“Unmindful” The Movie by Natascha Randt & Karima Hoisan

I will take a LITTLE credit for parts of this, mostly my expertise at not having any particular goal in mind :), and a nice “make a ball look like it’s rolling without risking actual physics” script that I did. It’s a great movie, and a great sim; experience both!

Digital Rabbit Hole

On July 16th, I posted here in my blog, about a new world that Dale Innis and I were beginning to build on Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand, called, “Unmindful” See post:
As I said in the post, it was an experiment, to prove or disprove something I had come to believe: “You don’t need an idea to create…ideas come…all you need to do is start.”
So we started off  with no ideas about what the world would be, just making sort of odd stone structures, with off-sim wind turbines, and a parade of wild animals standing on rugs moving in a figure-eight. That was our first part of the build, but then unmindful to how the focus even began changing, we shifted in a very different direction. I had the concept, but I promise you, if it weren’t for Dale, we would never have pulled this off. (Have…

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UWA time again!

I know, all I ever weblog about these days is machinima.  That is because I have already weblogged about trying on clothes from Sn@tch, the other main thing I do in SL these days :), and I can’t imagine that you want to see more and more postings about that.

Anyway!  It is time for the annual University of Western Australia themed machinima and 3D art contest thing again, and as usual I will highlight the entry that I made some small contribution to!  It is of course by Karima and Nat, and is of course wonderful.  :)

I will not say anything about the premise, because it is so delightfully revealed in the film itself.  See also Karima’s post on the subject for more insight and background.

There are no doubt lots of other extremely worthy entries, which we should all attempt to find time to watch!  But right now I must rush off to continue the ongoing RL battle with entropy.

(There’s an interesting question: does SL, or the virtual worlds in general, have any inherent entropy, not counting what they inherit indirectly from RL?  Probably so; for instance empty land with rezzing turned on gradually accumulates trash.  Expand and generalize.  But first watch the machinima!  It is on the You-Tube, so you can even Like and Comment and generally social-media about it.)

Drax does Machinima!

The Drax Files, which is a great collection of SL – RL videos / documentaries about interesting things, almost none of which I have actually managed to watch, has recently done an episode about various SL machinima-makers, which I saw an early version of that was very good, so I bet the final one is too:

(Why, you wonder, did I get to see an early version?  Because one of the featured machinima-making entities is the redoubtable team of Karima and Nat, to whose creations I’ve had the privilege of making various scriptish sorts of contributions.)

For more thorough coverage :) see Karima’s writeup and Nat’s German one.

Definitely worth watching!

Belated videos and a picture

I meant to post this awhile back, but I have been (a) lazy and (b) under the weather.  But anyway, here is the actual video of the great SL/RL machinima I reblogged last time:

In case people didn’t click through on the last post and scroll down and therefore missed it.  :)

Here also is a “What does Second Life mean to me?” video from Natascha Randt (Nat!):

which is apparently part of a whole series of videos like that, related (or not) to <a href=”https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Your-Avatar/The-What-Second-Life-Means-to-Me-Video-Share-Project/td-p/2941693″>this thread on the SL Community Forums</a>, which might be of interest to anyone who reads the SL Community Forums, and/or watches videos.

And finally here is a picture of me at SL12B.  SL12B happened, hurrah!  I spent a total of not very much time at all there; as usual, I love that these things occur, but don’t generally get to them as much as I might, because they are crowded, and I’m doing other stuff.  But I did hang from the ceiling!

So that’s all those things that you probably knew about anyway.  :)  But still it’s nice to post here once in awhile!

Follow Your Road…. All The Way To Success!!

I know I mostly reblog other people’s things these days :) but it’s because they are cool. This is another Karima and Nat machinima, this one with a great RL aspect to it. I was one of the actors again (in a bigger role even, he said modestly), but what those two, and the RL band, have done with our actors’ posing about is really amazing; watch and enjoy!

Digital Rabbit Hole

Costa Rica’s Own..Home-Grown Band

(Version en Español aquí)

  This isthe case of the hottest new Latin Musical group,” El Combo Style,” from my home country, Costa Rica. Really, just keep doing what you’re doing and share your talent with the world!
I love a good cause, and for me, people with artistic talent, dedication and humility are always a good cause.
The first time I heard this group, was in some studio recordings from the University of Costa Rica.
Even though the quality was not the best, I saw, felt and most importantly heard, the talent of this very tight and charismatic band.
David Mendez who plays trombone and maracas, (blind since early childhood) and David Jimenez (singer-guitarist) are part of the backbone of this band. D. Jimenez writes all the songs and lyrics and D. Mendez  along with Gerson Rodriguez on keyboard make all the musical arrangements…

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These atomic persons…

I have hardly existed at all for some time, as my atomic counterpart claims to have been “out of the country” and to have “jetlag” and “a plugged ear” and all sorts of unlikely-sounding ailments of that kind.

Also to be in dire need of “sleep”. (I don’t understand why the atomic person can’t sleep while the SL person is inworld doing things, since the converse seems to be well-supported.)

When I have been in, I have been mostly (a) checking the riotvends and lucky boards at Sn@tch (see above), (b) sorting inventory, and (c) now and then going to sets by ‘leet DJs.

None of which have inspired me to weblog about them much!

But here is a neat thing, that I can claim some connection to: Karima and Nat have posted on their entry for this year’s UWA Machinima contest (with the very SL-ish theme of “Transcending Borders”), and you can see it on the web and leave comments and stuff (Karima also says some Wise Things about the Culture of Easy Likes, which should be read and commented on). For this film, I got to gallop about as a horse some (see the amazing scenes with horses emerging from water and walking on tabletops and such), and I helped a little with some of the “data flowing” effects; also it includes inter alia some memes and clips from prior films of theirs, some of which I also did scripting and/or galloping about as a horse and so on in. And it is a great film, perfectly on-theme and very worth watching.

So I bask in the reflected creativity! :)

And I urge my atomic person to drink some green tea with honey, say, and get back in shape so that I can exist more often…

Updated: because in the original version I forgot that some stuff that I did was for this movie, because I always forget things.  :)

“Vector’s Vortex” The Movie by Natascha Randt and Karima Hoisan

Another lovely machinima with my name in the credits — erhm, I mean — from Karima and Nat! Which I helped a tiny bit with the scripting of the world that it is taken in! Kitely has some really interesting stuff in it (if only one had the time to explore…).

Tongue out of cheek, this world is really lovely and contemplative and worth a visit; the movie (also lovely) shows only some parts of it. Give it a look!

Digital Rabbit Hole

This is number 14!
14 collaborations with Natascha and my heart tells me, we might just keep going!
This one, came obsessively fast, just because we were both in “starburst mode” and as I was madly finishing the build, Nat was filming at amazing draw distances of over 2000(those who cruise in  virtual worlds will know that is being able to see very very far indeed!) For those who love to film, Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand is like paradise, where you can actually use these kinds of high graphic settings, and still get 70fps. I have posted aboutmy world here, and also shared a poem  that was born as the world was developing, and now I give you Natascha’s beautiful camera eye, that tantalizes more than it reveals, because I hope you will actually make the journey yourselves to see it on Kitely. Nat…

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The Drax Files: Creations for Parkinson’s

I hardly ever take the time to watch machinima by people I don’t know :) but this is just wonderful…

So very much the good spirit of SL.

Pardon me, I seem to have something in my eye…

My acting career continues! :)

Marvelous talented friends Karima and Nat have another movie out, Drink Me With Your Eyes; another rendering of one of Karima’s poems (a passionate piece in mixed English and Spanish), in amazing visuals of dancers and horses and eyes and… well, go see it. :)

I got a little bit part in the bar scenes (expertly sitting on a poseball!), and also in the horses-running-about scenes (as the Slightly Confused Horse), and got to contribute a little miscellaneous scripting also. But mostly just watched Karima and Nat and wondered to myself how they do it.

I will stick to scripting. :) Although I understand some people find that mysterious also!

“Festival of Love” Comes to LINC Island Friday Oct. 18th 1:30-2pmslt

This is just to reblog this post of the same name on Digital Rabbit Hole, ’cause this sounds awesome, and it’s tomorrow already, and I may or may not be trapped out in RL where my selfish atomic self is like changing employers or some silly RL diversion like that.

Extremely talented friends Karima an’ Nat will be hosting a half-hour segment of this German-based virtual-worlds Culture and Art event, and showing two (and possibly a teaser for a third) of their wonderful Machinimas (Machinimae?).

Oh, just go over there and read all about it! And attend! :)

Moving Trains

That title is a pun, since these particular trains that move scriptily down the track are in a video that is itself quite moving in the emotional sort of way.

