Tag: LUMIPro

Lonely Sunset

Lonely Sunset
Reflecting on recent events and those yet to come...maybe

Recent events in US politics and the second of a more personal nature put me in a state of mind that I have been avoiding for the most part.  I started a PS project unrelated to SL and as of yet unfinished. Rather than jump back to it this morning I went for a virtual walk to Hazardous Inc which I had first visited two days ago and determined to return.

There is yet another shoe that could fall in the next few weeks…or maybe the following month or maybe it won’t fall at all. In the end it does little to worry about the things we can’t change …and so we won’t today!

This is a composite image only because I used lumipro for the face light. Obviously I wasn’t thinking straight at the beginning this shot and could have dialed back the luminosity to better isolate the light to my face.  I did recognize the extra light at the time and took a second shot with Aedan nowhere in the view to better capture the diminished light on this dark side of the swing.  Aedan was then set back on the swing with a mask to eliminate the background of the original shot.

The Lumipro also added light to places I didn’t want it – such as the front of his torso, arms and back of the right leg so shadows were introduced using the curves method mentioned a couple posts ago and similarly, the hair and eyes were highlighted just a little.

Finally, a few strand of hair were added around the edges in addition to filling in the beard.   A nice relaxing way to spend a morning full of questions 😉

 

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BTS – El Sombrero

As simple as the story line around this photo was, creating the image was no small deal for me.  I would guess that I easily spent 12 hours preparing for and creating this image. While processing I completely started over once, corrected an issue I saw as much as possible and repeated the steps I knew well by then.

Anypose and Lumipro were both used though in the end, the only thing Lumipro was used for was to animate both avatars through the Lumipro sitball. Anypose is proving to be a godsend because in most cases I would never find an pre-made pose that would fill my need and I would have come to this conclusion after many hours of shopping.  Additionally, I have the option of adding any that might have a wider appeal to my marketplace.  (which I do anticipate doing)

In the beginning.  For “El Sombrero” I required a store to sell the subject hat. I could find nothing suitable in Havana and even traveled to several similarly themed sims but found nothing.  So, I started building a store. It didn’t take long to figure out that I don’t have the building skills to build anything  as realistic as I am demanding. I do now have some not-bad Havana style prim columns…that will probably never be used 😀

With that settled, I returned to Havana and found this building that I felt I could make in to my store if I could rez. Joining the Havana group in world for L250 gave me rez rights. With so many ideas for pics on this vacation, I could have made the previous images easier had I joined the group earlier.

The initial image was photographed with my video settings set to Ultra and the windlight setting as indicated – Nam’s Beach Scene is the initial preset. The only adjustments made was in the time of day and angle.  I was looking for something shortly after noon so the sun is nearly straight overhead.

Original Capture - El Sombrero
Windlight settings - El Sombrero

Havana is a very colorful build.  In most of my pics so far, I’ve felt it necessary to tone down the colors. This would be no different.  Additionally, to make the image more realistic, I needed different lights inside and something to fill the bare walls.  It because quickly obvious that I would need four layers to work with

  1. Aedan
  2. Store Front
  3. Display (w/Christi)
  4. Inside Walls
Attempt to create a mask in world

Using the trick I learned from Natsumi, I rezzed a prim inside the building, pulled it up close to the windows to block out Christi and the display that was already in place. I realized at the time that by pulling it so close to the wall, I lost the windows in the doors.

This wasn’t the only thing wrong with this mask – I failed to notice that the prim wasn’t tall enough to reach to the top of the windows. Though I went back in world for a second chance I wasn’t able to get the camera, viewing angle and Aedan all positioned in the exact same spots again. In the end, I had to piece together several pieces to create a functional mask.

Display Mask - El Sombrero
Aedan's Mask - El Sombrero

And so the journey continued…level adjustments, saturation tweaking, fixing missing shadows and wardrobe issues.  When the inside walls were darkened several issues came to light around the masking. Basically, I had to start over and redo some things to get back to the same point.

When I ‘thought’ I was finally done, it became apparent that all of the masking made the glass in the windows hardly visible….and on such a bright day, wouldn’t there be reflections?  I had an idea in my mind about what would be in the reflections but once I got back in world and moved inside the building, it became obvious that Aedan’s reflection would not be in the window beside him.  In hind sight, it probably wouldn’t be where it ended up at either because the column between him and the door would keep that from happening.

 

View from the pugh - El Sombrero
Reflections - El Sombrero

In the end…I’m basically happy with this image. The windows are too clean – that is bugging me a bit but not enough to change the image since it has been posted to flickr.

Like everyone of these, I feel I’ve learned a lot that will make future edits move more smoothly.  Above all else though, this was fun.  Can’t ask for much more than that.  Now, on with the next adventure!

Good Help These Days

Rottendam Docks
No good help these days

Putting these websites together (creativeonline.us and vreamart.com) has taken a lot of my time lately.  I’m so happy to have them functional enough that I can start adding content….and can get back to my ‘big’ project.

For that project I need to build a set for some photos and so I went searching for some carpenter’s tools.  that’s how I ended up in Rottendam..and boy is it rotten.  OK, maybe I should judge what appears to be a magnificent and detailed build by the residents on the street.

This would be the first time I had the opportunity to use the LUMIPro outside of my own lot so I jumped at the chance to take a photo. When I got home and looked to see what I had recorded, I was quite amused to see that the light orbs have become nearly invisible to me already – I didn’t actually intend to take this photo with them visible.  Still, I thought this was a good opportunity to intorduce it here since I’ll be using it quite often in the future.

Though this might have been a good photo without the balls, it’s not the angle I finally decided upon.  I’ll share that one once I’m happy with it – I’m sure I could have tweaked the LUMIPro a bit better because there is too much light in that photo so I’ll do a bit of post processing to try and get it where I want it before sharing on Flickr.

Rottendam - Too Bright
The starting point ..

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