There be dragons.....

My first three dragons, Dotty, Doris and Darren are for sale (900L each), flying high over Nishi Disposals platform....here..

They are static, currently, tho Mouser wants to make them into avis for InWorldz....we will see...

.:)))

Interactive Art.

I have a toaster, RL, you put bread into it and click the button and toast comes out.

I have a lump of Plasticine (modelling clay), you push it and it changes shape..

....neither of them would I consider High Art.

The toaster does have a special sort of relationship to my life and provides a metamorphosed product which enriches and enhances my marmalade experience, and the plasticine does have potential....

Now, why do I have to go round touching stuff in SL.?? Interactive Art in galleries drives me nuts... ITS A MACHINE...unless it's a toy, of course.

Now, there are some absolutely amazing builds I have seen (like Selavy's Nested Cubes, poor photo below) that react to the avi and transform the actual build to such an extent that you can really be a part of a fun/creation experience...something I would class as Real SL Art, genius class, but most is disappointing in the extreme.



...there are art works that use the avatar as a structural part of the piece, again, I have to think of Incomplete Cube by Selavy [or this page top right] ... brilliant.

...and my point is...???... Well, I have just read Miso's post here.. and thought, in a round-a-bout way I would try and get to the essence of what I believe is Good SL Art.... as opposed to 'Art in SL' which is a different kettle of fish...in fact, a kettle of fish would be more amusing than most 'Art in SL'....[by the way it is 'Art in SL' that the Lindens are gonna 'Endow' with their old tax deductible servers (great insight, Crap..) rather than anything innovative].

What has stayed in my head after a year or two??

don't worry...not all in this post....

it may take a while... but clicking on stuff doesn't really do it for me (some pose balls excluded...)...

:)))

Ripple

Quite a few people I know have worked with Desdemona Enfield, she's one of our most talented scripters. In this recent collab with Douglas Story and March MacBain (who came to SL specially to do the sound) they have created quite an amazing build.

Firstly you can change the texture on the landscape, which is pretty cool...then...following the arrows (I like arrows, they are soo international) you arrive at a huge video sphere....

The possibilities that this gives rise to begin to be obvious as you see a video loop pass from one prim to the next....(without the need for the dreaded Viewer 2.0.). It's called Ripples, tho that is not important in my view, the technology is more important than any 'backstory'.....see it at Ars Simulacra..opening party on Saturday.

...and talking of technology... NWN reports the new browser-based offering from Rezzable....here... while Botgirl reports on FriendsHangout...here.

Not sure why I am so underwealmed by these types of thing really. Some people think it will get more people involved in 3D stuff because they can do it from their mobile phone while commuting to work, well, that's really like a 3D Facebook type experience and not one that excites me at all.

I know RightasRain Rezzable has invested a lot of time and money in doing this since he pulled out of SL, at the same time as Orange, who left SL to do the same thing. Well, Orange I can understand, they are a phone company so fair enough. RaR was v pissed at LL and so I understand his motivation too... hmm...just really interests me so little. The graphics are apparently good, but there's more to life than graphics.

It may well just be a cultural shift, and I am too tied up in the Culture of VW's, the idea that you download a Viewer etc. is fairly ritualistic, and maybe that's what leaves me cold, losing a part of my cultural heritage, but ...

I really will struggle against any diminishing of my builders tools. For me, the freedom to build what I want will always far outweigh any glossy shiny bits (which is why I spit on the voice morphing....of all the things we could have been given....such crap!)... so. make it as easy, glossy and shiny as you like, if its not got more tools, I will be left cold.

I am not principally a consumer, tho I would kill for good shoes in Inworldz...


:)))

Virtualism.

Raven has posted the idea that the type of art some of us do (those that aren't busy making poor reproductions of RL) could or should be called Virtualism.

This idea has been generally warmly greeted by most as a good idea, various blogs and associated comments seeing it as a pretty good name.

I like that it is concise and unpretentious.

A name can help to group a number of disparate efforts into a 'movement', which is what I see Virtualist Art as being.

I have long hated the term Immersive because... there is no Non-Immersive art, i.e. all art wants to draw the viewer/listener into the piece and involve them emotionally.... there are no non-immersive sims in VW's...so .....why call something immersive?

Virtualism, however, would obviously imply an art form rather than a method of reproducing RL in digital form, in a world where bits/bytes replace atoms.

It has certainly provoked some discussion and is symptomatic of the 'coming of age' process of any movement or culture that it becomes self aware and calls itself by a name. The success or failure of a name is the degree to which it sticks, i.e. how many of us will say, now...I am a Virtualist.

:))

SaveMe, save my sanity....

Yes, SaveMe Oh has another art show, and it is priceless......

Impressed by the doodles of our supreme leader, (which reminded me of stuff I did when I was about 14), and particularly impressed by the following these invoked, Saveme has the ArtWhores MoneyRun on show ...here...

Make sure you get the freebies from the box and wear them...it is hysterically funny....

Full details of the Banning and Unbanning of our delightful anarchist are to be found reported on her blog here.




.....still annoyed by a certain french bunch of pirats.... Saveme continues her critique of SL art on the next floor up...




...and Aliz, wearing a doodlely type of outfit....(one said "I have been doodled").... pictured here at a mock version of Dan Coyotes hyperfermentation retrospective on the next floor up from Idiots..... make sure you try the animations...I Am Animation...:))

....now...I have already said a load of good stuff about SaveMe, I think "My art is better than your art" is a complete classic.... but once again she has shown us just how important it is to have a Saveme in SL.

She is a thorn in the side or pure delight, depending on how up your own arse you are....


:)))

Scottius Polke

There are about 12 good photos I have of this build, but I figured it would just spoil your surprise when you get there, and, believe me you have to go, you will love it.

Scottius Polke, along with Alizarin Goldflake and I don't use photographed textures... there are many other I'm sure, though not enough yet.... and I have often stated quite clearly before why photographed textures are a poor alternative. For those new to these pages, or haven't been paying attention (I may be asking questions later so take notes).... We are used to seeing photos and printed images at a resolution of 300, but the web and SL are all using a resolution of 72. The result is gonna look cheap and nasty...so...don't do it. :))))

Why drag poor images of a "real" world into something that could be so much more...????

In his own words....

"The process of creating Lunamaruna has spanned several months, and could not have been completed without the help of the following people:

Zachh Cale: For curating and generously lending art space for this build, as well as being Sounding Board and Gentle Critic.
Kimba Sideways: Prim and Texture Aligner Extraordinaire, and Idea Maven like none otter, er other.
Alexx Fenstalker: Bringing the island to life with Amazing Animations
Desdemona Enfield: Most Ingenious in all things scriptly..."

...just pop along to see Scottius's latest build.... here.

There's a narrative there , if you want to find it....it's not rammed down your throat, nor is it compulsory for your viewing pleasure.... I personally let my eyes find what they like and enjoy. ... enjoy they did.

This would be the sort of town/ village I would live in, given the chance.

This is the SL I expected to find when I first logged on nearly 3 years ago, and...

..this is the sort of build I would use to promote what is possible in SL instead of those nasty images that appear on my screen when I log on.

Otterly fantastic (the poor puns are obligatory)...

:)))

UWA, people's choice.

Every month UWA has one award which is chosen by you...well.... only if you go and look...

There are 70 entries, this month, and everyone is worth a look and some are worth two looks. I know it takes a bit of time and some people might think they are too busy to go see...well... they are wrong.

I don't know of any show in SL that is more worth visiting, for a number of reasons..... firstly, you don't have to look at twenty pieces by the same artist (phew), secondly, you see work by people you never heard of, and lastly, it's a real source of inspiration... Probably more reasons too...:))




Sharni Azalee, wow, now here's someone who can texture, thank the gods, absolutely beautifully crafted piece, thoughtful, original and a pleasure to the eye.... called "Making Love'.





Feathers can turn you into an Angel...:))




Samara Borkotron...wow... now my graphix card, as I have bemoaned before is not quite up to this one, but it is a stunning piece, well, pieces actually, not quite sure which was which, but as they are sooo brilliantly Australian...ly....textured....well...I loved them both.







FeeWee Ling's piece last month was wonderful and, this month it is even more wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed it.....being rescued by a hunky robot...soo cool.





...and a nice piece of Steampunk by Atomic Gaffer, something for everyone.....

There are a number of so-called immersive pieces there too, but Aliz's Night Light is, in my opinion, streets ahead of the rest. She really is a Texture Queen...

Now...obviously these are just the tip of the iceberg....do pop along and make time to wander round...you have a week...

:))

How to be a Wizard

Many thanks to White for this transcript..... Wizzy did say to me that there are a few bits missing, I don't know, I just publish and be damned.....I'm sure if you have an serious, or silly, questions, then you can talk to the Wizard....

So....for those of you/us who missed the talk..


--- Wizard Gynoid: Precision Art Sculpture -----------------
Class transcript

The class took place February 22nd, 2010 at 6pm on the platform above the Burning Life Afterburn Art Project plot.
Wizard Gynoid prepared a display of various math sculptures to illustrate her lecture material. You can see some pictures of what was shown here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/white_lebed/sets/72157623480682604/
Also Wizard brought very useful free building tools which she was using to create her sculptures - various rezzers and scripts.
Those will be available till March 1st here
Go grab them while you can!

