Second Life at Case

June 30, 2008

Creating Skins

Tired with the plain skin editor Second Life lets you modify as default? Then make your own skins as textures and slap 'em on your avatar. It's easy and pretty fun. Through some experimentation, this reptile skin was made in photoshop using a free face template found on the Second Life website. You can also change the design of your eyes entirely. The changes don't just stop at the face either; you can modify the skin of your avatar's entire body!

mac104 at 04:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Greeter for the Library Exhibits

Buildings can be rather lonely, and very intimidating when they are large and full of strange, foreign and unexplained objects. Thanks to the llSensorRepeat() function that comes packaged with Second Life's Linden Scripting Language (LSL) anyone can make a custom greeter. The Second Life Exchange website has several different greeter models, all available for a reasonable price (averaging around 200L depending on how complicated the model is), and all offering slightly different feature sets. However, with a little patience, some scripting skills and a few test subjects, a homemade greeter script is a free and rewarding way to add a little comfort to an otherwise inauspicious parcel of land.

And that's exactly what has been done for the Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) building in ClevelandPlus II. The CCPL greeter has different settings for new and returning visitors, and keeps track of some basic statistics. One innovative feature is the greeter's ability to recognize multiple allowed users. This feature is useful for public places where more than one person administrates the land (or when one person makes the object and another needs control, but the first person needs to be able to fix bugs or add features). Another feature is the use of a configuration notecard, which allows for giving clear instructions and for the script to be kept private.

Though the script for the CCPL greeter is homemade, its contents are proprietary and secret. For the sake of education though, the basic code needed to make a greeter script is included below.

default

{

  state_entry()

  {

    llSensorRepeat("", "", AGENT, 36.0, PI, 5.0);

  }


  sensor(integer detected)

  {

    integer i;

    for(i = 0; i < detected; i++)

    {

       llInstantMessage(llDetectedKey(i), "Welcome! " + llDetectedName(i));

    }

  }

}

The llSensorRepeat() function is comprised of six arguments, the first two of which identify the name and key of the person/object to look for, and when left blank allow for sensing all objects and avatars. The third argument, however, describes what to look for, in this instance AVATAR. The remaining three arguments describe how the sensing radius, shape and how often to fire the sensor event.

Given the basics for a greeter script, it should be fairly simple to add features and to customize it to fit the needs of a particular space. And if not, the greeters available commercially are very good... who knows, the one currently in use at the CCPL might eventually make its way to SL Exchange.

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June 25, 2008

Custom Animations

Have you ever wondered if you can make your own animations in Second Life? Perhaps you wanted to make a custom walk, or wanted your avatar to realistically interact with an object you made. Luckily, there is an open source (free) program called QAvimator that lets you make your own animations! It was designed specifically for Second Life avatar animations,

QAvimator Screenshot

If you've worked with any 3D animation software before, the interface should be self-explanatory. For those new to animation, Torley Linden made a nice tutorial explaining all the basics.

I created a dance (the Macarena) using QAvimator, uploaded it, and added it to a poseball. I then made a speaker system to play the Macarena. It is a very simple demonstration, but it shows the creative potential that this program has.

We are working with the Cleveland Clinic on a project to help train doctors who will be interacting with patients. We hope to recreate these meetings in Second Life to help them prepare for the real thing. In order to do this, we need to create animations that make avatars behave the way real patients do. For example, a patient with schizophrenia could "exhibit purposeless agitation" (Wikipedia).

QAvimator can be downloaded here.

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November 30, 2007

It's Digital Story Time at Case...

Fifteen students from Case Western Reserve University will present their digital stories on Friday, November 30th and Tuesday, December 4th in Second Life on the ClevelandPlus Island. These projects represent a semester-long effort in writing, recording, creating and producing personal digital stories.
The presentations are the culminating experience of a writing intensive seminar entitled “Digital Storytelling: Creating Meaning with Sight, Sound & Language”. Students will be in Second Life alongside their digital stories explaining what they did, how they did it and its educational value.

When: Friday, November 30th 7:30am - 10:00am SLT/PST (check local time) and 12:00pm - 2:00pm SLT/PST (check local time) and Tuesday, December 4th 11:00am – 1:00pm SLT/PST (check local time)

Where: ClevelandPlus (121, 21, 35)

The digital stories will remain up through December 7, 2007.

