interview | Barnesworth Anubis

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Ana Lutetia | 1 Comment

Second Life name: Barnesworth Anubis
Rez Date: 6/21/2004

1 – How did you discover Second Life and what made you create an account?
I use to play The Sims Online and many friends were trying it out. Toast Bard and Ingrid Ingersoll (friends from TSO) practically forced me to try it and continue logging in and learn new things.

2 – How did you come up with your Second Life name?
I think Toast had a gnome named Farnesworth, and I turned it into Barnesworth, why I dont remember. I actually wanted to change my avatar name after joining SL but as you know is not possible, so I stuck with it. I am glad I did as it is very distinctive and memorable.

3 – Lots of people only stay inSL for a week or a month after creating an account. What made you stay and what motivates you to log back in?
After trying content creation I quickly became hooked to SL. I loved creating new places. As soon as I finished one I would take it down and build something new. I still love creating items to share with the people of second life and see people enjoy them.

4 – What have you been doing in SL? Tell us your story: what have you been up to or what have you created.
I love trying new things, over the years I have touched on a lot of different types of content creation. Clothing, accessories, homes, shops, furniture, decor, landscaping/plants, etc. I always have fun trying new areas, wheather it be a new style of house I have never done before or new type of items, for example Callie Cline and I made a line of Sion chicken houses and accessories together recently which was a lot of fun.
Most of my content (architecture, landscaping, furniture, etc) is sold under the [ba] barnesworth anubis prefab brand located in demersal, and some of my clothing and accessories can still be found in my boutique in Rue DAntibes.
I also have done a lot of development with companies and organizations outside (and some already inside SL) helping them improve or establish their presence here and make use of Second Life. Doing custom development is always a love hate relationship for me. I generally like to have my own creative direction however when I do custom jobs the projects often have me creating things I would have never tried on my own, and forcing me to learn new techniques and types of content creation. Recently I had to make a vehicle which was very intimidating and challenging for me with the low prim limit, level of detail in the textures, functionality requirements, and large seating capacity. But in the end it became the part of the project I was most proud of.
Ingrid and I have also always been involved in varrying degrees with public works projects around second life. Years ago we started with fixing up the boardman sim and with the cooperation of other residents and friends we were able to build a beautiful community there. We have also done work in improving the old city sims and doing welcome areas/infohubs. Last year i served for several months on the Linden Department of Public Works mole team working on the bay city project and some new infohubs/places to explore on the mainland.

5 – Have you found, developed or improved any skills because of SL?
Many! I had really limited experience before SL working with any modeling or photo imaging software. I have learned a lot about modeling and texturing of course. Not just in SL but I now regularly experiment with Blender and Maya to create sculpties and bake simple shading on objects. I have also been able to learn a lot of photoshop techniques to create better textures for my builds. Many people in Second Life have been very generous in sharing their experiences and resources to help me do that.

6 – Could you share a funny or awkward story that happened to you inSL?
When I was new I had my fair share of awkward moments. Like everyone I would accidentally wear boxes on my head and strip naked in public trying to change my avatars clothing.
I had a lot of trouble with content creation and manipulation at the start. At one point I got so frustrated just trying to put on prim hair that Ingrid Ingersoll finally logged onto my account and did it for me. The merchant also had to send me about 5 new copies because I kept messing it up without saving a copy first. To this day I still think Lash Xavious is a saint for being so patient with me.

7 – What would you change or improve in Second Life?
Content management and protection – it is a shame that so many people are hurting the peoples work they admire by stealing it.

8 – Can you share your current and/or future projects for SL?
I plan to expand my line of commercial offerings with more commercial structures in different themes, retail display units, and sim infrastructure. I would also like to start offering larger commercial structures that people can use as main stores.
Also more in the prefab home front I am going to be launching the first of a new line of houses that are geared toward content creators. Instead of laying them out as real houses with traditional spaces such as living rooms and bedrooms etc they cater more to the needs of someone who just needs a space to work and socialize, with distinct areas for working on new items and organizing tools (who doesn’t have a few of those these days? xstreet and subscribeomatic servers, photo booth, texture organizers, inspiration boards etc…)
I also have been flirting with the idea of a line of textures for builders. Unfortunately I am not too keen on trying to figure out how to protect them from misuse.

9 – Have you ever had any issues whatsoever within Second Life? If so, how did you reported and was the feedback positive?
I have had very few major issues with the second life software. For the most part they have always been solved fairly quickly.

10 – Is Second Life merely an online game or do you consider it more of a metaverse or a virtual world?
I think I am on the more “platform” end of it. It certainly is a game but has a lot of potential for much more. I have seen some amazing things done in Second Life that really show what it is capable of. I think Second Life is still trying to figure out what it wants to be, it probably never will settle anywhere.

11 – Imagine a new resident asks for your help. What would do? What would you tell him/her?
It depends what they ask for help with!
I get a lot of new people asking how to build and create things tho. I usually refer them to some of the excellent in world resources such as the Library of Prims in Natoma, which is where I first learned the basics of building at its old location. There are also many great photoshop tutorials online for texturing that will teach you the basics. Once you have the basics down its a matter of experimenting with different techniques and getting to know the software.

12 – How would you describe yourself in one word?
driven

Your urls
website: http://barnesworthanubis.com/
Blog: http://contentconfessional.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78302650@N00/
SLurls: [ba] prefabs
Barnes Boutique (menswear)

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