-----------------------------------------------

[18:02] White Lebed: Hello, Everybody! Welcome to another session of Burniversity. Many of you have admired Wizard Gynoid's perfect math sculptures but never knew how she could make them. Today we will have a chance to learn a few secrets and find out more about one of the most interesting art styles - math art. Please, wellcome - Wizard Gynoid!
[18:02] Benski Korhonen: Clapping!
[18:02] Wizard Gynoid: yay
[18:02] Corcosman Voom applauds
[18:02] Tomkin Euler: Yay!
[18:02] Miso Susanowa: can we use calculators?
[18:02] Nickola Martynov: claps
[18:02] White Lebed: from this point point the chat log will be recorded for publishing
[18:02] Scottius Polke: Applause!!!
[18:02] Scottius Polke: Applause!!
[18:03] Wizard Gynoid: I have quite a few of my own objects scattered around here, some with VERY high prim counts.
[18:03] Wizard Gynoid: If you are having a hard time with lag and it's taking a while to rez everything, you have the option of setting your draw distance down to the minimum and your computer won't have to work so hard to render them.
[18:04] Wizard Gynoid: I'm about to get chatty about my own passion in Second Life, that is to say building precise artistic sculptures from geometric objects.
[18:04] Wizard Gynoid: Have you ever seen Scope Cleaver's architectural builds?
[18:04] Tomkin Euler: Nay..
[18:04] Corcosman Voom: Yes
[18:04] Wizard Gynoid: Scope's impressive non-linear architecture has been featured at Burning Life and on the Princeton sims and elsewhere.
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: Have you had the pleasure of seeing Seifert Surface's mathematical objects?
[18:05] Corcosman Voom: Yes
[18:05] Tomkin Euler: yep..
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: If not, check them out on his sim “xyz”.
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: Have you seen the big perfect geodesic domes at Burning Life?
[18:05] Wizard Gynoid: Have you wondered how these things were built?
[18:06] Wizard Gynoid: Perhaps you have tried to build simple geometrical objects, using nothing more than the Second Life viewer UI (User Interface) and more specifically, the Object Editer.
[18:06] Wizard Gynoid: Have you tried to make things like this?
[18:06] 3d2 Pintens: o yes
[18:06] Corcosman Voom: Yes
[18:06] Tomkin Euler: yes..
[18:06] Nickola Martynov nods
[18:07] Tomkin Euler: well, no, actually..
[18:07] Nickola Martynov: the operative word is 'tried'
[18:07] Wizard Gynoid: Or these:
[18:08] Wizard Gynoid: If you have tried to make objects like this by hand, like I have, then you know how difficult it is.
[18:08] Wizard Gynoid: First of all, you have to have incredible patience.
[18:08] Wizard Gynoid: You have to have a basic knowledge of plane geometry.
[18:09] Wizard Gynoid: You have to be able to calculate angles, and determine the placement of x number of faces.
[18:09] Wizard Gynoid: You have to create the faces and place them in the proper location, with the proper “rotation.”
[18:10] Wizard Gynoid: A Dodecahedron
[18:10] Wizard Gynoid: This is not a trivial task, to say the least.
[18:10] Wizard Gynoid: How do you make that pentagon face? And how do you place 12 of them in perfect alignment and rotation?
[18:11] Wizard Gynoid: Once you've spent countless hours struggling to build these objects by hand, then you would no doubt gladly accept the help that scripted rezzers can give you.
[18:11] Corcosman Voom: Indeed
[18:11] Wizard Gynoid: I'm going to chat about some of those tools and how they can be used by artists to create sculpture.
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: This is Nand Nerd's Radial Noob Rezzer.
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: Nand Nerd is one of Second Life's best geometric scripters.
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: #rez
[18:12] Tomkin Euler: woo hoo..
[18:12] 3d2 Pintens: ooooo
[18:12] Wizard Gynoid: I'm just demonstrating a simple geometric rezzer here.
[18:12] Nickola Martynov: wow
[18:13] Wizard Gynoid: delete
[18:13] Wizard Gynoid: Nand once rezzed a 256 meter, sim-sized 6,000 prim sphere. I've seen pictures.
[18:14] Oberon Onmura: Does Nand make that available to artists?
[18:14] Wizard Gynoid: you can ask him oberon.
[18:14] Oberon Onmura: nice
[18:14] Wizard Gynoid: Cadroe Murphy is one of SL's oldest geometric scripters. He has a couple of helpful rezzers that have been around for a while.
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Sides: 8.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Radius: 4.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Height: 1.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Hollow: 0.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Z Offset: 0.000000
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Mode: Ring
[18:14] RingMaker1.03: Color: <0.00000, 0.00000, 0.00000>
[18:15] Wizard Gynoid: This is Ring Maker.
[18:15] Wizard Gynoid: Ring Maker will rez objects in a perfect ring, hence the name.
[18:16] Tomkin Euler: huh..
[18:16] Wizard Gynoid: Ring Maker is a freebie tool and is over there with my buddy Philip Linden.
[18:17] White Lebed: many of those rezzers are available on xstreet for minimal fee or free - they are very easy to find, you just need to know what to look for
[18:17] Oberon Onmura: I've played with it a bit
[18:17] Wizard Gynoid: i have a bunch of these rezzers available for free next to Philip Linden over there
[18:17] Wizard Gynoid: The Cadroe Lathe is above my head.
[18:18] Wizard Gynoid: Watch this basic object being rezzed.
[18:19] Tomkin Euler: Goo...
[18:19] Wizard Gynoid: lag doesn't seem to be too bad
[18:19] Wizard Gynoid: knock on prim
[18:19] Corcosman Voom: famous last words
[18:19] Corcosman Voom: : )
[18:20] Romper Lohner: ty for the tools Wizard
[18:20] Wizard Gynoid: The Cadroe Lathe is only $500L, and can be found here: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=56642
[18:20] Wizard Gynoid: btw, i don't have a deal with cadroe. hehe
[18:21] Wizard Gynoid: The Cadroe Lathe is only $500L, and can be found here: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=56642
[18:21] Wizard Gynoid: Cadroe made a more sophisticated rezzer, called the Shape Maker. That is above my head, and above the Lathe.
[18:21] Oberon Onmura: wizard - do you drop the object to be rezzed into the lathe?
[18:22] Wizard Gynoid: no, you define what you want to rez with the settings
[18:22] Wizard Gynoid: Watch as I rez a torus with it.
[18:22] Oberon Onmura: I mean, the pieces out of which the object is made ...
[18:22] Wizard Gynoid: i love this part
[18:23] Wizard Gynoid: Any Comments or Questions while that is rezzing?
[18:23] Romper Lohner: !how many prims when done/
[18:23] Oberon Onmura: I'd want to use prescripted units
[18:23] Tomkin Euler: it's like vacuum deposition.. spitting chemicals onto silicon wafers..
[18:24] Wizard Gynoid: the number of prims depends on the settings you define
[18:24] Wizard Gynoid: a sim-sized sphere can be 6000 prims
[18:24] Wizard Gynoid: i think i might have the record with my 6,672 E8. ;-)
[18:25] Takni Miklos: whats an ee ate?
[18:25] Wizard Gynoid: you try sculpties. that saves prims. but this lecture isn't about sculpties
[18:25] Areal Loonie: will any just move pre-existing prims? or do they all rez new prims?
[18:26] Wizard Gynoid: they rez new prims
[18:26] Corcosman Voom: You've done some things on Reaction Grid....I presume all your scripts worked there?
[18:26] Wizard Gynoid: i've tried doing sculpties, but so far they don't turn me on.
[18:26] Wizard Gynoid: most scripts work on Raction Grid, open sim, with a few minor fixes
[18:26] Tomkin Euler: for an instant, it's a 'shroom..
[18:27] Romper Lohner: it would make a good mold for sculpty creation "note' to self
[18:27] Wizard Gynoid: The Shape Maker is a freebie and I've put it over by Philip Linden there for you to pounce on.
[18:28] Wizard Gynoid: that worked pretty well.
[18:28] Wizard Gynoid: Seifert Surface has made a few sophisticated rezzers.
[18:28] Wizard Gynoid: two of them are here
[18:28] Oberon Onmura: is there a set menu of shapes? or is it open-ended?
[18:29] Wizard Gynoid: seifert's torus and tapering torus rezzers
[18:29] Wizard Gynoid: ha i didn't know seifert was here.
[18:29] Wizard Gynoid: yaya
[18:30] Wizard Gynoid: ok, so let's demonstrate seiferts torus rezzers
[18:30] White Lebed: those tools are pretty useful for architectural builds - and as you know the 2010 Burning Life theme is Metropolis :)
[18:30] Wizard Gynoid: it's a bit laggy but they seem to be working
[18:32] Wizard Gynoid: now, i like these because you can scale them. you can take pieces and use them in sculpture
[18:32] Wizard Gynoid: scope uses these i think in his architectural builds
[18:33] Wizard Gynoid: the tapering is finishing up
[18:33] Wizard Gynoid: Pieces of these shapes can be used in bigger sculptures.
[18:34] Wizard Gynoid: seifert has very graciously made these available to this class.
[18:34] Corcosman Voom: Three cheers for Seifert : )
[18:34] Oberon Onmura: :-)
[18:34] Sabrinaa Nightfire: thank you, Seifert
[18:34] Wizard Gynoid: This is Seifert's Parametric Surface Rezzer
[18:35] Corcosman Voom: Hehe
[18:36] Oberon Onmura: Seifert - are these Mono scripted?
[18:36] Oberon Onmura: just thinking about the Mono rezzing bug
[18:37] Wizard Gynoid: i love this parametric
[18:37] Oberon Onmura: hehe
[18:38] Wizard Gynoid: All of these rezzers have scripts and settings that can be tweaked to create great non-linear shapes, that can be made into sculptures.
[18:38] Wizard Gynoid: You can go directly into the scripts and change settings, or you can read the README files in the Contents for instructions.
[18:38] Wizard Gynoid: These shape rezzers are the virtual painter's brush, the virtual sculptor's chisel...
[18:38] Takni Miklos: and where do we find those rezzers and scripts?
[18:39] Wizard Gynoid: Now, there are other kinds of tools, other kinds of rezzers.
[18:39] Wizard Gynoid: Perhaps you've seen the rezzers that will rez the major stars in the immediate vicinity around the Earth, or the rezzers that will rez a molecule.
[18:39] Tomkin Euler: I've seen lots of graphs.. stock values..
[18:39] Wizard Gynoid: These rezzers are creating spheres at defined points in a grid around the rezzer.
[18:40] Wizard Gynoid: I would demonstrate but that would be messy here.
[18:40] Wizard Gynoid: And for good demonstration purposes we need to have a convenient “kill/die” command to aid in easy cleanup.
[18:40] Wizard Gynoid: Some of these rezzers have one, but most don't, so you have to delete by hand. And that would be difficult here.
[18:41] Explorer Dastardly: all the old hippies can make a geodesic dome, lol..
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: Around us I have placed some examples of what I think are some of my best creations.
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: Most of these were built with a rezzer that first identifies the points where those spheres go.
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: These are called the “vertices.”
[18:41] Wizard Gynoid: The rezzer reads the positions (the coordinates) of the vertices from a notecard, and then places a sphere on that point.
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: Various mathematical formulas can be used to determine these vertice points.
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: The software program Mathematica has been helpful to calculate the vertices of some of these objects.
[18:42] Oberon Onmura: how do the coords get onto the notecard?
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: cut and paste oberon
[18:42] Oberon Onmura: hmm
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: The next step is to “connect the dots.”
[18:42] Wizard Gynoid: How do we do that?
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: We do that with a script that sends “intelligent” struts out to connect a pair of vertices.
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: The strut is “intelligent” because it contains a script inside it.
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: A notecard identifies the vertex pairs, and a script inside the rezzed strut shapes, orients, rotates and sizes the strut to fit between the two vertice points.
[18:43] Oberon Onmura: cool
[18:43] Wizard Gynoid: Some of these rezzers are based on work by Lionel Forager and Catherine Omega Heavy Industries.
[18:44] Wizard Gynoid: An example of this can be found here: http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=LibraryBezierCurveDemo
[18:44] Tomkin Euler: handy.. I have always wanted a board stretcher in firstLife..
[18:44] Wizard Gynoid: My own work has been largely dependent on the scripting genius of Desdemona Enfield.
[18:44] Wizard Gynoid: With a rezzer of this kind, we can draw “lines” between points.
[18:45] Wizard Gynoid: Desdemona has been generous enough to make one of these rezzers available to the public domain.
[18:45] Wizard Gynoid: And I will demonstrate it here and now.
[18:45] projection - v1a: By your command: version=28Aug08, free=7301
[18:46] projection - v1a: rezzing 27 points
[18:46] projection - v1a: rezzing 216 lines
[18:46] Wizard Gynoid: This particular objects starts with 27 point/vertices.
[18:46] Nickola Martynov: oooo
[18:46] Wizard Gynoid: The script then connects the 27 points with 216 line segments, for a total prim count of 243.
[18:46] Wizard Gynoid: Note that the finished object is not a linked set.
[18:47] Merlin Gray: and to thing we used to have to use toothpicks and a ton of glue
[18:47] Wizard Gynoid: This is similar to the technique I used to rez my 6,672 prim E8 Polytope – vertices connected by edge lines, an earlier example of which is displayed close by to the West, just across the sim line.
[18:47] Wizard Gynoid: Next to that E8 is a 2,889 prim Klein Bottle. The same basic principles were used – vertices connected by edge lines.
[18:47] projection - v1a: lengths in mm: [1236, 1070, 1902, 2000]
[18:47] projection - v1a: counts of lengths: [60, 60, 36, 60]
[18:47] projection - v1a: By your command: version=28Aug08, free=7301
[18:48] White Lebed: I guess we need another class - how to find 6000+ prims in SL to play with
[18:48] Wizard Gynoid: The script to rez the Klein Bottle is open source and available here: http://zonjacapalini.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/2889-working-with-very-large-linksets-in-opensim/
[18:48] Wizard Gynoid: Desdemona's rezzer is also available free of charge over there by my friend, Philip Linden.
[18:48] Oberon Onmura: the link limit is what? 256 prims?
[18:48] Corcosman Voom: How To Cozy Up To Sim Owners, White
[18:48] Wizard Gynoid: true oberon. altho not true in open simulator.
[18:48] Oberon Onmura: aha
[18:48] Sabrinaa Nightfire: lol
[18:49] Wizard Gynoid: i have linked this 2889 prim object into one object on Reaction Grid.
[18:49] Oberon Onmura: cool
[18:49] Wizard Gynoid: Questions before I move on?
[18:49] Wizard Gynoid: ha, sure way to crash a sim free
[18:50] Wizard Gynoid: For artistic purposes, sometimes we like to create textures on the surfaces of the faces of these geometric objects.
[18:50] Wizard Gynoid: These textures can be animated, so the entire sculpture comes alive.
[18:50] Wizard Gynoid: An example of a great SL artist who uses this technique is my friend Glyph Graves.
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: Glyph likes to create geometric objects and then applies animated textures to the surfaces, with lots of alpha (transparency).
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: Let's take this one step further.
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: We already have a rezzer that creates wireframe sculptures.
[18:51] Wizard Gynoid: What if I want to apply FACES to the wireframe?
[18:52] poly projector - v4g: [0]: By your command: version=3Dec09
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: Check this out:
[18:53] poly projector - v4g: [1]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: vertices
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: Note that this rezzer is rezzing the vertices, then connecting the dots with lines.
[18:53] poly projector - v4g: [2]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: edges
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: However, it goes one step further and places FACES between the vertices.
[18:53] Wizard Gynoid: In effect, we have made the wire frame sculpture into a solid object.
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: or a skinned object
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: rather
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: Note that we are creating both triangle and square FACES.
[18:54] poly projector - v4g: [3]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: triangle faces
[18:54] Wizard Gynoid: Faces like this can be difficult to animate textures on, but it can be done.
[18:54] poly projector - v4g: [4]: executing: rhombicuboctahedron: quadrilateral faces
[18:55] poly projector - v4g: [5]: done
[18:55] Wizard Gynoid: yay that worked
[18:55] Nickola Martynov: bravo
[18:55] Wizard Gynoid: that's desdemona's masterpiece script
[18:55] Corcosman Voom: Interesting that it does the quadrilateral faces with triangles also
[18:56] Wizard Gynoid: Are there any Questions? I have two.
[18:56] Wizard Gynoid: Are these geometric constructions of mine Art?
[18:56] Oberon Onmura: so ... you'll texture each face individually?
[18:56] Wizard Gynoid: What do you think?
[18:57] Wizard Gynoid: God is a geometer
[18:57] Nickola Martynov: Well...it could be argued that this is just engineering
[18:57] Corcosman Voom: : )
[18:58] Merlin Gray: ....and then it could be argued that engineering is an art form by the broadest definition
[18:58] Romper Lohner: DNA is geometrical as well, beauty to the eye of those that can see it
[18:58] Nickola Martynov: ART!!!!
[18:59] Merlin Gray: DidnNickola..lol
[18:59] Wizard Gynoid: thank you very much for your kind attention.
[18:59] Wizard Gynoid: SOCK!!!!!!!
[18:59] Merlin Gray: ***** APPPPPPPLLLLAAAUUUSSSSEEEEEEE***********
[18:59] Corcosman Voom: Thank you, Wizrd. Great presentation
[18:59] White Lebed: thank you Wizzy!
[18:59] Oberon Onmura: yay wizard!
[18:59] Nickola Martynov: thank you Wizard
[18:59] Wizard Gynoid: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:00] Merlin Gray: I was in a conversation about making Polys when your notecard came out last week..thanks for this
[19:00] Wizard Gynoid: your very welcome. i had fun.
[19:00] Nickola Martynov: Was the surface rezzer one of the freebies?
[19:00] Tomkin Euler: Whee!
[19:00] White Lebed: one more tool in your art box :) go make something amazing!
[19:00] 3d2 Pintens: where's phillip?
[19:01] Wizard Gynoid: philip is free too, but you have to go find him.
[19:01] Romper Lohner: ty wizard
[19:01] Feathers Boa: philip linden is my love child
[19:01] Sabrinaa Nightfire: thanks, Wizzy
[19:01] Miso Susanowa: "Art is not eternal, boys" - Ken Kesey
[19:01] White Lebed: after this difficult class do we deserve a recess?
[19:01] SciFiSancy Chaplynski: Thank you Wizard:)
[19:02] Lampoon Destiny: are you accepting 'tippage'?
[19:02] FreeWee Ling: I'll volunteer to be the final arbiter of what is art. Just show it to me and I'll tell you ;)
[19:02] White Lebed: during March - no classes! we will have the Porta Potty grand show
[19:02] Miso Susanowa: do we get extra credit for this one White?
[19:02] White Lebed: yes, Miso
[19:02] White Lebed: if you make a Klein bottle
[19:02] Wizard Gynoid: i'm amazed i didn't crash
[19:02] White Lebed: and fill it with something tasty
[19:03] White Lebed: no, we went well
[19:03] Feathers Boa: okies everyone
[19:03] Miso Susanowa: yes lets have a round of applause for the sim not crashing!
[19:03] Feathers Boa: have fun and stuff
[19:03] Miso Susanowa: YAY!
[19:03] Miso Susanowa: *claps!!!!*
[19:03] Corcosman Voom: I keep hoping somethng from all tese braIny folks will sink in by osmosis
[19:03] White Lebed: thank you again, guys for wearing light stuff
[19:03] Nickola Martynov: ・*゜*APPLAUSE*゜*・
[19:03] Feathers Boa: i am outta here!
[19:03] Mab MacMoragh: ♪♫♥ Applauds!!! ♥♫♪
[19:03] Tomkin Euler: fun on a bun...
[19:03] Feathers Boa blows kisses around the room
[19:03] Wizard Gynoid: bye feathers
[19:03] Nickola Martynov: Was the parametric surface rezzer included in the scripts?
[19:04] Wizard Gynoid: i think it was yes nickola
[19:04] White Lebed: someone had questions for Seifert?
[19:04] Nickola Martynov: I don't see it over there :-(
[19:04] Miso Susanowa: ack Waya got off my feet :(
[19:05] Miso Susanowa: *puts socks back on*
[19:05] Tomkin Euler: it was there when I walked over...
[19:05] Scottius Polke: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:05] Miso Susanowa: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:05] Waya Sion: lol
[19:05] Scarp Godenot: I think it must be some secret language they have going.....
[19:05] White Lebed: waya behave
[19:05] Scottius Polke: SOCK!!!!!!!
[19:05] DeadheadDMT Infinity: I was multitasking all the way through... I will have to read the chat history later to see what programs you used
[19:06] Scarp Godenot dodges the sock
[19:06] Kazuhiro Aridian: sock?
[19:06] Miso Susanowa: i saw it, but it disappeared, maybe it was "bought" as a original
[19:06] White Lebed: I think the kids ARE ready for a recess
[19:06] Kazuhiro Aridian: lawl
[19:06] White Lebed: looks like overheat from all this info
[19:06] Tomkin Euler: Hi, Seifert.. what were the functions?
[19:06] Miso Susanowa: Scarp: if you can dodge a sock, you can dodge a ball.
[19:06] Scarp Godenot: heh
[19:06] Tomkin Euler: sin(x=y) maybe?
[19:06] Seifert Surface: oh
[19:07] Miso Susanowa: let x =... x
[19:07] Tomkin Euler: (x+y), rather..
[19:07] Seifert Surface: i think its sin(x+y)
[19:07] White Lebed: Wizzy, can you leave the rezzers here till the end of Feb?
[19:07] Wizard Gynoid: i hope someone took pictures
[19:07] Waya Sion: if there's a recess, whats the next class?
[19:07] Waya Sion: lol
[19:07] Kazuhiro Aridian: do we get cookies?
[19:07] Miso Susanowa: the class of all classes that is not part of the given class, of course
[19:07] quadrapop Lane: I diod wiz - still am :)
[19:07] Tomkin Euler: Rocking..
[19:07] White Lebed: I will publish the transcript and some people might want to come and get those
[19:07] Wizard Gynoid: ✿⁂✿¨*:•.•:*''* KIMBA *''*:•.•:*¨✿⁂✿

