Yes, it is a second life-based photo.
Tools used are: Second life client + photoshop 7.0
Techniques & Tips brief:
A storyboard is written in 3 chapters as I guess, and I am developing it to teach You how to make a photo like this out of secondlife. Chapter one is already published in my gallery so look for: DON HOSHO technique #1
I will explain it here briefly:
1. I got inspiration from a real photo, studied its lightings system, and I answered 2 questions: Why does it look beautiful? What makes it real?
2. I built the shape and a demo skin and tested a photo for the figure, and a photo for the face, to decide what I would do next.
3. I decided to make a photo for the face ( A portrait! ) ... I set the lightings in my studio, and snapped the guy.
4. I have worked on the dark areas to make them stressed more.
5. I have created the highlight on photoshop using the channels! By converting the photo to a black and white photo, I took the white out of the black, then added the white only over the photo.. I used the eraser with different opacities to change the lighting values over the face, depending on my understanding of the light and shadow of a face.
6. I brought textures of a cigarette ( not the smoke, the smoke is a pure secondlife particles ), lips, and placed them over the face... etc.
7. I used my brush with a dark color to fix some of the shade too.
8. I used curves, layers, ctrl-u a lot. Have a nice day.