Inworld Exploring Videos
newest 100 inworld exploring videos / inworld exploring widgets / media rss:

It happens to so many of us: when we’re new to Second Life, we’re wowed by being able to fly. The more we do it, the more we get used to it. And soon enough, we do it without thinking so much. I found myself reawakened to flight when I used the SpaceNavigator — albeit not fully, because I had messed with the controls and didn’t set them back properly — and went for a trek around TokyoPeninsula. You’ll also see Blossom, who’s doing a different sort of flight using an animation poseball. Ah, to be avatar and take to the skies!

Buddhism isn’t just about meditation and denying self-gratification to attain a higher state of being. When I was bute a chylde, I visited a Buddhist Hell Theme Park in Thailand. Fun for the whole family: sculptures depicting tongues being torn out, lots of spikes and bodies on said spikes, and certainly heaping amounts of simulated fire and brimstone that would make other religions’ demons feel inadequate. With great joy, my wife and I visited Higashiosaka (click to teleport), the first Buddhist Hell Theme Park in Second Life — the first I’ve ever seen, and likely the first there ever will be. Filled to the prim (pun intended) with scampering souls, corpse-crushing demons, and good ol’ Saṃghāta, that mountain that keeps squashing the sinners. If it isn’t obvious, we had a rollicking, remarkable time. The quality of the build is superb, surrounded by metropolitan buildings out of a Godzilla movie (several demons stood watch), and centered by a pointy temple protruding out of the earth. Around the temple, sculpted little people with crudely-drawn faces and pubic hair ran around in circles, flailing, feeling ever-so-hopeless. And surprisingly animated. See Ravenelle’s video for an in-motion adventure: While you can’t hear it in the vid, a pleasant and/or bone-chilling soundtrack of guttural screams surrounded the whole work, while skeletal hands out of an Iron Maiden album cover intermingled with firetongues. Those who aren’t so rapt on their history will also draw comparisons to certain World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings creatures. Goes to show how creative human imaginations have always been! There was so much to see and do here, and I really appreciate extra attention to detail like the flaming rocks coming down from the sky, the birds circling the temple’s top, the lightning bolts which (among other things) were reminiscent of the Peacock King trailer I saw the other day (wifey and I have been watching various Wuxia films), etc. They all add up for a cohesive, powerful place well-worth visiting. All in all, terribly rich, and enhanced by custom environment settings. And now when my not-yet-Resi friends ask, “What can I see in Second Life?” I can point them here, which might be kinda edgy for the Showcase but worth the visit all the same, and it’s especially meaningful if your cultural background is attuned to the relevance of… BUDDHIST HELL! MUHAHAHA. The only downside? Not knowing who to thank for this experience epic, and why they made it. I didn’t see any advertising, and the main builder’s profile was empty… empty! Seems like they’re of Japanese origin, tho. I’m curious, so if you know, fill me in. Wikipedia has more info on Naraka and hells in Buddhism, and you can’t go wrong with Flickr pictures either (WARNING: NOT FOR SQUEAMISH).

Stop calling me dude! OK, but you must take this scepter of awesomeness and bonk your head with it — 4 times. No more, no less. The truth will then be revealed. Verily, I accept this noble bonking. *thunk thunk thunk thunk* Now hail the name of bonkkyu Bonetto. And watch this. I hail thee, bonkkyu Bonetto! I m watching this. Wait a for few moments and the excitement must begins! Bow before thine new Masters and Maidens and behold! The pixelogy does not obscure the spirit of a truly badass work and/or play, with its intro genetically descended from an empire of anime and fighting games. At first, they re all doing this perpetual walking-forward thing before it ascends into utter uncanny wisdom of the sage-ages. Girl with enlarged eye-visor, Transformer-cycle yellow mecha, and even a doll-figure who strongly resembles Chun-Li. Flashes strike the darkness down like the biznotch it is. The music roars on, bombastic and dramatic, prompting some sort of showdown between the lead characters — or at least cinematography with airy angles and particle ker-blam! But wait, I must have more to be sated! My appetite grows and like Sinistar, I hunger! Well then, gaze upon the moment in spacetime where a black-haired chick wearing more guns than clothes does a fancy spin and fires em off (1:27)! Thrill and wet your pantaloons as the color schemes do your head in! Gape in utter astonishment as a giant robot and a comparatively diminutive female do some progressive ambulatory behavior while the sky aches and shudders into different colors (2:04). AHHHH TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT! Slow your roll then listen to Dynasty-like strains accompany The Abyss @ 2:30. Rewatch that while you scheme innocently. Then prepare for a reload of the ultra-energy when a split-screen closeup (first time I ve seen that done from SL, natch) helps move product @ 2:46! XD!!!! If you like anime girls dressed as maids, boy do I have a treat for you just shy of the 3-minute mark! And then you can watch an epic chase scene while highly-stylized battles rage on and an impressive guitar solo scores explosions round the city! This is the kind of ad that ll make people want to come in Second Life and say, I want one (or more) of those!

