'Second Life' - art in virtual reality?

[Rick Clise]

Is anyone in this community doing anything art-related in 'Second Life' or in other virtual reality communities?

A friend of mine kinda lives in Second Life and he put-up a virtual version of one of my metal sculptures (done with my permission) and it's interesting that a lot of other people in SL are keen to add virtual art to their environment in SL.

I'm not a SL member but my friend's involvement in it, plus a recent grant category from the Australia Council (peak funding body in Australia for the arts) for exploring art in Second Life, has me a little interested in learning more about it.

I did a search but didn't find anything regarding Second Life in this community.

[dilida]

Rick,
I don't have a second life, but I work with a kid who does. He talks about the things he creates online, but really balks when I encourage him to put his hands on some REAL life material and try the same creativity. He doesn't think he can do the real life art. I think it will be interesting to see where this computor art is going with these kids.

As for this forum there have been discussions along these lines, not about SL specifically, but try searching computor art , I think a lot of the threads were in the New Technolgy section this past year.

lisa

[GlennT]

Second Life virtual reality communities are an invention of the Margons from the planet Dezoid. They intent to suck the life out of people through the computer and live off of the energies. The next phase of their plan is to use inverse 3-d modeling to scan and suck the physical forms of these hapless souls into the computer and replicate them on Dezoid to serve as slaves.

Or something like that!

[jOe~]

suck the physical forms of these hapless souls into the computer and replicate them on Dezoid to serve as slaves.Now I know why Homer Simpson asked, "The internet? Is that thing still around?"

[CroftonGraphics]

If you want to do art in virtual reality,

look into game engines, I use 3d gamestudio,
there is also quest 3d, torque etc. These are all affordable and use the latest technologies to make proper shapes.

Second Life has no felxibility, you are not meant to import models from other formats either. The graphics are rubbish too.

Having said that, I agree with other posters, go and buy some clay, plaster etc, much more scope to do things. You could always scan or model up your real life sculptures in 3d worlds afterwards.

[Rick Clise]

Thanks all for the comments (and for the dire warning from GlennT - I was wondering if those Margons could be trusted or not...)

I'm already working in the 'real world' of sculpture but have an interest in the virtual side as well.

I have used AutoCAD and Inventor to design and model some of my metal sculptures but they aren't the optimal tools for what I want to do (for example, I don't need to work-out interference between different elements on a sculpture using Inventor etc), so thanks CroftonGraphics for the apps recommendations.

One thing I'd like to use computer tools for is to create virtual maquettes of pieces before committing the plasma torch and welder to real materials. Although I am actively working on them, my manual drawing skills currently let me down.

[CroftonGraphics]

Also, rather than CAD packagers,

try more creative animation packages such as 3ds max, softimage xsi,
maya.

Softimage is about the cheapest.

There are also very cheap and also free ones-

Blender is free and probably all you need for what you want.

Also zbrush is worth checking out for organic modelling too but thats not free.

Hope this helps....

[rhendriks]

You can use second life to promot your art.Setting up a (virtual)gallery
for example in one of the shopping centra.But it is expensive.

Rob
See My Foam Reliefs (http://www.reliefs.nl)

[Andrew Werby]

I have a piece in D.A.A.P; a Digital Sculpture Park run by Derrick Woodham in the UK. It takes a high-bandwidth connection to navigate, but it's nice to be able to see more than one view of a piece; there's definite advantages in this for sculptors over showing work as regular photos. Here's a link: http://www.derrickwoodham.net/dwoodham/daap2.htm (check out Intersculpt 2005 for my piece; Intersculpt 2007 is worth seeing too...)

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com
Digital Tools for 3-D Artists

[Rick Clise]

Hi Derrick, I'm running into a problem when I click on the hyperlinks on your website - is there specific software that needs to be installed to follow the links? Your site looks very interesting, and there's a lot of good info about a variety of graphics tools on the computersculpture.com website. Thanks for the post.

