Lusus Saule
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Posts posted by Lusus Saule
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Did you know that 360 degree panoramic images created in Second Life can be uploaded and viewed on YouTube? All you need to do is open the image in a video editing app, extend its play for a minute or two, then export it as an MP4. Now download and use Spatial Media Metadata Injector to insert the relevant metadata into the video, so YouTube will recognise it as a 360 degree movie. Upload the video to YouTube, and you're done. Expect the video to take a while to be fully processed because once its ready it will be in 4K.
The advantage of using YouTube to display 360 panoramas created in Second Life is that, unlike many online platforms its free, and the video is easy to embed on blogs or websites. Also, the panorama can be shown on this forum, whereas panoramas from elsewhere cannot.
The downside is you can't add hotspots to the video as you can when uploading to other 360 panorama websites.
If you'd like more info on 360 panoramas created in Second Life I've written a series of tutorials on my blog. There's also some tutorials on the SL-Inspiration YouTube channel, (excuse the shameless self promotion).
Here's an example of a 360 degree panorama I uploaded to YouTube. Hit play then use your mouse to drag the image around. The video can be paused anytime, and the image still viewed in 360 degrees.
If you're curious about what difference hotspots can make, here's the same image uploaded to Momento360.
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In previous SL-Inspiration tutorials we've covered how to use Second Life images to create desktop wallpapers, both as a gallery of images and as an animated wallpaper.
Another subject we've covered in depth is how to create 360 degree panoramic images in Second Life, the hud you'll need to buy from the Marketplace, and the choice of software needed to stitch the images together.
In this tutorial these two elements are brought together to create a desktop wallpaper using a 360 degree panoramic image created in Second Life.
Click to view the tutorial.
This video shows the 360 panorama used in the tutorial, (The video itself however is not part of the tutorial). Drag the image around as you would with any 360 panorama. When the video is paused the 360 panorama can still be viewed and moved around, although the 'next video' box will probably need to be closed.
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2 hours ago, Doris Johnsky said:
and could not get it to open
You just need to double click the icon in the unzipped Awesome Wallpaper folder, as mentioned in the blog post.
It might be that you think Awesome Wallpaper didn't open, but the icon is hidden on the taskbar. Click on the up arrow [^] to the right of your taskbar, and you may see the Awesome Wallpaper icon there. If its there, right click on it and select 'Settings' to open the Awesome Wallpaper configuration window.
I hope this helps.
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This is probably not what people have in mind for this topic, but this is a close up portrait of sorts I created some time ago now.
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Creating desktop wallpapers is a good way to share Second Life images, and may provide an opportunity for some people to sell their work. It can also be a unique way for store holders, club owners and any Second Life enterprise to project themselves to clients and patrons.
An easy way to display Second Life desktop wallpapers as a gallery of images, or as an animated wallpaper is by using Awesome Wallpaper, which is free to download and use. Read the blog post on SL-Inspiration to find out more.
This short video is an example of an animated desktop wallpaper created in Second Life.
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Using colour palettes to generate harmonious colour schemes is a time saving process when creating digital imagery and graphics, and is especially useful when the same set of colours need to be used on a number of projects.
A basic example of this could be graphics used to brand a club or store. Once the colour scheme has been established, a palette makes it easy to add the same colours to new logos, posters and whatever else comes to mind.
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6 minutes ago, Harmony Evergarden said:
The new Blind Frog Blues Nightclub is looking for good Djs and can give you all the sets you want. Grand opening March 6, but I bet you can start prior to that date. Contact Eddie Vinesco (pjlongdriver) in world. If you go by the club, you can pick up an application. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Great Plains/49/198/23
Thank you Harmony. I saw the notices posted about the Blind Frog club, and kept them in mind. The only thing that stopped me from contacting them so far is I already have a blues set elsewhere and would like some variety. The club does seem promising though so will contact Eddie soon.
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I have around 5-6 years experience DJ-ing in Second Life, and I'm looking for one or two new clubs to gig at.
A friendly, relaxed and fun atmosphere always makes the job more enjoyable. Small clubs are prefered because its easier to engage with people - so long as they're not mostly empty.
Genres include rock/alternative/blues.
My time is GMT (SLT +8)
My auto DJ stream will give you a rough idea of some of the rock and alternative I play, (Ihaven't set the stream up for other genres yet), although there are a few tracks here clearly not too suitable for many clubs.
Not interested in working for BDSM, Gor or escort clubs.
IM or NC me (Lusus Saule) if you'd like to chat.
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'that pays well'.
