Tsukuba University's Second Life Machinima

It's cool works!



Japan's Tsukuba University Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Laboratory shoots a PV with 3D virtual world Second Life.
Akira Yamamoto shoot a this works(He is a movie director at real life).

Akira Yamamoto's website
http://playgroundofsecretbase.blogspot.com/

This PV is used for student invitation and a demonstration of Laboratory.

A lot of Tablet in Comic Market

I went to world's largest self-published comic book fair "comic market(Comiket)" at the end of last year.

What comic market ? via Wikipedia

This event is a sacred place of the otaku. And it's the place that can know the most tip of the Japanese contents industry.

I was able to watch the "change" that was here this time. It is that a lot of creators were using the tablet. iPad, Kindle, galaxy Tab......(and a little PSP, too). There were a lot of people who were using iPad.

In last summer, there were a few people who used tablet. Main users were the people who wrote a novel as the people who made a game. But, I was able to watch tablet with every genre this time. There was even Cosplayer which showed a collection of own Cosplay photographs on iPad.

The e-books correspondence of the publisher in Japan is much later than foreign countries. But Japanese creators begin to make e-books steadily.

JUMP FESTA

On December 19, I went to JUMP FESTA.

JUMP FESTA is Japanese exposition event, all about anime comic, game, movie and music, sponsored by Shueisha. There are various exhibition booths about comic magazine brand "JUMP".

via Wikipedia

There was a lot of exhibition such as e-Books, Social game, Social apps for iPhone/Android, 3D film and AR about new technology this year.

TECMO KOEI HOLDINGS CO., LTD.'s new social game of dating sim for women.


Japanese mobile carrier KDDI collaborated with popular comics "ONE PIECE"

KDDI exhibited AR contents of ONE PIECE which used new Android smartphone "IS03". It used a palm as an AR marker. Characters of ONE PIECE appeared there when I shaded a palm with a camera of IS03 which started application. Because this AR contents are JUMP FESTA-limited, so we can't usually watch this. I wish we can watch this again.

KDDI × ONE PIECE goods

1000 students gathered in the job fair in AmebaPigg

It is not already unusual that the job fair is held in virtual world. But, are there the company holding a serious job fair in the "cute" 2D virtual world? CyberAgent utilizes their virtual world "AmebaPigg" for job fair.

Now, CyberAgent strengthens overseas development, andpush forward the employment of the engineer for the development of the Android application. However, all niversity student may not live in the metropolitan area(CyberAgent holds a "real" job fair only in Tokyo and Osaka).

Last month, they held job fair in AmebaPigg for the university students who graduate from a university in spring, 2012. Then about 1,000 students gathered there. 40% logged in among them from country area and the foreign countries.

This cute avatar is CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita(Himself operates it properly!)

Then avatars of five employees appeared and did Q&A session with students.

As for job fair, the examples that used 3D virtual world and a virtual event system were found till now. Most of them are serious. All the participants wear suit and avatars are real graphic... But, CyberAgent and AmebaPigg proved that job fair could hold even cute 2D virtual world.

Japanese virtual world anime film aims at Oscar

Are you interested in the virtual world and Japanese anime film? Then, let's check the "Summer Wars". "Summer wars" is a Japanese anime film shown in 2009 summer. As for it, the screening begins in U.S.A. on December 24.





Story...

Kenji is a teenage math prodigy recruited by his secret crush Natsuki for the ultimate summer job – passing himself off as Natsuki’s boyfriend for four days during her grandmother’s 90th birthday celebration. But when Kenji solves a 2,056 digit math riddle sent to his cell phone, he unwittingly breaches the security barricade protecting Oz, a globe-spanning virtual world where millions of people and governments interact through their avatars, handling everything from online shopping and traffic control to national defense and nuclear launch codes. Now a malicious AI program called the Love Machine is hijacking Oz accounts, growing exponentially more powerful and sowing chaos and destruction in its wake...

via GKIDS,tv

See Also:
Summer Wars official North American website

Summer Wars Japanese offisial website

Various elements are included in this movie. 3D Virtual World(like a Second life), Japanese mobile internet, Avatar communication, Nintendo DS, Artificial intelligence, spoofing, Cyber-bullying, scenery of the Japanese country and big family.

This movie mobilized spectators more than one million in Japan and it won in a lot of Awards. In addition, Summer Wars is nominated for this year 's Best Animated Feature Oscar.

If you has iPhone or Android mobile, check this game apps.

http://swkoikoi.indexweb.co.jp/s-wars.ap/ [J]

You can experience the Hanafuda game of "Koi Koi" that appears in the movie.

What's hanafuda? via Wikipedia

サマーウォーズ スタンダード・エディション [Blu-ray]