[Andrew Werby]

Thanks for the kind words about my site, Rick, but I don't think you can reach Derrick this way. You need to download and install the Activeworlds browser to make the DAAP site work: http://www.activeworlds.com:80/ . You don't need to pay, you can register as a "tourist" for free.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Rick Clise]

Hi Andrew, 'oops' on my part. Thanks for the info about the Activeworlds browser - I'll try again. Cheers, Rick

[CroftonGraphics]

Hi I think I e mailed Rick this link,

Not sure if its any use to others but-

http://www.coniserver.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/469119/an/0/page/0#Post469119

This link has some great non expensive or free 3D graphics programmes.
If you do not work fully in 3d graphics, these programmes will be more than enough....

[Julianna]

Is anyone in this community doing anything art-related in 'Second Life' or in other virtual reality communities?

A friend of mine kinda lives in Second Life and he put-up a virtual version of one of my metal sculptures (done with my permission) and it's interesting that a lot of other people in SL are keen to add virtual art to their environment in SL.

I finally found some time to venture onto SL, and I must say I'm not overly impressed (by SL, not your work...where is your work? I'd like to take a look at it there!).

Aside from the fact that someone tried to..umm...perform acts on me while I was reading billboards, I'm dismayed by the fact that the possibilities of a purely virtual reality aren't being explored by most of the SL residents.

I visited a few galleries, and most of the work was either created in real life and ported into SL (which is fine, but I was more intrigued by the landscape than the art, to be honest) or it is art created for a virtual world, but still limiting itself to many of the concepts of real life.

The best work I could find (in my limited time there) was Sasun's Morphing Sculpture, which was an interactive piece of work which involved textures, motion and "particles" (add-ons?). The work, unlike the most of the other sculpture I was able to find on SL, could only exist virtually.

...And don't even get me started on the SL architecture I encountered! ;)

[StevenW]

Aside from the fact that someone tried to..umm...perform acts on me while I was reading billboards, I'm dismayed by the fact that the possibilities of a purely virtual reality aren't being explored by most of the SL residents.)

I want to say something, but I'm at a complete loss, the imagery is just too overwhelming. :|

[CroftonGraphics]

Hi, Long post------------------------------------------------

I am not a programmer I am a designer/artist thing so excuse if below is not entirely spot on for any programmers out there-

With SL, the graphics engine is very basic with regards to the way it looks.

If you look at modern game engines, ie the latest game blockbusters.
These 'game engines' use shaders. If you want to see how real modern games are, type in 'Crysis' in amazon and look at screenshots.

These shaders add extra effects, for example they can simulate the bumps and how light reacts to these bumps in the form of normal maps, but at same time be put onto a fairly low detail 3d model mesh.

SL only has the low detail mesh facilities.

I would say anyone wanting to explore sculpture in 3d would be restricted by SL, firstly by the graphics and also by the modelling capabilities with the built in modeler. Ok, its kind of 'cool' that you can get people to stand round your art work etc and also use it to sell your work.

However, there are other ways.
Me for example, I am using an 'indie' game engine, currently just about to finish off a virtual part of a city.

Then over xmas, I will work on my abstract form ideas in 3d studio max, then import it to 3d gamestudio. I want to make real life sculptures but do some virtual ones as well that mirror the ones in real life.

The former is expensive, the latter is not so much.
See my link above to find cheap programmes.

I can then make myself walkaround the sculpture but the use of 'shaders' I can make the sculpture look more realistic then in SL.

This can then be 'built' and put into one file 'exe'. Then others can download it from my site to view.

There are other programmes that allow 3d on the web in web browsers, they usually require a plugin. However, some now use Java, and most pcs have Java installed.

So therefore, I would say if you truly want to make detail and have more options for effects/dynamics/lighting to display online virtual sculptures, I would not go with SL.

However, in my opinion SL could perhaps be useful for some sort of online shop.

Hope this might be of help......

[Julianna]

Thanks for the insights! I've spent a bit more time there and am slowly uncovering more art that can only exist virtually (mainly things which defy gravity and other physical restraints).

I have noticed a huge problem with my laptop, even though it's only a year or so old, not being able to handle the graphics rendering quickly or in much detail.

[CroftonGraphics]

I think the scene takes a long time to build up because of internet connection times not your pc.

As for detail, probably its that second life isnt good with detail.

[CroftonGraphics]

Hi there,

Here are some screenshots from a 3d realtime game level I produced with 3ds max and imported it into a relatively cheap game engine called '3D Gamestudio', just wanted to post to show that you can make more detailed work for 'virtual reality' if you use engines other then Second Life.

