photoshop collage

i have made this collage for my work:

while it is true i have explained alot of this before, i made this some time ago and there are still one or two things that i have not spoken about. this was one of my first ways of getting ideas on both my box and my avatar.
for example the picture of me as "The Crow" is realated to my friends birthday where hse suggested i go as the crow. the picture of me in face paint is me showing my fun side, my friend got bored so i allowed her to paint my face. most of the rest of this has been explained already so i shal leave it at that

completed logo.

here is the completed logo

Second Life Diary week 2 to 4

Week2: Escaping tutorial island and exploring.

Ok so during the first week I had a lot of issues regarding the fact that I couldn’t get the hang of the controls and I couldn’t find away off the island, therefore I made it my mission not to log off until I had found a way off that island. While looking around for the way out I found a random dance stage:


This looked like it could be a good feature on the game itself and it could be fun to go to a club and meet people.



Ok so I’m looking around the tutorial island when the above screenshot occurred. I was at the volcano my comp was being slow and I discovered you can walk on the lava from the volcano. This for me made it seem cheap and took away the little hope I had of it being a moderate game.

After this is finally found a way off the island a proceeded to look round, I tried to talk to people and ask what they did on second life but found that people were not very forthcoming with what they did, I feel this may be because I was some one they did not know and as a result they were untrusting of me.

As I looked around I tried out the fly function and I have to say it did nothing to add to the realism of the game and made it seem quite cheap and poorly thought out as it is (like the volcano) it makes it less believable, from what I have seen this game is meant to be as real as possible, however this is not the case.



Week3: Questioning others.

Ok so this week I have decided that I should try again to find out what attracts other people to second life in order to get a less biased view of second life as I am prejudice against it. I finally found some one willing to talk to me, he said that in his time on it he goes dancing, drives cars, talks to his friends and tries to socialise with new people. I pressed him further by asking him why he did that online while he could easily do all those things in real life, he told me it was easier and cheaper to do it online than in real life and he also said he was a shy un-confident person, being some one else made him more confident and while it was not true socialising he was happy online and he could escape his day to day problems.

I asked several more people their views on second life but all answers were similar or non-existent.

Week 4: Trying out the social side of second life.

For my final week on second life I decided I would check out the social side of second life to see if it truly is worth playing. The first place I decided to go to was a club, I did this due to the fact that a lot of the top places to go in the top places list (bellow), were clubs.


When I got to the club I found there was not a lot to do other than dance, although I did think there was something wrong with the fact that people were dancing for money, this is not a good thing to encourage.

After the failure at the club I tried the “hippie spot” which turned out to be pretty similar to the club, I tried to dance on one of the mats so I could earn money but I could not figure out how to dance.


However I did find one good thing here, although I am not sure what it is used for and that is the picture bellow. As you can see in this screenshot they have integrated a real life picture into the game play.

I have to say that even after 4 weeks I still don’t get this game and I would rather life a real life than a virtual one.

The Wall

I decided that in order to best illustrate some of the main things that define me I would get items or pictures that showed important things to me, this is helpful for both the box and the avatar and environment. I have included a picture of this bellow.


The three pages with pictures of me on are demonstrating the different styles of hair I \have had within the past two or so years. I have put these up because it will help me to decided on what hair I should put onto my avatar.
The two pictures in black and white are of some of my friends, this is up because I may use one of the links on my box to link to a page about my friends, the pictures will go with a little passage of information about how I met the and what they are like as friends.
The picture of the martial arts gi is to represent the fact that I used to do ninjitsu, one of my main ideas for my environment is to make a dojo to represent that I did ninjitsu and I spend a lot of time working out.
The white ticket is from a gig I went to in London, I put this up to represent them as one of my favourite bands, I may put music on box, this and the Alice Cooper pictures helped me decide to put music on.
As well as the Alice Cooper poster I have and Alice Cooper plectrum (next to the ticket) I caught this plectrum at and Alice Cooper gig I went to. If I use Alice Cooper music it will be “Poison” as it was the song I first heard the got me into Alice Cooper.
The three posters for films are to show they are two if my favourite films and I decided while putting these up that it might be a good idea to have one of my interactive a link to a review, written by me, for a film or TV show.

