d i g i t a l m e d i a i: Project 7 + The Final, A Digital You

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A S S I G N M E N T 7 + F I N A L

"A Digital You"

e.g. A Creation of the Real You in Cyberspace

and A Creation of a Fantasy You in Cyberspace

Stitches between a photo of one's self and the

digital self to assist in proving proper transition.

In a NUTSHELL... Before going on... This assignment will see you interact with the immersive, 3D world Second Life in direct ways-

1.) Opening up Second Life (in lab or @One Multimedia) create an account. Free!

2.) Change an existing template to match your own appearance! PHASE ONE.

3.) Save that outfit. Change appearance of that to become a 'fantasy' self. PHASE TWO.

4.) The date-time of our FINALS * meeting (DECEMBER 17 at 10:15 AM SHARP) we will meet in Second Life to perform a to-be-discussed adventure and parting conversation. Yes, that is right : The final in the digital class will meet in the actual digital world. PHASE THREE.

* FINALS DATE is separate from our actual, physical last meeting which is December 10th regularly in class.

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DUE...

DECEMBER 3rd, CLASSTIME
(in addition to essays for some)

Brief sketch and/or plan for

how you want to render your

avatars. The real self speaks

for itself. More so interested

in the 'fantasy' self here.

Reference image for real self.

Also a screencap (minimum

of [1]) to prove you have

interacted with SL in some way.

Post ideas/sketch/image to your blog.

DECEMBER 10th, CLASSTIME
(in addition to essays for rest)
(WITH write ups for 1. Prospectives and 2. alt event)

1.) An in-progress showing of your work

under construction. That entails screen

stills of yourself in Second Life either

building the avatar(s) or just them posing

around. A minimum of [3] images.

Video is fine too if you can manage.

Even a live 'showing' in the program.

Show in class. Post media to your blog.

2.) A suggestion for a location of our

final class meeting in Second Life.

DECEMBER 17th, THE FINAL MEETING

MONDAY, 10:15 AM, MY AVATAR LOCATION

1.) Both of your avatars documented in

photo form (minimum [3] screencaps - angles

both) and posted to your blog. They are to

be complete at this stage! For our final

meeting, have ready the "fantasy self".

2.) You will send a friend request to my avatar.

I will of course say 'yes'. This is how I can

teleport you to my location for our 'meeting'.

My avatar name : DeBender of the Universe.

3.) When the whole class is together, through

voice chat/text chat/and actions, we'll take

a flight together in a digital world of our

choosing. We will have a conversation

together reflecting on the course and

what ideas have circulated throughout.

Consider getting there the hard part.

The 'meeting' will be a victory lap.

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WORKSHOPS

Dillon. 11-5 MONDAY-THURSDAY EVERY WEEK.

Myself. SUNDAYS. 1-4. IN LAB.

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Part 1: First Self

Representational Avatar/Self
Sign up for a free account and get acquainted with Second Life. Go to http://secondlife.com/ and sign up! Your first steps are to create a representational avatar/self portrait in the online community “Second Life”. If your computer allows it (more than likely yes) you are free to download the program for yourself. Test that out excessively. Keep in mind 'the final'.

Follow these steps:
A) Start by changing your appearance functions to essentially create a self portrait in appearance and body shape as avatar. Either create or find clothing items that work for your self-portrait/avatar. Think of the tools available as a new type of drawing system – using this system to create the most realistic, representational depiction of the self.

Examples A1 and B1. (See below.)

Follow this tutorial. You'll learn a lot by 'doing', but this helps additionally.
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Appearance_Editor

B) Once you have created an avatar (or you have one that your previously created as a mirrored self, great!), save this as an outfit. Now you will start working with the skin template in photoshop to create a more realistic representation of your face and head.

Follow the link below. You can download a template (Photoshop

file - layered) to stretch out a front and side portrait on to

map your own face into the Second Life world engine!

This is the link for the head template to import.
http://www.annotoole.com/CMFF/ (you will need CMFF_Master_Template_Head.zip)

This is a tutorial on making and importing skin. In a nutshell, simply enter at the top BUILD -> IMPORT -> IMAGE. It will only let you do so for 10 L (dollars in game). Using the lab fees available, I will ensure you receive a good amount of money from the Digital Lab (from myself and Joe DeLappe) to spend on importing images to map your face with. May take more than one try. After you've imported, you can simply enter the edit appearance mode, body -> skin -> face and use image.
http://www.avatars-3d.com/tutorial-template-secondlife/273-second-life-how-to-use-a-skin-template

A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF CLASS NOV 26 WILL DEMONSTRATE THIS STEP BY STEP.

So keep calm and stay digital.

Part 2 – Second Self

For the second part of this project, create a new avatar/self-portrait that explores the variety of possibilities available in second life to fabricate a completely imagined, new self. Be creative – consider issues of gender, skin color, explore obtaining new clothing items, etc. One requirement of this project is that at least one of the items of clothing or objects used for your outfit are to be made by you using the build tools in SL. See the box man below for a brief example of this. You can build objects, or even "environmental objects (houses, sculptures, etc.)" out of blocky prims to compliment your avatar. Possibilities endless!

Examples A2 and B2. (See above, again.)

The sky is the limit with this imagined self as avatar. Are you a superhero? Want to be a movie star? 7 feet tall?

We will go over this. And you will have fun.