The Fashion Fish : Goldfish are everywhere

Yulia by FINESMITH

Hedge Deux by Zibska

Flower head Goldfish by Half Deer
Lotus Flowers by Monger Yesterday


SLURLS:
Zibska @ Zenshi
FINESMITH
Half Deer (@Lantern Festival)
Monger (On Marketplace)

The Odd Fashion Fish : Details and things...

Finally returning you to your usual programming...

Details

The above :
I really love and admire Zibska's fashion ideas even more so after finishing this nail guard idea that I've been working on the past week. She's a genuine powerhouse of creative vision that continues to inspire me in my image making.

Details :

Peter's poses : Ballerina 6

Zibska Luna Noir at Zibska's Zenshi location 

Goth1c0 Leather Bondage Mask

Lily Nail Guard Charcoal available at Typhoon Haiyan Fundraiser from 22nd Nov - 8th Dec

I'm a creature of habit... a fact that I'm noticing more as I sprint past a few more rez-days...
So forgive me for not updating this blog or my flickr stream as often as I perhaps should do - particularly when I am being creative. I tend to become a sort of building hermit and don't really emerge out of my shell until I have fashioned my malformed ideas into an actual semblance I can tolerate!
I have indeed been quite busy trying to script up and finish a sum total of 60 nails [2+2 x (9x2) x 3 + (3 x 2) - 12 + (9 x2 again) - It went something like that... ], not including the sets I had to discard due to silly errors on my tired part.

I really am grateful that my collection of quirky art nail guard designs have been so well received on flickr as well as in my personal inbox. Thank you all so much for the support and kind comments.

My biggest concern is for those who may find my creations disappointing because they do not fit. I really have tried to be as explicit as possible about the sizes that are available and the fact that the nails are not modifiable in their gacha version for many reasons.

A fully modifiable (but non transferable) version of nails is also sold at the event as a limited edition exclusive.

Lily Nail Guard " Sunshine after the rain"
This version is copy/modify and comes in two parts for each hand.

I have made these things especially for this event which is close to my heart because my childhood memories are filled with Filipino acquaintances. Whilst we have lost touch over the years, I fondly remember and genuinely hope they are all well.

Lastly.

Thank you to my fellow bloggers who have dropped notes to me this week offering blogging services. 

Actually, I'm not really sure I have any products to offer  as I do not really think of myself as a serious content creator or retailer in SL. What I do need though are fellow geekettes and guinea pigs. So if you don't mind being spammed by my experiments, are brilliant at scripting in LSL, can make magic happen with Blender or C4D - lets make beautiful digital noise together!

Being the people pleaser that I am - I have made a freebie!

It's absolutely yours to claim just for visiting the Typhoon Haiyan Fundraiser and my lil vendors.

Some facts about Typhoon Haiyan.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-24899006

Source : UN Report 

11.5 million people are affected

2.5 million people in need of food aid

544,606 people displaced

130,074 houses destroyed

1,215 evacuation centres set up

Something interesting you might like to know :

http://www.shelterbox.org/

Shelterbox provide emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies for families around the world who are affected by disasters, at the time when they need it the most.

One box costs £590.

Thank you for helping.

Dita.

  

The Fashion Fish : A Dream Within

Soo yes I've been snap snap snapping away and creating images inspired by the previews for this :

"A Dream Within..." organised by Bodza Blackadder  is a charity event benefitting Crohn's and Colitis UK (info: www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/) 50% of the income of each exclusive gown design will go to Crohn's and Colitis UK as will the donations raised during the event itself which is hosted at Azure Island - FINESMITH (Running for a week commencing 9th Nov from 1pm SLT.) maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Azure%20Island/128/100/8

 This involves some amazing fashionspiration by the grid's most talented couturiers!

Here's what I shot :

'Aphrodite'
*Living Imagination* Stardust Gown by Bodza BlackAdder

'Evening Star'
Lil' Stardust Gown by Irina Strazytski - Poet's Heart

'Lights'

Joy Fellini: Etincelle Gown

' Rêves Doux'
 Les Petits Détails - White Orchid Gown

'Heart don't fail me now'
Aliza Karu - Dreamland Gown

'Feeling Autumn'
Solidea Folies – Terra Gown

'Aviarian Dreaming'
Lana Dress by Désir (Vivien Emerald)

Through a Fish Eye Lens : Black Stork - Production Notes.

