Board with Chess

The sum of these squares makes a collective piece. Although I cannot show the entire world my piece, those who venture onto Columbia Island in the months of April and May '12 can experience this "in person." The piece is meant to be larger than human size, with large pawns that are toppled and disarranged. The blocks are tiered in varying height, yet organized in a deliberate manner.

The set is meant to be walked through. Participants walk and explore different heights and are overwhelmed by the large monochrome pieces.

Some pawns have scripting on them which allows them to be moved in one direction. Some pawns are lighter and can be knocked down by avatars.

The Sky Castle (where all the ghost go to meet)

The outside of the sky is really boring I wish that I had made more time to do some more design. Parts of the castle kept disappearing because it is over the sand box but I fix that by linking everything together. The door don't open the way I wanted but it open at least.

The first room is the crystal room. The crystal greet everyone that comes by and sometime move when some is to close.

The ghost room is where all the ghost hang out. Some move while just move out of visitors way. They also talk.

The Fire pit is where all the evil ghost hang out. They are just like the other but they say meaner things.

The Sky castle is big but easy to find your way through it. There are three hidden door that can help you to leave the castle or go back to the first room.

Final!

 This is the outside of my PokeCenter. I made it so that now the walls have texture, rather than just being the plain plastic-y color that I had it before. The signs on the outside glow.

 This is just another angle.

 On the inside I tried to decorate it in a way that resembled other PokeCenters, by putting up a map that you would see in the first generation games.

 This is a bookshelf, but when you click on it, it say's "It's crammed full of Pokemon books!" Just like in the game when you click on the bookshelf.

 For whatever reason, my Chansey's body won't show up when I work on SL through my mac. When You get close to the Chansey, it's nametag pops up and it says "Chansii!" in the chatbox. Next to it is where you would put your pokeballs. You can get pokeballs from the computer at the front desk. It's unlimited, so all you have to o is click on the computer and you get a pokeball. When you click on the machine next to Chansey, it makes the PokeCenter 'Full Heal" fanfare. It's really quite, so you have to have the volume up pretty high.

 There is a picture of the pokeball.

This is the view from behind the counter. It has plants, a table and a chair (all similarly placed as in the game, from various generations.)

At last, it's done!

The Rick Santorum dart board is finished. While some cuts were made and the main script was redone from scratch all of five times due to various issues, there is now a working dartboard.

The main cut made was creating an attachment for a dart that attaches to the hand and then disappears part way through the throwing animation. That was mostly due to time constraints as well as my dart projectiles causing lag within a sim which got more than one sandbox owner upset.

The other cut was the quote cycling. Mostly since I was busy learning animation and poseballs. I still managed to import and create my own custom animation which I may reuse if there's ever a need for a football sim since it's thrown overhand bust doesn't have the same overextension that throwing a baseball requires. I could only seem to get random quotes to cycle when used as lines instead of paragraphs and I didn't feel like coding things by paragraph when I was sorting though numerous compiler errors and learning how to both animate and how to use Linden Script at the same time.

As it stands, I tried three different animations for throwing the dart, one of which was left-handed. I eventually had to sort through frames to make the animation the most fluid I could. Getting rid of the projectile/vanishing dart meant that I was able to shorten the delay between when the animation starts and ends which means that I no longer had an avatar standing there like an idiot in intervals that take progressively longer since my darts would clog up the sim with prims.

The dartboard is a linked object with a custom texture made using Photoshop. Again, I could have done better by not allowing certain parts of the bullseye to be erased around the edges. It's only noticeable when viewed in first person up close on a high resolution monitor but I'm a perfectionist and I let little blemishes like that bother me. Sadly I lacked the time to redo the entire texture as it was more important to make a working script for both the dartboard and poseball.

So now without using the Vector function, I tried using the Rot function to rotate my dart as a temporary object that would appear in the board when the poseball was stepped on. Also, just being able to click a box instead of using the Die function was a breath of fresh air. It's still not perfect but it's way better than it was before in terms of performance. The dart no longer attaches to the hand but that's because I'd rather it stay on the dartboard since it looks better in Rick's face and it's not as awkward as having a disappearing dart in your hand that goes nowhere. The dart did eventually have to terminate but that's a minor issue.

Also, spawning a menu with a poseball isn't as hard as I was making it out to be. I'd spend hours staring at my screen trying to get one spawned and then find that it's just one line of code. Getting my rotation perfect was a pain but I eventually managed that after experimenting enough since I had to rotate myself by 90 degrees to the left.

