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Janelle Darkstone

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Posts posted by Janelle Darkstone

    Animated finger digits for mesh hands

    in Animation Forum

    Posted

    I have a pair of prim hands I use for photography.  The HUD does have a feature to cycle through the static poses to give some illusion of natural movement but I really can't imagine wearing them just for that.  I'd guess some people might, though?

    Hopefully someone, somewhere is hard at work making mesh hands that can do this and look more realistic.

    Global Map of Regions

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    Also, it's always been slightly confusing how you might know which continents are which.  I mean, how would you know you're on Zindra?  If not for all the fuss over it back then, how would the average SL person even know what/why/who?

    I always wondered why doesn't the viewer say something like Zindra: RandomSexyAdultSim (128 128 22) in the title bar so you'd know.

    Global Map of Regions

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    I wish such things were clearer.  I remember having my skybox on a small plot of land and TPing to my favorite club every day to hang out.  A couple of months later I realized that club was about 1 1/2 sims away and I probably could have jumped.

    When I first started SL and learned about the mainland, I had a dream that they had massive bridges that connected them and you had to walk from one continent to another and have hundreds of people to meet and chat with on both sides.  Sadly, that's not the case.

    missing mia!

    in Missed Avatar Connections

    Posted

    Mia pushed open the heavy door that led out the back of the lecture hall and blinked in the bright sunlight.  Her shoes crunched in the deep gravel as she trotted toward the computer science building, only a couple hundred feet away when she heard the growl.  A low, rumbling, hissing growl.

    She stopped, the hair standing on the back of her neck as she froze in position, listening.  Turning slowly, she looked over her shoulder to see the Administrator's two pet black panthers he used as sentries, Muck and Adolf.  The big cats had heard the commotion and paused their midday snack to approach unheard, their lithesome bodies and fur shining in the sun.  They eyed Mia lazily, but with unbreaking intent... they were waiting for her to run.

    "You've got to be kidding me,"  Mia muttered under her breath.

    She took a step, tentative, cautious, hesitant, her sneakers making an incredible racket as the gravel shifted and fell around it.  The panthers watched, Adolf licking his lips, his massive whiskers flitting as his tongue wrapped around his fangs and disappeared again into his mouth.  He took a step, too.

    Mia waited until the gravel had stopped compressing beneath her foot and shifted her weight, slowly, until she could lift her other foot and brought it forward, placing it one long, long pace ahead... an unnatural position for anyone who happened to glance out the window and see her.  She might be running in slow motion, but as in all magic tricks could be all but impossible given the law of gravity pulling her down and keeping her honest.  She carefully shifted her balance to her forward foot and paused to take a breath.

    Muck took two steps...

    The gravel scritched beneath her feet as she broke and ran.  The panthers arose from their haunches and settled into a sylphlike canter and then an all-out scramble, their large, soft paws landing easily in the gravel and leaving barely discernible footprints as they gave chase.  Mia was breathing hard, her arms and fists pumping as she ran, her lab coat whipping around her waist.  She couldn't look back -- she didn't NEED to... her mind was focused on reaching the closest opportunity for shelter and sanctuary from the sudden onslaught, a low concrete walkway and a short set of steps leading down to the maintenance room below the science lab.  It wasn't much, she realized, but it was close, and in her heart she knew if she chose to make for the front doors of the lab she'd sooner feel the panthers' claws embedded in her back.

    She reached the guardrail and leapt over it sideways, jumping too far and slamming her right shoulder against the outside brick wall of the lab, the rough surface tearing at her blouse and leaving deep abrasions in her skin.  The panthers were close, Adolf rumbling to a stop at the guardrail and chancing a swipe through it, his massive paw only missing Mia's hair by a fraction of an inch.  Mia bounded down the last few steps and grabbed the door handle, the knob turning and pulling open with a groan as she slipped inside and pulled the door closed behind her.

    Darkness.

    Her breath came in rasps and shudders, only broken as she paused to try to swallow, her dry mouth preventing it.  The dull walls in the basement echoed her breathing, even though she could not see she knew the room was empty.

    Mostly empty.

    missing mia!

    in Missed Avatar Connections

    Posted

    "...........focus............. focus!"

    Her eyelids were so heavy, her mind awash in strange, swirling colors and haunting illusions, distant memories, an ache in her skull, pressure, being lost, wait, who was that?  Wha-

    With only a glimmer of consciousness, she lifted her head a few inches above the surface of the steel table and brought it down sharply, harshly, the pain momentarily driving the darkness away.  Through the fog in her mind she was fully aware of the man's footsteps no longer near her but she sensed he was still nearby.  Very close, she knew, and her chest tightened in panic.

    Although in a deep haze, she managed to quietly log out, disable RLV and log back in... cheating her bonds was never her style but circumstances were a bit more dire this time.

    Chancing discovery, she opened her eyes only the slightest bit and cautiously glanced about, seeing the man in the lab coat standing at another workstation only a few feet away.  With practiced motion she withdrew her suddenly sore, aching wrists from the manacles, taking a moment to pull the medical tape off and slip the IV needle out, the blood following easily down her arm and dripping on the cold metal surface.  Only a heartbeat later and her ankles were freed, and with a smooth motion brought her hand up and found the derringer hidden in her garter.  A tiny pistol, but she struggled to hold it with both hands as she leveled the sights at the back of the man in the lab coat and glasses.

    "...ffffFBI!  P-put your h-hands up!"  she croaked weakly.  Was that her voice?  She didn't recognize the sounds that came from her own throat, the haze deeply overwhelming and she struggled to stay conscious.

    "...I -- I know!  I know...." she slurred, dreamily.  "this is no s-space camp!  This is... you're ... this is an illegal psychotropic drug manufacturing operation...!"

     

     

    .....but what if it was true?

    She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned sharply, her throat tight.  That was a movie, a stupid movie, stop thinking that!  That's not... it's not even possible... 'Total Recall'... no.... NO.

    It was at this point she questioned if she had daydreamed even waking up.

    I think my account almost got stolen..

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    I stated earlier in the thread that Firestorm came with RLV enabled which appears to be incorrect.  My apologies... I must be one of those people who go through all the preferences on a fresh install and enables RLV without thinking about it.

    In fact, I'm willing to bet I'm one of those people who wishes RLV was more difficult to bypass.  :smileytongue:

    I think my account almost got stolen..

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    It sounds like a RLV thing.  What Abigail was getting at is that someone might've given you an object like a ring, necklace, a rose, etc., and you attached it to your avie.  From that point it's a matter of a couple of mouse clicks for someone else to remove your clothing, attachments and HUDs.  It's just a silly prank and relatively easy to fix.

    Firestorm and Singularity (for example) come with RLV pre-enabled, if you're using one of these alternate viewers.  Let us know which viewer you're using and we can provide instructions on how to disable RLV.

    delete.

    in General Discussion Forum

    Posted

    I'm curious why you're using Gimp at all when you have Photoshop?  Removing backgrounds is easy in PS.

    Yes, since you remove the background, photoshop will have the checkered background to indicate the former background is now a transparent part of the image.  And, like Kenbro said, just drop your own background behind the dress layer and you're set.

    One easy way to remove a green screen from an image is to use the eyedropper to make the green the foreground color, then Select > Color Range and mess with the controls until you get a nice, crisp border, then maybe Select > Modify > Expand one pixel and hit Delete.  Quick and easy.

    One thing; if this is the method you're using in Gimp with a white background, the reason your right side image is fading is because the selection process is taking away a bit of the whiteness from the dress as well(!).  That's one reason to use the nasty green color of a greenscreen.  A quick and dirty fix for that would be to duplicate the dress layer and add it to itself to get some of the color back.

    Hope this makes sense... it's almost 3 am here and I should have been asleep hours ago.

    missing mia!

    in Missed Avatar Connections

    Posted

    It was a bright, sunny day when Mia showed up at the bus station, holding her ticket.  She held one hand over her eyes, shading them against the mid-morning sun and watched the traffic on the roadway pass by, cars of all colors and shapes and sizes and destinations.  She smiled as she knew her own destination, her own personal journey she was undertaking this very day.

    Space camp.

    Mia had always wanted to be an astronaut, from her earliest memory of lying back in the damp grass in her front yard, the nighttime air cool over her face as she looked up at all the stars.  How many, she wondered.  Or did it even matter?  The possibilities were endless, as vast and unexplored as the night sky... and right then and there she knew in her heart she was destined for great things.

    A low rumbling sound interrupted her thoughts, and she looked over to see an arriving bus.  But not the Greyhound bus she had been expecting, but a brightly-colored, almost gaudy, old model GM that came lumbering up and wheezed to a stop, the air in its tanks hissing.  As the dust settled she was able to see the side of the bus and the faded images painted there; "Circus".

    I didn't know the circus was in town, she mused.

    She had always wanted to run away and join the circus, even before she had wanted to be an astronaut.  She recalled images of activity and excitement as the carnival workers would scramble to set up all the tents and how they worked so seamlessly to raise the center pole, the longest, heaviest one and what seemed the most difficult to her, the foreman yelling and cursing all the while as they worked.  The smell of engine grease mixed with the unmistakable scent of baled hay having been battered around and transported from one site to the next.

    And the clowns.

    What had he said?  She struggled to remember, it had been so long ago.  He was tall, handsome, even through the heavy powder on his face.  She had smiled as he came near and noticed the tiny earpiece in his ear.  How odd, she thought, and looked closer.  He caught her stare, smiling through his makeup and then, with only a hint of acknowledgement, leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "It's okay, I'm with the FBI."

    It had been her lifelong dream to become an agent with the FBI, as long as she could remember.  She had applied immediately after high school and been accepted.  She had always suspected she had a good word put in for her by the man she had met so long ago, the handsome clown.  She had worked hard to be where she was now, a secret agent, she was working on yet another undercover mission; infiltrate, evaluate and gather information.  It was one of her favorite things to do and she was good at it.

    Her earpiece buzzed in her ear.  "All good, Agent?  Intel reports the space camp bus will be on site in less than a minute.  Get ready."

    She smiled and brought her hand down, whispering into the tiny microphone at her wrist.  "All good.  Looks like we're on our way."

     

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