• Blog - Helpless Flailing - Photography

    Materials Girl

    August 27, 2026 - By 

    I’ve been playing around with the free-to-use InstaMAT program, which has a feature for converting a single flat image texture to an array of Blinn-Phong materials, and also PBR materials. Just getting signed up for the Pioneer license was a major headache (screaming was involved). Then I discovered that the quick “Materialize Image” workflow adds unwanted alpha channels, and bulk uploads don’t strip out the alphas the way single uploads does. I should send a note to the Firestorm team on that… Here’s the eventual result: 2 grey weathered crates, the one on the left looks slightly more detailed. Whoo!…

  • Chameleonic Possessions - Photography - SecondLife

    Shopping or Shenanigans?

    February 23, 2023 - By 

    This entire region of “black kite” is a huge, literally immersive art installation. A well known #SecondLife content creator has a shop at the end of one of the jettys… the rest of the region has… adult interaction areas that are very artful, not at all private, and rather clever. And the music is nice. A large version of this image may end up at Flickr later. I used a Windlight setting called “Incongruent Truths” because it seemed to fit the setting. black kite invites introspection. What is the meaning of my Second Life? Honestly, I just came here to…

  • Building - Create - Haleakaloha - Open Sim - Photography - Second Life

    What’s Up in #OpenSim ?  Rather a lot, really.

    March 17, 2018 - By 

    There’s a lot going on in this story, and I’m playing around with some of it. And ZOMG, I’m committed to something! #OpenSim #SecondLife OpenSim land area continued to increase gaining a total of 3,400 standard region equivalents this month — after gaining more than 9,000 regions last month. The number of active users also increased by 1,300. Source: OpenSim land rally continues – I’m running one of these little mini-grids: These stats do not include most of the mini-grids running on the DreamWorld distribution of OpenSim, or private company or school grids. DreamWorld has counted more than 8,483 mini-grids…

  • Photography - Second Life

    All Dressed Up And No Event: Revisiting Qoheleh

    March 12, 2018 - By 

    This event looked interesting so I dressed up in an older kimono and dropped by. But no one was there at the appointed time and date, though dinner was all laid out. Western Geisha Dinner and Chat Our long-standing chat meeting to discuss anything – RL, SL, OOC or IC – whilst enjoying delicious Japanese food and drink around low tables. Kimonos often shown off but not required! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Qoheleth/167/158/22 This is an older Fall’n kimono called Elegant – it comes with a lot of extras, such as 2 versions of the skirts and a fur wrap that can be “removed”…

  • Yes We Are Calm now SHUT THE FUCK UP
    Blender - Building - Photography - Second Life - SecondLife - St John

    Long After Last Call

    December 31, 2017 - By 

    I am bummed, because Kitty picked up most of his wonderfully eclectic junk from his bar in the Bayou, before I had a chance to take more pictures. Meanwhile Janus Rhiadra’s general store across the way is gorgeous, stocked with gacha stuff. Makes my old Dry Goods store look so 2007. So today I tinkered with a long-stale project in Blender, got frustrated several times, will keep trying and will review the basics. Again. Because I forget them from long disuse, again. I also chucked out some old products from the Second Life Marketplace and my vendors. I visited a…

  • Second Life avatars dance around a bonfire in fantasy garb.
    Lelani's Products - Marketplace - Photography - Second Life

    Folding Mesh Room Screen – Sakura Sunset – $L250

    March 16, 2013 - By 

    Another arty one – this one is a processed photo of myself wearing a spring kimono at a really beautiful Japanese-themed sim that had a magnificent “cherry-blossom-viewing” festival a couple of years ago. It’s been treated to look a bit like an old painting, layered on a gold abstract background. Animated folding MESH room divider screen adds Asian style and modern flair to any room. Touch to fold screen to the side, touch again to open. The screen panels are one retexturable face, as are the wood frames and the hinges. Keep a backup copy if you retexture (remember to…

  • Second Life cows and bulls
    Photography - Second Life

    Are Digital Games Art? Are Immersive Virtual Worlds Art? The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones Thinks Not #ArtOrNotArt #SecondLife

    December 1, 2012 - By 

    The Museum of Modern Art will exhibit images from digital games and virtual worlds, but The Guardian's Jonathan Jones thinks such images are not art. I'm no artist, but I think there' s some pretty artistic stuff going on in Second Life, though Jonathan Jones will pooh-pooh the idea. The Guardian article posted a companion gallery of images from or for the exhibition, but didn't bother to include any images from Second Life as examples of digital-game or immersive-world art. They did include shots from Sim City, EVE-Online, Myst, The Sims, and Portal along with other game screenshots.

  • Get Excited and Make Things - the crown image is made of wrenches
    Building - Photography - Second Life

    Phoenix Firestorm – Flickr Uploader Fixed At Last!

    August 27, 2012 - By 

    I’ve been watching this issue on Firestorm’s JIRA for a month or two, and it appears that the Flickr uploader has finally been fixed. UPDATE: Ooops, the release was withdrawn, something about a bug. It’s not affecting me, but I’ll have to download the fix once THAT is released. New in 4.2.1.29803 – Skin improvements to Starlight, Vintage, Metaharper, FS High Contrast and Ansastorm. – New windlight sky settings, including Ambient Dark, Grey and White and a new Tron Legacy series. – Added pathfinding LSL functions from Linden Lab. – Ability to disable group chat on a per-group basis! –…

  • Second Life screenshot shows a fantasy cottage with lots and lots of scripted DFS trees and plants.
    Dhughan - Froobert's Further West - Photography - Steelhead Shanghai - Steelhead St Helens

    The Oneth and Future Dollarbie

    July 31, 2012 - By 

    Righto, then. The bally free sticks are selling like bally free hotcakes. In the interests of keeping up with an inbox that has gone mad, the AO and the demonstrator or “freebie” jade stick will increase in price to $L1 (ie ONE LINDENBUCK) on August the Oneth. So please, everyone; fetch the stick! Go get it! Thus, the stick and the AO will become a “dollarbie,” which won’t keep the wolf from the door but might keep a small scripted cat in kibble. They are both available from my Tweddle shop. I look forward to finally getting in a good…