The Drax Files – Page 9

May 30, 2013

The Drax Files Episode 6 – Abramelin Wolfe

The thing about going on holiday is that you miss things and I’ll try and catch up this evening if I can, a bit at least. One of the things I missed whilst walk along the beach in Majorca was episode 6 of the excellent Drax Files, as usual I’ll embed the video at the end of the post.

This episode featured Abramelin Wolfe, AKA Animation King of Abranimations in Second Life, which for those unfamilair with the brand is an animation store, one that even I’ve heard of and as I’m often poked for not wearing an AO inworld, that’s rather impressive! At their store you will also find avatars, skins, games, toys, vehicles and gadgets.

The thing about this interview is that it gives you an insight into the eye watering costs of animation accessories, Abramelin talks of how he purchased his first mocap suit back in 2005 at the eye watering cost of £14,000, the suit also looks very painful. Most people think of Second Life content creators as being plucky amateurs but with setup costs like that, we’re delving into a far more professional world.

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May 3, 2013

The Drax Files Episode 5 – Engrama

May 26th 1982, Aston Villa defeated Bayern Munich in the European Cup final to become champions of Europe. The following season, Aston Villa defeated Barcelona over two legs to win the European Super Cup, which whilst not quite as impressive, was still a mighty success for The Villa.

This week in The Champions League, Bayern Munich completed a stunning 7-0 success over two legs against Barcelona to reach this year’s final. Buenos Aires isn’t in Europe so there are no European football games to link in, patience, I’m getting there.

What on earth has this got to do with Second Life I hear you ask, well other than an excuse for reliving Villa’s glory days, Barcelona, Bavaria, Birmingham, Buenos Aires, different parts of the globe all brought together in Second Life and in the case of Bavaria, Barcelona and Buenos Aires it also points to the latest episode of The Drax Files.

This week Draxtor Despres has published an edition where he talks to a couple who live in Spain, one half of the duo is originally from Spain and the other half originally from Buenos Aires, I believe. Together the couple play live music in Second Life and also play live music in Barcelona … see, there was a link! I’ll post the video at the end of the post but yet again Drax has done a fine job here and we have yet another good example of use cases for Second Life.

The male and female duo of Pupito Helstein and Lakua Arriaga have joined together to form a group called Engrama. They perform live in Second Life by using an electronic guitar, electronic drums and a mixer, which they then stream into Second Life. When it comes to Second Life some people play live and others use backing tracks, Engrama don’t use backing tracks, they prefer their music to be live and unique. They also prefer to play original songs and will, if the mood takes them, improvise and create their own new songs during their performances.

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April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

Fantasy Faire 2013 Starts Tomorrow

Fantasy Faire 2013 will officially open its doors tomorrow, although I may know a route through a secret passageway hidden in a mountain to get early access. This blog is going to go deep into Fantasy Faire and to get the ball rolling, Draxtor Despres has a special edition of The Drax files highlighting Fantasy Faire, Relay For Life and a discussion with Fantasy Faire organiser Zandar Greene.

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April 5, 2013April 5, 2013

The Drax Files Episode 3 – Eshi Otawara

Episode 3 of The Drax files features Eshi Otawara, I’ll embed the video at the end of the post. Whereas previous episodes have highlighted the benefits of Second Life in areas such as recreating real world objects and activities, this episode sees Eshi make a strong case for use of Second Life for things that aren’t really possible in real life, or as Eshi describes it, physical reality, which sounds more sensible than real life as a virtual world exists within real life, which is another point Eshi makes. A virtual world exists within a real universe …. well the ones we use anyway!

Eshi is an artistic person, a classical paint and brush art type person, who has managed to crossover and embrace art within Second Life by making dresses, which have a lot of flair by the looks of it. I’m not a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination so I can’t really comment on the style of Eshi’s designs.

Again Draxtor succeeds in getting behind the avatar and showing the real person, which ties in with Eshi’s views on using Second Life, it’s a real person projecting on the screen. I find this getting behind the avatar one of the most compelling aspects of this series, it’s the real person that pulls the strings but going into a virtual world gives the person the option to pull new strings.

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March 22, 2013

The Drax Files Episode 2 – 1920’s Berlin What A Good Place To Be

So what happens when someone from Amsterdam is a fan of the 1930’s to such an extent that they dress and decorate their home in the style of that era? That’s right, they come to Second Life and build a 1920’s Berlin roleplaying location with future plans to build a sim in the style of 1940’s London….. wait, what? Well all is revealed in The Drax Files episode 2: Jo Yardley (embedded at bottom of post) which takes a look at 1920’s Berlin and the voice of the 1920’s Berlin Project, the very enthusiastic Frau (Jo) Yardley. The result is yet another stunning example of good promotion of Second Life by Draxtor Despres.

The epsiode is largely narrated by Jo Yardley, who doesn’t have a television or mobile phone in her own home, but does have a computer from where she brings her vision of 1920’s Berlin to life. Draxtor Despres and those involved in this production have done an excellent job of bringing 1920’s Berlin to video, to such an extent that initially I didn’t realise it was Second Life!

In this episode Draxtor once again uses inworld footage as well utilising already made outside footage of Jo in Amsterdam to show the person behind the wares in their real life environment, which brings home the message that the person behind the avatar is real. I’ve mentioned before how good a medium this is for promoting Second Life and how it would be good if Linden Lab got in on the act. I’ve also pointed out that there are issues such as editorial impartiality for Linden Lab that Draxtor and others don’t face, so it’s trickier for Linden Lab but I hope they are taking note of the positive nature of these videos. They are at least aiding the promotion by blogging about it.

In this episode Jo talks about her love of the era on which her sim is based, the style, the architecture as well as how she’s a fan of such dress sense outside of Second Life too! Jo also does look scarily like her avatar, no no no, stop right there, she’s not seven foot two with gravity defying double D boobs, neither is her Second Life avatar, which probably explains why her RL self looks so similar to her Second Life self.

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The 1920s Berlin Project