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| “ARIA” by Andressa DePrims |
An in depth interview
with Second Life Artist and MAGE Model Andressa DePrims
MAGE Magazine is a
fantasy and science fiction genre magazine featuring stories presented in comic
book form. Issue #1 was released in April 2015 and, since then MAGE Magazine
has released 6 issues, distributed throughout Second Life as a 3D book. MAGE Magazine
also produces machinima videos and helps to promote the work of Second Life
artists. As the magazine prepares to release it’s Halloween Edition I had a
chance to speak with a member of their senior team, Andressa DePrims, who is a
producer of machinima and virtual photography.
Dean : Could you tell me how you first got
involved with machinima and Second Life photography?
Andressa : Ya, it’s
actually kind of funny. When I first joined Second Life I got a hat from one of
the freebie shops and, at the time, I didn’t know that you had to take certain
objects out of a box in order to wear them, so I was walking around with a box
on my head when someone sent me an IM asking me if I needed help. So I
explained that I had picked up a free hat but whenever I put it on, I ended up
wearing a box with a picture of the hat, instead of the actual hat. So the
person who approached me explained that I needed to rez the box and sent me a
tp to a sandbox where she showed me all those counter intuitive prerequisites
required to get my hat from a box into my inventory and then onto my avatar’s
head. As it turned out the complications of putting on a hat turned out to be a
twist of fate as this person who was helping me was Othella, the editor of MAGE
Magazine. We got to talking and Othella explained that she was starting a
magazine and asked me if I wanted to be a model. So I said yes and she gave me
some lindens and links to freebie and dollarbie items on the marketplace that I
would need to be a model and I started putting together different outfits or
“characters”. Then, when the first issue was released the section at the back,
which is called “A Note from the Editor” was inspired by how Othella and I met,
with the character MEZ getting his head stuck in a box.
Dean : That’s a very amusing anecdote, but
could you tell me how you got involved with machinima and Second Life
photography?
Andressa : Ya,
actually my point was that I started as a model with MAGE Magazine and by
chatting with the photographers I learned about the techniques they used to
create their images and, when I told 0THELLA I was interested in being more
than just a model she started sending me links to video tutorials on machinima and
SL photography.
Dean : As a model for MAGE Magazine which
characters do you play and what kind of preparations do you make for a photo
shoot?
Andressa : The
characters that I play exclusively are Felicia the Fairy, the Princess Aida,
Pieta the gypsy and the Inn Keeper’s wife. There are also characters that I
play that other members of the team also play so, for example, the alien avatar
that we use for Aldo the Alien costs 15 lindens on the marketplace so 0THELLA,
Sizzelle and myself own copies of this avatar so that if one person is
unavailable for a photoshoot, someone else can stand in. Aria, the main
character from the "Lady Dom” series, is another character that is played
by both myself and Sizzelle. The avatar werewolf that we use for MEZ is a
library avatar so everyone has a copy of that character. The prep work for a
photo shoot is basically a lot of shopping. I try to create original looking
characters so even if I find a complete ensemble on the marketplace I'll make
modifications like changing the color or I’ll mix and match with other
ensembles. The same thing goes with the shapes, especially if they are human,
the skins, the eyes and hair are influenced by the story so, with Felicia,
Othella said she wanted an “Amazon fairy” so I found a dark skin tone, a black
hair piece that resembled a Chinese queue, some polynesian style tattoos and
some gold and ivory bracelets and anklets. But the butterfly wings for the
fairy were blue and I wanted the eyes to match the wings so I gave her blue
eyes and for the first few issues, because Felicia is a fairy and is usually
small in the frame no one noticed. In the issue we’re working on now Felicia is
the central character so we have close ups of her and Othella noticed for the
first time that she has blue eyes. She wasn’t happy about this because Amazons
don’t have blue eyes but, for the sake of continuity, we kept them. In addition
to creating characters I also do a lot of shopping for poses and huds that
cause the character’s expression to change. You might notice in some of the
earlier issues, Felicia is in a bad mood so she has a frown.
Dean : You mentioned that some of the other
MAGE models use the same avatars. Is this how you’re able to portray multiple
characters in the same scene?
Andressa : Ya, but we
also use a green screen studio that I built from prims, which is why 0THELLA
dubbed me “Andressa DePrims”.
Dean : Is this the same green screen studio
that got you banned from the Shiromani Sandbox?
Andressa : Ya, lol, I
was fifteen days old in Second Life when I joined Builder’s Brewery and started
to build the green screen studio. I had 2 textures to work with. One was green
that I used for the interior. The other texture was the MAGE Magazine logo
which I used for the outside. I was making adjustments in the Shiromani Sandbox
when Eternal Gray decided that showing the MAGE Magazine logo was deserving of
being banned for life. So I guess that makes me persona non grata but, there
are other sandboxes so it’s not a big deal and if Eternal Gray wants to be
remembered for being an asshole, that’s his business.
Dean : You were only fifteen days old and
already you were building studios and modelling for a magazine. How did you
manage to get your act together so fast?
Andressa : I owe a lot
of it to 0THELLA. She is very supportive of artists and MAGE Magazine is more
like a family than a business, so we share a lot and learn a lot from each
other. It also helps that most of us are relatively new to Second Life so we
still have that curiosity and the humility that’s required to improve and grow
as artists and human beings.
Dean: I noticed that there is some nudity in
the Magazine, what is it with Second Life artists and nudity?
Andressa: Lol. I don’t
know. It’s pixels, not real skin, and, even if it was, museums and art
galleries are full of nude statues and paintings, so I don’t see anything wrong
with it. But I know what you are saying about sexuality in Second Life. I think
the anonymity is liberating for some people who might live in sexually
repressive conditions because there are a lot of Second Life groups that
encourage homosexuality, domination and gender bending. And with MAGE Magazine
we don’t shy away from this, if anything, we make it part of the stories.
Dean : Is it awkward to pose nude?
Andressa : ROFLMAO!
It’s ironic you ask that question because, regardless of whether I’m exploring
a medieval sim, or a science fiction sim or a modern day sim, I always seem to
find a stripper’s pole, so it’s not unusual to see avatars showing their bits
and I find the fact that there is a lucrative sex trade in Second Life a very
bizarre phenomenon. Ozymandius once said; “If you take into account the lindens
to dollars exchange rate and find someone in SL willing to have virtual sex for
500 Lindens, that literally makes them a 2 dollar whore.” Keeping this in mind,
I would like my avatar to be respected and I think the artists I work with feel
the same way, so if we stage a scene with nudity, we usually try to find a remote
place where no one else is around and if someone teleports into our location
out of the blue, its amazing how fast everyone throws on their alpha layers.
Dean : Is there anything you would like people
to know about you, your art or MAGE Magazine?
Andressa : I sent you
some links and if you could publish those links with this interview then I
would like people to click the links and watch the videos on the MAGE Magazine
playlist, leave comments, share with friends and show your support for MAGE
Magazine by joining our group because a lot of hard work goes into making the
videos and the monthly magazine and all that we ask from our audience is that
they take the time to enjoy it.
To find out more about
Andressa DePrims and MAGE Magazine use the following links to visit the MAGE
Magazine website and the MAGE Magazine video playlist.
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