1. Marcos Fonzarelli's mecha avatars transform. You can get them at his store called ARMORD in Miramare.

Posted at 9:57AM on Jul 18th 2007 by Bjorn

2. Liam and V3 Group were commissioned to create the official TRANFORMERS avatars by Picture Production Company (PPC), on behalf of our clients Paramount Pictures International.

As Head of Interactive at PPC I've been consistently blown away by the quality of V3's work. The attention to detail and commitment to quality across the 300, DIE HARD and TRANSFORMERS builds is, as far as I'm concerned, second to none. Indeed, anybody who believes that they can build a better Transformer should keep an eye on http://www.theppc.com/silverscreen/ for news of a prize-winning opportunity to do so.

Furthermore, the popularity of these avatars - and of the Sector 7 sim and 1,000-strong group - appears to run contrary to Amalthea's melodramatically conveyed sentiments. Upon release of our new Barricade avatar a few days ago the sim was flooded with visitors, the vast majority of whom seemed delighted to be able to collect lovingly created Transformers avs (transforming or otherwise) - especially being that they are available totally free of charge.

It seems to me that Amalthea, like so many SL commentators, is quick to forget that marketers are often also fans. This project has allowed us to go on enjoying the toys we loved when we were kids (albeit that we're fortunate enough to be doing it for living).

Posted at 3:26PM on Jul 18th 2007 by Dannyboy Lightfoot

3. Thanks for the comment, Danny. Please don't get me wrong, I do like the sim and I am a fan, not only of Liam's work, but also of the Transformers. It's just my personal opinion that if you put this much effort into the creative, you should also capture its essence - the transforming capability. Other than that, I have nothing but admiration for the work and you have my congrats for a popular project!

Posted at 3:38PM on Jul 18th 2007 by Thea

4.

The fact that the robots did not transform was not due to it being 'marketing agency rather than a human with a soul'. "Soullessness" was not the issue for me, but specifically working with the complex 2007 versions of the Transformers took the challenge to new heights. The fact that transformers showing up at the sim are transformable, is that they are based on the 1980's version, which are different from the 2007¹s. Trying to catch the essence of ILM¹s highly-complex 2007 versions was the primary goal. To begin to duplicate ILM¹s transforming sequence using SL tools and other SL compatible tools had limitations to say the least. There was no attempt made to make them transformable at the time. Though, we are researching how to make this happen so it is seamless and in-line with the movie. If any basic research were done, one would find that the design and complexity of the movie robots took a team of about 350 specialists working at Industrial Light and Magic according to ILM's Scott Farrar, the movie's visual effects supervisor. V3 had a team of 4 with 2 builders in total working on the transformer avatars.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Entertainment&article=UPI-1-20070701-17412800-bc-us-transformers.xml

Developing the transformers robots based upon the 2007 version here in SL posed similar challenges as the ILM team. Farrar states, "It's actually physical pieces moving. This all is very complex. This toy [the original Optimus Prime action figure] has 51 pieces. Our Optimus Prime in the movie has 10,108" The avatars of Bumblebee and Barricade in the movie had similar complexities in number of pieces. The Sector 7 Bumblebee has 1068 prims. The bumblebee character in the movie can go from a massive 16 foot robot into a more compact GM car easily since the tools ILM used are more robust. (ILM Talks Transformers, Disney Cheapquels Die, & Shatner is Pissed) - http://vfxplanet.vox.com/library/post/ilm-talks-transformers-disney-cheapquels-die-shatner-is-pissed.html

To clarify, Liam Kanno and the V3 Group is a content developer not a marketing agency. Liam Kanno states, "I do put my soul into every build, and I consider myself a SL resident before I consider myself a design agency - and do everything I can to provide unique and fun experiences for SL residents. I applaud the passion and dedication of the team members of the V3 Group - Sector 7 build, and Dannyboy Lightfoot of PPC on his creative vision. We are proud to bring this into SL, and I look forward to meeting new talent in SL that can help improve the user experience for SL residents."

Posted at 7:12PM on Jul 18th 2007 by Liam Kanno

5. Danny, I'm afraid I have to respectfully disagree.

I believe that you are motivated to say what you are saying because of your business interests in promoting yourself and your work. You even managed to plug one of your upcoming events. Congratulations.

I understand that you and your company need to cut corners to fulfill deadlines and to keep your costs down, and that's why you might need to avoid complexities such as making your avatars actually transform.

I do not believe that Amalthea is being melodramatic - deciding to make your avatars not transform is really missing the point. Someone motivated by the passion of the project would have found a way to make it work. This is why home-grown projects in SL tend to be more successful than real-world marketing excursions.

Posted at 7:15PM on Jul 18th 2007 by Francis

6. Thanks Jimmy, I'll update it.

Posted at 8:36PM on Jul 18th 2007 by Thea

7. Isn't Amalthea an MoU executive/pr flak (Rodica Millionsofus/Rodica Buzescu)? She did not disclose that anywhere on this site, and how is her opinion any more credible here considering her conflict of interest? I mean come on now people.

First she writes a glowing article on the Sun project with Scope, now she writes a negative one on Liam? This is getting stupid. She is obviously using Blingsider as a platform. That should automatically discredit her opinion.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070227221135/http://www.millionsofus.com/executive.php

Posted at 1:50PM on Jul 19th 2007 by Big Al

8. just as you use nicknames here to protect your real identity, i would also like my privacy to be respected.
i would also suggest that you check your facts: simple things like...MoU has never worked with Scope, Sun has announced that they lead their own development, and that my review of the transformers is only negative in that it points out that they don't transform.

any suggestions that this is more than that are simply paranoia.





the comments for this section are now closed.

Posted at 10:53AM on Jul 20th 2007 by Thea

9. The slurl didn't work for me, this one does, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sector%207/132/82/28

Posted at 8:40PM on Oct 9th 2007 by Jimmy Daniels