Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Who needs a first life anyways

Ive always tried to avoid this 'second life' phenomina, all id ever hear about it is nothing short of deteriorating to my interest level, besides, if i joined it itd be a third life. My internet life seems to have already overtaken my actual first life so why do i need a third life to over complicate things matters for myself? That of course would be very hypocrytical of my philosophy on "dont knock it till youve tried it", but i do draw the line at a few places, like "Crack" or "Cocain" or "Working at fast food". There are just a few things ill always knock before trying. But a game never hurts you emotionally or physically so i gave it a shot about ayear back, and promptly uninstalled it the same day.

Second Life, if you dont know (and honestly, how could you not unless you've been living under a rock the size of kansas) is a social networking tool, basiaclly think of it like "The sims meets MSN meets MediaWiki" meaning, it looks like the sims, acts alot liek a chat program (but in 3D like IMVU), and the entire place besides the starting is pretty much all user generated content, all the way down to haracter models, animation, textures, props, even landscape.
Its a neat idea in theory, so long as you got someone to play with. otherwise being the loner in the situation, was bored to absolute TEARS.

So i was talking with a regular SL hound yesterday via normal chat programs like ICQ, and he informed me about the custom animation deal. Whats better if the animations are worth it, i can sell them for L$ (the in game currency) and better yet, exchange it for REAL currency. I can make a living, making crappy animation loops, how cool is that?

So i downloaded it, got the name Tarek Kjeller (tarek being the lead chracter from ym favorite foreign film 'Das Experiment', Kjeller jsut osunding liek the most badass last name available) and walked around with the default avatar for god know show long.

I need L$ and quick before the default character model drives me completely bananas, gotta spend money to make money i guess, lol.

So i downloaded "Qavimator" "qural"(sp?) and "Posemaker", all 3 are free animation tools direclty designed for animating in second life. Y'know, its not very often i get to say this: but i feel offended by these tools. Im sorry but there is absolutely no redeeming qualities behind either of those three tools. quarl is by far the worst of the three, as i never even figure dout how to adjust a bone and figuring out the only way to control the camera is via keybaord, which leads me to believe theres no mouse support and i control each joint via the keyboard too. Forget it, and then theres Posemaker which, is unlike ANY other animation type program ive ever seen in my life and confused me to all hell to no end. And finally Qavimator, the most functional and useful of the bunch, is still not that great. With no Undo, shoddy Gimble support, no Keyframe quickkey, and no quick save (everytime you save you must select the file? damn, whats the point fo the Save As... menu option then?). I however at least got a par tof an animation done, but without any kind of curve editor and fucking around with sliders instead of the gimbles, i quickly lost my patience.
So i turned to my professional tools, Motionbuilder is my best choice here but i sadly didnt have much time to try anything besides getting the SL reference rig in there. I beleive itll work cause its the only animation tool that natively comes with a BVH exporter which is the only format SL reads.

Anyways what did i do in SL? nothing i meandered around aimlessly for a while and found a shop for avatars, and then left, i didn't give it much playtime but then no one was around me, ever, i was all by myself the entire time, lol.

=-=-

So CouortEngine, where is it at?
check this out:


CourtEngine: The First Objection from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.

I expect to get full scene support finished today after i go for a bike ride.

Anyways, thats all im blogging about today, later days!


-k

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