Eclectic Tech Carnival Weaving Networks

[img_assist|nid=563|title=animated avatar etc07|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=400|height=400] Friday morning, 2-3 hours, taught by helen (remotely) & marischka (on-site) & perhaps assistance from urska & donna? No skills required, fun & creative.

UpStage (http://www.upstage.org.nz) is a web-based venue for live online performance. remote players collaborate in real time using avatars, props, backdrops, text and text2speech to create a live performance for an online audience. the audience interact with the performance via a text chat tool.

Workshop participants will learn the player tools including how to hold and move an avatar, speak, change names & positions, play with text, change backdrops, and use the drawing tools. We'll talk about how artists can collaborate to create real-time performances in UpStage, & some of the different kinds of work that artists have done recently.

If there is enough time we can look at how to create your own graphics for UpStage; & if there is interest we could also talk about the logistics of getting UpStage installed on the systerserver.

UpStage 2 was launched on 28 june, so for those who have worked with UpStage before there are some great new features to discover (& the annoying bugs are gone!). & last Saturday was the 070707 UpStage Festival - 13 shows by artists around the world (including helen & marischka) - enjoyed by people online & also on site in new zealand.

Note - linux fonts: If you are using UpStage on Linux you may find that fonts are not appearing on stage. This problem is fixed by installing additional packages:
ß apt-get install gsfonts gsfonts-x11
ß and http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Versio... untar/gzip
ß close all browsers, run the installer (see installation instructions on the url above)

helen : )