Here's what you missed... Kazuhiro Aridian's avatars

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

A highlight of Saturday's activities was the NPIRL Koinup Safari featuring a presentation by Kazuhiro Aridian on avatar creations. The sim filled with photographers, machinimators and creators even before the event began, so here's an overview of what transpired there for those who were unable to attend.




Photography by Bark Aabye

Kazuhiro is an artisan who spends several months painstakingly creating one avatar at a time. We learned that Kaz's perfect avatars are no accident.


Kaz won't sell me this graphics card-killer avatar no matter how much I beg. Kaz??

They begin with fantastical illustrations coupled with back stories birthed in Kazuhiro's dreams, followed by hundreds of textures, animations, and sculpted prims in Maya, all meticulously detailed.


Photograph by Eves Rodenberger

Chenin Anabuki of Avatrian sent us this excellent video featuring difficult-to-capture highlights of the presentation, including several of Kaz's earliest never-on-the-market avatars and glimpses of the AO's, sans prims, lest you imagine that anything Kaz does is tossed together.

Hit the HQ button!


You can add your own photographs from the session to the NPIRL Koinup Safari group, and visit Kazuhiro's shop by teleporting directly from here.

Kazuhiro Aridian's dreamed creatures - Tomorrow's featured NPIRL-Koinup Safari

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Tomorrow, April 18th at 10:30am SLT, and awaiting on the other side of your teleport (directly from here) will be Kazuhiro Aridian in a newly created environment that simply begs to be photographed.


The delicate, leafy and aquatic Seadryke avatar, worn by its creator, Kazuhiro Aridian

I've seen Kazuhiro turn a sandbox into a stadium with hordes of people simply standing there, jaws dropping to the floor, watching Kaz make some of the most complex, ferocious or vulnerable (and animated and flawlessly realized) avatars on the grid, including the much celebrated and feared Dravyn and the gentle Seadryke.



Now, get a behind-the-scenes look at what's involved, as well as the evolution of Kazuhiro's non-human avatars. Meet the artist and get a peek at new creations, as well as a fantastical new virtual space. Lots to photograph. We'll begin by teleporting here.



Once a month, NPIRL and Pierluigi Casolari's (aka Koinup Burt in SL) Koinup - an inclusive social networking site for all Virtual Worlds that permits storage and sharing of imagery: photography, Machinima, and "storyboards" - are offering the NPIRL Safaris - with many of Second Life's best content creators, exposing the participants to new sims, new content, and new ideas that are leaving the old world behind and breaching the future.



Among the Virtual Worlds you'll find images of on Koinup: Second Life®, World of Warcraft, Lively, The Sims, IMVU, vSide, Kaneva, There, and more.

The Not Possible IRL (NPIRL) and Impossible IRL (ImpIRL) groups are dedicated to identifying and sharing well conceived and realized content creation in Virtual Worlds which would not be possible in Real Life: architecture, landscaping, art, animations, fashion, particle effects, building tools and scripts... show me, I'll show you.

Where SeaDrykes go to dance and dream - and a dream source, too

I'm not sure why, but every time I have a chat with Kazuhiro Aridian, we end up talking about dreams.

While Kazuhiro is known throughout the grid for creating flawless and over-the-top creature avatars, I'm happy to report that Kaz is now exploring the realm of sculpture.


Click to see large

Beginning with the delicate and leafy aquatic Seadrkye I shared with you one month ago, Kaz has merged the exquisitely sculpted and textured avatars with art, to much success. You can see this sculpture for a very limited time by teleporting directly from here, but best go soon!


"The Seadrykes dance around a glowing orb of light, mirroring each other as the strange glow emits bubbles around them"

It was this discovery that prompted yet another conversation that took us into now familiar territory.

Can we hope to see more of your creatures incorporated into large-scale sculptures? And do you daydream about these creatures?

Kazuhiro Aridian: Heck yes, to both! Sadly, they're not part of my nightly dreamings, but they certainly make up much of my daydreaming. Also, I'm going to be making full colour watercolour and ink illustrations for each creature and selling prints alongside the creatures, when I get them done : D



Kazuhiro Aridian: I have a separate dreamscape... it is an exaggeration of reality, and where I lived as a kid. My road becomes a placid river... Two small hills at the dead end of my road become large sand dunes, and beyond the dunes is a large river, which is a creek in Real Life, and beneath it lays the skeleton of a small airplane.

