Foxtrot by Maar Auer-The Machinima

Foxtrot is undeniably one of the most popular ballroom dances. It has many variations, both in tempo and style: probably one important reason for foxtrot's popularity is the fact that its most basic steps are simple enough for even a clumsy beginner to learn ;) The version you have here represents the so called 'slow foxtrot'. It is a deliciously jazzy, smoothly gliding, ballroom variation of the theme. You are welcome to test it your self! MaarBaZaar; Maar Auer's Creations in Metaversal Arts!

• Yolanda wears "Donna salsa dress" by VictoriaV
  
• Filmed in Rivendell.
  

SLCN.TV's Live Tonight & SLindy Hopping Machinimas

by Maar Auer

All rightie! Right after the rezzday party - btw, a HUGE thanks to all who showed up, it was a blast, what a fantastic evening! - I was invited as a guest in Paisley Beebe's Tonight Live Show in SLCN.TV . Now you can watch the entire episode here in SLCN.tv's pages. There was the lag of the century, you remember that dark and stormy night two weeks back... So forgive the at times jittery camera, SLCN staff made miracles just managing to pull the show through *raises her hat in awe*. My part starts a bit after half way point. You will see fantastic dancers presenting first the Charleston and then the brand new SLindy Hop : My favorite 'pas de deux' -couple Yoland Hirvi and Lord Lisle were accompanied by Darleez DeCuir and Davon Westland - and the result is truly a sight for sore eyes... ;)

If you'd prefer to see only the SLindy Hopping part of the show without having to listen to my bizarre finnish-english accent, you can watch a two minute cut here, embedded from youtube.


That's it for now - more machinimas may be coming at some point, consider this a warning ;) I'll upload them in this page in Youtube, if you're interested. CU inworld, have a lovely summer & happy dancings!
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Dancers outfits were kindly sponsored by Patrick Rotunno / Cartunno Couture (Yolanda's beautiful red flapper dress in Charleston and also SLindy Hop) and Artilleri (all the awesome 50's outfits in SLindy Hop).

Its Charleston Time

by Maar Auer

And so our dance through times continues! Wear your shiniest shoes, replace the Monday blues with a flirty groove: We have now arrived at the roaring 20's, and the orchestra is playing the juiciest Charleston tune ever. Check out the machinima video below. Yolanda and Lord show us how it's done:



Do you feel an itch in your dancing toe...? Want to try it for yourself?
Welcome over to Metaversal Arts - day or night, its Charleston time!

Come Waltz With Me!

by Maar Auer

Life is a dance on roses. Second Life, recently, has had more thorns than petals it seems... So what, oh what can you do?

Waltz!!!

Valse de Nuit is the newest waltz in SL. Smoothly swaying, gently spinning, elegant and affectionate... Yes, waltz: The eternal symbol of young love, white dance of weddings, the must-have of each and every self-respecting ballroom. Wear your waltziest party outfit and come try it out, to see how it feels for you. Don't forget to grab your dance partner along! The balls are rezzed in Metaversal Arts yard, just waiting for you.

Sharpen your ears now... Do you hear the symphony orchestra tuning their instruments?

Slowly, sweetly....

by Maar Auer

As response to requests, I've created a slow dance: SlowOne. It's a dance for when you feel like being close to someone, in a ballroom, club or at home. Affectionate, intimate, graceful, seamless, maximum SL animation length - and, oh yes, slow... Just dance to your favorite songs and IM all night through with someone who is special to you - or soon about to become one. Sweet thought, isn't it? Come to think of it - when was the last time you had a chance to even try a new slow dance? So do come and check this one out. I hope you'll like it... The test balls can be found right here at Metaversal Arts main yard.

'I want a maaaan with a sloooww haannnd...' Oh yeah? You too? ;)

Animating madness

by Maar Auer

Those of you who have once tried animating know it is a time consuming process. Animating for SL is much more than just that: it is nerve consuming.

