Anna's Many Murders






Anna's Many Murders will open at 9am SL time Saturday May 7th.
http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Bryn%20Oh/217/161/200

A few months ago a land baron by the name of Syn Short did something quite remarkable. She named a sim Bryn Oh and gave it to me. Syn in an interesting character who has shown me that it's quite difficult to believe anything you read. I keep hearing about land woes yet here she is buying up dozens of sims at a time and profiting. Anyway, she doesn't want recognition so I won't go on about her here. Syn gave me a sim two or three months ago and I have just finished a build for it called Anna's Many Murders. For the last few years I had put a great deal of time into the Rabbicorn Story trilogy which had an overall melancholy storyline which was quite close to me. From an art perspective, I find the nature of Second Life or virtual worlds to have the ability to create great depths of emotion. That to me is one of it's greatest strengths as an art medium, so to ignore that ability is folly. When I stepped back from creating Standby at IBM, I really wanted to take a break from, what is to me, a emotional way to create. So that is what Anna's Many Murders is. It's a bit strange, a bit disturbing and with a bit of blue humour. It's essentially about a girl who watches everyone around her slowly add apps and gadgets to themselves until they cease to become human.

Anna tired of body apps
that people used
to fill their gaps.
So with a touch
of profound sadness,
Anna embraced
what we'd call madness.


What I also wanted to do with this build is experiment. I have created a windlight for Anna's which is very dark and placed the build at the cloud layer in the sky. With the sky setting the clouds turn into mist. Under normal sky settings the clouds are just annoying. So if you find you wish to use a different sky setting then you might like to turn off the clouds. To do so go to advanced-rendering-types-clouds. This will uncheck them. Or just press Ctrl-Alt-Shift and - at once. But yes the build is dark and I am trying out illuminating areas with ambient light features.
There is a nice new feature in this build though for Phoenix and Imprudence viewer users. At the start where you arrive you can click a sign to get a variety of things including a windlight file called Anna's Many Murders.wl. It will go to your notecard area in your inventory. If you double click this it will automatically change the sky for you. One of the greatest obstacles to using windlight in the past was trying to convince people to plug it all in and save it. But to not use windlight for me the artist, is tantamount to ignoring a huge part of my artists studio. It all depends on the artists focus though. For me it is essential yet for another artist is may not even be considered nor desired. One day regions will (hopefully) automatically set the windlight for you, but until then this is a very quick and painless way for Phoenix users to try out an artwork that also incorporates windlight.
So turn up your ambient sound (even make sure it is on as it was off by default on a recent Phoenix viewer install) Make the room dark that houses your computer. If it is a big bright room then you will have a hard time seeing anything due to the contrast. The idea is to create an environment where you feel a little bit lost, a little like you can't quite see properly. It's what I think is a way to further devellop Immersiva. To create Immersiva you have to capture the full attention of the viewer. By challenging your vision of the environment I believe your mind will focus more on the monitor and narrative. That is another reason to darken the room you are in. No distractions. It's a test though so please feel free to give me your opinion. The whole idea in the end is for me to learn what works and what doesn't.
Another thing I have incorporated into this build is the use of Kirstens Viewer. Kirstens is the best graphical viewer for Second Life. It has wonderful shadows and things like depth of field. If you have a good computer I would suggest you try installing it just to play with. Below I have written out particular settings for using Kirstens with Anna's Many Murders. I have tried to keep them fairly low so as not to tax your computer too much. My computer is not top of the line but it runs these settings ok.
If you really don't want to do any of this it looks fine on the regions default which is night.

slurl.com/secondlife/Bryn%20Oh/67/208/186




First you will need to go to http://www.kirstensviewer.com/
and download the viewer under downloads at the top.

You will need a pretty good computer for this...

At top right under S21 go to preferences and then graphics.

Set quality and speed to max.
All shaders should have a checkmark.
If you have a great computer then put on shadows.
Water reflections can be minimal but all static objects is better.

under Avatar rendering click avatar impostors and hardware skinning.
Draw distance 80 - 150 is fine.
max avatar 12
max particle 5120
post process quality 9
terrain texture 9
shadow quality 2.2

Mesh detail
objects 12.125
flexi prims 0.8
trees 1
avatars 8
terrain 13
sky 152

under advanced
click local lights and use default stuff above.

under textures
click animate textures, anisotropic filtering, water mip maps
deferred alpha mask.
Terrain detail - high
texture memory 512

shadows is up to you if you use them.
perf-hardware
click use far clip, disable vsync, use full control gama,
disable VBO, enable OpenGL. Antialising 2x or higher.

Global illumination
click box and use default.

Misc
This is fun if you want to try it. But can be confusing.
click toggle DOF effect
camera FOV 95
cameraFNumber 83
Camera focal length 596
camera aspect ratio 2.91
DOF focus transition time 4.67

This is depth of field. It will blur everything except what you are looking at. Point using your mouse at the thing you wish to focus on and it will come into focus.

Under sound and media make sure ambient sound is not muted.

This is one way but fool around to find out what works best for you.

