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.

If a picture tells a thousand stories, what does the new Koinup slide show do for us?

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Our friend and partner at Koinup, Pierluigi Casolari is a darn good listener and community builder. Earlier this week, I DM'ed him via Twitter, asking if we could create and post slide shows on our blogs. This morning he DM'ed back to say that he and his wizard tech team had whipped up a widget just for us. All you have to do is set up the slide show with your own pics in Koinup and then go to "share this" for two dozen options. Now I can show you - all at once - my Bond-ish pics taken at Juria Yoshikawa's retrospective, presented by Atlanta, Georgia's Kennesaw State University (teleport directly from here).


Koinup is an inclusive social networking site for all Virtual Worlds that permits storage and sharing of imagery: photography, Machinima, and "storyboards." 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.

Bryn Oh's abandoned robot theme park - Tomorrow's featured NPIRL-Koinup Safari

by Bettina Tizzy

Tomorrow, January 10th at 11:00am SLT, and awaiting on the other side of your teleport (directly from here) will be Bryn Oh. For an hour, this talented content creator will give an intimate and informative tour of one of the most photogenic sims on the grid: Immersiva. I've had the experience, and I guarantee that you will never look at Bryn's work the same.

A few weeks ago, Dusan Writer - the coolest businessman in SL, and yes! He is the same man who acquired and created a home for Eshi Otawara's Flower Tower - underscored his role as an arts benefactor by giving Bryn Oh her very own sim to do with it what she wished. Imagine Bryn with the abilty to create her own ground textures... her very own world.


Bryn Oh and Mr. Lightbulb

Immersiva is emerging as one of the truly great sims on the grid. Before you go, you really, really should add Bryn's Windlight preset and all its blue-ish atmosphere. You can download it and get installation instructions here (it's easy!) or set it up manually:


Immersiva Sky Windlight setting by Bryn Oh:

Go to World at top left of your screen. In the drop down menu at the bottom pick environment settings and then environment editor. Click on Advanced Sky. Then click the button "new".

If you are using a Mac, go to your Applications folder, right-click "Second Life WindLight", select "Show Package Contents", then open Contents > Resources > app_settings > Windlight

Under Atmosphere

Blue horizon R=0.24 G=0.43 B=0.50 I=0.50
Haze Horizon=0.65
Blue Density R=0.08 G=0.21 B=0.39 I=0.39
Haze Density=4.0
Density Multiplier=0.36
Distance Multiplier=11.6
Max Altitude=586

Under Lighting

Sun/moon colour is all set to 0.18
Sun/moon position is 0.25
Ambient is all set to 0.11
East Angle is 0
Sun Glow focus 0.1 size 1.81
Scene Gamma is 1
Star B is 0

Under Clouds tab

Cloud Color is all 0.7
Cloud Density x and y is 0.5 and D is 0.54
Cloud coverage is 0.5
Cloud scale is 0.53
Cloud detail x and y is 0.5 and D is 0.12
Cloud scroll x is 1.45
Cloud scroll Y is .01

Now give this preset a name, such as "Immersiva" and save it. Voila! You are ready.


Bryn's "Ferrisquito" in the background...

Immersiva has its own page on Koinup, which you will find here.



Once a month, NPIRL and 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.

Winner of Koinup's Avatar Art contest - NPIRL category

Koinup's Avatar Art contest has just concluded and the winners have been announced in each of the three categories: surreal/Not Possible in Real Life; post-modern/traditional and kitsch; and realistic-pop art. The contest was open to photography taken in all virtual worlds.

It was my pleasure to judge the surreal/Not Possible in Real Life category, and the winner is Winter Wardhani with this image.



While there were hundreds of photographs to choose from, I selected Winter's image because she strayed away from the "beautiful human" look and did something entirely different, and fun. You can view all of the entries here.

The winning photographs are on display at the Museo del Metaverso.

Lumiere Noir's personal tour of Planet Mongo - It's the next stop on the Koinup-NPIRL Safari

Combine Antoni Gaudí and Paulo Portoghesi's architectural styles with a handful of The Jetsons' flair and a sprinkle of kitch, and voila! You have Planet Mongo, the one-of-a-kind, always changing, fantastical Flash Gordon-inspired sim created by the master of building himself... Lumiere Noir.



"Howdy, howdy!"
This Saturday, October 18 at 11:30am SLT, and waiting on the other side of your teleport (Planet Mongo slurl) will be Lumiere Noir (aka Vince Frost; rez 12/24/2003), there to give you a personal tour of one of the most photogenic sims on the grid: Planet Mongo.



Among many other things, he is the creator of the Ivory Tower of Prims where most everyone has learned to build, and also many of the most imaginative and fanciful vehicles in Second Life®.



The event will be the second in a series as part of the Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL groups' partnership with Koinup - an inclusive social networking site for all Virtual Worlds that permits storage and sharing of imagery: photography, Machinima, and "storyboards." 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.

Planet Mongo has its own page on Koinup, which you will find here.



Once a month, NPIRL and Koinup are offering tours - 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. See you there!

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.

Not Possible IRL + Koinup = Not Possible IRL Safaris: First stop... the world of Tayzia Abattoir

The Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL groups are partnering with Koinup - an inclusive social networking site for all Virtual Worlds that permits storage and sharing of imagery: photography, Machinima, and "storyboards" - to host a new kind of joint monthly event called the Not Possible IRL Safaris.



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.

Koinup's CEO Pierluigi Casolari and I agree that the convergence of media from all these worlds will expose Koinup's members to new ideas and stimulate an appreciation for new lands, as well as heavy crossover. Speaking for myself, I hope that crossover will funnel thousands of new members to Second Life, where user content creation and creativity are not only possible, but the future of the 3D web. I also see it as a way to promote and showcase top-notch creators and their quality content.

To that end, the first Not Possible IRL Safari will be hosted by the ultimate aggregator of art in Second Life, Tayzia Abattoir, on Saturday, September 13th at 6pm SLT, starting at the Crescent Moon (teleport directly from here).

The first Safari: The World of Tayzia Abattoir
Tayzia founded the Crescent Moon Museum - the longest continously-running art house in Second Life - back in February 2005 and her inventory (over 70k items and practically all of it art!) is probably the richest in-world repository of one-of-a-kind sculptures, art installations, paintings and photography in all of Second Life. In addition to running the Crescent Moon, Tayzia also curates the New Media Consortium's (NMC) Kirsti Aho Museum , and Ars Simulacra, the NMC's Second Life artist showcase island.

About a year ago, Tayzia took me under her incredible wings and gave me a crash course on art and artists in Second Life, leaving my own life and virtual dreams forever changed. Tayzia rezzes art that no one else possesses, and knows more about how each artist got started, who's work they were influenced by, and what they are up to, than anyone else on the grid. It's simply the best way to kick off the Not Possible IRL Safaris with our new partner, Koinup.

Later and once a month, NPIRL and Koinup will offer Safaris and tours 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. See you there!

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.