Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Looker Lumet in the Avatrait Gallery

Since the end of June, I have my pictures exposed in the Avatrait Gallery.
This gallery is also to be found inworld, but it is at this site that some pictures of mine are shown and sold.

"Avatrait is not Flickr or Koinup, or any other photo sharing site. The Avatrait Gallery is for the artist who welcomes a monetary value being placed on, and sought for, their artwork" as Greg Houston, one of the founders and owner, was saying in his email to all the artists.

The pictures that you will find here, are chosen by the owner, and I think that, in the future, also other works of mine will be shown here.
Feel free to visit the site, and look around at all the Second Life artists who have their art exposed here.
The Avatrait Gallery even exists in RL too, as they will have the opening this weekend in Evanston Illinois.

The works, our works, they are selling will be treated especially, to secure the shipment to the customer, and to enjoy it as a normal framed painting or picture.
"We take your uploaded image and run it through a software system to enhance clarity and definition. (We do not change or alter the image). We then print the image on photograph weight paper through one of our high resolution four color printers. After drying, we mount the print in a matted custom black frame (three sizes available), and window the frame with high grade, non- glare, Plexiglas that will not break in shipping. "

It is an honour for me to see my pictures are to be sold at this site, and hope other work of me will be shown soon as well.

Code Red Gallery opening in Second Life

CodeBastard Redgrave will open her new gallery upcoming weekend on 08-03-2007 with live dj.

Well, I look forward to see the artists, who will show their work there. The gallery will present works for sale from very talented SL artists: Marquez Tone, Hiro Edelman, Mairead Fitzgerald, HolliVals Allen, and of course Codie herself. Still 5 other to confirm.

As she says on her blog the new Art Gallery is integrated with Code Red Lounge, but also adds an additional story for more art exposition and lounging.

"On this 3rd and 4th of August 2007, we will hold a monster 24h bash, with a fat DJ lineup from 5PM LST on friday. There will be 12 talented DJs playing all styles of music, you guys will never hear such a various set. Lineup to come on this post later."

Interesting event to come this weekend.

UPDATE 08-01-2007: Code Red Gallery DJ list from Nadine Nozaki

Monday, July 30, 2007

Gridwide Slowdowns in Second Life

Even when I am not online, I receive messages that there are severe problems on the grid. Frontier Linden reported issue's yesterday and Saturday, but it appears these problems are not solved yet. Worse, they are growing, with other new issue's.
"Teleporting" is not working properly, "Search" doesn't work.......
"We are experiencing gridwide issues at the moment. Resident may experience slowdowns or failures of search, mapping, teleporting and asset operations. Inworld L$ balances may show as Loading".
Last Saturday we even got the message "Access denied" in the login screen
, which is resolved by now.

The best thing to do at the moment is, or don't log in, or if you are logged in, don't make any transactions whatsoever, and wait till they solve the problem(s).

I think we may expect a new update very soon now.;)

I hate my job.....

Today it is my first day at work after the holidays, and thought about a joke that I read some weeks ago. It will keep me on track, for a while at least.;-)

When you have an "I hate my job" day, try this: On your way home from work, stop at the pharmacy, go to the thermometers section and purchase a rectal thermometer made by "Best Thermo". Be very sure you get this brand.

When you get home, lock your doors, draw the drapes, and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed during your therapy. Change to very comfortable clothing, such as a sweat suit and lie down on your bed. Open the package and remove the thermometer. Carefully place it on the bedside table so that it will not become chipped or broken.

Take out the material that comes with the thermometer and read it. You will notice that in small print there is a statement: "Every rectal thermometer made by Best Thermo is personally tested." Now close your eyes and repeat out loud five times: "I am so glad I do not work for quality control at the Best Thermo Company."

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Me and my car

I was looking for a nice car, but did not expect to see this one between all the vehicles in Second Life.
The SLR Mercedes Mc Laren is a beautiful car, loved and possessed by some famous persons in RL.
I did not buy it though, as you don't need a car in SL, to my opinion. So I wonder if these magnificent replica's in SL, will find a buyer after all.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

A little horror story

Have you ever visited a scary, spooky house?
I did, and if it was scary.........it surely was.
It was a night as every other night, without clouds, the moon was shining through the trees. And there it was, a house. I could see light on the porch. There must be someone at home.
We were walking down the road to the house, knocked at the door, but, ....no one to answer.
The door was not locked, so we looked at each other, and decided to give it a try. From the moment we entered the living room , the zombies, coming from everywhere, were attacking us, biting us, they didn't stop. No one could run, every one of us got bitten.
At that moment I even ended up on the operation table, where the zombies bit me several times. There was no defense possible.
They took me upstairs where I underwent the worst thing I have ever seen. The zombies had put a fire battery in the house, and put me on it. And it was hot, I can assure you that.






