The Artfish : Copyright issues or Pile Ups II

So recently having discovered this creative game to play, D fashioned this image from an
ORIGINAL IMAGE capture by ☆ ღ Skip Staheli ღ ☆
This photo was edited for the SL Picture•Pile•Ups group. See something you'd change? join the group, download the pic, and edit it your way


However, being that the modifications to the image were for all intents and purposes - not something that is obviously, glaringly different from the original; D started to idly wonder about claiming the image as a new original piece of art…

What makes art to begin with? Well that through the course of a rather lacklustre meander in tertiary education - is no easy thing to answer. In essence, art is an activity that humans engage in as an expression of sentience. Art for the masses captures the zeitgeist of the age. Art is changeable in interpretation and differs from creator, to audience, to curator. It alters perception and is powerful given context and purpose. It can also be whimsical and frivolous. Although art speaks, not everyone has the inclination to listen.

Nonetheless,  this isn't written as a treatise on what may or may not be art; but just a short blub into what intellectual copyright is and when those rights are waived for the sake of allowing new "art" to be created.

These are certainly different times and most people do not actually bother with; or are otherwise often ignorant about copyright licenses. It's a sticky issue given how global the internet is and how such legalities seem irrelevant that is until they become relevant.
Say for example, if an image of yourself or of your creation is otherwise replicated or misappropriated.

Some relevant jargon :

Public Domain - is used to describe works available to be used without license owing to any of the following reasons

1. An expiry of intellectual property rights
2. A forfeit of intellectual property rights
3. Where such works are not protected by intellectual property laws

Copyright - is a legal term meaning " The right to copy" and refers to the concept of exclusive rights to  the author of an original work as their intellectual property for a defined period. It also expresses the right of the copyright holder to be credited for a piece of work; and to bestow on them the right to determine other uses of such a work as they may be adopted, modified or benefitted from and etcetera.
In most countries copyright is regarded as a private right and automatic for the originator of the work to claim for his or herself.

Cue a relatively modern invention called - The Creative Commons Licence
In short, it is a legal disclaimer that enables you to control the way in which your intellectual property or copyright may be licensed. It makes clear for abundant reasons how others may treat your creative works although this may or may not become relevant in the general scheme of things.
It is still just a good little thing to know...

The Discoveryfish : Pile Ups

Ourfish is new to the world of flickr, and D came across this fascinating thing to do on it. Called a pile-up, (not a pile-on as F so kindly points out)

Cue music :

It's like a round-robin of image-connivance where an original author puts up a work to start. Someone-else adds or subtracts things from that image and the idea is that this continues ad infinitum... And the original pic

By Kota Buck

Which struck D as being almost as elfin like as the Icelandic pop princess.
Thus resulting in this pile-up and image-agitation.

"Seed"

Which came first? The video or the imagery? Actually,after playing around a bit with the original image D found herself seizing on the seed like danglys of the model's earrings - and the idea (pun intended) just grew from there. The video though similar, was added only as an afterthought.

The Artfish : Swan Lake

The nice thing about Second Life is that it is an instantly accessible medium for creating visual imagery. Today, D decided to interpret Swan Lake. Swan Lake as we know it, has its origins as a Russian composition (1875 - 1876 according to Wiki) by Pyotr Tchaicovsky for the Bolshoi Ballet.

It is a tragedy that centres around two women whose features are so alike, they are mistaken for the other. Princess Odette is enchanted by the evil Sorcerer,Von Rothbart - and cursed to live out her days as a swan. She inhabits a lake that was magically formed by the tears of her grief struck mother.
Together with her companions, who are also cursed alongside her, Odette is only able to regain her human form at night. The enchantment can only end with the power of a vow of true love; however if such a vow were alas to be broken, then Odette would be twice cursed to remain forever a swan.

Odile, the black swan, is the rival of Odette

One day, a young Prince Siegfried happens to venture deep within the forrest, coming across a beautiful swan that he first intends to shoot at with his new cross bow - when low and behold the swan transforms into the peerless Princess Odette. So moved by her beauty and story is he that he offers to take her for his queen - inviting her to the castle ball so that they may marry. They dance the night away together falling deeper in love till the dawn breaks and Odette is once more forced to resume her swan form.

The next night at the ball, Prince Siegfried anxiously awaits the arrival of Odette whom he tragically mistakes for Odile - the daughter of Von Rothbart who is herself enchanted by her father as a trick. The sorcerer's plan is to make the Prince break his vow so that Odette would be in his power forever. It is a plan that  succeeds as the Prince recants his love for Odette and declares himself in love with Odile. He fails to tell the difference between the two women. Nor does he notice the appearance of Odette at the castle window trying to warn him to be faithful to her. 

Odette was forced to live by a lake formed magically from her mother's tears

The only way left for the curse to be broken is with the death of Odette who has no desire to live without Siegfried. As dawn breaks, she throws herself into the lake - and Siegfried who now realises that he has been tricked, follows his true love. With their sacrifice, Odette's companions are freed and the magic broken as Odette and Siegfried rise up to the heavens together in spirit for all eternity.

Related Links : Yinka Shonibare MBE

Fashion Direction :
Body Suit and Feather Collar from " Behind the Mask" by Bare Rose
Tutu by Canimal
Hoodie by La Rosa (Midnight Angel)
Nails by Mandala
Necklace by Miamai
Lace Jumpsuit by Boudoir
Makeup by Niju

The Fashionfish : Zebra Crossings!

Question : Can a Zebra change it's stripes?

