I went back to Skrunda-3, this evening. I went to see my friend, Witchy, who was there taking pictures. Unfortunately, it was 1 AM on a work night, for Witchy’s human, and we only got to hang out for a short time, before she had to log. I hadn’t intended to take more pictures but, hey, it’s what I do…
… I decided I’d been a bit harsh, in the recent Skrunda-3 post I did, when I described the EEP setting here as ‘anaemic’, it’s probably better described as ‘quite subtle’. Anyway, I decided to shoot with the sim wind light, this time…
… in keeping with the size of the sim, I found plenty of scenes and places I’d missed, the other day…
… I even managed to find the abandoned gallery, this time…
… it wasn’t till I was reviewing all my images for this post…
… that I noticed that not only is the wind light here subtle, it slowly changes, too, so slowly, I hadn’t even been aware.
I hit the shopping events, today, as there were several new ones. At one of them, I bought two sets of very nice poses, made by a creator I have not encountered, before, called ‘Sweet Art Poses’. As soon as I got home and unpacked them, and all my other goodies, I used the TP in one of the folders to go and check out their store. At the store, I bought some more, very good poses, but what really delighted me was how much work had been put into the environs of the store…
… there was a wonderful little fantasy world, there. There were a couple of trains, frozen, it seemed to me, anyway, as they rushed through the station…
… and beautiful orbs, seemingly fallen from the gorgeous sky…
… which was filled with stars, and the occasional shooting star…
… there were cherry blossom trees, and the air was filled with drifting petals…
… it was all very pretty, and whimsical. I love finding stores like this one…
… where the creator has obviously put a lot of work into making, not just their product, but the environment of their store, into something unique and memorable. To me, it shows they are not only in SL to make money from their product, but to contribute to making SL a place of art and beauty, because, really, they don’t need to put this much work into their store… most creators don’t. It makes the whole experience so much richer.
Almost 9 months ago, to the day, I posted about ‘Skrunda-2‘. Over the last few evenings, I have been visiting the equally ambitious ‘Skrunda-3‘. I found the installed wind light a bit anaemic for the drama of the environment, so I went with my own, far more dramatic, setting…
… despite the apocalyptic nature of the build, there is an almost carnival nature to it, possibly caused by the colour palette…
… there are all the tropes of SL apocalyptica, here, the burned-out vehicles, dead trains…
… and derelict trams…
… as with the previous iteration, there is lots of interesting wall art…
… this is a lovingly created wasteland…
… that is softened by the bright colours…
… there is nothing that feels threatening, here, apart from pools of toxic, radioactive waste…
… there are a few critters, eking out a precarious living in the deserted spaces…
… there’s lots to see, here, lots of great photogenic potential, well worth a visit.
I have had a couple of moon gates in my inventory for several years, now. They’ve been out, on occasion, but not for a while. I realised I had the perfect place for them, the other day, a junction where three paths meet, in my garden, below my home…
… the function of moon gates is to frame the view, or lead you into the scene…
… I thought a moon gate looking into a scene with another moon gate…
… looking into a scene with a torii gate, would be pretty interesting…
… the gates do a wonderful job of making what was basically a bland intersection…
… into a far more mysterious place, where you don’t know what’s in that direction…
… till you can actually see through the gate…
… and everything looks far more interesting framed by a stone circle…
… I love the contemplative nature of this view. It’s extremely relaxing, just sitting here, listening to the birds and looking through the gates.
… these kind of sims are probably my favourite settings. I call them ‘Christina’s World-type Sims’…
… because of the fields of wheat/flowers/barley, huge sky, and the vast, empty horizon, so blank, therefore so full of potential…
… the static sky, here, is wonderful for setting good shots. It’s also just a wonderful sky. I loved this scene of the abandoned biplane parked on the empty runway, with the huge, inviting sky as backdrop…
… it instantly made me think of Al Stewart’s excellent song, ‘Flying Sorcery’…
… this is a gorgeous, minimalist sim, with lush, rich colours…
The other day, I finally resolved to come to grips with EEP Windlights. I had only recently learned how to set the Windlight on my land, when they changed to the EEP system, and all my preset Windlights turned to custard. I couldn’t understand the new system, and found previous attempts to understand it confusing and annoying…
… I recently noticed people were selling EEP Windlights, but didn’t pursue it, because I had no idea how to install them, and they were usually pretty expensive…
… the other day, I searched them on MP, determined to get a handle on them, and I found two, ‘ColeMaries Windlight Set (Series #1)’, and ‘JuicyBomb EEP Settings’, which were both only L$1, and had rave reviews, so I bought them…
… there are only four Windlights in the JuicyBomb set, but they are all great, and L$1 is still ridiculously cheap for them…
… but there are are about 50 in the ColeMarie pack, and they are all excellent! It turns out installing them is as easy as unpacking them!… they go straight into your ‘My Environments’ folder, which is in World\Environments…
… from there, you choose a Windlight, and simply either choose ‘apply only to myself’, which you can do anywhere, and everything changes to that Windlight…
… or, if you are on your own land, you can choose ‘apply to parcel’, and you have set your lands Windlight! That’s way less work than it was to set pre-EEP Windlights for your land!…
… this is the ColeMarie Windlight I have set for my parcel…
… I love the clouds, but I also love the light, and how it affects the materials of my home, both outside…
… and inside. I’m so glad I finally decided to decipher the EEP mystery, and found it’s not such a big deal, at all… it actually IS an improvement! I highly recommend these two, near-free Windlight packs, especially the ColeMarie one (:
* Since this post, I have bought another, single EEP Windlight… it came in a folder, and couldn’t be ‘unpacked’, as it already was. As such, it has not placed itself in my ‘My Environments’ folder. As I’m new to this, I’m not sure if it is the anomaly, or the sets I bought were anomalies, in that they put themselves in that folder after I unpacked them. It still behaves the same, but I have to find it in my inventory, then open the folder, which isn’t as convenient as having it in my ‘Environments’ folder.
