There is, in fact, very little of it: I do add shadows underneath their feet or where their bodies touch the ground and also underneath some of the props as well. This is something that there is no way to accomplish in Second Life, unless I add png shadows mapped onto flat prims placed underneath all this stuff. (I do not use the famous Second Life shadows. I find them to be very ugly, a total joke really…). Anyway, since shadow prims would create the usual nightmares which alpha textures always create when placed underneath or above other textures, I have not even attempted to try that out but have opted to “cheat” in photoshop. But other than these “foot shadows” (and it is, admittedly, a fairly important intervention, they add a lot of depth to the image); all that is in these photos has been captured in Second Life itself. Scouts honor! ;-)

And then, probably also quite important: I use the Kirsten viewer to take all of my virtual photographs. I have no idea why it should be so but there is a vast difference between the image quality generated by the Kirsten viewer and all of the others – in all sizes but especially when it comes to high res images, which these photos all are (they are all 6016 pixels wide). I do not use Kirsten for any other purpose, but always stick to Emerald. However, when I take photos, I always always always switch. The difference is really quite remarkable!

VM

I recently read that around 90% of the immersive experience in VEs has to do with sound. You having noticed the sound inside the sphere seems to substantiate that theory. I do not really know my way around sound in Second Life too much and also I have a feeling that the system does not provide too many choices/alternatives in this regard even if I were an absolute wiz at it. As an example, as far as I know, you cannot upload MP3 files and have to make do with those tiny little WAW slivers. So, I did what I could, which isn’t all that much. Thus, I am doubly glad that it worked for you.
:-)

Thank you so very much.

Yes, that is the conundrum: On the one hand are these utterly beautiful anatomical drawings and on the other one the unimaginable cruelty which is quite inevitably a part of the process of creating them… That split is probably the main reason for my being so obsessed with them… They horrify me. Much as I acknowledge their beauty, they nonetheless do. Maybe even precisely through their beauty…

And especially the ones by Vesalius. Check those out when you have moment:
http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/vesaliusgallery.htm

I myself wished to go into medical drawing, but as soon as I found out that the course for anatomy and physiology used a once living animal and had it killed (not just a left over or one which died a natural death) I abandoned that goal because it was not ethical for me to participate in such things.. but at the same time it was important to me to examine the structural under the surface when taking Life Drawing.. and felt that if only I had more time to study the underneath properly, I would have trained myself into the artist I could have admired being- rather than the unstructured hazy lens that sees everything but doesn’t have the practice and dicipline to really excute the structure I sense.

so you see for me, this is the ultimate project.. I love it and I think its such an ambitous undertaking for anyone.. very detailed and patient!

Ummm… no, I haven’t done so yet but one should, of course, share these things and I should certainly do so as well.

The one potential trouble with that would be the following: For the largest part what I use I find by searching closed scientific databases which I access through my university’s library – mostly citation indexed journal databases and the Web of Science portal. So, even if I were to give out the sources you would need to be able to get into these places in order to be able to use them.

However, there is the occasional tidbit that I scoop up elsewhere as well, and those I should most definitely share. So again, thank you for having raised the point.

And also, all the references for the Uncanny Valley are listed at the end of the actual paper and that you can download from here:
http://www.citrinitas.com/papers/ayiterCR9-syncretia-uncannyvalley.pdf

And most of what I have published can similarly be accessed here:
http://www.citrinitas.com/2008/research.html

I hear you! :)
Are you sharing somewhere your preferite sources (e.g. a delicious.com page or such)?
I’m tracking interesting stuff (limited to Second Life and virtual worlds) at http://delicious.com/oobscure