After being smoked, I still lived after the fire, I was put on a table with a saw, to cut me half through. What an experience, two of me....... Blood was splattering against the walls.
But at the end, I survived, no one was hurt, it was only second life. Ooof, it could have been the worst nightmare ever, but it wasn't.;)

Friday, July 27, 2007

My first building experience or Building Tutorial for Newbies

I thought it was time to start building some things on my own, to be creative with something else besides taking photographs. So I started to build my own fireplace, keeping in mind, that I don't have any wood to burn.
You create and edit a block, with the size you want, and you stretch it, as long and wide as you like. Then you do CTRL+D, to copy that item and move it upwards. You pay attention to the positions of both pieces. Than you edit another block, and make it your "motherboard". You stretch it and make it the same size as the height of the two blocks that you have edited before, to use it as back wall.
You move it to the back side of your fireplace.
Once that is in place, you can click on each different part, and go to "Texture", to put a texture on your project. You look through your inventory, to see if you have any useful texture to put on.
Mine wasn't good enough, as the flames, which I put later on, where coming through the back wall.
These flames where also freebies, and intended to wear at your hand. I have put four of these in my fireplace (without any wood). One flame has 2 prims, so four of these would not make it too high in total prims.
When you have put those flames at their position, you click every single item in edit, keeping the CTRL button down, and taking the back wall as last item, as that is your "motherboard". You go to "Tools" and link the items. And you have your own fireplace.
Easy huh!?

Thursday, July 26, 2007

EXTRA, EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! Casino's are closing in SL!!!

Wagering in second life: new policy
This is the title of the blog I read this morning.

"Policy
It is a violation of this policy to wager in games in the Second Life (R) environment operated on Linden Lab servers if such games:(1) (a) rely on chance or random number generation to determine a winner, OR (b) rely on the outcome of real-life organized sporting events,

AND
(2) provide a payout in
(a) Linden Dollars, OR
(b) any real-world currency or thing of value.
This includes (but is not limited to), for example, Casino Games such as:
o Baccarat
o Blackjack
o Craps
o Faro
o Keno
o Pachinko
o Pai Gow
o Poker
o Roulette
o Sic Bo
o Slot machines
It also includes Sports Books or Sports Betting, including the placing of bets on actual sporting events against a book-maker or through a betting exchange.
Linden Lab will actively enforce this policy. If we discover gambling activities that violate the policy, we will remove all related objects from the inworld environment, may suspend or terminate the accounts of residents involved without refund or payment, and may report any relevant details, including user information, to authorities and financial institutions."

Unbelievable, the Linden's are closing every casino, no more bets, no more slot machines, etc., and the worst of all, unemployment for several of us, residents.
What about the investments?
More to come on this.

In the meanwhile there was a strike going on, on Orientation Island. What will become of Second Life, how is Second Life going to survive this?
If there are no casino's anymore, there will be no more money for newbies, and they will not be able to buy things, so other residents will not earn money, so the economy of SL is at stake here.
Of course you can always take a premium account, and you don't have to visit casino's or camping spots, but was that not the charm of SL for newbies?
So, we will come at the end, to only premium residents, as they are the only one who "paid their membership" to the Linden's. All the others will dissapear sooner or later, I suppose.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Castle Niflheimr

It was cold, it had to be, because there was snow. I was dressed with short sleeves, I did not feel the cold. But what a place it was. I was teleported by a friend, it was told that this place was a "must" . So I accepted the TP, and landed at this place. I stood outside, and looked against a big wall. At first I didn't realize what for a building it was, but than it became clear. This was the most beautiful castle in Second Life, Castle Niflheimr,and I didn't see all yet.
Once inside, there was a big hall, lighted with torches, as it is supposed to be in a castle.
Stunning, what sense for detail! In everything, in chairs, in walls, in roofs, in furniture, in paintings.....waw. I have no words for it. This must be the most realistic building in SL. In every room there was a fireplace. Outside the snow was falling, but inside it was a warmth coming, not only from the fireplaces, but also from the way the castle was decorated, with authentic furniture.
After having visited every room, and I hope I didn't miss any, because there were plenty, I went outside. Another moment of astonishment.
There was a ship, a pirate ship, as I could notice from the flags. But then again, another project with eye for detail. There are no words for this little village in Second Life. You have to see it for yourself. And if you see it through the eyes of "Renderglow", it is even more beautiful.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

How beautiful you can be in SL!

While taking some pictures on a ordinary evening, I suddenly noticed this lady. I must say this was the first avatar I saw, who did not create herself as a thin woman, but one with a little weight. And I must admit, she did a fantastic job, congrats.
How beautiful you can be in SL, no matter what size!
You don't need to have the perfect figure, to be beautiful. And besides that, it is what is in you, what counts, not the outside.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Regarding Looker's Frustration


Some days ago, I posted an article, "The frustration of Second Life Rankings", and while surfing the blogs, I stumbled on this one from Dolmere Talamasca.
It is a very good analysis on my post of how a blogger feels about his blog. And frankly, I am quiet happy, reading his post on this article.
It convinced me even to go on with my blog, where I had, the past few days, the feeling of quitting.
I will keep posting articles, whatever comes into my mind, and what I think is interesting to share.
I will not have, other people tell me what to do, as it will only strengthen my thoughts, that the posts are not good enough, and to be honest, I don't care anymore, as I know I have now a public who like to visit my blog from time to time, maybe not regularly, but that will grow.
So, thank you Dolmere, and thank you all, for reading my blog, and , even if you are not commenting, I know you are there.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Holiday time and a club that must be banned from Second Life.

During these last 14 days of July, I have a holiday, finally. But it seems to be difficult to blog regularly and be on the grid and take a well deserved holiday. There are even good friends in SL, who were wondering where I am all the time. Well, to those friends, sorry, not to be frequently online, but give me some time to take a break, and I will be back before you know it.:)
For example this past night I was just for a moment on line, but not many friends were. So what did I do: looking for a sploder for increasing my account a bit. And I found one , very interesting, already over 2000 l$ with a few players. So, I had something to do while I was on SL, besides taking pictures. But don't ask me the Slurl from this place, because I don't remember it anymore, and won't remember it. It was the most wasteful, expandable place on Sl, that I ever visited. The owner, was repeating constantly, if you were not a member of his club, you were ejected from the place, if you didn't dance, you were also ejected from the place, he seemed not to be interested in the Lindens whatsoever, as he knows the Lindens wouldn't care if someone would complain about this club. But all I can say is, DON'T EVER VISIT THIS PLACE : THE V_LOUNGE.
If you need to find public for your club with a sploder, and you than eject them from your place so you can put that money in your pocket, is the lowest thing you can do in SL.
We blog about griefers, we blog about people who take money from your account, but this may be said also; you don't start a club in SL to eject people who visit your club because they are not a member when they arrive at the place. Most of the visitors were stunned the way this owner was talking to his public. I regret to have forgotten his name, I was really pissed off, but I remember the name of the club: The V-LOUNGE. Don't ever go there. Avoid the place. This club and his owner must be banned from Second Life!
I was one of the lucky guys, I did receive my money, although with a loss, but what about the others, who paid 100 l$ to the sploder and did not receive anything?
This is not the way to handle customers!!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Experimenting with Renderglow

Following the tutorial of Bella March, I had to try it for myself, as from last week, I could not use windlight anymore.
Bella experimented in the Firstlook Voice Client, I did it in the normal viewer.
As I think some adjustments can still be made, because the lightning of some objects is too bright in noon light, and you have to switch to midnight light to have a nice effect on metal things, or lightning things.
I started with the same settings as Bella for these pictures, but as told, for other objects, the midnight setting is better.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

SL Blogger party July 07-15

Tiana Meriman made this machinima from the Pirate's Blogger party.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Read All About It : The SL Bloggers crashed the sim !!

Last night, the Second Life Bloggers had a fourth gathering,or better said party. Theme yesterday was "Pirates". So, everyone was dressed as a pirate (or captain, or mistress), and the whole night there was "drunken" sailor (pirates) music.
Since the start of this group, a lot of bloggers have joined this group. And of course everyone would like to be present at this blogger party, which was for a lot of them the first time.
Once arrived at Dinee Ghia's place, you could see that the group has grown, for me that is. There were a lot of unknown people (bloggers), but that is why such events take place, to get to know each other.
And on the other hand, to see a fellow blogger, which blog you already comment, but never could really put a face on him/her.
After one hour it was already difficult to move, to take pictures, and suddenly, it happened, the sim crashed. YEAH!!! WE DID IT!! The Second Life Bloggers did crash the Linden Sim. Big news.
Once we all got back, we tried it for a second time, but I guess, a lot of fellow bloggers were not interested anymore, to make the Linden's work again.;))
And as there were less bloggers at the party, the party began to have the same old traditions. The ladies were having it too hot, and feel the urge to ress a pole for dancing, with , of course, less clothes on, as they started the night.;)
Conclusion: When is the fifth blogger party?;)

PS. Check all pictures at my flickr stream

Friday, July 13, 2007

Pamela Anderson to pose naked on PETA/Stella McCartney Second Life Island!!


I wanted to post an article about Stella McCartney, you know, the daughter of..., and fashion designer, as she is staging the first ever anti-fur protest in Second Life together with PETA. Events will be running from July 12th till July 19th.
Read all about it on the sl-newspaper.com .

But in the meanwhile I found in the same sl-newspaper an article about a live appearance of Pamela Anderson, coming to the same event, and will be posing naked for a photo on July 17th. So for those who are interested, check it out on the www.sl-newspaper.com or the blog of PETA.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Gone with Second Life



This was only a trial, to see how some pictures of me would be like as a poster.
The picture was taken on the wedding day of Coolz0r Courier and Spinneke Jewel.

ATTENTION to all Second Life Residents

I just received this message, which might be important if
you get the same announcement and request to click on it.

"If someone gives you an item called "sexy dick" DON'T
accept it, it will try to STEAL MONEY from your linden
account.
Take care and please inform you're friend about this.
I'll repeat ;THIS IS NOT A JOKE !!!

thanks,Darren Parisi"

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Release notes Second Life 1.18.0(5)+0(6) - New update especially for the Germans

Release Notes for Second Life 1.18.0(5)+0(6) July 11, 2007
=====================================
Changes:
* Message system changes to support transport via TCP (HTTP) as well as UDP.
** More details are available here: http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/12/21/a-big-change-youll-barely-notice/
** And here: http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/06/25/dia-de-la-liberacion/
* German language added to the Windows installer
* Updated translations for German language viewer
* Updated translations for Japanese language viewer
* Updated translations for Korean language viewer
* Viewer "channel" (Release, First Look, etc) now visible at login in the lower right corner next to the version number

Bug fixes:
* Fixed SVC-286: deleted fully-permissive objects owned by others skip trash
* Fixed SVC-251: Death teleport fails when teleporting to a home point you no longer have access to
* Fixed MISC-273: Enrollment fee is incorrectly deducted if you belong to max. # of groups and try to join new ones


I wonder when the Dutch language will be introduced!;)

Immediately followed by 1.18.06 (but still no Dutch language.) :(

What is the Second Life Jira

I can imagine that not everyone in Second Life knows what the JIRA is. Reading some articles from fellow bloggers, talking about the JIRA, it was nearly Chinese to me in the beginning.So I thought it would perhaps be interesting for those who are in the same position as me, to find out what the JIRA exactly is.
Linden Lab uses the JIRA for tracking bug processes. You will be able to find if the problem you are thinking off, is already been fixed, and, if not, if there is any progress on it. Other residents also post comments, so it might be of any help to you, to see how others solve, or deal with the bug.As the developers of the JIRA stated:” JIRA is a bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management application developed to make this process easier for your team. JIRA has been designed with a focus on task achievement, is instantly usable and is flexible to work with.”

Features of JIRA
- Ability to manage bugs, features, tasks and improvements
- Ability to track components and versions
-
A clean and powerful user interface that is easy to
understand for both business and technical users

- Highly customisable dashboard views and work flows
- Full text searching and powerful filtering (customisable,
saveable, shareable and subscribeable!)
- Custom fields and field layouts
- Automatically generated project roadmaps
- User/group permissioning and security
- Ability to add file attachments to issues
- Highly configurable email notification schemes
- ‘Print page’ option on every screen
- Easily extended to and integrated with other systems
(email, SOAP, Excel, XML, CVS, SVN, Perforce)
- Runs on your existing hardware and software platform
- Compatible with almost any database

Where is the name Jira coming from:

According Wikipedia: “JIRA is a Java EE web-based bug tracking and issue tracking application developed by Atlassian Software Systems. Although JIRA is a commercial product, it is freely available to open source projects and non-profit institutions.JIRA runs on many popular databases and operating systems (see Comparison of ticket-tracking systems).Some features include customisable dashboards, saved searches (filters), statistics generation, RSS, email, and more.The name comes from the original Japanese name for Godzilla, "Gojira"[1][2]. The developers of JIRA wanted something related to Bugzilla, and so they came up with Gojira. JIRA is therefore not an acronym.”

