Bleys Chevalier and the Building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Second Life

Bleys Chevalier (also known as Don Cramer in real life) Chief Technology Officer for Meme Science is the Master Builder responsible for the overall construction of The Wall in Second Life. He spent approximately two months planning, designing, and building The Wall in Second Life. His first task after receiving the Meme Science contract from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. was to research the real life Wall in Washington, DC. With the tools of the Internet he spent many long hours reading The Wall’s history and viewing every photograph he could lay his eyes on. After his initial research he contacted the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and spoke with them in length about The Wall and the database of Vietnam Veterans that were killed or missing during the War. It was explained to him that there are 58,256 names engraved on the black granite Wall in Washington, DC. It was further explained to him that 33 of those names were placed there by mistake and are still there today. 3 new names have been recently added to The Wall within the last few months. Bleys was able to include the correct number of 58,223 names to The Wall in Second Life based on this most accurate information from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

In September of this year Bleys personally visited The Wall in Washington, DC; he had been there before in a previous year but felt it necessary to go back for this project. One day he spent over 6 hours walking around the park while taking over 300 photographs of the 3 Servicemen statue, The Vietnam Veterans Women’s statue, The Wall and the surrounding areas of the Memorial park.

After returning from The Wall in Washington, DC Bleys spent approximately one week studying the many photographs, testing new textures he created, and worked on the actual construction engineering plan for the build. He later started writing scripts and computer programs that would help in creating advanced textures for The Wall, and the surrounding area.

Scripts were written to output in plain text the names of this Vietnam Veterans killed or missing in the War on each panel and to sort them appropriately, which were used in Photoshop to create the actual textures.

The actual building of The Wall island started by marking off the simulator (sim). Bleys used a sim sized MegaPrim with a texture of the real life Memorial park to help stake out the locations of The Wall, 3 Servicemen statue, The Vietnam Veterans Women’s Memorial statue, and the surrounding walkways. The Wall sim is very close to the scale and positioning of the featured structures at the Washington, DC Memorial.

The first structure placed on The Wall sim after being marked off was a blank Wall, and the walkway that run along it. Terraforming was completed to fit The Wall into its final position. At the same time The Vietnam Veterans Women’s Memorial sculpture was completed by Meleni Fairymeadow one of Meme Science’s contractors on the project. The Vietnam Veterans Women’s Memorial statue and that section of the park was the first part of the sim that was completed. After that the park was built around it, starting with the walkways and fencing, then placing benches and trees around the entire park.

After Bleys completed the detailed landscaping he worked on the actual textures of The Wall itself. It took several days to complete The Wall textures, test them on The Wall panels, and complete both Walls. After The Wall was completed Bleys adjusted the walkway textures using the photographs that were taken during his trip to Washington, DC.

Many of the items covering The Wall sim use real life textures taken from the Washington, DC Wall. The chain link fence poles, The Wall walkway, light posts, Directories, American Flag base, and various other items on the sim were built using textures from the approximately 300 photographs Bleys took. The textures used on The Wall in Second Life were created by Bleys himself as a decent texture could not be attained from the photographs taken or other researched sources available to him.

By the time Meleni Fairymeadow delivered the 3 Servicemen statue (end of October 2007) Bleys was able to complete that section of the Memorial park. The majority of the Memorial park was already completed by this time.

The Wall spotlight lighting and walkway lighting were among the last portions of The Wall sim to be completed. The Wall spotlight lighting is scripted to turn on and off automatically based on Second Life’s sun position. Second Life has a total of 4 day/night transitions per every real life day (24 hours).

The Second Life Memorial park contains 4 Directory Terminals which were created to assist visitors to locate killed or missing Veterans on The Wall. The Directories were created using photographs from the Memorial park and scripted using Second Life Scripting Language (LSL). The web server hosting The Wall’s companion web site TheWallSL.com that Bleys created is host to several databases and scripts (PHP programs) that enable the Directories to function. From the Directory one can search and locate names, and once an exact match is narrowed down you can use the Directory to leave virtual gift items (Roses and Flags) at the panel where the name is found, teleport to the exact location of the name or have a virtual marker placed above the panel indicating where the name is located.

Every panel’s location on The Wall is recorded and stored in the database to help teleport the visitor and place items along The Wall in front of the searched name. Several scripted objects are also located on The Wall sim which can communicate both from inside Second Life to the Web, and from the Web into Second Life. With the Web to Second Life communications we can have items delivered to any one of the 58,223 names on any panel on The Wall. This can be done all from Meme’s Web page. This is a future enhancement we plan to have on the website, allowing visitors to leave a gift item at The Wall within Second Life, or even schedule an item to be left on a certain date; for example, birthdays, anniversaries or any important occasion.

The Wall sim is monitored with a custom metrics package Bleys is developing which monitors agents as they enter and leave The Wall sim, sim performance data (fps, time dilation, ECT.), among other activities on The Wall sim. A companion Second Life Heads Up User Display (HUD) is in development to aid and assist Meme management in monitoring The Wall sim and defending it against those avatars that want to cause trouble (Griefers), or other troublesome visitors. Detailed reporting and graphing will be provided with this solution.

The Wall in Washington, DC is constructed using black granite, polished with a mirror like finish. When one stops and looks at the names etched in The Wall you see a ‘reflection’ of yourself along with the names. While Bleys was at The Wall in Washington, DC and saw his own reflection with the names of those Vietnam Veteran’s killed or missing. He stated to the Meme Science team ‘its kind of like, for that moment you are with those among The Wall, you see yourself with them within their names’. He continued to say ‘if there is one thing missing from this Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall build this would be it - reflection’. Second Life does not provide real time ‘reflection tools’ to recreate this reflective experience. Bleys went on to say ‘maybe some day Second Life will provide these reflection tools and then I will be able to complete The Wall as it was meant to be’.

