Machinima featuring Stella Costello

Yesterday’s post lead me to a quick search for more info about Stella, and happily that search led me to this dreamy bit of machinima. Susi Spicoli must be a fan of Stella’s as well, as Susi does a fine job of showcasing Ms. Costello’s work. Click on over to the NMC to watch the video.

In an attempt to avoid only posting info gleaned from other blogs and thus complete the cycle of the self-devouring Ouroboros, I present the first in a series of articles called Inventory. In which I pull random things from my inventory and play a bit of show & tell.

The first item I thought of when I came up with this idea, was this sculpture by Stella Costello. the face was the first piece of sculpture I put in my first real gallery in Second Life. Stella was one of the first artists that I ever contacted in-world and I was a bit star struck when she agreed to come by and display the face. This is probably the one item I would hate to loose more than any other object in my inventory.

OK. So I went a bit crazy and captured more than a few images of Stella’s sculptures. :) Stella’s pieces show off her witty sense of humor and her ability to express emotion and story with simple human gestures. Quite a task when your working in this hard edged, digital medium.

I’m planning a short series of Second Life building tutorial videos. I wanted to see what was already available and maybe get some ideas for what subjects I might take cover. I found quite a few interesting videos, and thought that I might as well compile my favorites here.

• The video you see above, by PauleeP, is a good one for people that want to create Sculpties without spending money on software. Omei Turnbull has written a free plugin that allows you to export scultmaps using the free Wings 3D software.
• Noob Be Gone videos by Natural Selection Studios. Cool machinima clips that teach noobs the ins and outs of SL. Here’s one on the basic building tools. I would love to see more of this series. :)
• "This is a beta for the Second Life Video Tutorial Series from Linden Lab." This one focuses on Textures. I noticed that this videos are available in several languages.

• Keystoner March has posted a fantastic collection of videos for beginning builders.
• Another bit on Camera Controls by Patrio7. I <3 Alt-Zoom.
• You can watch as someone constructs a hat using the Rokuro (lathe) program by Yuzuru Jewell. Rokuro is free- but please donate! Yuzuru has created another sculpty maker called Tokoroten.
• And don’t forget Torley’s energetic videos about Making Tiny Prims, making a waving flag, how to use the building grid, and all sorts of other stuff. These are some of the best second life tutorials you can find. Does Torley ever sleep?

Here is an artsy shot of two of my newer Second Life sculptures called Plant Deco.

This pair of interactive pieces are inspired by fractal and geometric art. Fractal art deco plants. Each touch re-configures the plant into a new grouping of unique, twisting shapes. You can see them in action on my parcel, the Highland Cliffs.

A short video demonstrating interesting ant colony behavior created with some fairly simple rules. Created by Techtonic Nabob. I love these virtual life simulations. It’s fun to see how some complex behaviors can come out of these small sets of rules and functions.