Pineapple Chunks

Renpy and the Fairies in Peril

2011-05-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

My first forays in things 'machinima' were slideshow stories made using the Sims, like this example. Just your general everyday transexual detective captures fairy kidnappers tale. (what was I thinking?)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/stories/details/id/263

Anyhoo. I keep getting the urge to go back to this format, and every now and then try to work out how to do it.

How to make 'slideshow' stories which are easily shared.

I keep finding myself back at the Renpy website.

Renpy is an open source, free to use program, develped so that users could create and share visual novels and games.

At its simplest level you can make slideshow stories, but there are many more features available which allow for effects, sound tracks and with a bit of coding extensive customisation.

A great benefit of renpy over some other free games creators is that the players / readers don't need the Renpy program to interact with the stories and games. Finished works are self contained.

So long as your content has no copyright issues you can sell, or freely distribute your game or story in any way you please. Renpy games and stories can be viewed and played on Windows, Mac, linux..and as far as I understand it Android for phones.

There's a huge community with a lively forum and plenty of support.

You need a litle tech knowledge to use, but it passes the Kate test of being 'possible' and maybe 'gets easier as I go' with 'lots of possibilities to muck about with later'.

The program is currently in development with the latest version just released. This version gives greater support to adding video (cut scenes) to novels and games.

I have made some simple test try outs. One as a multiple ending type quiz, and the latest as a very simple slideshow poem.

The biggest issue (apart from lining up the code in the right column) is thinking in still shots after being immersed in movie making....though Renpy gives the possibility of mixing the two formats.

After playing Syberia I am really inspired how much you can do with simple interactions and slightly animated backgrounds. The story is the key thing.

This is still a thought in process. I will let you know how it goes.

Kate

edit: as I got quite a bit of post when FIP was released you might be reassured to know that the Fairy was in fact safe. The actual rescue scenes were lost in a hideous 'how much custom stuff can I pile into my sims game' type crash.

Syberia - a story within a game

2011-05-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm just about coming to the end of this game. A puzzle adventure with an intriguing story.
I'm not sure why it took me so long to realise that games existed which I not only like, but find inspiring.
This one is a little old fashioned now. It was released in 2002 and nine years is a lifetime in the world of computer games.
It is slow to play, and made to look beautiful. Though the 'actors' seem primitively constructed these days. Sometimes the dialogue drags, but that's the extent of my critisism.
The characters are quirky, grown up (mostly) and as far from conventional shoot 'em up bots as is imaginable. Not only that, but the story is unusual, the themes are not often visited..in game or conventional film.
I'm impressed. Impressed enough to do a little research on the game history and its writer Benoit Sokal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Sokal a Belgian comic artist turned video game designer.
I don't want to say too much in case, like me, you have never come across this game. Not knowing what to expect has been part of the charm.
The game is avilable for a pleasing £5.39 at Big Fish games and worked fine on windows 7.
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/4665/syberia/index.html

The empty net....

2011-05-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

I had a funny thought yesterday.

What if there are a lot less people actively using the internet than is generally assumed?

You are a geek right? Or married to a geek or at least hunkering down on the rim of the geeksphere. So most of the people you know are at least moderately techy, and what if that creates a distorted view?

You see someone in the street using an ipod...music had to be downloaded from the net, so he or she is a regular internet user, obvious innit.

However, what if the only web use that person partakes of is 'download music'? What if the only reason that person can download music is because someone in his or her circle of friends knows a geek who knows how to do it, and the knowledge was passed on painstakingly. Our theoretical ipod listener knows how to get a tune from itunes, and that's as far as they go.

How is this person going to watch your hand crafted video?

They go on youtube don't they? They know how to search don't they?

Ever wondered why idiotic videos get so many hits when perfectly good ones maybe don't? What if specimen B, lolcatz viewer, has never visited youtube in their life. What if the only net activity they can manage is opening their email, and oh look, their cousin's wife's boss's nephew's aunt in australia's son's boyfriend sent them the embedded video in a mail (and it was forwarded on..a few times)

What if there are actually very people who are capable of finding new content, in the same way that there are not that many people who can map read, or follow a knitting pattern, and still fewer who could make a map, or design a jumper.

Thought in process.....

Journal of Visual Culture Machinima Edition - free for a month

2011-04-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

http://vcu.sagepub.com/content/current

I was very pleased to be asked to contribute to this edition.

Reading Henry Lowood's introduction I was surprised to realise that this year's machinima expo shares the theme of 'diversity' the journal's Stanford led project.

I am still reading through the contributions of the other writers, and as I do so wonder how someone unfamiliar with Machinima would understand the art form, using these essays as a guide.

There is something important about creating these snapshots in time, and I'm very glad Henry and Susan at Stanford took it upon themselves to work in an innovative way, and include non academic viewpoints.

The whole will take some absorbing, and the time limit of a month seems short, so get reading!

Moviestorm Featured Movie Criteria

2011-03-15T01:50:00.000-07:00

Matt Kelland, one of Moviestorm's founders, was asked what criteria the team uses to choose the movies which are featured, both on site and in various other locations online, and within the program load up splash screen itself.
I thought the answer was worth sharing before it was buried in the forum.

We choose movies that in our opinion showcase what Moviestorm can do, embody the Moviestorm ethos, and inspire people. The criteria I use (and it's not a hard and fast scoring system, or anything like that) are:

1. Quality. I'm looking for movies that are well-made in as many aspects as possible, both technically and artistically. Great stories, great acting, well shot, good sound, good editing, good mod design, and so on. We want people to look at those movies and think wow, you can do that with Moviestorm?

2. Innovation. I'm always looking out for novel uses for Moviestorm. When I see someone using it in a way that hasn't been done before, I like to feature that. School science project? TV Commercial? Explaining how insurance works? Political debate? All likely to attract my attention. Sometimes these can be a bit rough, but that's often the case when people are breaking new ground.

3. Determination. One of the things we stand for is that we enable people to make movies who wouldn't otherwise do so. I like to find the stories behind the movies, and feature work by people in interesting or difficult circumstances. I like to feature work that punches way above its weight, where people have been hugely ambitious, great debut pieces, or impressive work by younger movie-makers. They may not always be the best work, but they encourage people to try and push themselves.

4. Just because. And yes, I sometimes pick things simply because I like them. Sometimes, after a day of watching "and then he shot him" movies, something makes me smile, and I'll feature it, just because I want to share that smile with people.

Some weeks they are just too busy to pick up on great movies that are uploaded, and other times user's movies are posted in less usual locations, and are missed for that reason.
If you see an unusual use of Moviestorm it's always worth sending a link to Staff. I've sent a couple of obscure finds over time, and there have a been a few which has escaped the team's attention so it's worth doing.

