University class takes hold of the reins to a rapper’s fame– in Second Life!
Legrand's album cover for "The Professional"
I’m been networking with a teacher from Temple University’s Japan campus about his very very intriguing class project in Second Life. The students have all been participating on a project that will launch hip hop artist Legrand’s career– in the virtual world! This project is appropriately called, linsl, or Legrand in Second Life.
I met with Jean-Julien the other day about this project. He says Japan’s music scene is really unique. If you aren’t big somewhere else first, you won’t get big in Japan. In other words, it’s not really a place where musicians get discovered that easily. So, by launching his career in Second Life and cushioning him there with some good publicity, the Japanese crowd would potentially pick up on his talent.
The students will be responsible for everything in the launch- including pre-preduction for the music video (storyboard and planning), the filming, and the post-production, which is something one of the video students are taking on. The class will also take on distribution for the artist, promoting him in Second Life, which a lot of legwork is already done for them with SL’s active musician scene.
There.com Commercials
Prepping the actor with a headset
Getting to work with There.com on their promotional videos was a thrill! The balance of the real and virtual productions were challenging at the very least.
For the virtual footage, we shot it in 1 day at different hotspots in there. A bunch of their employees played 1 of the 6 characters- we couldn’t have 1 person log in as more than one because the planned shot were so action-based that they’d constantly have to be toggling something. We shot all types of scenes and it was hard limiting the footage down to the 30 seconds. Most of the footage was selected based on the focal lengths– the commercial was all about having fun and expressing emotion. Emotion shines through the best in closeups!
Utopia of Virtual Worlds
A lot of people discredit the phenomenon of virtual worlds, saying it will distance people from society. “Experts” claim that children who delve in video games find it more difficult to read facial expressions and understand emotions. I’d like to agree to disagree with all the above. What I DO believe is that in general, people are going out a lot less than they used to, since so much of the ability to connect has gone online. With a few changes to the world’s architectural design, however, that can change.
The “experts” should look at our society today instead of discrediting virtual worlds. I take the train avidly during the week pass long towers of buildings, where within lay endless cubicles. If anything distances one from their peers, it is the cubicle. The building’s floors are monotone colors, uninviting and intimidating, making even the beauty of the magic hour sky stir up goosebumps. In Philadelphia, there are a few buildings that try to paint over this truth by building more aesthetic architecture. It doesn’t shade the fact that looking through the windows, it looks like death. Copy machines, walls, limiting dress codes, poor ventilation.
Machinima as a Business Language
Photorealistic avatars are possible
Article by Ariella Furman, originally posted on PixelsandPolicy.com
The world of business embodies many different languages. Machinima is just one of those languages, that when combined with a brand, can produce limitless possibilities. When I first entered Virtual worlds, I started out by making a documentary about a Second Life Amazon tribe for my film class for fun. This work was noticed by a few solution providers whom I teamed up with. After working with some great brands, I began to follow them out of curiosity. Why machinima?
After analyzing the many uses these brand managers had for their products I realized, how valuable machinima is for business, in no particular order:
A Virtual Shoutout
Welcome to the Framed in 3D blog!
Framed in 3D is an animation studio with over 10 years of filmmaking experience, both in the real and virtual worlds. The CEO, Ariella Furman has had a fascination with filmmaking as long as she can remember, maybe passed down from her father who she says is, “a home-movie guy.”
Ariella through the looking glass
Now, Ariella works with a qualified team of builders, actors, and post-production effects specialists to create videos that are trailblazing traditional forms of animation.
Follow us and we promise to keep you entertained with bolts of inspiration, stories, and musings about our ventures through the virtual world. We’re open to comments and suggestions and will offer the same back to our favorite virtual worlds blogs. GEEKS UNITE!
Meanwhile, take a glance at our work: Framed in 3D
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