---------------------------------------------------------
You can find transcripts from other classes on the Transcript Board
􀀁
just click on the boxes - they have notecards.
Also I send all the transcripts to the subscribers of the Afterburn Art Program list. You can join it by clicking on the kiosk right next to the board.

-------------------

White Lebed - the Burning Life Art Department Lead; the Curator of Afterburn Art Program
white.lebed@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/white_lebed

....end of transcript.....

.....of course, having the tools helps...but you need a Wizzy brain too...

:))

Wizzy gets chatty

Now when Wizzy isn't sitting on things or crashing sims as a hobby she builds some of the most amazing geometrical thingies you are ever likely to see....



If you have no idea what a Klein Bottle is, well, don't worry...it's a like Escher gone 3D, or a madder Penrose Triangle..... basically a geometric thingie that fuses your brain/eye co-ordination into a mushy mess.

...anyway....that is all beside the point, basically, Wizzy is giving a talk...the details are......


"What: Burniversity Lecture with Wizard Gynoid: Precision Art Sculpture

When: Feb 22nd 6pm SLT (Pacific)

Where: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life-%20Deep%20Hole/49/217/251

About the Lecture:

This lecture is meant to be an educational session for intermediate builders. We will be talking about one of the most technically difficult art styles - Mathmatical Art!
Wizard will rez for us a few complex objects and explain how they were created. The techniques of building these precision art sculptures are difficult and take a long time to acqure. In this lecture Wizard will discuss how scripts can be used as tools to make the building of your geometric objects much more precise.

About Wizard Gynoid:

Wizard Gynoid, or " Wizzy" as many friends affectionately call her, has been one of the most known SL artists.

Wizard has works on permanent exhibition at PrimTings, the Museum of Virtual Art, and Galleria Bollogia.
She has participated in many SL art shows and exhibitions, and will be participating in Caerleon's upcoming RL art show in Boston.

M Linden (the Linden Lab CEO) has some of her sculptural works in his private collection:

She has a workshop at the Caerleon Art Collective (courtesy of Georg Jannick).

Her skills and passion for creating 3D versions of abstract mathmatical art won her respect and recognition outside of Second life. Some of the sculptures she has made here in SL have been demonstrated to astrophysicists at California Institute of Technology, physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, faculty and staff at the University of Michigan, the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, and Theatre and Technology students at St. Lawrence University, and many others.


About the Burniversity:
The Burniversity is an educational project - collaboration between Linden Lab, Burning Life and Burning Man organizations

Important:
Please, notice the class will take place on the platform above the regular Burniversity classroom. On the ground you can see the art installation by Nessuno Myoo and Kicca Igaly made for the previous Burniversity class. Make sure to use the link from this notecard to tp to the Wizard's platform or fly up 200 meters.
------------------------------------

White Lebed - the Burning Life Art Department Lead; the Curator of Afterburn Art Program
white.lebed@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/white_lebed"

so....pop over and learn stuff...

:))

Erato Show

Well, a little date for your diaries tomorrow.....

"You are cordially invited to the opening of the Imagine Create No Texture Challenge.

The opening is at 1pm SLT on Sunday, February 21, 2010. Erato of Caerleon is hosting this event that features the work of 32 artists whose challenge was to create artwork using no textures. Sculpties, scripts, bumpiness and color were permitted.

Music for the opening will be provided by the talented and witty Whirli Placebo. So, come out on Sunday and party with us.

Come out and see the amazing creations these artists submitted. The entries are situated along a path through a jungle created by soror Nishi. [It actually turned out to be more of a light birch forest to be exact...] The entry to the jungle is by Jedda Zenovka.