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This year's festive jigsaw puzzle from SL-Inspiration is a little different in that its a small planet scene. The image was taken at Dreamers, which offers a great Christmas scene to help immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the season.
This jigsaw puzzle is available to download and keep, so you can solve it in your own time, or you can play it on the SL-Inspiration page.
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2 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:
Now tell me. One. More. Time. Black Dragon needs a high end PC.
Sorry to tell you that Black Dragon does use up a lot of PC resources. As I have said its brilliant for taking SL pics, but in my experience the settings have to be high to do this, and thats when its likely to crash a PC with moderate specs. I'm not criticising your viewer, just stating facts. My PC has an i5 processor, 12GB RAM and an Nividia 760 card. I use this because I can't presently afford to get a better PC. If I open Black Dragon and tweak settings to take decent photos the frame rate will go down to single figures and the viewer will eventually crash. If I don't tweak the settings in order to get good pics, then there's no point in using the viewer.
Reading through your response to Admin Girl, I have edited this to add that Black Dragon will crash a lot sooner than for example Firestorm.
Sadly I have to tell you that I have no intention of stopping my tutorials, mainly because I think you are wrong. It seems according to your view unless someone follows your way of doing things they are wrong and their images will therefore be poor. Thats not they way things work I'm afraid. All you can expect of anyone is for them to work with what they have, try to arm themselves with as many tools as possible, and use them mindfully. As I have said before, the only thing that matters is the final image.
I also won't stop writing tutorials because I try to look between the cracks and share information that others don't. For example, I was pretty much the first person to develop a reliable way to create 3D images from SL pics, and I also developed a way to focus/blur an image (before depth maps could be created in viewers). I also worked on a reliable way for people to create 3D images on Facebook. As well as this, I have created wallpaper tutorials, and shown how to create seamless, scrolling panoramas from SL images that can be viewed on the desktop and/or used as screensavers.
I have also shown how using 360 degree panoramic images created in SL can be used to present a tour of a location, and embedded if needed on a website.
https://poly.google.com/view/ajrGRiKpRdt
This came in useful when someone I knew in SL passed away and I could create a record of their land before LL cleared it. Using the same tools I created this a few Halloweens ago, (view fullscreen):
https://momento360.com/#ud/64956315192445f5bad609d8d9f63257
I've also created a series of tutorials covering different software for people who want to DJ in SL, some tutorials on using vector graphics, and I'll soon be creating tutorials on machinima and video editing software.
None of this may be hugely important, but my aim is to demonstrate there are different ways to look at and do things, which in turn I hope encourages people to experiment a little. Second Life offers all sorts of possibilities and not everyone needs to follow well trodden paths.
Having said all of that, this is all a side interest because my real focus is creating art both inside and outside of SL.
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14 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:
Exactly. SL offers so much control over everything that there would be no point in editing pictures in post. To me, taking raw pictures and making them look the way you want without editing them requires a lot more skill than simply editing anything in you want the picture to contain. Imagining the final picture and having the composition and the picture right is one thing but getting it right the first time around (e.g without post editing) rather than simply shooting a half-baked image and "fixing" all woopsies later is much close to real skilled photography. It requires extensive knowledge of how, why and when what settings work, also of course some imagination in case something doesn't work or goes the way you want it. Depth of Field for instance has a neat trick where you can turn its values negative to create a sobel sharpen like effect. Combine that with greyscale and you get a really cool looking stylized cartoon look.
That would be me then. I absolutely hate "photoshopping" digital imagery. Any type, not just SL but SL has been the biggest thorn in my eyes because in SL its not just used to get rid of your little ugly imperfections in your face or make your already thicc thunder thighs even thiccer to be attractive to some weird standards, in SL its so commonly used as substitute for lack of skill/expertise, patience or will to go through with actually learning how to make your pictures better in-world. It boils my blood hearing "doesn't matter, i can just fix it in post"... just NO. No... just because you can "just fix it in post" doesn't mean its an excuse for doing an half-assed job. If you'd just put some more time into your pictures you wouldn't be needing to fix them in post, you might even find something that you couldn't do in post (due to lack of knowledge with the image editing program).
Being able to fix something in post has been such a huge and misused excuse for laziness and inexperience that it has started to hurt me (not physical but you know what i mean), i have sworn to fight it even if it meant i have to spend an hour with someone to explain some improvements that could be done and how. It's not the first time i've done this and not the last, i often spend a good chunk of time with single users to help them, regardless of what the issue may be.
