Thinking Machinima

Save Films Mode in Halo 3 = Machinima-tastic!

2007-09-20T20:58:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have been hiding under an extremely large rock, and even then, that rock would need to be within a really deep cave that had collapsed a number of years ago, Halo 3 will be released next week to the salivating masses (count me as one).

Not only with the Legendary Edition featuring Machinima stars such as Rooster Teeth and Chris Burke, but Halo 3 itself will be a Machinimator's playpen - specifically with the new Save Films feature that records all the action within a game of Halo 3. But rather than I blather on and on about how cool it is (and I could!), Bungie does us a solid by preparing yet another great vidoc (oh, these made-up film terms) that showcases Save Films proper. Additionally, the short shows us Forge, Bungie's game-editing mode that rips a page from the Garry's Mod playbook and makes it a playable feature on top. Talk about cool! Talk about innovative! Talk about excitement and the overuse of punctuation!!!

Ok, enough smarmy chatter. Over to you, Bungie...

If you still haven't had your fill of Halo-based Machinima yet, then sit back after Sept. 25th and let it wash over you like the humidity on a NYC summer day.

Serious Play: Kids and Machinima

2007-09-18T23:34:00.000-04:00

Photo courtesy of Beth Kanter.

There is a lot of talk about gaming and education, but it's hard to find examples that are truly compelling. That being said, after reading Hugh's post, I was blown away by was the presence at the European Machinima Festival of a Global Kids project. They have been doing an amazing job in Second Life for almost 2 years now and they have the machinima and blogs to prove it! You can watch the machinima submission for yourself on youtube. Keep in mind this is a student production before you judge too harshly. The video was, above all, a neat exercise in storytelling.

I am sure I am not the only one seeing the implications of training young people to create movies inside games/online platforms. It's a good teaching tool for teaching writing, design/art, and becoming tech savvy. However, it also means that this initiative (and others like it) create a generation much more aware of machinima as a serious technique for self-expression and sharing ideas.

Along those lines, another interesting story emerges from Asia. Kids Movie Creator is a 3D content creation platform targeted at helping students of ages 7 through 12 design sets and produce movies in them. From what I see, the work posted on the site so far is limited to still photos, but I am looking forward to seeing their progress over time.

Machinima for Dummies – A comprehensive manual for newbies and pros alike

2007-09-13T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram have set out to write the ultimate manual for developing and creating machinima. The material is incredibly well-organized and presented with a mix of humor and transparent passion for the subject matter. The authors' insight and vast experience is reflected throughout the book as they manage to successfully seed enthusiasm and a "can-do" attitude in those reading it. After all, machinima is "maverick film-making", "a philosophy, a fervent belief, a technique, and, last of all, a technology". By the time you finish the last chapter, you too will be a convert to the idea that "everyone, everywhere, should be able to make movies".

After the journey through film-making concepts, storytelling, 3D modeling, learning the insides of a game engine, editing, and perhaps custom scripting, it is very obvious that machinima is anything but for dummies. In fact, if you plan on heading into this adventure alone, you will need a myriad of creative and technical skills and a hacker-like mindset. As such, the key selling point for Machinima for Dummies is its accessibility – the amazing ability to offer a wide range of readers a solid foundation upon which they can develop their own knowledge and skills. Expect a book that empowers and urges the audience to action.

Some quick previews:

