"Tiny Nation": Second Life As 3D Animation Platform

Meet the critters of "Tiny Nation", a new machinima short from Ill Clan, the Brooklyn studio that produced the SL segments featured in the Second Life-themed episodes of CSI: New York last year, among many other notable machinima. They're roly poly, full of personality, and utterly adorable-- also, they're prone to vomiting, foul language, ambiguous gender play, Nietzsche-citing, and gratuitous humping.  (In other words, while it looks like a Saturday morning cartoon, it's more in the vein of, say, [Adult Swim].)  While it's machinima, the color palette, set design, and avatars of "Tiny Nation" have been customized to resemble Pixar-style graphics, and it's easily the best proof-of-concept example of Second Life as an animation platform.  That's not to say it's a perfect one: some of the character animations are awkward and unconvincing, for example.  (As a movie, the pacing lags in places, and much the voiceover acting is undifferentiated.)  That aside, it's tremendous fun, and it screams out for a franchise.  My totally unsolicited advice is to make it even more crude and strange, and try to sell it as a pilot to, well, [Adult Swim].  See it and the full credits on Ill Clan's site here.

Comments

[Second Life Animation]

Yes Second Life is an amazing animation and machinima tool. A search for Second Life machinima in youtube shows some great results. Just the popularity and use on tv and in hbo shows underscores the valitity and power of second life for 3d animation.

[rikomatic]

Ill Clan continues to push the envelope on what is possible with Machinima in SL (and other platforms). Really nice work.