All that you have is your soul (Tracy Chapman).

Monday 28 May 2007

Jaw-Dropping

I travel a lot around cyberspace, trying different sites out, but I can't remember the last time I was left truly gobsmacked.

As regular visitors will know, I've been playing around with the Second Life application quite a bit (I wrote about it here). So far, I've been hang-gliding, enjoying a trip in a Gondola around an authentic looking Venice and even walking around virtual Heaven.

Nothing though prepared me for what I stumbled upon yesterday, when I decided to visit Second Life's Van Gogh exibit...

You get a chance to tour a museum displaying intricately scanned images of the artist's portfolio. This sounds interesting, until you realise that you can actually enter and walk around 3D rendered tableau's of his more famous prints.

Last night however, I discovered a site Van Gogh museum that allows you to view virtually all of his paintings as you stroll through online gallery. At times, it is literally jaw-dropping.

Look at this shot below:


You can see my character is walking around the painting Vincent's bedroom! You are even able to sit in the chairs and pan around the print in a 3D environment, so that you really do feel yourself inside the room. I don't want to give away any other surprises, but if you are into this kind of thing (or just an art lover, for that matter), do yourself a favour and download the program.

I could also tell you how I then teleported to Paris (circa 1900) and parachuted off an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower, but I wouldn't want to show off now, would I?

You can download Second Life here.

4 comments:

Malachi Rothschild said...

That is incredible. I'm going to have to check that out. Have you seen this photo of an avatar with Van Gogh's self-portrait for a skin?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/taotakashi/491009011/

Anonymous said...

Hi Scribbler . Thank you for this great review. I'm a host at the Van Gogh exhibit, and i'm glad to tell you we've a new 3D (a cafe inside) since saturday at the red area.

The Scribbler said...

Thank you!

The Scribbler said...

Raceman Dal,

I've just had a look at the cafe - bravo, it is superb! Please keep me informed of any new developments because the stuff you guys are doing is extraordinary.