Second Life: Freya Ophelia

This final project is kind of looming over my head. I met up with Chris to discuss it (in real life…I would rather talk to real Chris than a panda bear) and we decided to work on altering states of movement. So, for example, instead of walking everywhere on your feet, your avatar would back flip everywhere, or walk on their hands everywhere. I think our environment has an interesting effect on our bodies and our motion. The first “human” beings on earth had a much different stature and way of moment, tailored to their environment and needs. Years later, in the present day and age, our bodies have morphed to fit our current environment and needs. No longer hunters and gatherers, our entire way of moving has changed. What are the implications of a virtual environment on movement? Seemingly none, in SL anyway. The movement is pretty arbitrary; you can walk or you can fly. But then again, a lot of environmental conditions are the same in SL as they are in RL, resulting in similar needs, and, I suppose, similar ways of movement. To me this is strange, because the world of SL seems so limitless, yet we’re all very limited in movement. I’m not talking about gestures (though those seem to mostly mimic real life as well) but the actual way the avatars get from place to place.

I think the way to change the way an avatar walks is to create a new animation, in Poser probably, then attach that animation to the avatar (maybe through an object?) Chris noticed that when an avatar holds a cup that they constant lift their arm to their mouth to drink. This gives hope to what we want to do…it is possible to attach a script/animation to an object that changes the motion of an avatar. I found the actual animation for walking in SL today. Though I can’t see the properties, the animation does have an owner, and a message to him is as good a place to start as any.

Freya was no help at all during my search for a start on this project…she kept wandering off to freebie boxes or to play piano or something…..it’s so hard to stay on task in SL!!!