Filmmaking 101 – Unless you're a film major, you'll likely need some help in thinking through the movie-like aspects of animation. This chapter covers concepts of framing, style, transition effects, etc., which all help the audience better understand your characters and follow the storyline. Some of it is common sense, others are useful tricks the movie industry uses on a regular basis. You cannot make a great piece of machinima without being aware and mastering the implementation of these concepts.
Storytelling + scripting – A lot of attention is given to this part, and rightly so. Your machinima's goal is to tell a story. The better organized you become at putting thoughts down and detailing your vision, the easier it will be to work out filming details later on (way after you've said "Action!"). Ideas here are illustrated with great dialog from Hugh and Johnnie and with Lord of the Rings samples.
Natural progression – The book isn't meant to be read in one sitting. Chapters follow a natural progression. Earlier parts are directed at readers who are new to machinima and later ones to those who have dabbed in it and want to make a run for professional creations. Final chapters advise the audience on best 3D modeling software to use for customizing your character and sets, and resources for scripting your own camera/neat character making hacks.
Engine review – Throughout the book, the authors have compiled helpful and up-to-date engine reviews based on a variety of features that relate to machinima. They are an invaluable resource because they also survey the sea of game engines and offer a big picture view of the possibilities ahead. Choose the engine/game that works best for the story you'd like to tell. The book follow machinima creation in three engines: Sims 2, World of Warcraft, and the newly-created Moviestorm.
Machinima distribution – everything from understanding codecs, formats, to delivery practices online and offline.
Audio – I was very excited to read this part. It was breaming with information on Creative Commons resources, software & hardware resources to capture audio from your actors/characters, and great hack tips to turning your bedroom into a state-of-the-art sound studio (ok, not quite, but very close).
Pro Machinima – The authors call it the final frontier, and it may very well be. Making professional machinima is a work of passion, that also comes with the added stress of putting up with game engine limitations in order to produce your masterpiece. When that is done, you may or may not be in trouble with the law. This chapter provides valuable information on which platforms are friendly to the machinima community, what to look for in EULAs, and how copyright legislation can affect you, the filmmaker. There is even a contact list for legal advice, should you actually get in trouble.
Up-to-date – This feature is perhaps the coolest, especially in the world of machinima, where things change pretty quickly and resources may spring over night. The authors have made a commitment to keep some of the information updated on machinimafordummies.com
The DVD – The book comes with a DVD! This contains a generous compilation of software, pieces of machinima to get you started, resources, and a free & fully legal new machinima bundle called Moviestorm. There are also goodies, such as the fun-to-watch top ten best machinima. Another top ten list to take note of is that of the sites promoting or talking about machinima (including this one!)

Feel free to add your own impressions here. :)

Introducing: Rodica Buzescu

2007-09-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Thinking Machinima is getting an overhaul, but even more importantly, some help on the blogging end. Starting this week, Rodica Buzescu will be contributing to the site giving TM readers a bit more intelluctual fodder to chew on.

Rodica's background in Machinima spans a wide range of clients and projects. She's helped developed Machinima (and live action) shorts for Harvard's first open access course as well as collaborating with Machinima impresario, Pierce Portocarrero on several pieces for Coke (where I first was introduced to Rodica - check them out here). Additionally, she worked with Michael Verdi on a Machinima piece for Intel. She's also a keen follower of the art form as both a medium and as a production approach.

Please join me in welcoming her into the fold. Her first posting here will be a review of Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram's Machinima for Dummies (just got mine in mail!) Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for her thoughts on the various Machinima subject matters that have been surfacing. Rodica's take on Machinima is extremely well-rounded, looking at it from practitioner, democratizing medium and educational viewpoints. I'm really looking forward to reading her insights and think TM readers will welcome the additional vision around Machinima. Welcome, Rodica!

In other news, I'm still banging on the site redesign...slowly but surely....

Make Love, Not Warcraft Wins Emmy Award!

2007-09-09T10:58:00.000-04:00

Some breaking news: The WoW-based, machinima-laced South Park episode, Make Love, Not Warcraft, won the Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour). More details over at the News 4 Gamers site.

As someone who has judged the Emmys in years past, I know the competition they were up against was most likely extremely tough, but its a testament to the great writing and top caliber talent. Congrats to both South Park Studios and Blizzard (with a wink and a nod to both Tristan and Terran) on an amazing win!

Aside notes: There's been some real movement in the Machinima community in recent weeks -- HBO purchasing rights to Douglas Gayeton's My Second Life, both Microsoft and Blizzard announcing their Machinima policies, etc. These haven't gone unnoticed - however, I've been working on the blog's redesign in the background, along with getting some help for the blog. So hang tight, and expect the relaunch within the next few days.