So if you have been following my flickr you'll know I crashed quite a few times recently. *Sad face*

Black Stork I - Finished composition.

It got so bad that I just decided to abandon that particular set of images instead of re-taking them! However, as promised I have decided to share a few more techniques I use in my SL photography.

In the last crash, I wrote a little about lighting and so in this "crash course" (hyuk hyuk), I'll share a bit about this idea of 'Camera'

Original RAW

Many people have different approaches and philosophies about SL photography and it's all interesting to me. Some people see manipulating photos out of second life from within a third party photo retouching software such as photoshop or gimp, to be 'cheating'. I think, like most things in life - it's all a bit of a grey area. Certainly if your manipulated images are used to promote an item that looks nothing like the actual product itself then I would say that lacks ethics.

For myself, capturing images in second life is only part of the process and it is possible to imagine something further or more than the initial capture. Which brings me to discussing the image below.

Some sims such as China where these images were initially shot , do not allow the rezzing of objects which can make taking images in them something of a guerrilla affair.

Black Stork II - Finished Composition

Trying to get a good angle for poses that float your avatar off ground isn't always easy and so that's usually when I make the decision to create a composite image out of a series of images. Thus this blog is really about the infinite capabilities of a virtual 'camera' as limited only by your imagination.

Black Stork II is comprised of three main images.
This is the raw of Dolly Dita on white background.

Primary Background RAW image

Secondary RAW image element used in foreground

Quite often in composites, people will take their images on green or blue screens for the purpose of a technique known as Chroma keying. This is just a way to uniformly mask out a colour in order to replace this mask with a different image. The main rule to bear in mind when applying this technique is to avoid using a mask colour that is repeated in the parts of the image you wish to keep.
My own photoshop techniques come from my own evolving use of the program and while there may be other more efficient ways to achieve the same results, this is how I do it as follows :

How to make a good picture (in second life) :

Part 2 - Mistress/Master your environment

Click here for Part 1

This is a basic tutorial about my technique for compositing an image using White BG with Photoshop CS6

Geekery : I am using Photoshop CS6 extended on a Macbook Pro using a 2.6GHZ Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GT 650M (1GB Video RAM), Running OSX 10.8.5 with a 500GB M4 SSD (Solid State Disk) drive.

I use a white background mostly because this keeps shadow colours untainted

Copy your corrected image with full white background onto your background substitute
Then change the layer properties to Multiply.

Layer 1 is the selected layer in this image and it has been converted to 'Multiply'

Create a duplicate of your pasted layer  and you can either use
Color Range (From your Select drop down menu)
or Magic Wand to select your unwanted areas.
In this example I've used the Magic Wand Tool.

In using a white mask, inevitably you will end up selecting highlights which are also white and within range.
Filling these up in Quick Mask enables you to finesse your final image.

This 'Halo' effect is quite a common result in composites.
When the mask used is not white, I tend to select these bleeders using "replace color"

Multiply overlays your image onto the background like a transparency/alpha.
Placing a white 'mask' underneath a multiply layer creates an area of solid colour.

Unlike erasing surrounding pixels - simply erasing the white mask enables retention of delicate details.

Filling in the gaps of your white mask will restore highlights.

Your layers should look something like this.

Production Credits :
Shot @ maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/China/116/179/51
Wearing : Zibska - Portia Noir (Attachments)
Info: Portia Noir is exclusive to and part of Zibska's mini collection at the Zenshi location called Zibska Noir. Available starting Saturday 02 November. maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zenshi%20East/219/102/27
Zibska - Severine Earrings

Else : Donna Flora - TANIA hat by the unforgettable Squinternet Larnia
=Z=Kiosk Birdcage (Blue) Gacha from Chapter Four
Etoile Ballet Shoes. marketplace.secondlife.com/p/EtoileBallet-Shoes-Black/353...
La Gyo - Baroque Brows Silver (The Arcade Gacha) - Modified by tinting
Doll COCO - BJD with 001V Doll head + Bodysuit Black