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| A place where visitors can sit in comfort while conversing, or simply taking in the view. You can also sit on the counters, and there are cupcakes for the sweet tooth. |
Recruiting a little
house into an extreme remodel which enlarged it significantly, the Captain’s
Cabin becomes the third corner of a usable triangle of buildings at Venice
Under Glass. Earlier visitors might remember that at first, this network of
canals was arranged as a set design, with only one focal building containing an
interior: the Orange Gallery. The next to come was the Peace Gallery to house images
of Lilia Artis’ exhibit “The Cruelty of Peace”. In order to balance the
habitable space, I began work the past week on the café now called the Captain’s
Cabin.
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| These three walls were only one hollowed out prim. |
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| Molding was added at the floor and ceiling, and the alpha texture for walls was removed. The pillars and arches are prims with non-alpha textures. |
The two pictures above show the progress of the build. Thank goodness for the alpha wars inherent
in transparent textures. It was for this reason that I didn’t settle for the
first draft of the walls. The building’s upper exterior gave precedence to the
alpha glass floor above it, rendering the typical ghost effect. Though this kind
of blending is often desired, in this case I felt it weakened the overall look
of the building. I took a deep breath and decided to spend the extra prims
necessary to construct non-alpha walls. Going from one prim to about 20 is the
result. That wasn’t so painful after all thanks to the savings with convex
hulling.
To acquire an
Italian look, I take inspiration from Loggias. If you notice the pillars, they
are a device to call on classical architecture, and are actually photos I took
of an iron building in New York. It seemed to fit the bill, though a continent
away. The wide open arches on three sides allow an extraordinary amount of
light to engulf the interior, and afford the opportunity for a panorama looking
out. The Captain’s Cabin is one among the choice spots for a view at
Accentaury, so the generous windows were essential.
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| The counters are arranged as an oval, to suggest the shape of a ship. |
Venice Under
Glass is not a copy of its namesake in any manner. No buildings are copied from
the real life city. It is simply a fantasy adaptation, yet still has the
gondolas and poles to show for it. However, Venice, whether in real life or in
a virtual world, is indebted to its glass. Wanting to include this aspect, I
sculpted some glass pieces which are given for free to visitors when they click
on them. I might make variations in the near future so anyone who wants can
build up a collection.
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| There was a wall of rock facing this doorway. Yesterday I removed it, and just by chance, the view looks onto the shipwreck, which has been a part of ACC Alpha since its early days. It was not touched to accommodate the view, it remains steadfast. |
XXX