Below (in no particular order) is a list of participating artists:

soror Nishi
Zhora Maynard
Artfox Daviau
Josina Burgess
Asmita Duranjaya
Dale Innis
Corcosman Voom
FreeWee Ling
Merlino Mayo
Laurel Leavitt
Sledge Roffo
Tegan Jenvieve
Kicca Igaly
Chapl Paisley
Gleman Jun
Miso Susanowa
Maryva Mayo
Physeter Nicholls
Al Lurton
Jess Oranos
Jimmy Debruyere
Misprint Thursday
quadrapop Lane
iTony Pleides
Flicky Exonar
Scarp Godenot
Fuschia Nightfire
Sabrinaa Nightfire
ArtCrash Exonar
Alizarin Goldflake
Daco Monday
Gwen Difference
typote Beck"

.....so, pop over...... Sabrinaa always hosts very good shows and there is plenty to look at. Quite interesting to see what can be done with no textures......

:))

Treeline 3

Just a little reminder that Virtual Treeline Gallery is showing a new set of artists from tomorrow ....here..

...and I am showing a new tree.

Its called The Bubble Tree and is 225 prims. Maeve Eiren told me a while back that she had a dream with a bubble tree in it and it has stayed in my head altho it doesn't necessarily look like bubbles anymore.....well.....sculptures change as you work on them.

Its built out of a lot of regular prims as "The Tree", my January entry for the UWA comp was. The Tree was an attempt to show that really you dont need Blender skills to build a good tree, anyone can, and altho the same can't be said for The Bubble Tree..i.e. there are a few good sculpties in there, the principle stlll holds good.

It's the second of my underwater trees, the first one, The Coral Reef Tree is not currently showing anywhere altho I have planted three at Maeve's. She will be holding an 'open week' in the near future for visitors. If you can't wait til then, IM me or Maeve for a visit.

Anyway, pop over to Treeline tomorrow after 2, Juanita has a good eye for art and her previous shows have been excellent.

:))

Virtual Treeline

Now, obviously, anything called Virtual Treeline Gallery is gonna attract my attention. Add to this the fact that a very talented artist, Juanita Deharo is running the place and you have all the makings of a great place for tree fanatics like me and possibly you, dear reader.

Her new show features a couple of very good artists, and altho I am quite wary of 2D stuff in a 3D environment, this is quality worth a visit.

Jadyn Firehawk has some absolutly stunning photos in this recent show and Lynda Robinson some very good pastels (I think).

The tree pictured above called Blue Text is by Juanita and has some of the nicest textures I've seen on a tree.

The show has already opened....the details are here.

Go...


:))

Alizarin Goldflake at Sapphos Commons

Now, Alizarin Goldflake is no stranger to these pages and no stranger than anyone else you would meet.
She has a big show on at Sapphos Commons that opens today, Saturday... full details here...

Now Sapphos Commons is not somewhere I have visited before and it’s always a surprise to find large community based projects going about their business which you/I have never heard of, I guess I don’t get out much...

There’s a web page here......or...to sum up..
“This is a cooperative project, ....This community was started in the late summer of 2008 through the efforts of:
Impression Melina,
Tasha Kostolany,
Melvin Starbrook,
Beauti Sorbet,
Energy Sosa,
Kyllie Wylie,
Sano Ra,
Marlena Poliatevska.”

Anyway... Aliz does beautiful digital drawings which you can now buy from her website (see above) which would hang nicely inbetween your Nishi oil-paintings...hehhehe....

and....RobertSteven Smythe you will maybe know in connection with Artemesia....one of the great curators, I think.

"The new Art Conservatory and coffee bar is a perfect place to simply enjoy the peaceful surroundings, read a book and chat with other visitors, and is now scheduled to have art exhibitions by SecondLife's most famous artists, sculptors, and workers in other types of media.

Art Conservatory Exhibitions are via the courtesy of RobertSteven Smythe, our
Art Curator, and Tasha Kostolany, our Design Director.

A big "Thank you" to RobertSteven Smyth, Tasha Kostolany,
and to Meagan Thespian for all their work and dedication .... "

Detailed information about the Art Conservatory Project via the following
website:


The upshot of all this is......a must see...

:))

Mommalove..... Steaming Hot!!

I know it is a side of SL that I have neglected a bit, music. When we start to get artists with talent like Mommalove performing live for such small (compared to RL) groups of 70 people then we know that things are going in the right direction.



Mommalove kicked off Sabrinaa's brilliant (as usual) show of steam punk stuff at Erato today. Loads of top artists and friends gathered to see and hear....great




Zhora's piece sort of stole the show for me...I loved it, but then I'm a sucker for a tree of any description... especially something out of the ordinary like this one....





...and Scottius' "otterly amazing" (Wizzy quote) piece Starfish Command had me giggling...well...easily amused....

Bryn has a staggeringly good piece too, unfortunately my computer, my inability to walk and lack of patience have thwarted me in its full exploration, so far...but...like the man said..."I'll be back.."

Great pieces too by Dekka and Penumbra....well........they are all good actually.....

anyway...all in all, an amazing show....congrats Sabrinaa...

:))

Magoo revisited

Soup Magoo has been radically transformed from the exotic swampland of my fertile imagination during the last month by Dekka Raymaker and Penumbra Carter to a very different landscape....





Resembling a Nuclear Punk power station I felt I should have been wearing a robot avi or at least something radio-active...






On the Soup website they have the following to say...

"This is a freeform art build. When we were given the homestead at Magoo to produce a piece for it we had no preconceived ideas for it, so we tackled it in a manner that we constructed our Burning Life 2009 collaboration, throw a plywood cube prim down and see where it took us. The resulting madness is what you see.

As the build developed, we wanted to include some avatar interaction, and we wanted the work to come alive around the spectator. We hope that in some way we have achieved that. The build encompasses sound, light and movement. The build is foremost about fun, nothing heavy, no deep meanings, just subconscious energy driving us to complete the build in the first 3 weeks of December (we actually extended into the first week of January too, taking a 8 day break over Christmas week).

While discussing where the build was going we often used words like 'mad', 'scribble', 'no idea', 'sketchbook' and 'wtf are we doing'. There is a visual remark about an upcoming Linden Lab policy to charge L$99 per month for listing 'freebies' on it's Xstreet marketplace (Joke: "when is a freebie not a freebie?" … "when it costs L$99") there seems to be religious overtones too, but there is no bible in here.




The build is one that does indeed look like a sketch book and shows off their obvious skills both with prim bending and texturing. I did think that if the Lindens every get round to giving us scalable prims, that this build would have benefited from being two or three times the height, I would have liked to have been overshadowed by these things.

The tiling of the terrain texture immediately gives you the feeling of a clinical or laboratory site and the rusting textures contrasting with the neon glows is a great juxtaposition.

It has been a lot of work, you can see that, and worth a visit ... here

...as you know I always try and learn something from stuff I see and had to ask myself again that old question about back-story, theme and would I ever publish my sketch books.... well, it's a tricky one. In one way all I can hope to do as a builder is to provide an environment where things can happen.....) and with 30k sims and 70k avis....it's gonna be sparsely populated)
..or... do I also need to provide more than that?

RMB City left me with a similar feeling... would I go back? Well, I would for a cracking good dance party...

...as for my sketchbooks....well....too much blank paper inbetween the good bits.



:)))

Pirats Show

Ok, so I have got 5 new trees to show you if you'd like to see.

just pop over to Pirats tomorrow, you can't miss em, I wouldn't think... here

IM me if you have any trouble.

:))

ColeMarie and the art of machinima

Now, firstly, my little lappy hasn't got the power to do a good machinima, and secondly I have yet to learn how to do it....but....

I have been mostly very disappointed by the "poor video" syndrome. It seems to me that, with few exceptions people haven't realised that machinima is different to video. Cole understands this.

It is a different medium to anything else.

Cole's stuff has now Style. ...not a style, but Style.... there's a big difference. You can recognise it as a Cole piece.

So.. another glorious offering .... excellent.

:))

Troll etc.

Well, my 423 prim troll is finished and now seen occasionally wandering The Companion. Better photos of it here...or in my Flickr favs....above right.

Frigg Ragu is holding a photo competition for The Companion... (which is in Hot Spots).... L$ 10,000 first prize.

"The Companion Photo Contest
In the folktale/Storytelling sim The Companion there is a laterna magic. For those of you have been there, I am sure you have seen that this one is empty of images/illustrations/photos/pictures. It is waiting for being embraced by the story.

We need pictures, so therefor are you invited to participate in a ”The Companion photo Contest”. Up to 10 pictures will be chosen. These pictures will be shown in the laterna and in a book visitors can bring with them when they leave ”The Companion”."

...so get snapping.... the rules are here






In other news....went to see the build above, China, by aston Leisen, and one of Bettina's picks... I thought the clouds were inspired and the distant mountains done very well. AM used 3 sims to get this feeling of space so it's worth a visit..... here

...otherwise... erm...well, I have been a little slow in blogging this last week, dear reader, but I am starting to prepare for a new show at Pirats. Should open the 5th Jan, if my memory serves me well, which it doesn't......I would go to memory improvement classes but would probably forget which day they were ....as Clement Freud once said.... (more or less..)...."As you get older your memory fails you also as you get older your memory fails you." Not that I have that excuse as it has been terrible all my life, I can't remember most of my childhood, which is probably a blessing..... and I have always made a point of forgetting everyone's name. I need all the spare bioRAM I can muster... no upgrades yet available..... passwords are a nightmare and I have been locked out of more sites than I even care to remember, if I could.

Anyway, it seems like Christmas is happening soon, from the radio and general quantity of snow seen around SL, but I do remember candles melting off the tree in Australia where the Winter Solstice, hijacked by fascist Christians in the North sits unhappily in mid-summer, how surreal is that, really?

It's that time of the year though when religious zealots roam the radio and TV broadcasting their bigoted views with impunity whereas, in the real world (and I use that term relatively) the dusty little donkey, laden with emotive anthropomorphic pathos, wanders into a stall in Bethlehem to be hit by an Israeli anti personnel missile, mistaken for a suspected terrorist..... peace on earth to all (except anyone who disagrees with the current world-view)...

hehehehehe, still as I've said before the great thing about hypocrisy is that you don't have to be consequent; that's a great benefit to those of us who are memory-challenged, and of course, the power crazy.

:))

Mark Linden (scoop)

Your intrepid virtual explorer/reporteress has once again got her little fingers (well, ears actually) on a tasty little morsel....

In a pleasantly surprising move, to be announced tomorrow at the UWA November Awards party, and intimated in my Koinup post Mark Linden and I....Mark Linden will join the judges panel at The University of Western Australia for these, much praised, awards. This confirms my deep held belief that this university is doing more for the arts than anyone else in SL, a view that Mark Linden maybe agrees with, and, hopefully, learns from (re. LL).

Jayjay Zifanwe (yes, I know I spell his name differently every time I blog...) was extremely pleased at the move and, well, he and Quadrapop have worked hard to achieve what they have in these few months and deserve all the support they get. 59 artists have submitted for the November competition, and this alone tells a lot about the 'management'.

For those of you who don't have this event firmly marked in your diaries its 5am SLT (well, yes, it's one event the West Coast does have to get up very early for...) on Sunday 6th December, i.e. tomorrow.

...it's...here....

:)))

The Companion

Yes, well....

"The Companion will open tomorrow at 1st of december 11AM SLT.

The Companion is a region build based on a norwegian folktale. It is always winter there, and follows the narrative structure of the folktale.

It is build by Soror Nishi and Miskat Qinan, based on a idea by Frigg Ragu.

Tonight - Monday - there will be a preview of the place from 11 AM SLT. You are mostly welcome to see the place and maybe you find me doing my last work to finish the place.

With best greetings from Frigg Ragu."

here


pop over...

:))