Blender Conference 2011De Balie, Amsterdam

28-29-30 October 2011

“Blender for virtual worlds”Mesh and Sculpted Prims with Blender for Second Life and Opensim: the construction of the virtual lab at the Brera Academy of Fine Art in Milan; presentation.Giampiero Moioli www . bubblesfactory . it info@bubblesfactory.it

Abstract - Now we can create an entire world in Blender and import it into the most advanced virtual worlds of the moment, so You can construct with Blender your own home, office, car, etc., and you can use it in Second Life, Opensim, RealXtend, Open Wonderland.Since the 23rd of August also Second Life allows to import a Mesh through the COLLADA file format, based on XML, which allows the interchange of 3D models, materials, textures, rigging, etc.Blender supports the import/export of the COLLADA file format, then it's very easy to construct a Mesh for SL with it.Starting from my presentation at the 2010BC about the “Brera Academy virtual lab”, Stefania Albertini and I have developed a virtual lab in our Academy (installing OpenSim on a server and renting 3 islands in Second Life) and published a book (Brera Academy virtual lab) with an augmented reality cover modeled with Blender and a preface by the French architect Philippe Stark.

I would like to show the idea and the technical work-flow of the construction of the virtual 3D site of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.We are constructing the virtual Academy with Meshes now but we will keep some architectural element or building made with the sculpted prims.This is my third paper for a Blender Conference and the first one in 2008 was already about modeling with Blender for art, architecture and virtual worlds and about the relation between Blender and Second Life.

Giampiero MoioliBiographyI was born in Monza. I am a sculptor, an architect and a professor of sculpture and virtual architecture at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan where I am the director of the Master of Science degree in Sculpture.I graduated in sculpture from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in 1987 and in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic University in 1995.I work with Stefania Albertini -professor of sculpture at the same Academy- on four handssculptures and three-dimensional projects since 1992.The interest in the physical and tangible third dimension has been evolving towards the relationship between the sculpture and the architectural and urban space to get to interactive virtual sculpture in virtual world.My first speech at the BC was - “Other dimensions between virtual and real: the use of 3D modeling programs and virtual worlds for the university education and for the design and realization of three-dimensional art and architecture”.“Blender Conference 2008”, De Waag Society, Amsterdam. 24-26October 2008.Bibliography: Albertini and Moioli, Fidia, Lugano, 1994; The bubble-making machine, thecircumfolgore and other devices, Silvana, Milano, 2008.

The Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan.

“Blender for virtual worlds”Mesh and Sculpted Prims with Blender for Second Life and Opensim: the

construction of the virtual Brera Academy of Fine Art in MilanGiampiero Moioli

These are just notes to be developed, I’m sorry if they are not completely collected in an organic way.

Sharing in BlenderIt 's clear that the future on the Internet is with the Cloud Computing (Google + , Google Docs, Google Apps).

To Share is the verb of the Cloud Computing and of the Internet, so You can

● study on the Internet, with Docebo cloud e - learning (Docebo.com); ● design with Tinkercad, a CAD directly in your browser (tinkercad.com) ● print your 3D models on line with Shape Ways , using STL, Collada or

X3D file formats (shapeways.com), ● render your animation on line with Green Button and DrQueue

Since 2006 I think of an on line Blender Virtual World.I presented my idea of a Virtual World in Blender at the Blender Conference in 2008, thinking about an online three-dimensional world modeled directly with Blender; today I’m also more convinced that the design for art and architecture in the future will be online.

In the 2008 Blender Conference I thought of Blender as a bridge to create a three-dimensional on line world; I thought about a collaborative environment in which we could work as a team from different parts of the world.I would like to highlight the opportunities of collaborative groups of work offered by the network and by virtual worlds for design coordination and collaboration in art and architecture.

Blender and Virtual WorldsWe can create an entire world in Blender and import it into the most advanced virtual worlds of the moment, so You can construct with Blender your own home, office, car, etc., and you can use it in Second Life, Opensim, RealeXtend, Open Wonderland.Since the 23rd of August also Second Life allows to import a Mesh through the COLLADA file format, based on XML, which enables the interchange of 3D models with materials, textures, rigging, etc.Blender supports the import and export of the COLLADA file format, then it's very easy to construct a Mesh for OpenSim or SL with it.Blender supports the import and export of the X3D file format also.

