Archive for February 27th, 2010

This time, I am focusing on alpha-glitches in avatar bodies and surroundings.

In most cases we realize their existance only then when out of all things, our favorite prim-avatar, demon-leg, pair of boots/shoes,  or whatever else it may be is the cause for them. They occur, when alpha meets another alpha (or semi-transparent texture), for example with the water we’re standing in, “reflective” floors or floor shadows, tree leaves, groundcovers, or any other sort of semi-transparent texture use.  Sure the list goes on, and some of it has most likely run across your ‘camera’ already.

We’ve grown pretty much accustomed to invisible prims ever since we realized that nobody wants to walk around in noob-feet. And the higher, more extreme, more sexy, the better (hey I might speak for myself here, I realize this! *laughs*). What matters more though: you don’t ever need to take these shoes off if they react in some manner with the respective surrounding. – And I’d rather taken no picture than take them off!

There are some things that you can pre-fix already when taking the picture simply by knowing how…

I’ll show you some of these tricks here that I used for a quick-fix in a picture shooting the other day!

This is what we started out with, I picked my personal weak spot, high-heels (and super-gorgeous ones at that :-D) and combined it with an interesting angle that made sure I have what I’d like to show you clearly visible to demonstrate how to prepare the fix:(I watermarked the images this time, and since it was just taken on plain gray added a bit of a vignette to it – it looked all soooooooo boring uni-color without! As with the last online tutorial, click on the image to open it in a separate window; it will also allow you to navigate forward and back when clicking the arrow that appears in both upper left and right corners.)

In the future of SL the famous ‘transparency blanks’ that occur when alpha-prims meet other alpha-textures on the ground, trees  or avatars will hopefully be solved by the new alpha layers that were introduced this week with the viewer 2.0 beta. As I don’t run this viewer on my computer and since likely not all old shoes will be ‘out of style’ instantly or updated right away with the viewer changes, here’s a little tutorial on how you can prepare your pictures already during the shooting inside SL (without the new alpha-layers) to make the fix in a graphic program afterwards as simple as 4 minutes work – and with hardly any risk to mess it up at that! :-D

As usually, there are many ‘right’ ways to get to the goal, so the technique I’ll describe in the following doesn’t apply to all problems. But it is a great help when you’re in a studio surrounding, or if you have to use a model as the camera rotation point to get the right angle you want, and with that having one of the models ‘get out of the picture’ physically is a no-go to maintain the camera perspective (as it was the case for me here.)

So next thing we need is ‘Advanced’ menu

- if it doesn’t show yet in your top browser bar, toggle it on/off with [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[ALT]+D. Then Go to Rendering, and mouse over to select “Hide Selected”. It shows a little x when it is activated.What we will do is simply ‘hide’ everything that appears in front of the kneeling girl so we have a second picture to lie under our first one without any holes. When editing the shoe now (applies if you are the owner of the attachment) it turns invisible, only the highlighting lines show still, and edit window opens. This works slightly different when you are the person not wearing the item, then you need to do right-click > more > more > inspect to select the item.

We still have the foot shape of the SL avatar now – if you are not owner of the shoe attachments, you can just go on and ’select’ the avatar too so it goes invisible. Since this was not an option for me in this case though, and I am using a trick in Emerald Viewer, “Render Avatar Invisible” which can be found in Preferences > Emerald > Avatar. (Actually I am sure this option exists in the regular SL viewer too somewhere cause I think I used it in the past, but I don’t know where it is hidden so you’d need to confront the wiki on that question!)

Anyhow, my avatar is gone now too, and while I took the snapshots here specifically WITH the UI and stuff to show you what I did, the second picture I saved to hard drive (the first was the image we started with)  looked like this – little bit creepy, but efficient:

In my graphic program,  I moved both images into separate layers of the same file – ‘Background’ is my second inworld shot with the partially hidden avatar, and I just pulled the other one with holes in the avatar on top into a separate layer (see layerorder screenshot below).  It is important that the two pictures align with one another, and to have the exact same angle and no moved camera in both pictures! (also in case you never needed to use it, most graphic programs have an alignment tool that can be applied to multiple layers to make sure borders cover one another exactly)

And the final magic is as simple as that: use your magic wand tool, select the grey area around the shoe on the top layers, and delete them out of the layer. 
You have created a hole now, that allows to see the layer underneath :-)

No need to know how to draw, and with a little bit of preparation inworld already all is fixed in a few minor post-processing steps. And from here on, you can go on with your actual image treatment to make it sparkle! …which I did, as you saw!!!

