New World Notes

New World Tableau: The Buena Vista Resort in Shadows

Yes, Naima Broome took this photo of a hotel resort in Second Life, but no, it wasn't altered afterward in Photoshop.  Instead, Naima created it with SL's unreleased shadow client, which displays dynamic light interaction with objects, and that technology is what created the tree shadows on the walls and the tiles. "Rest," Broome tells me, "is normal as is."  (Note, by contrast, the artificial shadow built into the chair base to Naima's left.) See more of his shadow client-enabled photos of SL on his Flickr stream.  Hat tip: Qarl Linden.

View the entire New World Tableau album here-- and read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

New World Tableau: The "Rancor" of Cienega Soon

Profound in its depth and darkly ornate beauty, Cienega's "Rancor" was inspired by everything that word connotes:  "Trying to see an end to bitterness," she writes to me. "Trying to grasp the moment to turn to the one whose heart is in agony due to a betrayal and lost love. Hearing the cries of wrongs done to them, the wrongs that deserve retaliation. Rancor, is rancidity, bitter deep-seated ill will.  It eats its victim alive."  After taking the screenshot, she wrote the words on the steps in Photoshop, "adjusted the font to fit, then used the clone tool to replace her legs."  She added highlights and a film grain layer to the screenshot, then "a brush with color dodge to highlight the ray of light streaming across."

If it's not too late, you can see some of her other creations in-world at Second Life's fifth anniversary celebration site.  "All the artwork is planted in the ground and leaning on pillars," she says. "Raven, crow, fire, water, music, stars and midnight."  (Direct SLURL teleport at this link.)  There's also more at Cienaga Soon's Flickr stream.  View the entire New World Tableau album here-- and read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

New World Tableau: Clarrice Cinquetti in Hosoi Ichiba

Clarrice created this delicate and painterly image in Hosoi Ichiba, a Japanese-themed shopping locale based on Virgin Island  (direct SLURL teleport at this link), and having just bought a geisha avatar outfit, went searching for a place to suit her new look.  "I change my avatar constantly with no one of them a default. What fun is that? " Using the viewer's WindLight settings, she changed the water to display as Glassy-- "I enjoy having My World look My Way", as she puts it-- then used Gimp to lower the color saturation, for a more realistic look.

See more of Ms. Cinquetti's work on her Koinup profile; view the entire New World Tableau album here-- and read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

New World Tableau: Gigmonger Stine's "What Lies Beneath"

I found Mr. Stine's dark and arresting vision on his Koinup profile.  He took at it, he tells me, at a random fashion show whose details he's long since forgotten.  Since then, he's brought new and ambivalent meanings of his own. 

Much of that came in post-production effects he added to the image:  "In Photoshop, I burned out much of the image in order to increase focus on the subject.  Then I added the shadow of the subject onto the floor."  The next challenge was to show a hint of Second Life's wireframe mesh substrate in one corner.  "As you may know," he says, "there is a key combination that removes all detail from your view in SL, leaving only the underlying wire frames that make up the 3D objects of SL's landscape.  I used this wire method to get a snapshot of the wire mesh.  Then I added a section of the mesh to the bottom-left corner of the image and topped it off by making a 'curled' corner and adding shadowing."

See more of Gigmonger's work on his Koinup account; read on for submitting your own entry to my ongoing New World Tableau series.

New World Tableau: Turlu Tulu In Straylight

Entitled "Karmacoma", this image is currently the most popular in Koinup's Second Life photo stream, attracting dozens of besotted comments in its display thread.  Turlu took it in the lush forest glade of Straylight (direct SLURL teleport at this link), then enhanced it with painstaking post-image Photoshop effects.  "The trick was to use a real life pic of [water] drops and to mix this layer by incrustation," Turlu explains.  He gave the droplets their own layer, then shaped each one individually, depending on its location on his body; some of these areas he further detailed with light and shadow.  For the surrounding water, he added brushstrokes, and light effects.

See more of Turlu's sensual work on his Koinup profile; read on for submitting your own entry to my ongoing New World Tableau series.

New World Tableau: Eves Rodenberger at Steamforge

I found this spectacular, sepia-toned image in Eves' Koinup profile; Eves came across the docked airship in the Steam Forge of FairChang Lost Isle (direct SLURL teleport at this link) "looking like a relict from former times", and decided to age the screenshot accordingly.  "Processing was done with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2," she explains. "The picture went through the Time Machine using the Albumin setting which was commonly used between 1855 and 1890. Then a glamor and high-pass filter was used to adjust the picture."

See more of Eves Rodenberger's work here; and read on for submitting your entry to my ongoing New World Tableau series.

New World Tableau: Gahum Riptide on Virgin Island

"This image was inspired by the desolation of the small cluster of houses near the rice paddies in Virgin Island 4," writes Gahum, who did some re-touching of the image in Photoshop ("mostly changing the levels to darken it a bit, and increasing the color balance of the shadows with more blue"), though the look was mostly achieved through an artificial WindLight pre-set.   ""Blizzard" is my favorite atmosphere setting since it reminds me of many eerie foggy central California days," says Gahum, "so I used it here. It added a rather mysterious and desolate feel to that spot in the sim."  To see Virgin Island for yourself, click this direct SLURL teleport link.

Check out the entire New World Tableau album here, and read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

New World Tableau: Connie Arida's "Denial of Death"

Connie's the first to create a Tableau with an apt literary caption-- in this case, from The Denial of Death. "This pic was taken when WindLight was a release candidate," she says.  "So in a way, it's the new world rising, 'eclipsing' the old. The quote I feel is rather prescient, on many levels, not least of which for the new art being produced in Second Life."  See more of Connie's great work on her Flickr stream; see all the New World Tableau entries here, and read on for submission guidelines.

New World Tableau: Gabrielle Sinatra's "Thief"

A personal taste for women in men's clothes inspired Gabrielle's heart-throttling image, first spotted in her Koinup portfolio.

"It's very sensual," she says. "Probably more than lingerie." (Click for full effect.)

Creating it took more than a little post-production work, beginning with Photoshop's Liquefy and Smudge tools to clean it up. "Edges are ugly on SL," Gabriel explains. "I try to round and smooth them as much as I can. Then I adjust the colors, the contrast, the brightness, and I reduce noises on some parts... I wasn't against a wall so I adjusted the lighting with the lights effects tool and I did the shadow on the wall and on the avatar with the Burn tool. I added noise and here we are!" 

See much more on Gabrielle's great Koinup profile. Check out the entire New World Tableau album here, and read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

New World Tableau: Monroe Snook's "Alone"

The beautifully luminous and melancholy "Alone" was inspired, Monroe tells me, "by the loneliness of the place."  As for interpretation, she prefers to keep things ambivalent:  "A girl just waiting, alone with her thoughts-- thinking about the meaning of her life... perhaps lonely for her boyfriend... or just waiting for the friend in the back of the picture to arrive (see her in the doorway)?"

Primarily created in WindLight, Monroe did add post-image effects, lightening it in Photoshop and using a plug-in called Luce to get the directional lighting.  "I also adjusted levels in PS on the dark side with adjustments to hue and saturation to give it this old-world feel," she adds.  See more of Monroe Snook's equally impressive work on her Koinup profile; check out the entire New World Tableau album here.  And read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.