On Various Subjects
Need a free video editor? Learn Blender Video Editing in 35-minutes. This is the video that shows you how to set Blender up for video editing.
Even if you are not interested in using Blender for video editing, check this out. I learned a bunch about setting up the user interface.
He is going really fast. The video is loaded with information. Red meat… yum.
One of the better video tutorials I’ve stumbled on.
I spend time helping people in the SL Forum, mostly in Answers. A question came in about making a Cover Photo… a what?
SL Forum Profile with Cover Photo
When logged into the forum open your profile. There are a couple of ways to do that. Up in the upper right click your name and select Profile. Or on any forum page where you have posted click your profile image. Continue reading
Adobe has a new feature out that will make my life a bit easier. For none PS peeps I decided to use
PiXimperfect’s video. At times he is exasperatingly tedious. But, for the novice, that is probably a good thing.
It will be some time before I decide how useful this feature will be. I have ‘Select and Mask’ working pretty well. So, I’m not sure how much this will speed up my work.
The people at Machinimatrix are asking what tutorials are needed for the new AvaStar 2 (now v2.1.1). They are planning to start producing new videos. So, this is your chance to suggest what is needed.
Machinimatrix: What videos are needed most ?
Building a snowman
We are going into video production again. However, this time we want to make the videos on demand and not on what we think is needed. So here is your chance to influence what videos we will create first.
I found some things I didn’t know…
If these are new to you, the tips should make it easier to find things.
Now… if they just worked on SL searches… (the site: trick does, but not as handy as I would like.)
Updated: 2019-06-28. Fixed link rot.
A bunch of bloggers don’t know the difference between a URL and a SLURL. The simple explanation, if a web page link opens a web page, image, video, whatever in a web browser it is a URL.
If it opens a viewer, then it is SLURL.
A URL: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Echo%20Cove/197/193/25
A SLURL: secondlife://ECHO%20COVE/197/193/25
Click each of the above to see the difference in behavior.
I’ll send flowers into the sky to find you
On the second one, Windows or your anti-virus may complain saying clicking this link may be a security risk. This is both of those saying ‘I don’t know what this is, so I’ll tell you it may be dangerous, just in case.’ But, if you go to the SL Maps page, the first URL, and look at the SLURL shown when you hover over “Visit this Location” link, you’ll see they are the same.
You can decide for yourself by going to the SL Maps page, the first URL, and looking at the SLURL shown when you hover over “Visit this Location” link, you’ll see it shows the same link address I show here.
The behavior when clicking a SLURL is controlled by you. Settings in Windows and/or your web browser control what happens when you click.
The Firestorm team has made an elegant fix. See: Second Life: How to FIX SLURL’s (2016). Fortunately, it works for all viewers Linden and third-party. Unfortunately, it is a Windows-only solution. To get the proxy for SLURL control see: SLURL Proxy.
If you want a more technical explanation, see: Emerald Viewer vs SLURL (2010). While that is a 2010 solution that uses the old banished Emerald Viewer as an example, it still works. Just change the names to avoid the guilty.
Flickr has a ton of Second Life™ images. Today: 2,901,249 images. Some are pretty bad, others REALLY kinky, and some amazingly gorgeous. For the people interested in SL Photography William Weaver has made 12 video tutorials. They are about using the Firestorm Viewer’s Photo and Camera Tools and controlling Windlight.
There is a well thought out design for these tools. The tutorial shown here shows how to take advantage of the tools and use them efficiently. Subsequent tutorials show how to use the various aspects of SL lighting to create great images.
Phototools Tutorial: 01 – Interface Introduction
This is a 4-year old starting tutorial giving an overview of the Photo Tools. The tutorials advance over those 4-years to the 12th tutorial streamed live a week ago.
Note: 2020-05 – Some of these tutorials were taken down then later put back, and now some are ‘private’. It seems to be changing. I can’t predict which will appear and which will disappear. Good luck.
I’ve covered some of these as individual tutorials over the years.
William Weaver also has a Flickr channel plus, a marketplace store, and additional art is on Issuu. Numerous SL bloggers have covered his art at various times.
Sansar Forum… sort of. The big discussion there is how to stop people from making SL-Like-Name-Tags. It is surprising how many people are full on fascist-like in how they want to control others. How do we make everyone do it my way!?!
The forum is pretty badly formatted and awkward to read. The Lab is aware and plans to change it to something more ‘forum-like’. The change is not currently scheduled. (Reference) I mean… it isn’t like they have anything else to do…
Sansar ‘Grid’ Status… They say they’ll post planned outages on this page.
Avatar Skeletons… As of July 6, 2017, there were no models or skeletons available. The Lab just isn’t there yet. (Reference) So, no avatars, no ‘rigged’ clothes. There are, however, Sansar Reference Avatar models.
However, making things that can be attached to the avatar is possible. Examples are here. If your attachments attach in the wrong places read this: Importing avatar accessories – attaches in the wrong place – solution? A 3D Max tutorial is available on YouTube by Jesse Thompson: 3DS Max Avatar Attachment Guide for Sansar.
The official instructions are here: Avatar attachments (accessories). This is what you want to read if you are just trying to figure out how to make an attachment. I had to experiment to see how this works in Blender.
The female avatar has 24,000+ faces in the body and 9,000+ in the head-neck for about 34,000 total. The SL Avatar has about 7,000+. Continue reading