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November 14, 2007

Case's Virtual Worlds Lab in Second Life

    In case you didn't know, Case Western Reserve University created a very accurate replica of the Virtual Worlds Lab located in the Olin Building...in real life... inside the Kelvin Smith Library on our Second Life campus. The purpose of this recreation is to help prospective students get a better sense of what CWRU might have to offer them without actually visiting campus.
Before reading the interview you might want to listen to Dr. Marc Buchner, Director of the Virtual World Lab discuss the reasons for the build.

Here are a few images from within Second Life




Come see it in Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/ClevelandPlus/181/150/37

    The following interview was conducted by Mir Benelli while the build was taking place. Two students, one from Case and the other from Kent did all the modeling, building and scripting.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Today I had the pleasure of getting the chance to interview two of the programmers working on ClevelandPlus. I got a tour of the computer lab facilities (on Second Life of course!) and Ian Dash (Hye Binder) and Logan Rogers (Newmanizzl Voom) had all the answers, even to things I hadn't thought to ask.

So first up was Logan, who is the modeler. Which means he made all the prims and such that you can find in the Second Life Computer Lab. According to Logan

Newmanizzl Voom: If you don't already know, I'm the modeler, he is more of the brains behind the operation.(referring to Hye Binder)
Mir Benelli: So you're the one making all the prims and such? Impressive.
Mir Benelli: I've been up here before and seen all the computers, but what's with the little planes?
Newmanizzl Voom: Haha, well, this isn't where they go, but they are for the last room on your right in the hallway, they are going to help represent the Immersion Room, which has a 3d projector.
Mir Benelli: Huh. Interesting. So they'll be what's being projected?
Or will you actually make a 3D projector in here?
Newmanizzl Voom: They will represent the projection, by making them somewhat transparent it will give relatively the same effect as a 3d projector.
Mir Benelli: Smart. So what are the other rooms along here?
Newmanizzl Voom: This is the music room. It's also not finished, and missing some prims, but it represents the room in the lab where students can come and use music equipment along with technology to produce...well...music.
Mir Benelli: Haha. But in here you can only play pre-programmed music I assume?
Newmanizzl Voom: Sadly, yes.
Mir Benelli: That's too bad.
Mir Benelli: So do all of the rooms in here actually exist in the Real KSL as well?
Newmanizzl Voom: Well, no. The lab is actually in another building. (Olin) But they have chosen to place it here in SL.
Mir Benelli: Ah. Haha. Where is it, in Real Life, and if students came here is there a notecard that tells them where or something?
Newmanizzl Voom: Yes, there will be, we haven't completed the welcome station yet. But it will give a lot of information about the Virtual Worlds Lab and where it is located in real life.
Mir Benelli: Awesome. =)
Newmanizzl Voom: The way we are doing the tour is with this craft....
Newmanizzl Voom: Visitors are going to be able to board this, and the monitor by the handlebars there will give them a visual and audio guide, through the voice of Professor Buchner.
Mir Benelli: Wow. That's impressive. Do you have it up and running or is it just a prototype?

"Case's Virtual Worlds Lab in Second Life"

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November 06, 2007

Showing off our Showcase

For those around the world who did not get to attend Case’s Faculty Technology Showcase in person in the Thwing Ballroom last Tuesday we held the Showcase in Second Life. NMC kindly promoted the event for us. We were pleased and to be honest a little surprised at how many avatars were able to join us in ClevelandPlus.

Susanne Patrono ( Sue Shick’s avatar) reports that she spoke with many avatars from across the country… mostly from higher ed institutes, although some of the avatars appeared to have stumbled upon the event becuase we opened the island for “Public Access” during the Showcase.
We do not have Thwing Center built out on ClevelandPlus, but we do have Adelbert Hall.

On the second floor of Adelbert(SL) is a beautiful, large area created for events like these. So we recreated the layout from Thwing Ballroom on the second floor of Adelbert. For me the most interesting part of the event in Second Life was the simulcast of the faculty presentations and of course the Keynote by Dr. Lev Gonick.

At some points during the day we even had more avatars in second life watching the presentation then we did in real life. The speakers were even able to take questions from the avatar attendees.
CLick here for video clip
We learned a lot about hosting an event like this... in real life as well as Second Life and want to make the Faculty Technology Showcase an annual event. Next year we want to have faculty participants come in to Second Life so they can discuss their posters and presentations with avatar attendees.

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October 18, 2007

Pardon Our Dust...

