Azaiya Aeon’s plan for an SL screenshot was posted to Plurk seeking volunteers.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
I am always interested in how people go about shooting their Second Life-based photos. Do they hop on a posestand and click through until something appeals? Do they construct a scene or wander around until the come across one? When Azaiya Aeon whose scary mer-creature was featured recently, posted a request for volunteers for a photo she was shooting for a vendor ad for Cynefin (her store) and posted a mock-up of her plan, I was eager to learn more about her process.
Azaiya’s photos range from the fantastical pictures that display her creations for Cynefin to candid daily life snaps and microblogging fashion pics. For me, it is fascinating to the see the thought process that goes into creating her photos, her advice for taking pictures, and how she found her love of mer-critters:
“Bound Spirit” by Azaiya Aeon. The initial image for this vendor picture.
What’s your favorite of your own photos? How did you come to make it? What were you trying to express?
There’s an image I made of a girl meeting a dryad in the woods on an early winter’s night. It was originally meant to show off a sculpture I made (the dryad), but I felt like the scene came together well and the photo captured exactly what I intended: a solemn moment between these two unidentified characters with a hint of either sadness or possibly expectancy.
Could you describe your process for shooting a photo?
I come from a 3D arts background, so I don’t even think of SL photography as… photography? For me, SL is just another rendering engine in which I can arrange objects and light them to create a specific image. It has a large library of inexpensive objects you can kitbash together quickly to make something that looks pretty okay!
Much more below -- including the final image for the sketch above!
“Bathed in Moonlight” by Azaiya Aeon. In the description she credits Anya Ohmai’s tutorial featured on NWN here and her own Projection Lighting Kit which provides the lighting beneath the lilies.
What inspires your love of mermaids and mermaid roleplaying?
I've been obsessed with mermaids since I was little. The draw is still something I don't totally get? If I had to articulate the reasons, they would be: One, affinity with the ocean (we used to go every summer when I was little and being near it still brings me great peace); two, mermaids being a sort of icon of gender fluidity/androgyny; three, the duality of them being something beautiful that can also be unexpectedly powerful or dangerous. They are not always what they appear to be at first glance. Those are all concepts which resonate with me strongly for various reasons.
To be frank, I've never been heavily into roleplay — I have a very short attention span and I write slowly. Roleplay sims were just the most interesting builds to hang out in as a mermaid, and I really enjoyed seeing the variety of avatars around those sorts of places.
How would you describe your aesthetic?
“Competent”? I don’t think I’m doing anything special, just trying to apply concepts of art fundamentals to my images for SL: readable composition, a good range of tonal values, vibrant color, and to communicate some idea or narrative, subtle or direct.
Who are your influences?
This is hard for me to answer! See, I’d love to be cool and pretend that I know lots of artists dead and alive, but really most of my visual library was built growing up on the internet and just saving thousands of photos of stuff that I like usually without any identifiers or context — mermaids, magical realism, fashion/couture, old earthy things, Japan (where I lived for a while). I just try to make things that I like.
"The Nereids" by Azaiya, original image for this vendor picture.
Here’s my usual process:
- Draw thumbnails of my idea. I want to make sure the composition is visually interesting.
- Build a rough pass of the scene in SL. Sometimes I use a pre-made backdrop, sometimes I create my own set with various assets.
- Using a HUD that lets me lock and save camera positions, I find the angle I’d like to photograph the scene from.
- I then begin arranging characters (well, poseballs) and additional objects in the scene while checking them from the saved camera view. (I haven’t found a way to totally lock the camera while editing objects, which is a bit of bother. Please contact me if you know how!)
- I start shooting multiple photos. I use a method that’s a variant of something from the 3D/vfx world called multi-pass compositing. Basically I take different “render passes” of the scene where my lights, shadows, and colors are separated so I can control how they mix individually. I use a bunch of techniques to do this. The short explanation is: play around with windlight a whole lot!
- I also shoot photos using the Black Dragon Viewer which has some very nice tools for captures (not to mention deferred lighting).
- I composite everything in Photoshop in multiple stages. I’m sure there are some popular tutorials about how to do this on YouTube!
- (By the way! Sometimes I also just shoot random photos and I don’t worry about any of this stuff, or leave out some parts of the process depending on much time I want to spend.)
What advice do you have for SL artists? Any tips or tricks?
- Learn how to use your viewer’s photo tools. There’s all kinds of tweaks you can do that can produce interesting effects. I’m still finding new stuff!
- Play with lights and projectors. Projectors especially! You can do a lot with lights as limited as they are.
- Use a camera HUD that can save multiple positions and experiment with different angles in your scene. Even small adjustments can make a big difference!
Who are some of your favorite artists?
In no order:
- Forest Rogers
- Masaaki Yuasa
- John Singer Sargent
- Alphonse Mucha
- Akihiko Yoshida
- Sabin Howard
- Kauzma Kaneko
What brought you to Second Life? What kept you here?
I’ve always been interested in dioramas, models, sets, and things like that. As a child video games introduced me to these rich 3D worlds that were kind of like stepping into a realization of someone’s imagination. Eventually I realized I liked hanging out in and building imaginary worlds a whole lot more than playing a game. SL was exactly that — a chill space where I could just dress up my character and go hang out in interesting places.
What kept me here were nice people that appreciated my work and shared my interests.
How has Second Life changed your life?
It helped me explore aspects of my identity which I didn’t really have opportunities to in my “first” life. Basically it helped me grow a better understanding of myself as a person. It still is!
On a practical level, it’s given me an opportunity to create 3D content and (potentially) support myself with a job in the 3D industry that isn’t at a VFX or game company (neither of which is something that appeals to me).
What do you want people to know about you?
I used to be really embarrassed about Second Life, for years! I hid it from all my friends. I still think it’s really dumb? But also really cool! The past year I underwent a sudden growth spurt of maturity and realized that it’s okay to like what you like. (I’m sure that seems trite to a lot of people, but it was a big deal for me!) Being honest is much more liberating than keeping things in your chest, and honestly most friends I’ve shared my experiences in SL with didn’t react negatively at all.
Anyway, I think virtual worlds/avatars are great tools for developing identity and self-exploration, and even when Second Life eventually fizzles out, I hope there’s something similar, because humans young and old need tools like this. I feel thankful for being born in the age of the internet!
For more info or to find Azaiya Aeon on social media:
Cajsa Lilliehook joined Second Life in 2007 and has been enjoying the art of SL ever since. Disliking the common practice of critiquing poor photos, she decided to highlight good ones and explain why they work in hopes of inspiring with praise instead of criticism. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.
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