Tag: Art

Deviant Art Offers an Exclusive Sneak Peek at the Drew Struzan Hollywood Movie Art Gallery and Studio in Sansar

You can’t visit the Drew Struzan virtual movie art gallery in Sansar until the official opening tomorrow, but you can (courtesy of Deviant Art) get a sneak peek!

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Here’s the link to the 50-minute livestream (please skip ahead to the 1 minute 40 second mark to start). There’s an interview portion with Drew, followed by a virtual reality tour conducted by Jason Gholston, head of Sansar Studios at Linden Lab. Of particular note is Struzan’s studio, captured using a combination of laser scanning and photogrammetry.

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Drew Struzan Virtual Gallery and Studio Grand Opening Friday, March 23rd in Sansar!

Drew Struzan is an American artist known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include all the films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars film series. You’ve certainly seen his work before if you’ve ever stepped foot into a movie theatre!

Indiana Jones movie poster
Indiana Jones movie poster art by Drew Sturzan

If you’re a fan of his artwork, you’re in luck! On Friday, March 23rd, 2018 from 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Pacific Time/Sansar Time, there will be a grand opening of a virtual exhibition of Drew’s work:

The Hollywood Art Museum proudly presents a carefully curated exhibit of legendary artist Drew Struzan’s movie posters and much more.

First, join Drew and effects specialist Greg Aronowitz as they take you on a walk through Drew’s contributions to cinematic history.

Then, Kevin (from Insight Digital) and Jason (Head of Sansar Studios) will share an exclusive walkthrough of never-before-seen private studio, 3D-scanned into Sansar – and how they did it!

Afterwards, our launch party continues as we hang out and explore these spaces at our own pace, discussing all the cool art within.

The link above will be updated with a URL to take you into the exhibit, just before opening time.

If you’re in the U.S. and have Amazon Prime, you can watch a recent documentary made about Drew Sturzan and his work, titled Drew: The Man Behind the Poster:

Sansar Pick of the Day: STONE(D)

Today’s Pick of the Day is a Sansar experience which I first learned about when Torley did a Twitch livestream from it: STONE(D), by theoxyz. Obviously a play on words, the title underscores the many “captured” rocks you see in this artistic experience.

You arrive in the middle of a circle made by an intimidatingly large rotating pendulum (don’t worry, it won’t hit you!):

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There are a number of intriguing art installations, all set against an inky black sky and the light of a full moon. There’s a haunting, moody, brooding soundtrack.

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Be sure to wander around and see all the installations! They’re all very well done and capture an overall feeling of alienation and isolation.

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VRChat Pick of the Day: GM3’s Art Galleries

Art galleries and virtual worlds are a natural fit. (Second Life has been home to hundreds of art galleries over its fourteen-year history.) I wanted to highlight some pioneering work which has been done in this area in the new social VR space, VRChat. (Yes, you can use it for more than just being a general jackass! There’s culture, too.)

VRChat user GM3 (a.k.a. Godfrey Meyer III) has created and curated four separate collections of paintings, photography, digital artworks, animated installations, and virtual sculptures. To find his galleries, simply search for “gallery” in the pop-up user interface in VRChat. You will find:

  • VR Art Gallery: ASCEND Art Show
  • Art Gallery: LEVITATE
  • “Three” Art Gallery Show
  • Art Gallery: FOUNDATIONS Art

Here’s a three-minute video overview of his ASCEND gallery, created last June:

And one of FOUNDATIONS:

And one of LEVITATE:

He is currently at work putting together art for the fifth show in VRChat. He has recently published an open art call for NEON ECHELON, created in Google Tilt Brush:

Here are some pictures I took at each of the four galleries created and curated by Godfrey (and yes, there’s even virtual wine and cheese!):

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I highly recommend you visit each of Godfrey’s galleries. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in some thought-provoking art! I posted about my visit to GM3’s ASCEND art gallery opening last June to Google+.

You can follow Godfrey on Facebook, Twitch, or join his Discord server.

High Fidelity Pick of the Day: White Moth

White Moth is a High Fidelity domain created by the well-known Second Life artists Bryn Oh and Cica Ghost. I found it via the new Guide on the Tablet UI, which spotlights various domains worth visiting. I quite like the overall whimsical effect of this environment. It’s a great example of how to create an engaging experience in High Fidelity.

