Getting Somewhere...And I'm Lost Again!

I have spent my Thanksgiving Break trying to tackle the idea of why I can't seem to adjust the sizes of the mega prims that were given to me by Ann.  She has had the freedom to play and warp the mega prims, but when I do it myself, on my own viewer, the prims will immediately shrink to 10x10 meters.  The viewer (i=I don't know if it has anything to do with my Second Life Account) has disabled me to make adjustments in terms of shape on these prims.  I have tried to move forward and begin designing the overall feel of the theatre.  It is accompanied with curtains, which I felt gave it an organic feel that I come to appreciate.  The overall feel is coming togther but it's coming down to crunch time and I can't figure out how to resize these prims.  No help on the Internet seems to lead me in the right direction.  I know I don't like to rely on Ann for everything, but for some reason she know's how to fix my particular problem, though I think out of any student in the class, I have made her wonder why certain things don't work in Second Life.

Finally! Progress!

I arrived to class today hoping to see Ann so she could help me with making mega prims.  Fortunately enough, she was here and helped me first.  She ended up having to transfer me prims that were pre made, because it is now not allowed in Second LIfe to make prims that are over 10x10x10 meters.  I was now able to make prims that are over 64x64x64!  This meant the world because now I can create a wall out of 1 prim (instead of making it out of 6 like I was normally doing, which made my theatre easily over 50 prims).    She got me feet wet on getting these prims, so I began to build the actual theatre that would be my final product.  I managed to build 3 walls and a floor out of only 4 prims! (it's a big deal to me I guess lol).  Anyways, also I was taught by Ann how to properly line up these prims.  Before, they would look all jaggy and put together but now I'm learning how to build like a professional in Second Life.  I continued to fall down from my platform and there was no way for me to fly upwards to my theatre.  I finally got my feather  from Professor Nan which allowed me to fly everywhere in the sky.  Now I can progress with my project and hopefully get in near done after the break.  I'm ready to make this building look great an massive.  I need to have even more drawings in order to get my idea out.  To the drawing board!

ARTS 450 Class Filled With Art Visits

Today a lot of students in my ARTS 450 class took us on art tours across Second Life.  We started on Ollyawly's tour by taking us to a small recreation of the Sistine Chapel.  If you look into my posts of my Second Life blog, I have posted pictures of myself being in this exact recreation.  He must of found this place on google as a popular place to go to, just like the way I found it.  He then took us to The Museum of Amazing Illusions and Magic.  There was a lot of silly ideas like tables that would shatter on their own.  Professor Nan also laid on the top of an elephant.  I was playing around and I noticed that the walls were transparent.  Maybe it was part of the illusion.  I could walk in and out of the walls so it made navigation easy if I got lost.  The next visit was the Jonlin Estates: Lin's Art Gallery.  There was a lot of art for sale.  The lady who set this up apparently makes a living on Second Life just by selling work.  She has so much business that she has an assistant too.  This gallery had well over a hundred pieces of work that was displayed in a two story building.  She ended up even selling other people's work.  

Our classmate, Astrodino, took us on a tour to Second House of Sweden.  This place acts as an embassy of Sweden to reflect what Sweden is all about.  I didn't see it but apparently there is IKEA furniture in it.  The embassy building had a large, corporate feel.  It was a boring place in my opinion, just because the place seemed too realistic, something unimpressive that I can experience in real life.  The next place we went to was called "Folkvang Norse Home of The Viking Goddess Freja and her Valkyries"  Yes, that title was certainly a mouthful.  The island was filled with games such a jousting.  There was a nice map that would have teleport markers that made navigation easy.  There was a big gallery that offered a lot of Nordic clothing and buildings.  I teleported to a giant castle, with a bunch of pictures with women in Second Life.  The amount of detail on this castle was amazing, looking like it took forever to make.  Our next visit was to a place called, "Originalia-Adapt or Perrish-Cherry Magna."  This land was filled with enchanting scenes with the nice illuminate if northern lights.  This place looked like it would have a lot of fairy stuff since the trees were glittery.  It took forever for my viewer to res everything in this sim because everything was high detail.  I managed to come by a centaur couple.  You could even sit on them like a horse if your heart desired.    

Our next student, Collideshadows, took us to a place called "Eclipse Art Complex."  This gallery was giant and it featured a bunch of real life abstract paintings and sculpture.  There was also an underwater gallery that featured a bunch of water themed paintings and sculptures.  There was even functional elevators in certain parts of a museum located on the island.  Again, navigation is what made this place great.