As the official announcement from Karima Hoisan says, Karima and Natascha Randt’s “Window on a Train” is now up for general viewing an’ admiration.

Here it is on the “You Tube”:

and note that per Director Randt “Watching our film without being in full-screen and HD (720p) is Prohibited!” :)

I don’t want to say anything specific about the movie itself, because I think it has the most impact when viewed with the least preconceptions. Do prepare to be touched…

Machinima in general is so cool. I am not a visual person myself, so generally I can only sort of gawk (or make pictures with math), but I am pleased to say that in this case I was able to contribute, in the form of some scripts to provide smooth and mostly consistent motion in three objects (an engine and two cars) that were far too primmy to make physical, and also far too primmy to link together.

If I can gather up the energy and time :) I will post about it (the one-word giveaway is LLSetKeyframedMotion, which having been added to LSL later than 2007, is for me a Strange New Thing in the world, which proved Just Right for this particular use-case).

But anyway! Watch the movie! :) It is good!

Three Poems

My RL self did National Poetry Writing Month in April; 30 poems in 30 days. I thought I’d post three (at least) of them here, because they have some Virtual World content.

This first one, from the 29th, is notable for having inspired a machinima as noted the other day.

Dactyls are Dharma, too

Here in the midst of the ten thousand thingummies
Hearing the voices of ten million throats,
Feeling compassion for those who have aching knees,
Those who build bridges and those who dig moats.

Sitting in zazen and counting the in-and-out
One and a one and a one and a one,
Mind somehow caught in this insistent rhythm, I
Tick like a clock sitting here in the sun.

Dharma is silent but Dharma is noises and
Dharma is stillness but Dharma is speed,
Why should I think that the circling second-hand
Isn’t precisely the sound that we need?

One commenter (commentor? commentator?) somewhere said they’d learned two new words from it; I’m guessing “dactyl” and “dharma”; both good words to know.

The second one, from the 9th, is very relevant to lil Spennix:

A long way from Kharanos

Well it’s a damn’ long way from Kharanos
To th’ Gate o’ th’ Settin’ Sun,
But the beer is good an’ the beds are soft
When th’ daily slaughter’s done.

I left a dagger in Thermaplugg,
All those long hard years ago,
Took a bit of his gear as a souvenir,
Of Gnomeregan below.

But that crazy old coot was nothin’,
‘gainst the things that they’ve got ‘ere,
Bugs an’ Mogu an’ lizard men,
And hungry ghosts o’ fear.

Someday I’ll go back t’ ol’ Col’ridge,
An’ sit on the porch with ‘em all,
But ’til then I’m out here in the Vale,
Killin’ bugs up on the wall.

Well it’s a damn’ long way from Kharanos
To th’ Gate o’ th’ Settin’ Sun,
But the beer is good and the beds are soft
When th’ daily slaughter’s done.

… and here is an Action Shot of “Killin’ bugs up on the wall”:

(Click through to the shockingly-redesigned flickr for the same picture larger, and in a confusing interface.)

And to close, this one from the 17th. Note that it’s not actually about Second Life, since that has real people in it, not just simulated ones. But still…

Walking Cross-Country

He says he’s writing a computer program
to simulate
walking cross-country
in an unknown place.

Where you might follow a brook upstream
and be surprised by
a forest lake
sparkling in the sun,

And follow a path around it
to a ramshackle house
at the end of a dirt road
where a woman with dark hair and soft eyes
opens the door
and smiles a welcome.

And I say that that sounds cool,
and I also say,
that the real world has surprises like that, too,
and even soft-eyed women,
and he should maybe go for real walks sometimes.

He turns to me,
like he’s about to say something,
but then he just shakes his head
and goes back to the keyboard.

