On June 7th, I wrote a piece about the A’stra main stage at SL10BCC. At the risk of repeating myself, this is a truly stunning build by Today Nakamura and Flea Bussy. As a part of the article, I post-processed some of the images I captured of the stage and turned them into drawings / paintings of the build to create a little illustrative narrative to go with the post.
I subsequently uploaded a couple of the images to my Flickr stream and then to the SL10BCC Flickr Group, where I think Toady may have seen them and found inspiration, as Flea IM’d me while I was offline, and left me a message with a clue:
Shhhh! When you have a moment, maybe peek at the front of A’stra, near the angle you took the photo from…well, or we could say, painted! Toady saw your painting and well…you’ll see!
Intrigued, I pulled on my exploring boots, spent a few minutes burning incense at the Alter of the GPU asking that my Ge9800 GT hold itself together for an in-world visit (It’s been struggling badly the last 48 hours, and not only on the SL10BCC regions, which are already quite densely packed with textures), and jumped in-world.
What I found was lovely, and – I have to say – deeply flattering. There’s a new little promontory leading from the “mainland” paths bordering the stage, and on it … well, see for yourselves…

I actually think he’s doing a much better job than I did…

So, thank you, Toady and Flea!
The artist adds a wonderful additional touch to the build – and I’m not saying that because the inspiration for him may have come from my pictures. There is a wealth of detail and many incredible touches from both Flea and Toady which bring this stage to life as you wander through it, and the artist adds another gem to that detail. Keep your eyes out for him once the regions open!
Related Links
- Community Celebration website and blog
- Community Celebration coverage in this blog
- SL10BCC Flickr Group
- My SL10BCC Flickr set
P.S. if you’re curious, the first image above may appear to have had a degree of post-processing. It hasn’t. It was produced purely through tweaking windlight via William Weaver’s Phototools, allow me to draw more attention to the figure of the artist.
that really is a beautiful and thoughtful little touch! you should be proud. plus it highlights the enormousness of the ‘build’.
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