You can see Apartment Huntin' in it's original form by playing this.dem file in original Quake. You're right, the link to the demo file was deleted when we redesigned the movies page.
AH was made back in 1999, by the way. : )
Funny story: L & L are lumberjacks because we used the original Quake Marine, and he only had a gun or an axe. So we went with the axes.
Machinimation software by FountainHead Entertainment might be a good way to do storyboards. You can use existing Quake 3 maps and it's really easy to find good ones online. There's a free version that comes with assets from the now defunct "Game Over" 3D cartoon.
We use our own Quake 2 mod to do a lot of the storyboards for our episodes, it's a good fast way to see exactly what a camera would see. We also just draw pictures too.
Now what would be great is applying the open source model to work on larger productions.
That's what some of us do. I would love to get advice from/.ers on using open source techniques to create a good machinima mod.
The ILL Clan often uses game developers from all over the world to make movies. Being a part of the Machinima community makes us part of the Quake Mod community, and since Quake 2 is open source there's a lot of interesting things going on.
The BeefQuake mod let us upgrade to 128 bit color. qFusion allows us to use Quake 3 assets with our own Quake 2 camera and puppet mod.
We're at our best when we put it all together and perform Machinima live in front of an audience.
"30fps is fine for streaming video, but if you have what it takes you'll want to render The Showdown on your own rig and watch it at 120fps. We don't call 1600x1200 Machinima, we call it film resolution."
The one thing I hate most about buying software in a store is all the packaging. A CD is small, but the software box is big.
(I know all the marketing and shelf sales arguments.)
For those of us who want to see less packaging going from shelf to trash to landfill, I think this is an important step. That's a very real benefit to me that will affect my choice in the store.
That said, if I wanted to download software to a CD, what would I be doing in CompUSA?
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.:)
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.
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?
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.
The authors described a system by which actual terrorists could easily use a screening system as a tool. By sending known terrorists and terrorists with no record on flights, terrorist cells could determine who will pass the screening, and actually be less likely to be searched in the future. Increasing their chances of enacting terrorism on a plane.
Open source sig, feel free to modify and distribute.
If you don't drink coffee, don't start! I love the stuff, am totally addicted to Italian Espresso, and I know that tea is much better for you.
This article talks about antioxidants, and benefits of that nature, but what they don't say is that other morning beverages, like green tea for example, have a much higher content of beneficial stuff, and much less bad stuff, like phosphorus.
Open Source sig, feel free to modify and redistribute.
There's a reason arcades used to be a good business and now they're not. In the days of Asteroids, there was no alternative to paying a quarter. Even after consoles like the NES came out, the games in the arcade were better looking than the home systems.
But now the games on a console or a PC are better than most arcade games, so there's no incentive to pay that quarter anymore.
Maybe if there was no alternative, micropayments would work. But I can't foresee the day when every single game developer decides to stop selling games to people willing to fork over $50 per title.
Scott Mcloud is great when it comes to "Understanding Comics", but maybe he should stop trying to understand Video Games.
Somebody tell him I said that.
Open source sig, feel free to modify and redistribute.
So the animals being eaten are given growth hormone, and the people who eat the meat are obese. Is it possible that the growth hormones are making their way into the people eating the meat? And making them grow?
Well, being that I'm one of the guys involved in this, I am uniquely qualified to answer your question.
Perhaps you didn't have a chance to read the whole article, but the reference to live comedy doesn't involve audience members connected to the server. We actually do this in front of live audiences at film festivals and clubs in New York City.
Only the performers are connected to the server. The "camera's" view is projected onto a large screen, comedy ensues. Everyone, including the performers are together in the theatre (or club), not connected via the internet.
You can see excerpts from one of these live performances on our website.
We use Quake 2 because it's Open Source, allowing us to modify it to do what we do.
When the economy sucks, the best way to increase your chances of making a living is by starting your own company. Then it doesn't matter what your certifications are, plus you'll not only be earning money for yourself but you'll also spread the wealth when you hire others.
Then you can decide what kind of certs your employees will need to work for you.
Also, expand your skills horizontally. That is, rather than continue to increase your specialization in one thing, learn some new skills that will compliment those you have. This will make you more valuable to prospective employers, and it will make you a better entrepeneur (if you start your own business.) So maybe instead of spending your money on new certs, spend it on a class that teaches you new skills.
Beyond that, praying that congress extends unemployment another 6 months usually works for me.
I used to stand in front of FAO Schwarz's flasgship store on 5th avenue in New York. I was dressed as a toy soldier and wore a giant black furry hat we called the dirty Q-Tip. I had to wear two layers of thermal underwear in the winter, and smile for the tourist's cameras all day long.
