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Special Annual Awards
2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Virtual World Learning
8/1/2008
WITHIN THE AESTHETIC CAMERA project in Second Life, Ball State students can check out cameras, dollies, light systems, and more to create their own original movies.
TECHNOLOGY AREA: VIRTUAL WORLD LEARNING
Innovator: Ball State University
Digital arts students hone their filmmaking skills in Second Life, where they learn to function just as they will one day in a complex, competitive, and demanding cinematography world.
Increasingly, educators are exploring the internet-based virtual world Second Life as a viable learning environment. The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation (IDIAA) at Ball State University (IN) has already received national honors in the real world for its work in emerging media through developing virtual applications. The institute's professors and students gained acclaim for years of accomplishments in emerging media art forms, so it made sense to extend these efforts into a virtual environment. The IDIAA is now capitalizing on its success with 3D animation and virtual applications, and exporting these into Second Life.
Ball State has launched a digital cinematography program in Second Life, created through support from Ball State's College of Fine Arts, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of the Provost. The initial project work, The Aesthetic Camera, now in pilot, is being developed as a formal course offering. The digital arts program focuses on virtual filmmaking, or "machinima," as it is known in Second Life. Students can check out cameras, dollies, light systems, and more to create their own original movies. They also can film in a Star Trek-inspired holodeck, which allows them to select among a wide variety of virtual set locations. "All of the equipment has been virtualized and scripted," says John Fillwalk, IDIAA director and associate professor of electronic art. "This means that the equipment has features similar to its real-world counterparts; all of the virtual equipment is controlled by a single HUD [head-up display] for consistency and ease of use. Students will be able to learn concepts such as three-point lighting, and then immediately apply those concepts-- in a virtual hands-on mode-- to what they've learned on their sets."
Several technologies were employed by the program creators as they ventured into Second Life. Beyond Second Life itself,
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