New World Notes

Watch: New SeraCast Featuring the Love to Ukraine Benefit & a Lelutka Head Giveaway

Here's the latest episode of Seracast, the fun and chatty YouTube show hosted by Del and Kess, co-founders of Seraphim SL (a proud NWN content partner). The ladies highlight Love to Ukraine, a major Second Life fundraiser with funds going to reputed NGOs helping people in that war-wracked country -- click her to teleport to the event.

More highlights from Ep 3:

SL Challenge: Can You Shoot a Good Group Photo Featuring 35+ Avatars?

There was lots of social media chatter around Maia Lyre’s impressive “Back to School 2021” group photo, because as anyone who uses Second Life knows, getting that many avatars together -- 34 in all! -- in the same space for a high quality group photo is a logistical and technical nightmare to overcome.

Which is a great challenge to feature on New World Notes. Can you and your friends top it? Here's what Cajsa and I are looking for to feature in an upcoming post:

Send LGBT-Themed Avatar Pics to Our #Virtualpride Challenge By June 9th!

"She kissed the Captain" by Cadwyn Daffyd

Important update: We've extended the deadline to our #Virtualpride Challenge to June 9th! Here's the details:

• To celebrate Pride Month, create virtual world images that express your LGBT pride.
• In the image description, tell us what your activity in the virtual world means to your real life as an LGBT person.
• Tag Cajsa on Flickr and add the hashtag #Virtualpride.
• Our favorite images -- and stories -- will be featured in Cajsa's regular column on June 11, just before SF Pride.
• Images from any virtual world open enough to enable LGBT expression encouraged.

Questions for Cajsa? Post here or on her Flickr page.

Celebrate Pride Month By Sending Us Virtual World Images & Stories for Our #Virtualpride Challenge!

"She kissed the Captain" by Cadwyn Daffyd

To celebrate Pride Month, create virtual world images that express your LGBT pride -- then in the image description, tell us what your activity in the virtual world means to your real life as an LGBT person. Tag Cajsa on Flickr and add the hashtag #Virtualpride. Our favorite images -- and stories -- will be featured in Cajsa's regular column.

Images from any virtual world open enough to enable LGBT expression encouraged. To help spark your creative juices, here's some favorite images/stories of ours!

No-Photoshop Avatar Screenshots in #SLBareFaceChallenge Look More Human Than the Usual Heavily Processed Avatar Images

Pictured: Arnno Planer's #SLBareFaceChallenge

In the #SLBareFaceChallenge, as the hashtag suggests, SLers challenge each other to show the community what their avatars look like in a raw screenshot with no post-processing or other add-ons. Overall results, for the most part are surprising to me: They generally look more vivid and "human" than the usual heavily processed, over-posed pics that tend to clutter the virtual world fashion ecosystem. Instead of adding an extra layer of virtuality through Photoshop, these screen captures rely on SL's "natural" lighting and avatar bone structure/skin texture, and you end up with something closer to real life.

Here's another challenge entry by Effy Leigh:

Mind Carlberg Wins Our #NoAvatarSocialDistance Challenge With This Beautiful Tribute to a Chance Encounter in a Virtual Bar

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Congratulations to Mind Carlberg for winning our #NoAvatarSocialDistance Contest! After Hamlet and I picked out our top three, readers were invited to vote, and it was close. By a nose, Mind edged out the competition with this fabulous photo of a man and woman at a club. 

I asked Mind about his inspiration and how he created his image:

Keep Submitting #NoAvatarSocialDistance Virtual World Photos for a Chance at Virtual Fame, Glory, L$10,000

Had fun in a crowded virtual world lately? Of course you did, you're in quarantine. Don't forget to take some great pics of that, and submit it to this Comment thread for Cajsa and I to judge. (And maybe first give the guidelines a glance.)

Here's the most recent submission, an amazing one by Maerin Tamura. (The red head really ties the world together.)

Deadline is the end of May 4th! 

Take the Crowded Virtual World #NoAvatarSocialDistance Challenge!

Image credit: Moth Heartsong

Here's a quarantine-related challenge that isn't specifically about the Coronavirus, but instead, is about what what we've left behind in recent weeks -- and what virtual worlds of all kinds now make possible: The chance to be in crowded spaces with many people.

Presenting the "No Social Distance" Crowded Avatars Challenge! Here's the rules:

• Take screenshots of user avatars posing together in a virtual world -- the more, the better.
• Be creative about the crowding! Recreate a movie scene or something from current events, or whatever comes to mind when you read the words "no social distance". 
• Despite the fact that some of you read the last rule and thought, "giant orgy!", please keep submissions PG-13.
• Strongly recommend pics without masks, PPE, and other pandemic-related paraphernalia. (Not having to worry about COVID-19 in virtual worlds being the whole point of this challenge!)
• Upload your picture to Flickr or Instagram and tag it "#NoAvatarSocialDistance".
• Post a link to the Flickr/Instagram picture in Comments of this post and include your name for credit and award (see below).
• Deadline: Image link must be posted to Comments of this post by May 5th, 12:01am PST! 

New World Notes image curator Cajsa Lilliehook and I will select our 3-5 favorites based on amount of avatars and artistic quality, and put the final winner up for a reader poll (assuming we get at least three great submissions). And to make things a bit more interesting, I'll award L$10,000 to the grand prize winner.

Win $500 In Week 6 Of Sinespace's Creative Challenge Starting Tomorrow!

Starting tomorrow (November 2), NWN partner Sinespace is opening up its sixth weekly content creation challenge, awarding $500 to the user who creates the best item or scene and submits it to Sinespace's developer server next week. Last week's challenge, by the way, went to SecretWeapon Production, who created this rideable, driveable Behemoth Orc Adventurer. And yes, mesh-based content previously created for Second Life and other platforms can be submitted. 

This is the challenge page. Deadline is end of November 8! How to apply and submit:

Win Up to $25,000 in Grants for Avatar Projects That Help Senior Citizens

The Virtual Beings Summit is offering $1000- 25,000 in grants for people creating applications that use digital humans, virtual influencers, avatars, and related technology. Based on the application form, the use case the judges are particularly interested in is for longevity, i.e. applications to help the retirement age/senior citizen community, since this is a topline question:

What project do you want to work in the longevity space, but currently cannot? Why is it particularly interesting to the field of longevity, and to you personally?

One obvious project that qualifies here is the use of avatars to help treat Parkinson's symptoms, as pioneered by the late, beloved Fran Serenade.

Submission deadline is September 17 -- all the submission details here.

Hat tip: Ryan Schultz, who has thoughts.