Sunday, September 2, 2012

Cherry on top

This week the already beautiful Francogrid just got even more beautiful. Terra Mater is now home to Cherry Manga, one of SL's top visual artists. Look in the sidebar for a page of instructions on how to visit, via hypergrid.
 For those of you who still hang out in SL sometimes, never fear, Cherry's store and showcase Mysterious Wave on sim Dark Swamp, a space she shares with fellow artist Anley Piers, is not going anywhere.
Here in Francogrid, she's sharing with another fine builder and lover of prims, her RL husband, Archael Magic, who she met in SL and married a couple of years ago. After just four days in Francogrid, Cherry and  fellow builder (or, as he prefers, 'cube maker') Archael are cautiously optimistic. This is still 'just a try'. The high prim limit and the free uploads are still delightful novelties. It's a place where both will be able to build side by side, which may slightly ammortise the sense of loneliness that most expats experience when
first venturing into open Sim. While they've met with kindness, both already feet the lack of 'community', in the bulk sense that we generally think of in SL.
Cherry Manga: For now I'm learning how it works here. I crash the sim here once a day, building. It's quite surprising when arriving to see a place that recalls SL in 2007. It's weird to see a lack of graphical candies, without mesh.
 Archael Magic: No money is a great thing here.
Cherry Manga: Yes, I have already put out some freebies myself. We came to Francogrid because of a friend, yann Minh, who stopped his sim on SL, because of money issues of course. I knew he was here, so I came to see, because he's really good in all geek purpose, so i thought there was something to look at here. I must admit that it's a bit hard starting here, because there are so few people to meet and to ask how it works. Even searching informations on the net is hell. But - the no prim limit can be a good argument. I'm used to my homestead, 3750, which I share with Anley, so 15000 is luxurious! I have been importing older works from SL, and we just ate more than 4000 prims in just 4 days, though!
Archael Magic: ... and I didn't begin my work yet, either!
He's planning a Planetarium. Open Sim is definitely not for everyone. It will help to have each other, rather than adventuring out here all alone. One has to have the pioneer spirit, not just be capable of making ones own hair and shoes - although that goes a long way to feeling whole. A certain mental self reliance is also essential. There are no accolades in Open Sim, certainly not on the scale you'd find at a big opening night, or competition, at a gallery like metales or pirats or UWA. 
And while Open Sim gets better every day - heck, we got Mesh, and Voice and Everything! - it's a far cry from the kind of spectacular sim-sized art builds that SL has become famous for. That's really why Cherry thought she'd come over.

Cherry Manga: I am not here for applause, but emulation. I mean, in SL having my name known gave me opportunities to meet people, to work with them and besides the applause, recognition made a lot on my self confidence. I hope my art here will inspire people to make their own. I want to let people go away from reality, open their mind, build their dreams, not only houses or such. There are many education programs here. We don't want our children to be disgusted of future, it doesn't look like futurist enought to my taste when children see movies like Avatar, they should laugh when arriving here. Maybe looking to sculpties and such, looking to surreal things, people will tilt :))

Cherry doesn't set herself up as some kind of Blender maven, she's quick to point out that her sculpties are alsmost all Full Perms purchases, and she is conscientious about the way she uses them.
Cherry Manga: I respect the rules, I never sell the packs, I modify them a lot because they are included in my work.  All new stuff is modelled by me I'm a noob with modelling but you see the birds in vase here on the boat? They are mine. The boat itself was a bought sculpt, but what it became is far from just the bought map.
It is lovely to see her sophisticated work and, while Francogrid is no 'noobs paradise', and is full of elegant sims, this is definitely something different. The success imperative of Second Capitalism? Hard to say. In SL, Archael  points out, Cherry's sales more than pay for tier, whereas in Francogrid, membership would entitle them to two sims for 120 Euros a year. That sounds like very little, but it's more than nothing. And other factors come into play. But in any case, the jury's still out. It's been less than a week, after all.
Cherry Manga: What I do here or in SL, is creating, so I need a public. In SL I just put my avatar in busy mode, when I want to create, and not be interrupted. But it's fun to see that I can give emotions, feelings to people. It's like everything, there's a double side to it.  In SL I made collaborations, special exhibitions with other artists. Here, I had proposals, but it's less exciting to me.  I'm still getting used to this place, I'll have a true opinion later. The hardest things so far have been the repetitive crashes and bugs. The very strange reaction of prims when attached on the avatar, the lack of sculpts/mesh in the landscapes, the lack of people, the hard way to travel.
Archael Magic: The search option doesn't work and users who purpose freebies and forget to make good rights on the objects.
Cherry Manga: The good thing is the fact that people give to others free, but I didn't travel enough yet to see if there are good things shared.  I don't think the commercial thing is an excuse for the lack of creativity and skills ;) arrogant Frenchie, yes, I know ahaha!
Visit Cherry and Archael any time at sim Terra Mater, on Francogrid. They'll be glad you stopped by. And so will you!

6 comments:

  1. Thank you so much Thirza it's an excellent reportage ^^

    Oh did you see that, the white frame on the right hides a part of text ^^

    Oh and sorry for my poor english ;)

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  2. Just for you information - Mesh are enabled on francogrid but need to use TPV with mesh support like Teapot or Singularity. Amicaly and thank for this great article. Fab

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    1. Thanks for pointing that out Fab. I just uploaded my first Mesh on Osgrid, and I'm sure as soon as Cherry gets used to Firestorm in Francogrid, she'll be bringing those meshes in too!

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  3. I can't resist to tell that it is unfair to compare a private "game" or world like SL with a non profit association using an opensource technology evolving everyday with only skilled and devoted volunteers.

    The result is really fantastic once the users listen how to adapt their use instead of trying to make SL working in Opensim (did you ever try to make your android smartphone working like your old IPhone??)

    Here new or powerfull features that are not in SL have to be known (like the Hypergrid, or the property of your creations...)and the more users will turn their eyes on them and promote them, the more the international community of developpers will add more of them. Opensimulator and grids based with this technology will be like we want them much more than any private place, if each user starts humble and join their efforts and dreams for a nice adventure for the future.

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    1. Thanks for your comment! You're right, we have to adapt and learn - and the beautiful Francogrid is a shining example of how that can be done! It is always interesting to see a place through the eyes of someone new, and I think Cherry and Archael's honest comments about their experience will resonate with many Vive Francogrid, and long live Virtual Art, everywhere!

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  4. It is not about being unfair comparing opengrids and SL.... I come from SL, I learnt how to build in there from 2007, so yes when arriving to francogrid, my references are from SL, I 'm not pointing the excellent job of developpers, as I don't have any skills in programming, I am just arriving with new eyes, it's been less than a week I arrived in FG, so yes my one reference for now is SL...And I have to adapt my ways to use this world, as it doesn't work like SL. So maybe this post is a bit made of unfair comments I made but I wouldn't be honnest if I said "Wow, everything here is more interesting than in SL", as I told to Thirza, my opinion will change, several times, with time, I just gave the first feelings I had entering FG. To finish, I'm sure I'll never say SL is better than FG or FG is better than SL, there are good and bad things in both..

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