Machinima, Opensim, Second Life – Oh My?

2011-03-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

For the past several months I have been working on an idea that if all “my stuff” could be downsized into a backpack and a computer bag, can life become a little less complicated. With the advances of technology, I can say for myself, that I have nearly reached a Nirvana state of Life. With the exception of digitizing all my books and periodicals (still working on that), I have been able to reduce my wardrobe into a backpack. My computer backup (a couple of 1.5 terabyte external hard drives) contain all my files, cd’s, dvd’s and pictures. Family furniture and collected art pieces are in our home, but considering the ever present potential for earthquakes and brush fires at home, these items would be missed, but not the end of the world if “loss to a disaster”.

Having been able to get my “stuff” under control, I have begun to look again film making and the potential of making visual stories anywhere in the world. Feeling very cocky that I can basically function with my computer, internet and battery power sources, I figured that Machinima would be an easy fit to someone like myself (a reluctant disabled gimp).

I am not a gamer. I have even less aptitude at programming anything. What I want to do is just get the images down. My style of modding is just changing textures and sizes of things. The Opensim and Second Life allow me to do just that. Of course you can mod all sorts of things in those programs, but then doing Machinima becomes a brain twisting challenge for me. Too many Rube Goldberg methods to film a scene.

My preferred Machinima software is Moviestorm. iClone is great, but again to techy for my simple brain. What I like about Moviestorm is the simple point and click interface for making my “actors” and cameras go through their paces. What I don’t enjoy in Moviestorm (for that matter iClone, Second Life and the Opensim) is that when I want an item for the film, like a prop or piece of clothing and I can not just buy it, I have to try to decipher how to use some other piece of software like Blender, Milkshape or Daz to make it. All I’m sure is very easy to use for Natalie Portman or Hedy Lamarr, but not for me.

NY Times article – “Natalie Portman, Oscar Winner, Was Also a Precocious Scientist”

It is my hope that in the near future, my Machinima software will be not only be easy to use to film a scene, but also allow my imagination a manageable method to mod my sets, props, costumes and avatars instead of feeling I’m reinventing the wheel.

In a final note:

Many thanks to all of you who have brought Machinima to this point. Visual storytelling is truly nearly within the grasp of all.

- Mike

Dear Fairy by Tom Jantol

2011-02-23T11:02:00.001-08:00

Dear Fairy from Tom Jantol on Vimeo.

Just in case you missed this.

Do we need normals? The Eyes Have It, Frankenstein visits Shanghai and Mike loves Langley

2011-02-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

There are days when I wonder about the future of Machinima, or is it that I worry about my future in Machinima and then project that on everyone else, whether they like it or not?

I have, yet again, become utterly bogged down in an over complicated script, and escaped into digital artwork as a way of generating thinking time whilst doing something which feels 'useful'.

You can find some of the output HERE at CGShare. The textures I made and uploaded are free and allow for unrestricted use. Some are part of a set including a normal map and heightfield which could be used as a specular map. I'd love to know if these are useful, and if including normal maps is something helpful.

Reasons to be cheerful (not including nanny goats cf Ian Dury)
Part 1
From time to time the Moviestorm forums have erupted with an ardent campaign for a particular feature to be given priority by the developers. Sometimes the bods in charge have a fee moment and are able to oblige, at other times they are wholly occupied fending off unexpected crisis, or attending to something important, but invisible, in the underlying code.

At other times the artwork and animation for a pack have been more or less completed, but can't squeeze through the busy pipeline necessary to include new content as part of the official program. This must be a common factor in many businesses with a small staff.

Chris Ollis, who has been central to the art department at Moviestorm Towers had occasionally indulged in bit of creative queue jumping by releasing work as a completely separate addon, through the route which regular user mods are released.

Now he has taken this further, by offering packs for sale on his own modding site, Moddingstorm This means he can offer support, do his own QA, take payment and generally get around the bottleneck which has a times troubled official pack releases. Moviestorm have often shown an ability to be creative in their business models and they see Chris's independent site as an asset, in the same way that they regard regular user mods. Of course, Chris's inside knowledge means he has a head start, and the quality and depth of his work is outstanding.

His latest release allows users much more fine control over their character's eyes, and is one of those 'must have' addons.

Reasons to be cheerful
Part2
There are times when I'm trying to force machinima to look like CGI, and never being satisfied, when I watch, or rewatch a movie , and remember what it's all about. Nahton's Frankenstein in Shanghai is a prime example.

There's a mass of underlying skill gone into making this, all of which is lightly and charmingly distributed. it isn't perfect, and it wouldn't work so well if it was.
A commenter said "They will have to chisel the smile off my face!" and what a wonderful end to aim for.

Reasons To Be Cheerful
Part 3
Langley? Mike and trudy are enjoying their road trip, and have made an extended stay on this beautiful Island. You can follow their progress HERE We continue to work as the intrepid pair travel, and are working out a way of creating when one half of Pineapple is on the road.

The Hawk

2011-02-01T03:08:00.000-08:00

Nobody could accuse me of being a Halo fan, and my eyelids start to droop the moment a machinima chracter draws a gun..so a 14min Halo film with gunz, and I got to the end?
I liked the script writing, I was interested in the characters, I liked the shot composition & I liked that one of the characters was female.

Lego Vs Combine

2011-01-31T08:35:00.000-08:00

Strange and wonderful, changes of focus really interesting, tilt-shift head mangling, made me smile.

Curling up with Moviestorm, and Reading a few Blogs

2011-01-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

After the mind expanding intense experience of co-organising the Expo last year, I've found it refreshing to curl back into a single engine ball, and focus on one thing at a time..well movie makers never have ONE thing to think of, but the parameters feel more defined at least.

So I've been spending my time at Moviestorm, and viewing the Machinima world from a creator's point of view again.
All machinima engines have their advantages, and disadvantages, and Moviestorm, with its lipsynch and easy character direction system, feels focused towards writers of drama.

Another thing I appreciate about Moviestorm is its purpose built nature, no Sims wrangling..no you can't go to the toilet we're filming!..and the level of support given by staff and other users.
This support extends beyond endless 'where do I put my oojah when my thingummy goes purple' queries, and moves into the territory of educating and motivating users to create better films.

