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

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: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: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.

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?