Content Creation

Second Life Normal Maps & UV

by

There is an interesting discussion in the SL Forum about a problem some people have had making Normal Maps for Second Life™. Jake Koronikov opened the thread. Jake had a problem with the normal maps creating a visible seam in the model.

FlickrNormal
Normal Maps from Flickr Search

For instance, the seam between the front and back sides of the avatar leg. Of you were making a manikin and using a normal map on it that seem would become visible as a step on the surface rather than the smooth surface it is supposed to be.  You can see his images of the problem in the thread: Tangent spaced Normal Map seam visible in UV border area. (2017 – The images are gone.)

Read more

Adobe And Second Life

by

Ciaran Laval has an article up: A Massive Cross Promotion Opportunity Stares Linden Lab And Adobe In The Face.

He makes some really good points for combining Second Life™ Premium accounts and an Adobe product subscription. I think the trigger for his thinking is the current Adobe off to provide Photoshop and Lightroom for US$9.99/month on a yearly basis. This is a deal.

Photoshop sold as a standalone package for about US$600. I’ve forgotten what Lightroom sold for. I think it was another $200 or $300.

I never paid much attention to it. I didn’t think I would use it. But, with the big CC package that has everything Lightroom is thrown in. I love it. Anyone that deals with large numbers of images, needs Lightroom.

Read more

OpenSim News: Hypergrid Market 2014-12

by

You probably know that in the Open source world of OpenSim they have a thing called Hypergrid. The basic idea is one can live in a grid and visit other OpenSim grids. The really neat thing is your avatar and it’s stuff go with you. So, if I put on my red dress in OSGrid and go to Kitely I look the same in both grids. My dress, skin, etc. came with me to the other grid.

OpenSim - OSGrid - By: Linux-Screenshots, Flickr
OpenSim – OSGrid – By: Linux-Screenshots, Flickr

IBM and Linden Lab were cooperating on building the Hypergrid. The problem was they could not find a way to protect Intellectual Property Rights. So, they gave up. As much as novices think: there must be a way, there isn’t. After 25+ years the movie and music industry have not been able to find a way to protect digital content from theft. They have spen millions trying to figure out a protection scheme. They have failed. 

Read more

Adobe in the Cloud

by

In Second Life we tend to use open source products. But, some people use the professional products from Adobe, Photoshop being the best known. I think it has no equal. There are other image editors. But, Photoshop (PS) is the industry standard. If you plan to work for a gaming or other company that works with images, you have to know PS. But, Adobe is making big changes that will radically affect casual users.

Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe is changing how they deliver their software. Until now they have sold their software in a package with a perpetual license. I can still use an old copy of CS3, CS4, CS5.5, and CS6. (CS = Creative Suite) It isn’t cheap. A new version of PS costs US$800. Updates can be $300 to $400 per version come every 12 to 24 months. People can find PS on Amazon and in stores for $650. But, quite often that is the ‘basic’ version not the ‘Extended’ version.

Read more

Pages: 1 2 3