Realism can be pushed even further than this, I use this sunset colours look and blocky work as its a style I like.

Thank goodness I got that work finished, I now want to do a project this year combining abstract forms from real life materials with a screen with abstract forms and somehow mirror or contrast the two, I cannot wait.

If anyone wants to ask about how do go about doing 3d realtime work, feel free to get in touch.

[Julianna]

Wow. Very impressive....thanks.

[Julianna]

Here's some more SecondLife stuff:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/exporting_3d_objects_into.html

It's basically exporting digital objects into the real world. I always thought real objects were the 3D ones, so I'm a bit confused by their use of "3D"...but anyway... ;)

[CroftonGraphics]

They are getting the 3d meshes from second life using a kind of hack and
then taking the meshes to a piece of software called Pepakura Designer,
I have messed around with that software, as you can see you can make lots of nice 'toy' cardboard cutout models like those kits children used to get.

You dont need second life to do that, you just need a 3d model creation package that will be able to export to DXF format then into pepakura,
its then quite fiddly to layout the mesh parts.

Then you print it and use glue. That pepakura could be possibly used to create layouts scribe on thin metals etc and fold the metals into the shapes you made on pc and would create a more durable form.

I see they have made a donut, well seems a lot of hassle to make a donut when you could make one from clay in a few minutes.....I suppose as they say they want to show the irony of the value of second life objects...

[Julianna]

I see they have made a donut, well seems a lot of hassle to make a donut when you could make one from clay in a few minutes.....I suppose as they say they want to show the irony of the value of second life objects...

Yeah. It seems like too much work just to make a donut (especially one which isn't edible!).

[Rick Clise]

CroftonGraphics' virtual worlds are very inspiring! Amazing graphics! And obviously amazing ability with the different software programs he uses. Keep up the great work.

On of the podcasts that I regularly listen to covered the subject of people using computer animation software to create 3D versions of existing 2D artwork. Specifically, Associate Professor John Finigan from Purdue University has his class of computer animators create a 3D version of Edward Hopper's painting 'Nighthawks'; and in the same podcast the Chinese artist Miao Xiaochun talks about his work 'Last Judgement in Cyberspace' which is the artist's conversion of Michelangelo's fresco 'The Last Judgement' into a 3D computer animated world. 'Last Judgement in Cyberspace' was exhibited last year at Adelaide's Contemporary Art Centre of SA and CACSA's director Alan Cruickshank discusses the work and exhibition.

The podcast is on the (Australian) ABC Radio National website on 27 Jan 2008. Here's a link to it if anyone wants to listen.

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/aks_20080127.mp3

The interview with Miao Xiaochun starts at 13:32 into the podcast, and the interview with John Finigan (apologies if I have mispelled his surname) starts at 32:44 in the podcast.

I thought the idea of using animation software to make a 3D version of a painting to be very cool, and it reminded me of a scene in the movie 'Blade Runner' where a slick machine was used to do a virtual 3D walkthough a photograph. How I wanted one of those machines...

Happy listening!

[CroftonGraphics]

HI there,

I managed to record some 'ingame' footage of my Cadiz project. Youtube really compressed it though so the textures are better in the application.

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gRY_MHS6F6g&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gRY_MHS6F6g&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Also it looks dark, remember in the final version it fills up the whole screen so it wont look so dark.

Next when I have the time, I want to create more sculptural abstracted interactive work in realtime along with REAL work in the REAL world as a contrast!
These days using even a cheap 'indie' gameengine such as the one I use 3D Gamestudio it is possible if you want to make one obect or a few, ie an instalation, you can have even greater detail than this Cadiz project. You can also use special 'shaders' such as normal mapping that bake even more detail into your model by the use of textures that you can create in another application.

[Julianna]

I also came across this blog, which highlights some of the cooler things found in SL:
http://npirl.blogspot.com/

[CroftonGraphics]

Thanks for the link,
That has some promising looking graphics in second life.
I will try to visit some of the islands there.

Im going to have a go at Second life over next week or so perhaps with land space, it will be more for my business though.

I tried the modelling the other day, its actually quite good for what it is.
There are also some plugins I found that allow you to export 'sculpt' maps from 3d programess such as 3ds max, basically make more complicated shapes. I made lots of blocks and spheres and made some abstract compositions, then got bored and made them have gravity and started picking them all up and dropping them on people, i kind of got told off.