The Buttermarket Cafe

From the ages of 16-19 I worked in a café in my home town, as it happens I have quite a lot of history there because it was such a personal and friendly place to work. It also happens that I am quite a significant part of the history of the café as I was the longest running member of staff, other than Val, during the time that I worked there. In fact during the time that I worked there I worked under three different managers, the first went bankrupt, the second had no idea what they were doing, and the current owners who have managed to bring the place from being a vile place to a place that I would actually recommend to others.
Due to all of the above information I have decided that the café is a large part of my past and therefore it is significant in representing my self identity. As part of the box section of the project I am going to include a picture of the café itself, the picture will be interactive and link to a temporary offline webpage promoting the café, which I myself will create and shoe to the owners of the café, with any luck they will want to use the webpage due to the fact that at the moment the café is not very technologically advance.

My Flat

I have included these picture of my flat as one of my initial ideas was to make the environment for my avatar the same as my flat, although it would be fairly hard to recreate in 3DS Max.

Music

When it comes to music I like a broad variety of music so music in general helps to identify me, here are just a few of the bands that I have taken to in my time:
Favourite band: Disturbed
Radiohead
AC/DC
Metallica
Guns ’n’ Roses
Iron Maiden
Led Zeppelin
Queens of the stone age
Def Leopard
Tenacious d
Dir en grey
Buckcherry
Linkin Park
Limp Bizkit
Papa Roach
Thin Lizzy
Jimmi Hendrix
Tool
Scooter
Beethoven
30 Seconds to Mars
Meat loaf
Alice cooper
Motorhead
Daft Punk
Lost prophets
The eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster
aero smith

Hair

Hair

This may be a bit different but I am devoting this piece to my hair. Due to the fact that my hair changes so often it plays a large part in defining me, any one of my friends can tell you that you never know when I will turn up with a different hair style and they all look forward to seeing the next. The best two pictures for showing change is these two:


These two are the best example due to the fact that they look so similar, it is entirely possible to think that these two pictures could have been taken within a few days of each other, I just got a hair cut and a lip piercing in this time. However this is far from the truth this top picture was taken two weeks ago, while the lower picture was taken over two years ago.

Derek

Derek


This short section concerns my snake, Derek. I have decided to create this section due to the fact that, even though she was only recently acquired, I had wanted a snake since I was ten years old, however I was never allowed one until I was offered this snake, which I was given for free, the name Derek was chosen entirely due to the fact that I thought it would just be funny to have a snake with the name Derek.
I am planning to incorporate Derek into the environment by having a snake tank in one corner.

Mike Hine

Mike Hine
Matthew Calder Devon
Bottles and vases made from wood.
Phone: 01404 812437 Email: matthew@caldergallerys.freeserve.co.uk

Michael Pheby Woodturning
Earring stands, bowls, vases, platters and other small items in English woods.
Phone: 01923 264685
Mike Hine Nottinghamshire
Woodturner using mainly local-grown hardwoods to make bowls, clocks, vases, fruit and toadstools.
Phone: 01400 282690
Paul Horton Devon
Designer maker in wood.
Phone: 01363 866819
Paul Nesbitt Middlesex
Woodturner - bowls, candlesticks, coffee grinders, fruit - funghi made to order!
Sorry, no contact details are available.




I have decided to do this small section on Mike Hine, my Grandfather. This little mention was found on a website I found when I decided to see if my grandad was on then net anywhere. (Taken off http://www.craft-fair.co.uk/exhibitors.cfm?SubCatno=164&category=Bowls%20%26%20Vases).
The site contains information about a craft fare my grandad sometimes goes to in order to sell some of his work. As well as this he used to sell things in his own show room at home.

My granddad is a wood turner, he is one of the main people in my family I look up to, I have helped him create a lot of things from wood including: a tree house, a play house including and mini upstairs, an avery, a chicken run, and he also helped me to learn to wood turn. I feel that this link with wood and my granddad is one of the most important I have used so far. Therefore I will insure to make some part of my avatar or environment linked to my grandad. At this point I think that I will probably make the walls wooden so that it is linked that way.
As well as wood turning my granddad is an acomplished builder, he used to work for wimpy building site and also he built his own home. He also helped me to make my own room at home as we converted the garage into my room.