Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” in Second Life

This is an amazing four-minute machinima film showing the 3-D re-creation of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” in Second Life. A big hat tip to Mitch Wagner of Information Week for pointing out the video last week:

“This hauntingly beautiful video shows construction of a 3-D re-creation

of the famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The soundtrack is the

lovely “Starry, Starry Night,” by Don McLean. I think everybody will

like this video, but you can appreciate it a little more if you’ve

actually done some building in Second Life.”

As Mitch points out, the filmmaker, Robbie Dingo, decided to remove the Starry Night “build” from Second Life after he was done, leaving only the film behind:

“Ever looked at your favorite painting and wished you could wander

inside, to look at it from different perspectives? Spend a single day

in one of mine, from early sunrise on a new day, to dusk when lights

come on in cozy homes; through a peaceful night, till morning.

Shot on location in Second Life, then post-produced, this was an

idea I had a while ago. The Sim in this work was on temporary loan so

it’s all been swept away now, leaving only the film behind. It was

always intended, however, that the video would be the end product, not

the build.”

For some reason, the machinima film (and accompanying lyrics) really resonated with me, all the more so since I happened to rent Vincent & Theo on Netflix last week. For more on how the machinima was created, here’s the link to Robbie Dingo’s blog.

[video: “Starry Night”]