Answer : A Zebra Can't Change Its Stripes
It may look like a horse, but it's wild at heart. Raising such a moody creature requires a lot of skill and patience.
Few are up for the job. -  Los Angeles Times

Cue Music (and Bad 80's Mullets Alas) :

"Wild Thing"

Sam Kinison

Fashion Direction -

Dita's Diabolique : Dita's Ribbon Boot Zanda Crossing Edition
Beautiful Dirty Rich : TGIF Skirt (Free Outfit)
Line : Ripped Top Black
COCO : Fur Bolero Black
XTC : Taurus Leather Zippered Gloves
American Bazaar : Love Latex Pants (cercle)
Lelutka : Inverted Hair (Powder)
Dark Mouse : In black and white (Earrings)
Goth1c0 : Chain Necklace in gold and black metal
Goth1c0 : Bitch Bracelet in black and wasted gold.

The Travelfish: Virtual Tourism in China. (Secondlife/China/107/124/1250)

China, China
D and F of Ourfish were remarking to ourselves how we wished there were more places like this in Second Life to visit. China is unique as a place to explore. It's a 3D world made from 2D forms and feels very much like a walk through into the masterful brushstrokes of an ancient calligrapher

The mono-tonal hues, gestured mountains and broad-washed sky create an amazingly tranquil space. 

China is quite an interesting place to photograph as you in-turn become a participant of the art, creating your own painting by gathering 'brush strokes' in a composition from your own perspective.

Some angles might capture a feeling of desolation...

Other angles create a different atmosphere within the "painting"

Finally, after your exploration you can visit the gift shop and buy a souvenir.
For a donation to the sim this snow globe replica of China can be yours.

The Artfish : Depth of field

"Cry Baby"

D of Ourfish reckons that her graphics card is too retro to do the amazing captures some people appear to be doing with that new option in their SL3 browsers - So any blog picture you see with depth of field is done with a little fairy magick - The photoshop CS4 fairy that is.

What is depth of field?

(Quotes from Wiki)
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance at a time, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions.

Depth of field from an SL manipulation point of view actually makes a capture from inworld more " realistic". Ordinarily, as all objects within a scene are virtual they are also rendered on the same specified plane (i.e your draw distance). It is your 'cinematic' eye, or camera view which then 're-renders' the scene with additional calculations for presenting this perspective of nearness and distance.

Although depth of field is now an option in SL 3 viewers, this 'Original' capture lacks it.

D thinks everyone who uses photoshop probably has their own little methods and ways on how to do things. It is quite possible that the program itself has some sort of smart filter in it that will likely outdate this tutorial. Nonetheless , the following is how " Cry Baby" was put together.

In this screen capture, we see the original  (bottom most layer) and the eventual layers to be added which will go towards creating the final image ie. 1) Depth of field layer 2) Shadow Layer.
The Black and White Layer depicted in the layers tab is the transitional  from the original , illustrating desaturation to create the monotone 'depth of field' 

Create a copy of the original layer and turn this into black and white using any number of methods (ie, apply black and white filter, or use desaturation )
Then take the now monotone layer and apply the filter 'Gaussian Blur' set at Radius 2.0 pixels.
Here we illustrated the process in a cutaway from original so you can see the difference after applying the two processes.

Use your eraser tool set to a wide brush and a small opacity (Here it's 100 pixels and 19% opacity)
We erase the parts of the layer that we want to see crisp and sharp;
Thus leaving the parts that we want to look distant - blurred.
The art idea here is  for focus to be in colour and for what is not focussed, to be black and white.

In this capture you can see that shadow is added  to pick up the idea of a depth of field
as well as to illustrate a light source. As this is the final frame of the process,
you can see that  the smudge tool was selected. D calls it 'sculpting the shadows' by smudging over a layer of drawn black lines.
This is a somewhat quick and easy way to create shadows in three simple steps. 

Step 1) Create a new blank layer and draw some thick black lines over your image
roughly where you might likely capture shadows
Step 2) Use the 'Gausian Blur' filter to soften this line and change the opacity
and pixel density of your  drawn  'shadow'
Step 3) Select smudge tool and 'nudge' your shadows so they follow the contours of your central focus 

End Credits: The final  assembled image  is now an application of  three layers to the original; ie.
Depth of field
Shadows
and lastly a Vignette frame
 which was simply a drawn black border set to blur.

Thus concludes our little workshop. Have yourself a creative and fun SL!

The Retrospectivefish : What Next?

Second life can be an amazing outlet for play and creativity

And so on this the first dawn of the new year, some might be nursing off the night before. Ourfish finds itself in retrospection - like a yearly renewed ritual; and thought to share a few loosed notions with you ...

What happens next is entirely up to you

2011 saw the close to some things you thought would be around a lot longer than they were* and yet everything within Second life is this fast paced and transient 'un-reality'. Landscapes and Landmarks come and go as quick as you can hit delete. So what is it about second life that continues to fascinate and enthral those of us who continue to take up residency within this state of constant pixel flux? D thinks that it; as in anything in life (real or otherwise), is just as much about what you put into it. It can be an amazing space for creativity. It's an interesting experiment socially - the impact and ramifications of which could possibly be far reaching, were one to truly contemplate the idea. But what next? Well D's resolution revolution continues with a notion about consistency and needing to get out of her hermit shell a bit more. Look out world! Watch this space!

Fashion Direction :
Grixdale - Wolf and I (High Waist Dress) - Now Closed
Abyss - [Opium] Cropped Bomber Jacket
L&B - "Dita Desire" Chocolate Suede
Pixel Dolls - Wool Plaid Gloves
Kosh - Multiplex Necklace (No Tag)
Oval - Leggings001-Brown
[Sauce] - peach blossom lipgloss

* Retrospective News Articles on Second life Closures :
The End of Second Life (2009)
No Sl is not closing in 2012
CNN Closing Down Second life location