Machinima Branching Out Beyond Game Assets

ILL Clinton writes "Animation World Magazine's website has a nice article about the current state of machinima, which is the process of making movies using real-time game technology. The article features a Quicktime movie from what is probably the most beautiful machinima movie so far, 'Anna' (created using Quake 3) by Fountainhead Entertainment. Also featured are quotes and mentions of other Machinima movie-makers and their latest works, including a new piece to be broadcast on Scottish TV by Strange Company, and the latest live performances by The ILL Clan animator/improvisers. (As my name suggests, I'm one of them.) Interestingly, the article focuses on machinima makers who create their own 3D assets, as opposed to re-using those that come with whatever game is being used to make the movie."

Comments

Noticeable In Games, Too.

[FlipmodePlaya]

I was just reading an IGN article that noted RE4 will have all of its cinemas use the in-game engine for rendering, rather than using pre-rendered FMVs. This trend is sweeping through all sorts of games. The FF series, which used pre-rendered backgrounds on all of its PSX games, now uses rendered ones. Now that graphics have advanced to the point where cinemas can be processed in real time as well as they can be premade, this technique will only grow.

Re:Noticeable In Games, Too.

[DeadboltX]

This is a bad idea for PC games. Imagine star wars without the explosions or lasers and that is what you will get. There are so many people who don't run the max graphics because their machine doesn't allow them to, and so they won't see what the developers intended them to see. Not to mention that even the top computers right now would not be able to run a good scene using modern graphics technology. If you have seen the "behind the scenes" video from blizzard about the WoW cutscenes then you will know what I mean. There is no way that even a top of the line computer can run those kinds of cutscenes at a decent fps.

Re:Noticeable In Games, Too.

[alphaseven]

I was just reading an IGN article that noted RE4 will have all of its cinemas use the in-game engine for rendering, rather than using pre-rendered FMVs. This trend is sweeping through all sorts of games.

I think Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 was the first game to really popularize doing FMV-style sequences "in engine".

You're right a lot of games are abandoning pre-rendered FMV, though I did like how some of the FF games, like FFVIII, would have near-seamless transistions between FMVs and in-game action.

Re:Noticeable In Games, Too.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 was the first game to really popularize doing FMV-style sequences "in engine".

Seems to me that honor belongs to "every 2D RPG ever."

Re:Noticeable In Games, Too.

[Bibbity]

If developers choose to create cut scenes to be seen in all their glory, they can create and store ROQ files so they are played as they should be seen. This is no different than an MPEG file. I believe you are getting confused with real-time cut scenes as a playback demo which do have the issue of not looking right if there are graphics issues. Though this latter method is not as popular among top tier developers today, it does have the advantage of lower file sizes if size is an issue.

Personally, I prefer to see in-game cinematics vs. CGI because it isn't as jarring a transition during sequences in-and-out of the game. One of the things that I disliked about the old Final Fantasy games were the crude game environment interspersed with gorgeous CGI cut scenes. The illusion is broken and the sense of emersion is a bit lost. I'm glad the newer Final Fantasy games are using in-game cinematics. Visually, it just flows better.

Red Vs. Blue

[zedpol]

I recently discovered Red Vs. Blue, it is made using the halo engine.

http://www.redvsblue.com

The stories are simple but well done with humor that i would guess most slashdotters would appreciate

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[MichaelGCD]

I was under the impression that they actually played out the movies with their controllers themselves do they instead script the animations?

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[zedpol]

from their faq,

Q: No seriously. What the hell?

A: Oh. We just write scripts and then use videogames to act them out. It's a new style of animation that some people call machinima. It allows to make 4-5 minutes of animation with a small group of people.

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! This is quite a discovery! Thanks!

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[MichaelGCD]

But do they mean "acting" scripts or "animation" scripts.. that is the question.

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[MichaelGCD]

Oh wait.. nevermind. It doesn't take a group of people to write code..

I'll shutup now..

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[Pluvius]

I'm fairly sure that they play and record the XBox MP version of the game to do most of the sequences, and polish it up with some movie-editing program or other. Some of those sequences--the "bombing" of Sheila in Episode 9, for example--required a lot of tricks in order to get them to work within the limits of Halo XBox MP and the Blood Gulch map.

Rob

Re:Red Vs. Blue

[ILL Clinton]

There's different ways of doing it. Red Vs. Blue uses linked XBoxes to to act out and record using all in-game assets. Others, like the movies we do in the ILL Clan are done using open-source Quake 2, which allows us to create all our own assets, and program mods that allow for things like lip synching, and teleporting cameras. In both of the above cases, the characters are controlled like puppets with a keyboard or controller, and the recording is done like on a film set... characters to their places, director calls "action", etc.

Others (Like Anna) are created using a game engine, but the character and camera movement is all plotted in advance using Machinimation software. It's still called Machinima because the rendering is all real-time.

