New World Notes

Watch: How to Upscale Second Life Machinima with AI Program Stable Diffusion

Problem: Machinima is an amazing use case for metaverse platforms, enabling people to create high quality narrative videos on a low budget -- if only, that is, the "high quality" part wasn't so challenging. Because any time you capture video in a multiplayer virtual world, you inevitably encounter lag, frame rate drop, and onscreen mesh files that don't fully display. That problem is especially acute with Second Life, where everything in the virtual world (including other people's avatars, logging in from around the world) is streamed to the machinima maker's computer in real time.

Solution: Generative AI! Specifically Stable Diffusion from Stability AI.

Watch this tutorial from Pryda Parx (above) to see what I mean. Using Stable Diffusion and Comfy UI (a graphic user interface for Stable Diffusion), Parx is able to convert footage captured from Second Life with a low frame rate and poor image quality into something approaching professional quality -- upscaling it from 15 frames per second  to 60 FPS with a 4K display.

Parx tells me the conversion process is not especially difficult:

How an Art School Grad Became a Viral Ad Creator for Second Life Brands

This spectacular montage machinima may seem like a big budget commercial for Second Life (and it's definitely more dazzling than the actual ad Linden Lab paid for in 2021), but it's actually more interesting than that:

It's a showreel of ads for top metaverse brands inside the Second Life economy, created by Teal Aurelia, a recent art school grad whose machinima tribute to SL artists last year went low key viral across the community. 

Since then, she's crafted herself into a creator of video ads for Second Life brands that align with her own aesthetic focus:

"Really I'm here to film monsters and magic and defiant women," as Teal tells me. "I usually only accept commissions from brands that suit those cinematic visuals, so it's just a process of weaving their work with mine rather than trying to film what I hope a brand represents."

To put it another way: The most watched Second Life machinima now are Second Life brand ads by Teal. While live "let's play" type videos can garner many more views, self-contained narrative SL machinima shorts typically earn a several hundred/a few thousand views.

But by my rough count across her main social media channels (Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, etc.) Teal Aurelia's ads have attracted well over 350,000 views. While her clients haven't shared subsequent sales figures, "most clients have come back to me to request multiple commissions," she says. "So I take that as a good sign?"

Some of Second Life's top brands -- i.e. those grossing over $1 million USD a year -- have even offered to hire her exclusively as their full time ad director. "It's amazing anyone would ask me that, but I really think my videos have only been successful so far because I work alone and make what I love."

I actually think if any company hires her full-time, it should probably be Linden Lab itself, but that's just me. In any case, the success of her video ads illustrates the importance of advertising metaverse platform-based content outside the platform, across the asynchronous social media ecosystem.

Here's a look at some recent favorite ads, along with some more Teal insights on her creative approach:

The Gnome is Home: Helium-Headed YouTuber Soda Gnome Wackily Returns to Second Life

It's a Friday miracle! After an absence of some six years, legendary YouTuber Soda Gnome is back with a new Second Life machinima to utterly wreck some "Take on Me" karaoke. First sighted by Redditor u/GeoffreyLannister, we've been missing his wryly goofy humor, a gnome-shaped light amid the sea of fashion and trolling videos. Though watch now: For whatever reason, his classic SL videos seem to be no longer on YouTube. 

Past Soda Gnome appearances on NWN below, though it's mainly readers and I talking about how funny as fuck he is. I've reached out to Monsieur Gnome so he knows we're watching -- say hello in Comments in hopes he makes more videos!

Watch: Teal Aurelia Wonderfully Wields Twin Pride-Themed Lightsabers -- Then Reveals How She First Created This in Second Life!

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:

Watch: This Sexy Platform Game is Actually an Ad for a Steampunk Brand in Second Life

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. 

It's by Teal Aurelia, who also created the acclaimed tribute to SL artists we watched recently. (More on her process here.) There was some debate on documentary versus green screen SL machinima (Teal's technique), and this is another demonstration of how green screen creates the opportunity to showcase great Second Life content in a new, high quality context.

WATCH: Amazing Machinima Tribute to Second Life's Artist Community Is Also Among the Best SL Machinimas Ever Made

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 Amazing Machinima of a Tiny Cosmic Void Was Made With No VFX -- Because You Can Actually Get a Tiny Cosmic Void in Second Life

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."

And yes, you can get a copy of your own DarkStar Pocket this weekend at the Tokyo Zero event in SL - [click here to teleport].

Self-taught, Vrutega did later add the sharp audio effects:

Watch: SL Machinima With Amazing Framerate & High Quality Visuals -- Here's How Isabelle Cheren Made It!

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:  

Watch: Rising Indie Pop Star Aufwie Kickstarted His Career in Second Life During the Pandemic -- Now Here's His First Music Video Shot in SL

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:

Watch: Second Life Roleplayer Made This Jaw-Dropping Machinima Tribute to a World of Warcraft Tavern -- Here's How

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: