I’m actually encouraging you to not hold on too much to your cameras for the first few weeks of the course. Yet, I am also emphasizing the importance of capturing well-composed images over everything else in this course.
So, how are we going to pull this off? Here’s one way.
We are going to play.
Second Life is a persistent virtual environment boasting a LOT of rendered scenery. I want all of you to go to a virtual walkabout in as many locations as you’d like. The nice thing about the SL Viewer is that it has powerful camera and screen capture tools for you to take advantage of. You won’t even be limited to the point of view of your avatar. Just as nice is the absence of random chaos which you might encounter in a real photo op. Beginners will love that because they will have all the time in the world to aim their in-game cameras exactly the way they want without having to worry about anything else. You can even dictate the simulated time of day to control ambient lighting, if you like.
Aside from your own creativity, I suppose the only real limitations you will have to deal with is your computer hardware and your Internet bandwidth. You wil need a fairly powerful graphics card and a decent broadband connection to run SL Viewer in full visual glory. Oculus Rift support provides an even more immersive virtual reality experience within the Second Life environment. While I have yet to test this myself as of this writing, it is hard to not appreciate the new level of potential this presents.
To download the SL Viewer, visit the Second Life website.