Cristiano Midnight

March 19

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

How do you like the "Tan" / "Sand" combo, a few posts above yours?

That is nice as well - I missed it scrolling down.

March 19

The first and second shades on the first post are best. The darker and lighter tones don't work as well with the mane.

March 16

On 3/14/2024 at 11:14 AM, Ajay McDowwll said:

I'm Premium Plus and I still get 38 attachment points; Cristiano, I have no idea how you got so fortunate, but I salute you

I had no idea there was even a difference until a friend complained they were out of attachments. I am thankful for the extra attachments, though I don’t come close to even 38 most of the time.

March 14

3 hours ago, Jennifer Boyle said:

Mostly, 38 is enough, but occasionally it isn't, usually when, in addition to all of the usual things, I am wearing multiple items that have texture-change HUDs. I don't need to wear those HUDs continuously, but I do need them when I first don the outfit, and I know of no other way to attach them conveniently than to include them in the outfit.

I used to include huds in my outfits, but I find that it is easier to just right click on the item I want the hud for in my Wearing tab and select Show Original which opens the folder in my inventory window and I can attach the hud. I don't need the hud every time, so it is more convenient just to grab them when I do.

March 14

6 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

Are you sure about 50 attachment points? Remember clothing layers are completely separate. As far as I know, there are 38 attachment spots regardless of your account level.

From the wiki:

Max. # of attachments - 38 combined HUD or body attachments.

They can be viewed by right-clicking your avatar and choosing Edit My Outfit.

With the formal introduction of multiple attachments to a single point in Viewer 2.4, you can attach up to 38 total objects, and they can all be attached to a single point.

With the introduction of the Bento armature, there are 47 attachment points available.

With the introduction of Animesh, there is a limit of 1 Animesh attachment for Basic & Plus members, 2 if the resident has Premium or Premium Plus.

So while there are 47 attachment points you can ONLY attach a maximum number of 38 objects.

This is what it says under Wearing:

March 13

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

For someone like me who is blissfully ignorant, could you help by explaining how being "nude" you still somehow use 20 attachment points?

I can only guess a few: Head, Body, Alpha (if you use an older avatar and need that), Hair, nails, and 2-3 HUDs (head, body, AO)

If they have bom tattoos, skins, hair bases, etc that would add many. Also, the mesh body, head, eyes, teeth, feet depending on wish mesh body, etc would be 10 or so right there.

March 13

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Idea: Premium Plus users should get more attachment points!

Do they not? I have the original lifetime account and have 50 attachment points, I assume premium and premium plus are similar but I admittedly have not looked what they include.

March 12

On 3/9/2024 at 6:21 AM, aht1981 said:

https://gyazo.com/e79600ec8bb7fb2f24d7aadfabf30444

I made the materials in SD. but a good friend took the lighting next level and helped improve the look of the water. It's my attempt at recreating Hammam Al Andalus, though my version is much bigger in scale.

That is stunning! I am excited about the possibilities with PBR. I have been using Substance Painter to churn out new textures. This came out beautifully:

Original texture - not bad, but blurry up close:
https://gyazo.com/c7c63ef1ef7fb278ad53cf3fb267f7db

Replacement in pbr:
https://gyazo.com/153730d43a4684257ba3a3af15252353

This morning I redid the pavement in front of my house:

Original texture on right, new texture on left:

https://gyazo.com/63e5aacf93bec7027806d5abf44434c9

This is the whole road repaved with the new material:
https://gyazo.com/8a115136f159e97fb7a0f364edbc6f4a

I am obsessed now with redoing every texture in my builds. 😱

March 12

15 hours ago, Steve Oval said:

Thanks Cristiano. Mighty generous of you. Been looking around a bit, sandboxes and the like. The dressing rooms in the beginners sims are pretty handy for messing with outfits etc but I might be more comfortable to just upgrade and get one of those free houses. Had a few offers of help in world but yeah, demos of everything is a good point. I'll start at the dollar shops so not much point there. I've everything to learn so best start at the beginning.

One mistake I have seen some new users make is buying a head/body combination off of the marketplace, not realizing the body and head have no support from other creators. Definitely stick to the most popular brands. When you demo things, you can see what gets the most support.

For male bodies, it is Belleza Jake and Legacy (and Kario to a much lesser degree). Jake is a good staring point as it is half off (I think 1500L still). If you go Legacy, avoid Legacy Athletic and just get the regular Legacy. There is not that much difference between therm, but Legacy Athletic has some issues with certain types of clothing if it is not made specifically for Athletic, and it does not have as much support. Avoid Signature Gianni/Davis, as a lot of creators have dropped support for Gianni and Davis has never caught on.

Lelutka dominates in heads with EvoX, though there are a few alternate brands that support EvoX (Akeruka comes to mind). Most of the skins, hair bases and facial hair are for EvoX heads, so that gives you the most options. Lelutka just released a new male head with their latest tech, and they are updating all of their current heads in the next few months.Catwa used to be much more popular, but they lack support now and their HD heads did not catch on. Genus has some new 4k thing, but I was not impressed and again the content available is going to be limited compared to EvoX heads.

Hope that helps if you have not yet settled on a body/head. Demo them all - body, head, body skin, face skin, etc. It takes awhile to find the right combination. You may want to search the marketplace for shapes - they will give you a good starting point for an avatar, and they come the shape usually for Jake and Legacy, with a style card that lists what skins, hair, etc... they used. The body shape does not matter as much, that is easy to tweak, so find a face that you like if you don't want to make one from scratch.

Again, let me know if you need anything - I know this is A LOT.

