New World Notes

Watch: A Halloween Visit to Cetatea Poenari, Home to an SL Vampire Family

Dark, foreboding, and full of shredding metal, here's Erik Mondrian making a fly through visit of  Cetatea Poenari, a devilishly detailed Second Life sim owned by a "family" of roleplaying vampires. From Erik's description/dedication:

Built by Vlad Drakul-Dragonash & Nazaire Dragonash and named after a ruined Romanian castle that was once occupied by the real-life Vlad III Dracula (also known as Vlad the Impaler), Cetatea Poenari defies description and seems to stretch far beyond the limits imposed by its virtual borders. From the Valley of Horses and Arefu Prison to The Slaughtered Lamb pub and Snagov Monastery—and with the magnificent castle itself keeping watch over all from above—this is a region with many different paths and hidden places for the curious traveler to find. Thanks again to Vlad, Nazaire, Rain, and the entire Drakul family for asking me to film here!

More on it here, and click here to visit in SL. A recent arts school graduate whose thesis was created in Second Life, Mondrian had some incisive thoughts on the social group based within this sim:

Watch: "Repeat Hikari", Sole Second Life-Based Entry in this Year's Supernova Digital Animation Festival

If you can be in Denver this weekend, you can attend this year's Supernova Digital Animation festival, a showcase of 15 short movies made across many platforms. In a sign that there's still some artistic life in SL-based machinima, here's the sole festival entry made in Second Life: "Repeat Hikari" by Tess "Tizzy Canucci" Baxter, a rhythmically hypnotic dreamscape mood piece.

"Can't describe how pleased I am to be included in that category," Tess tells me. "I think it also shows that machinima is no longer a helpful name -- most machinima is now game play, and artistic work in Second Life is better thought of alongside other art forms, whether that's called 'digital animation', artists moving image, or video art (the old name!)"

That's a very good point. Since raw video capture of 3D gameplay is now among the most watched category of videos on YouTube and beyond, it may be time to shelve the "machinima" term.

Tess wrote this in-depth blog post describing her artistic vision for the work, which emerged out of the limitations of the medium, i.e. Second Life. For instance:

Visit in SL: A Tropical Post-Apocalypse City Called Drune IV - Aftermath

Here's a walkthrough of a quite amazing Second Life sim: Drune IV - Aftermath (SLurl teleport here), a rusted-over city on a small, tropical island, which somehow survived after an unspecified calamity. (Hey, maybe a new kind of twist on cyberpunk: Tropicalypse!)

Your host in this video above is Ayla Pants, a fun and chatty guide accompanied by a friendly drone, who is immediately greeted by an incredible avatar, who compliments Ayla on her fashion choices. The sim comes with great ambient sound (crashing waves and seabird song, to contrast with the rusting skyscrapers), and, Ayla tells me, looks great throughout the day cycle:

Linden Lab Launches New Second Life Ad Campaign Heavy on Fashion, Romance, Exploration... But Little of What Makes SL Unique

Linden Lab recently launched a new video ad campaign for Second Life, a series of 15 second spots they're promoting on YouTube (and presumably across the web), all which you can also watch on their official YouTube channel.  There's roughly a dozen of these :15 spots, highlighting virtual world exploration, community (virtual equestrians and LGBT groups are featured), with the most viewed categories by far being avatar customization and, of course, romance. (As above.)

They're well-made as far as they go, but to be honest, they leave me wondering how familiar the Linden Lab marketing team is with the Second Life feature set -- or maybe more key, all the platforms it's competing against:

Watch: Machinima Tribute to Hangars Liquides, the Masterpiece Cyberpunk City Still Set to Disappear from Second Life at the End of This Month

Recently created by "Inworld Films", this is one of the better machinima tributes to Second Life's legendary cyberpunk city Hangars Liquides, which is still set for dematerialization at the end of this month, capturing the scope and detail of this metropolis that was more or less hand-painted and hand-sculpted by artist Djehan Kidd. More than many other machinimas featuring Hangars, this one conveys not just the vast scope but also the self-consistent logic of an operating city. And also, Djehan's artistry -- not satisfied with just assembling a bunch of futuristic buildings together, she also brings to them a sense of dark irony and mordant wit. For example, look for the most famous line from the diary of Anne Frank, flickering outside a nightclub, giving those words a new, horrible context.

