Monday, December 10, 2007

Sneak preview: Great balls of fire at Cascade Rezzable

Foolish Frost is a gentleman, and a coder, and a builder and a strategist. He's been in Second Life since March of 2005, and is probably best known for building the humongous Leo Burnett tree, and as team leader for the creation of Toxic Rezzable. He's also very pleasant. He calls me "lass." ^.^



I hadn't spoken with Foolish, who now works full time for Rezzable Productions as technical advisor, for weeks, so I was especially happy to accept his TP offer this morning to see what's been keeping him busy. Seems he's been masterminding some rather spectacular special effects: blowing up volcanoes and touching off avalanches... and unlike Real Life cinema where the one-time production of such an event would cost a sizable portion of a film's budget and could only be produced and shot once, Foolish can - at will - make these things happen over and over again, at no extra cost and, I might add, to my delight.

Cascade Rezzable will be a rather unusual retail area where your shopping experience might be interrupted by volcanic eruptions. Now, any old Second Life traveler has seen his share of volcanoes, as well as pretty particle effects...



...but suddenly the volcanoes are belching fireballs that make a beeline for the snowy mountains just behind you...



The fireballs make impact...




... and the mountain sides begin to collapse before your eyes. Yeehaaa!




Asked to explain how the tricks were accomplished, Foolish said, "Ah, megaprims, sculpties, and a special rebuilt animation system that allows large-scale prim movement... all linked by way of regionsay."

Cascade is slated to open to the public by this weekend, and will carry items for the avatar.

0 comments: