1. Text, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll - An insightful analysis of interactive storytelling, how it is most in tune with who we are as beings and what we expect from life.
2. Free Pixel - What makes a machinima film ‘good’? See the comments, too!
3. mPATHx - I’ve been following development on this piece of hardware for a few years; I’m told it is now very close to hitting market. Could be tremendously valuable for anyone who deals with a lot of onboard gear for either music or even machinima and home entertainment setups.
4. FILM: A GMan Story (Take 2) - It’s rough. It’s downright amateurish. And it’s a JOY to watch. (particularly for fans of the Half-Life series of games, like me)
5. Paul Lewis’ iClone Character Creation Video Tutorials - A master iClone character designer, and a great teacher.
6. iClone 2.5 Video Tutorials by James Martin - Ready your pause button, these tutorials are traveling at the Speed Of James. Phenomenal stuff.
7. Video Tutorials on Google Sketchup from the author of Google SketchUp for Dummies
8. Torley Linden’s Guide to High Quality Second Life Photography - Very useful info for those wanting to capture a good image in this virtual world.

See also:

• OverByte #2
• OverByte #1

No, not THAT Virtual Eve. This one.

Take a digital puppet animated in real time, combine it with devices to accept input from the student (i.e. webcam, microphone, etc.), and you’ve got a virtual teacher / tutoring system which is designed to be responsive to even the emotional state of the student. “Linked to a child via computer, the animated character or virtual tutor can tell if the child is frustrated, angry or confused by the on-screen teaching session and can adapt the tutoring session appropriately.”

The adaptive nature of this kind of system can really only be effective in real time… in machinima. There’s a demo video at the bottom of the article, but it’s hard to get a feel for the interactivity from what they show. But given recent advances in facial recognition, biometrics, etc. it does all seem very plausible.

I’m wondering if “Easy with Eve” is powered by iClone technology? Is it me, or does Virtual Eve bear a striking resemblance to the default iClone female character?