Back to second life

Initially i found second life a bit strange. For some reason i found the idea of talking to other peoples avatars a bit strange and i also found the idea of talking to complete strangers a bit wierd. I enjoyed the setup of my avatar where i had to create my character , especially changing the features of my avatar, such as facial features, and the clothes that my character was wearing.

Im glad i decided to change my character to a boy even though i noticed i got different sorts of people coming to talk to me when i was a girl to when i was a boy. When i was a girl more females talked to me whereas when i converted my character into a male when i tried to talk to females they just avioded me and didnt reply.

I found the interface of second life not all that easy to understand, i think the tutorials were sometimes hard to find and on occasions it would tell your to do something that wouldnt work. As i was doing one tutorial i came across a stone statue who told me to go and tell "his brother" a statue further up what the prophet was and when he asked me for the answer and i replied he just never responded and i must have tried it like 10 times.

Overall i did actually quite enjoy second life and got used to everything i initially found strange. Im not sure if i will carry on using second life though, i have enjoyed it this term but i dont think its something i would do often in my spare time, i may use it now and again but not on a regular basis like i have been doing this term.

A small animation that i tried but didnt really work as i was just tryin to become familiar with creating animations.

Creation of my monster

I started to put my ideas onto 3d studio max , but the program didnt become any easier to use. Although after a while i started to get a little more familiar with the program and it became easier to use. Although i had to change my design ideas slightly.

Design

I have been looking at different aspects of a monster such as eyes, mouth and shape i sketched some of these to see what would work best on my monster.

3D studiomax

After doing seminars and work sheets on 3D studio max im still finding it really hard, i think its something im just going to have to work at. In our seminars we have been learning how to create and animate our names, simple objects like trees, slightly more complicated objects like squids and walking men.

skins

I also looked at creating skins for the moster by creating them in paint and then editing them in photoshop

Avatar background

I think for my avatar background i will create a city scene! I think this will suit a monster best, i also think that a city scene would be intersting to use to animate my monster as it could jump on the buildings or interact with different objects you would find in the city. My other possibilty for a background would be a garden scene as i think this would be interesting for interaction purposes during animation.

working in 3D studio max

Im finding workin in 3D studio max really hard. I have tried designing some monsters and short animations but none of them have really worked out . Here are some that i tried.

final monster designs

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Monster designs

Avatar

After researching different types of avatars i could create i have decided to create my avatar as a monster, my reasons for this are :

• A monster comes across less girly than most of my other ideas and suits my character more
• I haven't really come to grips with 3D studio max yet so i don't want to make it too complicated, therefore i feel a monster will be a simpler choice.

I am still going to continue with the idea of my monster being a cartoon monster as this suits my personality best. I will look at different design of my monster and try some out in 3D studio max before i start designing my avatar.

avatars from a different era

looking at lifestyles from different era's i could take my avatar back in time .I think my most popular choices wud b cavewomen, tudors or from the 60s . If i was going to take my avatar back in time i would probably make her a dancer from an earlier time period as dancing is a huge part of my life. However i think this would be a really obvious avatar to make.

Monster avatar

I think a monster avatar would suit my character but make it more of a friendly monster like the ones in monsters inc. This also doesn't have any girly features about it which i like. I could use scary monsters which relate to the fantasy mhythical creatures but its the same situation where i dont think it reflects me.

Different aged avatars

If i was goin to make a avatar a different age i think i would go older rather than younger, as i think it would be more interesting to create myself as something i havnt experienced rather than something i have.

Fantasy avatar

I think fantasy would make a good avatar as there are no rules and you could create what u wanted. The only thing about this would be fantasy would relate to a fairy or mermaid or something like that and i feel as if this is a bit stereo typical of me being a girl and people would expect me to create an avatar of something really girly even though a fairy would represent part of my personality.I could also follow the route of fantasy being mythical creates so that its not quite as girly but i still feel that a mythical create would not represent my character.