For my scupture work though, I am using real life and also the conitec 3d gamestudio engine for virtual elements as that engine has more scope for effects, fastness ans also you dont have to be online to do it!

[GaryR52]

I have a piece in D.A.A.P; a Digital Sculpture Park run by Derrick Woodham in the UK. It takes a high-bandwidth connection to navigate, but it's nice to be able to see more than one view of a piece; there's definite advantages in this for sculptors over showing work as regular photos. Here's a link: http://www.derrickwoodham.net/dwoodham/daap2.htm (check out Intersculpt 2005 for my piece; Intersculpt 2007 is worth seeing too...)

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com
Digital Tools for 3-D Artists

Hi, Andrew. Was Derrick the creator of the virtual sculpture park for Intersculpt 2005, by any chance? I had a few of my pieces on display there. Wish I could find the URL again, but that bookmark died with my old Dell. Thanks for the DAAP link. I wasn't aware of it.

Gary

[Landseer]

Thanks for the link,
That has some promising looking graphics in second life.
I will try to visit some of the islands there.

Im going to have a go at Second life over next week or so perhaps with land space, it will be more for my business though.



I have land there, it is pretty amazing how you can create 3D textured objects on the fly, turn them in any angle and position, "fly" around them and everyone around you can see them instantly as you create them.
Be aware that to buy land you need to pay for a monthly account ($9.95) and that land over 512 sq meters that you purchase carries a monthly tier fee- fairly nominal for small parcels, from $5, up to $195 for an entire region.
You don't need a paid acct or land to experiment with 3D modelling in a public sandbox or area. Here's a couple of snaps from what is supposed to be Big Ben in London, from inside and outside, you can walk around inside- quite detailed, the clock's hands actually work too, and there are bells in the tower as well. Not exactly accurate but it sure gives a lot of detail and you do have the feeling of being inside the space

[CroftonGraphics]

Hi I had a go at second life over a number of days,
I really did not enjoy the modelling interface.

I am used to industry modelling tools ie 3ds max and I find these much easier to use once you learn them. There is a way to import meshes to second life.

All in all though, I do 3d for commercial work and came to the conclusion that all the time I would spend on second life, making/promoting etc,
I could spend more time on building up my real life 3D work.

I think though if you are just paying for a stand and have some work or replicas of real world work it could be ok. The graphics are bad but this will no doubt improve. The graphics 'engine' is not that advanced either, that is probably due to it being all on servers.

As someone who uses 3d, these online 'mmo' environments, to me feel like a giant casino. The news promotes that 'people' can earn proffesional salaries completely in these worlds, perhaps if you work at it 24hours a day 7 days a week but what sort of life and as I say all that time you could be making things in the real world.

Just my opinion though!

[Andrew Werby]

Hi, Andrew. Was Derrick the creator of the virtual sculpture park for Intersculpt 2005, by any chance? I had a few of my pieces on display there. Wish I could find the URL again, but that bookmark died with my old Dell. Thanks for the DAAP link. I wasn't aware of it.

Gary

[I'm not sure if he created it for IS'05 or just presented it there. But your pieces are probably still where you left them - it may take some wandering around to find them, though...]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Landseer]

The graphics 'engine' is not that advanced either, that is probably due to it being all on servers.

As someone who uses 3d, these online 'mmo' environments, to me feel like a giant casino. The news promotes that 'people' can earn proffesional salaries completely in these worlds, perhaps if you work at it 24hours a day 7 days a week but what sort of life and as I say all that time you could be making things in the real world.

Just my opinion though!


It's supposed to be entertainment, and it's basically a more realistic chat room environment than AIM, YIM etc.
People do make money there, depends on what you are selling- realistic or different avatars and accessories would sell the best, there's human, animal and phantasy avatars and people all like accessories and scripts to go with them.
There is I read- a licensed psychiatrist has a presense there, and works there or in real life as the client prefers, when you think about it, a trade or profession such as that is PERFECT there!
Obviously a profession like that will make money there while an auto mechanic won't, a teacher, instructor, lecturer etc can and would work as well.