Stop reading and go buy this book, now!

2007-09-07T10:36:00.000-04:00

Hot off the presses is the latest in Wiley's "For Dummies" series - something true and dear to all our gear-laden hearts - Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram's Machinima For Dummies. For those of you living under rocks, stones and other various unmovable minerals (or perhaps, you're just arriving onto what Machinima is about - then my apologies), Hugh and Johnnie are not just any ol' folk writing about "cool" but people that both pioneers and practitioners.

Hugh's history in Machinima is well known and Johnnie's passion for Machinima nearly matches Hugh's legacy. With both author's solid knowledge of the medium, the book also contains a free to use/abuse copy of MovieStorm, the new Machinima tool.

I've already ordered two copies of my own, so if you have a hankerin' for Machinima (as a creator or follower), then go get yer copy now! Or if you're in the UK, get your copy now! In Canada? Get your copy now!

Update: Hugh had requested a copy of the Still Seeing Breen video prior to the book's publish, but alas, we were unable to acquire the rights from the music label in time (though for the record, they were open to it!). More links on the Machinima for Dummies site for Hugh and Johnnie's recommended Machinima list.

Machinima Europe Deadline Extension: Sept. 8th!

2007-08-30T10:34:00.001-04:00

Ok, someone's ass was just saved because Machinima Europe just announced an extension to their Sept. 1st deadline. It's now set to Sept. 8th! Here's the down-low right from fest manager Tracy Harwood:

DEADLINE EXTENSION & SUBMISSIONS UPDATE FOR MACHINIMA FESTIVAL EUROPE 07 - SEPTEMBER 8th, 2007

I've been taking quite a few queries about our process for submission to the Fest, what needs to be sent in to me and by when. So, by way of clarification, hopefully, and to give those of you who haven't had a chance to submit yet... we've put back the deadline to SATURDAY 8th SEPTEMBER.

On the submissions process, what you need to do is -

1. Complete the submission form with a url so we can watch, review and download your film - send this to me electronically (tharwood@dmu.ac.uk) by the 8th revised deadline. If we need passwords to watch your film, don't forget to send them with your form too! The entry form is available here!

2. We will accept electronically your images, trailer and synopsis after the 8th deadline closes, so long as we have your correctly completed submission form by the deadline. Our postal system in the UK is currently undergoing some disruptive actions by workers (for better pay, etc.). So, we don't want to lose any materials or delay things unnecessarily.

NOTE: This is a change from previously published information - if you've already posted your DVD, thanks, that's really appreciated - please don't worry if it arrives late, just so long as you get your electronic submission form to me by the deadline, your film will be considered. If I find I'm missing materials later, I'll be in touch."

So there you have it. If you were considering an entry, but you were put off by the Saturday deadline, now's your chance to pull a few all-nighters and get your work recognized!

Machinima Europe Fest Deadline Approaches!

2007-08-29T10:27:00.001-04:00

Fancy yourself a Machinima auteur? Have some Machinima work sitting on your drive, with you thinking "I've seen a lot of Machinima out there, and frankly my stuff makes these works look like amateur hour"?

Well, this week is your chance to make your work stand out! The first Machinima Europe Fest is accepting entries to the fest awards until this Saturday, Sept. 1st! Even if you've submitted your work before (Machinima fests or otherwise), this event and awards are brand new, so even works from years yonder are eligible.

Again, this Saturday, September 1st is the deadline, so get cracking!

Valv-xar presents: The Soldier

2007-08-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

Valve continues to mash FPS with highly polished and stylized animation in this latest short, introducing The Soldier character class from Team Fortress 2. Displaying even more attention to detail than the Heavy Weapons guy (look for the that secondary motion that gives everything its life-life feel), Valve continues to build excitement towards the release of this free game (well, packaged in the Orange Box collection).

Ah, good stuff. Even paid homage to the rocket jump. The next question is, when will Pixar enter the fray, dropping its matinée fare in favor of man cannons?

Machinima Europe Festival 07 & Machinma Festival 08

2007-08-21T11:08:00.001-04:00

For those keeping track, some news to share on the festival front.

The 2007 Machinima Festival (North America) will be pushed into mid-2008, as we're still pulling together funding and partners for the event. A festival requires both proper financial and human resources (partially to do with my own time - more on this later), and rather than to hold a lackluster event, we've determined holding the festival in 2008 will give us more time to properly ramp up the fest. This said, we're working quite a bit in the background to lock in the 2008 date and venue. Stay tuned to here and the AMAS site for future info once it's solid (soon!).

With this in mind, I want to push having people submit their works to the Machinima Europe Festival 07! This event, which is the European equivalent of the festival we have in North America, will be a weekend long Machinima-focused event, complete with its own competition. Any Machinima work previously created can be submitted (regardless of which Machinima festivals you might have submitted to previously - including the AMAS ones in the States). In addition, the entry of your work is free! The submission deadline is Sept. 1st, so get crackin' and submit your Machinima work to this year's only Machinima event!

Microsoft makes grand steps into making Machinima "legal"

2007-08-14T08:45:00.000-04:00

In an unprecedented move (and hopefully one, others will make in the near future), Microsoft announced today new content usage rules that allows for machinimators to make their Machinima epics without fear of MS lawyer retribution. Read all about it here.

This is by no means a free pass to give the aspiring machinimator a chance to make their own Red vs. Blue. The strings are: this only applies to certain titles (though, yes, the Halo franchise is in there), only for non-commercial use (surprise!) plus there's still plenty of legal-gotchas to make any machinimator give pause ("You can’t add to the game universe","can't use it to enter a contest").

While MS probably has sizable staff of legal babysitters to pursue anyone who wanders too far off, smaller companies might not be so quick to join the cheer based on their needs to keep their properties closer to home. The other interesting side to this announcement is that it's probably also making plenty of people aware of what they can't do with Machinima to begin with.

Additionally, Microsoft themselves gets a boost from this. Marketing has all the wording in place to run their own internal initiatives without needing to check in with MS legal every go. Expect MS to commence XBL contests and showcases for Machinima once Halo 3 releases pronto.

Still, it's great step in the right direction and I do hope others take a similar path (with possibly less restrictions). We'll have to keep track of how it manifests itself for future developments.

As you were...

Thanks to Ken Thain, Jennifer Urban and a number of others who sent up the Machinima signal.

What's in a name? (or Please, Stop It.)

2007-07-10T13:33:00.000-04:00

Quite often Machinima producers/machinimators get pulled into the quicksand that is the "What is Machinima?" question. I've often sunk deep into this pool as well.

The question shows up in a number of ways. A producer will begin a Machinima project and find they are customizing so much of the production, that the benefits of Machinima begin to fall away. This starts to make the producer question why they began down the Machinima path in the first place. This further casades into "well, if I'm doing all of this animation-like work, is it Machinima? and then finally, "btw, what is Machinima?" And so on... Friedrich Kirschner recently posted his thoughts about Machinima and its context over at Free Pixel, which lends even more discussion into the "What" dialogue.

Furthermore, some folks (mostly non-producers) will bucket all game-related videos as Machinima. It's understandable why this is, but unfortunate. A recent posting over on Kotaku was guilty of this, though I believe it was more the organizers of E3 than Kotaku itself or even the film's production team, PES Films - who I had the pleasure of meeting at the Florida Film Festival a few years back.

PES Films' stop motion production "Game Over"

I'm sorry. Machinima tends to have fuzzy borders in its current state, and kudos to the PES team for Game Over, but a stop-motion videogame-influenced short is NOT Machinima. Machinima is working within the confines of a real-time 3D virtual space and using it to develop a visually-based narrative. E3 folks, if you're listening, please make the correction and become acquainted with the Machinima wikipedia page or the AMAS "What is Machinima?" FAQ. Ok? Thanks.

The art of Machinima is clearly an ongoing inquiry. It has definition, but it rides in fringed territories. However, any movement starts off in a period of relationship that is hard to define in the black and white. I'm sure the first artists delving into perspective had no idea they were to be part of the Renaissance.

Gripe session over.

Paul Marino is currently writing an essay for the forthcoming Machinima Reader on Machinima and its place in culture.

Destroy TV reaches far and wide - one frame at a time (updated)

2007-06-21T17:09:00.000-04:00

(Updated 6/23/07 to include Annie Ok's contribution to project)
For those of you keeping tabs on the Machinima frontier, pay close attention to Jerry Paffendorf and Christian Westbrook, if you aren't already. The duo are explorers into the virtual playground of Second Life - and they've become extremely adept at finding the world's edges and figure out ways to stretch them further.

Their latest endeavour is Destroy TV - a multiuser avatar in SL that catalogs its existence to Flickr, Twitter and YouTube. Recently Jerry and Christian collaborated with curator/artist Annie Ok to bring Destroy TV to the public, with an interactive installation of DTV run over the course of 10 days at the Fuse Gallery here in NYC and Art Center in SL. During this time Annie/Destroy explored large parts of Second Life, and was even married during the week-plus event (to Walker Spaight of 3pointD no less!). Annie describes it as one of the most intense and immersive experiences she's ever had - living as Destroy in SL for 10 days straight.

The fascinating part of the installation for me was the time-lapse of the virtual life, now released in its Director's Cut edition (in multiple gigs of MPEGs). Lifelogging, as Jerry describes it, is a unique look at the click-to-click moments of a virtual entity. With a stream of nearly 100,000 screen caps compiled together, the film becomes the Machinima equivalent of Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi. Yet one more way Machinima embraces old practices using new technology.

Destroy TV's life begun under the sink of Jerry and Christian's apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they placed the DTV Macbook and cam software so that it was out of harm's way (save any leaky pipes). With a start there, I look forward to seeing what other projects spring forth from their kitchen.

Update: For giggles, I mashed some DTV footage (and sped up quite a bit) with a sampling of Phillip Glass' "The Grid."

I give you, ahem, Destroyaanisqatsi.

Machinima Festival Europe 07!

2007-06-20T15:49:00.001-04:00

This has been cooking in the background since the start of this year, but now we're finally able to shout it out to the world - the first European Machinima Festival is taking place October 12-14th, 2007 in Leicester, England, at De Montfort University!

Put together by the fine staff at DMU and sponsored by Sleepydog, the festival is a collaboration of De Montfort University, the Institute for Creative Technologies (IOCT) and the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. Read more about the event here in the release on the GamesIndustry.biz site.

We're all really excited to have an event based in Europe - to help promote Machinima within this section of the world, but also to act as a common ground for European artists and fans.

There will be more to announce shortly about the fest, so stay tuned!

NBC taps SL Machinima guru for new series

2007-05-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

Just came across this blurb over on the Second Life News Network. NBC's new Second Life-powered endeavour Virtual NBC, has hired Pierce Portocarrero for a new Machinima series, involving a family who frequently connect to SL.

For those not familiar with Pierce's award-winning work, check out his site at Oddwadd.com as well as his recently released piece around the film "300." It's really great to see NBC hire someone of his caliber, and I look forward to the series once it released. Huzzah!

Valve Presents: the TF2 Heavy Weapons Guy

2007-05-16T09:46:00.000-04:00

Valve released this short late Monday for the upcoming Team Fortress 2, showcasing the Heavy Weapons class in the game. The game's art direction is part FPS, part-Pixar and as a fan of the original TFC, I have to say I'm super excited by this game. Valve's posting speaks of a new facial animation system that allows the game to surpass even filmic-quality results and will be/is (?) available as part of Source. No word yet though if this embellishes the existing FacePoser app currently included with the Source SDK, but its definitely something to keep an eye on.

Also, word from on high says to expect a few more of these TF2 vignettes in the near future.

Enjoy!

