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Machinima is the art of using someone else's rendering engine to portray a story different from the original intent. Machinima is the practice of live-action filmmaking within a 3D virtual space. However, do to accessibility, it mostly defaults to existing game engines and their associated IP. This will change as more sandbox-theme virtual 3D space is developed.

Here's the nominees for this year's "Mackies," at the Machinima Film Festival in November. Most of the nominees are up on GameVideos.com. I would definitely suggest "Bill et John." http://festival.machinima.org/mackies.html (Shameless self-plug: My productions got three nominations) http://www.themureview.com/

I can't wait! While my little film didn't make nomination, it did make selection along with three other films made by my students at SummerTech last summer! The films in question are Retro Cop, The Button, Double Dare, and 1984. Here's the selection list: http://festival.machinima.org/modules.php?name=Con tent&pa=showpage&pid=5 If you happen to swing by, be sure to say hello, I'll be at the Fountain Head Machinimation software booth.

A larger appeal (and real-life) Machinima festival takes place next month in New York. They have their own awards too (the Mackies?).

Not Halo-specific, and hopefully, with a much better offering of works.

Some great (and not-so-great) work in there. I'm to see where 3d game based film making will go, there have been more and more machinima film festivals cropping up (http://festival.machinima.org/) and more and more virtual film companies forming.

The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences has announced the 2005, not so annual, Machinima Film Festival. The festival will once again be held at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York.

Machinima in general has grown in popularity and commercial success since the last festival in 2003 with such recent work as Paul Marino's Half Life 2 music video, "I'm Still Seeing Breen" appearing on MTV2's Video Mods, Rooster Teeth's recent series of shorts for IFC, the Nisha Chronicles for GMD Studios' latest A.R.G. promoting the Audi A3, and The ILL Clan's "Gamer Gags" for SpikeTV.

In all it's been a good year for Machinima, and it's only August.

The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences has announced the 2005, not so annual, Machinima Film Festival. The festival will once again be held at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York.

Machinima in general has grown in popularity and commercial success since the last festival in 2003 with such recent work as Paul Marino's Half Life 2 music video, "I'm Still Seeing Breen" appearing on MTV2's Video Mods, Rooster Teeth's recent series of shorts for IFC, the Nisha Chronicles for GMD Studios' latest A.R.G. promoting the Audi A3, and The ILL Clan's "Gamer Gags" for SpikeTV.

In all it's been a good year for Machinima, and it's only August.

Been traveling a bit (just finishing up a Machinima workshop in Vienna at the Top Talent Festival), but came across this thread and thought to throw in some cents (Euro or US, you decide)...

Machinima development has come a long way in the last few years - fulfilling upon its expected promise - though it still has lots of room for maturing.

Fountainhead Entertainment's Machinimation program (which uses the Quake III Arena engine) is the definitive make-machinima-quick tool. Its the first real program for machinima production. In addition, it comes in Demo, Academic and Professional flavors depending on the projects you may have in mind (those interested should check out the Machinimation version differences and the Machinimation FAQ. Machinima filmmakers should stay tuned to the continual development of this program.

In the "promise on the horizon" dept., the afore-mentioned Half-Life2 has a number of tools that could make it the standout machinima production engine. With its internal character facial/gesture animation tool, Face Poser, the ever-so-missing dramatic expression of faces and lip-sync finally gets its due. While the Hammer editor doesn't get as much of an overhaul as I would have liked, this machinima filmmaker hopes there's scripting support in the full SDK to be released next week.

One of the most satisfying of current machinima production-ready engines is probably Unreal Tournament 2004. While even the Epic Games tech can use some help in the machinima department (its internal camera system, Matinee, only goes so far), it does have a large community for support as well as Epic's own Unreal Developer Network (which should be a model for any game developer looking to support their engine post-purchase). That said, the UT2004 tech has room for development and could be the platform for further Machinima development in the future (without spilling too many beans, interested parties should stay tuned). The Unreal 3 tech looks great too!

Other engines: The Sims2 is a good Machinima contender (and the engine behind Rooster Teeth's The Strangerhood) - one hopes that Maxis/EA will build up its Machinima use, either through internally developed tools, or supporting third-party/end-user development of such programs. Linden Lab's Second Life is also a good Machinima platform, although the control of characters and events through a remotely located server can impact production. Still, it allows the end-user to upload their own gestures as well as givens them IP ownership (big deal for those looking to profitize their work). A Machinima filmmaker may also want to consider the Torque engine from Garage Games with its low-cost ownership model and large community as well.

As mentioned in the original posting, Lionhead's The Movies looks promising - an application that blurs the line between game and productivity tool (as least from the Machinima filmmakers perspective). Lionhead unfortunately hasn't looked to the Machinima community for recommendations (which could have been a valuable resource, IMHO), but hopefully they will post-release.

Finally, I will do a selfish plug and make the recommendation to my book, The Art of Machinima, which I created with the beginning Machinima filmmaker in mind. The book covers using Fountainhead's Machinimation (a demo of which is included in the book's CD) as well as more advanced Machinima using UT2004.

The upcoming Machinima Film Festival (Spring 2005) will be showcasing the majority of these engines and developments - people should st

Been traveling a bit (just finishing up a Machinima workshop in Vienna at the Top Talent Festival), but came across this thread and thought to throw in some cents (Euro or US, you decide)...

Machinima development has come a long way in the last few years - fulfilling upon its expected promise - though it still has lots of room for maturing.

Fountainhead Entertainment's Machinimation program (which uses the Quake III Arena engine) is the definitive make-machinima-quick tool. Its the first real program for machinima production. In addition, it comes in Demo, Academic and Professional flavors depending on the projects you may have in mind (those interested should check out the Machinimation version differences and the Machinimation FAQ. Machinima filmmakers should stay tuned to the continual development of this program.

In the "promise on the horizon" dept., the afore-mentioned Half-Life2 has a number of tools that could make it the standout machinima production engine. With its internal character facial/gesture animation tool, Face Poser, the ever-so-missing dramatic expression of faces and lip-sync finally gets its due. While the Hammer editor doesn't get as much of an overhaul as I would have liked, this machinima filmmaker hopes there's scripting support in the full SDK to be released next week.

One of the most satisfying of current machinima production-ready engines is probably Unreal Tournament 2004. While even the Epic Games tech can use some help in the machinima department (its internal camera system, Matinee, only goes so far), it does have a large community for support as well as Epic's own Unreal Developer Network (which should be a model for any game developer looking to support their engine post-purchase). That said, the UT2004 tech has room for development and could be the platform for further Machinima development in the future (without spilling too many beans, interested parties should stay tuned). The Unreal 3 tech looks great too!

Other engines: The Sims2 is a good Machinima contender (and the engine behind Rooster Teeth's The Strangerhood) - one hopes that Maxis/EA will build up its Machinima use, either through internally developed tools, or supporting third-party/end-user development of such programs. Linden Lab's Second Life is also a good Machinima platform, although the control of characters and events through a remotely located server can impact production. Still, it allows the end-user to upload their own gestures as well as givens them IP ownership (big deal for those looking to profitize their work). A Machinima filmmaker may also want to consider the Torque engine from Garage Games with its low-cost ownership model and large community as well.

As mentioned in the original posting, Lionhead's The Movies looks promising - an application that blurs the line between game and productivity tool (as least from the Machinima filmmakers perspective). Lionhead unfortunately hasn't looked to the Machinima community for recommendations (which could have been a valuable resource, IMHO), but hopefully they will post-release.

Finally, I will do a selfish plug and make the recommendation to my book, The Art of Machinima, which I created with the beginning Machinima filmmaker in mind. The book covers using Fountainhead's Machinimation (a demo of which is included in the book's CD) as well as more advanced Machinima using UT2004.

The upcoming Machinima Film Festival (Spring 2005) will be showcasing the majority of these engines and developments - people should st

While it doesn't cover all the latest game engines, I found The Art of Machinima by machinima pioneer Paul Marino to be a great read and suitable for someone just getting involved with machinima. The book includes a demo version of Fountainhead Entertainment's Machinimation (based on the Quake III game) and covers machinima-making using Unreal Tournament 2004 as well. It even covers capturing your favorite vid game into your PC (ala Red Vs. Blue) for machinima purposes. I do wish the book covered some of the later engines (Far Cry, Doom 3, Half Life 2), but it was a good place to start, IMHO. Hopefully Marino will update in the near future as these newer engines are clearly where its at.

Well, I think its a really good idea anyway, has there been anything else like this done before?

machinima.com
machinima.org
Machinima FAQ

Well, I think its a really good idea anyway, has there been anything else like this done before?

machinima.com
machinima.org
Machinima FAQ

Machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment.

In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development. Machinima is real world filmmaking techniques applied within an interactive virtual space where characters and events can be either controlled by humans, scripts or artificial intelligence.

By combining the techniques of filmmaking, animation production and the technology of real-time 3D game engines, Machinima makes for a very cost- and time-efficient way to produce films, with a large amount of creative control.

This is why we believe so strongly in Machinima. It provides the environments, the actions and events to not only embellish stories (like in this case), but also allows people to tell stories of their own.

From the article:

The graphics revolution that is upon us will be a creative one; present work methods are too labor intensive to scale to the volume of data that we will need to create to support the medium. We will need new production methodologies blending techniques from games, film, and television.

...sounds like Machinima to me.

At the Machinima awards in NY this year I heard about a Machinima TV show called Game that's previewed at www.gameisnotagame.com. Looks pretty interesting.