A lot of people there have "stores" or otherwie advertise, a lot goes word of mouth too- you create a cool item, somone buys it, they walk around in there others can see who made it and where to get it- and that's selling for you 24/7 even while you are sleeping. You have a front there to sell either virtual items such as avatars or scripts- the people click on "buy" and it's done, if you are selling real objects off SL then it's like any mail-order distance transaction.

[CroftonGraphics]

Landseer, I admit there are lots of good things you can do, I like to learn Spanish, and there are rooms you can go in which are Spanish etc and the visual/auditory/interactive/physics based nature can help learning/meetings/business/demos etc.
It would be good to see things getting more 'realistic' looking in the future.

It may say something about my character, but I always ended up getting bored on it and went to a sandbox area and created 1000s of shapes and had a really good time lifting them all up in the air, applying physics to it and then dropping them on all the other users.
I dont think it wins any freinds but it was a good fun in my view.

As someone who mostly uses 3ds max, I dont know how much you may know of 3d modelling packages but there are some user made plugins for Second Life where you can use packages such as 3ds max to model in and then export to Second life, using textures as SL has a weird model system based on textures. The inbuily modelling system in Second life I dont like, and I dont like its ethos,
ie you create it in the application and you cannot take it to anything else, or even save it properly.

Imagine in the future, there may be some sort of cyber terrorist attack on a community like this, all your work would be lost!

I think there may be plugins for other software.
Remember, Blender is free.
Here is the link for the 3ds Second Life exporter-

http://liferain.com/downloads/http://liferain.com/downloads/

That way you can use 3d packages that can be used for real world sculptures, ie shape development, cad export etc.

Are you making any money on it or do you know anyone in real life who is? I am so cynical lol, the creators pump out a media campaign to media groups about how 'real' people make money on this, then the 'real' people are interviewed saying how they gave up their day job as a brain surgeon as they get more money on second life. Ok, Im sure!

[Landseer]

Yes, learning/teaching a language would do well there because you can use voice and text. As far as realistic goes, I agree, though some of this is controlled in your user settings in the rendering controls, it is default set to a lower setting for graphics display, resolution etc, if you have a FAST connection and a really fast computer you can set those sliders up higher or all the way at the top. So it becomes speed v/s rendering you have to pick and choose between them- more rendering is slower of course. The top settings still won't make the scenery like a 3D photo but the quality does improve.

Trees and the like have a very realistic appearance, and I've seen a number of 19th century style facades on buildings that looked like photos- very detailed- probably imported as photos to be used as textures.


[quote]
It may say something about my character, but I always ended up getting bored on it and went to a sandbox area and created 1000s of shapes and had a really good time lifting them all up in the air, applying physics to it and then dropping them on all the other users.
I dont think it wins any freinds but it was a good fun in my view.

Yeah, probably everyone has done that ;)
Depends on what you use it for, I suspect most use it as one huge chatroom and on the side create objects to sell to pay the costs more than trying to earn a $400/wk living from it.

The inbuily modelling system in Second life I dont like, and I dont like its ethos,
ie you create it in the application and you cannot take it to anything else, or even save it properly.

True, but I suspect your hope for it's intended use is different than it was designed for- a virtual reality interactive live chat community where you have everything there you have here- you can get a job that pays in Linden dollars with which you buy and sell things including real estate, houses, clothes, you go places, meet people, sightsee, virtual sex etc, it's not really designed to be a 3D MODELLING platform for professionals to create and export projects.

Linden dollars is the internal money system which trades like real money and it also fluctuates in value, you can either earn them by selling things or getting a job in there thru the classifieds, or you can just buy Liden dollars, or if you have a paid acct $9.95/mo you get back L$300/week stipend which is about $5.00/mo to spend (or cash in for $) so that actually makes the cost only $4.95/mo.

Real estate like in the real world also goes up and down in value, though the mainland's land is going up in value, so if you bought a parcel to play around with- it IS saleable and chances are good it will increase in value, though we are talking here again of a parcel you might have paid the equiv of $60 (about L 20,000) for and reselling it later for the equiv of $80, it's not going to go from $60 to $2,000 by any stretch of imagination.