Microsoft wades into the Machinima waters

2007-05-09T10:42:00.000-04:00

In the middle of my extremely spotty net connection, I've been cruising through the new site by Microsoft around Visual Studio - DefyAllChallenges.com

Clearly aimed at the tech-savvy crowd of current and future VS users, Microsoft takes a page from the RvB playbook and created a number of Machinima works using what looks like their own game content (I havent identified which games the clips are from, but rest assured they own it).

The site itself is retro-2002 in its design, with animated widgets serving as the interface (which I actually like quite a bit), showing both the Machinima works, but also the more pertinent content, videos (with live honest-to-goodness people) speaking about Visual Studio. Also included in the site is a small Flash-based editor, allowing visitors of the site to create their own Machinima works and vote on others.

While there are a number of people out there who are probably appalled at Machinima being used for such blatant marketing efforts, I don't have a problem with it. To me, its all a part of it having cultural and commercial significance as a medium. If Hugh and Anthony are reading this entry, I'd love to hear their take as well - didja ever think you'd see MS using Machinima?

Lost in the Context Shuffle

2007-04-16T12:02:00.000-04:00

I was reading a great article from the Washington Post last Sunday, titled "Pearls Before Breakfast" by Gene Weingarten. The article studied the effects of our busy lives, more specifically, an exquisite what-if scenario of placing one of the world's musical virtuosos, playing one of the finest crafted instruments ever made, performing some of the most heralded compositions known to man. In this case, it was violin impresario Joshua Bell, playing the Gibson ex Huberman while performing Bach's "Chaconne" and Schubert's "Ave Maria."

While the otherwise momentous event would have had people flown in from the world over, this performance took place in one of the most mundane of settings - the morning rush hour in the Washington D.C. subway, with Bell as street musician, violin case open to the rushing commuters, asking for whatever pocket change a person could muster within the 3-second sprint past this mere annoyance.

The performance, staged in January, had the reporter and his editors worried. The concern was Bell, a highly visible entertainment personality, would attract more than his share of onlookers - in fact, a small disruption of the daily commute might be at the cause of this experiment. But, fortunately (or unfortunately for some), during his performance of 45 minutes in length, only a few stopped, and even less recognized him.

The results are still in question, but I feel it was an appropriate result (particularly as a subway commuter myself). Out of context, the superstar wasn't so super - at least not to the passer-bys of the urban setting. Point being, even if the best of the best isn't presented in the right light, few will notice.

I bring this up as a perfect analogy to our beloved network of connected machines. Its become an agonizing reality on the internet - the noise-to-signal ratio is way on high. Is there another Joshua Bell playing to our eyes and ears? As the net comes increasingly saturated with all types of media, can we rely upon the collective to single out an incredibly gifted Machinima artist?

There's been recent discussion in the Machinima community as to how to get noticed. Its in an interesting quandary, on a stage where everyone has the same point of visibility. In this age of the infoglut, what's most powerful? Marketing, be it grass-roots/guerilla, or traditional to sites and blogs? Or the viral nature of the web - the word-of-mouse - that brings our attention to the "good" - in hopes that others will notice. For me, there's the middle ground - the editor. Once an editor gains the audience trust and respect (unless its already established), they become a go-to person to listen in for their opinions.

We all have our trusted sources of information, be it a friend, a reliable acquaintance, a website. Even our Machinima Festival, and the Mackies help on this front - looking at works over the course of a year, and selected by an experienced committee. The current range of sites that host Machinima are simply archiving works, and letting the ratings and user input define what's best. Additionally, sites that cater to the public ranking of "newsworthy" (Digg and others) has become the focus and filter of where to look. While I feel these serve a purpose, I also believe sites of trusted content (and somewhat subjective) will take focus again. Editorial input will give us yet another filtering option - for people of certain experience to say "Hey, here's one to watch!" Right now, bloggers serve this need to a degree - but usually don't have the same visibility that content hubs do (though some such as Robert Scoble will be an exception).