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(These pictures were taken using the in-world Snap tool from the Tablet UI. I’m not crazy about the rounded black corners on them, but at least you don’t have to take off your VR headset to take pictures in High Fidelity. Sansar really needs to add a similar photo/video-taking tool.)

Occupy White Walls: A New Virtual World for the Art Curator in You

Occupy White Walls Image

Denise Kelley on Facebook told me about Occupy White Walls (OWW for short), and so I decided to pay a visit. This app, created by a company called Stiki Pixels, is best described via this blurb from its high irreverent website:

To say it’s a PC sandbox-building, AI-driven MMO where people play with Art, developed by people who really love architecture and abstract characters… would be a bit of a mouthful.

We could have named it ‘World of curation craft’, or ‘Clash of artistically and architecturally curious people’ but we chose Occupy White Walls. OWW for short.

Pronounced as Owouawwouaw.

They describe this virtual world as “Fair-to-Play”:

The ‘Art Market’ is already cynical, patronising, unethical and geared for the very-very-rich, we don’t see a point in making an online ‘Art fantasy land’ like that too.

OWW is as far away as possible from ‘social casino’ and ‘Pay-to-win’. No matter how poor you are, if you are creative (you are), opinionated (that too) and enthusiastic, you’ll do great in OWW.

Fair-to-Play means that OWW has no loot boxes (sorry) and no ‘real money’ required to buy any of the game elements – you can realise your way to whatever you like, organically.

Basically, you select your basic avatar and add attachments like hats or masks to it, work your way through a step-by-step tutorial to learn the basics, then build the floor and walls of your own personalized art gallery, selecting from an impressive array of 18th, 19th, and 20th-century artworks. Essentially, you curate your own art gallery, arranging the art as you prefer, then invite other avatars to come visit! You can also teleport to other avatars’ galleries. It’s a very cool idea.

Here’s a picture of me (in my Guy Fawkes Mask, centre) standing in front of my first wall of art. I picked plain white walls so as not to distract from the paintings. You can also select how you wish to frame your works, from a selection of frames. It’s all very easy to do, drag-and-drop using the OWW user interface. The frames automatically adjust to the art you are framing.

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Here are a couple of shots of me exploring other curated art collections.

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I shot the following one-minute video to give you an idea of what to expect when exploring within the galleries of Occupy White Walls. I am the black-and-red avatar wearing the Guy Fawkes mask, with my name “ryanschultz” hovering over my head in white letters. I walk around the gallery created by a user named halfmambo, which was mostly empty of art (except for one section), but full of what appeared to be animated bots (very strange!). There’s even a bright blue flash near the beginning, when a portal opens up and an avatar steps into the scene from another gallery!

Seriously, this is one of the trippiest experiences I’ve had in a while. You should check OWW out for yourself, you can join their alpha test by going to their webpage and downloading the software (I also joined their Discord channel, where someone whitelisted my email address so I could actually get into the alpha, you’ll probably need to do that too.) There are also user forums, where you can post problems and questions.

The Urban Art Experience, Revisited

I noticed that Charmarley Nightfire has relisted his Urban Art Experience as updated, so I popped over a couple of times today, just to take a second look. (The first time I visited this morning, I encountered a newcomer to Sansar, who said he was connecting from Saudia Arabia!)

There’s lots of amazing urban art on display, as I reported on my first visit, including at least one new gallery. I took a few photos to give you a taste of what’s there, and to encourage you to make a visit yourself to this virtual art gallery. Where else could you see so much urban art all in one place? You’d have to travel the globe to see all the art in its original locations!

You enter a dimly-lit, meandering cave where fireflies dance near the entrance, and you discover several monochrome artworks which are on display by candlelight. If you’re visiting in desktop mode, you might find it a bit too dark, which means you could get lost. Follow the candles!

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A side passage in the cave takes you to some colourful and playful murals:

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You continue through, past a political Pinocchio mural where a war rocket replaces Pinocchio’s lying nose, and you exit the cave. Turn left and follow the stone wall, and you will find a new gallery, with a yellow “Warning: Area Under Construction” sign. As you follow the stone hallways, you come across windows opening out onto bitingly satirical cartoon images, each taking a potshot at corporate greed and amorality:

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The only way that this splendid virtual art collection could be any better, would be if Charmarley added captions to the works on display, giving information about the artists who did the work. (I realize that in some cases the works are anonymous.)

If you haven’t been yet, or if you haven’t been lately, I would urge you to pay a visit. It’s definitely one of my Top Sixteen Sansar experiences!