This year I have been particularly enjoying Matt Kelland's series of articles, posted both on the moviestorm Blog site, and on Facebook. At least half the posts are relevant to machinima, and filmmaking in general. The easiest way to follow the posts is just to click 'Like' on the Moviestorm Facebook page, and then follow up any links in your newsfeed which interest you.
If you'd like to look back at the archive check out the side bar on this page.
..and while you have your reading specs on, I mentioned Hugh Hancock's Guerilla Showrunner http://guerillashowrunner.com/ blog in a previous post, this week's post is pure gold How to kill those time Vampires.. it inspired me to start a list.

I'll leave you with my first ever encounter with those secret second life shadows, yeah to the new pc & up to date graphic card!

Needs some fiddling around with light settings to get best effect, but still smiling in delight to see them at all!

A Movie Studio in your Backpack

2011-01-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

After a long period of downsizing and reconsidering lifestyles, I am once again attempting to return to Machinima in a more simple form. My wife and I are also preparing for a lengthy road trip (at least 6 months, possibly more) around North America. My downsizing, via digital packing, has made me wonder if it is possible to just chuck the entire house and endless stuff in it. Finally live a Gypsy dream. A Happy Wanderer with a backpack on my back. With the advances in technology, there is no reason a person can't work and stay in touch with others and never have to be at home or in an office.

That brings me to Machinima in a bag. I have now downsized my tools to an iTouch 4, Asus UL30V laptop, two 1.5GB external hard drives and a Mifi device to connect to the Internet anywhere cell phone service is available. So far I have not found a program or service that can't work under these conditions. The implications for doing and creating work from the open road are endless. The real problem is not letting all the juicy alternative choices for things to do derail attempts in filmmaking. Time will tell.

Want Some Advice & Inspiration From Experienced Machinimators?

2011-01-13T08:05:00.000-08:00

What do you need to get you going with a moviestorm project? Check out Moviestorm CoPilot and post your requests on their Facebook Wall. This new project was created by the multi-talented duo of Phil Rice, and DL Watson, both well known within the machinima community for their film making and innovative approach to web communication.
Submit your feedback now and your issue might be tackled by the team.If your topic is chosen expect a meticulous and thoughtful response, these guys are good!

Not sure where to start publicising your web series? Check out Machinima for Dummies author Hugh Hancock's new blog. Guerilla Showrunner
He's asking for your input for future topics, and his enthusiastic approach is infectious.

Stuck for ideas, want to see what's possible with some dedication and commitment to machinima story telling, why not kick back and watch Decorgal's ground breaking Adventures in Dating series?
The complete set of episodes is now available on Vimeo . If you are unfamiliar with sims movie making, you will probably miss the amount of modding and adaption that went into making this series look so smooth running, it's an amazing achievement. If you like what you see, why not download the full HD set of episodes from http://www.decorgal.com/

Have Ipad Will Travel - the large and the small

2011-01-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

Mike is gearing up for his long trip around the states, and plans to test many gadgets and ways of communicating as he goes. We've been testing, and his Ipad has proved very capable of holding video skype conversations, and of many other useful tasks.

My new PC should arrive tomorrow, amongst great rejoicing! It's a thumping great thing and the males in my family are currently in dispute about who will be sawing the extra lumps out of the pc wardrobe in order to accommodate it's largess and heat emissions.
As Mike miniaturises I seem to be expanding. He hasn't abandoned processing power, just rearranged how he does things, and made everything possible portable.

I think he is on trend though, when we surveyed what was on offer at Dell pc-wise it was obvious that there was much less choice in desktops than a few years ago. Unless you really need a behemoth then most folks seem to be heading either to laptop country, or smaller, and you can do most things on a smaller unit.

Maybe by the time I come to replace the new arrival, technology will have reduced in size for all machines. For now, I'm moving in the opposite direction. Someone had better find that saw soon!

Up Yours Miss Hawaii, and Machinima.com

2011-01-02T05:24:00.001-08:00

I hope she doesn't take it personally, but when Miss Ashley Layfield fluttered down from the top of the wardrobe and accused me of not following through on my 2010 goal of 'learning the ukulele' she found me in unreceptive mood.
In fact, the phrase 'massively grumpy' could have easily flowed from her cardboard lips, and been thought accurate.
There's something about the accumulated weight of a month's worth of snow which sharpens the complainitve powers, despite the recent thaw.
I am motivated to change those parts of the world which, though fairly trivial in some respects, irritate me most, the world views which are clearly insane, or at least make no sense from here.
For instance, Marks and Spencer believe that all women over a certain size have the same length of leg, or at least they seem, as a corporate entity to think that 'medium' will do, whereas slimmer consumers are allowed more variance in stature.
I would like them to believe otherwise.
Our Internet provider thinks that it is perfectly acceptable for customers to pay for 50mbs of bandwidth, whilst supplying 0.5. I'm seeking to disillusion them.
My grocery store is happy that, having ordered a selection of festive fayre 3 weeks in advance, it is then perfectly OK to run out of everything on the list, leaving us with a Christmas menu which lacked a certain seasonal flavour. I disagree.
Our local GPs surgery appointments system is working towards the standard of patients planning their illnesses three weeks in advance, in order to maximise efficiency. I am at odds with this outlook.
Meanwhile, our local council maintain the error of judgement that it is more important to conserve grit stocks than to keep roads open during inclement weather. I find myself unable to fall in with this casual stance.
So when it became clear that machinima.com have the notion that it is quite ok to allow sexual insults and derogatory remarks to be left unmoderated on featured videos they found me in a non-conciliatory mood.
This isn't my video.
..but it has been made by a member of the Moviestorm community, of which I feel a part.
For some reason the 'youtube is full of fourteen year olds there's nothing you can do' statements bandied about by many seemed no longer to apply.
Maybe I am seeing things differently, or maybe the recent cold front has knocked some sense into me.
There will always be those who look for unmoderated venues to show off, to post their hateful comment graffiti and to generally behave in a manner which lies outside accepted social behaviour.
These are angry wee people with more venom than sense.
Each generation kicks up a new batch, and eventually, if they are lucky, life finds a way to set boundaries, or knock some sense of respect into the lost souls.
The endless supply means that dealing with each individual isn't practical, and they will always find some venue to express their self-centred world view.
For some unknown reason this assault and battery has somehow been thought inevitable by Machinima directors.
The truth is that it only flourishes where it is allowed to do so, and enough is enough.
Machinima directors are not punch bags, obliged to take vile insults in order to have their work seen by a wider audience.
If machinima.com wish to derive income from the hard work and creative endeavour of essentially amateur filmmakers then they have a duty of care to provide a an environment which is safe from verbal violence.
This is easy to manage, and non negotiable.
It's time for a change of attitude.