I wish I could speak Japanese. I was looking for a parcel media URL changer in Second Life, one that can read from a notecard in a playlist and automatically go from one to the next, as each is done playing. A randomize mode would be a bonus. I thought such a device would be easier to find, and altho my search turned up a possibility, it was buggy. So the search goes on! The reason why I want such a thing is to serve as a video tutorial kiosk inworld. I currently have an easy-to-use one by Geaven Gall @ Watermelinden Land, but at most, it loops the current video and doesn t cycle through them. Perhaps I should inquire. As is often the case in my travels, a couple paths converged and I found myself at RURU CLUB, where not only did the videos cycle through as I was looking for, but I was face-to-face with santen Juran, a Modern Totoro , showing me a NEKOBASU a catbus! created by his friend, Yusuke Decosta. Modern Totoro was decked out with cozy gear, including oversize headphones, big red glasses, and even an iPhone. It kind of made me laugh in a Donkey Kong s family way, professing to myself that surely, this was not the original Totoro, but rather, one of his street-savvy relatives. Amidst this conversation, and shortly before I went for a ride in the Catbus (it s pretty cute and sculpties would do it even better!), the parcel media changed to that of Kei s Sayonara , a remarkable music video. What s so special about it isn t the builds, which are stock standard for the most part. Rather, in a virtual analogue of many upbeat J-pop videos, the editing techniques, cinematography, and acting come very close to their physical counterparts. An observant eye will spot many incredible theatrics within which I ve never seen done so well in a Second Life music video before, such as: Rotating and swooping camera shots to make static animation loops look a lot more lively than they actually are (if you were to watch them inworld, you d recognize some familiar dances). There are a lot of angles and cutting involved. (I wonder how much raw footage it took!) Syncing the dancers steps and movements with the 4-on-the-floor beat. Stomp-stomp! A rollerskating shot that begins @ 2:48 which is pieced together so well that it s a wonder to watch. Keep watching, because there s more rollerskating action to come. The subtle hand gesture @ 3:21, followed by flight of the featured green dancer, was awesomely inspired. And like the rollerskating, more flight follows I hate lazy comparisons, but it wouldn t be amiss to place this alongside some of my favorite anime and video games! The final pose of the dancers standing still at the end, after all that hyperkinetic movement, is a fitting ending and shames Britney Spears. (If only they had a bigger para para crowd to see them through!) I don t know who made this, but since the single s under the bastion of Victor Entertainment, I d reckon they had a decent budget. Alas, seems like this vid has been relatively un-talked about. Even with 8,400 views on YouTube (a fair amount!), there are no comments, and I m sure the credits are up and ripe for attribution but posted in Japanese. I m not isolating Japanese culture, but using this as an example of the wonderful experiences within Second Life which, beyond text, can transcend language. I ve known over 100 Japanese Residents who ve been so polite about telling me they don t know much English, which leads me to reply: I wish I could speak Japanese. Outside of English-speaking, there s a bounty of incredible content creation that isn t getting the exposure it could, or should, because of these so-called language barriers . While the creations may speak for themselves once stumbled upon, marketing is their amplifier/megaphone for discoverability, and without a voice keyed into the English market, they kind of sit along the outskirts and leak in through various means, like Gwen Stefani-esque avatars, and trendy Western designers striking up friendships and featuring those fashions on the pages of Second Style. The Japanese awesomeness, of course, does not end there. Another music video caught my eye very closely recently (it actually did so before Kei s Sayonara ), and it s Coma by Chouchou. CHOUCHOU ROCKS! Their logo is really