Machinima for Dummies

I’ve come across a couple of interesting pieces of work lately.

First up, “Alan Smithee” (aka some Moviestorm director who doesn’t want to be identified) has produced, yes, some Machinima (soft) porn (NSFW, but nothing too shocking):

Why’s this interesting? Well, there’s always been a bit of an odd shortage of porn created in Machinima - the occasional bit, but nothing like the flood you’d expect. And this is the first piece of Machinima erotica that actually kinda works. “Sexy” has always been one of those areas where Machinima falls down, so it’s very interesting to see that we’re starting to be able to invoke it, even in quite a crude way.

Why does it work, to the extent that it does? Camerawork is a big part - it’s not just about showing mostly-naked people, it’s also about leading the eye in a teasing, intimate or revelatory way. Subtle animations help, too.

Another interesting element - the areas in which the film doesn’t work. Notably, the walk cycle. We tend not to think too much about the qualities of characters’ walk cycles, but for me, here, the walk cycle of the second character totally breaks the flow of the movie, and destroys the illusion - it’s such a male walk. Interesting to note the effect that a well-made but inappropriate animation can have.

Next up, we have some evidence that Half-Life 2 is continuing to develop to become a very credible engine for all sorts of Machinima creation. Previously, most HL2 work I’ve seen has either been based on the gameworld or carefully limited to minimise the need for new assets (Monad, Jill’s Song) - however, Shelf Life is a very impressive piece of work set, as far as I can tell, outside the HL2 universe, and with a sprawling list of characters and sets.

It’s decidedly slow, but has a genuinely interesting plot, some excellent voice actors, and all the other stuff I keep banging on about being important. Most interestingly, it really shows off why I HL2 currently produces much more watchable-without-game-background Machinima than most other engines (the common thread with the Moviestorm piece) - it’s expressive, the characters’ models have actual character which you can build a personality around, and it’s possible to tell stories and story beats using character expressions and eye movements.

Nothing else so far (sorry, Moviestorm - you’re closest, but not there yet) has managed this level of expression. And if that’s being married with an increasing availability of content and freedom for Machinima creators in the HL2 universe, we could see some very interesting things in the future.

I’ve just finished watching one of the best single resources for a filmmaker I’ve ever come across: http://www.gonefishingseminar.com

If you’ve been following my Twitter over the last few days, you’ll have seen my stream of tweets as I watched it - I only stopped because I was afraid I was giving away half the seminar!

It’s based on the experience of Chris Jones, author of the highly-regarded “Guerilla Filmmaker’s Handbook”, as he tried and very, very nearly succeeded in making a film which would win the short film Oscar. (He got to the shortlist!)

If you’re interested in being a great filmmaker - not just “OK” or “entertaining for a minute on YouTube”, but awesome - and particularly if you’re interested in being a professional, I’d say this is a must-watch. It’s seriously altered my thoughts about my next project and my approach to my career as a whole. Chris covers the entire production process, including showing us his first draft screenplay and taking us right through the entire production, warts and all. The honesty level is spectacular. He talks about casting world-class actors (you WILL recognise at least one of the actors he got), getting a crew of hardcore professionals for no money (his cameraman essentially turned down CSI for his unpaid short), and how a filmmaking career works (which I’ve never seen anywhere else).

He also offers the most honest and professional guide to getting into, attending, winning and surviving film festivals I’ve ever seen. Machinima people generally don’t do nearly enough festival stuff - we should all do more.

Some of the material is very film-focussed, which is less useful for Machinima, but that’s about half an hour of the seven or eight hours of material.

The course is £70 ($100ish). That’s quite a bit, I know. I was pretty dubious about paying that much, and didn’t for ages. But it’s probably the best investment in filmmaking I’ve made this year - better than buying Moviestorm packs (sorry, guys!), better than buying a new camera.

If you’re a new filmmaker, you might get more out of something like the Guerilla Filmmaker’s Handbook. But if you’re experienced, you’ve made a few films, and you’re starting to hit a wall or feel like you don’t know how you’re going to get to greatness, I really recommend it.

If you haven’t seen the new Ulduar trailer for World of Warcraft, you really should, whether you have any interest in WoW or not. (If you don’t, you need to know that for various reasons, the Orcs and the Humans are recently at war after an unstable peace broke down, and the wizards aren’t involved. But that’s it.)

It’s made by, amongst others, Terran Gregory, one half of the team that won a Mackie for their WoW movie The Return, and it really pushes out the boundaries of what you can do with both World of Warcraft and Machinima as a whole. The scriptwriting and storytelling, in particular, stand out - there’s genuine jeopardy, some excellent action sequences, convincing character conflict, and some fantastic use of standard WoW scenes to great cinematic effect. It’s also very interesting how subtle lipsynching really helps to sell the piece.

