Tutorial Tuesday: Green Screening

Green Screening has become VERY simple since the first days of photo- editing, so I thought I'd share with you guys a quick and easy way to do so using gimp.

Step 1:
 Take a picture with a completely green background. ( typically I just res a box and blank out the texture and turn it green) it should look like so:

Step 2:
 Close Gimp ( I use Gimp 2.6) and download a free script here

Step 3:
  Double Click to install the script, let it run and open Gimp Back up. Your toolbar should now have a video option and look something like this:

Step 4:

Open up your screen screened picture and on your toolbox, select the "Move" tool( I've highlighted this in red). The reasons for this I will discuss in a moment.

Step 5:
On your toolbar, go to video and select "Bluebox." This should pop up options for bluebox.

Bluebox options should look like this:

Step 6:
Now that your bluebox menu is up, select keycolor and that should bring up another menu for selecting color. Use the select color tool on that menu (I've highlighted it in red) and click the green screen on your image and hit "Ok." ( If you didn't select the "move" tool, then you will end up applying whatever tool you had selected to the image i.e. pencil, crayon, airbrush, etc.) Your Keycolor should now be green and match your green screen.

Step 7:
Now you can toy with your settings to your heart's content, but really the only ones you need mess with  are Threshold H ( I keep mine below 200) and Feather Radius (2 or less seems to be best).

Step 8:
Once you're satisfied, hit "Ok" and your image should be transformed, turning the green into an alpha!

Step 9:
Have fun adding new backgrounds!

Until next time!

~Ophelia Oskar

Tutorial Tuesday: Windlight settings

It never fails to surprise me how many people don't know how to alter their windlight settings to get the best view for their second life avatar! It's almost 2014 and the days of facelights are FAR gone. So, I decided to do a short and foolproof tutorial to catch people up. Keep in mind, this setting works with MOST alternate viewers, not ALL.

1.   Log in and go to world>>>environment editor>>>environment settings and select.

          

this should bring up a menu for environment settings.

2.   Next, uncheck 'Always use Environment parcel/region settings' and select 'customize my environment.' 

                              

this makes sure that every time you teleport someplace new, your windlight isn't reset to the parcel and allows you to choose what settings you'd like for your viewer.

3.   Now, Select 'Fixed Sky' and scroll through the options next to it choosing whatever one you think looks best, because let's face it: default windlights make you ugly.

                                            

 I typically choose either 'pink/purple', '*canimod,' or 'Nam's Optimal skin and prim' for prettiness.

4.   Congrats! If you've followed all steps, your settings and your avatars should look something like this:

Hope this has been helpful lovelies! Until next time!<3

~Ophelia Oskar