Also, crafting my won poseball was a waste of time and a convoluted mess of code since I didn't know that there was a "standard" model of poseball until two days ago (technically three now). naturally, I swapped my poseball out for the new one and then realized that I forgot to set my poseball to terminate by default leading to my inventory being filled with the same scripted poseball. I fixed the problem after thinking that I'd fixed it and wondering what I did wrong and deleted all of the spares I had.

Still, for a first scripted menu poseball item, I feel that I did pretty good. Especially since most poseball items aren't as complex as what I made which was deceptively complex. I'm looking forward to making more objects, mostly with mesh and selling items. Moreover, I learned that I could program and both create my own code and variables and modify other people's code much easier than i did before in a new language when coding was always something that I struggled with. Actually getting the hang of something, possibly due to the visual component is always a good feeling and having to figure things out for myself when nobody that I talked to knew how to do it was a huge triumph for me.

Final

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdiLtnImySQ

Machinima Benchmark

Here's a Machinima benchmark video, I hope it plays though because I didn't use Camtasia to edit or create the video. I went online and researched some video recording software and found out about Mirillis Action for the actual recording and Video Pad for editing the video and it works great. It's free to download and does a really good job with gameplay footage. Anyways, so the video is just some separate gameplay footage of my final project house, as well as a few other random shots, edited together without music but it should have sound.

Chess Set Progress

The board is now complete. I have pawns but I am thinking of doing other game pieces. I still have to create a video exposition as well as some description to this "piece."

Progress

This week I learned how to create pngs in Photoshop so I could import them in Second Life without a background attached to the image.  Here are a few of the many images I'm using in the machinima. 

The first and the last images are pngs and the middle two are background for the environments I'll create.  I recorded significantly more material, but when I use the 3D navigator the movement turns out choppy.  I have the feathering cranked up on the flycam to get smooth pans and zooms, but this feature combined with Camtasia and Second Life is just too much for my computer.  I'll bring the cmproj to class and I'll recreate the scenes in class or in the lab.  

Machinima Benchmark

This is a simple video of my final, a 3D chess set. The video shows the varying height of my set and what the view from above looks like. I did not take advantage of the 3D navigator as I am more comfortable with my mouse. I am learning video editing, which will help future cuts like this to look smoother.

Benchmark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52kXHGLOP14

These are some transition shots from my final that I started.  Now that I'm more comfortable with editing and recording, I'm going to restart with a 3d mouse and I'll remember to hide the tags next time.

Progress

After doing the mushroom tutorial, I realized I could make pawn chess pieces with the same method. I surprised myself with the decent quality output. When I uploaded the pawn pieces, I realized I rendered them to be extremely small in Maya. Scaling upwards was no difficulty and painting one a different color couldn't be easier. I want the pieces to be larger than human scale to give a sense of belittlement. I'm not sure if I want to scale even bigger. I will probably do so and create a perfect grid of blocks using coordinates, since right now I've done everything by eye.

A chess board is 8x8, which means there will be 64 blocks arranged in various heights. I do not plan to create every single chess piece. I may take advantage of the ease of the pawn's creation to create a pawn heavy set, which has its own political meaning. I will attempt a harder piece such as Queen with the help of a lab aid.

This project is going to be very large in scale and might need to be moved to a more deserted location. I plan to create a movie sequence as well as allow visitors in SL.

Final Proposal

Rick Santorum Dartboard

What it is: A cutout of Rick Santorum with a bullseye on his chest. When clicked, one of Rick's various offensive quotes will display on the screen like him saying that women shouldn't serve in the military or that he agrees with The Taliban on censorship. The cutout will be a mesh of a large propped up cardboard Rick and when clicked on a menu will appear that gives the player darts and the ability to throw them through a pop-up menu. The texture will be made in Photoshop while the model will be a mesh made in Maya.

Why I'm Making It: Because Rick Santorum wants to start a nuclear war with Iran and set back civil rights by a century. He's opposed to free speech and equal opportunity and in general wants to get rid of everything that makes America great. The guy needs a dartboard in his image.

I'll be trying to create both an object with a menu and a poseball with an animation of throwing darts. The dartboard is going to be a prim object and the darts are going to be made as meshes. I already know how to display text when and item is clicked so I already have 1/3^rd if it done.

