Screwing Around in Second Life!

Today I was in Second Life without the intent of doing what I ended up doing.  I was checking out the artist land of Tuna Oddfellow again.  I had such a great time experiencing his area, and you can read about my visit in my previous blog posting.  This time I found myself lost and wandering around in the middle of no where.  I thought I was reading my map correctly, but I must of not.  I flew so high in the air and realized after a while that I have no idea how to get back to where I took lift at.  I ended up flying forward for a while to end up in some fantasy world that had a bunch of dragons.  I couldn't believe the detail when I saw these giant dragons roaming around that seem to be maneuvered vy users.  They were asking me if I wanted to play in their Second LIfe RPG game.  I unfortunately didn't have the time, but I was very intrigued.  I wonder if they made a form of "World of Warcraft?"  If so, that means they may have copied the idea of the game, and are playing it in Second Life for free!  This really opens my perspective on the possibilities in Second Life!  (Below is a picture of me talking to people in this area participating in the fantasy RPG game).

A Few more Art Trips!

Today I went with the class to check out work from Sistaglro Wei.  She had set an up an island that was named the Australian Centre of Virtual Art.  The artist was very political with her message, being an aboriginal woman that lives in Australia.  It was an island with a major volcano that we first took a look at. She added these type of credit cards that were used by the Aborigines that limited them what to buy.  She showed us these cards inside the middle of the volcano, and the cards were coming down as if it was raining.  A very interesting way for here to present it.  Then she took us to an area that cleansed our souls that acted as a smoke pit.  It was awesome had she intended to put that in a virtual reference by cleansing our avatars!  She then launched us to a distant area that I would never imagine was possible in Second Life.  We stood in a circle that warped us to a cloud like area that had these nebula looking swirls that went on and on.  It was something truly amazing that I couldn't imagine that would be possible in Second Life.  I tried to take pictures but her land wouldn't allow me to take pictures so sorry folks.

We later with a magician named Tuna Oddfellow.  He really wanted to bring a different experience to Second Life by associating magic.  We all know that physics don't quite play a roll in that world, and he understood that there is still a way to incorporate magic.  We landed in his area, and it was a small cloud like feel that featured a transparent room, where I could see space in the distance.  After he gave the spiel I just mentioned, he flick the magic on and made the complete background and foreground a drug educed adventure.  It seemed like the effects of LSD or something trippy like that.  It seemed like it would be great for clubs and whatever performances he may associate with that, but then he tells us that he has incorporated live musical performance collaborations.  After a while, I seemed happy just to be in his area.  It was very relaxing and quite like nothing I ever experienced in Second Life.  See the pictures below to see what I mean!

Checking out even more cool lands!

Artists I believe are the one's who rule in Second Life.  They defy the laws of physics that we could not even imagine in real life.  They can make landscapes the way they in-vision, and we visited a place that really lived up to it.  We looked at an artist by the name of Moya.  He likes to associate his name in every artwork he makes.  We have visited artists' islands before but this has to be the best ones I have scene to date.  Everything i colorful like a dream and you could literally spend hours playing on the island.  There are so much things to do, like riding a train, or even race cars!  There is just detail after detail, such as the cow I ended up taking a picture next to.

The artist really mastered the Second Life design.  I now may have someone that I can have influence from.  I admit I have some OCD from time to time, but Moya makes that seem okay.  I want to recreate my house in Second Life, since that's what Moya did.  He had every detail done and that's honestly what I focus on: detail.

Making T-Shirts is so Easy and Fun!

We got a little more creative with our avatars today in class.  We went ahead and designed T-shirts to help bring out our Avatar's personality.  I've decided to make a T-Shirt for my artist that I represent.  I figure it would be much cheaper to wear it in Second Life, since the production cost would be very cheap.  I also made the shirt available for anyone to have if they visit the Chico State store in Second Life.  We used a template that our Professor made available to us.  I made an image of my artist and easily applied it to the template.  After that it was a few simple steps and cost was almost nothing.  Shortly after I imported the image, my character is wearing it like very stylish!

The class and I decided to take a picture all together to show our creativity.  As you can clearly see from the image, everyone went a different direction with their T-shirts.  I can honestly say we have a different thinking class that should prove well with collaborations in the future.  We are very organized as a class and want to show the world what we can do.  If we can't accomplish it in this life, then we surely can in Second Life!

Experiencing Live People in Second Life!

As I figure my way through Second Life, I discover the possibilities of talking to real people and see what they do in this virtual.  We first visited an artist talk that I found to be very unusual but exciting.  We visited an art gallery set up by a Stanford University professor that featured many different projects.  He gave a speech on all of his work which ranged mainly in recreating the experience in Second Life.  There were pictures all over the walls that showed an installment of a hotel that the artist rendered into a project.  It dealt with the hotel being filled with dummies and having people go through the experience.  He took all of his notes and recreated what that might of looked like in Second Life using camera controls to get around his subjects and actors.  Very weird stuff but very cool at the same time.

We had another meeting with a guru at Second Life who brought us to a game show type of place.  There she asked us questions where we won real money!  She wanted to express how important the internet age really is.  We talked about how there is a lot of CGI movies being made in virtual realities such as video games and second life.  They have become so popular now that South Park on Comedy Central took this idea and created an episode using the World of Warcraft video game, naming the episode, "Make Love, Not Warcraft."  One of my favorite episodes in fact, so I know it is a successful medium.  Other renditions of this include the popular series "Red vs. Blue" that uses Microsoft's Xbox's Halo video game characters.  I also answered a question correct that won me some money.  I immediately answered the question of how many Youtube videos are watched in one day.  I knew it was 2 Billion.

Pictures below include my visit to the art gallery and being on the game show area.  Keep in mind I'm the green dragon!