Reflect On This: Dactyls Are Dharma,Too

Y’all know how shy I am and reluctant to blow my own horn :) but I can’t resist passing this along. I did National Poetry Writing Month in my RL weblog (maybe I should post them all here too!), and shared some of the results (one poem a day for a month) with a few SL friends. Karima Hoisan (see prior post) liked the rhythm in one of them, and to my enormous surprise she and her frequent collaborator Nat made this extremely neat machinima around it. From little nuts do mighty oak trees grow! :)

Digital Rabbit Hole

Where to begin?
I will not make this post too long or long-winded..I really just invite you to scroll down and see the YouTube at the bottom hopefully in HD and Full screen.
I use this little creation as another perfect example of crazy creatives getting together to produce a few minutes of visual and vocal insanity. As those who read my blog regularly know, one of the things I most love about our Second Life, is the possibility to collaborate on artistic projects.
The first time I read Dale Innis’s poem about dactyls, and caught the “dactyl beat” and the idea, I knew I wanted to perform it. Without mentioning that, I wrote a piece of music and background voices and noises, and recorded it, and sent it off for approval. I got the green light from Dale, so I tempted my favorite visual genius, Natascha with yet another…

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Paths through virtuality

So a bag-zillion years ago I weblogged (probably more than once) about an interconnected random adventure in SL, where a friend and I landed in some cool place after skydiving, looked up the picks of the creator of some neat object there, went to their store or something, and so on through various hours worth of fun randomness.

It’s been too long since I went nude skydiving :) but I still have these kinda small adventures all the time, I just don’t weblogify about them as much, because I don’t weblogify about anything as much, because I am lazy person.

But here’s one!

As extremely long-time readers will know, one of my very early living places in SL was a little shack on the PIER sim (which I found in turn from making friends with a bartender at The Elbow Room, which stretches the story back just about to my first months in SL I think), and when that sim shut down I started renting a room in Extropia.

Eventually the Extropians redesigned the sim and didn’t have those little rental rooms available anymore, but I stayed in the Extropians group because it was interesting, and after awhile I started to notice cross-posting in the Extropians group from the Dakini Land / Western Geisha / Companion’s Guild group, see for instance this probably-related video.

I visited the Dakini Land sim somewhere in there, but as I recall I was heavily RL-distracted at the time, and couldn’t really figure out what it was. Then I got a notice about (I think it was) some graduation ceremonies that were going on there, and there was going to be dancing and music and poetry-reading and stuff, so I went, and it was a good time, and the people were very friendly and interesting.

(I eventually did figure out a little of what was going on, which led me to start watching old episodes of “Firefly” on Netflix, where I was by coincidence already watching old episodes of Buffy; everything connects!)

Probably the performance that struck me most at that ceremony was a live on-voice reading of original poetry by Karima Hoisan. I took her picture and gave her a copy (as I am constantly doing, which is one reason my friends list is so absurdly large), and she looked at my profile and saw a Pick there from New Toulouse, which I had added to replace a Burn2 pick when Burn2 ended, and having connections with New Toulouse herself, she IMd, me and we talked, and continued talking now and then thereafter.

Eventually she and frequent collaborator Natascha Randt were working on this machinima about scripting, and I happened to have a script that fit into it nicely, with the result that some of my LSL code ended up in a machinima, which was extremely cool. (Note that it’s not a dry and geeky machinima, either; you must watch it if you haven’t, it is amazing.)

And then later on, looking around at random things on the web as I constantly do, I came across Karima’s machinima series “The Two”, and realized that I had randomly watched an episode from the middle of it somewhere many months before, but not had enough focus to figure out its context or anything.

Ms. Hoisan wisely suggested that if I wanted the full effect I should first read / listen to / experience her “Colored Dreams” pieces first, and then “The Two” in order.

So I did that, and now at the end of this particular branch of the chain of causality (rather than, say, the one that includes having a lovely tea ceremony on a satellite), I am highly recommending to you my readers that you experience both in that order also:

The Colored Dreams (page one page older to start at the start of Part One)

and

The Two (Also page back one to start at the start)

Don’t expect to consume them all in one sitting :) I found that I wanted to stop for hours or days in between just to sort of let it all sink in. It’s hard to describe or characterize; might be called fantasy or even SF, or a series or dreams, or meditations on the human condition and the nature of power and love and trust, or lots of other things. But really, like all good art, it tends to slip away from any words that you try to tie it up in.

And if you’d like to hear the artist live :) she will be doing another reading this very tomorrow, and I recommend that also, and so we tie the story up to the present day.

So! That’s my path through virtual space for today. Now I will go and find some more. Or maybe I will take a nap…

became a blur, because they moved so fast…

Here is a machinima (machinema?) of a poem by v talented friend Karima.
 

 
I am happy to brag :) that I contributed in a tiny way by providing scripted examples of ways to make papers sort of blow around, one of which ended up in the video. Yay me!

Nat (the videographer and cat) and Karima (the poet and voice) do all various neat things; you should “check them out”.