New Year Thoughts

2010-12-28T05:54:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this blog on an ancient pc which missed going to the tip before Christmas. It's a Frankenstein's monster of a machine, with electronic guts hanging out of the side, and mismatched components stitched together from even older machines.
Despite its shortcomings the Frankenpc actually works, unlike my regular model, which finally gave up an unequal battle with a boiling graphic card just before the festive season, and so became uneconomic to repair.
Thankfully this low resolution wonder horse need only trot on for a week or so as a reorganisation of family finances means the **new pc** should arrive next week.
(please feel free to substitute fanfares on brass instruments for the **s in the previous sentence)

I am aware after last year's resolution to learn to play the Ukelele that the general unpredictability of life has a tendency to intervene into the best laid plans, despite the kind note from Miss Hawaii sincerely hoping that I enjoy playing my new instrument, I hope she will be able to deal with the disappointment.

Thoughts for 2011?

My feeling is that Machinima is about to emerge from the shadows, and that move is likely to be accompanied by an increasing awareness of legality. I'm finding myself wishing that as a whole community we could clear the decks, and see what remained if we could magically remove all elements of piracy from the world of machinima.
I think the decluttering would be a healthy move at this point.

I'm not talk 'witch hunts' or pointy fingers, more advocating a change in the tide and a fresh attitude about what can be achieved using affordable software and appropriately licensed music and content.

The advantages in terms of opening up communication channels, and in encouraging exchange of skills would be huge.

Big Bang Willy and the Demented Potatoes

2010-12-10T03:29:00.000-08:00

Many of you who follow this blog will know that it is much quicker to write than to turn that writing into Machinima. As a consequence, scripts and ideas languish in forgotten folders.
The following is an abandoned outline for a situation comedy set vaguely in post war Britain. The idea was to visit each house in a cul de sac, and follow the stories within. Horace and his eccentric sidekick were to act as detectives solving the mysteries attached to their oddball neighbours.
Other inhabitants included an inventor, who spent his time blowing up a garden shed whilst trying to perfect homemade rocket technology, and a couple of 'aliens'.
This project was connected with the 1930s mods created by myself and John Herd for moviestorm -Kate

11 Acacia Avenue, inhabited by Horace
Manly Clench and his lodger 'Big Bang
Willy', formerly of Big Bang Willy and
the Demented potatoes, a bagpipe jazz
ensemble.
Horace is a designer, best known for
inventing the triangle, and disappearing
up the amazon after a falling out with
Clarice, the duffer, Cliffe over the
colour of a lilac tree. Mr Clench had
maintained that it ought to be yellow,
while Ms Cliffe proceeded to paint the
thing pink, going on to become terribly
famous thus annoying old Horace
immensely.
He eventually returned from his jungle
exile, both yellower and mellower, after
a bout of typhoid, but still refuses to
speak her name, referring to Ms C as 'that
woman'.
Big bang makes a good lodger, his years
on the Scottish music circuit have left
him both deaf, and utterly insensitive to
criticism. He tolerates his landlord's
frequent rages and in return Horace
overlooks William's occasional fall from
the high standards expected by fellow
Avenue residents. He may, at times, even
seem amused by Mr Bang's antics,
especially with regard to the rhythmic
Scot's aversion to undergarments.
Indeed, when Jayne Pinchgraeme, the
vicar's wife delivered a petition it was
Horace who smoothed over the situation by
donating seven large Dundee cakes to the
village fete.

The Lists - Quicky Film

2010-12-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

It was great to fire up Moviestorm after a long break (expo, expo, expo, expo!)

I'm loving the rental agreements on packs, makes it possible to pick up content casually and try it out. In my spare time the last week or so I've been revisiting the 'corners' of my machinima world, picking up the virtual paint brushes and remembering what does and does not work for me.

This is 'quicky' film, and a theme that seems to reoccur for me..the stresses of Christmas, and characters talking over each other. I like that Santa is a do gooder who acts like an exasperated parent.

The Lists from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

Ten boxes of choco squares and a digital partridge in a pear shaped tree

2010-11-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog!
Where have we been?

Mike has been downsizing, and as his life and clutter were quite upsized in the first place, the reduction has taken a good chunk out of 2010. He's gone at the process with characteristic thoroughness and determination, and has now converted a lifetime of memories into lightwieght digital data.

..and where have I been?...expo expo expo expo..has been the background rhythm of my life for more than half a year, this past month increasing the volume and tempo.

Expo, what's that, you ask innocently, and I struggle to reply. I haven't the words yet to describe the process or the event.

A film festival, a machinima film festival, we'll keep it simple, it is still here, screenings continuing until end of November.

Choco squares? Sounds delicious but what can they be..exactly?

My son was keen to make sure I'd bought enough to 'last', he didn't want to repeat the hideous 'bran flakes' week that accompanied the finishing of the 'pear film', or the even more dreadful, 'bowl of allbran' fortnight which went with 'doing up the lounge'. He knows from past experience that I get distracted, unimportant tasks, like grocery shopping can get put off.

His special pleading for the advance stocking up of his favourite cereal was accompanied by an impressive mime sequence of the poor helpless chap, who for some reason is unable to stagger to the local shop, having to manage with allbran, all his saliva extinguished, being too incapacitated to ask for the correct bus ticket on the way to college.

So I bought ten boxes, and they disappeared one at a time, in the final pre-expo month, a kind of advent calender, counting down the weeks as the expo approached. The enduring weekly organic box, the milkman and the local bakery got me through.
Nothing to eat, there's fruit! There's bread, and there's 'this thing I found in the bottom of the chest freezer' AND lovely choco squares, what more do you want?

The day after (the expo) my hubby was attempting to stab open a bent tin of corned beef with a variety of implements including kitchen scissors, and we found ourselves getting a lttle hysterical, some of the contents wound up on the floor.

Thankfully sanity and menu diversity are now restored, the asda man cameth.

By the end of the week I'm aiming towards wearing less mad things as I catch up with the laundry, and possibly, if the wind is in the right direction, working out what to do next.

I'll keep you posted.

Peter Greenaway at 48 Hour Film Festival

2010-09-26T03:20:00.000-07:00

Peter Greenaway speaks at 48Hour Film Project Machinima 2010 from Chantal Harvey on Vimeo.

I must admit I was a little wary about watching this after reading various comments around the machinima blogosphere, and after listening, I think that a fun community event maybe wasn't the best arena to air these particular sentiments.

However, taken a little out of that context he makes a lot more sense than I imagined.

Cinema has become mostly homogenised into a style format which originated in Hollywood and is focused a great deal towards making money. The Hollywood format is text based, and often utilises exisitng popular works of literature.

