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Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Karma Weymann’s “Twistable” is a quintessential example of her art, a picture of her avatar, often in an awkward or uncomfortable position. Her avatar is the focus. In this nude portrait, her body is dressed in the bright satin of sunlight and the deep, soft velvet of shadows. It’s beautiful. Her pose makes me think of a modern dance movement. There is tension in the leg that is supporting her, you can almost see her swinging back up into a jump or melting forward into some sort of roll. You expect movement.
For more of Karma Weymann’s distinct style, click here:
In brutal news for VRChat employees, 30% were laid off late yesterday — though fortunately, with generous severance packages. In a refreshingly honest email to staff, co-founder/CEO Graham Gaylor puts the blame on himself, saying he over-hired while also taking too long to add management, making it difficult for the startup to reach profitability before they run out of funding:
As we modeled our five-year plan balancing profitability with business growth, we arrived at the hard conclusion that we needed to reduce the team by around 30%. We determined which critical skills, expertise, and roles matched our future business needs and based decisions on these criteria.
As with many other virtual world/gaming companies during the pandemic, VRChat over-hired on staff, and now has to re-adjust.
However, this does not mean VRChat the company — or the virtual world community — is in danger.
Objectively, VRCht is doing quite well, with consistently high user concurrency. As I noted recently (and just double-confirmed with an insider), VRChat now has around 10 million monthly active users, making it one of the world’s largest metaverse platforms. (And by my lights, one of the most innovative communities.)
With these layoffs, VRChat will now have the breathing room to achieve profitability. As I mentioned to one staffer last night, this reminds me of the time early on when Linden Lab also laid off 30% of its staff — and then soon saw Second Life take off like a rocket.
For a deeper dive into VRChat’s situation, here’s a very smart (and bracingly foul-mouthed!) analysis by longtime VR developer/Linden Lab alum Kyle “qDot” Machulis:
There's a pretty big new update to Equimake, the free-to-use platform for collaborative real-time 3D creation on the web (and a proud partner to New World Notes): It now comes with 900 free Unreal-based 3D assets to use in your scene-building, and there's a User Presence "avatar" indicator, to make collaborative interaction easier within the 3D world.
The assets are from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, part of the "Permanent Free Collection" which includes a license for use outside of Unreal (I.E., in Equimake), and run the gamut from basic everyday objects to full immersive 3D scenes like a hipster cafe and outdoor park. (At right.) And new assets will be added to the platform library roughly every 1-2 weeks.
The User Presence indicator looks a bit like Google Docs when multiple people are working on the same document, except in 3D. Look:
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Gogo posted this picture last week while she and others on Plurk lamented how much they hate waiting until June 13th for the rest of the Bridgerton season 3 to be released. Well that’s tomorrow! This made me look for Second Bridgerton pictures again. Three years ago I shared some of the Bridgerton homage pictures. There are now many more.
“Talk About the Passion” from Valerian is a stunning picture, so very gauzy and romantic.
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Jerzzie Reece presents this lovely, fresh face in “Feels Like Bridgerton.” It’s such fun to see people enjoying a show with so much enthusiasm for so long.
Bridgerton influences SL decor as well as fashion. To check it out, click here:
Here's the result of last week's survey, asking how much (or how little) generative AI programs like Midjourney and Leonardo AI have penetrated the Second Life economy, specifically in advertisements or product displays for SL content that clearly leverages that technology. (Example below.)
Among 64 respondents, a heavy majority (59%) say they "often" see AI-enhanced promotions, with nearly 30% saying they "sometimes" do. As someone who falls in the "sometimes" category, I'm somewhat surprised by these results.
More on these results later, but if the survey is accurate, it's safe to say the generative AI era of Second Life is here.
I just checked in on HoloBike, a new indie project I wrote about as it launched on Kickstarter last month, and was surprised to see (with 19 days more to go) that it's already raised nearly $90,000 — way over 3X its $25,000 goal. So we're likely to see this completely new approach to exploring virtual worlds go to market. As I wrote in May:
While focused on the screen, you feel the 3D environment wrapping around your vision, even on the periphery, peacefully enveloping you in the virtual trail ahead of you. While it doesn't provide a full VR effect, it's more than enough for immersion — and unlike VR, Samuel tells me none of the 100 or so people who've tested it (including some 20 women) have experienced motion sickness using it… Because each HoloBike is connected to the Internet, there's potential to add a multiplayer mode and game-like features in the future, Samuel tells me, and to upload new trail worlds over time.
More on HoloBike here, and there's still time to join the HoloBike Kickstarter via this affiliate link to help support New World Notes!.
Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Sam Rougefeu is the kind of Second Life Flickr photographer that SL residents should be following. He travels around and takes pictures and gives us SLURLS and short descriptions of where he has been. For example, this delightful robin image is a potential “Is It Live or Is it Second Life?” challenge question. I love it when artists don’t focus solely on the grand vistas but also hone in on the little details that make our world so delightful.
I featured one of Sam’s pictures in a recent column on the Rain and Storm SL group. He pinged me on Flickr, saying that he had been hoping for years that I might appreciate his work. I had not been following him until I wrote that column!
Sam’ comment gave us an idea: We created a new Flickr group, Submissions for New World Notes coverage. So in addition to his great pics and travel advice, Sam has inspired this initiative. Now join the group and show us your work!
Anyway, for more of Sam’s delightful travels, click here:
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 