We’re expanding! Things are hopping on ClevelandPlus. With the addition of two more full islands and 4 voids we have been able to relocate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center. This leaves us with some extra wiggle room we desperately needed on our original island. When you visit us you will also see some new builds that are very impressive; the Terminal Tower and Public Square, Euclid Avenue, Cleveland Trust, a Cuyahoga County Public Library, the Everett Mansion, Western Reserve Historical Society, the Botanical Gardens, one of the Cleveland Municipal Public Schools (John Hay High School) and about 5 of the Cultural Gardens.

It has been fascinating to watch the builders from the New Media Consortium do their thing. They are able to create incredible 3D representations just from “2D” photographs. They also make use of Google Earth images where possible.

Below are some snapshots we took to document the building process

Aerial View of ClevelandPlus III... the new home of the Rock Hall
As you can see the Terminal Tower build is awesome!

Early picture of ClevelandPlus II while the layout map was still on the ground. It reminds me of a Monopoly Board.

Here is a view of ClevelandPlus II from the top of the Kelvin Smith Library on ClevelandPlus I. You can see the Terminal Tower on the horizon.

Here we are looking back on ClevelandPlus II from the Terminal Tower. In the distance you can see some of the buildings on ClevelandPlus I.

Next… The Case Western Reserve University Faculty Technology Showcase in Second Life….

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October 15, 2007

New Avatars Seen on Campus

by Michael Slattery (SL Avatar CWRU Tomorrow)
note: names used in article are SL Avatar names

    A lot of new faces have been seen lately working on Case's very own Second Life experience. Although the time spent on the project has been relatively short for everybody, there have been a lot of good things going on.

    Paul Carpool has brought in a new aspect of mapping texture with the use of Blender Importer. The packages he used along with Second Life can be foundhere. Detailed instructions on his work

    CraigR Becker's main focus has been on a working scoreboard for a soccer field and scripting and building new items for the upcoming Halloween Party(November 2nd 9:00 - 11:00 pm). The scoreboard changes on the fly as a goal is scored for either team and counts up to 9.

    He has also been busy working on Halloween costumes. He created this "candle" lighting effect for the inside of a carved pumpkin.

    Ghoti Stenvaag's focus has also been on creating Halloween costumes. With the use of invisiprims, he was able to manipulate the physical appearance of an avatar by "hiding" normal prims with the invisiprims.

    Fraiser Cale is currently in the progress of implementing a lab for Chem 113 students which could be taken through Second Life. Actual lab instructions that will be seen in a thinkbook in SL will be up once they are approved.

    Of course Kazarko Kasei is busy as well. She is spending time making a prim cape which will flow fluidly with movement. An inventory script has also been created which is much easier to newcomers in SL. In this script, when the object of focus is touched, all of the contents will be moved automatically into the user's inventory.

Come back soon to learn more about the exciting things being accomplished!

-Case Second Life Team

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October 12, 2007

Creating your own Clothes

by Mir Bear-Johnson (SL Avatar Mir Benelli)
'm excited. I made my first shirt in SL today. Well, not my first
shirt because I've been able to do that for a while, but my first
shirt with invisible spots and such. It's nothing fancy but man am I
proud of it. (Image) It took me a while to find an explanation on how
to do the invisible thing that made sense. (Mostly because I'm running
Photoshop CS2 and apparently the instructions for that are different
then any of the other photoshops. Who knew.)

Anyways, making shirts themselves isn't hard. I just hopped over to
the Second Life Wiki (https://wiki.secondlife.com) and stumbled across
this gem, http://nicolaescher.com/tutorials/clothing-in-second-life.php,
which gave me the bases I needed to be able to orient words and such
on my clothing.

Then going to another article,
http://nicolaescher.com/tutorials/creating-your-first-shirt.php, from the
same person I made my first shirt!

Clearly it wasn't much more interesting then what I could've made
without paying the 10$L to uploadthe texture.

I was honestly a little bummed -- then I started trying to play around
with alpha channels. Those are the things that make it possible to
have invisibility and transparency in textures. I tried using the same
person's tutorials as helped me figure out the shirt,
http://nicolaescher.com/tutorials/alpha-channel-primer.php, but they
just didn't work for me. So I ended up finding
http://www.sltutorials.net/magazine/
and this Quicktime video
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/TranspSL.html.
And from there I was able to figure it out.

Front

Back

I'm going to need to make more Linden dollars camping to support this
new habit of mine!