Final Project Proposal

So what I would like to do for my final project is a Pokemon Center. I'm not sure yet which center from which generation I want to do yet, although I'm thinking that I might take bits and pieces from each. I haven't really started building it yet, all I have is the floor and the walls up now. I've been looking at different ways I could build it, including PokeCenters that other people have built in SecondLife and other places.

What I would like to accomplish with my PokeCenter is having a Chansey behind the front desk that replies when you go approach it, and a computer (Bill's PC) that gives you a pokeball when you click it. I'm not sure if there will be a second floor or not, it depends on how much I accomplish by the end of this weekend. I want to make sure that the floor tiles resemble pokeballs, if not then at least have it resemble the tiles from the second or third generation, as shown from the floor plans above. I would also like to have sliding doors, but as of current, I'm not too focused or worried about that. I'm mostly focused on the textures/colors, the Chansey, and the PC.

Building my Avatar a Dorm Room

A couple of weeks ago my classmates started building dorm rooms.  I was impressed from the skill and talent that was put into these rooms and inspired to create my own room for my avatar. My first attempt was not good.  For some reason I started with creating 4 walls. This was very time consuming and hard to size the walls together to create a box. I took a minute to realize that I could have done this much easier if I just take a square and hollow out the inside. Duh. So I started over with that method and I had a pretty nice looking dorm room at that point.. but I just wasn't satisfied.  I couldn't figure out how to make an opening for the door so I would have to fly over it and then drop down inside of the room to get in. Also I didn't get to build a roof yet because I needed to be able to get inside.  I then decide that  I needed to either improve my dorm or come up with something easier and cooler for me to live in until I can figure out how to make my dorm better.

Presenting Pac-Man Dorm/Chill Space!

I thought this would be a neat idea. At first I was going to just create a hollowed ball and have a teleporter escort me inside, but then I thought that it would be easier if I didn't have to look for the teleporter each time I wanted to enter.  While playing around with options I found that I could cut away certain bits and that's when the Pac-Man idea surfaced.  I created the home yellow, made another sphere but flattened it out and inserted it in the middle for the floor, and added two eyes.  I like this dorm idea a lot and so do others. I am thinking about making a prototype of this and selling my pac-man chill spot in a Second Life store soon.

This is the machinima I did in class. Blogger will scrunch your video down and add compression while its uploading. So if you want 1024x720 video, use YouTube and then link it here.  Yecchhh - this is how to do it wrong!  See also the 360x240 Soccer Practice sample, below.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I will create an arcade with a dance club.  I was inspired while re-watching Toy Story with my nephew a month or two ago. The arcade that they went to was also a pizza place that had a space theme.  I thought this would be cool to incorporate with my arcade.

 My plan for the arcade is to create a huge space ship.  There will be a staircase leading you up into the bottom of the ship.  There will be two levels: the arcade room/restaurant and the dance club.  The lower level will have a small pizza place to sit and eat.  I plan to have a prize booth as well. There will be one working game and possible an air hockey table. I hadn't figured out what game I would like to program and incorporate yet. I would like some of the games to replicate actual games such as a DDR machine would be awesome!

The second floor will have the dance hall. I would like a couple of lounge chairs around the center and maybe some music playing for people to dance to. It would be neat if I could create a dance action button so that avatars can dance along to the music if they'd like to. To bring avatars to the top level there will be a teleporter at the bottom level, also one to bring avatars to the bottom level. In the game room I would like to have some sounds going on and maybe some winning beeps. There may also be some nice flashy lights at the games. I feel confident in my project and can't wait to see it come together.

Soccer Practice

Soccer practices are heating up all over the metaverse in preparation for the Euro Cup 2012.

Final

For my final project, I would like to make a machinema.  I have someone to collaborate with for music and in case I need some extra avatars in Second Life.  The song we decided on is here: http://soundcloud.com/micmicmic/martin-scorsese-is-my-spirit.  Im using 1:05 to 3:05.  I plan on making three to four sets (I might reuse one) for each section of the song.  The song is a bit abrasive, so switching sets quickly works in this case.  We want to focus on the avatars and altering them, sort of like what we did with the primheads in class.  I started a written story board, but I think I might change it once I talk with my partner again.  I will update this post with photos and possibly a scan of the story board after I run it by my partner.  

