Ever heard of FollowCam? It's a series of LSL (Linden Scripting Language) calls which enable, among other things, some really kickass, cinematic motion when your avatar is moving around. You could be walking, running, flying, or even in a vehicle.

But — if you haven't heard of it — do not be ashamed, my child. Unlike flexiprims and local lighting (gosh, remember when lighting used to hog the CPU and it looked pretty but sucked major FPS?), FollowCam isn't nearly as discoverable. At the time it came out, some months ago, I remember some Resis asking me if it was a new Preference option. Not so, altho the not-altogether-unrelated Camera Springiness is one of those many GUI choices.

Context:

… and I know I must be missing a few more here. But there's not a lot to go on. Given my fanboishness, I might be forgiven for citing my own blog entries mentioning FollowCam, over and over.

A good redundancy.

Before I go on, if you're asking, "Why is changing your camera such a big deal?"

Easy.

You'll recall that, at the dawning crest of 3D games, something many of them got pounded over the head with was BAD CAMERA ANGLES. Like, running into a corner and finding your whole screen obscured. Or being able to easily jam your cam and see the inside of your character's head, as one Lara Croftian grotesquerie proved. So now, in Second Life, like so many other things, you can customize your camera. It's just not being done very much at all.

If you're in Second Life, the quickest way to see FollowCam for yourself is to open your inventory and open the Library > Objects folder. Drag "Kart 1.0" out of there onto buildable land, right-click and ride it. See how fun that is?

The cam doesn't even have to move: Yumi Murakami made a BijoCam which lets you set up fixed viewing angles, and Kyrah Abattoir worked on a kewl house employing her CamSys implementation. Kinda like how in classic Resident Evil, you're 3D and can walk around, but the cam… it just don't move so you can't see the zombie coming out from around that corner. ARGHHH BRAINZ!!!!

Richard Linden explained to me that FollowCam isn't more difficult to use than the very popular particle systems we have — all those poofers and bling! However, FollowCam doesn't enjoy the same ubik-ness of the former; there's no Jopsy Pendragon of FollowCam with simple setup templates, so who do we learn from by example?

Lemme tell ya, it's a YUGE opportunity, a void, and even a market to step into, if someone wants to. Do away with any false preconceived notions that "It's all been done before!" and invest in FollowCam.

Somebody make a FollowCam starter kit already! :)

We're at the crossroads of several forks here, one of them being the (continued) rise and credibility (what the heck is that?) of machinima. And how can you make a film without a camera? There you have it. Just like some great directors have a recognizable style by the way they shoot scenes, our FollowCam-using machinimakers will stand out too.

So, my open invitation is, if you've made something kewl with FollowCam, I wanna know about it. It can be a vehicle — I've seen some of those — but I'd really drool if anyone made the drunk-o-vision or — the jittery, amateur, handheld cam simulation I've been hoping for, for so long. I also, hopefully, desire to come inworld and experience your invention for myself. Please don't hesitate, let me know!