Innovative Stop Motion Animated Machinima, Created From Thousands of Second Life Screenshots

AM Radio just messaged me excitedly about this new machinima by ColeMarie Soleil, and when the acclaimed metaverse artist is enthused, I pay attention. And watch:

"It's not really a machinima though," Ms. Soleil corrects me, because what you're watching is stop-motion animation. "Those are all still images," she explains. "Take frame-by-frame pictures in SL and then organize them in order in Adobe Premiere." To create this two minute test, she put 2300 images through that process.

The aesthetic result? I'll let Mr. Radio himself do the heavy lifting here:

"I believe it to be one of the most important art works to come out of the Second Life machinima scene," he says, comparing it favorably to animations of the Brother's Quay, and Russan animators.

"Her juxtaposition of stop motion, a technology which came to be as a way to animate effects within technical limitations of film, with modern, high fidelity, 3D-generated graphics," he says, "produces a fascinating discord which highlights Second Life's connection to animation by bringing life to the inanimate. By breaking the smoothness of Second Life and avoiding attempts to hide its limitations with clever scripting or heavy post-processing, Colemarie embraces the current medium's limits, commenting on that first impression of potential and fascination we find within the current state of virtual worlds."

But even more surprising, this is only a small glimpse of a much larger project, incorporating the immersive sculpture installations of Bryn Oh.

"It was just a short test for a longer story I want to do using Bryn's characters," Ms. Soleil says to me. "That video will take me MUCH much longer. Probably a few months." Standby for transcendance.

Comments

[Bettina Tizzy]

That is *BEAUTIFUL*

[M Linden]

Wow. Arrestingly beautiful.

[Zonja Capalini]

Really impressive!

[ColeMarie Soleil]

I would like to also add that the music was composed by Justin Lassen and used with permission. You can find the album free for download here: http://www.empireofmodernthought.com/main.htm
Just visit the "music" tab.

[soror nishi]

wow, staggering as usual Cole......xxxxx

[Dale Innis]

Day-um!

[Adric Antfarm]

Simply the best. Better than all the rest.

[1angelcares Writer]

Cole,

Your work is both inspired and inspiring! Looking forward to seeing your next project.