His theory seems to be that the new media are copying the old styles of working, and his personal vision is to see more visually based storytelling which thoroughly exploits the potentials present in new media (he seems to have said elsewhere something about non linear storytelling as it comes up in people's comments but not here)

He says he likes a fight, and encourages debate, and that doing and showing is better than telling.

My response?

Is cinema dead?

I doubt conventional media is dead. I did think that when I first encountered Machinima though, I've mellowed out a bit since.

Are machinimators pursuing experimental non-linear story telling techniques?

Yes (well we are at Pineapple and we can't be that unique surely?) Non-linear visual storytelling is hugely popular and driven by video games. I must admit it has taken me a while to get a grasp on this idea, though Mike has been pursuing it for a long time, but then he had 30 years to get to grips with Cinema. It has also taken me quite a while to find video games which I like.

Is there an audience for experimental machinima?

No (or at least the audience is tiny), but the good thing is that some of what was once experimental eventually becomes mainstream by various stages.

Will Peter be good for machinima?

I hope so. I'd like to meet him anyway.

Kate

What Are You Up To Pineapple?

2010-09-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

Back in January 2008, our first blog post read;

By the end of 2008 the first Pineapple full length feature film should be rendered, posted and hopefully available for public view.
This blog is a record of the ups and downs along the way...
So where are we now?

In the middle of 'short test film 2', working title 'voices'.
This film uses an Anymation approach, centred around Moviestorm and Iclone.
Our schedule suggests the end of February for completion, to coincide with the submission deadline for the Bitfilm Festival.

This test has been our first use of a live actor (thanks Doug :) ) and a more in depth use of the iclone prop animations.

More news to follow.

..and then in 2009

Pineapple Vlog March 2009 from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

So what happened to those films?

Did we faff about, make a few sets and give it up as a bad job? Did we hit one brickwall too many, did we get distracted, did we scale down and do other projects instead?

We did all of those things, and between us wrote four full length movie scripts.

The faffing, the changes of plan, the engine switches all of those took time, but were taking us in the right direction to make the movie (Movie 1, see the 2008 reference above)
We worked out that because of the rapidly changing technology it would work better to make ten minute segments, and maybe redo earlier sections once complete, to make them match, and to misquote the Six Million Dollar man prologue 'we had the technology we could build it'.

So around May time this year we had everything we needed to begin and so it was crunch time.

Faced with an actual start date, and the means to begin, Mike found himself utterly conflicted. To his surprise he discovered that he was no longer interested in making movies. Along the way he had discovered fascinating new virtual worlds, and like his pioneer ancestors, he found the urge to 'go west' and explore this new digital continent overwhelming.

The unexpected virtual lands contained possibilities he could not have previously imagined, and he found himself immersed in learning about open source software, and becoming involved in creating his own virtual spaces. The old world of movie making could not compete, he'd been there and done that, and while working hard towards new goals can be a pleasure, simply reusing old skills can seem tiresome in comparison.

..and yet, he knew he loved working as Pineapple, the Kate Mike mix seemed to produce something that neither could achieve by themselves.

Around that time I was asked by Phil Rice and Ricky Grove if I might consider helping out with the Machinima Expo in a more formalised way. (I'd always been around in the background helping out, as many people have been & still are). The timing was perfect, as Mike and I were unsure what to do next, and I imagined being an executive producer would be demanding, not something I could have taken on at the same time as being in full production flow.

Feeling that the pressure was off a little, Mike and I decided that we would allow ourselves to work on whatever sidelines arose and see where it would take us. We extended our organic film production ethos to our development path as creators. This felt like a time when we needed to take parallel routes, and hope we might meet up along the way.

I knew I needed to be more involved in the community than working in Open Sim would allow, and Mike need to uncover new skills that had been hidden behind years of Film Producing.

In the meanwhile I decided to tackle the modder's workshop in Moviestorm, and found content creation to be a very rewarding path.

Mike and I are finding recently, via our meandering routes, that we occasionally nearly meet up, find diverse paths in a Wonderland Garden way leading back to the same spot. The other day, I very nearly, with Mike's help, got an standalone Open Sim working on my PC..it was running but I couldn't log into it. I'm finding Mike is now setting off down routes which I find myself wanting to follow..whereas previously I would have simply felt overwhelmed. In a few months I may press the start button and it will all work as it should.

Mike and I met as Beta software testers, he is now working mostly with Alpha (pre-beta) software, whereas I have headed off for the more stable shores of well established Open Source programs. As the technology advances and becomes more stable, our areas of interest start to overlap again. We're dredging different waters but we're finding the same treasure.

I hate not to do what I say I will do, and part of me still has 'full length movie' on my to do list, but it may be that 'interactive story telling' may be the format, instead of classic linear film.

Some days I'm not sure what I'm doing, just bent over following a trail of breadcrumbs which appear to lead somewhere. Mike and I kind of know we'll bump heads at some point, but we're not sure where. We've heard each other in the undergrowth a few times lately.

I never did learn patience as I grew older, I just learned to distract myself with more things, so I would notice the impatience less. Experience has taught me that indirect routes often turn out to be quicker in the end.

Kate

Dragon*con

2010-08-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!

Sounds like fun! If you are in Atlanta next weekend, September 3–6th then why not pop into the machinima side-show. The comedy section is;
When: 8:30-10pm Saturday, September 4th
Where: Sheraton Hotel, Savannah Room (MMO Track room)

Pineapple's Film 'The Unexpected' will be shown as well as Phil Rice's Google Stooge and many others.

Machinima on TV - for Boyz or Granz ?

2010-08-20T00:52:00.001-07:00

“Machinima will be a global mulitplatform programming brand whose central focus continues to be on high-end interactive entertainment,” DeBovoise

Read more here;
http://news.tubefilter.tv/2010/08/17/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-machinima/

Fresh from raising another $9 million in funding this summer, Machinima.com is setting it sights beyond conquering YouTube. DeBevoise is setting a course for true multiplatform domination, extending the network’s brand into TV and film. Case in point, the company teamed up with TV production studio Reveille this spring to create an entirely machinima-based TV pilot, Heel for FOX. The project is being written by Simpsons writer Chris Cluess as part of a broader development deal announced last year with 15 veteran TV writers working on machinima projects for the company.

I'm not against people wanting to make money , but there is something grindingly depressing about chasing after the young male gamer market with Machinima productions, and DeBovoise hasn't managed it yet,

the company plans to reach profitability sometime next year in 2011

You'd think it 'ought to work', boys like games, boys buy games, boys watch game films on youtube, look at the viewing figurrrrres!
(though m.com claim a 20% female market share, all watching sims/wow movies or wearing Life of Brian beards?)