Image Credits:
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Chair with poses for both models:

“ShoeFetish” (FetishCabaret SET 23) by (*chanimations

Outfit top:

“BloodRayne Costume” by *Deviance*,
BARE Robin Ankle Boots by Stiletto Moody

Outfit bottom:

Latex-Lingerie by *HD* Hugo Design,
Ballet Boots by *Dilly Dolls*

“How could one resist those heels…”

•
======
-ShoeFetish-
Fetish Cabaret SET 23
======
•

-ShoeFetish- is another goodie for anybody interested in the fetish and D/s aspect of picture taking. And SHOES! :-D

The set has been created as a couple-pose for two female avatars, the dominant poses were created to work as well for one model alone, if you prefer to go that route. But we’re sure you find your own interpretation of what should be in which spot of the pose-prop. *giggles* If you’re planing on using the set with a male sub, please check the poses in our store before on a male avatar to ensure they will suit your purpose – if you plan on using a male Dom, well… you better get them heels! *smirks* (This notecard and the pose names don’t differenciate between ‘Dom’ and ‘Domme’ and for abbreviation was reduced to dom/sub and not ment to imply any gender.)

-ShoeFetish- contains photography props and poses with the following properties, please read the details after the listings for functionality of the scripts:

10 (13) POSES
(no mod/no transfer):
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• (*shoeFetish_dominant1,
• (*shoeFetish_dominant2,
• (*shoeFetish_dominant3,
• (*shoeFetish_dominant4,
• (*shoeFetish_dominant5,
• (*shoeFetish_dominant5 (headTurn),
• (*shoeFetish_dominant6,
• (*shoeFetish_dominant6 (alternative),
• (*shoeFetish_sub1,
• (*shoeFetish_sub2,
• (*shoeFetish_sub5,
• (*shoeFetish_sub5 (alternative)

All POSES are static and come with ‘copy’ rights so you can put them into your posestands or make own poseball arrangements. Due to the nature of this poseseries, foot positions look best when wearing high heels! Alternative poses are offered, in case the first one goes into your avatars body or floats too high above it.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: The perfect look for couple poses in SL is subject to SHAPES/SIZES of both avatars involved – they might require repositioning pose via adjustmentmenu or poseball, or modifying your/your models’ shape to match perfectly. If you are shooting with a very tall or male model on the sub-side, it will likely require rezzing the chair on a little pedestal. Please test the poses in our mainstore!

PROPS (detailed info to each after listing):
———————————————-

Rezz:
(copy/no mod/no trans)
• (*chanimations – ShoeFetish WorshipChair – 25 PRIMS
• (*chanimations – ShoeFetish WorshipChair (LP) – 16 PRIMS
• (*chanimations – ShoeFetish(ALL) multiPoseball – 1 PRIM (optional)
• (*chanimations – ShoeFetish(DOM) multiPoseball – 1 PRIM (optional)
• (*chanimations – ShoeFetish(SUB) multiPoseball – 1 PRIM (optional)

Attachments:
(transfer/no copy/no mod)
• (*chanimations – FetishCabaret Cat o’ Nine Tails

If you read everything said so far, this should be needless to say: There are NO shoes included in this set. You will have to stop by for those at your favorite shoe-dealers in SL, or assumingly you have a load of them already in your inventory :-D Worn in the ad image are Ballet Boots from Dilly Dolls, and Bare Robin Ankle Boots from Stiletto Moody.

