MetaFilter posts tagged with machinima

First!

Del Far — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:36:53 -0800

"Wow, a new user... That's Great! We'd be happy to show you the ropes!" a PSA on conversation starters in forums and comment threads online that have never been heard or used before. Brought to you by Red Vs. Blue.

Making Machinima Movies

TrinityB5 — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:26:45 -0800

Machinima (muh-shin-eh-mah or ma-shin-i-ma) is a hybrid filmmaking technique where people utilize game engines and environments to create videos. At first, it was little more than screengrabs and screencasts of in-game action, but it has now grown to include sophisticated storylines independent of game action. Shows and entire series have been made from The Sims, Halo, The Movies, Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament and Second Life to name just a few. Actually, some Team Fortress 2 machinima was recently mentioned (October 9th). Over the years, there have been some really amazing productions, such as the now legendary 100-episode Red vs Blue series (also previously mentioned) which was created with Halo 2. A lot of machinima can be found and viewed for free on machinima.com. The Internet Archive also maintains a machinima section. The recently-released BloodSpell, a "punk fantasy" from Strange Company, is believed to be the first feature-length movie released using the Neverwinter Nights game engine. (watch online free, free divx download - 847 MB, free quicktime download - 903 MB). Two of the people behind BloodSpell, Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram have co-written the just-published "Machinima for Dummies". One problem with using game engines and environments is that one does not own the rights to distribute the video. Some game publishers have turned a blind eye, while others have been more supportive. More recently, companies have been clearly outlining their policies with regard to Machinima, and some like Microsoft, have been surprisingly flexible. For example, Microsoft’s revised "Game Content Usage Rules" specifically allow entry into film festivals, even where there are monetary prizes. Linden Labs, makers of Second Life, have always been very encouraging of machinima, and has a page with tutorials and videos dedicated to it. They’ve even sponsored a trailer contest. And one owns what one creates in Second Life, meaning it can be sold without fear of a lawsuit for violating copyright or infringing on trademarks. This past September, HBO spent a reported six figures for the North American television rights to My Second Life: The Video Diaries of Molotov Alva, a short-form documentary which was shot completely within Second Life. Other have come up with a different solution to the rights issue. For example, Moviestorm takes a new approach to creating machinima. Although, it is based on gaming technology, it's not a game. Users can create characters, build sets, record dialogue, use multiple cameras, edit scenes, and most importantly to some people, everything one creates with it belongs to them. Recently out of beta, and free to download, the windows (XP/Vista) software seems to have already obtained a cult following among enthusiasts. They also have a very late beta for macs (intel), and a PowerPC version is promised as well. Recently, several hundred people attended Machinima Europe, the first European Machinima Festival (Flickr photoset, trailer) which was held at the De Montfort University Campus Centre in Leicester, UK. There were discussions, demonstrations, and an awards ceremony to honor the best of Machinima. Over 150 films (PDF) were entered from a wide variety of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Croatia, Slovakia, Japan and Australia. Video of both the event and the awards can be found here (Flash/QuickTime). Stolen Life, which utilized the voice talent of sci-fi fan-boy fave Claudia Black (Pitch Black, Farscape, Stargate SG-1) took home a fistful of awards, including Best Picture. She's become quite enthusiastic about the possibilities of this medium (interview on YouTube). In professional filmmaking circles, machinima techniques have been used to do pre-visualization aka 'pre-viz'. Major Hollywood studios have been saving a great deal of money creating entire scripts in this format, both to show to potential investors and also as a new sort of storyboard to test shots and setups prior to filmming. There was an article entitled "Preconceived Motions" in the October issue of Computer Graphics World about this very subject. For more information, check the Machinima FAQ. A great way to stay on top of the latest machinima news is by subscribing to MachiniFeed, "the Blended Feed for the Machinima Community". Also worth noting is the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. The afore-mentioned Hugh Hancock, is not only a co-founder of Machinima.com, but also of the Academy. [Note: this is my first post]

Lament-Wow

furiousxgeorge — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:57:49 -0800

Lament of the Highborne (divx) A haunting machinima from Blizzard Entertainment. It tells the story of Sylvanas Windrunner, one of the last defenders of her civilization. She was killed and resurrected by Arthas, the Lich King. In his moment of weakness she rebelled, and now reigns as queen of the undead. The sad song is sung by Vangie Gunn. Live version from Blizzcon. In common the lyrics are: By the light, by the light of the sun Children of the blood Our enemies are breaking through Children of the blood By the light Failing children of the blood They are breaking through O' children of the blood By the light of the sun Failing children of the blood They are breaking through O' children of the blood By the light of the sun The sun The song first appears in a quest for early level Blood Elf players in World of Warcraft.