There;s a (slight?) issue that the boys are not watching tv, fox or otherwise, maybe FOX thinks this is a way of luring them back, watch youtube on tv, you know it make sense!

Here's my 'what do I know anyway' prediction.

Machinima on tv will work for those people already watching tv, middle aged sofa slumpers who want something a little different after a tiring day at work, or caring for kids / relatives. I have nothing against this group, I belong to it.

In order to succeed it needs to look better for less effort. Currently making machinima is like putting kittens in a basket, concentrating on one aspect means letting go of something else.

Extraordinary people do manage to tick all the boxes, but what they make is also extraordinary, and usually art, and therefore not really suitable for viewing between wiping jam off the dog and shouting abuse at phone spammers.

There are lots of machinima films which are already at least as good as stuff which is on tv, but by the time somebody has discouraged a door-knocker wishing to pave their drive, and found a wet-wipe to clean their glasses these short films would have flashed past.

I repeat, in order to succeed machinima needs to look better for less effort. That way, one or two people can make twelve hour long episodes, and if someone falls asleep they can easily rewind and find out where they were.

In order to succeed machinima needs to look better for less effort (am I repeating myself now?) This would open up machinima production to a wider group of people, and make things possible which aren't now.

Yes, machinima will succeed on the net, but for tv, it needs to look better for less effort (is there an echo in here?)

I'm sure Mr DeBovoise's movies will look lovely, but quite a lot of money, and effort will have been used, and not particularly in the right direction, and in a highly competitive market with highly volatile consumers. (hey what do I know?)

We need Granny machinima, and we need it now.

MrDB has it all upside down.

Fitzcarraldo and the Ocelot in the Shed

2010-07-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Fitzcarraldo

I'd never heard of this film, and watched it on BBC4 due to a process of elimination, we're not watching that, that, that or that, let's try this for ten minutes before the other thing is on.
Anyhoo quite some time later, on the edge of seats..they what..they chopped a tree down, in the Amazon rain forest??? The tree was quite minor compared to the wholesale destruction that followed.
My brain didn't know how to process this film, it looks real? What are they doing now..dragging a paddle Steamer up a mountain?
How, why, what?
How did this happen?
This film felt like it was something different, in a way that is hard to explain. I found it startling.

Kate

New Tricks

The episode in which Eric Syke's dog is eaten by an ocelot, and Amanda Redman interviews suspects wearing a floppy hat. The the most bizarre detective series plot I have ever seen. Why did this nonsensical idea work at all, where was the reality? Maybe in the characters of the detectives, based on those of the actors themselves?

I seem, at the moment, to be wondering which elements of film allow us to suspend disbelief, and enjoy the 'ride'. Fitzcarraldo seemed anchored in mud and 'unprettyness', the film made a literal scar in the landscape.

Real Amazonian forest, and top class actors interacting with each other..how can we as machinimators compete with that?

Either of these dramas just wouldn't have worked in machinima. There's no point hauling a pretend boat up a mountain, and the plot holes would have sung out in a virtual 'New Tricks'.

Where can a machinima drama, or comedy, anchor itself? Where can the reality be found on which the fantasy can be built?

Jump.wmv

2010-06-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Note, I messed around with some filters to get a softer effect.

The old zencub3d program has relaunched as Voovees Director, woo hoo!
http://voovees.com/

There's a free render size limited trial available and this program is easy to pick up.

Check out this forum link to see what users made with the previous version.

Asset importer coming soon for paying customers.
Love it!

4-frame photo-booth theater

2010-06-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

Billy 'zencub3d' Chang and Denise Wu, I find something so appealing about this sequence, maybe the expressions?
Maybe it's a tribute to the iconic american gothic painting?

Hogs and Normals

2010-06-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

HOG? Hidden Object Game, any game were you travel around a virtual landscape solving puzzles and picking up items which can be used elsewhere.
These games are usually not time limited, and if anyone has a gun I haven't seen it yet.
As nothing moves very fast the graphic quality can be really high, even on middle range systems. They are often Flash based and have a different feel to 3d shoot 'em ups.
There's usually a story, mostly a daft story, but even so this is a narrative form.
My hubby and I spent over twenty hours working our way through Dire Grove (see screenshot above).
The game is set in a fantasy village in North Yorkshire, an area which is very familiar to us. It might be more accurate to say that the game is set in a fantasy North Yorkshire, a place where the locals find it useful to build ice-fishing huts next to their timber covered bridges, and have cupboards full of american footballs.
Anyway, anachronisms aside, we enjoyed this game. It is beautiful to look at, and pays attention to connecting the player tasks in a logical way.
Part of the story takes place via film clips of live actors, which is innovative, but didn't quite work for many reasons, but it was quite possible to ignore that stream of information, most of the time. It might appeal to a younger audience who aren't distracted by continually changing camera angles on a home video supposedly filmed live.
We found fault, but in the same way we find fault with silly detective series on tv, while still enjoying them for their entertainment value.
The game cost me £7, which worked out at roughly 30p an hour.

Normals? Texture maps in 3d games. Imagine an orange without any bumps, now think how much rendering power it would take to create a bumpy natural looking orange in real time. Normal maps fake that bumpiness, they are an applied texture which give the appearance of being 3d.
Back in the old days, when I was modding in the Sims, we used bump maps, like normals but simpler. Bump maps heightmaps applied to surfaces, and the information is stored in a greyscale image file, easily edited in a graphics program such as paint, or photoshop.
Normals don't like being edited directly, they sulk, they whinge, they refuse to cooperate.
Bumps maps are three dimensional, they record the height of a bump and it's location on a texture map in 2D.
Normals are five dimensional, like Picasso they look at everything from three directions at once and map that on a 2D space. It makes them a bit inward looking, unstable and sensitive to critisism. Need to get rid of a little something...smudge, what's the harm?
No, the normal refuses to cooperate entirely, before you know it the thing has left for a three month trip to a swiss clinic to take the air and get over the barbaric treatment of having its pixels tweaked.
There are tutorials, others claim they have methods which tame the awkward beasts, renormalise, split the channels, edit each half of the spectrum separately they chirp, showing helpful diagrams of waveforms and warning about the blue channel.
You just don't understand me, the normal wails, as I flail around in the nvidia control panel hoping for the best.

So why bother? Some part of me believes that texture is the key to elevating indie machinima beyond the basic blockiness we have become used to.
Machinima depends on fakery, faking the light, like in conventional painting.

Normal wrangling is key, and the tools need to be free, or not enough people will attempt it.

Nvidia have made a start with their free plugins but....I wish there were more accurate ways of combining maps, without a degree in physics, or splashing out on a top dollar 3d program.

Crazy bump is favoured by many, but it is still £50 dearer than free, and if you want to sell your mods you're looking at the commercially licensed version which would eat into your film budget even more.

Normal maps are the latin verse of 3D work, you need to be part of the church of 3DS Max to manipulate them. They are a barrier that lies between machinimodders and a world of beautiful textures.

Flash games don't use normals, they are 2D static images faked to feel like 3D...the artists can just 'paint' and fake it. I wish we could.

I finally subscribed to Moviestorm

2010-05-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

Mike's been away on vacation for the last couple of weeks and left me making my first steps with Moviestorm's modder's workshop.
If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that we'd made the decision to leave that program to one side completely, in order to make progress with our 'big movie' in second life.
We've spent several years gathering the resources together, learning the skills and working out practicalities. The script is written, and we've proved to ourselves that we can film in virtual reality. So what am I doing in Moviestorm?

I've been asking myself that very question over the last few weeks.

On a practical, day to day level, I've been learning to use the modder's workshop. The community written wiki made it possible to work through tasks slowly, without having to ask continual questions. User created tutorials, such as Shirley martin's guide to clothes retexturing make a huge difference. The MS staff plays a large part, answering questions and giving encouragement. Fellow 'modders' have new ideas, inspire different thought directions, and comment on work uploaded, all these things are vital.

Maybe the biggest boost to my confidence has been having the opportunity to work with John Herd, known as Primaveranz, and one of the most active forum members in the Storm community.

'Prima' is talented modeller, he knew that he struggled with textures, whereas I much prefer to spend my time messing around with pattern, colour and texture. I had planned to do a few 'wallpapers', but with John's help I managed much more.

The above content was the result of that collaboration and you can download the pack in this thread on the Moviestorm website.

Kate

Can video games ever be art?

2010-04-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

You can read the original post if you like, it's here
I don't know who Ebert is, but he obviously has a lot of disappointed fans. I must admit I'm not finding him that fascinating (maybe he reads better on his home turf of movie criticism?)
However some of the comments make for much better reading.

Take this one from
By D. Liev Williams

First, I'm impressed that Ebert keeps replying to posts. This is a lot to wade through, and shows he is actually interested in responses.

For many years, I thought post-modern sculpture was rubbish. Then I visited a gallery that featured nothing but carved driftwood. For whatever reason I "got it", and suddenly understood the language these sculptors are using. I found my personal Rosetta Stone for modern art, one that I never would have found it I stopped going to galleries.

The brilliance of a film is that it'a one of the most easily accessible kinds of art...the language of shadow, sound cues, facial expression, and all the rest are elements that we experience naturally.

The brilliance of video games is that the medium allow creativity and direct interaction, another natural experience.It's an involvement that simply cannot happen without being an artist yourself, and no other medium can do it. The game makers shape this experience so that the creativity is guided toward something the makers want to be experienced.

But film is not going to be appreciated until you sit down and watch some movies, a lot of them, until you find your Rosetta Stone and learn the language, like any other art.

And if someone is never going to bother learning the language, then they won't be able to tell the difference between rubbish and art, and be able to cultivate a sense of what speaks to them.

There's no video game that can compare to a poem or symphony because they are not the same. What's the film equivalent to the Iliad? Every medium has it's own unique experiences.

So I'm not at all surprised that Roger can't find an artistic game because he's never invested the effort find his Stone. That's not a problem...nobody has to like everything, and I'm one can live a full life without ever playing a game (or seeing a movie).

The only problem is believing one has a good understanding of an artistic form one has never bothered to try.

I think most games, even the 'artistic' ones mentioned in the numerous blog posts are somewhat inaccessible to me. Until there are a critical mass of games without gunz then I'm not going to have that Rosetta stone moment. I'd be very surprised if I never experience that understanding though.

I don't get the art in video games because I don't like the genres visited..I wouldn't like those genres if they were films, poems or handcrafted rugs.... though a dsystopian shoot 'em up hearth rug might be interesting from a commentary on modern culture perspective..where was I..oh yes..just because I can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.

Kate

It's finally here! New Pineapple Film - Park Tennis

2010-04-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

Park Tennis from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

Don't forget to visit the Vimeo page itself if you want the full hi-res version.

Pineapple Premiere at TMU Theatre Online

2010-04-14T02:38:00.002-07:00

Arthur is looking forward to a comfortable afternoon watching his favourite sport on the box, but things don't quite go to plan.
Did Helena sabotage the women's quarter final?
Arthur can't be sure, but when she reveals the secret headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association, he sees his chance to vent years of tennis fan frustration.

TMU Theatre link

There are two shows available;

Sunday April 18th 8:30am PST/ 11:30am EST/ 4:30pm UK

Sunday, April 18th 4:10pm PST/ 7:10pm EST/ 12:10am UK

It is exceptionally easy to attend as the Theatre runs in your browser and doesn't require any third party software.
You can then join in the live text chat, or simply watch the movie.

Mike and I will both be at the first show, and Mike is covering the later slot.

Big thanks to site owner, DL Watson, and all at The Movies Underground for hosting this event.

Kate

Star Wars Uncut - trailer released

2010-04-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

Just in case you missed it, crowd sourced fan movie site Starwars Uncut have released a trailer.

Star Wars Uncut "The Escape" from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

Fans were asked to submit 15 second clips which copied segments of the original starwars movie.
No machinima clips in this section, but as previously blogged , several members of our community have taken part.

Moviestorm or Second Life?

2010-04-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

Mike and I met as Moviestorm beta testers, around three years ago, and even though we are mostly working in virtual worlds now, we keep up to date copies of the latest updates, and we've used a few moviestorm clips in our latest film*.

Moviestorm is shifting from having a free base program, to allowing new users a 30 days free trial.
Existing free users can choose not to upgrade, and hold on to the current incarnation for so long as it continues to function.
The new deal looks like good value, and I think the team have picked the right moment to shift over to this new business model.
However, for occasional users like ourselves, this move asks for a decision.
Like many 'indie' machinimators, we'll be looking at our options.

The balance-sheets for team working work out differently to individual movie making. Every person who works on set in a moviestorm production must have the same assets as the set designer, or they can't open a movie file.
In contrast, a second life film maker can include as many co-creators as he or she likes onto their land/group access list, and permissions can be set for those helpers to move or change objects.
However, a producer using Moviestorm has the option to give MS points to collaborators, and they can then rent assets for a very low cost, just for the time needed to work on a movie. The collaborators must be active subscribers for this to work, (subscribing costs are currently not high at £4.99 per month & this already includes some MS points)
My gut feeling is that like for like, production costs are similar between second life and MS.

