there.com #4

My foray into the virtual world today was short and sweet but nonetheless, I encountered new things again.



Firstly it appears that there is a customisation section somewhere in the program (or someone willing to pay), as wandering through a desert place I'd been to previously, somebody had funnily made some snowmen! Obviously this has been placed for laughs, and indeed, it worked on me.







Another new and quite honestly, unexplainable thing I encountered were these weird rainbow coloured bubble things. I saw someone was inside, and wondered why they were kicking and flapping around... I soon found out on closer inspection...









The ballon pulled me in and I was then stuck as well! In fact I don't think there is a standard way to get out. I was summoned out by a passer by, who teleported me to her side. This other person then claimed they could go in and out on their own, and showed us this to be true by means of his backpack rocket!



And what seems like a there.com tradition in reference to newbies, someone came along and laughed at us, trying to find a way out of an impossibly situation.








More to come no doubt in the not too distant future.

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3D max

First seminar back and I quite enjoyed the new stuff we're being shown.

Everybody who I've spoken to before seems to fall apart when you mentioned using 3D max, cos of how difficult it is. This first session to ease up in though was quite inciteful, although warning still stands that it will get a lot more complex!

This is what I created, fingers crossed the codec will work to play it. Everyone pretty much made the same kinda thing, and at the end, added a bomb effect to blitz the word we'd used.



Things look promising for next week. In the meantime, I'm going to go back and play around and practise with the program again, see all the various options it has.

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there.com #3

More developments in the digital world, this time being able to acquire (all be it, probably not in a truly legit way!) a buggy. And as I've not got myself some wheels, I can travel with more ease and further! Surprise surprise though, no option for me as I haven't paid for anything!

I found it just lying around in a race course arena, and after trying to get a best time on the lap a few times, I found I could add the buggy to my things and "borrow" it! I'll no doubt be coming back to try and better my time as well too.

There's an option in there.com to enable a forcefield - quite worthwhile really else people either run you over and send you spinning for miles, or come at you with paintball guns, blasting you away again!

And just like the real world, gangs sort of form, as I was victim of 'noob' attack! That sounds funny to actually put! These two random guys came up and seeing as I was wearing the uniform bog standard new person outfit, starting laughing, calling me a 'noob' and blasting me with paintballs (or trying cos clever me has already learnt a trick already and turned on the forcefield!)

I was also informed by a new pal called Madison Anne. that the more you talk, the more you drive, the more you use your hoverboard you gain points, after so long, enable you to go up a skill level and get certain items as a benefit. So not only is chatting just an activity which can pass the time, in there.com it's rewarded as well.

And as a last little bit, this is a new place I visited. It was called Scilios or something, all the names of the places are obscure! Like a few places, quite desert like but then with these odd structures (once they'd loaded). You can see in the background of the pic below that it also had these weird balloon tent things that were labelled as spas, where you can configure your character's appearance.

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my creations

I've now registered on a site called FileDen so can host some of my stuff that I've been making.

As you will find out, I'm quite a junkie on Powerpoint - it's what I've got on my computer and so I make use of it in the best way I can!

(Word of warning, I use Office XP and so anything newer than that may mean these won't work properly, or in order etc, apologies!)

Twinkle twinkle little star - motion graphics piece based around the lullaby song.

No matter where you go - motion graphics piece using a quotation I found and liked.

Flashing stars game - a 'simple' look and click game. It is basic, and could be improved, but it's my first go at a little game!

These are all just random things that I've played about with, no theme or anything like that. Enjoy!

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there.com #2

Well in the bizarre online world, I at first thought that this random stranger was ignoring me... however, after persevering, I found him to be French and so probably couldn't understand what I was saying! Not ignoring!


This resulted in me bringing back my repetoire of what I could remember from GCSE French and I think he understood me! A few examples being "Quelle age as tu?" and "Quelle est ton passetemps prefere?"







This is one thing I never thought of when signing up to such a site, I just expected everyone to talk English, in fact, I didn't even think about the possibilty of other languages. Granted, he could speak English a little, but nonetheless, the virtual world means you have the potential to mix with a far greater community than you would probably ever likely have the opportunity in the real world.


One of the things we're going to focus on for this module is creating an avatar, a second digital version of yourself. Unfortunately, being new to there.com I haven't yet been able to change my appearance any. I'm guessing, but I can see the requirement of money arising and at this stage, am not that deeply involved for it to be a worthwhile transaction!

But still, I'll keep you posted on what I get up to.

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sketching

What with this being a new year and all, I've decided to try new things, so I've tried my hand at sketching.


I looked into the basics of drawing, like the shapes that form the head, and from there, tried cartoon drawings from sample images I found.


The results here are the better attempts I made - once I got into it, I quite enjoyed bringing the characters I know, into reality, with my very own hand.





This was meant to be manga, Lil from Rugrats and baby Minnie Mouse

Random portrait sketch and this I think has something Disney-esqe to it? Don't know who though!


Prior to this, I wouldn't have thought I could do it, but practice makes perfect, so I'll be having another go in the not too distant future.

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ive not got a secondlife, but im there.com

Right, so new year, new update on the blog! Back at uni now so time to commence the creativity once again!

We were told at the end of last term to get ourselves a second life... its a virtual world where you can travel, meet people, build and create stuff (or so i think!) However, upon trying to register about 5 times i kept being rejected by the Lindon company or whoever makes it, so I've had to find somewhere else to live virtually... and that is there.com.

My first experience of it is that its very much like the Sims, but online. You wander around, play with things, such as buggy races, or hoverboards, or visit people's places!

So far I've met a helpful character in the form of Kryllen. I was introduced to there, showed the ropes and added Kryllen so if any help is needed, I can always instant message him.. or her, I never asked! lol

As of my first voyage, having spent a couple of hours, I've met a few randomers and raced around in random buggys! I've been to places such as Perfection, iMetropolis, Coca-Cola Metro, and this randomer called Billy 9401 just rode anywhere and everywhere in his buggy. And when I say that its the truth: we went up mountains vertically... simply cos you can!

I'll update about my treks into the potentially vast virtual world regularly, so everything that cracks off in there.com over the next few days and weeks you can find here...

One last thought before I go, it's mad how you can't even use the therebucks money in the real world, but still, people plough loads of their own money into this VR. I saw on Secondlife that today over $1M had been spent in America. Weird!! (But then also a highly profitable venture if you were to make a VR yourself!)

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