New World Notes

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:

Watch SL YouTuber Cassie Totally Transform Her Avatar & Environment in 20 Minutes Based on .GIF & Emoji Suggestions

Here's NWN video correspondent and Second Life YouTuber Cassie Middles completely changing her avatar and background scene based on .gif or emoji-based suggestions sent from her followers on the social network Plurk. Amazingly, she makes this night and day change in just 20 minutes.

"Most of what I received [as suggestions] were very confident women," she tells me. "I did try to include the parrot even as well, but it was quite hidden in the final result, as well as the pile of apples from the first gif. What really gave me the inspiration, of course, was the Hocus Pocus gif, since that's also one of my all time favorite movies."

 

 Part 2 is below. Speaking of which, the particle effects she uses in this video below are from here.

 

Watch Live: Nylon Pinkney Turns an SL Screenshot Into a RL Portrait

Watch live video from Elleinadart on www.twitch.tv

"Nylon Pinkney", SL name of supremely talented East Coast-based artist Elleinadart, is streaming now on Twitch doing what she does so goddamn well: Capturing the essence of an SL avatar in a real life drawing. (Read more about how she does that here.) Doing it in a live context where she interacts with live viewers and talks about her technique as she does (and also, pauses to let out her cat) elevates it into something special.

Watch: Two RL Artists Talk About SL & Sansar, Sex, Creativity, Choice, Etc.

On the face of it, this is a humanoid fox talking to a brunette babe with action movie inclinations. But the fox is Erik Mondrian, who in real life is currently completing his MFA at a top arts school (California Institute of the Arts), and the brunette is MangroveJane (IRL Alison James) an artist whose Second Life work was recently exhibited in a real life gallery. So it's a fun and thoughtful video podcast worth a listen. (With great screenshots interspersed throughout.)

"Some of my favorite sections from the episode," Erik tells me, "are when Groves talked about her first five days in SL, stubbornly learning to jump, and having her 'existential crisis' there [2:10],  when she brought up the idea of avatar prejudice [11:50], and the discussion about the differences between platforms like SL and Sansar, particularly when she talked about the idea of the 'map' (for something like the SL mainland) and its psychological effect on users vs. the isolated experiences of Sansar [17:50]."

One point that jumps out at me is at 4:00, where Erik talks about how Second Life has no set goals, which Jane relates to SL's media reputation for being a giant, pervy virtual sex hovel -- and then points out that, like a real life city, the red light district is only one of many options you can choose from. This is a common belief among the SL community, and while it's not wrong, I think it misses a larger point:

SL YouTubers Make "Miss You" Video for SL YouTube Queen Strawberry Singh

If you had any doubt how tight-knit and fun the community of SLers on YouTube is, watch this fairly funny and well-shot machinima music video from Maddie Wyatt, a "We Miss You" post card to reigning SL YouTuber (now with 12,000+ subscribers!) Strawberry Singh, who's recently been away on vacation -- and deeply missed. Bonus points for Maddie's quite decent cover vocals for "End of the World".

But wait! It's not actually the end of the world, because. Ms. Singh. Is. Back:

Watch in HD: Jaw-Dropping Showcase of Updates to SL's Angel Manor

If you have the bandwidth to watch this in the highest of high definition modes, buffer it up first, and then hit play. This is Angel Manor Estate, which we last saw here in 2015, but owner Kaya Angel and team have made some epic updates since then:

A short showcase filmed in 4k of some of the renovations made to the main residence of Angel Manor Estate. An open house for people to enjoy and be inspired by. We welcome photographers who wish to use the settings and rooms of Angel Manor as a back drop. The House is best seen at night to allow the lighting to take full effect.

I'm happy to be proven wrong -- that's what the Comments below are for -- but I think this is probably the must ornate and intricately detailed Second Life sim that's ever existed.

Black Dragon SL Viewer Adds UI-Free Animator & Bone Focus Features

Here's a fun and flashy little video from NiranV Dean, creator of Black Dragon, the third party Second Life viewer with a cult following due to its amazing graphics and fast frame rate, which shows off two new features: a UI-free animator and the ability to keep the camera focused on a specific avatar bone. As he explains on Reddit:

[For] the falling scene I wanted the camera to perfectly follow my avatar, in order to do so I needed a new feature that I wanted for quite a while, so while allowing a bigger position change on the pelvis I also implemented a feature that allows tracking bones... The video shows both the new animator that can continue working without UI as well as the new bone focus feature in action.

Very handy features for SL machinima creators, especially.

Visit This Weekend in Second Life: Cica Ghost's Giant Music Box

Sunny Day from Pepa Cometa on Vimeo.

Click here to visit a beautiful new experience from metaverse art master Cica Ghost (ably featured in Pepa Cometa's machinima above): A kind of intricate, giant, moving music box that seems to be from the 19th century of an alternate, lovelier universe. I've always admired Cica Ghost's scenes, but wished they had more animation; this new experience manages movement beautifully. And it's huge! Look at my avatar in relationship to Cica's world:

Watch: Fantastic Nine Inch Nails Machinima Music Video Shot in a Beautifully Fallout-esque Second Life Sim Called Cranium Bay

Continuing our recurring theme of "Yes, Second Life nowadays can look about as great as a recent Fallout game (well, at least New Vegas)", here's a smashing machinima music video featuring NiN's "Only" and an SL sim called Cranium Bay. (Direct teleport here.) Created by Jackson Redstar, the roving camerawork is smooth and floaty, the cinematography is crisp and moody.

Cranium Bay, by the way, has a Flickr group with much more to see.