How to look for a bug?

You can log in to the Jira with your Second Life user name and password, or if you just want to look for a bug, simply go to the page of The Second Life Jira.Typ in the “Quick search” the bug you are looking for, in this case for example: group notices.
Than you will find a complete list referring to this subject. Clicking on the bug, will give you further details, if it is solved, if they are working on it, etc…
You also can vote to have the Lindens fix the issue. (see top left corner)


If you open an issue in JIRA, be sure you give as detailed information of the bug as possible. If you are looking how to file a decent described bug, go to the JIRA Wiki and search for "reporting an issue" and this will give you detailed instructions. The link to the JIRA from the Linden blog takes you to a FAQ (Wiki) page, which is not very clear and a bit confusing, as I did not find the direct link to the JIRA.
In the top right corner (above the Quick search field), you will see some personalized options for your account. If you've opened a bug in the JIRA, it should be listed

Hopefully, this description of The JIRA will help some people to find their way through the web of bugs.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Grand Opening Spin Lounge

Tonight there was the grand opening of the Spin Lounge, a club/bar of Spinneke Jewel, Coolz0r's wife on Second Life.
It was a big success, with club dancers, dressed in white bunny clothes, which indicates the comfort of this unique lounge in SL.
Spinneke, dressed in white for the occasion, was really excited by the success of this evening, and promised me, there will be more events in the future.
Being at this place, Strawberry's Premier Night Club, you could not ignore the warmth, coming out from the design, with different pose balls, where all couples can dance, and even outside, you are able to find those pose balls, for a more private moment, yet distinguished.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Second Life - A Moment of Rest


Initial, Second Life was a perfect alternative for having my thoughts fixated on other things, such as PS, as mentioned previously.
The more I get involved with the pressure of blogging, of uploading pictures to flickr, the more I get stressed.....:-)
Thus it is not a good alternative, let that be an advice to everyone who was still not convinced of it.
After next week, I have a holiday in RL, and this time I will use it to get a moment of rest. Away from stressed Second Life for a few days, away from blogging every day, the hell with the ranking.:-)
And after that, well, we will see........

Thursday, July 5, 2007

The frustration of Second Life Rankings

Google’s pagerank, Google Analytics, Technorati stats, Alexa ranking, AdSense account, SLtopsites, topsites etc... People have enough different rankings to keep up with. Knowing that daily updates are important, bloggers often tend to focus more on quantity than quality. This is why a lot of people have started a daily post which has links to recommended blogs. This gives them an easy way to do a daily update, as well as a possibility to give someone else an inbound link, wishing for someone to return the favor, so they can climb even further up the Technorati ladder.
When it comes to pageranking, I am still waiting for my first ranking, not that it is so important, but 0 is kind of low, don't you think?
I even found a new ranking, where I did not know of: Second Life Blog 40.
It speaks for itself that this is a ranking of the 40 best blogs of SL. The only thing I am wondering about is, on what is this ranking based on? It is good to see that there are some friend bloggers in the ranking (apparently I was too, but am now 53th on the ranking) But who is keeping track of these blogs, is it based on content, because, as far as I know, there are not linked to my blog, is it with google analytics? When somebody knows, I would be happy to know too. One remarkable point: The Official Linden blog is number 40.

So the more views you get, the more chance there is that someone would leave a comment. And that is what it is all about. But to achieve that, we have to wait and to try different things, such as subscribing to SLTopsites. This ranking is obviously not loved by all bloggers, yet it gives an opportunity to advertise your own blog to other members and visitors of this ranking page.
You can of course walk on SL with a tag above your head saying that you are a blogger, but to my opinion, subscribing to a blog as SLtopsites is more efficient. :-)
Personally I try, and I say try, to write a quality post , about something I read or saw...., but that ain't always easy.
I must say that reading a blog with quality content, but a pagerank on 0, has more value than one with a higher pagerank but no quality content.
But than comes the question, do we have the time to do what we should do for having our ranking rise, looking for quality and quantity. Do we even have the time to keep it updated?

I am convinced that if someone really likes to blog, they should not pay attention to those rankings but write quality content, and I am sure the viewers will come and leave their comments, but this could take some time. And time is something we all are short of. So we need to spread the word as soon as possible, for not having the idea that we are blogging for ourselves without someone reading your blog.

So now, we are back to the beginning, keeping track of all possible rankings, and therefor trying to write quality stuff, but thinking in the back of our heads on the rankings.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Contest at the New Mardes - Victory !!!


The contest at the new Mardes Club is finally over. A month can be very long, I can assure you that. But at the end the victory taste good.
I would like to thank this way in the first place, Yum Yum, who pointed the place out where I could make some beautiful pictures. And she was right.
Of course all the people who voted for me, and in particular Wilma and Flok, who did a great job as campaign leaders. Without them, I doubt if I had won.
I also would like to congratulate all the candidates, as their pictures were all really good, but especially Vint and Angillilah, who finished second and third in the competition.
And finally, and I hope I did not forget anyone, I would like to thank the organizers of the contest, AnnSophie, Vacature and Secondlifecrew.be, as they did a marvelous job.
When you would like to see the results, look here.
I don't know when the awards will be handed over, but I will surely report it on this blog.

Thank you all for your support !!

Law suit against Linden Lab dismissed

July, 2nd.
A French Court in Paris dismissed a complaint against Linden Lab filed by a French Group, called "Familles de France", opposed to adult content in Second Life.
As Linden says on their blog : "Today the Paris court (Tribunal de Grande Instance) dismissed the complaint filed by the French association Familles de France against Linden Lab, holding that the evidence brought by the association was unduly biased and should be thrown out."

Families de France and the Departmental Union of Families’ Associations of Ardeche alleged that Second Life features “pornographical, scatalogical and zoophiliac” content as well as advertisements for tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

This victory will convince LInden Lab that they are working in the right direction. They say that its age verification, to verify if someone is older than 18 years, will be available soon.

After the law suit against Linden Lab by Marc Bragg , where there is no outcome or pronouncement yet, this result will please Linden Lab and confirms that evidence in Internet cases must be gathered in an objective fashion, so they say.

(see French text from Reuters here)

Some tricks in Photoshop

Everyone of us, who works with Photoshop, is learning, day by day, the skills and tools of this program.
I am an amateur photographer in RL, as well as in SL, but I had not the skills for adjusting the pictures with PS. Now, in SL, you can experiment, and have direct response from your friends,how you can improve. That is one of my goals in SL, to learn and improve the skills of post processing.
So I am thankful to all my colleague bloggers who are putting tutorials on the net so we can learn, if we just have the time to read them or to see the video.
I am always looking for new things, as I see some of the artists, even new artists on flickr, make fantastic pictures, where I could only dream from.
Finding the right angle for a nice shot is one thing, but having this picture retouched is another one. That is why we need programs as PS, PSP etc.....
I have seen simple tutorials, which explain the tool very well, I have seen some bad ones, but now I have found a tutorial, which is not free, but the examples show which direction these learning processes will take you. As the developer for these tutorial, Conrad Feagin, says: "Some designers think a book or written tutorial is the answer. Maybe you have even tried this. If so, you realize this is a slow and painful process. It can take several days just to learn a few techniques, and you still have no clue how take that knowledge and actually create a final product."
He has implemented some free videos as well, as a kind of promotion, but are already helpful to learn something more about PS. For me that is anyhow.
Here are the free videos:
If you want to read the whole story that comes with it, you will be able to find it at "Watch and Learn Photoshop".

Have fun, and I hope you learn something new with these tutorials, at least I did.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

SL4B Final Impressions

It has come to an end, the second life fourth birthday. We will have to wait until next year to discover new talent, and to see new sculptures, buildings, pictures, whatever an avatar can do in second life.
For me, and for many others, it was the first time, and I have to say, I was amazed by all the art.
I can not wait to see what it will be next year, although, the sims were very laggy.
To close my series of the impressions, I show some last pictures that I have made at SL4B.
Within a couple of months, the preparation will start for the SL5B, so, if one of you is thinking of submitting a piece of art, you can already start by thinking how, what ..........