easy to get along with, containing a delicate spiraled font and leafy, organic design. I ll bet it doesn t appear at small sizes very legibly, but lucky for them, they ve got a big stage by Yuki Aabye in Islamey to display it on. And what a wonder it is. I d compare Chouchou s style to Bjork/Goldfrapp/Hooverphonic/Portishead with a touch of Sigur Ros, not so much juliet Herberle s voice as the emotiveness. arabesque Choche s production is crisp and concise, maintaining the sterility of a sci-fi lab but warm enough to be your grandpa s cabin in the winter. Chouchou packs a wallop with well-balanced mixes going the gamut from slow-fi trip-hop ( B612 ) to jazzy propulsion ( neverland ) to abrasive drum n bass ( harunire ). THE MELODIES ARE GOOD. And as they collaborate from Tokyo - New York, new forms take shape. Some of these selections would work perfectly as beachside chillout, while others deserve to be played at climactic scenes in films. And if you re puzzled about the Sigur Ros nod, it s because Chouchou sometimes uses invented language in their music. As arabesque himself graciously clarified for me via YouTube: Thank you so much for such nice words you gave us. Actually, some of our songs are sung in Japanese and some are in English, but this song coma is sung in a language of nowhere. We created the lyrics imagining words from somewhere very very far. If people can just listen to this music and sounds of lyrics and find the beauty of it, we ll be more than happy. Thanks, Torley. Thankfully, Chouchou have been pretty savvy about promoting themselves, including on MySpace (yes, I ve friended them), and they re gotten buzz from Not Possible IRL, Ophelia Drowns, and more I hope their shining star continues to rise amidst all the live music in Second Life, because I think no matter what life they re a part of, their tapestry of sounds enriches and emboldens. And that being said, I d like to attend a concert with my honey. Before I wrap this up, I ll also share that some of my fave Second Life snapshots have been coming from Japanese Resis which I ve discovered through Flickr and the SL blogosphere (SLogosphere?). Estella Therian s Arcana Noctis, as featured on New World Notes, is a fine example, and the refreshingly childlike burst of Happy mood has also been influential. Those who ve been following me further back know that enjoying SL photography regardless of the photographer s native language(s)! has been a continuing interest for me. And thus, we continue to travel the world in our own circles, pulling in threads as they bond us from one life to the next

DOWNLOAD HIFI VERSION I ve been on a roll with posting videos to my blog, and you might think, Why s Torley doing this? In large part, it s really about practicing my chops and finding techniques (transitions, encoding, etc.) that ll serve my video tutorials better. Skills learned in one area can be applied on a related track. Now, it isn t the most obvious path, but makes sense from both a fun and if you will, spirited perspective. Recently, my beloved wife and I watched the notable Studio Ghibli production, My Neighbor Totoro. How can you resist the family-friendly nature with moving character introspection which isn t cloying? Easy answer; you can t. And so, as with many things that merge with my subconsciousness, I began seeing pink-and-green Totoros in my dreams watermelon spirits instead of acorn ones, but at least as friendly. Today as I was relaxing on the weekend, I recorded some footage and stitched it together; it was pretty fun to record and move the mouse to the beat while I listened to the music. Creds to Joe Hisaishi for such an amazingly catchy theme song. The production style is distinctly 80s, and it now ranks up there with other synth-accompanied hits of the era like Moroder s Neverending Story tapestry. I paid a lot of attention to the transitions and it shows. The more cinematique sorts of effects are a tip of the hat to another great anime, Paprika (which is largely about waking dreams), and maybe surprisingly, a little David Lynch in there too. (I must ve watched his iPhone rant two dozen times! *wiggles right hand nervously*) For what it s worth, enjoy and this is all worth it if it puts a smile on your face.