You are serious? This is your night dreamscape?

Kazuhiro Aridian: It sort of propells my daydreams, but I don't get to see these creatures within my childhood dreamscape, though there is a dinosaur reserve if you follow the river far enough...

This discussion got me to thinking about the sources of our dreams, and how much they inspire content creation. A little Googling later, I discovered this unusual and fascinating website: The World Dream Bank. Get thee dreaming, creators!

You can own this sculpture or any of Kazuhiro's primordial beasts by stopping by here.

Early reveal of Seadryke: Kazuhiro Aridian's newest avatar

There are hundreds of avatar creators in Second Life, but the mark for the highest quality and detail sans pareil belongs to one person. The last time Kazuhiro Aridian introduced one of these mythological beings, there was a spectacular wave of appreciation. The buzz in the sandbox as Kaz worked... why I've never seen anything like it, before or since.

Now Kaz is finalizing a docile, unguarded and ever so delicate creature... like a sea leaf, or feather, and its name is Seadryke.



Having worked in Maya for the sculpties (71 prims at this point), Kaz is going on to create 30 animations, using Qavimator.

Kazuhiro Aridian: I've made five animations, but I'm only happy with two so far. What's left? The AO, the HUD, and the special animations will be based on about 20-30 particle emitters and an animation that puts him 10 meters underground.



Kazuhiro Aridian: You will push the button, and all the boxes will send out a short burst of "ink," so there's a lot of emitters, and they'll make the shape of the avatar before he hides... kinda like a nightcrawler sort of effect, I guess! He's also going to shoot bubbles and ink out of his mouth, and other animations like that.



Kazuhiro Aridian: I'm further developing the story behind my shoppe. Kaz is a dream explorer. She/he resides within the realm of the Dreaming, and collects these dream beasts. The shoppe is a trading post of dream creatures.

Bettina Tizzy: How do you mean? "dream explorer?"

Kazuhiro Aridian: She wears steampunky sorts of clothes, and has wings made of cogs and clouds.

Nearly completed

Kazuhiro Aridian rang me up a couple of days ago to let me know that we'll soon be seeing this creature on the market. Kaz is just preparing the documentation and packaging. I tried it on last night and every detail, from the HUD, animations and particle effects, to the actual av... perfection. Kudos, Kaz!

The devil is in the details... Kazuhiro Aridian's avatar creation: progress report

I don't know how Kazuhiro Aridian - one of the friendliest characters I know in SL - manages to produce such quality work while being simultaneously and continually surrounded by admirers all asking questions at the sandbox. Kaz works with Maya to produce the sculpties for this and other creations, and has already added 15 animations to the avatar, but still wants to add more!

Put this one in your pocket...

Dear Sherpas of the metaverse. Thank you for all your insights and hot tips! Loads of yummy stuff to share this time. - Bettina

WELCOME to Juria Yoshikawa, one of our newest members. Most of you have been to Juria's "Blink," a creation that is at the nexus of what our group is all about.

****NOW Juria is creating an underwater scheme that is only possible in our dreams. Light to midnite and crank up that sound. I spend way too much time here.

Heart's Desire by Juria Yoshikawa

SEIFERT Surface, a real world mathematician and in-world creator, has promised to give us a tour of his works soon, but you can get a jump on things by visiting his June 2006 recreation of Robert Heinlein's Crooked House, built like a four dimensional hypercube. You can read more about it here.
The Crooked House

FYI : In mathematics, a Seifert surface is a surface whose boundary is a given knot or link.

SCULPTIE LOVERS:

New NPIRL member Kazuhiro Aridian has been drawing large crowds at the Isle of Wyrms sandbox while she tries to finish up her work - on an avatar made of sculpties that TeeCee Towradgi described as "just crazy nuts!" Ooooo! Aaaaaah!

Kazuhiro pointed out that if sculpties are your thing, then you'll want to see Wyeth Greene's giant crab, even before he textures it.

Wyeth Greene's Giant Crab

Sabine Stonebender's Zero Point - recommended to the group last week "Stop thinking!" - was written up in a relatively new pub on the arts in sl: http://www.slartmagazine.com/ This build is so complex that it merits multiple visits. Look for the Vomit Comet and the throne.

Notice originally issued to the NPIRL group on July 30, 2007