Voodoo's SL6B Do's and Don'ts
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Well, Second Life celebrates another birthday, and we all trekked out to show off our latest creations to the virtual world. And once again, there have been some truly superb exhibits, showing the very best on offer inworld, and there have been... some less impressive stands on show. So, once again, I would like to present to you all, my personal Do's and Don'ts of SL6B.
Don't give visitors a migraine - When I flew past Marmottina Taurog's Green and Wild Design stand, I immediately gagged at the technicolour swirling see through boxes, with a mesh of glowing chaos within. I then thought, "No, give it a chance, it might be much better inside". It wasn't. I'm now wearing sunglasses.
Do work with the theme - A lot of people have been very annoyed with the enforced theme of "The Future" that was imposed on us by our rulers up in Linden Land, but many of the exhibitors, rather than bitching and moaning, have made a real effort to do something with the theme. Juliete3d Quinzet's decision to steer away from the usual box building acting as her gallery, but rather having a shuttle pod being smashed by a meteor, spilling her artwork down onto the ground, was inspired and a delight.
Don't forget to add some content - The CoExist exhibit by Claari Shepherd is an impressive monolithic building, with an intriguing logo on top. And inside, absolutely nothing. I am totally none the wiser, and to be honest, if you can't be bothered to make the effort, I can't be bothered to care.
Do pay attention to detail - And to be honest, when it comes to detail, you never need to look much further than AM Radio, and his playful futurist nod, still entrenched in his retro style, delights almost as much as his perfect and intricately put together builds. Just stunning.
Don't turn the festival into an adfarm - Sioban McMahon - West of Ireland and Project Children: Yes I know you're not on the main walkway and yes it might all be in aid of a good cause, but the is NEVER an excuse for a giant rotating cube billboard. NEVER. Okay?
Do take us into your world - Yes, I know I have mentioned Skills Hak and her fantastic work at Insilico in the past, and yes it probably is easier to put on an impressive futuristic exhibit, when your sims are all set squarely in the future, but just look at it. Look at it, and be in awe.
Don't make your exhibit look like a 5 year olds scribbled all over it - Right, don't get me wrong, I am actually a fan of Treet TV, and I know what the designer was TRYING to do, with the multicoloured cables, but honestly, it didn't work, looks a complete mess, and I was more than a little disappointed. Massive shame.
And finally, a very special final Don't....
When making walkways, Don't forget that the actual point of them is to be able to WALK on them - Yes, they look very pretty, and in keeping with the cyberpunk motif, but when you're constantly ranting about getting stuck, trying to jump onto or off the blasted thing, and generally finding that they are hindering your ability to get around, then you have a recipe for Walkway FAIL.
See you next year!
Labels: Rez Magazine, Second Life, secondlife, sl, sl6b, voodoo, voodoo buwan
/me claps. You done better than we could manage at ours. We didnt dare to start writing about the crap we saw, there isnt enough room on the blog.
I totally agree with you on the content and its theme. I saw a Mexian bowl stand and couldnt work out how prim pots could be part of the future.
The glow blinded me on a nightly basis and I loved how I could be just trying to walk in a straight line and loose my hair or my sculpted foot fell off.
To arrive at a live show without your hair and your left foot is never going to be a nice look.
I take full responsibility for the "Ad Farm" rotating block on the West of Ireland exhibit. It was my idea, my execution. I felt like we were gonna get buried by surrounding presentations and I wanted a way for folks to find us.
I apologize to the good folks at The West of Ireland for turning our exhibit into an Ad Farm.
Hmmmmm, maybe if I had left the rotation script out.
Well, If you went to Coexist, then you saw mine. I tried. But honestly, the track was major fail. Everyone sunk into it. But about Coexist, I wondering the same thing and I discovered that they ran out of space. And I simply switched it to Midday and that solved the ugly blinding glow problem. most everyone hated the concept but wanted to do something so thats why so saw endless glow, full bright and other nastiness along with other good stuff.