Wednesday was exhausting for ridiculous reasons, but there's still time to look at this beautifully rendered Pride-themed laser sword machina by the master, Teal Aurelia. Fairly unique among SL machinima creators, Teal lovingly (and painstakingly) captures raw footage shot in Second Life, then heavily post-processes it, usually to great effect and transformation. (I particularly love how we also see the after glow of the blades, conveying a real sense of heft and substance.)
I profiled Teal last year, who gave me a glimpse of her background, and her impressive process:
In the platform game of Love, you only win when the final boss gets hugged. And while this looks like a fun iPhone game, it's actually an ad for Sky Pirates steampunk decor by D-LAB. Though come to think of it, this also shows how Second Life machinima is a great tool for pre-visualizing games and movies.
This jaw-droppingly awesome machinima, "Artists in SL", is a tribute to Second Life Flickr artists who inspired its creator, Teal Aurelia, and is in turn a tribute to Second Life as an artist's digital toolchest and community. I don't say this often, but it's also one of the best SL-based machinimas ever made in the metaverse platform's near-20 year history. But please watch and judge for yourself.
Teal is a recent art school grad, and I sort of suspect we'll be seeing much more of her work for a growing fanbase. Her art degree was inspired by creating in Second Life:
"Making machinima in SL was one of the things that led me to my degree in animation," she tells me. "I started out learning real life wildlife documentary [filmmaking], but it didn’t really let me tell stories, so I tried filming in Second Life for fun. I was still limited by the animations I could find in-world.
"Obviously," she adds grinning, "the only solution was to get into ridiculous amounts of student debt and go study how to make things move myself."
Here's how she discovered Second Life and a glimpse behind her creative process:
This short experimental but seriously cool machinima by rising star creator Vrutega (read his SL spotlight profile here) looks like it was made in After Effects or some other post-production platform, but it was actually recorded entirely in Second Life.
"Everything was shot in-world," he tells me. "No VFX was used for this. I used an interactive skybox and changed the WindLight to match the hue of the DarkStar Pocket item I was holding."
This is a fun SL music machinima showcasing choreography originally created for BLACKPINK by dancer Kiel Tutin, which is now available for Second Life avatars. (Info in the YouTube video.)
It's also among the most high quality Second Life machinima I've ever seen, featuring dynamic shadow and an incredibly high framerate, so the dance moves are crisp and fluid.
There's an interesting if ironic reason why it looks so great, video creator Isabelle Cheren tells me:
After performing in Second Life during (and because!) of the pandemic lockdown since last year, rising indie pop star Aufwie recently released his first music video shot in Second Life -- watch above! Very nicely shot and edited by VRutega, Aufwie's "throw me to the sea" because quite literal in the virtual world.
"[The machinima] uses the sea as a metaphor for oblivion and how someone can actually throw u into oblivion by forgetting about you, taking u out of their lives," he tells me now. "Sinking as a metaphor of how depression pulls u down."
His virtual performances in SL through 2021 helped him take his career to the next stage -- both in the virtual world and across social media:
I've been meaning to blog this machinima for weeks, because holy shit just watch. Shot in Second Life by Vene Sere (Discord: Sere Vene#8502), it's actually a tribute to Lion's Pride, a classic roleplay hangout site in World of Warcraft. The final result, however, looks better than anything from either platform.
"There is always a ton of people roleplaying there," Vene explains, "and I wanted to picture the ambience!"
It's also his bid to encourage fellow roleplayers from other MMOs to try out Second Life.
"A friend of mine brought me on SL, and I was amazed by the endless possibilities that platform offers," as Vene puts it. "It was for me the perfect place to do roleplay. You can have your own character that you can customize from head to toe, and you can build your own home." Custom avatar animations really sold him on SL roleplay: "It’s amazing to see your character so the animation you wanted him to do [can be played], as it was really limited in World of Warcraft."
His video demonstrates just that -- all the fantasy content and avatar customizations you see in his video was bought and assembled (and then disassembled) by him from the existing SL content marketplace.
As you might have guessed, there is some post-processing, but then again, not much more than what you'd see in a Marvel movie. Here's how he made the final results:
After a long wait, it's here! And exclusive to New World Notes: Presenting Episode 1, Season 3 of LANG, a noir comedy machinima series made entirely in Second Life, which I'm thrilled to premiere. (Watch above.)
If you haven't seen Season 1 and Season 2, however, binge-watch them here first, as the story is pretty complicated. Here's a very brief elevator pitch of Season 3 from lead LANG creator Zatch Ixchel:
"Without spoiling previous seasons - LANG is about two private investigators in a city that doesn’t want them. This season, in particular, is one about parenthood -- fatherhood, specifically. Betrayal, lost love, and revenge are other themes we explore this time around."
There's a seriously cool shot around 9:20 that was more challenging to create then it might seem -- here's how they did it (spoilers ahead):
I'm thrilled to announce that Season 3 of LANG, a full-fledged streaming series shot entirely in Second Life, will premiere here on New World Notes next Friday. Fresh from lead creator Zatch Ixchel, here's the exclusive trailer above.
"This season takes place a few months after the events of Season 2," Zatch tells me, "but we also get a few glimpses into the past, and where some of these people came from. Characters from Season 1 reappear, some as their younger selves. There is one character briefly mentioned by Teddy in Season 2, 'Jack', who is featured prominently throughout this story. I think this season will be a real treat for anyone who has been watching since the beginning."
So now is a good time to binge watch the first seasons -- they're embedded below. Easily among the most ambitious Second Life machinima projects ever made, LANG has great noir visuals and voice acting, and dialog with a wry Tarantino-esque wit. As you might have guessed, theses seasons take quite awhile to create, and involve a dozen-plus SLers along with Zatch:
With its arresting visuals, sardonic dialog, and music like the ironic Sinatra throwback heard above, the LANG series is something Quentin Tarantino* might make, if he was in the mood to make a comedic neo-noir machinima in Second Life. Created by Zatch Ixchel and company, I wrote about LANG last January, and it's not only kept up its solid pace, but is now teasing Season 3 as coming soon.
"At this point, I’m inspired by the characters themselves, the world we’ve built here," Zach tells me, when I ask how he keeps inspired to keep creating episodes. "I want to know what happens to these people. I want to know why Lang is the way he is. I want to know if Sadie will ever be satisfied."
Watch Season 1 and Season 2 below so you're all caught up before S3 drops:
