd like to see what you've done, if you'd like to share.

Also, what Project Mesh Viewer version is this? It's worth noting DoF is supported in the newest stable Viewer, "Second Life 2.7.2 (233432) Jun 21 2011 17:17:16 (Second Life Release)". It even has a checkbox in PREFERENCES > Graphics tab. Newer Beta versions may contain newer improvements, but my point is we no longer need to restrict ourselves to the Project Viewers for the DoF goodness.

While I haven't encountered your specific problem recently, throughout the course of testing experimental graphics features, I came across other snapshot bugs — they kept disrupting me to such a degree that nowadays, I don't even use the Viewer's built-in snapshot to disk feature (Ctrl+` or the button). Rather, I use a combination of FRAPS and hiding the UI. I automate both with a single pedal press — yes, I use a USB pedal to take snapshots, it's kinda retro but frees my hands.

[ScreenR (online screen capture)]

Indeed, it's great to have a proliferation of tools that makes it easier to get into creating. Just a couple years ago, I didn't know it'd be possible for a webapp to record your screen (with your permission, of course).

One thing I'd encourage is to download local backups whenever possible. Some of these sites have looked promising, then ran out of money or disappeared for one reason or another. Which is a huge pain if you refer to your screencasts in other places, only to have them redirect for viewers to somewhere you don't approve. For example, screenjelly.com was "suddenly" replaced by some sports site awhile ago. So, for transient, on-the-fly, quick-to-make screencasts, I mainly use Jing with screencast.com which is reputable, but if I have an eye on something being useful months from now, I upload to YouTube.

More desktop apps should make it easy to upload to YouTube (or your preferred video site — Vimeo and blip.tv are also popular amongst Residents).

[REALLY noob question! Can other people mod your stuff in sandboxes?]

Giving away items in Linden sandboxes, including "buy for L$0" freebies, is fine. What's not allowed is selling up a for-profit store.

And yes, if you set an object to sell as Original, the person who buys it will take ownership of the object inworld, wherever it is — they don't need to rez it from their inventory. If you made the object and want to give them unrestricted abilities to modify, make sure all permissions are checked.

And if you make something in a sandbox and just want others to be able to move it around, check the Anyone: Move checkbox as shown in the screenshot. The Anyone: Copy one is a bit more tricky, since that needs to explicitly be enabled for all objects and their contents or it won't work, and there's no green light confirming when this is done. So in the past, I've had to test on an alt, and in my frustration, usually resorted to For Sale as a freebie instead.

[Who made the COOL robot avatar showing in the welcome page of the Second Life Marketplace?]

Raul, delighted you asked. That's a great screencap with annotation — Skitch?  That robot is "Sani", a sneak peak at and part of our forthcoming collection of new starter avatars which also includes the tiger on the cake. I don't have a date of release but Renn Yifu, the robotmaker Linden Lab's Experience Design Team worked with, has stylistically related, badass Marketplace goods you may wanna check out in the meantime.

DOES COMPUTE.

[Could use some tips on the new Avatar Physics UI]

@Chelsea No offense taken. Besides, I'm more of a Muppets fan myself. It's not easy being green and pink, you know?

Another useful tip that's overlooked is to change your camera so that you see the front of your avatar as you're walking, jumping, and doing other stuff inworld so you have a better idea how others are seeing you:

[Check out these cool Second Life 8th Birthday exhibits!]

Every year we celebrate Second Life's birthday, there's a lot to see and do. Want to get an easy overview of some of the coolest stuff at SL8B? Check out the Destination Guide's SL8B category, where your Editorial Team has awesomely curated some of the hottest spots. It's a fast way to get a preview before you teleport in — especially considering that some places are initially going to be packed.

Is your SL8B exhibit not listed? Submit it to us!

Party on, like, totally.

[who is the oldest avatar (not a linden employee or alt of) that is still playing sl?]

My wife is still in SL. Ravenelle Feaver, rezdate of December 13, 2002. Although she mainly uses her Ravenelle Zugzwang account now. And what has got her interested lately? Why, the new graphical lighting + shadows eye candy, as shown on her Flickr stream! I always had a thing for older women...

And yes, Steller Sunshine is still around. She's a living SLegend. Incidentally, her beanstalk appears on one of the new login screens, shown in a "fresh light". My way of tipping my hat in respect to these early creators:

[New residents: Appearance making first impressions.]

I believe common consensus is that the spiky/clumpy system mesh hair is a sure sign of noobness, or you have a non-realistic avatar which it suits well. (Or you're a griefer, haha.)

A tough thing for some is balancing chat between inworld open chat and IMs. IMs to me can be like a cellphone or getting distracted doing texting, where your focus is drawn away from the immediate space in front of you, and transported remotely. So I've learned to be more conscious of that over time.

The wearing weapons thing is interesting: I once was discouraged by my managers from bearing arms early in my Linden days — unless I was in an explicit combat area — but after that, I've got numerous compliments. But then again, I usually didn't have a gun drawn and cocked forward, and it was holstered or my hand was holding it downwards. So there's that subtle body language which isn't immediately apparent to control.

I'm so guilty of "annoying movement"; I'm a rabid camscanner and either move my camera all over the place when talking to someone to get some great photographs, or I like to pace in circles. I've been called out on it a few times to the tune of, "Torley! Why are you going away in the middle of our conversation, that's so rude..." *blush*

Oh, and HAVE YOUR PROFILE FILLED OUT. EXPRESS YOURSELF TO BE FASCINATING. NOTHING SADDENS ME MORE THAN A BLANK PROFILE. IT'S LIKE A BLANK CANVAS. UNLESS YOU'RE JAMES FRANCO... UNACCEPTABLE.

Okay, shouting is rude too.