Final Proposal

For my Final Project I want to take My Rumble Ball that Ive already been working on in Maya. Ultimately what I want to do for it is I want it to walk and kind of shake when it walks and make a sound when it walks, and I want to do this all in maya. I have this other idea to make a Gallery of videos and pictures of where the idea stemmed from.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I am going finish building my house, I will use a little bit of everything we have learned so far in VWC. For example, I want to add a series of prims that you can either stand or sit on that will be scripted to lift you up to the house. I want to also add a flat screen T.V. that will have either a feed from the internet on it or just pictures that repeat themselves. I will make a few objects in Maya to transfer over as well. I plan on making the house much bigger, adding a garage with a door that will open when touched and light switches throughout the house that can be turned on and off. Also I would like to add windows that can be opened and closed by touch. There will be many more small details throughout the house as well, but the main focus will be to incorporate at least one scripted item, an item created in Maya as well as textures made from either Photoshop or Illustrator and different items made from at least a few different prims combined. I want it to be fully interactive, and not only that but I want it to be able to stand on its own with the amount of detail that I put into the house. I will also have the house greet you when you step in. Not everything that I will make interactive will stand out, even though I will have another blog up that will let you know what is interactive, I want people who go into the house to have to mess with stuff to try and figure out what is interactive. I believe that will add to experience of the house as a whole, making it much more fun to explore. The house isn't much to look at now but that will change. So far the lamps are the only items I have that are interactive, Whenever you touch them they will either turn on or off.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I want to create a 3D gallery space. I am using a chess theme with large black and white blocks. Users will navigate through the 3D space with large chess pieces surrounding them. The blocks are staggered and uneven so that moving requires deliberate movement. I plan to turn off flying for this gallery so that users move in a more human nature, despite the project being unrealistic in real life. The scale and environment is meant for human experience. I decided chess pieces because I enjoy their classic style and I love classic games. A machinima we watched in class used large blocks in huge amounts of space and it provoked me to create my own 3D space. A recent game called Catherine also takes advantages of large blocks by using them as the primary puzzle element. Creating an environment that is appealing to me as a designer and as an artist, as well as one that is catered to the user walking through the gallery, is my goal.

I was inspired today when looking at my current work. I knew I wanted to the blocks to be staggered and interesting to walk on while user's were at level with the gallery. I looked at my work from a bird's eye perspective and noticed that I was building a chess board visually from above. I want users to see this view of a chess board while they are first experiencing the gallery. Users will then come down to level and navigate through the terrain. Metaphorically speaking, it looks and reads like any old chess board from above, but when looked at closely, it is a much more unique experience.

VWBPE Conference Fun!

I attended two events at the VWBPE conferences on Thursday.  At first I didn't know what to expect, but when I arrived to the first event it was really awesome!  The first event was the dragon festival.  I had arrived a little late because when I first tried to join the area was too full and my computer speed slowed down to a crawl. So I decided to give it some time and I was late but when I arrived I was glad that I did.  It was grand! There weren't many people there since most probably collected their freebies and ventured elsewhere. There were a couple of huge dragons in the center when I arrived and other smaller dragon avatars gathered. Lots of people were engaged in conversation and I even joined in a few conversations. Mostly everyone was dressed up in interesting outfits and I felt a bit plain in what my avatar was wearing so I created a red dress and wore that. Looked festive enough!  

The second event I went to was about Minecraft. It's always been one of those games that I just couldn't really understand and wanted to learn a bit more about the game and what makes so many people want to play it.  So the event was set in a location that closely resembled the area of Minecraft .Lots of green grass and trees, also there were the famous Minecraft block characters scattered all over the area! This place was PACKED when I came and my computer could barely handle it. When the event finally started I was able to watch along since people had stopped moving so much. This event wasn't newbie friendly. They mostly discussed strategies and talked about the best way to create this and that, so eventually I ended up walking out a bit early. It was still fun and lots of people told funny jokes. I was even given a free T-shirt!  

All in all, VWBPE conference was really fun. I did wish that I had logged in from a school computer so that I didn't have to deal with the lag. I was opposite of what I had expected since I had a ton of great fun. Also, I didn't expect that many people to be at these events. I hope that in the future I can join into many more fun events like this!

My trips in Second LIfe

I had quite fun visiting different locations throughout Second Life.  I took a vacation to Rio and visited a haunted house.  Yup, my avatar had a fun weekend!


 1. Rio

The first place that I visited was RIO!  I needed a vacation.  As soon as I teleported to the location, a blast of carribean music hit me.  The song was fast paced and relaxing which really made me feel that I was on a beach in Rio.  There were a few people that would walk over and just stare without saying anything.  And there was one person who did come over to me and make some small talk.  The location is BEAUTIFUL! There is a great amount of detail that was put into this location.  I had to bookmark this place to retreat to.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Saari/158/129/24

2. Rackingham State Hospital, Somnolenta Sea, Somnolenta Sea - General

 I wanted to check out this location because it's the one place in Second Life that resembles one of my favorite video games, Silent Hill.  This place is said to be haunted. The actual location on the outside is a bit creepy with random floating books and bats flying everywhere. The stage is set to nighttime which ads to the haunted theme.  As I entered the building, the first floor was the haunted house. I explored around a bit and wanted to check out the other areas. The doors open just by touching them which is a really neat effect. There is a working elevator! On the second floor, it's a reception area.  I ran into a few of the "nurses" of Silent Hill.  They were modeled really well. Next I checked the upper areas which were the living quarters that contained the Female and Male wards.  Scattered throughout the halls were wheelchairs, hospital beds and even some really creepy stuff. Including the ghost! 

SLURL; http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Somnolenta%20Sea/152/104/40

Propaganda in Second Life

Music is one thing but when a sim plays right-wing talk radio from conspiracy nut Alex Jones, it's another thing entirely. Using Second Life to promote political causes is something that I've always been against mostly since it's a fantasy world and sims should be apolitical and for everyone. At least that's my opinion.

Now it's fine to express an opinion in an IM but using your music settings to broadcast you personal politics crosses a serious line for me. Truth be told, I'd rather that sims not have an agenda since that makes people who disagree feel persecuted and like they don't belong and it's even worse for people outside of the country.

My Chill Spot

So I started building my chill spot, I only call it that because I don't believe I could call it a house, I mean it doesn't even have four walls. But despite it obvious "hole in the wall" build, I wanted it to be that way. I wanted it to be a place I could just sit and enjoy the view, although I am thinking about adding a flat screen T.V. I also want to add an elevator, which I have tried to do but when I scripted it to go up by touch it would give me an error message, I know the scripting was correct because I changed it to go up only a few feet and it worked fine. I think it's not working because of how high I originally wanted it to go, so I'll have to figure something out so I don't have to fly up there every time. I'm also pretty sure I built my crib the hard way, I used two cubes flattened out for each side of the house and one on the inside and I used a few different prims for the roof. I built it this way so that the textures I applied wouldn't look huge and disproportional from the rest of the structure. I will keep adding to my casa throughout the year, I might even add a second floor and garage to park my shoes.

This is the most recent update to my house, I added a wrap around porch where I can park my bike, although it's not the easiest place to park a bike, and changed the a-frame texture to match the porch.

Building a House

 

I start building a house in our class space. I’m having fun building it even though it not real how I want it to be. I still learning so I am go to take my time and think about how to add to it to make it better. So far I start off with a cube and hollow out the middle. Then I cut an opening in to it using the path cut tool to make a doorway. These things can be done in the object tab in the build menu. So now I have a box with no bottom nor top. In saying that I made the floor, which I hollow out a trap door so I can up through floor. This trap door is easy to spot in the house even though it is cover by phantom cube. Next I fix the doorway and did the same thing to it as I did the other part of the house. I made the doorframe metal and gave it a medium shine. I also darken the bumpiness (which make it look more real) and add a rock floor outside my door. The shine and the bumpiness tools are in the texture tab. Next I did the roof. First I start off with a pyramid and it the same texture as my doorframe. The shine is on high but my bumpiness is the same as the doorframe. The roof look to boring leaving it just like that so I went to object tab again and use the twist tool. I also add the flagpole and the American flag but for some reason the flag is upside on one side of the flag. The do not blow in the wind if you are far away from it but up close it will start to.  

VWPBE

I attended the conference on prejudice in virtual worlds and it was really just a quick presentation on creating a sexist sim that openly discriminates against women called Maletopia. I was hoping for a bigger discussion on why there were so few black avatars in SL but sadly things didn't really deviate from the script or scratch below the surface. This isn't counting how both presenters were late to arrive and how they didn't give me a landmark until a day later. I didn't really learn much aside from what somebody else's sim was. So I wasn't all that impressed and ultimately left feeling like I just wasted enough of my time that I didn't bother with any of the other presenters.

Maletopia is still under construction and not available to the public without an LM. I'll still give one to anyone who asks but it didn't really get it's point across as well as it could and just felt like Gor-lite instead of a real commentary on sexism online. There needs to be more discussion of the issues rather than just a satirical sim. It's one thing to point out a problem but it's a weak argument without any solutions presented.

VWBP!

