Virtual Artists Alliance: Recent meetings

- by Rezago Kokorin

This is a follow up to the first Scripted Art meeting we had last Sunday. I'll be hosting these weekly, Sunday at 5pm SL time.

We had a good discussion, along with a bit of show & tell. The picture on the left shows Dale Innis displaying his 3D Parametric Rezzer, which rezzes multiple temporary copies of objects in a mathematically determined pattern.

My primary goal with these meetings is to bring scripters and builders together and narrow the gap between the two. To trade ideas and brainstorm about possibilities.

In the virtual world we have the opportunity to create art which does such things as move, morph, and interact with the viewer. There are people creating amazing things but the knowledge has to be gathered from a wide range of sources, along with a lot of trail and error. I think a series of classes designed for virtual artists would be of great benefit.

The central problem that was discussed was how best to learn the skills we are weak in, whether it be building or scripting, keeping in mind that we're artist types who don't want to get bogged down in technical detail.

One of the problems with scripting tutorials is the way they're written. You almost have to be a programmer to follow many of the explanations. Possible solutions are:

* Building classes for scripters.
* Scripting classes for builders.

Both of these being geared artists of both types. I saw this week that Dorie Bernstein in Dreams has begun teaching a class called "Scripts for the Common Man." I haven't been able to attend this one yet but it sounds like the kind of scripting classes we were talking about.

* Creating a library of sorts for understanding and using scripts. The Library of Primitives and The Particle Laboratory are excellent models for this.

I've taken on the project of creating a simple inworld demonstrating the use of the common rotation script and how linked rotating objects behave. Its a common problem with those of us creating kinetic sculpture. You have everything looking great, then you link it together and BOOM!, it goes haywire. Or else it stops moving altogether. I've only recently begun to systematically experiment with this and find out what works and how, and what doesn't.

As a way of bringing artists together, I've created a blog called Unfinished Works of Genius, which allows anyone to post about a project they're working on or an idea they have. If you're looking for someone to collaborate with or are in need of advice post your thoughts there.

Scripted Art meeting - Sundays at 5pm
Larsson (150, 236, 601)

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Artist Building Sessions

These are held every Wednesday evening at 7pm SL time at the same location as the Scripted Art meeting. Its an informal building session which is part show & tell, part builder's clinic. Its a good time to show work in progress and get advise about problems. Its also very stimulating and inspiring to be among a group of creative types and see the resulting chaos (chaos in the good sense of the work, of course).

At the last session we were delving into the problem of linking rotating prims and got sidetracked for a while with particles. But that the great thing about these sessions, there is no real plan. We get together and things happen.