What *has* Nomasha Syaka been up to?

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

When it comes to virtual creations, I'm a snoopy gumshoe. I want to know what everyone's making, and especially a handful of people I keep track of at all times. For the past year I've been pinging "Anything new, Nom?" now and then, and not getting a straight answer. Just invoking the guy's name here with some news makes me happy, for Nomasha Syaka (rez: 9/13/2006) is the British creator of the poetic sculpted Icarus that I often rez at my own Chakryn, as well as the wacky blender where I take folks when we're up for a giggle. His in-world group I use my nose to type is worth joining for the name alone. He is also renown for his electric guitars, sculpted tigers and wolves, among other animals, but he has been suspiciously quiet for a long, long time.

So an IM from the owner of Blackwater Gallery Jurin Juran to say that she was dancing, and why, had the effect of a bottle of vintage champagne. It turns out that he has been making motion capture animations. Like a hundred of them! Fluid, fun, funny and lots of the oolala variety.

The first and most vital necessity was to dance... and obviously to speak with Nomasha.


Nomasha's sim, re-purposed and lovely

So... what have you been up to for the past year?

Nomasha Syaka: Getting these animations ready – they are very difficult to make and process. I made it my mission to produce better animations and I think for the greater part, I have. Most of the feedback I have received so far suggests this and I have been as obsessive about it as I was about making art objects in SL.

Did you have experience with mocap before?

Nomasha Syaka: None at all, nor with animation generally. Self taught. Though I use someone to process the data once it is recorded and he is a real expert.

How did you recruit your dancers? Did you dance, too?

Nomasha Syaka: Lol, my dancing would qualify for NPIRL. No, I use professional dancers always, recruited from London dance agencies.


Fruits and noobs and bears and all sorts of things zoom by and over the animation stands

How do you make mocap animations?

Nomasha Syaka: The dancer wears a special suit and multiple cameras record the dancer’s movement. These calculations are then transferred onto a computer character and a lot of processing has to be done by hand to ‘clean’ the information and make them suitable for Second Life®. The SL avatar skeleton is a freak, so you have to make a lot of adjustments for it.

You were among the first creators to provide Second Life's musicians with beautifully crafted guitars. Do you have music in your background? (There are over a dozen fabulous animations for guitar players, by the way). Why guitars?

Nomasha Syaka: No music background, at all. I learned the violin as a child for a couple of weeks, and then the teacher disappeared and was never seen again by anyone. Later on I learned the flute, but then the school's music building caught fire and burnt to the ground. Not a good history with music. I made the first guitar because I knew it would be difficult, as no one had made any decent ones at all.

I was relieved to discover that you've rezzed the Blender on the revamped sim. I would have been miserable if it had vanished.

Nomasha Syaka: My favorite build... never been sold.


Nomasha makes it possible for you to dance moving over and around a white tiger, via four different animations

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Are all your interests coming together with this new venture? Music, tigers, art, and now...

Nomasha Syaka: Time for some more sculptures, I hope!

Will there be a NPIRL category of dances?

Nomasha Syaka: When I record myself dancing – for sure.


You can teleport to Nomasha's Ministry of Motion from here.

Forget Snow White's apple. For righteously grim fruit, turn to Nomasha Syaka

In addition to making highly detailed guitars that would have made Stevie Ray Vaughan or Hendrix proud, Nomasha Syaka famously creates things of classic or natural beauty. There's his first-rate take on Michelangelo's David, and the sculpted prim horses we now all have in our inventories by default, and of course, his life-like animated tigers.

But it turns out that his endlessly inventive mind can take some interesting detours... To begin this five minute stop-over, teleport directly from here, and follow the trail of apples.



Select "eat me" on the last apple and enjoy the ride.



I won't show you what happens next 'cause it would spoil your fun. Suffice it to say that Nomasha's morbidly playful creation forces you to become both the observer and the victim as you watch yourself being blended and broken up into bloody bits, all the while blithely scoring the cinematic experience with the cheerful tune, "I'm sitting on top of the world..."


