New World Notes

Does Tintin Take Us Past the Uncanny Valley into a Future of Hyperreal 3D Graphics?

When I first saw the trailer to The Adventures of Tintin, Tintin and friends seemed so creepy and artificial, I wrote on my Facebook wall, "Steven Spielberg just spent $200 million dollars to illustrate the Uncanny Valley." I haven't seen the movie itself yet, but Kevin Kelly has, and he had a similar reaction to mine, at first... but that quickly changed:

In the first few minutes... there is a momentary hesitation when you first see the face of the characters; a feeling they are just a bit shy of something. But that moment passes quickly and thereafter the humans (and animals) seem totally real. Their movements, skin texture, hair, expressions, eyes, everything says they are real-- even though they are only simulations. It helps that the environments are also 100% believable, including the elements of water, weather, atmosphere, sand, and city.

In fact, Kelly (who co-founded Wired magazine), thinks this hyperrealism has taken us past the Uncanny Valley to a new era of 3D graphics:

[A]udiences will accept totally synthetic actors, filmmakers will begin to explore the limits of the hyperreal... I'm expecting that for the next ten years or so, directors will create more and greater hyperreal films, until we tire of it (like we have with hyperreal high dynamic range still photography). And then we'll see shaky, gritty, unfocused, hand held camcorder type totally synthetic worlds as well. And every variety of in-between hybrid worlds.

Read it all here. I imagine the same prediction could apply to next gen gaming and virtual worlds. But again, I haven't seen Tintin yet to tell. Your take?

Best of the Best of Second Life Imagery on Flickr - Which Are Your Favorites?

"Second Life - The Best of the Best" is a Flickr group that is a compilation of Second Life screenshots and processed images using SL as a source, drawn from the larger network of Second Life-based Flickr groups, an enormous community. (There's well over 2000 of them.) Described as a "very small and selective set of snapshots featuring the work of the most talented and creative Artists, Architects, Designers, Builders and, Photographers in Second Life", it's been curated by architect JeanRicard Broek since 2007. And his tagline is truth in advertising. See for yourself:

A few duds occasionally creep into mix, but that's probably not surprising, given how many images there are: at the moment, over 2300. "I have tried to be diverse in what has been selected, while staying PG, without worrying about popularity," Mr. Broek tells me modestly. "If there is any personal stamp, it is that of editor only." If see a screenshot you particularly love, be sure to click through, to find out more, including who took it, and where it was taken. (And share the details in Comments!)

New World Tableau: "Swim" By Fine Caliber

I've already registered my love for the fashion art photography of Ms. Fine Caliber, but this one called "Swim" took my breath away just a bit. Her method for making it so was intricate, but well worth the effort: "It was the first time I messed with water settings while taking an underwater picture," she tells me. "It's like a second Windlight. I took two shots: one in color and one in depth mode."

But that's just the first step.

New World Tableau: Musique Gable's "Snowball Fight"

I love this bright and perfectly composed tribute to winter from Musique Gable.

"Not only was this cheap to shoot," she tells me, "but fun as well. I staged the area using sculpty snow (free from a friend), snow particles ($50L), Linden winter trees (free), an igloo (another freebie -- threw some pillows in there to add some warmth) and some Lost Angel poses. Grabbed a friend and started whizzing snowballs at him until he begged for mercy."

After taking several snapshots, the post-processing magic began: "Threw it into Photoshop -- making everything black and white, except for me and my reluctant snowball victim (to draw your attention to the snowball fight) and the pillows in the igloo (to give it a splash of color), along with a little brushwork to add depth and shadows."

See more of Musique's great SL-driven art on her Koinup profile, see the whole New World Tableau series here. To best submit entries of your own, join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there; be sure to tell us a bit how you created your image.

