Take a class in Second Life & set your camera and imagination free

Jousting practice on location at Renaissance Island in the very beautiful Second Life.

Haha, watch out for that horse! Capture video and great snapshots using your camera controls and third-party video capture software in Second Life. Expand your sets and possibilities, learn to build and script objects in Second Life.. and lastly, learn about machinima workflow for creating your own videos.
Join Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks (Denise) and HVX Silverstar (Bernadette) for the October Virtual Worlds CE Series
- Continuing education (CE)non-credit courses presented by the Illinois Alliance Library System and GSLIS, University of Illinois Urbana Champagne.
The sessions are offered every Tuesday evening from 6:00-8:00 PM PDT with office hours for follow-up help offered later each week.
I cover the camera controls and machinima workflow and Denise covers the intro to building and scripting.
System requirements for using Second Life: http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php

Technical skills for the Virtual World of Second Life: Introduction to
Camera Controls, Building, Scripting and Machinima Workflow.

http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/tech.html


Week One: Camera controls - Hands-on session using the camera controls and shortcuts. Activities include taking snapshots, exploring the snapshot menus and taking high resolution images, and capturing colors, depth and object mattes. The camera controls are used for building and viewing objects close-up or off in the distance, for taking more creative snapshots and also for basic camera movement for filming machinima.
Snapshot Activity: Take a series of snapshots using camera controls, shortcuts and options in the snapshot window. Post snapshots to the class Flickr group (optional).
So, if you are ready for the RAW unedited capture of my avatar practicing camera controls at Camera Controls islet on Machinima Institute Island... take a look: http://blip.tv/file/1148372



Week Two: Basics of Building session - Students will learn about SL primitives (building "blocks"), the build-edit window, manipulating & positioning prims, texturing, linking and setting permissions on their objects. Students will create an object that they will make interactive in the week 4 scripting session. A selection of "DYI kits" will be available to students to choose from for this activity.

Week Three: Basics of Scripting session - Students will learn the basic elements of the LSL scripting language (no coding experience required!) and will focus on using freely available scripting tools, customizing/modifying open source scripts, using the LSL code editor and adding scripts to objects. Troubleshooting script issues will be covered. In-world and web resources will be provided, as well as a open source script package for beginners as a take-away.

Week Four: Machinima Workflow - What do you need to film in SL? A look at workflow for creating machinima (filming, additional third-party software); displaying machinima on the web (YouTube, Blip.tv or other host sites); streaming video or machinima into SL). No software required for this portion of the class.

Machinima Activity: (optional) using camera controls and shortcuts when capturing machinima in SL. (Third-party software required for macs and windows vista; Second Life built-in movie capture can be used on some computers running Windows XP).
Slideshow Activity: Alternatively, students can use camera controls to capture a variety of artistic snapshots for creating photo slideshows online or on their computers.

Instructors: Bernadette Swanson (HVX Silverstar) and Denise Cote (Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks)
Audience: Open to anyone interested in improving their SL technical skills. Students should feel comfortable navigating in Second life or have taken Second Life 101. Dates and times: Tuesdays, October 7, 14, 21, 28 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM SL (US Pacific) time
Location: Second Life
Cost: $150

REGISTER NOW

Course Technology

The two-hour synchronous sessions will meet online in Second Life.

Participants will need a reliable Internet connection via DSL or cable in addition to the following hardware and software SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. IMPORTANT: Please ensure you can meet these requirements before registering for a course. Check your system against the requirements carefully especially your graphics/video card.

If you have questions, contact Marianne Steadley,
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/tech.html