One really interesting thing (if I may say so myself) that the article mentions is that real-time animation allows for live productions. So what we have done is set up our server and laptops at a club or theater and project the video directly from the camera's POV on the server onto a large screen for the audience to see. Then we control the camera and puppets right there in the theater, and "perform" the animation. Our latest show involves two characters running for President and Vice Pres. and we answer questions from the audience. We have a few years experience doing comedy improv on stages in NYC, so we like to interact with the audience.

Oh boy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, the article focuses on machinima makers who create their own 3D assets, as opposed to re-using those that come with whatever game is being used to make the movie.

Great, so now in addition to bad voice acting and tired old jokes, we're also treated to shoddy graphics as well.

Full version of Anna

[nacturation]

You can download it here. Quite the stunning work!

Excellent machinima source

[Nomihn0]

http://machinima.com/ is an excellent repository of machinima created in a number of different game engines. It also contains articles, interviews, and tutorials on the creation of machinima and its current state in the game and art world.

Annoying thing about alot of Machinima

[Simulant]

Quicktime. (or mpeg, real, or whatever) If you are going to release a film that can't be viewed using the real-time engine it was created with, I'm not all that interested in viewing it.

I assume this is done to protect assets created for the films but I feel it detracts from the viewing pleasure.

Re:Annoying thing about alot of Machinima

[ILL Clinton]

In the early days of Machinima, most movies were released in-engine, meaning that the movie came in the form of a really huge text file called a demo, which could be played using the game it was created in, usually Quake or Quake 2.

There are a lot of reasons we don't do that anymore, and they have nothing to do with protecting assets. We release our movies in Quicktime so that people can watch them. Not many people have a copy of the Quake 2 mod, "BeefQuake" on their system. Quake 2 is free, but most other games cost $50. We don't want to limit our audience to just the people who happen to own the game we used for our engine. And the game engines tend to be very fickle about how they display the images, different processors and 3D engines deal differently with the graphics.

Another important reason is that we don't do any editing in-engine anymore. Back in 1999, when we were using Quake, it wasn't so easy to edit video on a PC, so using Machinima was actually a better solution. Now, editing video is technically easy, and editing in-engine is a major hassle.

So, we create the movies in-game, we edit them in Premier or Final Cut, and we release them in web-friendly, easily downloadable video formats.

Incidentally, there are still some Machinima movies out there that you can watch in-game. Our first two movies, "Apartment Huntin'" and "Hardly Workin'" can both be viewed in their original formats, Quake and Quake 2 respectively. But how many people still have those games on their system, or want to spend 2 hours downloading them, when they can just watch a Quicktime?

Re:Annoying thing about alot of Machinima

[Knos]

Don't you think you're missing on some really interesting aspect of machinima, being that it is realtime, and thus could expand on the whole frozen-video/movie concept back into a new hybrid of cinema and theatre, with actual realtime performances?

Re:Annoying thing about alot of Machinima

[ILL Clinton]

Sorry, but your post confuses me. I would understand if you didn't read the article, as many people don't. But did you read the article summary?

One of the things I mentioned (as does the article) is that we do live machinima performances in theaters and clubs. Then we post Quicktime movies of those live performances for people to watch on the net. We don't post them as in-game files because no one would be able to watch them unless they have BeefQuake.

Actual real-time performances.

Re:Annoying thing about alot of Machinima

[Knos]

As a matter of fact, no I didn't read the article. (and was just answering to the thread in isolation)

I was also talking about a different context than live, but still human controlled, performance. My focus was more along the lines of autonomous performances. (algorithmically determined performances, possibly influenced by external stimuli carried by a global network)

Additionally, considering the topic was about machinima using their own assets, wouldn't it be possible to free yourself from most of the dependencies and provide (at the very least) standalone executables?

Re:Annoying thing about alot of Machinima

[ILL Clinton]

Oh, I think I understand some of what you mean.

Re: standalone executables. That would require the game engine to be installed on whatever machine is going to play the movie, or creating our own 3D engine (which is way beyond our means.) We run into the same problem here, and using Quicktime just makes more sense if our primary goal is for people to see the movies. When we talk about creating our own assets, we mean 3D assets, not technology. We use Quake 2, but our movies don't look anything like Quake 2 because we replace all the artwork, but we use the Quake 2 rendering engine.

Autonomous performances sounds interesting, but I can't really picture what you mean. Some guys I know did something that sounds sort of like that. They made a real-time 3D engine that you could write scripts to tell the characters what to do... "walk to door. Stop. Turn left. Walk to window" Then run the script and watch.

I think it's important to keep in mind that what Machinima is all about is making 3D movies without having to program your own 3D engine, or spend hours and hours rendering. So a lot of what you're talking about here, although technically interesting, wouldn't contribute to the goal of making 3D movies fast and cheap and getting them out there for people to watch.

So, are we closing ourselves to some of the possibilities that game engines allow for? Yes. And that's fine with us right now. :)