Tools used by Master Builder Bleys Chevalier:

Second Life Client
Adobe Photoshop
PHP scripting language
MySQL database
LSL Scripting Language
Various helper LSL scripts
SciTE and Nusphere PHP Edit for LSL and PHP development
Dreamweaver
Internet
Nikon D70 Digital Camera

Build Photos:

 

 

Meleni Fairymeadow and the Building of The Three Servicemen Statue

Frederick Hart (1943 - 1999) completed his sculpture of the Three Servicemen in 1984. (The statue is also known as ‘The Three Soldiers’.) It is an enigmatic statue, which may be one reason why it has captured so much public attention. The soldiers seem to appear out of the mist, having stepped out of the war zone and into the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington. Their bodies, their faces, and especially their eyes, seem sad and jaded; exhausted, and yet alert. They seem to be staring into the distance at the names of the fallen; or perhaps again they merely have the distant-stare of men used to watching the horizon for signs of the enemy. We cannot tell for sure. For the viewer there is ambiguity. The soldiers themselves know exactly what they are doing ~ it is we, the observers, who are uncertain. It is a fitting metaphor. Only those who have been in war have any idea what it is like. The rest of us can only wonder and guess and be grateful.

My version of Hart’s statue is made up of 484 prims. The men’s heads and bodies and weapons are made from traditional prims, with the exception of their fingers. These I made as sculpted prims on Wings 3D. Most of their uniforms are also made from sculpted prims, as is the statue’s base. The bullets for the M60 are built up from a single bullet I made using the Rokuro software. I multiplied them, laid them in a row, reduced them to a texture in Photoshop, and applied them to segments of normal prim cylinders. Prim-based textures were also used for some parts of the weapons, the boot-laces, the US insignia on the holster, and the belts. Other than that, the textures are very simple – a widely-available chrome texture with low shine, and a couple of basic tints.

The original statue stands 2.13 meters (7 feet) tall. Mine is slightly taller (2.76 meters). I opted for this height to keep the relationship between the height of the statue and the height of the observer in proportion. (Avatars in Second Life are not only slim and beautiful, they are exceptionally tall. It must be something in the water.)

-Meleni Fairymeadow

Build Photos:

 

 

Meleni Fairymeadow and the Building of The Vietnam Women’s Memorial

Glenna Goodacre’s ‘Vietnam Women's Memorial’ was unveiled on 11 November 1993. It is an emotional piece, with each figure contributing additional waves of feeling. (The agony of the wounded soldier; the grave concern of the woman tending his wounds; the hope and faith of the figure searching the skies for deliverance; the sad and prayerful reflection of the woman on her knees.)

The structure of Goodacre’s statue is very pleasing. The figures form a series of triangles, taking the eye down to the wounded man, or up to the heavens, or back down to the ominous sight of the empty helmet, the earth, and what lies beneath it.

The soldier draped across the woman’s knees adopts a pose reminiscent of the dead Christ draped across the knees of his mother in Michelangelo’s ‘Pieta’.

It was an honor to be asked to produce a Second Life version of this statue. I was also deeply aware of the importance of this work – it is no mere piece of decoration. It carries a very deep and powerful meaning for us as human beings, and especially for those closely connected to the war, or to those who fought in it.

I have been making sculptures in Second Life since July, 2006. Almost all my sculptures have been of human figures, so in that regard I was well-prepared. However, in the main my sculptures are in the 80-100 prims range, and are completed in one sitting of around 10 hours. My commissioned pieces are usually double that size. Prior to this project, my largest piece was a private commission for two ‘Angelic Sentinels’, weighing in at 273 prims. The Women’s Memorial, on the other hand, is 416 prims. It took around 4-and-a-half days to complete, working about 16 hours a day.

An even more major departure for me was the use of prims. This is the first time that I have used sculpted prims in a statue. I had originally said that I would make the piece in standard prims only. But then I began to collect photographs of Glenna Goodacre’s statue. It became clear to me that modelling the sandbags and uniforms would take a lot of standard prims, require a lot of time and fiddling, and, frankly, display a lot of foolishness. Luckily, a few days before I had downloaded Wings 3D, which I found simple and easy to use.

So I made sculpted prims for the sandbags and the clothing. Sculpted prims are perfect for bulky, uneven surfaces like these. For the smooth and clear lines of the face and arms I used normal prims, which give you a greater degree of precision and control. In my view, standard prims give you much more scope for subtle revisions in your search to capture expressions and nuances of position. (I also used standard prims for the boots, the wounded soldier’s jacket, and part of one trouser leg.) My original estimate for the statue was 500 prims; but the use of sculpted prims shaved nearly 100 prims off that.

The textures are very simple. The base uses a marble texture I created on Photoshop (and which I use extensively in my sculptures). Almost all the other prims use a readily available chrome texture, with low shine. With the exception of the eyes, these are all coloured in one of two tones (a gray and a bronze). The only detailed texture appears on the boots ~ I made prim models of the laces and then Photoshopped these into a texture.

The Second Life version has been scaled to match the dimensions of Glenna Goodacre’s original (which are approximately 15 feet by 8 feet, or 2.44 meters by 4.57 meters).

- Meleni Fairymeadow