For this issue of ECLIPSE Magazine, we feature one of the most talented designers on the grid, Kiddo Oh of Dead Dollz, as our cover story. With the “World of Roleplay,” article, we re-visit Mischief Managed and learn about their latest addition, Diagon Alley. Under “Things to Do,” we highlight Shop Hop, a kid, and family friendly event. For “The Showcase,” we shine the light on the incredible bloggers of Rattletrap Shipyards. Be sure to check out our other pieces: “The Art Perspective” with Avaloir, “The Proust Spotlight” with Aleriah, “Trending Now” with the hottest styles of the season, “Voices from the Grid,” with residents sharing their thoughts and “The Wayfarer” exploring Bliss.
The artistic installation created by Aloisio Congrejo entitled “Not Alone” is one of those that create a good mood. The artist has set up his work in the region owned by Foundation for Life, an association established with the aim of raising funds to fight the difficult battle against cancer.
For years now, I have been following the workshop organized by the Foundation for Life, and I must say that it is a very active association, with a high number of people collaborating in it. In particular, they help with the organization of events and ensure that everything runs smoothly.
What I find most interesting, is the spirit of friendship that binds the people who are part of it: over the years those who collaborate in the association and ensure its success are always the same with the usual spirit of brotherhood and collaboration.
The installation of Alosio Congrejo, as I anticipated, puts a good mood on it and in fact I had a lot of fun shooting a video at his exhibition space last night.
Lights, colors, and movement inspired me in the set design, in the choice of dances (Shakira style) and in the light effects that I usually add to my videos.
Also, I liked the effect of the red circles on the moving avatar uniquely, so I accentuated those passages that highlighted it.
At the entrance of the installation, you can take for free a complete avatar created in a stylized way and in tune with the effect of the red dots on the move.
You can also take a biography of the artist Aloisio Congreio who illustrates how he has developed, over the years, his passion for art in the virtual world of Second Life®.
These are some of his words of presentation:
My passion for art has been part of my virtual life from the start, and in RL began many years ago.
As an artistic ‘consumer’ there have been many artists both great and lesser known that I have followed and admired, but what is most important to me is to see the work of anyone who can craft various media in such a way as to express their feelings.
In Second life I began using art to express feelings and thoughts only as a way of playing, trying out things that were new to me, but with simplicity and entirely for my own enjoyment.
Finally, here is my video that I shot with pleasure and fun.
Fans of Virtual Reality and creation in an intuitive and comfortable virtual environment will love SineSpace, the virtual world created by Adam Frisby.
Adam is an expert on VR, having been very active on ActiveWorlds, Blaxxxun, Microsoft’s Virtual Worlds and Second Life.
In Second Life®, a familiar environment, he founded Azure Island to purchase private regions and Sine Wave Animations, giving life to the well-known dance animations that we have used and appreciated for years. SineSpace is his first creation in the VR, a virtual world still in Beta version, but already trendy and used for the production of environments and original content.
A week ago I decided to explore SineSpace, having seen several captivating videos that showed a detailed and incredibly realistic world.
Who knows Second Life® will not find particularly challenging to understand how SineSpace works: just download the appropriate viewer, enter your credentials after registering for an account and access your region, offered free of charge by Sinespace to all registered users.
The first goal of SineSpace is to offer a completely free space: it is a region that you can customize through the creation tools I will talk about in a moment.
Another important goal is the customization of the Avatar: every detail of the face and body can be modified through slides, and the skin can be changed by choosing from the options offered within the same SineSpace Shop.
Let’s proceed with order!
Overview
Registering an Account
To register an account, you must go to the registration page.
Here is a valuable video tutorial that will guide you step by step in registering your first account on SineSpace.
Also handy is the video of Strawberry Singh that will pleasantly guide you to register your new Account.
If you intend to create within SineSpace, I suggest you join the Creators program, you can do it from the registration page.
