Archive for the 'Environment Design' category
The Vastness of Vastpark - Halloween 2008 Video Fun
October 29, 2008 5:39 pmAnother Hazlitt machinima! Lucky to be invited into yet another new world Vastpark (who hail from Melbourne, Australia)…just down the road, although Melbournians hate Sydneysiders, alledgedly! Even through it is a closed beta demo (called Immersion2) with very limited ‘interactivity’ it gives a real sense of the potential of this new platform at least the look/feel and physics. I do like the general aesthetics of the place and of course the icing on the cake, those lovely dynamic shadows. It would have been good to be logged in as an avatar and actually check out the aspect that separates it from being ‘just a virtual space’ - but perhaps next time. For now I was inspired to do this quirky little machinima for Halloween as the demo is particularly scary…
A machinima by Gary Hazlitt in the new virtual world Vastpark
The music is by Gary Hayes performing live on his Salvi Julia (concert string spacing) Harp at the Contemporary Composers Festival run with the Royal Academy of Music in London a few years ago. There is added ambient mood and specialised sound effects using LogicStudio.
Filmed and Edited by Gary Hazlitt ©JustVirtual 2008
Medium rez (47MB MP4) download available here
For Vastpark enquiries contact Bruce Joy on bruce@vastpark.com
SL Melbourne - The Demolition Cranes and Bulldozers move in
August 21, 2008 2:08 pmSo I will be wearing my worksite hardhat next week and taking apart our ‘creation’ pixel brick by pixel brick. It will make way for a fresh start though, a brave new world, a small patch on ‘Furry’ ABC Island…
and a reminder of what it was like in its opening glory 
Now I have had some time back in Second Life nice to visit a very special build, hat tip to Bettina over at NPIRL. As well as being inspired to pop over to this wonderfully rich sim designed and built by Baron Grayson I joined in the challenge of photographing it in stills (flickr set here) and video. Some of these are below and of course the video is a quicky mostly single long shot using the space navigator - of course, what else
So video, then description followed by some more nice stills
A Space Navigator Machinima by GARY HAZLITT. Second Life Island Creation by BARON GRAYSON. Steinway Grand Piano and Martin Backpacker Guitar One Take Improvisation by GARY HAYES © 2008. Medium quality (69.5MB mp4 available here
“filmed in one take, then re-edited, vignette and desaturate filters added in places. Most of the playback made twice speed to improve smoothness as sim had quite low frame rates during capture. Enjoy” The wonderful Second Life 3rd generation sim, Templum ex Obscurum by Baron Grayson, machinima by Gary Hazlitt in one three hour session.
Hiding and Seeking in Second Life, Cyborg Style
March 23, 2008 12:45 pm
What to do on Easter Saturday afternoon? Why not create a quick “Cyborg questioning existance, looking for something and some meaning in her life” machinima. This idea came about from playing with one of the default characters in CT5 (Crazy Talk 5) and using various imported songs. I quickly made a spaceship so the ‘cyborg’ can be seen in full body, and in which I (the Golem Robot character on the right seat) can sit and drive around various sims. The lip sync character is a CT5 ‘auto lip-sync’ take against one of my long time ago ex students (now a fully fledged pop diva) Imogen Heap’s wonderful track “Hide and Seek” (I wanted something vocoderised, slightly robotic) although this goes a lot deeper thanks to Immi’s great words. Also the subtle head movements and eye positions were recorded in separate live takes withing CT5.
I needed three appropriate sims for the three phases of the song. Ones that had a sense of dawning, evolving and evolved - also that were off the ground, so the spaceship could move around, inside, under, over etc: Three sprang immediately to mind. Planet Mongo a space city (evolved - spelt wrong on video, not Mondo! sorry rush job ;-(), Svarga (dawning) and Deakin (that I built - evolving). The main process was a quick 5 hours but editing took about an hour longer than normal because of rendering, all those green screen shots (the head shots against the reversed Space Navigator backgrounds).
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A medium rez, stereo MP4 52MB version can be downloaded here
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Anyways hope you like this quick ’sketch’ - the following info is mostly duped from the YouTube description.