But still, I'm mad proud of my shirt.

css38 at 02:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

September 25, 2007

Shopping and Freebies!!!!!

by Mir Bear-Johnson (SL Avatar Mir Benelli)
So, I think I may have developed a bit of a shopping addiction in SL.
I suppose I could have worse addictions, but still. I'm pretty sure
the fact that there are so many darn freebie shops around just makes
my habit worse. Because if you're buying outfits for free or for only
1$L it really doesn't seem like much, at least, until you open up your
inventory and wonder what the hell you could possibly need that much
stuff for. (look for blog entry to come on arranging your inventory)

But I guess all of my obsessive type shopping does have a purpose. I
can give useful advice and suggestions on where to shop now.

And given my new shopping hobby I suppose it's understandable how much
I avoid spending my $L. Which has a lot to do with the fact that I
don't actually want to spend any real money in SL if I can help it.
Not because I don't think it's safe or something -- It's way too
widespread not to be safe. But mostly because I'm a working girl and
prefer to spend my money in the real world, not the virtual one.

Sorry for the baby rant. Anyways, where was I? Ah right, me being
unwilling to spend very much for things. Before I knew better, of
course, I spent too much on too little. But I've learned since then.

So one thing to keep in mind is, if you're new to SL, there are a lot
of places that will offer really nice deals to people 4 weeks 'old' or
younger so get on that!

GuRLyWood 111, 113, 21 (PG) - Month old discount
ETD Isle 251, 251, 26 (Mature) - 2Month Old discount
Nantli Xolal 196, 142, 22 (Mature) - Month old Discount
Angel Haven 194, 234, 22 (PG) - 2Month Old Discount
Pazazz 89, 90, 22 (PG) - Month Old Discount

Also, there are a ton of nice people who offer free stuff! Yay! Free
stuff! Some of my favorites are

Freebie Jeebies in Boom County 81, 74, 23 (Mature)
Longbranch Freebies in Badly Moor 37, 109, 55 (Mature)
Freebie Freebie Freebie Freebie in Mount Curl 118, 245, 104 (PG)
Odds&Ends in Wagaland 115, 74, 29 (Mature)
No Covenant in Nedben 218, 16, 99 (PG)
Freebie in Bunyip 47, 170, 78. (PG)

Right. Well I'll probably add more to this later, but for now...I'm off to shop!

If you still feel a little uneasy about the whole thing then watch this YouTube video...

css38 at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 11, 2007

Changing Appearance

by Mir Bear-Johnson (SL Avatar Mir Benelli)

I've noticed a lot of people in SL seem to keep their look static.
Which I don't understand at all. I mean, I suppose it's all personal
opinion and so on and so forth, but I think changing how I look fairly
often is just fun. My other concern is that people might be afraid
that if they change how they look they'll mess something up. You can
insure this won't happen fairly easily, creating an outfit out of
everything you're wearing makes it possible to always go back. My last
concern is that maybe people just don't know how to change their
appearance, aren't comfortable with it. So I've set up a quick little
guide to it. Hope it makes sense!

Appearance:
-One main thing to remember is that your avatar can be whatever you
want it to be -- it's a representation of you! So have fun with it!
-To change your appearance you can either right click your avatar and
select "Appearance" from the choice wheel, or go to edit at the top of
the screen then down to appearance. Your avatar will stand up and spin
around and the menu to change your appearance will appear.
-The menu has side headings such as: Shape, Skin, Hair, Eyes, Shirt,
Pants, Shoes, Socks, Jacket, Gloves, Undershirt, Underpants, Skirt.
The first three of these have their own subheadings that will appear
to the right of them but still to the left hand side of the window.
-In each section you are given a wide variety of changes you can make.
For example, if you go into Shape, then Eyes, you can change your eye
size, the size of the eye opening, your eye spacing, you can make the
outer and inner corners of your eye go up or down, you can change the
depth of your eye, the creasing and bagging of your eye, you can make
your eyelids puffy or not, change the length of your eyelashes and
make one eye 'pop'.

-Also, you can randomize your appearance from any of the body part
selections-- which rarely ends well but who knows, you might get
lucky. Also you can change yourself from male to female with the click
of a button in your shape selection.
-When you leave your appearance you will be given the chance to either
cancel all changes or save them -- if you like the changes you made,
save them, if you have some issue with it, cancel it and start over.
-The huge number of things you can change -- and how you can change
them -- is fairly overwhelming at first, but you'll get the hang of it
pretty quickly.
-And don't worry about changing your avatar more then once -- part of
the fun of SL is constantly editing how other people see you.

