Second Life offer’s great opportunities to take really great pictures. One can take as much advantage of SL as we can in real life, all technical considerations aside. Yes, the 3D environment has it’s limitations, as does real life. It also offers opportunities that real life doesn’t offer–when’s the last time you’ve taken a self-portrait on the fly from 15 feet up in the air?
There are technical hurdles. Our AVs break and bend and distort with poses. Sometimes there are anti-aliasing problems. The world acts unnaturally (I hate it when skirts flow though our AVs and furniture, same with hair!), but this can be as much a challenge as a limitation, and often, the easy way out (photoshop) does not have to be our first response to such things.
There are basically three types of images we can take in SL:
- Fun friendly snapshots. We don’t expect much of these, they’re meant to capture a fun moment.
- Commercial photography. OK, so, for a poster, I can understand why you would want a static pose. Cleaning up some joint cracks or anti-aliasing? Makes perfect sense.
- “Photography” photography. That’s where we try to emulate as much as is reasonably possible, what we would do in RL if we were all perfect, beautiful model-gorgeous creatures.
My peevs start as follows: Read the rest of this entry »
Quite Oh: A Second Life 