Grendel's Children and Avaria featured in new Nitwacket machinima + A chat with Flea Bussy

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Perched high in the sky over the four Avaria sims in Second Life® is a place that holds as much magic as the virtual constellations that surround it, for within the Grendel's Children store are the seeds of imagination and playtime where grownups go to shrug off the stress of their daily real lives and explore other parts of themselves. This, the largest emporium in virtual worlds for non-human avatars, is the land of pretend... turbo-charged.

Flea Bussy, the founder and lead creator of this empire, didn't set out to provide tens of thousands of people with therapeutic tools, but I can personally attest to their power. To put it in purely quantitative terms, I must own over 200 avatars from Grendels (not including color variations) and I've worn every single one more than once.

It's been nearly 18 months since I last did a serious post on Grendel's, and Pyewacket Bellman's latest machinima - gorgeous! - featuring Avaria and several of their newest avatars prompted me to touch base with Flea.

I thought I'd kick it off by asking him to update me on some of the fast facts I published back then. His responses in italics:

FAST FACTS ABOUT FLEA BUSSY

* Rez day: 6/29/2006
* Flea is only 22 years old!
I'm now 20 years old! Wait, no, that's not right, how do we do this again?
* Works an average of 20 hours a day, 7 days a week
Works 25 hours a day, sleep was given up in the 24th hour! 365, all year!
* Was kicked out of art class
* First store opened on September 1, 2006
* Grendel's Children has produced more than 800 avatars
Grendel's has made way too many avatars to count. It hurts my little brain! [Note from Bettina: Many, many hundreds more]
* Average price per avatar: $150L to $250L, with many freebies available
Average price per avatar: $1L to $150L, with many , many, many freebies available

Favorite recent creations?

Flea: Does my staff count?

You and several members of your staff collaborated in-world while in Skype conference back then. Are you still doing this?

Flea: Oh, depends if we have to have little meetings on new ideas or such. Otherwise it's just normally us typing in the box actually. [Bettina: Working in Maya, plus Skype, plus the SL client is a formula for lag.]

How has the environment changed for avatar creators in the past year? Copybotting, more advanced sculpty work, a stabler grid, etc.

Flea: We wouldn't know, we kinda just stay in Avaria. I'd assume that those things like a stabler grid might exist, but, only in stories n song, you know, mythological stuff! We've never noticed anyone bothering to copybot what is almost all free here anyway. It's probably more work to copybot our stuff then just get like, $5L and buy it.

Avaria & Grendel's Children from Nitwacket Machinima™ on Vimeo.

The Avaria sims, were rebuilt in just 5 days and are now unified by a single river cutting through sandstone canyons and lined with hardwood forests and surrounded by drier pine uplands.

Terraforming: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook, Psyra Extraordinare, Sanje Batra, Constant Riel, and Toady Nakamura

Rocks, sculpts, caves, tree and plant creation: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook, Sanje Batra, RaptonX Zorger, Merlin Falworth and Toady Nakamura.

Prim installation: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook, RaptonX Zorger, Sanje Batra, Psyra Extraordinare, Constantine Riel, Merlin Falworth and Toady Nakamura.

Village: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook

Scripting - Craft System: Flea Bussy
Scripting - Drakelets: Piper Zuhal
Scripting - Geysers, sun dial, sound prims, rockfalls: Toady Nakamura
Waterfall and statuary particles; water and motion - Flea Bussy

Teleport to Grendel's Children directly from here, and don't forget to explore the Avaria sims below.

See also:

* Flea Bussy's empire: Grendel's Children, one wacky avatar at a time...

* Climbing walls, sky dancing (in HD!), and weightless sex/showers - Part IV in our Gravity in Virtual Worlds series

* Flea Bussy - Makin' stuff for the love of orks 'n goblins

NPIRLer Lash Xevious' "BEST of Second Life" list

Imagine asking a much admired and advanced content creator - or a hardcore adventurer - to share the very best of Second Life® with you, and then being handed a list of favorite haunts, lesser known destinations, preferred builds and best loved sites... what they consider to be The Classics. Now imagine that treasured list multiplied several times over, and that's what you will experience on this blog over the next few days and weeks.

I'm asking members of the Not Possible IRL group - and these are among the people who know and love the grid best and have a profound understanding of what was involved to deliver the quality seen at the installations - to recommend and share both well-known and undiscovered places with you. Their favorites... their Top Ten... or fewer.

Lists like these cannot be comprehensive. They are highly personal and deeply reflect the preferences of a generous, expert, and opinionated taste-maker.

Just in time for your weekend explorations, here is a list by the very lovely Lash Xevious. She has been in Second Life since May of 2004, and her spectacular and artful sim, La Reve, is a personal favorite of many NPIRLers, including myself, and a must see (teleport directly from here). She's the artist's artist. - Bettina Tizzy


Research, text and photography by Lash Xevious

It was great to get back to my roots as a newbie "photojournalist" and just take pictures of places I enjoy and finding the story in them.

All these places inspired me to write something or sketch, even revisit them in my dreams. I appreciate that I can come to Second Life and receive that kind of inspiration from other people. There are some places I would have loved to share but they no longer exist ... Felonhall City comes to mind. There are remnants but not the same... I would've also wished you could have seen the builds Bedazzled made a long time ago. Anyways, here's a mere handful of places that get me sentimental and happy.

* The private dance room in Crimson Shadow by Jimmy Thompson
Crimson Shadow is a sim that brings me back to the days where I romanticized the vampire, but in particular there's a small room in the sim that is sensual and voyeuristic without being overtly perverse. It's a private dance room, rich textures, very decadent feel; (teleport directly from here).