A machinima by Gary Hazlitt completed on easter Saturday afternoon 2008. The song ‘Hide and Seek’ is by Imogen Heap from the album ‘Speak for Yourself’.
Special thanks to the creators of Second Life sims Planet Mongo built by Lumiere Noir (spelt wrong on video sorry, rushed, not Mondo!) and Svarga built by Svarog Laukosargas. Deakin sim and spaceship for this video built/designed by Gary Hayes.
Lip sync animation created using Crazy Talk 5, green screened in Final Cut. The spaceship shots were filmed live in Second Life.
Avatanimation, machinimatography and editing (in the usual 5 hours total!) by Gary Hazlitt
A JustVirtual Production
© Gary Hazlitt 2008
New World Expectations - Seventh Heaven ‘Windlight’ Machinima
December 26, 2007 12:18 pmI was in the middle of putting together an end of year compilation of some of my builds and sim developments and as I have regularly been using the Windlight viewer and I saw my creations in a whole new light, literally. So I got a good bio friend of mine, Gary Hayes 
to do a quick grand piano and classical guitar improvisation so I could put together a film that promises a bright new future for our Second Life world in 2008.
Some creation details for those who like that kind of stuff: I used the wonderful space navigator for nearly all the ‘tracking/pan/crane/dolly’ type shots combined with fraps PAL capture, then converted using Canopus Pro 3 to PAL Quicktime DVs for a final edit in Final Cut Pro. A final save out to DV at same resolution and converts down to MP4s for online distribution. The whole process, capture, processing, editing took just over six hours - I know, I am slacking! The builds and sim terraforms took significantly longer (!) but the music a quick 35 minutes in two single takes, so excuse a few ‘bum’ notes!
A Second Life ‘Windlight’ Machinima, Filmed and Edited by GARY HAZLITT
Higher rez 95MB MP4 640/480 download available here.
Steinway Grand Piano and Classical Guitar improvisations both performed, in one take, by GARY HAYES
All featured sim builds and terraforms created and designed by GARY HAZLITT (some unamed builds still in development)
Gary’s builds or sim creations featured include: Esperance, The Pond, ABC Island, Cog Island, Marni, Thursday’s Fictions, Melbourne Laneways and others.
A Just Virtual Video Production © Gary Hazlitt/Hayes 2007
My Mini Machinima of My Build of a Slice of Melbourne
October 16, 2007 9:38 pmStill playing catch-up on blog posts. Busy, busy as always creating big builds in this world for entertainment properties, real world companies, learning and some just for pleasure - but I still have time to make delightful machinima This one is of mine and a friends (Benjo Zabelin) build of a little ‘piece-of-a-place’ called Melbourne, Australia (still not sure where that is!).
Another Gary, a bio one ;-), managed to take over four hundred images plus hours and hours of sound so I could recreate what it is like to be out there, with you folk in one of your most popular cities. Umm very cramped I must say. Anyway as you can see below it generated lots of Second Life press interest and it was fun creating a few token, Second Life not possible in real life elements.
Here’s a SLURL too. and a load of links…
SL News - Australian city Melbourne Laneways comes alive in SL
Australia SL News Source SLOZ - Virtual Melbourne has arrived
Shhhhhhhh - melbourne laneways in second life. NOOOOOOOO
Second Life Insider - Melbourne Laneways comes to life at ABC Island
Victorian Government - Victoria - Would your Business benefit from a Second Life?
TheProjectFactory - Melbourne Laneways Come to Life for Multimedia Victoria
Boxxet Second Life - Melbourne Laneways comes to Life
Multimedia Victoria - Virtual Worlds (Melbourne Laneways Case Study)
GDay World - Melbourne Laneways in SL
Mal Burns Annex - Melbourne Laneways Comes to Life
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inworld © 2007
Second Life ‘Chances’ - Machinima “In Memory of Lost Love”
October 1, 2007 3:06 amThe virtual stars aligned and I was compelled to make this kind of sad, but moving machinima. The story grew from a combination of 1) a great song, 2) some private sims I am developing, with a new terraform, 3) a space navigator and most importantly 4) a couple of new places I visited. Less than 5 hours later a new machinima was born, you can see the results here.