Windlight
"Anna's Many Murders" - Bryn Oh

Under Atmosphere

Atmosphere

Blue Horizon
R=0.15
G=0.09
B=0.10
I=0.15
Haze Horizon = 0.17

Blue Density
R=0.09
G=0.10
B=0.07
I=0.10
Haze Density = 4
Density Multiplier = 0.21
Distance Multiplier = 23
Max Altitude = 322


Under Lighting

Lighting Sun/Moon colour
R=0.22
G=0.18
B=0.20
I=0.22

Ambient
R=0.07
G=0.03
B=0.00
I=0.07

Sun Glow
focus = 0.00
size = 1.0
scene gamma 0.74
star brightness = 0
Sun/Moon position = 1
East angle = 32

Under Clouds tab

Clouds

Cloud colour
R=0.61
G=0.54
B=0.56
I=0.61


Cloud density
X=0.45
Y=0.55
D=0.06

Cloud coverage = 0.64
Cloud scale = 0.18

Cloud detail
X=0.54
Y= 0.48
D= 0.04

Cloud scroll x = 2.99
Cloud scroll y = 0.51


Now click new and save it as "Anna's Many Murders"

Comments

Anonymous said…
I just paid a quick visit... very dark and funny (does that make me a bad person?).

Incidentally, I've found that your Windlight notecards are working in the latest build of Kirsten's viewer. I don't know if that is a new feature or not, but I didn't realize that it works until I tried opening one of them on a lark.
Malu Zhao said…
Another excellent work, really beautiful, with feeling, funny, a pleasure for the senses. I loved it, congratulations.
Semaj said…
exiting the grocery today I saw one of those $.25 gumball machines affixed with an Out of Order sign and was oddly afflicted with a desire to smash it to bits and repost a Fucked Up Beyond All repair sign or better still plant myself as a corpse amidst the ruins of the destroyed trinket market, bullet hole to forehead, Out of Order sign resting in my lap, Hello Kitty sticker floating away on a rivulet of blood. Anyway, that’s what happens the next day when the night before in a bronchitis hydrocodone cough syrup haze you don an avatar’s mantle and mingle with madness, specifically in the form of a butterfly whispering savant serial killer named Anna or the way my mind works, the Cough from Hell may be the least of my worries. Dante’s got his Inferno, Gorey’s got his ABC’s and now Bryn has her Anna. How sweet. I mean sick and O so beautiful. I was particularly mesmerized by the shadows of Anna/butterflies cast by the rock projector. It’s often late, dark, and the barrier between the reality realms a little thin when I visit sl, so immersion is not typically an issue and yet Anna’s Many Murders, your new rabbit hole of dark art pulls one in like a black hole to illuminated revelations beyond the things in themselves… the mask behind mask, trap doors, grottos underground, mailmen bees… love it all, Anna can kill me anytime, rant/slavish devotion over
Mrs Bones must meet Anna! Meanwhile
hmm can't correct the above link so : http://www.flickr.com/photos/eupalinos/5700884621/
Bryn Oh said…
Thanks. That's great Loraan didn't think the double click windlight file worked with kirstens yet but thats great. Thanks Malu and Semaj with your stream of consciousness comments. And Eupalinos very funny vido :)
Semaj said…
Diagnosis: gadgetitis, technologieosous, machine fatigue, etc. Ann's murderous remedies serve as an art action to arms.
She prefers the simple "Ann" and she is not into all that gore - her strike is surgical, her weapon - love. Don't be befuddled by these evil times in the whirlwind destructive gyre of post capitalism - the garden awaits. Spill a little oil to anoint the earth and soon her cup runneth over.
Anonymous said…
Bryn it is really a great Art Show! When I saw the room of the "Jury" I I felt like a blow to the heart .. it was a growing from the start to the end.. all my sincere congratulations it is a real masterpiece.
Mylene Renoir said…
Your new build is amazing, once again. With a more funny touch, although it's very dark humor, anyway. This way of moving from one room to another (I prefer to stay vague so that new visitors have the surprise) it's a great idea. Very dramatic effect. I'm also stunned by the attention you gave to the smallest details. We can travel into space, but also into size. It's worth standing for a good while, just wandering with the cam, marvelling at the midget precision machines, or reading the beautiful poems and messages written on tiny sheets. Too sad that so few people take the time to really pay attention.
I think I will visit again several times, I'm sure I missed the half, at least.
Sawyeh Fairey said…
You are amazing!!!! This is the first of your work I've seen & I visited a few other places like the Alice in Wonderland themed sim. Just so great! SL should spend more time allowing artists this creative freedom. It only makes the sim as a whole better. Anna's Many Murders left me feeling inspired; a virtual reality based on such basic real life problems and dilemmas. I left questioning, pondering and imagining. The story takes you on a journey, connecting with you on several levels; reality, fiction, fiction in reality, and reality in fiction. As you can see, your sim really touched me. Every great work needs a main theme that connections all the pieces and i really felt it was seeing Anna turn into butterflies (in prison and standing near the horse.) Its the one truth that anyone who visits the sim can't escape; that hey are participants in escapism observing a story about escapism and a freedom found within.

I really hope I didn't just totally over analyze this but i love it! Thank you thank you!
Bryn Oh said…
Thanks Merlino, Mylene and Sawyeh. It is really rewarding for me to read your comments, and Sawyeh Its especially good to hear how they narrative got you thinking about it :)
Earl Dinkin said…
I think the Snowglob development vewer I'm using (SecondLife_3_0_1_237980_DEVELOPMENT) can now has region windight. First tested it by going to the the first region posted in this tread and it worked. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/List-Your-Beautiful-Windlight-Enhanced-Regions-Here/m-p/1015563
Of course my next thought was your region, but your Anna's Many Murders sim just had default sky and water. But the story was great. I was-using an old version of snowglobe untill the fixed the crashing, It took about a month and a half but this version is fine.
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