Episode 23 of The Drax Files : World Makers brings to the table a fascinating interview with Second Life content creator Loz Hyde, the owner of the Meshworx brand. Loz has a day job of building 3D models so you may feel that he’s just extending his day job inside Second Life. However his day job includes making models for film and commercials. Amongst his credits are Terminator Salvation, 2012 and Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Loz expains how part of the beauty of a virtual world such as Second Life is that it gives him the power to create a world in his own vision. That world can then be explored by other people via their avatars, they can become immersed in it, they can interact with it.
Loz also points out how as a content creator he can transfer the profits from his sales to Paypal and then to his bank account. There’s money in them there builds. Whereas it’s definitely not easy money, those with the talent to create and market their wares can indeed make real money out of their Second Life experience. Loz also points out one of the big plus points of virtual world items, their durability. A virtual sofa will not erode with age, you won’t get tears and rips in it. Well I guess someone could build a model that does erode, but generally they don’t erode. They will become dated over time of course and whereas Loz doesn’t mention this in his interview, the advent of Mesh in Second Life has made some older prim based items dated. However those old prim based items haven’t eroded!
The episode uses the usual feature of inworld footage and real world footage and this is especially relevant to this episode because Loz explains how he brings the real world into Second Life. He spends time taking photos of buildings and scenery to provide the vision to create that inworld item.
We also see a good example of a content creator at work here as Loz talks about how long it takes him to create a building, some of the tools he uses and how Second Life content creation is not as easy as some inside and outside of Second Life may well believe. This is a time consuming process but Loz’s builds look like they are time well spent because they have some real depth and richness to them.
Another important aspect of this episode and one that is often overlooked is the concept of lifelong learning. Loz admits that he started to become a 3D creator when he was 40, he’s not a college kid by any stretch of the imagination and this is one of the beauties of virtual worlds, the ability to learn new skills.
However this isn’t just an episode about a successful content creator. Loz talks about social interactions in Second Life, how people interact with each other in a different way to how they may outside of the virtual world and how that can be positive. Loz ends with a very good quote :
If people on the outside could really see what is possible in Second Life, there would be a lot more people doing it.
That’s one of the reasons why The Drax Files series is such a good concept, because it helps to spread the world of what is possible in Second Life. Linden Lab have grasped this concept and not only are they proud sponsors of The Drax Files : World Makers, they also blog about the episodes too.
This is another excellent episode and at around five minutes long it really is worth a look.
SLURL To Meshworx : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fresco/32/126/31
Not related to the episode but i do found that reg prims are not dated in any way, in fact the combo of using them with mesh is the best for land impact.
Sculpted prims on the other way, razzes slower now so, at least me and my soul mate, are replacing all we build sculpted by mesh, with amazing results in land impact and rezzing times.
Some old prim builds are still stunning and for simple shapes prims are still a very useful tool.