Machinima will hopefully have a foothold strong enough for sites (dedicated and entertainment hubs) to showcase works of notice, and apply editorial voice to help rise the signal above the noise. Whether that comes from a collective voice or from a respected individual remains to be seen. But until we are able to showcase that talent properly, only a few will stop to look.

Rooster Teeth winds down Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles

2007-04-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

This news is bouncing around numerous gaming sites, but not to post about it here would be a misstep. This past Sunday, Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth announced that they would conclude their web series, Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles with Episode 100.

A quote from the above posting by Burnie:

"Producing RvB and getting to know the people who watch it have been two of the greatest joys of my life. That's why we wanted to let you all know first that Episode 100 is going to be the last installment of The Blood Gulch Chronicles. One hundred is a great number, and it seems like the perfect place to call it a show. I am sure you have some questions about our plans for the series and beyond. We will be talking about all of that in the weeks and months to come, but I want to use this time to thank all of you for nearly half a decade of support. For now, it's back to work."

Beginning as what was to be a small six episode mini-series in the spring of 2003, The Blood Gulch Chronicles became the world's first extremely viral Machinima work, which spread like wildfire across the net, knocking out their hosting provider due to the massive amount of file requests. Over time, the series became increasingly popular, sustaining a loyal community that totaled into the hundreds of thousands of viewers - the download counts reaching into the millions on a per episode level. With a consistent delivery of high-quality episodes over the course of 5 seasons, it also allowed 5 friends from Austin, Texas to leave their day jobs in order to make Machinima for a living. Rooster Teeth not only made headlines for making successful Machinima, they also broke ground how to create a successful web-based entertainment brand.

Regardless of whether you were a fan of the series or not, I don't think anyone reading this blog can deny the impact RvB has had on Machinima as a whole. It has undoubtedly introduced more people to the concept of Machinima than any other work to date.

With that, a Hat's Off! to Rooster Teeth for Red vs. Blue: the Blood Gulch Chronicles. It's been a swell ride and we look forward to that Season 5 DVD!

(Full disclosure: I work on a variety of projects with Rooster Teeth Productions).

GDC 2007: Machinima in the house - Pt. 1b

2007-03-24T16:02:00.000-04:00

Another interesting development that's quasi-Machinima related is the new addition to the Sims franchise - MySims - a cute and cuddly affair from Maxis headed to the Wii and Nintendo DS.

But here's the coolness stuff - the creation utilities MySims includes - which includes a new character creator (which, in all fairness, gives what looks like more options than The Sims2 provides) and the most impressive part - a simple object modeler. Its unclear from the vid how the objects work and live in the MySims world (I didnt get any further info from Maxis/EA while at the GDC) but, to me, its yet another fascinating blend of playful interface for "work."

MySims Character Creation

MySims Build-A-Thing creator

Looks to be very similar to the character creator Friedrich Kirschner is doing with the UE2-based MovieSandbox. It'll be interesting to see how much flexibility these features give the end user - and more importantly, what users will do with them.

More GDC stuff soon.

GDC 2007: Machinima in the house - Pt. 1

2007-03-21T20:56:00.000-04:00

I'm finally back in NYC after an extended trip between Australia and San Francisco. It was not only an extremely rewarding trip, but I had a chance to catch up with some really close friends as well.

The GDC, as always, was a blast. This was the second year in San Francisco (first there in 2005) and I had the chance to see friends and acquaintances who I hadn't seen in a year's time. SF still has some catching up to do in terms of San Jose as a location. Specifically, San Jose had the Fairmont - a hotel whose lobby was the impromptu meeting place for anyone and everyone. SF still has yet to find this space, but I'm sure it will over the next few years (GDC is in SF for the next six years from what I understand).

Machinima awareness
This year, more than any other, Machinima had its place around the GDC. While there wasn't a Machinima showcase like the presentations at the Austin Game Conference, speaking to game devs about Machinima as nearly as accessible as speaking to them about art pipelines or project milestones. While this probably doesn's surprise readers of this blog, this is a huge difference between GDC 2003 and GDC 2007. In 2003, I gained lots of mileage with my Machinima schpiel to various folks. Four years later, I'm approached by people as "that Machinima guy." While the moniker brings a smile, it's rewarding to know there's a more general awareness about the medium.

