Dimitri - SL Week 4

This week, I visited the MMAC - The Multi Media Arts Centre. I was expecting an area that allowed the display of personal work. However, when I arrived, I discovered that the MMAC focused more on film media, stage work and music.

The comments and suggestions box also allowed for resumes, though lacked any further information, so I can only assume it allows for the public to apply to display their film work or to host comedy shows.

There were multiple dance areas in this sim, offering double and single dance animations. Some of the dance animations were amusing more than anything else, but the most amusing aspect was the music.

I came across a performance stage outside, though it was impossible to sit down.

The second dance area was an underground club. However, where the first dance area had inappropriate music for a lot of the dance options, this club had... no music.

In playing around with the dancing animation, I also found some interesting glitches.

On the second floor, I found a comedy club. I've never heard of this comedian and the sign looked really legitimate, until the Second Life version came up and I wondered if I should have heard of him or not.

Once inside, a comedy film starts to play, featuring a mix of live action and Second Life recordings of the guy from the poster. Unfortunately, there was no sound, so I couldn't actually follow along.

In the next room over was the 'World Stage'. When I first entered, there was a drum kit and guitars on the stage. However, a movie started playing following the band. Again, though, there was no sound.

I tried to leave only to be met with more glitches... Having to wait for the rest of the map to load in again and being unable to move until it had done so.

The last room was another film, however this one was dedicated to short films. Like the other two rooms, this film had no sound and only the movie playing, so it was impossible to follow along. Unlike the other two rooms, there was also no way to sit down and watch, either.

Overall, I found the concept of an arts centre to be and interesting way to promote ones work. It makes it possible for people to easily access indie-created content like short films and comedy work, as well as for artists to easily share their work outside of 'typical' fine arts (photography, painting, sculpture, etc.)

Next week, I want to focus more on the display of fine arts, perhaps in a gallery or another sculpture garden or something similar.

Dimitri - SL Week 3

While looking through the destinations categories, I discovered a sim in the Editor's Picks category called 'Digital Art - Cammino e Vivo Capovolto'. Upon arriving at the sim, I discovered it was a sim put together to display digital sculptures. I found this particularly interesting because it gives artists a way to produce their sculptures without the limitations of real world physics, as well as being able to put them in the ideal situation for the sculpture.

I found that this environment was perfect for my exploration in photography in Second Life. Each of the sculptures was off in its own area, most of them far enough away from other sculptures that they wouldn't actually load in, which made it much easier to move around the sculptures to take photos of them. That, plus the lighting, made it possible to experiment with all the different ways to view these works by utilising the free movement camera to test different angles, lighting and focus.

This chessboard of fighting chess pieces was my favourite sculpture in the sim, particularly because of the use of shattering. While in the human sculptures the shattering gave the effect of dissolving or fading away from the edges, this fight scene made the shattering pieces look more like blood, or parts of the body being damaged by the weapons.

The doubled-over queen piece was my most favourite within the set, particularly because of the angle and the sense of movement that is able to be portrayed. While I'm sure that a sculptor would be able to find a way to portray these sculptures in traditional medium, I really doubt it would have the same effect due to the inability to replicate the environment these pieces are in easily, as well as the scale.

Another plus to sculptures in Second Life is there is no need for base skeletons. Sculptures like these that shatter would also require skeletons to keep the shattered pieces in place, which are very difficult to make invisible so they take away from the illusion of the effect.

As I wandered around the sim, I discovered a plot of land beside the sculpture garden that was owned by a tango club. They had two very interesting features. One was a camera where up to two people could pose in tango poses. The poses looked rather ridiculously when done alone.

The other interesting thing I found was a dance animation system. It was set up to be used in pairs and had a variety of dances, though the obvious focus was tango. 

Next week, I will continue to look at art in Second Life. I am not sure which I will focus on yet, though I would like to find another sculpture garden like the one I looked at this week. Alternatively, I would like to find a sim that offers an opportunity to take photos and experiment with camera work and lighting more.

Dimitri - SL Week 2

For my second week in Second Life, I decided to check out some of the popular destinations and came across a sim called Once Upon A Fairytale in the 'What's Hot' destinations category. It is an island with various fantasy-esque areas that one would expect to find in a fairytale.

It was also a map with my first experience of seeing other people. There were three other people on the map, though one seemed to be having the same idea as me in that that were sitting in interesting areas and not moving. The other two were moving around the map and chatting together in typed chat, clearly exploring the sim together.

Meanwhile, I found my usual habits of posing for screenshots from other games as came in handy in this particular sim.

At the top of a crag, I came across this strange creature surrounded by small dragons. It occurred to me how the sims of SL could be used to both create RPG style maps (whether it be for original stories or for other ways to visualise tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons). 

This strange dragon tamer also reminded me of merchants and quest givers in RPG video games, so I felt inclined to stop and take screenshots as if it were from a game.

 Further along the path, I found this dragon skeleton.

At the top of the ladder was a small village being attacked by the dragons. Using the free movement camera, I was able to move around and take photos. It inspired me to look more into the use of Second Life as a photographing and art platform.

With this in mind, I began to move around the map looking for the sorts of shots I would normally look for in real life when I'm out with a camera. I found that Second Life offers two advantages that real life photography doesn't offer: the freedom to change lighting as I need it, and the ability to reach angles I wouldn't otherwise be able to accomplish.

One of my favourite aspects of many games that I play is that they offer the ability to take 'photos' of your player character. Since that is what I spend a lot of my time doing in games that I play, I decide to pay around with the camera around my avatar.

However, I found that while Second Life offers more freedom in camera position and in lighting, it is lacking in a lot of other aspects.

In Second Life, the avatars are rather static, and the lighting only has four options no matter where you are, offering very little variance. The gestures are also rather awkward in ways and most of them are very short. It is also hard to make non-human avatars feel more natural in their positioning.

In comparison, Guild Wars 2, a MMORPG I regularly play, is focused around the story of the game as well as fighting and progression. It doesn't have a free camera function, but it has enough control of the camera including Field of View, horizontal position, vertical positions and collision sensitivity settings to make up for it. On top of that, the character avatars are a lot more fluid and responsive, even in the non-human characters. Different worlds also offer different lightings, setting different moods and making it possible to find the exact lighting you want to work with.

Another video game I played, Overwatch, is a first-person PvP shooter. It is even less than GW2 focused on being able to take screenshots, so there is even less control in the camera. However, due to the character models animations, it is still possible to accomplish some decent looking screenshots. Like GW2 as well, the maps offer different lighting and settings, perfect for whatever look you're going for.

Because of my experiences in these other games, taking avatar focused shots in SL feels lackluster and unfulfilling. However, take photos as I would take in them in real life (of landscapes, scenes, etc. around me) feels more natural, so I will probably continue to focus on that aspect of the viewer.