=====================================
DETAILED INFORMATION
(specials, menu options, general stuff)
=====================================

Included in this set are both an ornamented chair and a low prim (LP) version. The color menu is placed in the wooden curve line that runs along the full top of the back cushion – this way you don’t accidentially click it the whole time, but it is still easily accessible from the front and the back of the chair.

Depending on your personal taste or surrounding, the chair includes a texture change menu to choose between red, dark-red and golden cushion material or a dark leather cushioning. ‘Options’ menu allows you to set permissions who may control the color menu besides you, it allows for owner only, group, or public use. Rezzing default of permission is OWNER. – The use of the pose-engine is not effected by this selection. All scripts of the chair run in MONO.

MENU, DOM. und SUB. POSES:
———————————

When sitting on the pose prop, it will sit you down ‘on the next available spot’, so you don’t need to sit on a specific prim; just know that the dominant poses (which are designed so they can be used as well as single person poses without need of a second person) are found in the sitting cushion of the chair, the submissive poses are in the base wood part right under the sitting cushion.

Pose-Menu and Adjustment-Menu for both is accessed when clicking on the large back cushioning of the chair, or optionally opened by chat-command /1a or /1m.

ADJUSTMENT OF POSES:
————————-

On first sit please note the message in open chat – as well, a menu pops up allowing you to pick which pose you’d like. Once sitting, chat /1m or click the back cushion of the chair to access the menu when it’s closed.

When sitting, you also click the back cushion of the chair to access the pose adjustment menu (a), alternatively you can speak /1a in open channel for it to open (it will only work for the avatar sitting on it). ‘Postion’ will allow you to move your avartar more forward, backwards, left or right (X and Y axis) and of course up and down (Z axis), if needed ‘Rotation’ menu gives you more options for your adjustment.

The script remembers the avartar custom settings of its 100 most frequent users who adjusted their positions as long as the web stays rezzed and the scripts are not reset. Unfortunately it cannot keep the positions when picked up back to inventory and will rez back on default settings – but since the adjustment is easy and quick, this shouldn’t be a problem.

PHOTOGRAPHER?
——————

To make it easier on photographers who work with models, 3 multiPoseballs are included: One containing all poses (prepare for a lot of jumping up and down and forward when using this :-D) and one with all sub poses, one with all dom poses. This way you can freely move your model yourself instead of ‘instructing them’ where to place their avartar. The multiPoseball responds to /1 show and /1 hide and allows to toggle the poses by using the pageUp/pageDown keys.

And as with everything scripted: Make sure you are in a sim that allows for scripts to run!

ATTACHMENTS:
—————-

The ninetails are non-scripted and pure picture props and allow transfer, so can pass it to your model – or if you’re unsure they’ll give it back, rezz instead and position them (31 PRIMS).

TEXTURES:
———–

All textures for this set are custom made by Chandra Meehan for (*chanimations and deviousMind – if you find them used by anybody else not connected to us, please help protect original content and immediately inform us! Thank you in advance!

UPDATES:
———-

The chair includes an update script, which will check for free upgrades when it is rezzed – to not loose the information of your adjusted poses through rezzing, you can call for the update manually by typing “/12update” (without quotes) in open chat. (You rezz only one of the chairs to receive the update, no need to do it with both versions) As well, you don’t need to check daily yourself, we keep you informed through our mainstore and our blog should a product have received an update:
http://chanimations.deviousmind.net/about/updated/

BAD SCULPTIE RENDERING?
—————————-

If you have problems with sculpties seeming rough edged and not properly rezzing – go to Advanced Menu (if it doesn’t show on the top bar, press CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-D to show it), Debug Setting… – type ‘RenderVolumeLODFactor’ (without quotes) and set it to 4.000. It will take a short moment and your sculpties will render smoother when looking at them from a distance! Search the Wiki if you want more info about the RenderVolumeLODFactor.

That’s all you need to know, have fun and keep in mind:
“Lean back, and enjoy the show!”

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Would you like to stop by in world?

You’ll find us at deviousMind/120/160/30 if you are interested in single poses only or to preview the poses on your avartar! or stop by deviousBeauty for our burlesque couture outfits and accessories!