Virtual Worlds Project

by Michael Wright, Associate Professor, Digital Media Department

During the Fall 2007 Semester, I took three Classes of Otis digital sophomore students into the virtual world of “Second Life” where they developed and created content based on a class-developed theme.

The project, which was created on the Otis Island, required team building, out of the box creative thinking, introducing students to working with 3d & 2d virtual tools, working with a budget (3000 lindens per class), and working with a limited amount of building blocks (3100 primitives per class). Each team/class developed a production pipeline and a theme for there area. Three hours of in-class time and 10 hours of outside of class time were devoted to this project. None of the 55 students had second life experience.

They were required to learn perpriatory software to engage in the process. The process required students to create and design their own personal avatar. After creating the avatar each had to manage to get to Otis Island at an assigned time. At the island they were given brief introduction to movement, flying and building. The production pipeline began with brainstorming sessions. Once the themes were established the teams went to work creating content for their individual areas. The themes developed were “Heaven and Hell”, “Pirates and Atlantis” and “Lost World and Mythology”. The results of this project can be viewed in world, Second Life, at the Otis Island (128,128,0) through the month of January 2008.
A formal assessment of the project will be published soon.

My Second Life on the Submarine Channel

What an great website dedicated to showcasing new media! The Submarine Channel will be of interest to many departments at Otis. You'll find a mix of offbeat and original content including independent narrative short films, music videos, animations, and interviews with filmmakers.


There's a new feature called Forget the Film Watch the Titles, a collection of title sequences--examples of film credits including animation, motion graphics, and 3-D animations which elevate film titles to an art in itself. Although not a database where you look up all classic titles, it's still a wonderful resource.

I found the Submarine Channel through Angela A. Thomas' blog posting called Second Life Media. It was there I learned about a compelling experiment in digital storytelling. My Second Life is a mockumentary machinima. Apparently a man in California vanish, but a man of the same name mysteriously emerges from within the online world of Second Life. Released as a series of video diary "dispatches" by this Traveller, it's a lot of fun.