Theresa is right, i do have a blog and i do have my own Viewer which you also use and mentioned in your post (which is the reason i got here in the first place). Although the reason i wrote something is that you basically praise Black Dragon for its enhanced image quality but then sort of "discard" it as not (meaningful) enough to warrant not editing the picture. Rather than the usual approach of slam dunking someone face-first into the concrete for daring to mention Black Dragon and Photoshopping together i went for something more constructive and explain why sharpening is bad and possibly how your goals of making an image "pop" can be achieved in-Viewer because i'm pretty sure it can be done. After all i'm here to help and find a solution that doesn't involve simply "cheating" it in post. I haven't YET started to be negative.
Which brings me to:
I think you misunderstood. I specifically quoted that very part where you claimed that i ripped parts of your image without your permission. Such a statement is so wrong on so many levels and i was thinking of dropping the niceness right there and then.
It made you look like your average big company content creator (you know the names) who make you sign a laughable contract to sell your soul and that of your mom to the devil in order to be evaluated for being ALLOWED to make mods or even addons to their product and will blacklist and sabotage you if they for some reason feel like you are not playing by their rules, be it offering better quality or not being a capitalistic douche like they seemingly require you to be.
I absolutely hate such people. This has nothing to do with growing up, these people are pure toxic to the community and content creation in general. They are like Bethesda trying to monetize mods for Skyrim again.
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To come back to the previous quote: I do have a blog and i do write some tutorials sometimes but the problem with tutorials is the same as with writing a wiki for the Viewer, the Viewer evolves and changes over time, sometimes radical changes, sometimes not. I don't like writing tutorials for fleeting subjects which is why i generally write very little tutorials, only for things i know are set in stone and will never change. The problem with tutorials on how to do "good" pictures is that there is really no guide on how to do a good picture, a good picture is something each situation, person and goal defines differently, you can't just smack some sliders up and expect it to be good (thats a big mistake a lot of people do). Each scene can have a different set of goals, some easy, some nigh impossible. Each goal changes what is needed for the image to be considered "good", a tutorial would show one way, one of many and it would show your way but the reality is everyone has to find their own way, their own style and putting something so open in a tutorial is quickly going to blow up the scope of said tutorial, its much easier to let people explore options themselves and help them whenever they need help by giving them suggestions how to achieve a desired effect. This is why i haven't made a tutorial on how-to nice pictures. Trust me i would, if i could but i would never be happy with it. I really appreciate when people take the time to attempt this although more often than not they just give out a lot of misinformation, giving suggestions for bad decisions or options to change.
I really can't be bothered to read all this. All I saw was that I mentioned your viewer in my oringal comment. You would have noticed then that I said Black Dragon makes a difference with improving images. In fact it has a brilliant reputation for this. I also said that it consumes a lot of PC resources, which means those that don't have a high end PC can't use it. The very fact that I mentioned Black Dragon is a good for SL photography, pretty much undermines everything you've said.
I also think that the fact you took the time to needlessly piss all over my post shows quite a dregree of mean spiritedness.
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Klytyna Resident 🤣
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9 hours ago, Doc Carling said:
That picture is a good example. I bet many think it's an epic fail. 😀
Everything about it is a deliberate choice though.
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9 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:
This reminds me of people who decry the use of photoshop like tools on digital imagery, citing the work of Ansel Adams for "purity". Ansel was a madman in the dark room, doing all manner of manipulations to the negatives and prints to get the effect he wanted.
Unlike RL, SL affords tremendous control over the composition of a shot before taking it. Don't like the color of the sky? Change it. Don't like the color of the sunlight? Change it. My photography, whether SL or RL, is generally just that. I attempt to record what I see, as faithfully as possible. Outside of astrophotography, I very rarely have use for sharpening, particularly since I store my output in JPG, or now HEIF, where sharpening can invite compression artifacts.
It surprises me to hear some people decry the use of Photoshop and similar software, since professional photographers tend to use raw image files which need to be edited. I'm just wondering if you use raw image files for your RL photgraphy? I'm sure you know better than me that Jpegs have already lost a lot of information, so its not suprising if issues arise through sharpening etc.
I think some of what you say goes to the heart of the issue here. Not wanting to put words into her mouth, but I think Niran may be considering SL snapshots as images, but since I use photo manipulation software, to some extent I treat them as faux photographs. This has proved an effective approach for many SL photographers over the years, but everyone has their own methods. Its a case of whatever works for you.
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2 hours ago, Talligurl said:
"Belonging and connecting with others requires being open about who you are and allowing a level of vulnerability and trust."