You can buy an entire region or island for around $1,000 and there again- the opportunity to make money is there with that and smaller parcels because you can rent, subdivide or resell any portion of it, so if you put up a little "mall" you can rent "stores" there- that's how many do it, but the region or island is around $195/mo for tier fees, so I suspect and have seen more than one person as a group buy something large, split the costs and then rent part of it out to cover that fee, then they have a place to "play" or sell, and control the rules for it and what goes on there.


Imagine in the future, there may be some sort of cyber terrorist attack on a community like this, all your work would be lost!

Wouldnt be good, but Im sure with their extensive server farms they have backup systems in place, the creators are not idiots, they really thought this system out well, even to the extent where you can obtain scripts that allow you to fly up higher than the 200 meter limit- some have gone up to billions of meters, I've gone up to about 600,000 meters and the "sky" is full of stars and the moon and is black like outer space with a hazy variated blue atmosphere like real- so they even thought of that.
If you go under the ground surface there is an ocean there and a variated surface ocean bottom.


Are you making any money on it or do you know anyone in real life who is? I am so cynical lol, the creators pump out a media campaign to media groups about how 'real' people make money on this, then the 'real' people are interviewed saying how they gave up their day job as a brain surgeon as they get more money on second life. Ok, Im sure!

I didn't join to make money on it but Ive bought a number of items there including a ready-made house as its more work that I felt like doing scratch building one, and I've bought some things to decorate with and landscape with, but you are looking at Linden dollars there, a very nice big "painting" I liked was L 50 so if you do the math with 1,200 Lindens being around $5 that purchase was a matter of pennies, even the ready-made house was I think L 1,000 so that was about $4 and change- hardly a get rich quick thing for the guy who designed and made the selection of houses unless he sells a bunch every month.

There's lots and lots of free stuff as well- clothing, furniture, accessories, avatars etc. Everyone Ive met there has bought items from others, including art, avatars and objects, so people DO make a certain amount of money there and a very small percentage make good money- just like here; very few of us here make Jeff Koon's money/press, it's no different in SL- the 1/10th of 1% make good money such as that psychiatrist or people who offer quality things or services that are in demand- scripts, avatars that are unique, objects with scripts that function etc
All of these items can be copy/transfer protected easily so that a buyer can only use it themselves and can't resell/copy/transfer to friends. Whether someone can earn $400/wk there Im sure it can be done and is done by a small percentage, but I'd say by and large 99% of the rest make pin money and most would be using that to buy things in-world, pay their monthly fee etc.

Might like to read this article;

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm

[CroftonGraphics]

Yes I am still not into it though but remain open minded.

Perhaps some people on this forum might be interested in having a mass meeting in Second Life and having some group sculpture session and record the results? I can record ingame footage as much as my C drive allows using various programmes.....

[Landseer]

Yeah, could probably do that, though I would want to create an alternate acct to do it- don't want to mix up SL and RL

[Lunarburn]

I have found my way into Second life this past month, scored some land and set up a gallery.

Lunarburn Second Life gallery (http://slurl.com/secondlife/crab%20Meadow%20beach/77/95/48/?title=Lunarburn%20Studio%20llc)

To start, I mainly have images of my RL work. If you fly/teleport up to the roof gallery you find my attempt to import my original models from FormZ. I used the program AC3D to export them (with use of a plugin) as a triangle file.

Needlesss to say there are plenty of limitations to try and create in SL if your used to modeling with other programs.

But the aspect of SL that I find most intriguing is the ability to have realtime conversations with other artists and patrons around the world. ( for free no less) While at the same time walking around the art work.

[Landseer]

I have found my way into Second life this past month, scored some land and set up a gallery.

To start, I mainly have images of my RL work. If you fly/teleport up to the roof gallery you find my attempt to import my original models from FormZ. I used the program AC3D to export them (with use of a plugin) as a triangle file.


Yeah this looks good, you have 4000 sq meters, nice size! just have to watch your prim numbers if you start building complex shapes.
Only thing I didn't care for was the revolving photos in the ground floor space, the concept is good in theory and lessens the need to move around in circles, but the result is a fast moving image you cant quite concentrait on and examine because it's moving and then gone, maybe flat stills such as you have upstairs will serve you better.


Needlesss to say there are plenty of limitations to try and create in SL if your used to modeling with other programs.
Someone mentioned there the other night, a software called SLop or something that is excellent for sculpting the sculpties in SL, he was real impressed with a demo he saw of it and it works best in-world.