If you’re interested in writing stories using Machinima, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

You’ve seen ”Where The Hell is Matt”, right? If not, go watch. If so, watch the game equivalent . The Second Life, Frogger and Assassin’s Creed bits are particularly wonderful:

Why feature this on MfD? Because it’s a great example of Machinima as comment on games and on popular culture. Short, funny, and actually surprisingly sophisticated in what it says about games at some points.

It’s also a great example of how to craft a viral video. This thing’s going to pass a million views REALLY quickly if I’m any judge. Riffing off one cultural icon is one thing, but taking a whole swathe of pop culture, then mixing it with another very popular idea, as a very funny satire - incredible work. What other ideas can you think of that might work this well?

Whilst it’s not even really intended as a Machinima piece so much as a game trailer, the Black Mesa trailer for the upcoming Half-Life 2 -> Half Life 1 mod really shows off just how good Machinima can look these days.

Just stunning. And, if you’re a fan of the original Half-Life, very, very evocative too.

We’ve just heard the bad news that the Machinima Expo – organised as part of Festival Arcadia by Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Ingrid Moon and Damien Valentine – has been cancelled, at least in its originally proposed form.

You can read the full sad story at the Expo blog. After the time, effort and expense that the four organisers have poured into it, this is a real shame. The Expo was shaping up to be a superb event for machinimators.

All is far from lost, though. The Expo will still go on, but is now being moved to a virtual event within Second Life. In many ways, this is even better. If you weren’t going to be able to attend in person, now you have no excuse!

Stay tuned to the Expo blog or the twitter feed for updates, and we’ll see you in-world.

I always looks forward to the official World of Warcraft Machinima contests. With virtually every one, some sensational work appears and the bar is raised for future Machinima.

And this year is no different, with The Demise premiering some fantastic work and techniques we’ve not seen in Machinima before.

The Demise from Daniel on Vimeo.

It’s a combination of hand-drawn animated stills (a la something like Broken Saints), some of them traced or altered from World of Warcraft frame grabs, and WoW Machinima, often composited together in a single frame. The effect is quite remarkable - the filmmaker, Daniel, has achieved a luminescent, fairytale feel reminiscent of Among Fables And Men with an almost Disney feel.

The story is, perhaps, not remarkable, but the visual and sound work make up for it.

I’ll say right now that the work on display here is likely to be a major influence for me on future movies. If you’re a Machinima creator, I heartily recommend mining every single frame for ideas.

It’s already been blogged by Mike Jones and by Bllius too, so our apologies for the duplication to anyone reading this through the machinifeed, but Celtx hit version 1.0 only a few short hours ago.

Celtx, for those who’ve somehow missed it, is one of those astonishing free tools that beats the competition into a bloody pulp, even when the competition is a rather expensive industry-standard tool. Celtx is a scriptwriting tool – a sort of word processor for screenwriters – but it’s so much more than that. You can use a Celtx project to manage almost any aspect of the production process. It’s also got a fantastic online collaborative element, as well as version control and online backup baked in.

If, like us, you’ve been using Celtx for a while now, go and grab the upgrade (Celtx will automatically prompt you to do so the next time you run it). If you haven’t tried Celtx yet … what the heck is wrong with you? “Go get it right now”. Go on. It’s cross-platform and it’s free. Install it, love it, and we’ll say no more about this embarrassing gap in your toolset.

Rarely has the category Machinima For Dummies Recommends been so appropriate. Phil “Overman” Rice’s music video for Radiohead’s Bodysnatchers is a brilliant example of the power of machinima and anymation.

It’s hard to imagine any other technique that would have allowed a film like this to have been made, and Phil has taken full advantage of Second Life, Moviestorm and a whole pallete-full of other packages to produce what is, for my money, one of the best pieces of pure, sensuous the-sky-is-no-longer-the-limit machinima that’s ever been released.

Bodysnatchers proves once and for all that Overman is one of the greatest assets this community possesses, and it’s a perfect example of why the man is – well, heck, I’ll say it – a bone fide genius.

Anyone interested in seeing just how flexible machinima can be should go watch Bodysnatchers right now. If you liked the video even a tenth as much as I did, do remember to vote for Overman in the AniBoom Radiohead Music Video Contest.

As Overman has already mentioned, I’ve set up a Google Calendar which is intended to be specific to Machinima (and Anymation). You can subscribe to the feed for the calendar using any compatible calendaring tool, or just do a search on public calendars for “machinima” if you use Google Calendar.

You can also embed the calendar on your website or in a blog post if you’d like to. I’ve added it to the sidebar on this site.

The exact purpose and scope of the calendar is still up for debate, so if you’ve any suggestions for events or additions to the calendar, or you just want to tell me why you think it’s a good plan or a terrible plan, send an email to calendar at machinimafordummies dot com.