Virtual worldsThere are a few interesting worlds for art and architecture, on line community that share a 3D immersive virtual environment. Project Wonderland, now Open Wonderland is a 100% Java and open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds; it allows audio communication, live desktop applications, collaborative creation of world content with XML files.No longer developed by Oracle1 but by an on line community.1January 27, 2010

… dynamic learning environments, collaborative business applications, or interactive, multi-user simulations ...OpenSim, is an open source server multi-platform for hosting virtual worlds founded in January 2007, written in C#, running both on Windows and on Unix-like machines.RealXtend, is another open source virtual world, vith different viewers: the RealXtend viewer, Naali (arctic fox) and Taiga viewers. ModRex is a joint effort between RealXtend and OpenSim developers to make it possible to join the RealXtend viewer to the OpenSim codebase1.Second Life is the best known world but it's not open source, it was launched on June 2003 and it use a client to server communication: the client or viewer is on the users' PC and the servers are owned by Linden Lab.The viewer is open source and multiplatform and renders 3D graphics using OpenGL technology. The new viewer (3.0) supports the view and import of COLLADA mesh. You can also export objects or avatars by other XML formats.Each Region ( 256×256 meters) is on servers that runs on Debian Linux.

Immersive Education in virtual world and LMS

If you put together 3D modeling, interactivity, voice, digital media, videogames, simulations, virtual worlds you will have Immersive Education: an internet site, by the homonymous non profit international consortium explain what you can do for Education with virtual world and e-learning management sistems.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced today that it had completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Combination of the local entities worldwide will proceed in accordance with local laws. www . oracle . com 1 . When using RealXtend as a viewer for OpenSim, one obtains real-time shadows, improved lighting simulation, and more importantly, the OGRE mesh . The mesh is hierarchical (multiple meshes and sub-meshes) and can include a skeleton for defining avatar motion and dynamics.

The Moodle - Sloodle immersive e-learning environment is the best platform at the moment, it combines Moodle and Second Life; there is also the Docebo cluod e-learning: based on e-learning and cloud computing: currently Docebo is planning the integration of LMS Marketplace with Google Apps.Then there are interesting tools for teachers and students, for example calendars, activities, quizzes, etc., all combining two dimensional and three-dimensional.

The Interoperability

Data exchange is probably the center of the problem.The COLLADA file format (COLLAborative Design Activity), based on XML, which allows the interchange of 3D models, materials, textures, rigging, physics (meaning the physical attributes for the object) is a good choice for Second Life end, with a little bit of scripting also for OpenSim. The same is for OpenWonderland, instead Realxtend is based on XML and the OGRE Mesh.The filename extension is .dae digital asset exchange.The COLLADA scheme and specification are freely available from the Khronos Group (the nonprofit technology consortium).Blender supports the import and export of the COLLADA file format.Some 3D applications support Collada: Second Life, OpenSim, Google Earth (and SketchUp), ArcGis, (software GIS Geographic information System).Using COLLADA we can realize also Augmented Reality: look at our file of an Aquarium modeled in blender and projected in 3D framing the tag code on the book Brera Academy virtual lab.http://www.augmentedadvertising.com/brera/

X3D - VRMLX3D (Extensible 3D) is an open standard file format for the creation of a 3D virtual environment on the Web; it's built on the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) and eases the interoperability and interchange for the transmission of 3D data on the Internet. X3D-Edit is the multiplatform software for the authoring of X3D contents....X3D has a rich set of componentized features that can be tailored for use in engineering and scientific visualization, CAD and architecture, medical visualization, training and simulation, multimedia, entertainment, education, and more... developed by the Web3D Consortium, a non profit organizationWEBGLAnother possibility is WebGL, a very powerful Web-based Graphics Library. It is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser.GLGE is a javascript library intended to ease the use of WebGL; which is basically a native browser javascript API giving direct access to openGL ES2, allowing for the use of hardware accelerated 2D/3D applications without having to download any plugins.Here some example: WebGL Aquarium , Google Gravity .

CASE STUDY: The construction of the virtual Brera Academy of Fine Art in MilanMesh and Sculpted Prims with Blender for Second Life and Opensim

Starting from my presentation at the 2010BC about the “Brera Academy virtual lab”, Stefania Albertini and I have developed a virtual lab in our Academy -installing OpenSim on a server and renting 3 islands in Second Life- and published the book -edited by Giampiero Moioli e Mario Gerosa, with an augmented reality cover made with Blender and a preface by the French architect Philippe Stark- I would like to show the idea and the technical work-flow of the construction of the virtual site of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.We are constructing the virtual Academy with Meshes now but we will keep some architectural element or building made with the sculpted prims using Blender 2.5 and Primstar, the add-on by Domino Marama and Gaia Clary.

Giugiogia Auer (my avatar) and the model of the virtual lab in Second Life.

RGB map for a sculpted prims of a column and a capital in Blender.

The real and virtual (under construction) Cortile Napoleonico .

The virtual model of the Comacina island and the avatar of the Director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Gastone Mariani.