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My session on using Second Life video went well, mostly due to Karen Hyder. She met with me 4 times in advance to make sure I was comfortable with Adobe Connect. She made it a breeze (pun intended, another Adobe product). Seriously, she is quite an asset to the Guild and I commend her patience and expertise.
Links to session materials are here and should help anyone interested in using Second Life as a 3D creation tool for their eLearning material. There’s even a handout on importing video into Flash. And it does not have to be just video. “Snapshots” from Second Life can be a great resource as well. And the price is certainly right!
If you are on a tight budget, both in money and time, then explore Second Life. Feel free to come build in Enercity Park and use the video tutorials here as well as the handouts for the various conferences and forums I have posted (links always on the main page of subQuark).
Have fun and feel free to contact me (email on subQuark).
Online Forum was fun
Well, if you know me, I have a big head. But I really am a very humble person inside, self-esteem can make one act out and I am guilty of that.
But I was blown away by the kind words that Brent Schlenker wrote about my efforts in the eLearning community. All I did was stumble accross Second Life at a time when I was desperately trying to add 3D content to eLearning. I tried with an isometric Flash office space (I think it works rather well and certainly very fast to do). But it is isometric and not 3D.
So then I tried Blender 3D. Apart form an incredibly steep learning curve, render times were far too long making it not practical for our use. I stumbled upon Second Life (doh, missed all the media hype somehow) because two of our clients are in there. One was the aloft hotel built by Electric Sheep. A masterful build that was used as an architectural lab collecting avatar feedback for use in constructing the real hotel. Starwood (aloft) was fantastic in donating their island to Global Kids when they were done. What a wonderful gesture.
So I saw Second Life as a 3D application rather than a 3D social world. I have since gone on to also be behind the scenes of a virtual real estate business, but that is an entierly different story . . .
As a 3D application it comes with physics and lighting already built in as well as avatars (my Make Human models for Blender were pretty sorry looking). And with all the user created content, I don’t need to build Aeron Chairs and coffee makers, I can find those items for mere pennies. So, all in all, it was an easy solution. The toughest part was maximizing the quality and development time in order to make it a viable eLearning tool.
And I love sharing this and will on January 30th via the eLearning Guild’s Online Forum Successful Techniques and Strategies for Navigating Turbulent Times – Fast, Cheap, and Effective e-Learning.
I’m all for fast and effective, but the cheap part? I refer back to the start of this post and my big head, I prefer “economical” to cheap!
*pardon me, do you have any grey Poupon?* =D
I am so excited to get another chance to share my passion for Second Life with the great members of the eLearning Guild. It was truly humbling to be so well received at DevLearn08 and to be able to have three opportunities to work with you (DemoFest, Breakfast Bytes, and a session).
January 29th & 30th are the dates for an Online Forum put on by the Guild. I am honoured to be able to teach more specifics on the use of Second Life as a true 3D tool rather than an application.
I have used Blender 3D extensively and it is an excellent program, but is very steep to learn (all keyboard driven, but that makes it very fast once you learn it). I have also used tools specific to Flash such as Swift 3D. Blender can yield great results (comparable to Maya) but is not designed for online delivery as in eLearning. Plus the rendering times are long (for examaple, a 90 second chess match with only the board and pieces took 20 computers two weeks running 24 hours a day as a render farm). Swift 3D is intended for web delivery via Flash and is faster to render, but I find it has a “stronger” niche look than Second Life.
My approach is easy to learn in short order, renders real time, and yields animation similar to virtual agent software. The total cost (money and time) is very low and the results are more tied to your imagination than any hard to achieve expertise.
Resources will be available in the form of video tutorials (even no frill mp4 versions for your iPod) and PDF guides. More to come and thank you for looking at this as an option and possible tool for your toolkit. :)
