Artwork

What am I looking at?

Withnail Academy in SecondLife

Textures were sourced from photographs on New York streets, then manipulated and made tileable in GIMP. To create these textures, common use of cropping, cloning, perspective altering, and filters was used. Alpha maps were added to make the windows transparent. The objective was to make a low-poly model (building) look as realistic as possible through use of photographic textures.

By the way, the building is very large. You can walk around inside the virtual space in Second Life.

 A gathering within Withnail Academy.

What do people do in Virtual Worlds? Some people gather in lush environments to tell stories, read books, and participate in round table educational discussions. Note how the virtual world makes virtual body language and focus of attention apparent to viewers.

See my Stories and Writing section for some sample logs.

Withnail Academy classroom.

This is a simple example of how one could use a virtual world like Second Life to host traditional classroom style lectures involving geographically distributed students.

I created all textures and modelling for this scene. Most textures were created in GIMP, some were created in Blender as a (flat) rendered image from a 3d model. This is often called "baking-in" lighting.

The real value of a collaborative environment comes from roundtable discussions rather than lectures, however, a lecture theatre serves to set context and give participants the feeling that they're in an academic environment. Context sets the tone for learning. James Gee writes about identity play as serving a significant purpose in learning. In that case, it's sensible to provide the trappings or props to facilitate the identity play. 

BarnWall

This is an image produced by compositing several photographs, including a digital avatar image from Second Life. Most portrait photography portrays the person up front. In this reversal of subjects, I enjoyed placing the "person" in the background as if painted onto the barn wall. You can see the use of GIMP layers (screen and multiply) to create the painted woman effect.

TimberWolves

This is a photograph produced by compositing digital subjects into a real photograph.  The subjects were captured independently within a Virtual photostudio. The backdrop was then added in using GIMP. Usually the edges of the subject are slightly blurred to improve the integration into the background setting.

Ghost

This image was created using  a photograph from New York City and a couple of virtual avatars from Second Life. The photograph was manipulated to appear grainy, embossed and colorized. The subjects were caputred independently against a virtual greenscreen, then composited in. Muzzle flash, bullet, blood and blacklining were all added in post. One can easily see how new media blurs the boundaries between real and virtual, digital and analog. This type of image could be used for a comic book or storyboard. The same techniques could be used to create animations.

Fall Street

This image is a composite of two avatars from SL, photographed on seperate occassions, and a photographic background added in later. Note how the woman in the foreground is out of focus. This is an experiment in depth of field, something traditionally missing in video games. I also added the shadow under the central figure. Unfortunately, it wasn't set effectively. The central figure appears to be levitating above the ground. This goes to show how important lighting and shadow are in making digital media appear realistic.

Devilish Angel

This is a study in high-tone photography. The subject is a digital avatar photographed in front of a greenscreen in Second Life. The backdrop was added in after capture against a greenscreen. The subject and backdrop were heavily manipulated to give high-tone effect.  All of the lighting was created manually in GIMP.

Distress

This is an image created using one avatar captured on two different occassions. The background is entirely generated in GIMP. This is an experiment in composition and emotion rather than exceptional digital manipulations. Is the woman mourning an aspect of herself? Can you elicit emotional responses from people viewing relatively wooden virtual avatars?

 Behind the Curtain

These images demonstrate the greenscreen process used to create these works.

Greenscreen Image

An image of an avatar was taken in Second Life against a greenscreen backdrop. 

Background

A background was dropped in after significant cleanup. 

Foreground

 To make the scene more realistic, a foreground is dropped in. Again, significant cleanup work is required to achieve the correct transparency.

Lighting was also added to the model to make it fit the scene.

Composition

 The image is cropped to improve the composition.

Greenscreen

Another image is taken against a greenscreen. Note how the SL "hair" penetrates the avatar. This will have to be cleaned up. 

Background

 A background is added after significant cleanup work. Pay attention to the rule of thirds or the Golden Ratio, when composing images.

Distress

 In this case, the foreground is water from another image. It's heavily modified and cleaned up to fit the scene.