Also available medium rez 70MB WMV download
The story grew rather organically. I was playing with one of my new Space Navigator joysticks, which gives me unlimited camera control and is great for flying across mountains - I had just terraformed three sims with some ‘placeholder’ vertical interest. So I got Kylie Wollongong to join me on a private sim to do some walking, talking, romantic shots.
About half way through we went shopping to get a new skin. Next to the sims only store was a rather bizarre ‘camping’ area - around 50 avies all sitting around. Not a normal one, it looked positively like a wake, no one chatted, they just sat rather miserably. Gong. Mountain walking plus wake, a story was born.
“A couple in love. It starts with her funeral then flashes back to their recent life, ‘climbing together’. At the funeral again he sits with their friends. Flashback to the decision to be together and then reaching ‘the top’. She walks off by herself and tragedy. Just before she ‘ascends’ they recall a happy moment in Venice, tinged with sadness at the end when she has a premonition of her own short future…”
So I shot some sequences of just me and the crowds quickly and then went back and added some extra elements to the mountain journey - which obviously extended the narrative. I also wanted a few flashbacks of earlier romantic times, so Kylie and I visited Venice for three simple shots.
When I added the music during the edit the whole piece took on extra power and poignency - the emotional quality forcibly reminded me of past lost loves. It became a metaphor for the spirits of love. As it says on my YouTube decription “The story of a couple very much in love whose upward journey ends in tragedy. Flashbacks from the wake and their favourite time in Venice”
Some production stills on flickr here.
Avatanimation, Machinimatography, Editing, Story Written, Directed and Produced by Gary Hazlitt - Copyright 2007
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life ©2007
Experience the Drama of the ‘Human Mind’ in Second Life
September 2, 2007 12:41 pmor a quick case study of my role as SL designer, producer and builder in moving a film/book/stage ‘idea’, Thursday’s Fictions into the metaverse of Second Life. First, to give you a taste, a short video of my friend Kylie (who has gone a bit goth) walking through the environment. (note: An important thing missing on the video is Richard James Allen’s meditative texts that appear all around as you explore and of course visitations are usually at a much more relaxed pace.)
I have noticed that this blog is turning into mostly things I have created in Second Life or close friends, not a bad thing I suppose as long as those creations are worth singing about. I believe this one certainly is. I was lucky to work with Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman (of Physical TV) who are the drivers behind an ‘idea’ called Thursday’s Fictions. This idea has been manifest in film, book, theatre and my task was to be the designer, producer, builder etc: in Second Life. It was only a small project compared with many of the multi sim creations I have done and are currently working on, but it excelled in being a worthy, experimental, artistic and aesthetic statement. It fell strongly into something I call Story Environments - spaces that have narrative embedded in them at varying degrees, more on that later.
The basic premise of the story is a woman who lives for one day only is trying to take her most valued creative possession (her dancers in a trunk she carries with her) between various reincarnations. There is more to it than that of course and the themes of death, love, life, mind, body, spirit all intermingle to create a fascinating pot pourii of philosophy, psychology and self awareness.
My challenge was to find appropriateness in Second Life which is itself an allegory of the themes of the piece from the outset. In other words, as I mentioned in this panel interview on SLCN.tv, (yes I talk!), SL is a space that is already routed in parallel existance, new incarnation and so on. It was about trying to find something that was different enough from quite a few existing ’spiritual’ areas in SL but also providing links back to ‘real world’ perceptions of spiritual architecture.
I haven’t time in this blog post to go into vast detail but to say the build was done very rapidly and I worked iteratively with the writers (that included script consultant Rock Sonic - SL name) who are all relatively new to the true creative potential of this world. Some of the techniques used to deliver the narrative elements included invisible sensors that talked to you randomly, spirit ’spheres’ that whisper as they pass through you, moving and still texts of various forms on the walls, objects and nature that chats residual and direct thoughts, sound and embedded gate-keeper questions.