But the aspect of SL that I find most intriguing is the ability to have realtime conversations with other artists and patrons around the world. ( for free no less) While at the same time walking around the art work.Yes, this is cool, all real-time. Photos work extremely well in SL, you create an object like a slab and then upload an image and drag the file onto the slab you created and there it is, you can stretch, reduce, rotate, tilt, angle the slab and the image goes with it.
It costs L$10 to upload a file, since about L$1,200 is $5.00 you can see it's pennies.
Think I'll open another acct and look at setting up something for my sculptures too, the cost is cheap enough and all I need to do is set up photos not create sculpties and 3D works.

One small detail you can fix sometime, teleporting to the upstairs, the button for the "roof" is actually labelled "roo," lacking the "f"
===


Ok, I went ahead and set mysef up and rented a store for now- you can RENT w/o paying a monthly account fee, you can't buy land though.
Store rental is L$75 /wk- roughly $1.25 per month

I'm opposite a store that has some very nice pastel paintings.
Just started uploading some images. I'm Sculptor Shoreman there.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Foxboro/116/195/245/

[Lunarburn]

Thxs for checking out my SL space Landseer,

And thxs for the comments/crit.

Your right the rotating canvases are problematic for any real inspection of the images, they were my first attempt, Ill brake them up into separate panels.

As far as prims go, that's a definite draw back of the triangle export tool of AC3d, Most of those shapes are 100+ prims, but it was a way to use the 3D models that I already had.

I checked out your gallery space, does that art colony get much traffic? I have thought about renting a smaller space as well to generate more interest in my main space.

Also, have you found any good/active artists groups?:D

[Landseer]

I checked out your gallery space, does that art colony get much traffic? I have thought about renting a smaller space as well to generate more interest in my main space.

Also, have you found any good/active artists groups?:D

Thanks,
I don't know about the traffic yet, you click on the 'about land' and it shows the traffic total, 2,000 something, but I don't think people wandering in will so much be potential clients as people SEARCHING and visiting as a result, that means one probably has to place a classified ad and get into the search there on SL more than expecting "walk in " business. The place is VAST, easy to get lost as either a person or business in there, so I would not rely very much at all on walk-in traffic, you need to drive/bring people there.

If you saw the gallery across from mine there, the lady has some nice pastels on display AND a "donation jar" I noticed people dropped some money in that, that one little item can pay for her store rental alone.

At this point Im just experimenting with my store as a fun adjunct to everything else.

I'm still new there and haven't looked for art groups yet, but there's groups for everything.

Oh, and I have some screen shots of a sculpture that is impressive, here's one that shows the capability for figure sculpture, this is monumental size;

[Julianna]

Just came across Juria Yoshikawa/Lance Sheild's work (http://memespelunk.org/blog/). Some cool stuff!

[CroftonGraphics]

Thats an interesting effect,
probably made using flat plane with transparent 'alpha masks' and moving images, perhaps even with an .avi or .qt movie etc, playing looped on the planes.

I dont kow if you can do it that way in second life but that is how this effect would usually be done.

[lancesh]

Hey Everyone,
I am Juria Yoshikawa (in sl) and Lance Shields (in Tokyo) whose work Julianna so kindly introduced a few posts above. We met up on Twitter and she told me about this fun sculpture community. What great luck!

While I originally started out as a sculptor and installation artist in real life, these days I am primarily a virtual artist working in Second Life with the tools that the virtual world provides - 3D modeling, scripts, sounds, interactivity, particles and more. Of course a lot of the imagery, sounds and influences come from the real world too.

As a first chance to share my work and ideas, yesterday I just happened to make a retrospective slide show of a number of my installations in SL in 2007-2008. I would love the chance for critique from fellow artists so please tell me your honest opinions about any of the works in the movie (you can identify them by frame #). Follow the link to check out the movie... http://vimeo.com/2664482

Juria/Lance

[CroftonGraphics]

Hi I especially like the structure at 4:11 in the showreel.

I might use the new year to try again with second life,
I use 3ds max and there is a plugin called 'prim composer' that enables me to make second life models in 3ds max.

[Julianna]

Welcome to the forum, Lance!