Above is a brief time-lapse montage of terraforming process, with the summary diagram outlining ideas for the overall planning that respond to this created landscape (to view the movie again just reload the page or right-click and select ‘play’).
It builds upon the earlier sketches and reference photos in an effort to establish an appropriate proportional ‘feel’ for the topograpy and to establish primarily oblique views of the vines relative to the visitor’s position. As terraforming has progressed the promontory areas have become lower and less ‘alpine’ feeling, and the overall elevations relaxed and smoothed throughout.
The overall attempt has been to evoke the feeling of the valley terrain yet still acknowledge the fact that it is an island. At this point further refinement and adjustment will be necessary to respond to the proportions of the vine rows once they have been ‘planted’ 
The following is a lightly edited transcript from our first team meeting held last Wednesday evening. There were some really excellent ideas flowing, not to mention some big news from Josh!
[19:35] Carbonel Tigereye: Hi. Nice to see you, Frank!
[19:35] Carbonel Tigereye: Hi Josh. Hi Chip!
[19:35] You: Hi!
[19:35] Frank Bogomil: hi chip, nice to meet you
[19:36] Carbonel Tigereye: Josh — Is it OK if Adri joins us? She won’t be involved on the day-to-day aspects of the project, but is interested in getting a sense of the landscape.
[19:37] RussianRiver Vallely: sure Ill add her. Same here Frank
[19:37] Frank Bogomil: have you selected your equipment so that we can get some images of the real winemaking equipment you will be using?
[19:37] RussianRiver Vallely: some images are on the basecamp site
[19:37] RussianRiver Vallely: as well as a description of the pinot making process
Read on ‘Team Meeting #1′
Based on the Design Brief and the reference information supplied, the following are among the sketches posted to the project management site (running on the excellent Basecamp):
Read on ‘Design Ideas’
To quite from an earlier Pinotblogger post, here is a bit in the way of a design brief:
There will be a scale model of our winery on display on our island that will be open for comment, a tasting room for avatars (the digital representation of yourself you take into Second Life) where you can buy and drink wine (with entertaining results - though not the kind you might be thinking) as well as purchase branded clothing, all using the Second Life currency. But best of all we will have a series of kiosks/simulations that will guide visitors through an interactive wine making process.
The wine making simulator is something I’m very excited about. Basically what you will do is walk or ride out into the vineyard on an ATV, pick some grapes (make sure they are ripe!), de-stem and sort them and then take them to a fermentor and pick a yeast to inoculate the grapes with (there will be a few to chose from, some more appropriate than others). The process will continue through barreling and bottling and at the end the visitor will be furnished with a case of their wine. As an added twist, the wine will receive a “Farker rating” from 50-100 based on the choices made during the wine production. It should be interesting, educational and hopefully compelling.
While obviously these ideas will grow over time, they form the core of the virtual vineyard experience.
Josh’s post was picked up by Mark Wallace over at 3pointD.com and the project mentioned in Episode #40 of the Secondcast podcast (at about the 35 minute mark), where Cristiano Midnight refers to the project as ‘Virtual Wine Tycoon’
In addition to the flickr group photos you see fed in at the bottom of this page, Josh has posted this short video of the panoramic view from the winery office.
Josh has the announcement in today’s post over at Pinotblogger.com - Metaversatility is on the team
Update: Bios for Adri Saarinen, Aaron Delwiche and John Plevyak, along with Josh and myself, have been added to the ‘team‘ page.
So here is the new island, ready for terra-forming. Some sketches with a grading concept have been sent to Josh, utilizing the slopes of the Russian River Valley as a starting point.
Before the terraforming could begin, a group was created and the island deeded to it. This allows myself and any team members who come on board to join the group, edit the land, and create objects on the owner’s behalf.
The folks over at the Electric Sheep Company put togther an amazing time lapse movie showing the development of Aloft Island. Cory Edo took a snapshot from a similar vantage point on the island each day, and strung the photos together flip-book style. To help us provide a similar overview of Capozzi Winery Island, we’ve utilized the excellent Bijocam Construction Kit by Yumi Murakami to establish 8 fixed aerial camera positions, which will allow us to get a smooth time-lapse video when all is said and done.
Welcome to simVineyard, blogging the development of the Capozzi Winery Island in the virtual world of Second Life.
This site will be maintained by your humble narrator and Josh Hermsmeyer, not to mention other team members as they come on board.
Josh is the author of Pinotblogger.com, where he provides the story-to-date on his family’s efforts to start a winery in California’s Russian River Valley. In fact, he started blogging about the winery before it even had a name. The site provides fascinating insight into both the traditional craft of winemaking and the cutting-edge innovations employed to successfully launch and market a business. All of which makes the prospect of helping to bring the Capozzi Winery into Second Life such a richly compelling opportunity for me, and why I am so excited to be a part of it.
It is in the spirit of Pinotblogger.com that we launch this site. simVineyard.com is an invitation to you to get an inside look at the island as it develops, and to facilitate a dialogue with about the design as it evolves and to inform the design by any ideas or suggestions that arise from that discussion. Posts here will provide a cross-section of all aspects of the project, including planning, management, research, design, building, texturing, scripting, and preview/opening events.
Read on ‘A Family Winery in a Virtual World’