Today I visited… my place! My place is open to anyone who wants to visit, except for my house, which is well signposted as being private…
… I have two gorgeous little Pandume goats… well, that’s what I call them, anyway. My lovely friend, Pandume, gave them to me, shortly before, like everyone else I have ever gotten close to in SL, she vanished without trace, and I’ve never heard from her since…
… there’s lots of interesting sculptures and stuff to see…
… and, of course, my gallery. I own a quarter sim in Jormundgandr, half on either side of the Circuit La Corse…
… the grounds are quite spacious, but have many statues and sculptures in them…
… next to my house is my gorgeous Pegasus stargate. You can access this gate from any other stargate, by dialing ‘Serigate’.
… I’m not sure if it’s the sheer size of this place, with so much to see and discover, if the size just makes me forget, or what, but I always manage to find somewhere, here, that feels new to me…
… this vast, wonderful place is never crowded, and when you do meet other avi’s, they come in all shapes and sizes, because Hangars Liquides is very inclusive… I once saw someone riding a horse, here…
… the balance of neon and grunge, light and dark, is perfect, here…
… and the environmental sounds are more like ambient music than city sounds…
… I find it very soothing, wandering aimlessly through this futuropolis…
… I come here on a regular basis, just to re-immerse myself in this amazing place’s magic…
… Hangars Liquides is one of the great wonders of SL.
Today, I visited ‘Lana‘. I always use the ‘shared environment’ setting, so I get the experience the creator intended… my first reaction, here, was ‘Eeep!’; the comic-book colours and bubble-gum ocean were a bit of a shock, but I decided to run with it…
… and quickly grew to really like the colours, here! This is such a gorgeous place! For starters, it’s Halloween-free, which is so nice when 99% of current destinations are not. But, that fact aside, the island seems to be devided into a ‘winter’ side, and a more ‘spring/summer/autumn’ side, and the colours on the winter side are very pretty…
… reds/whites/pinks are most of my favourite colours, so I really loved the colours, here…
… but I didn’t dislike the colours on the spring/summer/autumn side, either! There are lots of deer and several dragons, in Lana…
… as well as majestic big cats, and several other beasts…
… there’s plenty of cuteness…
… and lots of wonderful, photogenic settings…
… so much to discover…
… a really gorgeous, life-affirming place to visit (:
Last night, I visited ‘Whitby-Birth of Dracula‘. Whitby is a beautifully made, medieval village, beneath a large church and some ruins, all on a dark and moody coastline. The lighting, here, is perfect, and the sky and roiling clouds couldn’t be better…
… the interiors are equally beautifully lit, and everything is in gorgeous, Rembrandt-like colours, dark and rich…
… the advertising blurb says this build isn’t a pedantic reading of the Dracula myth, but something looser, but anyone who knows their Dracula mythology will feel how evocative of all those tales this build is, it certainly has all the tropes…
… like the decadent, vampiric nature of the church, sucking the wealth from the peasants in return for a fantasy of eternal life…
… but the opulance of that decadence sure is gorgeous…
… this guy made me smile. He reminded me of the kind of thugs I came up against, back in the day, when I was fighting both the Holy Roman Church, and the Vampire Nation. Creatures like him were all very tough when dealing with peasants armed with ignorance and sticks, they didn’t know what hit them when they tried that crap on me… I’m still here, a thousand years later, and they are funny paintings on the wall…
… there are wonderful ruins for wandering in, and photographing, with catacombs and tombs beneath them, it’s all very subtle, which I really appreciate in this season of pumpkins and witches at every turn…
… it’s the fabulously rich interiors that I was most taken with…
… really well done, like you have stepped into a medieval painting…
… speaking of which, there are many exquisite art works in these interiors. ‘Whitby-Birth of Dracula’ is well worth a visit.
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