Tutorials – Page 12 – Nalates’ Things & Stuff

Windows XP to 7 Updating

2014/04/302014/04/28 by Nalates Urriah

Update: 4/30/2014 – ICH/AHCI Information Added

As I move friends and clients off Windows XP I have run into some problems. Most are easy to solve, if you understand the problem. Others are impossible to solve because there is no workable solution. I decided to provide the information I’ve had to learn over the last few weeks So, if you are wondering if you can update your computer running Windows XP to Windows 7 or 8/8.1 this is something for you to read.

I doubt I know all there is to know about this upgrade path. But, I have successfully done a number of updates from Xp to 7. I probably haven’t found all the problems or the best software. But, I do have software that works. I’ve also run into some knotty problems that it took a lot of research to solve. So, hopefully this will save some of some time.

Pages: 1 2 3

AvaStar Update 2014-17

2014/04/23 by Nalates Urriah

AvaStar is on RC version avastar-1-1-1052_blender-2-65.

Changes:

wip: cleaned up the mesh_morph functions for better readability
Alter to rest Pose now also works for automatic weight from mBones
Removed obsolete print() call from previous commit

Blender: Using Brush Textures in Blender – This is a good texture painting with brushes based on textures.

[youtube 7FobUOuISak]

If you are thinking of using Creative Commons textures as the video shows be sure to read: Linden Lab TOS and Creative Commons.

Second Life Money Exchange

2014/04/07 by Nalates Urriah

In August of 2009 I wrote an article on the Linden Currency Exchange for Second Life™. See: XStreetSL Currency Exchange Tutorial and Second Life Currency Exchange Extended. Back then things were a bit different. There was competition in the Second Life money market. The US government has ended that. Now, Linden Lab is the keeper of L$ and the only company officially converting L$ to RL currencies. There are black markets in Lindens and there is a reason they are called black markets.

What has not changed is people not understanding currency or currency markets. Someone in the Answers section of the SL Forum was asking why their Sell L$1/US$1 order had not been completed when other similar orders had been.

The Problem: Fitted Mesh an Alpha Tutorial

2014/03/28 by Nalates Urriah

I suspect anyone that has worn mesh clothes is very aware of skin-poke-through and ‘holes’ from the Alpha Layers making parts of the avatar invisible. I am particularly annoyed by both. But, is there anything we can do? That is the question asked at Fabulously Free in SL. Here I’ll provide the techy answer and information. I’ll also link to good tutorials.

[youtube 62SI2NCg2gc]

Fab’s three advisors answer the question. Their answers are straight forward and provide the advice most of us know. But, there is a more complete techy answer. First I’ll summarize their answers then get into the tech.

Pages: 1 2

Making Videos in Second Life

2014/02/18 by Nalates Urriah

There are lots of tutorials on this subject. This article isn’t a tutorial. It is a collection of tutorials and information about making video using Second Life or any virtual world. I saw that Hypergrid Business has an article up titled: 5 tips for video tutorials and 3D simulations. The article is written by Ann Cudworth.

She manages to write the whole article without using the word Machinima. I’m not that much into Machinima so, there may be some nuanced difference between the terms machinima and video tutorials. But, I don’t see it.

Pages: 1 2

Flat Berry

2013/08/19 by Nalates Urriah

Last Thursday Strawberry Singh did a tutorial on how to make a cutout for making Flat Whoevers. See: Making a Flat Cutout for Second Life using Photoshop. The tutorial is simple and straight forward. You get everything you need to know to make a decent cutout. But, there are some Photoshop tools that make the process much easier and provide a much better result.

The new Photoshop CC and CS6 (think it is in CS5.5 too) have a feature called Refine Edge. If you are trying to trim hair or fur out of a background, you have to learn about this tool. Check out the 10 minute video.

[youtube soJdXsFx8V8]

The video is made by Howard Pinsky. It is on the pro side, which for me means no rambling, tangents, or umm-haa’s. It is to the point, clear, and crisp. I subscribed to his channel. If you use Photoshop and are still learning, and who isn’t still learning, then this is a good channel for you.