Speaking of Hangars Liquides' death date, an update:

Watch: "Hope Everyone Likes Pancakes", Creepy Hilarious Machinima Satire of Fashion Vlog Drama

Here's a newish machinima from Splinter Smirnov and Chris Mumblewood, masters of weird, pop eye Second Life machinima, this one a creepy hilarious spoof on fashion vlogger drama. At first I thought it was about SL fashion bloggers (lord knows that sub-subculture has high drama), but Splinter tells me it's a spin on another vlogger drama I'd forgotten: 

Watch "Insilico Defender": Cool & Clever Mix of Virtual Fashion Show, Cyberpunk Machinima

"Insilico Defender" cleverly combines two things Second Life is abundant with -- cyberpunk settings and shopping -- into a unlikely but cool and flashy action short. The fashion and houseware items are from the annual equal10 event.

"I wanted to make something special for Equal10," its creator and co-star, Novata, tells me. "This round we got cool designs by several creators, most of them inspired by Japanese style and cosplay (like the outfit I'm wearing from Ghoul). So, I wanted to make a fight scene like in Kill Bill from Quentin Tarantino." 

Mild spoiler after the break, so be sure to watch before proceeding:

Watch: Gorgeous Alice in Wonderland Machinima Showcasing Animesh Cheshire Cats, Amputee Avatar

This is the best showcase of animesh since that technology went live in Second Life: Animated Cheshire cats which can move independently or attached to your avatar, controllable with a HUD. Which, of course, video creator Novata features in an Alice in Wonderland setting in SL 

Also notable to me is her avatar partner in the video is an amputee, not a choice you see very often, but a conscious one to include here:

Kaoruco City, Jaw-Dropping Second Life Sim Inspired by Blade Runner and Other Cyberpunk Classic, Opens -- Watch the Trailer!

Watch this machinima trailer directed by master SL creator Eripom Moonwall, premiering Kaoruco City, a new Second Life sim inspired by Blade Runner, Altered Carbon, and William Gibson's Neuromancer, along with SL-based cities of the past, most especially Insilico and District 18.

Lead developed by Kaoruco Resident and a team of fellow Japanese SLers, it evokes a neo-Tokyo type vibe. Kaoruco and team re-purposed many pre-existing cypberpunk-themed assets for much of it ("Second Life has enough contents to build sci-fi scene," he notes), and were able to assemble them over a week of work. They paid special attention to the small details that make up a living city:

"We focused on making roads, avenues, and small paths," he explains, "Because in many movies, there's attractive scenes like Deckard eating at a noodle bar downtown."

 

You may be surprised it only took five days to build what you're seeing, but Kaoruco says it worked because the team had the same basic vision in their heads:

Cassie's Clips: Watch Cassie Cover Ruth B's "Lost Boy" and The Wizard of Oz's "Over The Rainbow" in Second Life

Here's a treat as we wind down for the weekend: NWN video correspondent Cassie Middles covering Ruth B's massive pop hit "Lost Boy", an incredibly difficult song in terms of range and phrasing. But Cassie is quite literally a pro -- a trained soprano, which makes her singing this contralto/tenor song even more difficult -- but at my begging, she's getting back into in-world performances like this. 

"The song reminds me a bit of Second Life, funnily enough," she tells me. "A place where you can escape reality and go somewhere you feel welcome and loved."

Cassie hasn't sung professionally for over a decade, but when she did, she performed with the Orlando opera company, the Bob Carr Theater, and Rollins College. (Watch her cover "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", which fits her vocal range closer, below.) "I'm definitely nowhere near how I was years ago," she allows. "I think I need to practice again or get a vocal coach." Hopefully that means we'll get more songs from her in the future.

Here's how she created the Second Life machinima and merged it with her vocals: