The Realistic Reactions Mod

[Ilona Brownson]

SoI recently joined Second life about two weeks ago after a friend showed me a mountain of gorgeous photos on flickr. I was a bit surprised since the few videos I have seen of Second life kinda made it look like a lame and outdated place, but I regret only now giving it a try and seeing for myself. I can safely say that I'm really enjoying myself.

I know there are a lot of different heads out there but I want one that will give me both a realistic look as well as realistic facial movements or reactions. I rather not have a head that gives me that "dead" stare and stuff. Also, it would be great if the mesh head is one of the more popular ones since I would love to both customize it and still have a lot of stuff that I can buy for it.

"Normie" by Utilizator at Annie May Hall is a very good entry level head with a much lower price (500L) compared to any competitors, has Bento/built-in Omega support, expressions, and it's modifiable in case you want to manually change something.

But you can set the lighting up and do things in photoshop just right and make any of them look more realistic.. That image up there I doubt went untouched by some form of filters and scene setup and maybe even photoshopped..

You will have to learn about Gacha... that is another thing. This skin creator made skins with different makeups/looks and put them in a Gacha machine where you pay money and get a random skin. The skins shown is "rare" without makeups. People can play the machine many times and not get it, instead get lots of duplicates of the skin with whiskers or whatever.

Oh and thanks for showing me where to get the skin. Do you know with they sell skins that aren't gacha? It kinda reminds me of gambling and I want to make sure I get the skin I won't with leaving it up to luck.

I *think* this is not a Gacha skin. It can be a bit hard to see it because the descriptions does not always say "Gacha". It is also Mudskin. But the head is Catwa Catya. Unless you have a lot of money to play with and can afford buying lots of heads... look carefully and demo. The demo heads are functional and you can see the expressions. (The included default Catwa skins are so ugly btw, don't let it scare you)

Thanks so much everyone!! I think I really really like the genus baby face mesh head and once I get back on I'm going to go to the mud skin shop to give its demos a try ? I can't wait to get to taking photos!!!

Last question, do you guys know if I can edit my photos on a free drawing/photo editing program (I use medibang) and still achieve the same photo quality? I can guarantee that they use Photoshop and I currently don't have it, but I still want to give my pictures the same or close to the same quality.

A lot of it is the graphic settings you can use. If you can set it it high under Preferences, and tick advanced light and shadows from sun, moon and projectors, and use a high anti-aliasing, you can get very nice images that don't need much touch up.

I am using Pixlr just now. I also used PixMonkey but now they want me to create an account, and I suppose I will do it. I don't know medibang, but the best images you can start with will give you the best result after editing. It is some really good photos with expensive graphic cards used in the best SL images. My graphic card on these pictures over her was nothing impressive, just cheap.

I have always used Firestorm Viewer, also for photos. Because they have so many Windlight presets already uploaded and ready to use. Windlight is how we talk about the light, the sky, the water, how to control how it looks. An example of how I manipulated windlight for different looks:

Wow that is gorgeous ? I need to watch more tutorials on photography in second life but now I'm really excited!!! I didn't know I could change the graphics and what is wind light? I also use firestorm can I change wind light in there?

Scroll down to the "Taking high resolution "up close" portraits for Second Life". I think this will cover the start for you. Since you don't have Photoshop, shooting against a "green screen" is probably out. If you want to make cartoons, a white background like that would work.

It is so much to say about Windlight... I don't know where to start. But I think these videos are good. Remember you must learn to walk before you run. In your case, learn to wear and change mesh bodies and heads. That can be hard enough.

Thanks again! Wow this might be harder than I originally thought but I want to keep pushing through and hopefully get good at it. ? and you are right there is still basic stuff about SL that I suck at so I will try to master the basics (in this case mainly learning how to dress myself without skin poking through the clothing) before I take a big leap into photography!

So what's the secret of creating a great character? It helps if they're a little flawed, it makes me like them if they have problems to overcome. But the real secret isn't in how the character acts. It's how they react to the world around them. And frankly, some writers can't seem to write realistic reactions.

What Would J.K. Rowling Do?

Suppose that you were confronted by a vampire, just suppose. Pretend that you've just been given terrible news. Imagine exactly what you'd do if you were arrested.

Don't just write things down. This is not a viable way to craft a story. See yourself in this world. Envision how you would behave if all the plot twists were happening to you. Always take the time to do that. Just stop, think and imagine.

Because if you don't, your book isn't going to be very good. I can't cite any specific examples, because that would be mean, but I've read lots of books with unrealistic reactions. So I can point out some general examples of what that looks like:

Supporting characters: Don't save the realism for the hero. Everyone in the world should act in a believable way. I once read a book about an alcoholic. This is a meaty inner conflict, and an identifiable character flaw. But in the book, so many people around the alcoholic acted bizarrely that the story was impossible to read. You wouldn't take a known addict to a bar and leave them alone, right? So why should your secondary characters behave so carelessly? And even if they do, shouldn't you explain why?

Fear: I admire bravery as much as the next reader, but there's bravery and then there's foolishness. When your character doesn't cower, get sweaty or even feel a little twinge of worry when facing that vampire (or whatever), I'm not going to believe it. And I'm very kind, so no way will other readers believe it either.

Love: Writing love may be the hardest of all book tasks. If you have never been in love, I suggest simply not writing about it.

Physical confrontation: You can write about a fight even if you haven't been in one, but be realistic. You know how the human body moves. Think about every detail of a physical altercation, and be mindful of the laws of physics and movement.

Good writing is about reaction as much as it's about action. Your characters should always behave in a real way, and react to the world around them sensibly. Fail to do this, and many readers will fail to finish reading your books.

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