New World Notes

Watch: How to Create Great SL Images Even on Low Graphic Settings

Here's a super useful tutorial from Second Life YouTube star Cassie Middles, who shows you how to shoot and then post-process a great Second Life image even with SL settings turned down low. Check out her levels and the resulting pic below:

Cajsa’s Daily SL Flickr Pick: Candy Gunpowder Uses Fashion & Decor Shot to Tell Intriguing Stories

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“Ｉ ｓｏｌｅｍｎｌｙ ｓｗｅａｒ ｔｈａｔ Ｉ＇ｍ ｕｐ ｔｏ ｎｏ ｇｏｏｄ" from Autumn Rose (who signs her images with her SL name, Candy Gunpowder) is a creative homage to Harry Potter’s Marauder’s Map. How appropriate that her blog is called Her Wild Free Heart. She tells an entire story with just two items, worn out shoes and a map. A bokeh overlay add a bit of fantastical whimsy.

Cassie's Clips: How to Add Natural Light, Color Burns & Overlays to Your Screenshots With Photoshop

After a brief but much missed absence, Cassie Middles (don't forget to subscribe) is back on New World Notes with a new Photoshop tutorial for enhancing your screenshots: Adding natural light, as well as color burns and overlays.

"A good tip is to check out Deviant Art for stock lighting and vectors you can use in your photos. Please always make sure to read their licensing to see if it's okay to use, or if you need to use credits as well! The one included in this video was free to use, with no credit needed or any rules." (Link below.)

 

"A lot of these techniques are trial and error, working on figuring out which blending would look best with the overlay you use. I decided to use color burn with a lowered opacity on mine! It's always fun to try new things and mess with lighting or editing tips! When in doubt though, ctrl+J! it always makes a new layer that you're working on, helping you be less stressed about messing up, and more inspired to take some chances and experiment! But the main new things I've been enjoying work with are:

• Selective color, making skin look a bit more realistic and less red or yellow.
• Color overlay or color burn. This is effective when messing with the blending layers, making it overlay neatly.
• I used color dodge for this one.
• I also have been having fun with more dramatic shadows and grays.

More tips and resources after the break:

Cajsa’s Flickr Pick Of The Day: Akira Voorhees' Cyberpunk Tribute to Freedom

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

So, this is an individual photo that caught my eye, not just because I like it but because the title really speaks to the moment. 'Freedom is for sale if you give them control' by Akira Voorhees seems to leave the question of who they are open, but does it really? The little objects that surround the subject could be called bots. Bots have become an important influencer on people's behavior through advertising and social media. Stories of people talking about something and suddenly seeing ads for it on Facebook speak to an internet of things that seem to cater to our wishes, but is that catering a form of control? Is freedom for sale? 

Voorhees' image credits on her blog.

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.

Cassie's Clips: Singing "Winter Wonderland" While in SL's Winter Project

Braving the cold, New World Notes YouTube correspondent Cassie Middles warms up her lilting and lovely vocal cords with a Christmas-time classic while touring The Winter Project in Backdrop City. (More about the Project on Strawberry Singh's blog.)

Happy holidays from NWN! See you after the presents are opened.

Cassie's Clips: Cutie Collective's Holiday Ho Ho Hunt for SL Bargains -- And Bringing Back Mainstore Events!

NWN Cassie Middles has a peek at the Cutie Collective's new holiday-themed hunt for bargain shoppers in search of great content -- and as she puts it, aims to help reverse a worrying trend in the Second Life economy:

"Ho Ho Hunt is an amazing hunt to the grid that is bringing events back to the mainstores. There's been a slight epidemic lately where stores really only make profit at major events, making it hard for their other products to be known, making creators constantly only work on deadlines for projects, and feel pressure. I'd love to see more hunts like this that might help people relax, help new people discover stores, including the fact that new SLers can find cheaper items to make their avatars look updated and wonderful."

Click here to directly teleport, and look for this storefront to get started:

Cassie's Clips: How to Improve Your SL Performance Despite Heavy Mesh

As we've been discussing, Second Life mesh, especially the most popular avatar bodies, tend to be extremely resource heavy, causing you (and everyone around you) low FPS, unrezzed graphics, or what's colloquially called LAG. Unless and until Linden Lab starts curbing this excess, watch this great tutorial by NWN's Cassie Middles, who explains some tips on improving your SL performance. Top tips include:

Cassie's Clips: Walkthrough of Blogotex, the Online Management System for Second Life Fashionistas

Courtesy NWN YouTube correspondent Cassie Middles, here's a hands-on walkthrough of Blogotex, the quirky name of a cool and useful web service for SL fashionistas, especially bloggers:

"Blogotex is a good alternative to blogger groups if you're ever low on group space in Second Life," as Cassie explains. "Even with a Premium subscription, I used to run out of room and would have to leave one group to join another. Aside from event groups, this is where most of my blogger items come from now. They list all new releases and normally what events they're for, or Flickr links. You can grab a limited amount and blog them, post your blog posts there to be able to grab more. You can also get redeliveries of items if needed." The delivery system, which deposits items directly into a user's SL inventory, is a particularly cool feature. There's also some new-ish features which expand on the platform's power:

Cassie's Clips: Important Etiquette Tips for SL Shoppers & Merchants

Among the reasons given for the apparent SL recession that we're currently in, is the high levels of drama and social strife among merchants and consumers. So NWN's Cassie Middles and some of her friends are here to lay down some basic principles of etiquette and best practices -- watch above. Guidelines include:

• Treat others how you wish to be treated
• Customers and designers are people too.
• Check merchants profiles and see who to contact [with questions]. "The designer might not answer because they have a person who would.
• Say Please and Thank You. "I cannot emphasize this enough."
• Please try to contact a designer first before writing a bad review. They might be very happy to help fix the issue [you're complaining about].
• Don't jump straight to anger. "Be polite, kind, and considerate. You'll get much better results than anger ever would."

Most of these principles, discerning readers might have noticed, are equally applicable to real life. Except when it comes to contacting an SL merchant, that's pretty unique and ridiculously counter-intuitive:

Cassie's Clips: Holiday Shopping Tips - Equal 10 & Lelutka Powder Pack

Just in time for the long US holiday weekend, NWN's Cassie Middles has some shopping tips from Equal 10 and Lelutka:

"Equal 10 is an event that caters to both genders, filled with stores of all types and opens on the 10th of each month."

And Lelutka?