March 11

23 hours ago, Steve Oval said:

I am returning to SL after a long absence. I have reverted to a stock free avi as I think everything I have is old and laggy. I don't understand mesh at all and quite frankly I'm not at all interested in understanding it. I would just like to get something that works, looks good enough, has reasonable animations and does not cause too much lag. I have no real idea as to budget but am open to all suggestions. I have tried looking in shops and via search in-world but due to my lack of knowledge and understanding I find it impossible. I would greatly appreciate any information, referrals, links, whatever I may need to find what I'm looking for with the minimum need to understand all the ins and outs of it all. Just a click and wear sort of approach.

Thanks Steve.

I was in the same situation when I returned to SL in 2019 after being out for 10 years for the most part. I came back when BoM was not yet a thing on the main male or female bodies, and appliers confused the hell out of me. My avatar was not even mesh, but my friend bullied me until I got one lol. I blew through 400k L$ I had from selling off land in about 2 days. Then BoM came along and my avatar turned red and I had to scour the internet to figure out why. SL is complicated AF, and now we have so many new things to deal with, the latest being PBR. If you need any help, feel free to look me up. My 21st anniversary in SL is coming up in May, so if nothing else, I have pretty much seen it all (and wish I could forget some of it). Just make sure you DEMO EVERYTHING. A lot of creators can be a bit deceptive with their promo images and every shape reacts a bit differently anyway. If you need any clothing or other recommendations, let me know.

March 11

Creating a titanic themed image for a friend inspired me to create one of my own. In the movie, "Nearer My God To Thee" is being played on the violin as the ship is sinking. The anniversary is April 15th, which will mark 112 years. The film recently also had its 25th anniversary in 2023. This was created in Gencraft with a hyperrealistic model and a watercolor style.

March 9

This was an interesting experiment. I used Chat GPT to reverse engineer a friend's image, and then the results I got were amusing on the final image with my avatar lol.

Here was the original:

Chat GPT said this:

The image displays a grayscale digital artwork depicting a sculpted male figure with a realistic, muscular build, reminiscent of classical marble statues. He has well-defined abs, pecs, and arms, with a subtle shadowing that enhances the three-dimensional effect. The man's face is in profile with chiseled features, sharp jawline, and tousled, medium-length hair. Two doves add life to the composition; one is perched gracefully on his shoulder, wings spread as if it just landed, while the other rests gently in his cupped hand. The background is a plain, light gray, putting the focus on the figure and the birds. The overall aesthetic is peaceful and harmonious.

I fed that prompt with a few changes into Gencraft, and it didn't go quite as planned, but the result amused me lol.

Honorable mention:

March 7

Bloom (created for a spring themed photo contest - Gencraft/Adobe Firefly/Fotor)

March 6

Lately I have fallen down the rabbit hole of creating pbr materials with Substance Painter and also Materialize, and now that a certain 3rd party viewer is testing pbr in beta I have started to retexture some things at my home as I create materials for it. Recently I undertook retexturing the walls and floor of my pool and also my pool deck. The bottom of the pool has a glass facade tile, the walls have a black ceramic tile, and the deck has a mosaic tile.

Facade tile: https://gyazo.com/4502a579baa4503ee3e43a0a10031d1b

Ceramic tile: https://gyazo.com/c2d513499dd76135cdd564b237ec3946

Retiled pool: https://gyazo.com/1a6d4bf83d0e007546b548da306927fa

Mosaic tile:https://gyazo.com/1257502c72f4e8bca174e065d81317f9

Retiled pool deck https://gyazo.com/58c6f60022f4613090a586b3a66138c4

I never thought I would get excited about texturing after 21 years in SL (and teaching texturing classes in 2003 - eek), but pbr materials do excite me, I am really looking forward to seeing them more broadly used in SL in the future, and to see what improvements continue to be made to them.

March 6

If you want a free alternative to both, check out Materialize:

https://boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/

Additionally, the GLTF Packer tool is also free and perfect to use with it to create importable pbr materials for SL instead of having to combine channels in Photoshop/etc..:

https://aiaicapta.in/gltf-packer/

February 28

February 28

Could anyone recommend a good tutorial on using Avastar for rigging clothing in Blender? I am working on some clothing for men, I have the body dev kits, but I am struggling a bit with it. Any help would be appreciated. ⭐

February 27

Instagram challenges keep me occupied with AI lol:

(Gencraft, Adobe Firefly)

February 16

6 hours ago, Wesley Spengler said:

🤣 I didn't see that in the last one until you mentioned it! So true.

All were just plain Leonardo.ai. Unfamiliar with the tool, and limited to the free allocation of tokens, I was sort of guessing at what to put in the prompts or settings, apart from setting image-to-image mode as the blogs (New World Notes, etc.) have noted.

I've played some with Adobe's Firefly, which I know you've been incorporating too, and so far, the results aren't worthy of sharing. This is a lot of fun though, and you've gotten some particularly amazing results.

SL, our avatars, etc. have always sort of messed with my brain cells a bit (or a lot). Life-like AI renderings only dial it up more...

Feel free to contact me if you need any advice. I have started integrating AI into all aspects of my RL work (not just image generation), and I am fully immersed in it now (and going a bit nuts). Happy to help - this applies to anyone. Some people can be very proprietary about this stuff, which quite frankly, is stupid. We are all learning, it is a brave new world of our AI overlords.

February 16

23 hours ago, Wesley Spengler said:

After seeing it mentioned a lot the past few days, I decided to try Leonardo myself. Interesting, but underwhelmed... Unlike Cristiano Midnight's results, it didn't exactly turn my avatar into the swarthy human cover guy I was hoping for... 🤣 But, fun for those of us who don't have the inclination to dig into the toolsets very deeply.

The three examples were from three different attempts at describing the desired result.