Nalates' Things & Stuff

Second Life: Firestorm & Linden Viewers

2016/10/172016/10/17 by Nalates Urriah

For the past few weeks I’ve been using Firestorm 4.7.9.50527 and Linden 4.1.2 and 5.0.0.320160 (Bento). These versions are much better than the pre-September versions that were out. I suppose some of the improvement is my change to a newer computer with 32GB of RAM. But, I still crash.

When black cats prowl ... — When black cats prowl …

This version of Firestorm is much better than the previous version. I have found that if I am online for more than an hour I will likely crash on exit. This means if I change any Preferences, I need to relog after making the change or backup the settings (recommended). When FS crashes it does not save the settings so, changes in the session are lost.

Photoshop: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Masks

2016/10/15 by Nalates Urriah

Every so often a find a tutorial on some part of Photoshop loaded with stuff I didn’t know. It isn’t that I know a lot about PS, I just don’t often find PS tutorials that interest me.

Being able to mask the mask… is going to be SOOOoooo handy. And adjusting the mask’s contrast… things got much easier.

AvaStar Update 2016 w41

2016/10/14 by Nalates Urriah

Some of us have been wondering what all is going on with AvaStar. We know they are adding support for the new Bento avatar. I had heard people ask for Developer Kit support. So, if you have wanted to make things that fit Slink, Belleza, Maitreya, and other mesh bodies you had to figure out … Read more

Second Life: Project Bento Update 2016 w41

2016/10/14 by Nalates Urriah

I found this to be an interesting meeting. As the final parts of Project Bento get nailed down and it nears release my excitement grows. I am starting to work on setting up my Blender-AvaStar for Bento style projects. Plus tutorials are starting to come out.

I’m writing an outline/index as I clean up the video, mostly speeding up the no-talking parts and smoothing out the audio. So, you’ll see parts of the video run at 200% to 500% faster than real time. Hopefully the pre-YouTube-in-Adobe-Premier time marks will match the final YouTube time marks. If they don’t… sorry. I’ll have learned.

The First part of the video (about 2:05 minutes) was recorded with the main Linden Viewer (4.0.2). You’ll notice the avatars using Bento weighting and animation look messed up. These strange looking beasts are loose on the main grid. So, if you are seeing these strangely twisted avatars in Second Life™, you are seeing Bento avatars without a Bento capable viewer. It’s not you, it’s the viewer. Close your eyes, they’ll eventually go away.

Is Second Life getting too complex?

2016/10/14 by Nalates Urriah

See: Project Bento and the pose making. Tamara Artis is a Qavimator user. She recognizes the program is not maintained and Bento is likely to kill it, at least for use in Second Life™. She is asking about advice on what to switch to and tips for animating for Bento.

Medhue Simoni, a Second Life animator of some note, provides several answers. So, if you are looking for tips and general information, this would be a good place to start. A notable point Medhue makes is Qavimator is still going to work after Project Bento releases.

So, you want to know how to animate Bento hands?

2016/10/13 by Nalates Urriah

Bento is closer to its gold release. Cathy Foil has made this video explaining the gotcha’s for those trying to animate for Second Life. I’ve just been shown it, no time to watch. Have other things to do first. But, soon.