There are effectively two longer form experiences at the moment. Purgatory, a series of halls and alcoves exploring a range of ideas mostly routed in one word ‘choice’. What life to go to next, what to take, decide what happened in the previous one, choose a state of mind and so on. The second experience is one life you inhabit, the ‘fractured’ mind of one of the characters. For the latter I created something that was slightly unnerving and disorientating yet also welcoming and familiar. It was loosely based on the sets of the film but I injected some play and elements of confusion. Go see and you will understand. The first main area purgatory is populated by Richard’s a range of texts, my favourite being the ’self-destructive’ lines (in the floating spirits in the main hall) from his book Kamikaze Mind. I also wanted Purgatory to show how music, sound and visual effects, text, signs, places to explore and architecture create a new kind of experience in SL that becomes very cinematic. There were many compromises that had to be taken but happily they are all easily overcome in future experiences I will create in this and many other properties. I/we also wanted this experience to be as social as possible. In a full 3D social space anything that doesn’t allow a shared user journey through it is doomed so it has been great watching couples and small groups exploring.
There are many more elements planned for this ‘idea’ of Richards and these will include another 6 or 7 more life journeys that will attempt to cover a broader spectrum of the ‘human drama’. To go to this experience now here is a link to the starting grove - SLURL.
Posted by © Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life
The Boisterous Billabong Bar
July 1, 2007 3:20 pm
The Pond Bong Overload 07, originally uploaded by Gary Hayes.
When I built the Pond islands over 6 months ago I intended this area to be the most organic of all the spaces on the then three Pond islands. This area was also designed to provide a gateway to the outback and Uluru and the juxtaposition of busy bar, social space and real open space (a whole sim for the outback) was planned. That zen like combination is important, psychologically we like to be on the edge of wilderness - facing open sea, deserts and mountains. The call of the wild. Some other parts of the islands were not rich, social and detailed (due to other forces) and that is reflected in how popular they are. Anyway.
The bar itself was roughly designed on my own memories of Queenslander and Western Australia shacks and bars in the outback. I had to use some Western USA textures on the walls etc: due to time contraints and the whole thing took about a day to do - plus a few extra hours later on the internal details like the beer pumps and original seating.
I noticed after a couple of weeks that people were also gathering outside the bar in front of the Pond so I quickly added a fire, bbq and seating plus extra flooring. This has now become one of the busiest 4000sqm areas in SL. The area at launch was supposed to have live bands, singers, streamed music and so on. These are still being planned but it is slow to materialise on a commercial sim, as it costs real money plus a bunch of legals - yet I am amazed that avies still gather and meet here in such large numbers. Less to be entertained but more to socialise, get away from the less aesthetically designed sims and gather before heading off elsewhere.
The other night we had over 60 avies all gathered in this small area after a TV programme in Australia. The top picture is a shot I took of that. Below are other images that give a feel for what takes place here including floods, small battles and endless winged flirting. Quite a few folk are already creating deep stories and role playing in this space which is great and there are many secret places for the initiated, the pash room for one
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life
Second Life Gary’s Sim Marni 10, originally uploaded by Gary Hayes.
I have been so busy since October last year that I have completely forgotten to mention the island I bought. I did the sums and it actually worked out way cheaper for me to buy and island and divide it into four with three other friends. So Marni was born. Marni is an aboriginal word meaning welcome.
I terraformed the island with a large central and shared mountain space with 80m waterfalls with rivers and smaller hills separating the four quadrants. It is a very tranquil area and the images here are some building designs I did over 6 months ago! I hope to get time to finish some of them and add some more architecture in the ‘Sci-Fi Persian’ style.
The other three folk on the island are a wonderful immersive sound sculpture artist, a designer with his own company and an SL entrepreneur. I am sure they won’t mind you looking around.
Please pop along and have a look around. I am unlikely to be there most of the time, but you never know. In any event you are very Marni (Welcome). Heres the SLURL
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from Inside Second Life