Interface happy
One of the great things coming out of this year's GDC was the attention to interface. No doubt driven by the masses purchasing interface innovation over graphics (Wii, please), quite a few of the booths on the expo floor were demonstrating desktop motion capture hardware/software.

This device by Emotiv, allows you to control motion though a brain's electrical activity. While still crude in terms of actual control (as compared to the conventional joystick), it will be very interesting to see its impact in say 3-4 years time. However, one area very interesting to Machinima is its ability to capture facial expressions in real-time (not shown in the sample vid). When asked about price and availability, their spokesperson said that "it would be out before the end of the year, and at a price less than the PS3." Ouch! -- and cool all at the same time.

Other takes at performance capture were applications such as Organic Motion (markerless motion capture) and Mova's Contour Reality "painted" facial capture system. We also saw another interesting application called Motion Portrait which captured a person's face (from a front view) and then laid it over a 3D mesh in real-time. (sorry, only a PDF is available to show in detail). The application also had hooks into using it for real-time performance capture as well.

In all, it was a very interesting shift in focus for the GDC. There are several Machinima folks who are also considering interface issues (Friedrich Kirschner, Andrew Young, Mark Riedl, and The ILL Clan), which I will cover a bit more in later posting.

I have some additional post-GDC thoughts to follow up - particularly with Sony's new virtual space, Home, and Jerry O'Flaherty's UE3-powered session on Digital Cinematography for Gears of War.

Machinima vid takedown'ed by Viacom

2007-03-21T15:10:00.000-04:00

No doubt as part of the Viacom vs. Youtube battle, YouTube has complied with Viacom's request to yank this SL Machinima piece, The Birth of Stephen EagleMan, created as part of last fall's Colbert Report's Green Screen Challenge.

Obviously, this isn't a takedown because of Machinima per se (that ongoing fuzzy IP questions of game-related content), but because of footage that wasn't sanctioned by Viacom for use in the segment. Still, the murky waters of IP ownership/brand extensions are starting to churn again.

Thanks to New World Notes for the heads up. Here's their initial write-up around the work. More on this as it develops...

GDC 07: Up-and-coming goodness

2007-03-11T22:17:00.000-04:00

Just finished touring this year's Game Developer's Conference, and it was another year of "wow that's cool!" There was a number of items that could help/affect Machinimators in the future. Some were interesting interfaces, features and new games/technologies to forge additional Machinima works.

There's more to report here, but as the jetlag is still kicking my arse, I'll post another update within the next day.

Machinima Fest Shown Down Under

2007-02-21T01:29:00.000-05:00

I'm writing this post from LAX airport, as I'm currently en route to Melbourne, Australia to give a presentation of the Machinima Film Festival at the Australian Centre of the Moving Image - this weekend, February 24th and 25th. I had a great time last year presenting at ACMI, and I'm sure this year will be no different.

If you happen to live in this neck of the world, come by and join myself, Gus Sorola (Red Vs. Blue), Eddo Stern (Dark Game), Peter Rasmussen (Stolen Life), Rod Maher (FRAPS) and Friedrich Kirschner (person2184) for a weekend of Machinima - it would be great to see both the fans and makers while we're down there. Its sure to be a blast (and Gus will be fueling up on Boag's at every moment he's able, I'm sure).

Seeya there...

Fox Atomic and MoU launch Machinima contest

2007-02-21T01:13:00.000-05:00

A short posting this time...

Just received word from my friend Rodica at Millions of Us about the new Fox Atomic Machinima and Photography competition, where the grand prize is a trip for two to Costa Rica. Not too shabby - make a Machinima of a virtual world, win a trip to a beautiful place in the real world. Rodica has a bit more info over on the MoU blog.

Update: erm, oops - had the wrong month there fer a bit. Enter soon - deadline is February 26th, so get a move on if you have an idea to submit (Thanks Rodica!).