I have to admit, I got the times messed up for the events I really wanted to go to. But to say the least, I still learned a lot more than I thought I did. After I missed the EVE Online Tour,  decided to choose a different event. I went to the poster exhibit area, and found that I was particularly interested in what I saw. I know that in class, we learn that you can use virtual worlds as a medium for teaching. But hell, did they really get into it.  I had never been more thoroughly intrigued with the depth they took to show how connectivity benefits learning. One of the first poster areas I went to talked about Universities on the Hypergrid. The University of Cincinnati had bought land in Secondlife, where they built a complete replica of the UofC campus. The Center for Simulations & Virtual Environments Research (UCSIM, a group of students and professors from Cincinnati) provides support for the application of virtual environments.They use it to enhance teaching and learning, and to model complex processes and situations through the use of computer generated and enhanced environments. It creates educational and practical applications of virtual worlds, such as first responders to incidents such as policemen and firefighters. At first I never really thought about what exactly entails 'practical' uses for a 3D augmented world- but the more I thought about it, it also applies to training for astronauts and pilots alike. It's intriguing to see how 3D worlds, not just Secondlife, can have a more substantial effects on learning on students other majors, rather than ones just learning to make video games and 3D worlds.

Navigation Benchmark

First I headed to see a DJ playing at Deranged. I only stayed for a few minutes since the DJ wasn't playing much of what I'd call “real” metal. The club is usually cool and the crowd is sometimes okay but oftentimes, the people there are obnoxious and the music sucks. They’re just spinning often so I show up since I'll at least find a live DJ.

I left shortly after once they started playing post-grunge in a metal club. That to me crossed a serious moral boundary.

I then headed to a small art gallery in a log cabin. I only really went there for this class so I just took a snapshot and then left.

I then headed to a weapons shop since it's the only store who's name I could remember at the time. I didn't buy anything since I was flat broke in RL so I just took another snapshot.

VWBPE sessions

I went to a couple of VWBPE sessions last week.  Again, Second Life has surprised me.  The first event I wanted to go to was Resistance is futile: making a case for virtual worlds, but the sim was full.  So I decided to go to the Swag Bag Give-Away right after it, just in case it was always going to be this hard to get into an event.  There wasn’t much of a description of the event, so I didn’t know what to expect. When I got there early people were standing around chatting and a greater directed me to where they were.  The were mostly teachers, but there were some grad students too.  They were all really friendly and discussed what sessions they were going to or had been to.  It seems like the social sessions are for people to regroup and discuss how they felt about the whole thing, and of course, be social.  And there was a lot of free stuff at this event, as the name would imply.

There was also live musicians at the event with a dance ball.  At first I didn’t know they were live, but the other people there were happy to explain it to me.  It really shocked me, there were people from all over the US and a few out of the country listening to the same couple singing in Florida.  The part that probably surprised me the most was that there was a sing along part, and a lot of people really did turn their mics on and sing with them.  After the singing ended, I headed over the main building and collected my goods.  There was a lot of free stuff at this event, as the name would imply.

I really wanted to attend the machinima sessions, but I set the alarm in my phone to 8pm instead of 8am. As a result, I missed them, but I did go to the concert at the end.  I was pretty funny actually.  I saw a Michael Jackson avatar perform Thriller and other similar things.  I couldn’t stay long though because Second Life kept crashing.  I guess there were just too many people there. I was hoping to stay for the fire works, so if anyone else did and has some pictures, I would like to see them.

 The first event I went to.  That is a dancing lion and it was awesome.

 The concert area for the last events

I have to keep the graphic settings pretty low on my computer, but this is the Michael Jackson avatar.

VWBP and the Beatles

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices events were great! It was so different to be at speech or concert with an avatar and to see all the other avatars there as well. One of the speeches I went to that I really enjoyed was the EVE online. They brought you through the basics of EVE online and how it works. I actually enjoyed it so much I started an account so I could see more of the incredible MMO. The graphics were breathtaking and how complex the gameplay is at first takes you by surprise but just like Secondlife once you are walked through it is very fun and easy and fulfilling. To see all of your hard work and time actually amount to something. You can also make money on EVE by buying and selling game time which I found interesting. But by far the best venue I went to was the Beatles cover band that performed at the end of VWBP. I did stay to see the fireworks show but I think I might have been in the wrong place because the cover band just kept playing and I didn't see any fireworks. I really wanted to go to a few other venues but because of work and school I was very limited to the ones I could go to. My eyes have opened up to what is possible to not only Secondlife but all MMOs and virtual worlds and the possibilities they can bring to a class. I am really looking forward to next years VWBP and as far as that goes any upcoming events in Secondlife!