The last tour that we were taken on today was by Kuya.  He took us to a place called "Wheatstone - Freedonia - Steampunk Goods for free!"  A bunch of the theme of this world is referred to as "Steam Punk."  I had no idea what that meant so I looked it up.  It basically is an idea of art work, cartoons, stories,  ideas, that are made up of futuristic machines that are made up gas pumping machines.  For example, There is a floating island in the sky that is being propelled in the air with exhaustion pipes.  After I looked up that concept, I could really appreciate the detail on this island.  There were castles and flying ships that were made up of this concept.  There was an underwater part of this place that reminded the class of a high profile video game named "Bio Shock."  Overall, a very spectacular place.  I know what Kuya likes in terms of his hobbies, so him showing us this place made perfect sense.

What a long day of tours!  What a lot to report!

Figuring Out a New Building Strategy

Today I logged into Second Life after deleting all my plans for my theatre.  I really wanted to start from scratch and see what I can do in order to make mega prims, which are prims that can stretch over 10 meters.  If I had that, then I will be able to make all my walls to my theatre with only a select amount of prims.  I couldn't figure it out so I went into Second LIfe thinking if I could manipulate a bunch of 10 meter pieces into a giant wall.  I started making too many prims again.  I ended up getting a visit from Ann again who signed in as "Builder Flux." Her avatar looked like a big headed alien that was a tourist.  She was basically regulating how many prims we are using, but was also offering advice on what we should do with our individual projects.  She started to take a prim and stretch it to around 64 meters.  I was extremely surprised with how much ease she was able to stretch the prim that far after I have been researching forever on how to do that.  She then asked me to stretch the prim to that length but I was unsuccessful, only being able allowed to stretch it at the maximum of 10 meters.  She was surprised and intrigued why I wasn't able to stretch it so much so she was making sure all my settings were correct in the builder's pallet.  I told her everything was correct and she couldn't help me wondering what may be the problem.  She unfortunately had to get running so I wasn't able to get what I needed.  I'll just have to see her next time when I'm in class (to see her in person).  What I've learned about Second Life is that it may be easier to get help from someone in real life if they are physically next to you while you're editing in Second Life.  I looked towards the internet to see if there was anything else I could do in order to find how to build these mega prims.  I searched for so long and no luck.  I have to wait for class I guess :(

No Class

Today we didn't have class in our Arts 450 class at CSU Chico.  The BFA students held their shows in each classroom.  All the students did a great job, and let me remind you that this posting is not about Second Life (it's about reality).  I'll be looking forward to our next class meeting so I can hopefully discuss with Ann on how to make my theatre with using a limited amount of prims.  Is it possible?  We'll just have to wait and see what she says.  I'm currently close to finishing a music video that I can show on my theatre for my class.  It would make my project like far superior to what I envision since I'm combining class related material with extra circular activities.

Frustration and Destruction

So I was in Second Life today and I've been waiting to see Ann to go ahead and help me with my theatre.  I've waited to long so my frustrations have lead me to drawing down ideas.  As you can see in the pictures, I have destroyed my previous theatre.  It was made with so many prims, so the destruction of it took a little bit of time.  I have decided to make this theatre a lot smaller because realistically I don't think I'm going to be able to make it in the amount of prims I'm allowed to use.

Well, I'm back to starting from scratch and I have entered a panic mode because I have no vision right now for what I'm going to present for my final critique in class.  Back to the drawing board.

Our Latest Class Adventure

Today in class we went and checked out the University of Western Australia's Sim.  There was a bunch of projects made by different students that were competing for a wealthy prize, which I can't remember at the moment.  So anyway, this area had a big land and there was even artwork in the air, so naturally the sim provider set up teleport points for us to get around.  The HUD that is on our screen was also incorporated in one of the artworks.  I thought that this was a new way to view art, and potentially interact with it.  You never know about something until you experience it.  These students were very competitive with their projects, so they used many senses other than sight.  They incorporated a lot of music in their work.  There are also projects that you can go inside of, such as a giant head that seems to be pretty creepy (since my avatar seems so insignificant to it).  When you go inside of the head, there seems to be parts of the brain and parts that seems like an anatomy project, very cool at the least bit!  We also noticed as a class that this sim also happens to be a big platform in the sky.  We have always been used to sims that were created on land by water.  Very interesting.

The next student tour we had was a place called Enchanted Tales Sim in Enchanted Forest.  This island had so much detail with such a massive, beautiful forrest.  The trees were so huge, the biggest I've seen in a sim thus far, made my avatar seem so small and insignificant.  I spent most of my time going around the forest getting lost, but it was okay because there was a lot of nice nature landscapes to discover.  There was a lot of architecture that had "No Entry" marks.  Too bad though because it looked like the best part of the island.  There was an underwater area that had a bunch of tropical fish and sharks floating around.  It inspires me to possibly make things not just on land but also on water?  Overall, this island has so much detail from the sky, to the fish in the water.