Archive for the 'Travel' category
Run SilkCharm Run in Alpha City Berlin, Twinity
August 31, 2008 7:02 pmI am continually beta testing up coming virtual worlds and one that is showing early promise is Twinity. Although lacking many of the ‘detailed’ features of Second Life it has its own specialities that I will cover in a longer post. One thing that is very impressive off the block is the scale of the world built, unlike Second Life, at scale and gives a real sense of distance in comparison with the real world (which Twinity is focusing on).
So for this next Gary Hazlitt machinima I fiddled with SilkCharm’s avatar (or is that SilkCharm herself?) uploading some portrait faces to map onto the face & body and equipped her with suitable running attire fore this ‘Run Lola Run‘ lookalike (and big soundalike thanks to Twyker’s music). The film features Franka Potente running around the backstreets of Berlin trying to get some money for her criminal boyfriend (and goes back in time twice). SilkCharm though was just getting some exercise…or as she suggested in the comments on the video ‘in desperate search of chocolate’ ! Enjoy…oh before that one interesting effect in here. At one point in the recording I fell off the world and started hurtling south/down or just out of the sim - the running SilkCharm began to ‘break up’ slowly. As I still had the record on you can see the effect at the start and end of the movie which is quite an attractive ‘inworld’ effect 
A Machinima by GARY HAZLITT starring SILKCHARM
‘Run SilkCharm Run’ Filmed in the Beta Virtual World TWINITY (Alpha City Berlin) - more info on the Twinity site
MUSIC “Believe” by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil Feat: Voice of Franka Potente from the film ‘Run Lola Run’
Filmed & Edited (in 3 hours) by GARY HAZLITT
Shot in the ‘massive’ Berlin simulator in Twinity featuring areas around Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz
Many thanks to SilkCharm & A ‘New World’ Twinity
© JustVirtual Productions 2008
http://www.justvirtual.com
True Immersion - Templum Ex Obscurum
August 21, 2008 2:01 pm
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).
————————————-
A medium rez, stereo MP4 52MB version can be downloaded here
————————————
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
Australian Locations on the Second Life Grid
January 20, 2008 4:54 pmIn the course of my work (educational, creative and commercial) it is often useful to know the proximity of islands to each other on the greater grid. A cool full grid map was recently uploaded onto Wikipedia by SignpostMarv Martin and although some of the far right part is cut-off affecting a few sims, I found and labelled the following Oz Islands - The Pond, ABC, Cog, AFTRS, USQ, Marni, Riverina, Monash, Victoria Univ, Murdoch, Deakin, QUT, Griffith, Terra Incognita, Jokaydia, La Trobe Univ, RMIT, Regor (Aussie Land), Australia and NMC (US edus). Also note this is only about half of the full grid - there is an equivalent area to the left of this map but as no Oz islands were there, crop, crop 
You obviously can’t read the labels on the map below, clicking will take you to the high rez version. Enjoy. Oh and if I have missed an Australian sim (or related to) please add in comments and I will update if I get at least 5!
Modified map is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Although the distance between, or proximity to fellow inhabitants doesn’t really affect you operationally in Second Life it is nice to be able to just call up the map and in one quick hop, double click a neighbour’s sim to ‘pop over’, feels all communal and friendly. I tp all over the grid and meet anyone and everyone but it is nice to be back in Marni on a Sunday morning and just pop over to AFTRS, The Pond, USQ and Cog with a simple double click And there are many other benefits too, especially when adjacent, joined at the hip so to speak - over to you!
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 Very Own Island Paradise - old story
July 1, 2007 1:28 pm
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
Top 20 Second Life Places - Slurls and pics
September 1, 2006 10:56 pmAs I try to escape the on-going builds of the neighbours around my new, once quite place on the sea and with quite a lot of bios asking me to post the teleport links to the ‘Channel 4′(what’s that?) top 20 places in my world - I put on my black wings on and went on a photo roam - and here we are. Enjoy some of the best of our world.