Limb by limb, inch by inch, frame by frame - yes, but why, oh why does it always look like two clothes hangars having a wrestle? No matter how you try, it never seems natural - so you walk in your appartment measuring your own rl limbs, scratch your head and wonder: Do I really look that weird when I move?

That's the beginnings of SL animating madness for you. It continues, in so many ways... Like that thing with thighs. Especially, it seems, the right thigh. In Poser window everything is cool, calm, smooth as a lake on a summer morning. Import the animation into SL, and watch your right thigh declare itself an independent nation.

All the same, I've managed to sweat up a couple of dances. The first of them, a variation of a menuet, was officially released a few days ago. Keeping in mind how long time it takes just to finish a few frames of dance, you will get an idea of how lovely it feels to see people actually enjoying your-finally-more-or-less-well-behaving dances.

So do come and try it out! ;) Gentlemen bow, ladies curtsy - the ancient, golden days of grace and elegance are back! I've placed the menuet just next to the tp point in Metaversal Arts, by the fountain. And why not bring a friend along, or two, or three... Menuets work best when dancers are many. Besides, there's nothing like dancing the night away with a bunch of good friends, is there?

Maar Auer's Metaversal Greetings

Right then. I guess I should present myself also. Maar Auer, Metaversal designer. An artist: musician, dancer, graphic designer, a hopeless geek...

In June 07 I was contacted and asked if I'd be willing to give a live net interview during my first steps in Second Life. The bait on the hook was to attend an SL live ballet performance. My insatiable curiosity immediately raised its ugly, hairy head. SL? What the heck? I happily plunged straight into trouble; after a few careless mouse clicks, Maar Auer found herself clumsily bumping into pixels under SL the sun. Maar is a shortening of my RL name, and Auer means 'morning light in the horizon' in old fashioned Finnish.

No, I didn't make a habit of it at once. I grew roots like a persistent weed: kept returning every time I was yanked out of SL soil by merciless grid crashes. From the very beginning I was fascinated by the possibility of building things in a virtual world. Here was my chance: I had always admired acoustic instrument builders in RL. So why not build a lovely, fat ass double bass, a true big mama. I can't play that one in RL - but feel sympathy for those poor, apologetic musicians negotiating their huge basses into jam packed rush hour buses. Took me a loooong while, I can assure you, but boy, was I proud of my first creation, even before finding out how to add sounds or animations to it...

Dar's and my paths crossed earlier. Yolanda followed Darleez to take a look at my newly built house and all my creations. Well - we understood and befriended each other at first glance, and not only because of that bizarre burst of grunts called Finnish. These two powerful ladies asked if I'd be interested to join Metaversal Arts. As you might have guessed, I didn't see any point in hesitating this time either: head on towards trouble once again. (In general, I've noticed it's much more interesting to say yes than no, so.... >;)

MaarBaZaar has been a proud member of Metaversal Arts Shop since November 07. Instruments, animations, furniture... My passion lies in acoustic instruments (those beauties!) as well as animations. Being much too busy and very, veeery much too unorganized in RL, I'm not able to spend a lot of time in SL. Can't release new stuff often. But when I do, I do it with heart involved. MaarBaZaar's best selling article is Maar Auer Concert Grand, an antique grand piano, the result of endless hours of effort. So all the praise received from satisfied customers feels heart-warming and truly encouraging :) I had a scripter helping me with the awesome scripts in the lid: Moundsa Mayo, who since then has become a close friend also. I do script some, but only simple stuff, whereas he's a script artist. Yeah, better stick to where your talent really lies, isn't it.

Next release? I'm working on a lovely mechanical piano, with automatic music sheet rolls. It's almost ready now - so soon, soon! It will be released in two colour options, rosewood and ivory. Also I have a menuet dance coming along, intended to be used as an antique style ballroom dance, for multiple dancers. Fit for a king, so to say. Well, that's the goal at least...

