Arts traveling in shared rhythm — WindLight rolling on!

Friendly greetings again! Now that I've had an opportunity to catchup with the "mad rush" of last week (I've never seen so many emails in my entire life, ahhhh!), I'd like to acknowledge that I like to dash through experiences and then look back at them fondly afterwards. Altho, for the sake of enjoying some moments, I mustn't rush through them. In any case, as you likely know, I've amassed an extensive photostream (THUMBNAIL FLOOD!) of my adventures in Second Life, and it's been richly rewarding to see the dynamics of evolution over time.

FIRST, because it's the #1 question I keep getting asked in response to pictures like this:

 

"When is WindLight coming out?" (or some variation to that effect)…

YES, our brilliant team is still working on it… lots of bug-squishing and I (as Product Manager) intend to keep updating the WindLight Project Updates. So keep yer eyes on that, and come nearer to a First Look re-release, the Official Linden Blog will surely have an announcement. I'll be following it up with video tutorials and other showcasty goodness.

I'm hoping WindLight will be out in FL in "a few weeks", but there's not a hard date and I don't wanna jinx it. Can I say "It's done when it's done?" 'Course, these things are never entirely finished, Second Life is being ever-developed… and if that sounds doubtful, hey, remember that Havok4 is out in beta testing after much longing, so we aren't the types to give up!

In the meantime, I continue to take snapshots as each WL build gets pushed out and things get better. To give you a taste of our expanded versatility, here are some (but not all, I do a lot) of my faves from the last few weeks, with witty comments:

Pseudo-Chinoiserie. I tweaked the CUSTOM WATER SETTINGS to achieve greater reflectivity. (And actually, I was thinking of ways to emulate — and exceed — HiPiHi's water reflections.)

Silhouette and dramatic character lighting effects. This is ALL DONE in Second Life WindLight WITHOUT any post-processing! Isn't that rad? I made this one preset, "Ramshagguld", with really steep gamma,  and it excels at making these stark — and at times startling — visuals.

I reckon some fashion photographers will have a field day with this, and there'll be other wild results even I can't anticipate!

I'm best known for my sunny shots, but WindLight is great for the coldness of winter too. You can even tweak the water to make it appear like ice… isn't that sweet? YES IT IS!

BELIEVE… in MELON CHIEF. Here's me in a certain avatar with Lex Mars, and then the one on the right shows my very warm, alien planet-ish settings. And by the way, I intend to share all my settings including these when WindLight is out so you can toy with them if you want.

My new profile photo. I've got a Harrison Ford vibe from both Indiana Jones and Blade Runner. My wife really likes this one, and that means a lot to me!

There are like, 3 new Dune role-playing games in SL! Sadly I don't see Lemon Yellow anymore, ;( which was the first I became aware of… but it's nice to see the spice flowing. Makes for very dramatic, overblown lighting effects…

A sure immerser.

Sculpties are grand in WindLight, including when they're shiny. That mesh detail goes to good use visually, esp. when the sun is directly shining on surfaces facing you.

I get a lot of gifts and I'm thankful for them; "The White Pixie's Next" by Nyalee Mirrikh is surely a highlight, and she used my Torley Textures on it. I IMed her to let her know thank-you, and she sent me… well you know what! WindLight really illuminated this and made for very artistic, stylized effects:

WindLight really does make it easy to get "teh tasty", from the get-go, which can only mean a more solid foundation should you decide to post-process yer piccies.

And of course, I wouldn't be complete without dropping by to check my wife & co.'s fine work @ NMC (New Media Consortium) regions, I like how a lot of varied details are included in reasonable space: remember that elements like good terraforming, intricate object geometry, and dandy texturing all look even better under WindLight.

The last one includes "classic clouds", which you can turn on/off in addition to WindLight's new, more realistic cloudage. Even they look better!

Tagged as: General, Pictures, Work