And many of us to some extent come to SL as an escape from RL, and bring trust issues with us. It is these issues at least in part that lead to our need of an escape. So we get here and have a hard time trusting, and that lack of trust makes it hard to create meaningful friendships, so many of the same issues we deal with in RL, that we come here to escape, follow us here. I never really thought about it that way before but I think it's true.
I've found many people who may have mental health issues in RL, see Second Life as a huge benefit. It can be a social setting that they would otherwise be unable to experience, and a way of personal expression without feeling as vulnerable. For some it can be a means of leaving behind some of the mental health issues they live with in RL. I can however think of a few people I have met in SL whose behaviour has been quite challenging.
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1 hour ago, Doc Carling said:
I think one can't see pictures just from a technical standpoint. Especially when it comes to artistic ones. What some viewers consider as "bad" or "ruined" might be actually the photographers personal style.
I agree completely. I come at image making from a ffine art point of view, and in the final analysis it the image that matters. I break rules and break images too lol
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15 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:
What "I" use instead is a feature called High Pass Sharpen which I believe is something akin to the title in this thread (I have never used GIMP)
You're right, the tutorial is about how to use the high pass filter in Gimp. Gimp offers a number of ways to sharpen images.
I think its worth pointing out, no one is pointing a gun at anyone's head and saying sharpen your images. But in spite of what one naysayer here may think, it is a very useful tool when working on images.
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2 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:
I'll kindly ignore that otherwise this will end up in a fight.
If people want to use filters they will. If you don't want to then don't .Its a free world full of choices. Rather than trying to undermine other people's hard work, why not start a blog and go to the trouble of writing a few tutorials on what you percieve to be your expertise. That is much better than infecting other people's content with your negativity.
What you call visible effects of sharpening are in this example banding. That is caused by gradients in colour, as you can see in the sky. This has become visible due to editing colour. Sharpening the image doesn't really make it worse, but the effect can be softened by painting out some of the banding that might be visible in the filter layer. There are other ways of reducing banding in images too.
I have already mentioned haloing, which can happen if an image is sharpened too much. It can however be dealt with easily in editing.
In my opinion having as many tools as possible to work on images is a definite plus. Its up to each person to decide what they want to use and what they don't.
As for getting into a fight with me, grow up.
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I think you'll find most SL photographers edit their images. Look at an image's Exif details on Flickr and there's a good chance Photoshop or Gimp will be mentioned. Even if they're not thats no firm indication the images haven't been edited. If however you prefer not to edit your images then keep doing that.
The artifacts you've kindly ripped without persmission from the image I own are not created by sharpening the image. They're caused in this instance by enhancing the colours, which is something I will be investigating. You're right though that in some instances, haloing can be caused when images are sharpened, and I'll be dealing with that in another tutorial soon.
You are definitely wrong however that sharpening an image is pointless. It can make a big difference, although as with everything it depends on the image in question and how its used. The image included here is the original before sharpening. Differences can be seen between this and the image above. They're really not that subtle, although pushing the sharpening too far would ruin the image, and that haloing would come into play.
If you can't see the differences here, go to the tutorial page, scroll to the end and you'll see both versions of the images. You can enlarge each one in turn.
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Taken at Frogmore
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Its always been my experience that raw snapshots taken in Second Life are not as focused as they could be. They tend to be slightly undefined. Taking snapshots with the Black Dragon viewer makes a difference, but can be very impactful on PC resources. Whichever viewer you use, knowing how to sharpen a Second Life photograph is essential, as its one of those select tools that can help make your images pop.
Click here to view the tutorial
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This is a seamless scrolling panoramic image of Cica Ghost's installation in Second Life, called Monsters. The panorama can be viewed on your desktop and used as a screensaver with a small app called WPanorama, which can be downloaded here:
http://www.wpanorama.com/wpanorama.phpIf you would like to use the image with WPanorama it can be downloaded from Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_2PL4szhIthBLzbvIp3VIUuVgPVrSIii/view?usp=sharingI hope you feel inspired to visit Cica's installation by following the Slurl:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zvi/28/102/24To find out how to use WPanorama you can read my blog post:
https://www.sl-inspiration.com/2020/02/create-panoramic-screen-saver-using.htmlThe video can also be seen on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rLla16pY80&feature=youtu.be-
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I don't think this is as different or as new as you think it is. There used to be an inworld TV station run for SL, and there has been a talk radio station dedicated to SL. There may be versions of both still running. A podcast is pretty much the same as the above, just packaged differently. I do wish you luck though.