New World Tableau: "Sleep Walk" by Gahum Riptide

Ideal for Halloween, Mr. Riptide presents this disturbing image inspired by the song "Sleep Walk", from Santo and Johnny. "Now, this song is usually used in a romantic or dreamy way," Gahum allows, "but I wanted to play up this very sinister feel I get from the song (likely due to its use in the films Sleepwalkers and Twelve Monkeys). Either way, I felt an appropriate sim for this would be the 'Cellar' sim due to its rather dark, spooky feel." [SLurl teleport at this link]  "So, this is sort of my interpretation of the song. I've done minimal editing, just cropping, brightness and contrast correction."

See the whole New World Tableau series here. To best submit entries of your own, join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there; be sure to tell us a bit how you created your image.

New World Tableau: James Schwarz's "Breakfast For One"

The screenshot artist and sexy bastard known as James Schwarz presents this gloriously squalid Tableau called "Breakfast For One". (Click through for larger sizes.) "I created it," he tells me, "by taking a separate photo of my avatar on a backdrop and then merged it with a snapshot I took of the dining area of the trailer which I live in." (Yes, he lives in a trailer, at least when he takes the time pull it out of inventory.) "The WindLight setting I used was just some random tweaks and the colors, lighting, and shadows were enhanced in Photoshop." See much more from Mr. Schwarz here, and see the rest of the Tableau series here.

New World Tableau: Bark Aabye in Nomos

I utterly love this image of Bark Aabye in Nomos, a new cyberpunk roleplay city, because to me it somehow captures the essence of Second Life in a single frame. Ms. Aabye tells me she created it with just a little post-processing, "perhaps level and vignette", but for the most part, what you see is what's there in-world. I just visited Nomos briefly, and I can confirm that: It's a truly spectacular metropolis in the Blade Runner vein (though teleporting there from the orbiting spaceship takes some patience.) See for yourself: SLurl to Nomos at this link. Not sure how she got the elephant past security, though.

See more of Bark Aabye's equally excellent photos here, and the whole New World Tableau series here. To submit entries of your own, join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there; be sure to tell us a bit how you created your image.

New World Tableau: Shoji Kumaki's "My Dear Barcelona 17"

Recently found in my New World Tableau group on Koinup, this utterly lovely Tableau by Shoji Kumaki, "My Dear Barcelona 17", was taken from a sim of the same name. (Click here for SLurl and different image sizes.) "I love Barcelona, both in SL and in RL," Shoji tells me, "and it’s this sentiment that promoted me to take this picture." He took dozens of photos through a WindLight setting of his own custom design, called “Foggy Sunset", then blurred the background with Photoshop, and darkened the periphery with Picnik’s “Vignette” effect. (Kumaki's flamenco partner is Hiroko Morigi.) "As you may know," he adds, "half of SL Barcelona is gone due to financial reasons. SL Barcelona is one of a handful of sims that have remained unchanged since their creation, which is extremely rare in a fast-changing world of Second Life. I hope the rest of the sims will be self-sustainable and survive for as long as possible." And that visitors keep going there to twirl beneath the towers.

See more of Shoji Kumaki's great photographs here; see the entire Tableau series here. Want to submit entries of your own for me to consider? Join my New World Tableau group on Koinup, and start uploading them there.

New World Tableau: "Light" by Carlotta Ceawlin

I found Carlotta Ceawlin's gloriously luminescent screenshot in my New World Tableau group on Koinup. To create it, she used "a foggy WindLight setting in blue", then moved her camera position around, to catch the beams of light at their most perfect point. See the rest of my ongoing Tableau series devoted to Second Life and OpenSim screenshots made into art; to submit an image of your own for consideration, upload it to my Tableau group.

New World Tableau: Faerie Hax's "Computer Says No"

I found Faerie's fourth wall-bursting screenshot in my New World Tableau group, and fell in love-- go here for bigger sizes. How did she create it? The process is fairly involved, but as Ms. Hax's image suggests, often worth the effort: check out the step-by-step tutorial on her blog. See more of Faerie's works on her Koinup profile, and go here to check out the whole Tableau series.