Platform International Animation Festival
I’m up in Portland, Oregon, braving the light rain for the Platform International Animation Festival. I’ll be on a panel called "Get a Second Life" this Saturday at 2:30 Pacific, and Jason will join us via Second Life for the discussion.
Who’s here? Students, professional animators, producers, directors, musicians, graphic designers, architects, programmers, and marketers from all over the world. We’re all here to talk animation, hand-drawn, computer, stop-motion; to screen films; to talk about the business and the art of animation and its place in a changing media environment.
What’s interesting is that everyone I’ve talked to here gets virtual worlds. Many of them have only heard of Second Life and have only a passing idea of what it’s all about, but when I explain what Centric does, what the opportunities are, and where it’s going, they get it. Right away. Which is perfect, because virtual worlds need more of these artists and thinkers to get involved. One of the strengths of Second Life is user-generated content; one of its weaknesses is limited creation tools. The more animators there are in virtual worlds, the better the tools will get. Which is good for all of us.
If you’re in Portland, come check it out!
The tools is one of the things that have kept me away from Second Life so far. I did a lot of 3D animation and modelling before I took up web design and writing, and from a brief examination of the tools, I feel like it would be like banging rocks together, compared to working in, say, zbrush.
The conference sounds like a blast. I wish I could make that festival. A bit offtopic, but I wanted to point out that the feed for this site is only a partial feed, if you didn’t know. It’d be great if you could make it a full post feed.