I am Murloc

Bugbread — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:02:07 -0800

I am Murloc. Cool World of Warcraft music video. (Note: Impressed me, but I've never played WoW. Might not impress WoW players, I dunno. Won't change your mind if you already hate WoW. Horrible vocals.)

"She's not dead! She's just naked!"

ZachsMind — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:06:56 -0800

"What are they talking about?" Was it just an April Fools' joke? Are they really gonna end Red Vs. Blue: arguably the most successful machinima series ever? Will Blood Gulch be silent of one-liners and snide comments once more, or is this a blatant attempt by Rooster Teeth to drum up interest in their 100th episode? Considering the fact they started it four years ago on April Fools Day, it's really hard to tell. (surprise! no youtube links!)

We cannot see Mrs. B.J. Smegma

papakwanz — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:15:20 -0800

Halo meets Monty Python (youtube). Monty Python's "How not to be seen" done in Halo. Or try, The Codex for more fun with the Halo engine. Previous Halo machinima post.

Michinima 2006!

Lord_Pall — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:52:58 -0800

Fans of Flight Simulators and Michinima might be familiar with the adventures of Bill and John. If you're not, download episode 1 along with the subtitles and and familiarize yourself with a very funny piece of machinima, even more impressive because it's not only in Lock On: Modern Air Combat, but in French to boot. Well they're back, winning Best Picture at the Machinima 2006 film festival, The Adventures of Bill Et John II. Browse the rest of the nominees and winners on the Machinima.com festival page.

WoW + MJ + machinima = YouTube City!

cgc373 — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:23:32 -0800

We live in a weird time. via plasticbag.org

We can rebuild it.

crunchland — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:55:19 -0800

Frank Lloyd Wright in Half Life 2 a machima walkthrough of the Falling Water / Kaufmann House. (youtube) (higher res version - 57mb) (slightly more information)

I don't know, I guess it makes me feel comfortable...

jrb223 — Sun, 14 May 2006 21:54:26 -0800

Deviation (embedded video); a Machinima film hits the mainstream festival circuit. (previous forays into Machinima)

Liberte! Equalite! Anime!

LarryC — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:36:32 -0800

The French Democracy is a short film on the recent riots in France. It was made by Alex Chan, Parisan-born but of Chinese parents, to "to correct what was being said in the media, especially in the United States" about the riots. He used a techinique called machinima--using a video game engine to make his movie.

We aren't always fighting

Gamblor — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 12:35:30 -0800

This Spartan Life , a Halo talk show. A nice example of Machinima, using game engines in unexpected ways. Some, like the folks behind Red vs. Blue or The Strangerhood, make long running series, others recreate movie scenes, and some people just like playing with the environment.

Ideal World

elphTeq — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 02:23:39 -0800

The Protagonist : Virtual Entrepreneur is a 5 minute excerpt of the crossover machinima/meatworld documentary project Ideal World, and is about one user's "real life" in the MMORPG Second Life. The finished documentary seeks to examine the growth, impact and society of this amazing digital reality over the last 2 years.
[ via New World Notes ] Disclaimer: I am not a Second Life player- as much as I would like to be, I'm too scared it's too much fun.

lilboo — Fri, 12 Jul 2002 07:21:35 -0800

The next wave in Filmmaking? This summer, the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, along with NVIDIA, will hold the world's first Machinima Film Festival on August 17th in Mesquite, Texas.

Machinima is, simply stated, filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3D environment. In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation & game development. Machinima is a very cost- & time-efficient way to produce films.