Crimson Shadow

* The Vernian Sea Lighthouse built by Kandace Commons
I remember exploring this back when it was on the Babbage sims. I especially love Kandace's take on the lighthouse because of how lived-in it she made it feel. It's more than a shell, it has knicknacks, personal touches strewn about the place. Really says it's someone's home, and I relate strongly to that. Plus, the times I've visited Kandace has always been around building, saying hello. It totally obliterates whatever disconnect I would have, and it makes Second Life feel neighborly again; (teleport directly from here).


Kandace Common's lighthouse


Vernian Sea Lighthouse - Interior

* The abandoned high school on Cellar Proper by Outy Banjo
The Cellar sims resemble a whole neighborhood with this dread hanging over it, or the aftermath of that "something wrong happened" event. The high school creeps me out exceptionally, I can't wander in there by myself, let alone cam inside. But yeah, it's awesome to have that feeling take over when we're in a world that makes us practically godlike; (teleport directly from here).


Cellar


Comfortable nightmares at the Cellar

* Soror beach's flowers by Soror Nishi
I mostly try to kiss the flowers that are scattered about the place, or talk to them. Some are as big as my head. ^_^ When I'm there, I feel my own possibilities in textures, sculpties, building. It's an inspiring place to visit; (teleport directly from here).


Soror's Beach Flowers


Soror's flowers

* Grendel's Children landscape
Every time I visit these sims, it's never the same experience. It's the seemingly never-ending landscape I love the most. It's a place for me to go virtual hiking, sit under a tree, write or sketch something. It just clears my head after a long day at work; (teleport directly from here).


Grendel's Children - Avaria


Grendel's Children - Landscape

* Cloud Chateau particles
This was the first "You need to see this" place someone brought me to back when I was a newbie. Years later, on a different sim, and with Windlight, this particle show is better than ever. For me Jopsy Pendragon's Cloud Chateau is a place not just to see but feel. And by dancing in the middle of that storm of glow, I do feel a certain digital warmth surrounding me. Instant immersion. Teleport directly from here and take the hot air balloon to the Cloud Chateau.


Jopsy Pendragon's Cloud Chateau, as photographed by Bettina Tizzy

Anyway, these are my favourite haunts in Second Life. The list is sure to grow bigger as time goes by, but for now, these are the places that mean a lot to me. I would terribly miss them if they disappeared.

See also:
* Amalthea Blanc's List of Faves

The first of the "BEST of Second Life" lists: NPIRLer Amalthea Blanc's faves

Imagine asking a much admired and advanced content creator - or a hardcore adventurer - to share the very best of Second Life® with you, and then being handed a list of favorite haunts, lesser known destinations, preferred builds and best loved sites... what they consider to be The Classics. Now imagine that treasured list multiplied several times over, and that's what you will experience on this blog over the next few days and weeks.

I'm asking members of the Not Possible IRL group - and these are among the people who know and love the grid best and have a profound understanding of what was involved to deliver the quality seen at the installations - to recommend and share both well-known and undiscovered places with you. Their favorites... their Top Ten... or fewer.

Lists like these cannot be comprehensive. They are highly personal and deeply reflect the preferences of a generous, expert, and opinionated taste-maker.

Today we begin with Amalthea Blanc, a content creator and writer who has reviewed the arts in Second Life for years. Thea also helps manage Brigadoon, a support community for people who are learning to deal with the abilities and disabilities of Asperger's Syndrome.


~ Amalthea Blanc's NPIRL Best of Second Life List ~

* Loco Pocos - An amazing immersive adventure that elevates the experience of Second Life - a compelling world inside a world, (teleport directly from here).


This photo of Damien Fate, creator of Loco Pocos by Amalthea Blanc

* Any art installation by Strawberry Holiday - I've seen Strawberry really flourish as an artist and make the most of this medium to create brilliant & empowering experiences centered around the journey of life. Currently no shows available, but her fantastic trees can be purchased here.


This photo of Strawberry Holiday at her "On Their Journeys" interactive art installation, by Amalthea Blanc

* Syncretia - A personal favorite of mine, it excels in its abstract and novel interpretation/treatment of virtual space; (teleport directly from here).

* REC - The interactive experience - innovative concept of experiencing an interactive set. And fun! (Teleport directly from here).

* La Reve - I love the atmosphere and the waking-dream surroundings. My first impression of Second Life as a whole was as a dream that you could finally share with others. La Reve brings that into the first plane of experiencing the virtual space at another, more personal, more direct level. (Teleport directly from here).

* Happy Mood - Yes, bunnies and dogs exist in Real Life, but what makes this place different is that you feel like you live inside the head of someone who truly believes that the world is a beautiful and magical place. And who can't use that? :) (Teleport directly from here).

* Dynafleur: Have you ever repeatedly said a word until it almost changed meaning? Douglas Story's macro photography operates by the same principle-- seeing plants and flowers this close opens up the perception to new depths. The interactive trip through a giant flower is an interactive exploration meant to bring you to this surreal mindset. (Teleport directly from here).

* Sabine Stonebender's Zero Point, etc. - A mind-blowing experience for those who like psychedelic colors in the night. Sabine's work speaks of another, more vivid world, full of contrasts and colors. Experience it listening to trance/techno and you'll get the full gist. (Editor's note: Zero Point is being rebuilt after a disaster that destroyed many years of work. Still, Sabine has made great progress - Teleport directly from here).

* DanCoyote Antonelli (DC)- His installations are often associated with live virtual performances that, much like Cirque du Soleil, are best experienced first hand. No amount of description or video can give you the feeling of being there, and being part of the show. DC often exhibits at Brooklyn is Watching; (teleport directly from here).