So Far...

I haven't had the chance to really sink my teeth into Secondlife yet but as of Tuesday I received my Alienware M17 laptop, finally! So now I can explore the world as it was meant to be explored, on it's highest settings with no lag. With my old laptop I couldn't even log on, or I could but it was unplayable. Now I can freely explore the world and see all of the incredible things in Secondlife. I am very anxious to expand my knowledge of SL, to learn how to build better objects and manipulate prims, script and customize my avatar. I am also excited about our upcoming projects and have a few ideas but need to learn a little more about SL before I can bring my ideas to fruition, I know right, what a nice word. So now I have my incredible laptop that can run Secondlife on the highest setting with ease and it's like a whole new world that I am really want to explore. I'm going to start with finding something a little more fitting for my character, then I will start to create a nice little spot for my avatar to relax in. I have also been trying to get some of my friends and family who have never been to secondlife to start their own avatar. I have a friend who has wanted to open their own store to sell cloths and I told them about SL and how they can have there own store and sell cloths here. This weekend I am going to help them with there avatar creation but I still have a little more to learn before I can get there store going, but I do believe it will be a great way for me to learn with a "crash course" by learning from my mistakes, which is the best way for me to learn how to do something. So far I'm still a noob, but I hope to get past that ever too common turn of phrase by learning everything I can.

The World Is Your Canvas

Exploring SL is super exciting. I look around at all the environments and objects and think about the creation and the creator. Some assets are bought and repeated or stretched to create the illusion of customization. Even if everything in one environment isn't from a singular author, it is from a singular vision. Looking at Columbia Island, our environment is rich and fascinating. No doubt this has to do with the type of residents and their ambitions. Every environment I've seen is a rich 3D environment that was designed by a visionary.

Currently, my only ability to create environments is limited to Columbia Island and its sandbox. I can only make primitive shapes. I can join several prims together and use some imagination to create some really unique shapes. However, until I can model a customizable 3D object, my output is limited. Prims are not all that bad, and I still have a lot of flexibility within prims. After learning about their several properties, such as flexible, physical, locked, etc., and importing my own textures, I believe I can make a pretty complex structure.

I missed class the week before and when I came back to the sandbox, I saw some buildings floating above. These looked like combinations of prims that were simple enough to do on my own. I remember someone mentioning the door even has a script to open and that doesn't seem too hard to do!

I look forward to envisioning a final project. 3D design and virtual spaces are still a new avenue of creativity for me, so I have a lot to learn.

Building

This week I spent some time building a floating room in our class space.  I made this dome shaped house with a satin hammock thing below it.  I made it out of twisted and cut prims.  I wasn’t too careful about the textures so they look pretty crazy, but I like the way they look.  That probably makes my house look like it was built by a noob so maybe I’ll change it later.  I started building a flower too. So far, it’s just a stick coming out of a flower pot.  This is the first time I’ve changed the texture of just one face of an object.  I made the top of the cylinder a dirt texture, and wouldn’t you know, Second Life has a ‘potting soil’ texture.  I got to making the actual flower and couldn’t come up with a good way to make it.  I’ll give it another try a little later.  

I also made myself a Television set.  I linked it up to a live feed of 200 penguins at Sea World.  I told one of my friends about this feature in Second Life and he signed up right after.  It is a really useful feature for fun, and for presentations or anything else in Second Life.  It was wise of the developers to try to integrate more with the web, maybe this trend will continue and make Second Life popular again.  I’m not sure what I’ll do next with the room.  I want to make sculpty objects, but for now prims are plenty.  I also might try to make a skin for my avatar.  I looked at a template and I think I understand enough to give it a try.  So, until we start working with maya, that will probably be the next thing I tackle.  

SL Experience!

Any experience with Second Life that I've had on my Mac, I found to be awkward and frustrating. Pardon the grammar. I found that every time I try to upload an image or sound, or even try to teleport, my SL Viewer crashes. And as I'm sure you can understand, that is frustrating. But beyond that, (whenever I use a regular computer) I find my SL experience quite pleasant. Customizing my character is relaxing, but I also find it quite dull from time to time, and Find myself having much more fun building. Whenever I log on, I try to look around and see what people built, and how they went about actually creating it. I've tried making myself a list of all the things I would like to build, but my list is always changing because I find that a lot of the things I want to create requires scripting, which is a process that causes me some anxiety. Granted, we have the website which helps us out immensely, but I always feel somewhat guilty when I use it. It feels like I'm cheating, and that I should learn the scripting language the good old fashioned way. And that scares me. So recently, I've been having a difficult time making bigger and more complex objects, though I do intend on using the website at some point in my near future. After all, my goal for the end of this class is to gain enough skills to be able to make a giant recreation of the Airship from Final Fantasy VII. Or a unicorn. That would be neat, too.

