Second Life

To start off, a quick introduction: I am Barnesworth Anubis (see pic), the lead designer and builder for the Sundance Channel's island in Second Life. As John talked about, we spend a good amount of time planning the island, but I would like to talk a little more in-depth about the construction of the region and SL content creation in general.



The coolest thing about SL is it is a literally a blank canvas; it can be manipulated into any setting you wish. So the first step as John mentioned is terra-forming the region, or 'sim' as we call it. For the Sundance Channel Island we choose a mountain area with a lake. As you saw in the previous post, the sim was a sandy island when we started, in the picture you can see a snapshot of the terra-forming in progress, and another after it is mostly finished, including retexturing with grass, dirt, and granite instead of sand to reflect the new environment. The terra-forming remains somewhat rough and unfinished looking, but is smoothed out and refined as construction in each area progresses. (See terraforming pic)

After the terra-forming is done construction can start on buildings. The basic building blocks in SL are prims, which is short for primitives. These versatile and basic shapes can be resized, rotated, skewed, cut, hollowed, and manipulated in many other ways to make almost any shape imaginable. Everything from a delicate piece of jewelry to a gigantic skyscraper are made out of these same building blocks (see pic).

As mentioned in the previous post, building in SL is different from real architecture . We don't have to obey the laws of physics, safety codes, or worry about weather. This allows a lot more room for freedom and creativity. But Second Life has its own set of rules; you have to work with your prim limit, keep an eye on your texture load, and make sure your scripts aren't lagging the sim to a halt. Apart from technical constraints, architecture in Second Life has different requirements by its users, for example roof entrances to accommodate people traveling by flight are not uncommon. Just like real buildings, SL structures need to define spaces, feel welcoming, be recognizable, familiar, navigable and functional to visitors. (See pic of design tools)

After coming up with concepts and styles the initial construction can begin. See the pics that show the progression of a building's facade that is yet to be completed. The grainy yellow texture is the default plywood texture all prims are covered with when they enter the world (see pic of building process). As a building progresses new textures are applied to reflect its style. One thing that sets apart designing in SL from real life is in most cases changes can be made much easier in SL. Because of this I personally prefer to just start out with just a general idea of what I am creating, and refine and tweak the design as I build.

After the exterior facade is created, it is time to work on an interior for the building. The process is essentially the same, first the basic layout is created, then textured. Furnishings and other details are added to finish off the look.

One of the things that I find most interesting about Second Life is we have to do mother natures job as well as our own. Much like we created the lay of the land, we have to add trees, plants, rocks, and other nature objects ourselves. It is especially interesting when trying to evoke something natural like a forest as opposed to a garden planted and maintained by people. (See nature pic)

That is all for now, still more work to do on ironing out the details and getting it ready. Swing by to visit! Hope to see you there!