What else? I love witty chats, playing music and performing, traveling, computers and green apples. I hate getting up early, cockroaches, shopping, money, cooking and spam. To mention a few.

To know more u just gotta IM me.

The Story of Metaversal Arts

by Darleez DeCuir

I believe that you, our readers, are interested in what the history and background of Metaversal Arts is. Well, let’s say that it all started summer 2007 when I had in mind that I definitely need an office in SL (sure, everybody needs an office :-)). So, I wanted to have a small office space beside my home in Sabulella. I had met my friend Yolanda Hirvi earlier in the spring, and I also knew that she was very keen on landscaping and building things. She presented her work to me and I really loved what saw! Then we got an idea: Yolanda will build the office for me. Oh yes, otherwise I would have bought some kind of trivial prefab… Already that time, we also had all kinds of ideas for the future activities in SL and some initial plans of becoming business partners. In order to be able to start building the office on my land, we needed a group. The very same group was going to be used for other business purposes and networking later too. In short, this is how Metaversal Arts was founded in July 2007.

Metaversal Arts Headquarters and the founders at the front door, August 2007

As the building process proceeded we realized that of course the office needs to be furnished too. And all of a sudden, Yolanda created a custom desk, office chair, cabinet, conference room seats and even a fan in the ceiling to keep the office cool, a perfectly designed set suitable for just this steampunk stylish office space.

Soon after all was completed in Sabulella, Yolanda wanted to build a shop for herself. I supported her idea because I was already that time convinced that her builds would have commercial potential. I can tell you, I didn’t make a mistake! The first shop saw its daylight in The Admiral, and after few weeks it was already a success with all the antiques and old-world style furniture. That time we also met artist Moondrift Tomorrow, who joined Metaversal Arts and had his premier SL exhibition of Globulus Art in the second floor of the shop.

Metaversal Arts Mainshop in The Admiral, August 2007.

We were lucky to meet and network with even more other creative residents. They joined Metaversal Arts in order to create and work together and help each other whenever their expertise is needed. Scripting guru and chaotician Moundsa Mayo has helped us many times with scripting and other tricky technical questions. Moundsa’s creation, the Chaos Machine is absolutely worth of another article! Multi-talented artist Maar Auer has designed and created beautiful builds, scripted and playable musical instruments, and unique animations for various purposes, just to mention a few of her works.

The shop got soon too small and we ran out of prims, which was a good reason to acquire more land and enlarge the business in The Admiral. In October, the Metaversal Arts Factory Area was introduced in The Grand Opening event. That time the new Mainshop in the Factory Area consisted Oblonski, antiques, gothic and old world furniture by Yolanda Hirvi, MaarBaZaar with musical instruments and household stuff by Maar Auer, Crys’ Creations with garden items by Crystaleen Laval, and exiting magic stuff by Fnordian Link. The Chaos Machine and a steam engine by Moundsa Mayo could be admired and played with in the yard, and also the new Metaversal Arts Headquarters had moved in the area.

Gothic furniture by Oblonski, Metaversal Arts Mainshop, The Admiral, October 2007.

Musical Instruments by MaarBaZaar, Metaversal Arts Mainshop, The Admiral, October 2007.

The Chaos Machine by Moundsa Mayo, Metaversal Arts Factory Area, The Admiral, November 2007.

In December Maar Auer designed the new antler logo of Metaversal Arts. After Christmas we launched the new logo and arranged The Skate Away the Xmas Blues skating party in the Factory Area. The event was fun and successful with Maar Auer’s ‘Skate Like a Champion’ and dancing animations, raffles and good music with Yolanda as a DJ. We planned to arrange another skating party too, but then we suddenly got a chance to get a whole sim for Metaversal Arts, so we moved again…

Metaversal Arts Island grand opening event is planned to happen very soon, we are looking forward to meeting you all in the opening, and in the meantime in the Mainshop temporary location at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cherish/122/153/539.

Metaversal Arts Mainshop in Cherish, February 2008.