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Red vs Blue Sweeps Machinima Awards
TheNomad writes "The Machinima Film Festival 2003 is over, and the results from the awards are in.
Red Vs Blue swept the awards with 3 awards for "Best Independent Film", "Best Writing" and "Best Picture". Katherine Anna Kang's firm Fountainhead did very well too, with wins for "Best Direction", "Best Commercial Machinima", "Best Technical Achievement" and "Best Visual Design".
Most of the films are available now, and there is a whole bunch of coverage of the event (with pictures) over at Machinima.com."
favorite quote: "We have a tank and no tank driver?!? Who is running this army???!!!"
"I only speak the truth"
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Direct link to the Red vs. Blue Blood Gulch Chronicles Videos is here http://www.redvsblue.com/bloodgulch.shtml
Sure, I decide to download the last few Red vs. Blue episodes that I have not yet seen. I decide to do it on a monday night, because, hey, who downloads Red vs. Blue on a Monday?
Apparently everyone on Slashdot...
Thanks a heap. (I can't even find bittorrent links - bugger!)
8P
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Red (Hat) & (Big) Blue were working together to defend the world from the SCO of the universe.
Sarge didn't win for best office assistant.
"Where do you want to go today, dirtbag?"
Heisenberg might have been here.
How could this "red vs blue" have swept the awards, when the second one you mention had 4 awards?
I ran across Red vs Blue a while ago, they are funny as hell; and not just geek-gamer humor.
Creative new ideas, good job guys!
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in case it gets slashdotted...
Machinima FAQ
By Frank "ILL Bixby" Dellario
What is Machinima?
Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment.
In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development. By combining the techniques of filmmaking, the flexibility of animation production and the technology of real-time 3D game engines, Machinima makes for a very cost- and time-efficient way to produce films.
What are the major advantages of this technique vis-a-vis the old-fashioned way of making animation?
Because it is shot live or scripted in real-time, it's much faster to produce Machinima then traditional CGI animation. A live action director will feel right at home and an animation director will be able to direct without having to rely on key frames. Multiple takes can be made in real-time or just a few takes while the rest is adjusted in post, dependent on the director's style. And because you can modify the original recorded data files, we can change anything in post--add characters, adjust camera angles, create camera moves, fine-tune animation, etc. It's much like doing a reshoot without having to call back the cast and crew.
What is so significant about shooting animation live?
Shooting live can produce a considerable time and cost savings of up to 30-40% and is a radical departure from the traditional key frame animation process. Now animation directors can direct puppeteers as they manipulate the character models in real-time while a live action director will feel right at home.
How does it save time and money?
It saves money by eliminating the time intensive processes of non-real-time character animation and scene compositing. In traditional 3D animation, characters are animated traditionally with keyframes. These animations are either painstakingly choreographed with other characters or composited together into the same scene. A one minute Machinima scene, for example, can be shot in real-time with all characters in the scene at once. And just like a film set, you shoot multiple takes until the director is satisfied. Without the need for a compositing process, you can view each take right there and then.
Sorry, I'm a laymen, can you explain that a little more?
Two-dimensional (2D) animation, like Disney's Tarzan or a Warner Brothers Looney Tune Cartoon, is drawn, inked & painted by hand and then shot frame-by-frame for the final animation. This is obviously labor and time intensive. A half hour cartoon could take six to nine months to draw and is usually done overseas to minimize labor cost. A feature could take two to four years to complete.
3D Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) animation, was pioneered in the late 80's early 90's and put on the map by Pixar's Toy Story. Instead of each frame being drawn by hand, a computer "renders" all of the characters and backgrounds. But a team of computer animators have to animate each character model individually for each scene. Once done, a "compositing" bank of computers renders all of the characters models and objects into the 3D background, making your complete shot. But because of the large amount of 3D graphic, lighting and animated information in each frame, it can take a very fast bank of computers hours, if not days, to render each frame. Some frames of Pixar's Monsters Inc took over 90 hours to process using over 400 computers ganged together in parallel. With 24 frames per sec of footage, you can image how long this process can get. Subsequently, Monsters Inc took four years to produce.
What a minute, are you saying you can produce Pixar level animation in almost half the time?
Well, no, not yet. A company like Pixar will always push the boundaries of what's possible in animation, I mean, come on, they're Pixar, and they've got an Oscar. But, with the advances in computer hardware coming in the next year, it looks pretty good that we can get much closer.
How do you use a c
Actually, that was a promo for Summoner and Red Faction... It was called Summoner Geeks... funny. :)
You can find it: hereand probably many other better places than iFilm too.
There was also a followup which I got on a coverdisc once which was also piss funny...
They awarded the ChupaThingy (you mean the Puma?) best supporting actor, very narrowly beating out Shiela the Tank
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For those who don't know, machinima is the process of creating movies using a video game engine.
Red vs Blue has created some hilarious work using the Halo engine. The "Blood Gulch Chronicles" are about a bunch of dopey marines stuck in the bottom of a dry creek bed. They live, they love, they laugh, they blow stuff up.
Check out the trailer.
Red vs Blue
For those of you who don't know, Fountainhead is the company of John Carmack's wife. As mentioned a long way down in his .plan file. So there's even more geek news for you.
Although it doesn't quite count as machinima, I always found Summoner Geeks (warning: annoying flash ads) pretty funny.
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The early episodes are beyond comparison, very top notch stuff.
However, as the season gets on, the writing seems to degrade noticeably and the plot gets a little wonky at the end when Church decides to do that thing he does (avoiding spoilage).
I'd advise them to slow down a bit, produce fewer episodes and take us back to the excellent writing of the first 5 episodes.
"Simons.... I want you to poison Griff's next meal"
Google's new tag line:
Google...it's like an RTFM for the entire world.
Here is a newly created torrent that has all the episodes. This means that it includes the earlier files, and all of the extras except the original trailer. This is is one .zip and weighs in at 254.9MB.
You should watch the trailer before you abuse everyone's bandwith.
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