A Moving Display

I’ve been frequently checking in on machinimists to find out how they’re coming along on their bad machinima. They’re probably sick of me by now, but I discovered that a lot of people have turned off group notices, so group chat is necessary. Yesterday, while bugging the Machinimatographers group (it’s open enrollment BTW!), I came across a resident, Kiwi Alfa, that totally overhauled the Alt-Zoom Camera!

There’s no documentation yet, but he was happy to give me a demo. He teleported me to the island of Theta, which is the neighboring sim to the one I live on, Pi. He had set up an elaborate routine for the camera, centered around the Silent Witnesses display that focuses on domestic violence awareness. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve known about it for a while, but never got the chance to visit it.

Let me tell you, it’s one thing to just view the display. It’s another thing to take a moving tour of it. I’m not usually sensitive, but combined with the music, I was wiping away tears. I hope the owner lets Kiwi keep the camera up. It really just hits the point home.

While the notecard isn’t out yet, I’ve asked Kiwi to inform me as soon as it is, so that I may distribute it to those that want an alternative to the Alt-Zoom Camera. I’ve also asked if he can teach some classes on it, so be on the lookout! Here is what he added:

Kiwi Alfa: I added a command so I could ‘touch’ all the waypoints by just saying a command. Beats having to go round to each one individually.

Kiwi Alfa: I also made it so I can do stuff like adding 2 seconds to each waypoint after, say, 100 seconds, so that instead of something like 83,92,102,123, you’d have 83,92,104,125. Just by saying a command like “after,100,2″.

Kiwi Alfa: Oh, and since when I make videos they come out faster than when I normally plan them, I added a command that will allow me to multiply each waypoint’s time with a command, So “ratio,2″ would mean that times of 12,26,30 would become 24,52,60.

He also made it so that you can rez something and all of the waypoints will become invisible. I can’t wait for the instructional notecard to come out! Thank you, Kiwi, for your wonderful contribution and the amazing tour of the Silent Witnesses plot.

UPDATE: I gave Kiwi the link and he brought to my attention that I forgot something.

Kiwi Alfa: Nice stuff. You forgot to mention the “skipto” command, which will let you skip the camera to any point along your path rather than having to go back to the beginning.

It just keeps getting better!