Update November 21st: Mont Saint Michel is back on the grid, same SLurl.
Several people have contacted me over the last couple of days concerning Mont Saint Michel, Second Life.
In September 2015, and following Ciaran Laval’s lead, I reported the region would apparently be closing at the start of October, the news of the closure having been given by Moeka Kohime via her Flickr stream.
It seemed the news was premature; come November 2015, Petr Hastings-Vanbeeck dropped me a line to say the region was still alive and kicking. It continued to be that way through early 2016 and on through the year.
However, at the start of September 2016, Tyche Sepherd listed the region as one of 55 removed from the grid at the end of August, 2016 – almost a year after notice was first posted of its departure from SL. It’s not clear why the region remained so long after notice was first given; attempts to contact region holder Moeka kohime without success – but suffice it so say, many were pleased to see it continue well beyond its stated date of expiration.
The build, pre-dating mesh, was a fine example of prim architecture in Second Life, and a beautiful reproduction of the physical world place. It was a region many of us enjoyed visiting time and again (I still remember my first visit there back in 2011, and made a point of returning around once a year thereafter, blogging about it in brief again in 2013). As such, I have little doubt it is a place that will be missed by many.
With thanks to chankingyin_hk (Flickr), Silvana Cassini, Jo Yardley and John Brianna for passing along information about the region’s removal.
The Vista Animation team: adding action to Second Life since 208 – and we can see their work in 360-degrees thanks to The Drax Files World Makers
The Drax Files World Makers #41 arrived on Wednesday, October 12th, 2016. At just a shade under four minutes in length, it is an intriguing beast, exploring in-world animations and motion capture through a 360-degree video format.
The latter is suitably underplayed at the start of the video, as Drax introduces it – but the clue comes much sooner when watching on a flat monitor – the 360-degree cursor located up in the top left of the screen, which you can use to steer your way around the video view, or you can left click and drag. Obviously, if you’re using a mobile device, you can tilt and turn the device, allowing the gyro to move the image around, and those with a head mounted display can instantly enjoy in in 360-degree surround.
Motion Capture in the Vista Animation Studios
“I’ve been playing with some of the cheaper systems available,” Drax told me, as we discussed the video, and why he opted to go with the 360-degree format for this segment of World Makers. “Like the Ricoh Theta and Samsung Gear 360, and Mambo Morane has been working in real life with the Go Pro array, so I started thinking in June about how we could do this in SL.”
This turned out to be harder than anticipated. The first attempt involved using an array individual viewers synchronised by a device built by Arduenn Schwarztmann which would enable simultaneous filming through all six viewers, and included additional audio cues to further assist in the post-production stitching process. Unfortunately, this approach revealed that differences in how GPUs process the recording, even with the same windlight and camera defaults in the viewer, could result in recorded clips sufficiently different one to another that stitching them together failed to produce a smooth result.
And translated to Second Life
“Then Mambo Morane came up with the idea of filming in six instance of the viewer running on the same machine, using Open Broadcaster Software to bring them all up together,” Drax continued. “We could then pull them apart in post-production and stitch the individual clips together using 360-editing software, with all of them having the same look and feel. Unfortunately, this may not be something for many machinima makers right now. The software for editing and stitching the video cost US $800.”
The result is a very smooth video, freely intermixing physical world footage shot at Vista Animation’s offices near Barcelona, with footage stages and shot in Second Life which presents an exceptionally immersive and unique view of Second Life, even when seen on the flat screen of a video monitor.
Certainly, the 360-degree aspect is guaranteed to be one which will have people watching the video at least twice, simply because scrolling / looking around in side SL is addictive, and there are some nice little touches to be found – such as little Marianne McCann gamely holding up a boom microphone in some of the in-world footage. This inevitably means it is easy to become wrapped-up in scrolling and looking, without paying attention to what is being said, prompting a second viewing to focus on the main aspect of the audio narrative: animations.
Animations for an important, if often taken-for-granted aspect of Second Life
Animations – walks, stands, sits, dances, runs, hops, crawls – whatever form they take – are something we’re all familiar with to some degree. An animation override system can often be one of the first purchases made in Second Life (allowing for the worn AOs now supplied with starter avatars and those supplied by the makers of avatars, human or otherwise), and we’re all familiar with the idea of mocap – motion capture – going into their production.
Vista Animations is widely regarded as one of the premier providers of animation packs for overriders, dances, etc., and World Makers #41 offers something of a glimpse into their work, albeit it without going too in-depth with matters of production and workflow (although Drax has previously covered elements of MoCap in Drax Files World Makers #6, so this sits as a good companion piece, and Vista Animations also offer a look at their work for those interested in other aspects of animation creation.
What is offered here is a feel for both the complexity of motion capture and how rapidly the field is changing, as well as a look behind the curtain at a small, successful business which has grown out of Second Life. It terms of the former, the Vista team point out that when they started with their first MoCap suite in 2008, it cost them US $45,000. The system they use today, which I believe was purchased in around 2012/13, set them back US $2,000.
Two of the 12-camera rif vista Animation use in their motion capture process. Image courtesy of Vista Animations
The MoCap process isn’t just a case of pulling on a suit of sensors and then moving around with the cameras running. Everything has to be calibrated – sensors (50+ for the body and additional elements for the hands), skeleton, props, etc. – to ensure a smooth capture process, which can be time-consuming. Then, once captured, there is the entire editing and post-process work required to produce the finished animation files which can be uploaded to Second Life.
While this latter aspect isn’t really touched upon in the video, what is fascinating to see is how physical world actions translate in-world through the clever use of cross-fading in the segment. This is particularly effective as we see Drax doing a mock interview while being motion captured, then transition to him carrying out an interview in-world.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 