Here, White Lebed is in for a surprise.

Nomasha thoughtfully provides a hospital bed for you to rest and recuperate after the joy ride.

Thanks to my sis, Tayzia Abattoir, for sharing this delightful horror with me.

Nomasha's Icarus

Our very own Nomasha Syaka just finished this jaw-dropping, handmade sculptie (120 prims) interpretation of Icarus four days ago, using Maya and ZBrush.

I stress that this sculpture is handmade, because - as Nomasha explained it to me - the SL market is becoming flush with sculptures that were created using pre-made models, such as those you can find in Poser. Said Nomasha, "the builder positions them however he/she wants and exports them to SL, with minimal work, through programs like 3DMax, and all the texturing is simplified. You can usually identify such imports by the rough edges and lack of 3D detail."

For those of you who don't remember this Greek mythical character, Icarus was the son of Daedalus and both were imprisoned in the Cretian Labyrinth by King Minos. To escape, Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings from feathers and wax, and warned his son not to fly too close to the sun... advice that Icarus did not observe.

When I asked Nomasha why he had chosen to represent the sun with Second Life's logo, he replied: "that's for you to think about :). I done enough thunking."

I played with Nomasha's Icarus just as he had created it, and have to admit, it is extraordinary...


But I still like it in the moonlight better... without the SL sun. Let's make our own mythology.


Regardless, Nomasha's Icarus now heads the list of favorite things stashed away in my alarmingly bloated inventory. (Note to self: set aside one full day to tidy this up. Heh... yea, right!)

Head on over to Nomasha's sim, and while you are there, don't forget to play with his wicked blender. Follow the trail of apples and "eat" the last one. :P
Slurl: Nomasha Syaka

This week's notice to you Busy People

This notice was issued to NPIRL members on August 10, 2007, in-world.

* NOMASHA SYAKA'S BLENDER
We are lucky lucky lucky to have Tayzia Abattoir in the group. What a treasure trove. She giggled when she learned that I had not experienced Nomasha Syaka's Blender. Take a friend (and maybe an enemy, too ^.^) and follow the trail of apples to the last one. Touch and "eat it."
Nomasha's Blender
~ Nomasha... welcome to our group! I'm afraid I drooled a little bit over your guitars and sculptures, too.
~~ Nomasha owns the group "I use my nose to type..."

* URASIMA CLOCK ISLAND
Dali-esk, monochromatic, other-wordly, and definitely NPIRL. Numbers dash about and squeal.
Urasima
All the info is in Japanese... so I watched the video at Crazy-Genius . Anyone know these builders?

* JAPANESE STEAM PUNK + fusion
Can steam punk - in its varous SL manifestations - ever be NPIRL? Sound off on the blog. But first check dis place out. Later, you can take the hot air balloon, and lazily work your way down to the diff levels. Teleporter in the cafe, btw, is the cardboard box. This visit will take a bit of time, is well built, and is a pleasant way to unjangle your nerves after a hectic day.
Forbidden Island

~~ time sensitive! ~~
* Juria Yoshikawa's "Blink" is having a closing party tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm SLT. He's also been fiddling with fire... take a look...
NO SLURL as the event has ended

Here's the video of the closing party - fun! - featuring the music of AldoManutio Abruzzo

~~ fyi ~~
* Some NEW excellent things at the Greenies Home Rezzable, created by NPIRL member Pavig Lok and team.
Greenies Home Rezzable

Welcome to our new members:
- Amalthea Blanc
- AngryBeth Shortbread
- Avi Arrow
- Felix Wakmann - thanks again for the fab SLBrowser freebie, Felix. You guys gotta check it out. Really.
- Finny Yates
- Jurin Juran
- Matthew Kidoman
- Nomasha Syaka
- Scope Cleaver

Fondly,
Bettina Tizzy