Journeying with Landmarks

I have traveled to just a handful of places in SL, whether thru the search bar and a random entry or thru the word of a friend. Some places are interesting, some are packed with people (which makes rendering things a nightmare). All in all, I've learned a new appreciation to SL environments, and just taking in the scenery.

My friend Hibiki handed me a location card the other day to the space station above Columbia Island. He tells me the space station was created by one person. The station is beautiful yet simple. It has a bar and many rooms inside. I enjoyed looking around the scenery and appreciating the architecture. It is easy to appreciate the 3D design and interior architecture. I imagined creating my own 3D spaces and giving them purpose. The space bar is a cool place, but what does it do? It provides a cool hang out, no doubt. But could it be more? I thought of using it as a cinema setting. Hibiki showed me some machinima from SL and the idea intrigues me. The types of actors and locations could be limitless and your imagination is the only limit.

Exploring the multiple rooms made me realize the potential for scenes and spaces that are all driven by the players. It was fun goofing off with Hibiki in there and chatting. Each room may offer a unique object or setting, but it ultimately made me think more about location and purpose with SL.

Oh The Place You'll Go... :]

I tried to make my Second life browsing experience as awesome as my real life browsing antics. In my findings I came across 2.5 pretty cool places. I say 2.5 because one of the 3 places I visited only lived up to half the expectations it's title suggested...and for the most random off topic things. Ok! Lets get to it. I figure I'd start from Coolest to Not So Cool :]

1.) Flickr Gettr

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/IDIAA%20Studios/120/198/8

This place I found by going to the destinations and clicking on Art of course. It caught my eye because it had 3d in the title and Flickr. When I got there it kind of felt like I was standing inside the home screen for Safari that shows you your last visited sites but cooler because there were all these images of peoples recent searches just spinning around my head. i really like the fact that the gallery was interactive and required user input because it made my time there a lot more fun. Since I found that the search bar was functional I started using it to search random things just to see what pictures were being pulled from flickr, and to see if it was a real time search or just something that the pre scripted for certain purposes. To my surprise it was a real time search. OH Joy! The search I decided on was "dunks" like Nike Dunks and I came up with some awesome search results. This has to be my top destination.

2.)Nexgen Aviation

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/London%20England%20UK/128/128/21

Now this place caught my eye because Ive always loved planes and it was an Aviation event. When I got there it was about 20 people or so there but I didnt see any planes to my disappointment and there were 5 people dancing on the dance floor and when I teleported to this location and when I got there they were kind of mean but I decided not to stay there and continue to wonder around. In my findings I ran into two things. Free Sushi and a garbage can. Weird right? The garbage can had trash floating around it and it was clickable. I decided to click it just to see what it would do and to my surprise it let me dumpster dive! This was rather nostalgic having played the Sims Urbs and dumpster diving be a pastime in the game and finding cool things in doing so.  I did find a couple of cool scripts as we as a few other things. this place turned ot to be pretty cool after all.

3) PNC Stores

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kensington%20W8%20London/24/89/22

 I had been hearing a lot of rumors that there was an Apple Store floating around in Second Life for sometime now so I decided to go on the hunt for it. I found numerous of YouTube videos on the store and it showed the store having a genius bar and being a replica of the actual store. Clicking on the links brought me to a place that didn't look like the Apple Store so I gave up. I really wanted to go to a gadget store so I kept looking. I came across a store called PNC stores that had 3 levels. fountains furniture and gadgets. I decided to stick to the gadgets level and I came across a couple of really cool gadgets that were rather expensive. The first was a teleporter that I'm guessing was supposed to be an elevator to go to each level.I tried it out, and the graphics were really awesome(see the first picture) but to my dispair it kept timing out and didn't go anywhere. The second was one of those giant screens like what we saw in the field trip last week that was set to youtube and was $1000L, it would have been awesome if it worked for a demo but it didnt. Bummer

Over all my experience exploring was pretty cool and I enjoyed myself. Yay.