A few months ago, Codie taught me a very important lession: all scripting tasks take “just ten more minutes, I promise.” I learned this lesson while she was building, tweaking and refining the tool that would eventually become the FilterCam HUD.  For hours on end she would change this, add that, pass test version after test version to me, all the while she would chant, as though it was her personal mantra, “just ten more minutes, I promise.”

The original FilterCam HUD was good.  You could change the tint, frame and opacity of your snapshot area with just a few simple keystrokes, and eventually, with an on-screen menu.  We experimented alot in those early days, layering tints and adding glow to create some really nice photographs.  But Codie was never satisfied with “good” or “really nice.”

Enter Ryker Beck.  A very close, long-time friend of Codie’s and an extraordinary artist.  Her photographs have been featured in the Avatrait Gallery, on DeviantArt.com, in RL at the Festival della Creatività in Florence, Italy, and on-going in the Rinascimento Virtuale exhibit on the art of virtual worlds at the Florence Museum of Natural History.  Ryker and Codie collaborated to create a series of filters and masks that would further enhance the creative application of the FilterCam HUD.  Ryker designed various frames, scenes and overlays that Codie was able to incorporate with her existing design and suddenly the FilterCam was no longer a “good” tool…it was Great!

This photo of Quaintly was taken using the Frame filter.

So, how does the FilterCam HUD work? It’s very simple.  You just wear it. Click on it to open the onscreen menu, choose your filter or mask, and watch the scene on your monitor transform into a work of art.  From there you can use your in-world snapshot tool to create unique and artistic snapshots without ever having to open Photoshop, The Gimp, or any other image editing software.  Just remember to check the “Show HUD Objects In Snapshot” option.

You can also use the FilterCam HUD to create machinima.  Take a look at the fantastic video work that Osiris Pfalz created using the FilterCam HUD:
Mechanized Life FilterCam from Osiris Pfalz on Vimeo

You will find the FilterCam HUD on Rouge in the MechanizedLife main store or on XstreetSL.  Just click the links in the right hand column.  Before I go, I have a small request, well, four requests, really.  Have fun. Be creative. Take some fantastic photos…then, share your works of art with the FilterCam Group on Flickr!  We can’t wait to see what you will create with FilterCam.