Downloading the Viewer
After you have registered your account, it will be useful to download the viewer. It is not mandatory because you can access the virtual platform even using your browser (I, for example, use Chrome). However, you should definitely use the viewer to get the most out of your SineSpace.
Once again Berry’s video can help since also explains the phase of downloading and installing the appropriate Viewer.
How to walk, jump, fly, teleport and move the camera
A first problem you encounter when entering a virtual world that is unfamiliar to us is how to walk, jump, fly, visit different regions through teleportation and move the camera around.
Here’s the mystery! How to walk, jump, fly, teleport and move the camera in SineSpace.
This precious page of the FAQs is of great help not only in understanding how to carry out the activities just mentioned but also in exploring other opportunities including buying and creating outfits, taking pictures, chatting, using voice chat, making payments, etc.
A page, therefore, to be saved in the favorites bar because you’ll consult it often.
In case you do not find an answer to the question you are looking for, you can contact SineSpace directly by opening a ticket.
New clothes can be purchased directly from the SineSpace Shopusing the Silver coin. In some cases, it is possible to buy only by spending the Golden currency, which can be purchased inside the virtual platform with the real currency. If you already know that you will not purchase Golden money to buy outfits in SineSpace, you can use the filter to find out which items you can only buy with Silver.
Changing the physical appearance
Customizing your Avatar is easy through the use of slides. The various parts of the body can be adapted to your needs and taste with great simplicity. Here there are no complicated mesh heads and bodies, just act on the sliders to appreciate the benefits of detailed customization of your appearance.
Virtual currency
Silver is the virtual currency of SineSpace through which you can buy items in the shop. Some of these items, however, can only be purchased through the Golden, currency exchangeable for real money. The payment methods accepted are many, including PayPal, credit card and phone credit from mobile.
Customize your home
Another immediate need you’ll encounter is to customize your home environment.
This section explains step by step how to proceed.
Create and sell
In SineSpace you can create your own objects and sell them in the shop.
Creation takes place in the Unity® Game Engine.
Conclusion
In this first introductory article, I only explored “the first steps” to SineSpace, as there is much to say and share. I just add that the realism that this virtual world offers is impressive and exciting, providing the best possible experience for photography lovers. SineSpace offers several valuable photo enhancement tools, all already integrated into the viewer (no need to buy anything specific).
SineSpace is VR friendly.
“The Heights at Haven” Art Gallery is a small, family-run art gallery in a location near Basilisk (Mainland).
The owners and curators are Seiko Blessing (softandred) and her partner Maggie Blessing (margaret.moleno).
It is a place dedicated to art and theatre even if, being a new gallery, at the moment no show has yet been staged.
Heights of Haven Art Gallery in Second Life®
Reading the information at the entrance of the gallery, we learn that the title of the first performance is “Shall we dance” and that, for more information that will be announced in the future you can refer to that section on arrival.
Being the first time I visit the gallery, I contact one of the owners for more information. In particular, I would like to ask her who the exhibiting artists are in detail.
She replied to me:
Seiko Blessing (me) is the main artist and most of the artwork is mine. Other contributors are Maggie Blessing, Micki Blessing, and Kaia Blessing. Maggie is my wife and partner, Micki and Kaia are our daughters. Maggie is the builder and also helps with the decorating, and design. I am the artist and help with the decorating and design too. We are all part of the Blessing Players (along with Angus Brodie)… a performance art group with our own theater.
None of the works on display are for sale, but the gallery has an interesting voting and donation system. In fact, you can vote for your favorite image through a payment of 10 lindens to be made using the candles lit and placed under each picture.
The artist who receives the most votes will have the privilege of seeing his images displayed in the following month.
Heights of Haven Art Gallery in Second Life®
Personally, I am intrigued by this combination of art and theatre, which has been realized effectively despite the limited space.
I perceived in Seiko’s words a great enthusiasm for this project.
