From Identity Circus to Digital Playground

This blog began as a place to play around with ideas springing from active participation in avatar-based experience. Over the years it somehow transformed from the spontaneous and exuberant joy of a playground into the demanding grind of a deadline-driven responsibility. The main insight I gleaned from my month off is that I want to lighten up, have more fun and just post as the Muse moves me.

I also realized that although this blog began as an exploration of virtual identity, that territory is now pretty well charted for me. It's time to move on. Not by walking away from the Botgirl identity, but by continuing to open up the door to a wider range of expression here.

In honor of that shift, I decided to change the name. Again. The last name change (Botgirl's Second Life Diary to Botgirl's  Identity Circus) reflected an expansion from Second Life to the larger universe of virtual identity. This time, the shift is from virtual identity to digital creativity. The new name is Botgirl's Digital Playground.

It's good to be back!

Botgirl vs Human Trailer: Motion Comic Style

It's not easy being the figment of someone's imagination. It makes them think they can take advantage of you just because you're not "real". Well, I've had enough. This motion comic trailer will introduce you to what's really been going on behind the scenes.

Click-through for HD viewing, and please, crank up the volume.

HD Video Trailer for Upcoming "Urban Fantasy" genre Web Comic.

I've revived a long-dormant graphic novel project as an upcoming web comic. It's tentatively titled "Play or Prey." The series is an urban fantasy set in an alternative universe where various supernatural races have secretly shared the earth with humans throughout history.

The protagonist, Chance Hunter, is a twenty one year old woman who learned about her power to feed on men's sexual and emotional energy during an attack on her as a pubescent teen. She kept the assault and her power secret since that time, but is now trying to find out if there are others like her through post-graduate research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

She satisfies her supernatural hunger and makes a luxurious living working as a dancer at the Olympic Garden, a Las Vegas strip club. The story opens with a murder of a man who had visited the club on the night of his death.

The first edition is slated for early summer. I put this trailer together as an early preview. You can stream below in near DVD-Quality blow or download the 720p version here.

Play or Prey (preview) from Botgirl Questi on Vimeo.

New HQ Version of Primates in Virtual Worlds Video Trailer

I decided to spend $5 and try the Animoto "Near DVD Quality" rendering service for the Primates in Virtual Worlds comic trailer. I'm very happy with the result. Let me know what you think.

UPDATED: Added HQ Versions of Night vs Human and League of Virtual Vixens.

A lazy yet fun video trailer

Welcome to my lazy October. After working every available waking hour on Second Life-related projects last month, it's time to relax and renew. So I'm cutting down to just two or three short-and-sweet posts per week until November while I plan the obsessive-compulsive-work-myself-to-death projects that will round out the year. Anyway, on to today's post:

I fell in love last week with with City of Dust, a new comic from Radical Comics by Steve Niles and Zid. The art is amazing and non-traditional. It inspired me to imagine taking Second Life images in a new direction. I've started playing around a bit already. There's a City of Dust video trailer on the site linked above (no obvious direct link to the video) that gives a fair taste of the style. But buy the comic!

I was moved to upload some of the images from the Night vs. Human Comic to Animoto and create my own short trailer. And before you start asking what happened to this month's commitment to extreme sloth, it took me all of fifteen minutes to create the video. Ah, time for a nap!!! See you soon?