1. Black Library – Literature, arts, games, and more. (They told me they are moving soon so keep an eye out for the new locaiton). Click here to go there
2. Dragon Moon Resort – Relaxed atmosphere. Regular concerts and events. Click here to go there
3. The Cliffs of BonnyDoon – Newly opened build in Liferain Park. Majestic falls, towering cliffs, a treetop village, and subterranean caverns. Click here to go there
4. Galaxy Sci-Fi Sim – Join Starfleet Academy. The group has regular role play events, tactical training, bi-Annual Banquets and more. Click here to go there
5. Gris-Gris Land – Stunning futuristic architecture by Milo Bellow. “Mad Gods and Englishmen…” Click here to go there
6. Intermundia – Art Space of Nebulosus Severine. Evolving installation work. Click here to go there
7. Little Silent Hill – Re-creation of locations from the survival horror game series. Click here to go there
8. Mars Japanese Gardens – A wild and romantic Japanese park style garden. Click here to go there
9. Nakama – A huge Japanese city, divided into different anime themed regions. Click here to go there
10. Nexus Prime – Vast cyberpunk city. Lots to explore and hidden areas to discover. Click here to go there
11. The Port – Arena for projects which create new links between first and second life. Click here to go there
12. Pot Healer Adventure – Immersive game of exploration and puzzles. Click here to go there
13. Sci-Fi Geeks Museum – Full size starships, interactive holodeck, movies, events, fan art, and more. Click here to go there
14. Suffugium – Dystopian future city with cyberpunk influences. Click here to go there
15. Svarga – A fully functional artificial ecology system. Click here to go there
16. Voted 5 Group Land – Caution! Ego-free zone. Sense of humour advisable. Click here to go there
17. Avalon Island – Beautiful architecture and one of Second Life’s best cinemas play host to a variety of real world companies and organisations. Click here to go there
18. Shiny Things – Shoes and jewellery designed for the most discerning residents of Second Life. Click here to go there
19. Support for Healing Island – offers nightly depression support groups in beautiful surroundings. Click here to go there
20. Sick Cat – Art installation exploring the possibilities of mind uploading. Click here to go there
Some other places that I like visiting
Of course if your passing pop in for tea and see my place - who knows I may be in Gary Hazlitt’s Angels Nest in Blueberry, Click here to go there
Esperance - The AFTRS Island, where I work, some nice art developing Click here to go there
Amsterdam - apparently like some bio place? Click here to go there
Camp Darfur, it makes me sad, confused and angry when I go there Click here to go there
Shivar, Mont Saint Michel au Per - lovely atmosphere and medieval buildings Click here to go there
The Lost Gardens of Apollo - very romantic and special vegetation Click here to go there
Social Simulation Cyber-Research Lab - fun interactive games Click here to go there
Phoenicia Center for Contemporary Art - great 2D art gallery Click here to go there
Other places to be added in upcoming posts from the other side include the Sci-Fi sim (my neighbour), NMC campus then my fav shopping places, great art places, best interactive spots and the hottest clubs - not that I do them a lot - must be my age
Posted by Gary Hazlitt inside Second Life
The Tide is Turning
August 17, 2006 2:04 am
Hackshaven Harford tipped me off a few moments ago to check out some simulations of the bio world on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) island called Metereoa (what does National mean?). Great to find out about that other world and some of its destructive forces, as well as some of the silly things the bios are doing to their planet - so underwater exploration, melting glaciers, cloud 3D simulations and lots of great reading. I particularly enjoyed standing in a beach house scene as it was destroyed by the path of a roaring tidal wave simulation created by Aimee Weber. Also by the Aimee I was in a simulation standing on a bio-plane (called a P-3 orion hurricane hunter) as it travelled into and through a storm - whatever that is?
Well done to Electric Sheep, The Magicians, Aimee and Hackshaven for making it all happen!
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life
Island Hopping Part One
August 16, 2006 11:06 pmWell I decided to do a little neighbourly island hopping. I know we can all teleport anywhere but I wanted to prepare just in case we lost our teleporting ability and note down any nearby islands that I could sail or fly over to, sort of. Really I am just nosy and want to see whose around. So as you can see from this first exploratory map there are around seven islands closeby.
The one just above and to the left is nearest Esperance and only about one minute to fly or five to sail. I noticed it was called Kittyland and decided to pop-over. There was no one there at the time and arriving it felt very residential until I spotted some reocgnisable platforms heading skywards in the distance.
Well its a small world. Here is good old DanCoyote Antonelli again - the main artist from the New West visit I did a few days ago. Weird. What a small world this is! All the other buildings on this double island are very residential, a few furries tree houses but mostly a sleepy domestic place. Getting nearer to the art work in the corner
and I spotted some great animated layered, texture works across the various floors. Very DCA. Here also references to his aeriel piece ZeroG on the notice boards - all very odd being just across the water from Esperance. I spotted again the art rubric
1st Generation: Paintings, digital or otherwise uploaded into SL
2nd Generation: Art made with only SL default inventory materials
3rd Generation: The synthesis of 1st and 2nd Generation and scripting
Definitely 4th generation for me then as I am not keen on the 1st gen stuff.
Anyway great that this is my first island hop, a peaceful artistic community. Will report again from other local communities for now though something about that sixth finger thing I keep seeing everywhere…
The sixth finger symbolizes the computer cursor, or mankind’s intervention into the metaverse (VR). The black hand itself attempts to make the connection between pre-historic artists who painted their own handprint on the walls of caves over 16,000 years ago and the similar efforts of artists today in the virtual world.
I have also used the sixth finger as a metaphor for human adaptation to the world of wonder we inhabit in Second Life. Thanks Linden Labs and cheers to the whole community in Second Life!
DanCoyote Antonelli and DC@Spensley.com
I have heard about early mankind and someone once said it is similar to this world at the moment, I have no frame of reference but I do like the idea that I am the start of a new evolutionary path.
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life