Heights of Haven Art Gallery in Second Life®
I recommend a visit to this little jewel of art, considering the idea of voting / giving to support the owners and the gallery itself.
The Gallery Mirror Amsterdam owned by Arete of Cyrene is a beautiful artistic exhibition that gives ample space to artists very different from each other both for their style and their technique.
The structure that hosts the artistic works was the first aspect that caught my attention. I think that in Second Life® there are not many buildings really suitable for hosting art, but this construction of Gully River (Aethis Creation) is ideally suited to the purpose.
Gallery Mirror Amsterdam in Second LIfe®
The exhibiting artists are Gitu Aura (2D Art), Mistero Hifeng (3D Art), Ciottolina Xue (3D Art), Cate Ansaldo (2D Art), Miles Cantelou (2D Art), Arete of Cyrene (2D Art), Millo Copperfield ( 2D Art), Vallys Baxter (2D Art).
The structure is divided into 3 exhibition floors, so I recommend visiting the gallery traditionally, moving the avatar and not the camera and climbing the stairs.
The reason for this advice is that, in my experience, there was a bit of lag, so moving around with the camera or the flycam was daunting enough.
It was much more pleasant and relaxing to walk the corridors and spaces moving the avatar.
Gallery Mirror Amsterdam in Second LIfe®
I also really appreciated the style of furniture, perfectly adapted to exhibitor artists to highlight their work.
Each room hosts a 2D artist, while the Mistero and Ciottolina’s sculptures furnish the gallery almost everywhere.
Gallery Mirror Amsterdam in Second LIfe®
Finally, I think that the Gallery Mirror Amsterdam is a significant step in the SL® art world to visit periodically to admire new exhibitions.
I saw on Facebook that Cica Ghost has created a new art installation. I was intrigued by the fact that, from the photographs shared, this time the setting she produced was not as gloomy as the others.
I have always appreciated Cica’s artistic works, and technically I really love her modeling using Sculptris.
Perhaps, even more, I admire her imagination and the ability to communicate metaphorically. “Sunny Day” is hosted by the Nowhere Region and occupies the entire homestead.
The first impression I had when I visited it, however, was not a feeling of joy, as one might think considering the title of the installation.
Sunny Day by Cica Ghost in Second Life
I thought that, perhaps, the reason was the characters faces expressions. Those ones that populate the artistic installation, many of them severe and authoritarian. The characters who live “Sunny Day” look like stylized drawings made by children. I believe that making them in 3D is not a simple operation. In any case, beyond the technical complexity, it is the idea that fascinates me in a particular way.
Sunny Day by Cica Ghost in Second Life
Adults-children who live in an entirely stylized region that takes the form of a child’s drawing. The flowers that move cheerfully up and down, the sun with the smiling face that grows and shrinks alternating its size.
In the same way, the sea monsters that surround the installation remember the decorations that can be seen in the luna parks and that are intended to scare the little ones (having fun).
Yet this setting does not make me happy, there is a bitter taste behind this apparent positivity.
Sunny Day by Cica Ghost in Second Life
I’m looking for some Cica notecards that can make me better understand the installation, but I can not find it (there are some that illustrate her previous works, but nothing that explains “Sunny Day” to the visitor). I think the choice is intentional, as in the other installations of this incredible Serbian artist.
I understand the reason by reading the description that Cica has put in about land. This is a Roman Rollan phrase:
It is the artist’s business to create sunshine when the sun fails.
(Romain Rolland)
This phrase could also be interpreted in this other way: “It is the task of the artist to raise souls when God fails.”
And here is explained the sweet and sour taste of the installation. Light and shadow, positive and negative, a God who fails and an artist who tries to “fill” this deficit.
Sunny Day by Cica Ghost in Second Life
After all, art has a cathartic function for the soul, it serves primarily to the artist who frees himself without limitations and then to the observer who is called to see reality through the artist’s eyes. The observer then, inevitably, will put something of his own in the contemplative experience giving life, in turn, to a new artistic image.
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