Second Life and Lunch: Simple Building Tips

Monday, March 23, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
VIRTUAL ONLY this day

If you missed last week's "Let's Start Building" session of Second Life and Lunch, don't worry about being left behind. This week we will review last week's session and continuing our series on building and scripting with Simple Building Tips. We're going to create some basic shapes, go over some things that will keep you from tearing your hair out when you're learning to build, and then we'll do some collaborative building with dominoes.

Meet us in the Kirkwood sandbox. I hope to see you there!

Meet Me in the Sandbox

In case you’re wondering, YES, there will be a Second Life and Lunch meeting today. We will NOT be meeting in KCELT though. We’ll gather virtually only in the Kirkwood sandbox. I’m going to give a few building tips and we’re going to do some simple collaborative building to get us started.

I hope to see you in the sandbox.

Kit

Where to Build Wrap-Up

If you missed today’s “Second Life and Lunch” session about Where to Build in Second Life, I wanted to send you a link to a YouTube video by Torley Linden. He gives a nice overview of The Ivory Tower of Primitives that you can view here:



To check it out in SL, here’s the SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natoma/211/165/44

You can see an overview of the FREE instructor-led building classes at Rockcliffe University on their Web site here.

To check it out in SL, here’s the SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/99/99/24

If you have any questions, feel free to send them my way.

Next week is Spring Break and KCELT is in the process of moving.
We’ll have a virtual-only meeting in the Kirkwood sandbox to go over some basic building tips.

Kit

Second Life and Lunch: Where You Can Learn to Build

Monday, March 9, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT 153 Computer Classroom

Monday kicks off a series of building and scripting sessions starting with a virtual field trip to where you can learn to build in Second Life. Our first stop is Rockcliffe University. Rockcliffe offers 20 instructor-led classes free of charge. Each class in this series builds on what was learned in the previous one, so I would recommend starting with PRM101 - The Basics and taking them in order even if you've been building for some time. One benefit to the instructor-led classes is that you'll know if you're doing things right by comparing what you're building to what the instructor and everyone else is building. This format will also give you a chance to ask questions too. If you'd like to take a closer look at Rockcliffe, check out their Web site here.

The next stop on our tour will be to the Ivory Tower of Primitives. If you'd rather learn to build in Second Life on your own this is a great place to start. The Ivory Tower of Primitives has an extensive collection of self-guided and self-paced tutorials on building. We'll begin on the ground floor where the basics of the prim are presented and then teleport to the upper floors where more advanced building skills are taught. Exhibits at the Tower are presented much like visiting a museum, so just move from one to the other as your skills improve. The Ivory Tower also has a huge sandbox next to it so you can practice what you've learned close by.

I hope to see you Monday for this beginning of the "How to Build in Second Life" series.

Tour of NOAA in Second Life

Monday, March 2, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
KCELT 153 Computer Classroom

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has created one of the best builds I've seen in Second Life. They're using this virtual world to present earth science concepts in three-dimensional immersive experiences for the general public. Flying a plane into a hurricane, riding a weather balloon or watching the development of a tsunami are just a few of the exhibits that your avatar can interact with.

Brandon Lynge will be our guide and he will explain how NOAA uses the virtual world of Second Life to present scientific data in two and three dimensions.

We will be projecting this tour onto the big screen, so you don't need an avatar to attend. If you decide to navigate the tour in Second Life, just meet us in the courtyard on NOAA's Meteora island. Click here for the SLurl. This will open a Web page with the teleport.

I hope you can join us on Monday for the tour.