Everyone should know I love to share my enthusiasm about tools that ll do you well, and after hearing about it yesterday @ TechCrunch, I signed up for an account at WeGame.com and downloaded their movie recorder. Kinda like a YouTube for games with the unique bonus of giving you the tool to record with, they just went into Public Beta while it s Windows-only at this time, it is free and, as I ll emphasize again, very easy to use. How easy? I wouldn t overstate it by saying that WeGame has the most easy-to-use record and upload process I ve seen so far. It all begins when you start the WeGame recorder app, which shares the same polished design as their website (it s really pretty). After logging in (the registration form is as minimalist as Philip Glass, and literally took me 15 seconds good usability, guys!), there are very few preferences to set. No complicated codecs to tinker with, just two quality modes Web and HD recording which also depend on your computer s power, and they make sure to inform you of this. Considerate. After configuring those in a few more seconds, you can start recording by booting up your supported game/online world of choice I was very pleased to see my fave Second Life in the list (which is what drew me to try this out in the first place). A little red square appears in the upper-left corner (you can t hide it at the moment, a possible downside to the simplicity of the options), and turns red after you tap the recording hotkey. Note: I experienced oddities when trying to record and resizing my active Second Life window (I run it in windowed, not fullscreen mode), so start SL at a resolution you intend to film at. I hope this ll be alleviated in the future, because it s convenient to capture video on-the-fly at a smaller size without the pain of relogging, especially if your monitor s a substantially larger resolution (I have duals, and the one I use for SL is 1920 1200). After recording, the WeGame window has a little button to upload your footage. Click it, enter title and description, and you re pretty much done: it then starts the FLV (Flash Video) encoding process, uploading after that s complete. A progress bar keeps track of what s happening, and if you re on a reasonably beefy computer, you might as well get other things done while this goes on in the background. Wait a few more moments, and the video s on their site, ready for viewing to the world. It remains to be seen if things will be as responsive when WeGame is significantly more popular (as seems likely to happen). You can embed videos into your blog like I have using a code snippet, very similar to how most popular videosharing sites do it. In a little more than half an hour, I uploaded 4 videos, just raw footage of me wandering around Second Life and talking out loud. It may be a change from the polished Tip of the Week you re used to, but it s still me. Apparently, I also got selected as a Featured Video, and while I hope the comments here don t degrade into YouTube level which is a generalization, and not to knock YouTube as a whole since I receive many nice comments from existing and would-be Residents there there s no moderation tools yet. I ve already written to the WeGame inventors with thanxies and a query about how to report bugs, as I found these quirks: I thought it wouldn t show the red recording dot in the upper left on the final footage, but it does. WeGame doesn t seem to recognize other Second Life viewers (like WindLight) yet could this please be added? Cursor isn t captured either. Would be nice to have this for video tutorials and video bug repros (and because FRAPS offers it too). Sound recording seems very choppy and has intermittent hiccups . Would like to see or rather, hear this improved, as well. After a title and description are entered, they don t seem to be change-able from within the desktop app, and I don t see a way to edit from the website either. Looks like a clear feature to add. Am waiting to hear back from them. Also on the plus side, compression looks fairly good for final filesize. And as a bonus, since it encodes in compact FLV (which looks crisper in the small video player window than YouTube s blurry kind which obliterates fragile UI elements), you can upload that to other video-sharing sites, hopefully without much further loss in quality. Even better, I notice it recorded inworld sounds I only had UI ones on during my earlier sessions at the same time as my mic without needing to record through my speakers. FRAPS and other game movie recorders I ve tried only do one or the other, to my knowledge. The inworld sounds were too loud and distorted, alas, so maybe I just need to turn that slider (in Preferences Audio ll experiment later Oh, yayzerama, that experiment took me just a few minutes more! Proof, meet pudding. I just found out you can encode + upload existing films AND record new clips at the same time this is upright kewl, it s gotta be highlighted MOAR. And definitely, especially with the problems in Second Life s built-in movie recorder, it s very cool that this is free, in a not-crippleware way. I like people to have a choice in preferred platform for getting their work OMGSLOW video production workflows, and the user-UNfriendliness that comes with them and discourages more folks from getting into, say, machinima or even casual inworld vlogging. I daresay this could really help doing video bug reports (which is not the same as showing off how your party slew the 14-headed manatee-wyrn in the caves of Narrgath but still very noble), and after I forwarded word of this to fellow Lindens, I received enthusiastic responses in kind. I was musing recently about some way for me to share snippets of my inworld experiences more directly, and this may be it. Have you tried WeGame? What are your thoughts + feelings? Let the Torlster know.