Animal avatar

I think an animal avatar would work well reflecting someones personality , for example a lion or tiger would represent someone that is fiery, intimidating, angry where as a monkey would represent some one who is cheeky, mischievous, cute and a swan would represent an elegant dainty character. I think if i create an avatar of myself thats an animal i would choose a frog as i think that represents my personality best.

Avatar ideas -Male avatar .......

As i have already used a male avatar in my second life project i may take this on further and make my avatar in 3D studio max a male. I think a male avatar is interesting as it would show me in a different way , i also think its interesting to keep the avatar like me in a male version becuase im still representing me making it more of an avatar. I could also look at males very different from me, elderly males, males younger than me.

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As i was looking round second life i cme accross WLF ninja Skuoz Hawker, I think he was a really interesting character, and also a very interesting avatar of himself as it already gives off what kind of person he is.

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I thought it was really cool that you could sit and watch the sunset , even though the sky doesnt really change a lot...! i just thought it was a really nice idea and different to most things that you can do in second life.

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After looking at my avatar in 3D studio max one of my ideas is to have my character as an older man so i thought to get an idea of ehat this would look like and see if i like the idea, i would convert my avatar in second life to an older male male changing his appearance.

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I decided to find unusual places to sit as some places were not suitable and you were not alowwed to sit there. Normal places i could obviously sit like walls and things like that but i wanted to see where else it would allow me to sit so i went looking around and just clicked on interesting things sit here. On the below image i was allowed to sit in the garden part but not in the fountain.

3D modeliing

i have been workin on 3D studio max startin to create simple animations. The first animation i did in my seminar was my name jumping. I found this quite easy and simple but i think this was because we had instructions on what to do.

Mohina Website

While browsing the website i found this online boutique website , i really liked the design of it because the opening screen is a view of inside the shop and as you navigate around the shop you can click on the diffferent items of clothing it displays all the items they have in that range. I think this type of website would appeal to me more to buy the clothes from this company. I do however think that when you click on the item and the products they have are displayed it could be alittle more exciting as it is just all the skirts shown for example with no real setup.

second life

While exploring second life i saw this enviroment which could be an enviroment for my 3d studio max avatar, as one of my idea is to create a fantasy fairy so i thought id try out some thing similar in 3D studio max.

after looking at all aspects of fantasy i decided to look further into faries i wanted 2 make my avatar a mythical creature in a fairy style.

iv been investigating fairies and fantasy world for my 3D avatar. I looked at images related to fantasy.

Orange unlimited advert

i Really like all the orange adverts that are out at the moment as i think there all really imagionative and creative . I especially like the below one because i think its a really simple idea but it works really really well. I also really like the television advertisment as its a nice advert 2 watch and put the message of the advert across well with out bein cheesy or obvious.




these are the best adverts iv seen in ages because of how simple they are, but how effective they have been made i also think the music works really well in both adverts.

teleporting

after taking one of the tutorials i tried teleporting to different environments in second life, The first place i teleported to was dance land. But i couldnt really find anything interesting in here so i decided to teleport some where else..

I decided to teleport do a different environment, this type of enviroment i the kind of enviroment i want to use for my avatar in 3D studio max. As it is a more fantasy like land.

3D modeling avatar

after working with 3D studio max i have been thinking about my avatar that i am goin to create , even though i have enjoyed being a boy on second life i think i am goin to make my character a female for my studio max project. After working on ideas i think i would like my avatar to have a fantasy theme, or maybe in a differnet environment such as the sea.

Kickers website

As i was browsing the internet i came across this website for the brand kickers. I think this website is well designed as the home page is really clear and the interface is clear and easy to navigate. I also like the deisgn of when your looking at the shoe as you can look at different views of the shoe, it displays all the information needed and displays other shoes similar to the one your looking at.

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i have started talking to other avatars on second life even though i find it a little strange. But the more people i stated talking to the less strange i found it.

second life

I decided to change my avatar into a male after all because i just thought it made it more interesting ! i changed my appearance to a similar guy version of me !


i travelled into the city on second life and drove a car, which ammused me for a while !

I also experimented with actions that my avatar could do such as sitting in places and dancing !