Clothes:
-You can also edit your clothes in the appearance menu, make them
longer, shorter, looser, tighter -- as long as the clothes you are
wearing are modifiable. If they have (no mod) by name in your
inventory then you can't do anything with them.
-If the item is modifiable, in addition to changing how it hangs or
its length you can tint it.
-Also, you can make your own clothes. They'll probably be less complex
then some of the one you can buy, but you can give them texture and
color and shape, just like you would in editing your bought clothes.
-You can also make your own clothes in PhotoShop, though this can be
tricky at first and each item costs 10$L to upload.

Prims:
-In addition to clothing items, you might find yourself with a prim
attached at some point or another.
-Prim stands for primitive and these are items that you attach to your
person, they may have the appearance of hair, a skirt, shoes, jewelry
or any number of things. Prims allow more details and texture to be
added to an item.
-As long as your prim isn't (no mod) you can change its color, or the
color of just parts of it. You do this by right clicking the prim in
question, choosing edit from the wheel menu then choosing "More"
From there go to "Texture" If you want to change the color of the
entire object leave the whole thing selected, if you'd rather just
change sections go back to the top above "Less" now, and check "Edit
Linked Parts" Once you do that you can separately select parts of the
prim and edit their color.

As for that 'making of outfit' thing I mentioned earlier, here's a bit
about that: If you have found a combination you particularly like you
should go to edit appearance while wearing it and click 'make outfit'.
From there you can choose what pieces you want to be an outfit. You
will also be able to name the outfit, and there's an option for
renaming all of the items in the outfit after the name of the outfit.
This is not suggested since it can make it harder to look for things.

There. I hope that all makes sense. And really people, don't be afraid
of change, it's good for you!

css38 at 09:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 06, 2007

What we did over your summer vacation!

We've been busy!
After the whirl of activity surrounding the undergraduate recruitment effort I went out and googled CWRU in Second Life and found lots of buzz out there, including coverage in

I was really interested in the blogs and saw that the articles stimulated quite a bit of discussion.

One of the concerns mentioned in a blog response was that there didn't seem to be anything to do once you got to the onecleveland island.
All I can say is, "You haven't seen us lately!".

April 14: Red{an orchestra} Simulcast in Second Life

Let's make history....
The very first American live digital-simulcast of a classical orchestra in Second Life. Red {an orchestra} along with a very talented group of volunteers from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, OneCommunity and the New Media Consortium (Austin, Texas) made history on that Saturday night.
Experiencing the concert in Second Life was awe inspiring and exhilarating... what a way to participate in a classical music concert. The weather was perfect, the stars were shining and a full moon was visible on the horizon.

Before the concert we gathered in the martini bar under a large flowing tent for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. As the concert was about to begin we wandered over to our seats in the outdoor Amphitheater in front of the Kelvin Smith Library.

The amphitheater was surrounded on all sides by 6 large screens. We could see and hear the orchestra tuning their instruments. The audience in Second Life was not disappointed. The live stream was exceptional.

The constantly changing camera angles provided by 10 cameras and the superb audio quality from 22 audio channels presennted a feast for the eyes and ears.
The pictures I included can't do the concert justice. You just had to be there.

For a behind the scenes look at the production crew take a look at this video.

August 3rd: Cleveland IBMer Spirit Group Meeting

ClevelandPlus hosted a 2.5 hour in-world meeting for the Cleveland IBM Spirit Community. The agenda was jam packed with 4 speakers in 3 different locations. As guest avatars arrived at the SPIRIT welcome tent, they were offered meeting souvenirs and virtual refreshments. They also had an opportunity to practice animated gestures and enter a raffle for real life prizes.

The meeting’s main event took place at the outdoor amphitheater on ClevelandPlus where Lev Book (avatar of Dr. Lev Gonick, VP, Information Technology, CWRU and Ilike Mayo(IBM’s Dave Liederbach's avatar) gave engaging presentations using streaming media and PowerPoint slides.

To heighten the virtual experience, the avatar attendees were teleported, in a matter of seconds, to two breakout sessions -- one in the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center operating room given by Docmom Marsala, avatar of Dr. Anita D. Misra-Hebert, M.D., FACP, Cleveland Clinic

and the other at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame given by Pavl Stenvaag, avatar of Mike Benz, president and CEO, Cleveland United Way.

We recieved excellent feedback from the participants including this quote from Dave Liederbach.

"It was informative, engaging, and social -- well beyond what a conference call and/or a webcast can provide and should be replicated for other IBM community meetings." Dave Liederbach, GM, Public Sector, GTS Americas and Executive Sponsor

We learned so much by hosting this event and look forward to putting our skills and knowledge to work in all our upcoming events.

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