I was paid $12 per hour.
The one good day was when instead of being a toy soldier I had to dress up as a teddy bear. Lots of pretty girls gave me big hugs.
Slashdot Mirror
AH was made back in 1999, by the way. : )
Funny story: L & L are lumberjacks because we used the original Quake Marine, and he only had a gun or an axe. So we went with the axes.
ILL Clinton
Voice of Lenny Lumberjack
We use our own Quake 2 mod to do a lot of the storyboards for our episodes, it's a good fast way to see exactly what a camera would see. We also just draw pictures too.
Latex!
That's what some of us do. I would love to get advice from /.ers on using open source techniques to create a good machinima mod.
The ILL Clan often uses game developers from all over the world to make movies. Being a part of the Machinima community makes us part of the Quake Mod community, and since Quake 2 is open source there's a lot of interesting things going on.
The BeefQuake mod let us upgrade to 128 bit color. qFusion allows us to use Quake 3 assets with our own Quake 2 camera and puppet mod.
We're at our best when we put it all together and perform Machinima live in front of an audience.
Larry & Lenny for President
Here's a good line from one of the finalists' website...
"30fps is fine for streaming video, but if you have what it takes you'll want to render The Showdown on your own rig and watch it at 120fps. We don't call 1600x1200 Machinima, we call it film resolution."
Cool.
ILL Clinton
Larry & Lenny for President
Would you say then, in your opinion, that this book does a full-assed job?
(I know all the marketing and shelf sales arguments.)
For those of us who want to see less packaging going from shelf to trash to landfill, I think this is an important step. That's a very real benefit to me that will affect my choice in the store.
That said, if I wanted to download software to a CD, what would I be doing in CompUSA?
Just curious. What kind of software do truckers use?
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. :)
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.
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?
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.
That's a first!
Open source sig, feel free to modify and distribute.
The authors described a system by which actual terrorists could easily use a screening system as a tool. By sending known terrorists and terrorists with no record on flights, terrorist cells could determine who will pass the screening, and actually be less likely to be searched in the future. Increasing their chances of enacting terrorism on a plane.
Open source sig, feel free to modify and distribute.
This article talks about antioxidants, and benefits of that nature, but what they don't say is that other morning beverages, like green tea for example, have a much higher content of beneficial stuff, and much less bad stuff, like phosphorus.
Open Source sig, feel free to modify and redistribute.
But now the games on a console or a PC are better than most arcade games, so there's no incentive to pay that quarter anymore.
Maybe if there was no alternative, micropayments would work. But I can't foresee the day when every single game developer decides to stop selling games to people willing to fork over $50 per title.
Scott Mcloud is great when it comes to "Understanding Comics", but maybe he should stop trying to understand Video Games.
Somebody tell him I said that.
Open source sig, feel free to modify and redistribute.
Open source sig, feel free to modify and redistribute.
Was it really necessary to keep Mark Tilden in the shot at ALL times? Could we have gotten ONE close-up of the robot? A medium shot even?
Open source sig, feel free to modify it's source and distribute publicly.
So the animals being eaten are given growth hormone, and the people who eat the meat are obese. Is it possible that the growth hormones are making their way into the people eating the meat? And making them grow?
Sounds fun. Were the glasses stereo? Or was it the same 2D image in each eyepiece?
Perhaps you didn't have a chance to read the whole article, but the reference to live comedy doesn't involve audience members connected to the server. We actually do this in front of live audiences at film festivals and clubs in New York City.
Only the performers are connected to the server. The "camera's" view is projected onto a large screen, comedy ensues. Everyone, including the performers are together in the theatre (or club), not connected via the internet.
You can see excerpts from one of these live performances on our website.
We use Quake 2 because it's Open Source, allowing us to modify it to do what we do.
ILL Clinton
Then you can decide what kind of certs your employees will need to work for you.
Also, expand your skills horizontally. That is, rather than continue to increase your specialization in one thing, learn some new skills that will compliment those you have. This will make you more valuable to prospective employers, and it will make you a better entrepeneur (if you start your own business.) So maybe instead of spending your money on new certs, spend it on a class that teaches you new skills.
Beyond that, praying that congress extends unemployment another 6 months usually works for me.
I was paid $12 per hour.
The one good day was when instead of being a toy soldier I had to dress up as a teddy bear. Lots of pretty girls gave me big hugs.
Well, with technical diagrams as complex and ingenious as this it's no wonder the patent office was impressed.
Try Google Images... http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&q=%22+Carmine+Caridi%22&sa=N&tab =wi