Vista Animations Bento ProHands & Drax Files Episode!

Vista Animations has a lot going on these days and I wanted to share it all with you!

Vista Bento ProHands

Vista has recently released a beta version of their Bento ProHands. These hands are for females only but I’ve been told they are also working on a pair of male hands as well as Bento Animation Overriders. All of these Bento items from them will be taking advantage of the newly released Bento bones, giving us more options for smoother and life-like animations. I have done a little video showing how the fingers move in these beautiful Bento hands.

A few things to keep in mind about these hands:

• The hands are currently available for L$999 at the Vista Animations mainstore and marketplace store. If you purchase them right now at that price, you will receive free updates when Bento is launched in the official viewers. The price will also go up to L$1200 when it is officially launched.
• You need to download the Bento Release Candidate Viewer or use a 3D party viewer that is Bento compatible to be able to use these hands until Bento goes official.
• These hands come with 10 skins from Glam Affair and 6 skins from Skinnery pre-loaded. They are not Omega compatible as of yet, but will be in the updated version.
• These hands are compatible with the default Second Life avatar as well as Maitreya, SLink and Belleza mesh bodies.

In my video I am using a Bento version of the Firestorm viewer that was given out privately at a Bento meeting inworld a couple of weeks ago. When this version was shared, it was stated that Firestorm’s download page will have an updated Bento version available very soon.

Watch my video on youtube and see how smoothly the animations work with these Bento hands: https://youtu.be/cR3Xr_nX9DI

You can also check out Vista Animations video explaining these hands on their own YouTube channel.

If you are not familiar with Bento, here is some information and links that will explain it in detail:

1. What is Bento? – On December 15th, 2015, Linden Lab announced a new project called Bento. Basically what they are doing is adding additional bones to the Second Life avatar skeleton to support both rigging and animation.
2. Weekly Meetings – Linden Lab has been having weekly meetings about Bento, which everyone is invited to. They announce them on the Bento User Group wikipage every week.
3. Second Life Bento Release Candidate Viewer – You need to download the Second Life Bento Release Candidate Viewer in order to use or see any items rigged to the Bento Skeleton.
4. My Project Bento tag on my blog – Keep an eye on my Project Bento tag on my blog for all posts I make about Bento.
5. My Project Bento YouTube PlayLists – Keep an eye on my Project Bento YouTube Playlist for all videos I make about Bento.

Drax Files World Makers Episode in full 360!

Aside from the Bento hands, Vista Animations was also featured in the Episode 41 of the Drax Files World Makers series, which was released just  yesterday. Watch the video on youtube and learn more about the people behind Vista Animations and all the work they do to bring us such beautiful animations in Second Life: https://youtu.be/od_BFzpdIlI

This episode was also shot in 360 so you can actually use your mouse or mobile phone to slide through the video and see it in its panoramic beauty. I talked about this and explained it more in detail in my post last week for the Panoramic Camera System.

I spoke to Draxtor about this and asked him how he shot the video in 360 like that in Second Life and he told me he collaborated on this with a couple of very talented gentlemen: Arduenn Schwartzmann and Mambo Morane (aka Phil Thoma in the real world). Drax said he had been experimenting with 360 videos in real life and he wanted to bring it into Second Life somehow. So he spoke to Arduenn Schwartzmann and asked him if he can make a camera in Second Life that would film 360 at once. Along with Torley Linden and a few others they ended up filming with 6 avatars and cameras. Then Mambo Morane stepped in, filmed the RL portion in Barcelona in one day, and helped him stitch it all together for this episode.

Mambo Morane works for 360° VR Freelancer Network “vimagine360” in the real world and now him and Draxtor are offering complete 360 image films for your Second Life sims or business. I think these kinds of videos would also be perfect for Second Life Weddings and other special occasions! You can contact Mambo Morane inworld to get more details on what him and Draxtor can do for you and ask about pricing as they will vary depending on how complex the shoot is.

The mesh head I’m wearing in this post is from Akeruka, it’s another one of his Bento updates and I am still working on the shape for this head. As soon as I have the shape to where I like it, I will release it along with more shapes for more of his Bento heads. You can see which of his heads he has updated to Bento already on his flickr. I was told a male mesh head will be updated to Bento next so we’ll finally have something for the guys to play with. I will also do shapes for the guy heads once I get the chance. I don’t want to release the shapes until I am completely satisfied with them so just keep an eye on my marketplace store for the releases.

Credits:
Shape: StrawberrySingh.com Elen Shape by Strawberry Singh (coming soon)
*Mesh Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara V3.5 by Onyx LeShelle
*Mesh Head: [AK] Mesh Head Elen Vers. 1.5 (BENTO) by Kaoz Koba
*Skin Applier: Glam Affair Sia Logo Omega Applier by Aida Ewing (not sure if still avail)
*Eyes: IKON Charm Eyes – Brown by Ikon Innovia
*Hair: [KoKoLoReS] Hair – Mills by Leyla Flux
*Bento Hands: VISTA BENTO PROHANDS FEM-V.1BETA  by Vista Barnes
*Outfit: .miss chelsea. Up All Night Gacha by MissChelseaStore (@Epiphany)
Shoes: REIGN.- ESTEE HEELS by KenadeeCole (LuxeBox June)
*Skybox & Furniture: !BUENO-DayisGone Gacha by buenosl (@Epiphany)
*Hand Pose: Vanity Poses Details by Vanity Mirror