Props, costumes and other assets.
There are obviously more of these available within the vast selection in second life, but the props and gestures within moviestorm are all geared specifically towards movie making, though some might say..currently geared more towards blokey movie making.
Second life has a range of quality in all things, from superbly made motion cap tured animations and professional quality clothes and textures to the more casually made, and fun based creations.
As soon as time allows, the moviestorm modding community will most likely grow to cover a similar range of quality, but never in the same quantity.

Aesthetics
Most users would consider the non modded characters of second life to be rather basic looking, but, at least in still shots, the variety and sophistication of avatar looks exceeds that which is currently available within Moviestorm. The MS team are concerned about intersection, the term used to describe one object passing through another, particuarly in reference to body parts which would normally be impassable. Nearly all modded second life avatars have intersection problems, mostly due to flowing hair. Moviestorm has a more sophisticated texture system, using normal maps and specularity, second life's texture system is very basic, but extremely easy to use.

Horses for Courses?
Some creators won't see switching as an option, the link between a machinimator and their favourite engine can be much more connected to social group and other intangibles, rather than purely technical issues.

So what will we do?
I don't know yet. The Anymation approach is to choose the engine which best tells the story, but it also means choosing the engine which best suits the animators.

The soon to be released film mentioned above (*) uses second life, mostly, but includes sections made within (free)moviestorm, iclone 3, and material adapted using crazy talk 6, all chosen for their suitability for a specific task.
New engines do emerge as we go, but it looks like there is a limit to how many can be sustained financially by the current machinima community, as the demise of Antics, and the mothballing of zencub3d showed.

Software development takes time and resources, and none of the available programs can progress as fast as movie makers would like.
Maybe the answer lies in what brand of patience you like to play, or which queue-line is worth waiting in?

New users from outside the machinima community are attracted by cool features, old users are tempted to switch tracks when they see a surge in the quality of movies being produced in any of the engines. The situation looks fairly fluid to me, but that won't be how core users of each product see things I'm sure.

As software develops, and assets accrue it may become more difficult for users to switch over.
I haven't mentioned Iclone simply because I'm out of touch with developments in that program, but iclone 4 has many attractive features.
I want them all! Decisions are sometimes not that easy,

Kate

I have to tell you, I am slightly im-pressed...

2010-04-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

Watched Mike Leigh's film Happy Go Lucky this week and it's been going around and around in my head. I was more than slightly impressed, it made a big impression..

Kate

Clause in new Second Life User Agreement, relating to machinima

2010-04-02T03:53:00.000-07:00

7.4 You also grant Linden Lab and other users of Second Life a license to use in snapshots and machinima your Content that is displayed In-World in publicly accessible areas of the Service.

You agree that by uploading, publishing, or submitting any Content to or through the Servers for display In-World in any publicly accessible area of the Service, you hereby grant each user of Second Life and Linden Lab a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to photograph, capture an image of, film, and record a video of the Content, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the resulting photograph, image, film, or video in any current or future media as provided in and subject to the restrictions and requirements of our Snapshot and Machinima Policy. The foregoing license is referred to as the "Snapshot and Machinima Content License."

"Publicly accessible" areas of the Service are those areas that are accessible to other users of Second Life. If you do not wish to grant users of Second Life a Snapshot and Machinima Content License, you agree that it is your obligation to avoid displaying or making available your Content to other users. For example, you may use Virtual Land tools to limit or restrict other users' access to your Virtual Land and thus the Content on your Virtual Land.

& can I just say, wow! -Kate

The Remake

2010-03-29T02:11:00.000-07:00

Also released recently, 'The Remake', a fascinating film directed and produced by Tom Jantol, matched in quality by the musical score, specially composed by Phil Rice.
Tom is an intelligent guy, and this really shines through in the unique way in which he approaches his subject matter. Jantol's style is often designed to be flippant on the surface, allowing the viewer the choice of simply enjoying the visuals, or getting more caught up in the meaning behind the piece.
This is the first movie I've seen in which Tom appears explicitly as a character, this really worked well from my point of view.
(Do we think he looks a little like Antoine De Caunes?)
Anyhoo, here's the movie, which apparently got a great reception at its premiere in Leicester recently, and online at the excellent TMU theatre late yesterday evening.

The Remake from Tom Jantol on Vimeo.

Dagon

2010-03-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

Just in case you missed this beautiful and thought provoking film produced and directed by the very talented Machinima director, Lainy Voom.
The film is based on a short story by HP Lovecraft, and features an outstanding vocal performance by the narrator, Carlos Diaz.
Lainy has had her work exhibited in festivals and art galleries around the world, and both Mike and I find her work inspirational, pushing the boundaries of the genre.

Dagon - HP Lovecraft from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

Games with Story

2010-03-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've been playing Nancy Drew ; Treasure in the Royal Tower., or more accurately, we've been playing, as a family.
I was aware of the Nancy Drew books, but never read them, and chose to buy this game because it had good reviews, and would run on the clapped out pc we keep in our conservatory.
I'll get that critisism out of the way first, the game is a bit slow, or rather, we're a bit slow playing it, and the action is played out in virtual 3d..a series of still shots taken within a 3d environment.
That being said, I haven't enjoyed a pc game so much since we played the original Tombraider series on a creaky old PS1, and I have the same, pre-machinima, sense of possibilities opening up*.
Creaky lip synch aside, the characters work well. The dialogue isn't Shakespeare , but care has been taken to make Nancy's interactions lively, and interesting, and often funny.
There is a detailed, and intelligent backstory, which is complex enough that we need to take notes, even on 'junior detective' level.
The 'fake 3d' allows for some beautifully rendered objects and textures.
The premise of the game is solving a puzzle. Nobody gets shot, and there are very few time constraints.
I guess the experience would feel very pedestrian to someone used to the rapid movement and particle effects of shooters, but it has cheered me up tremendously.

Games don't have to be based on violence to be popular.

This one is still selling despite being pretty ancient (in digital age terms), it was released in 2002.

Kate

*for clue to possibilities, see New year post
(although knowing us, we're talking 2031 as a start date)

TMU Internet Premiere: "The Remake" by Tom Jantol

2010-03-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Jantol is an intriguing and inspiring machinimator, as his vimeo portfolio shows. Tom is a friendly and amusing guy, but a combination of long hours spent working, and an aversion to blogging and social networking means that you may not have encountered this Croatian's unique style before.
So when I saw that Tom's latest film was to be premiered on the TMU online theatre, I suspected that long time machinima enthusiast Phil Rice may have been the driving force behind the event. Alongside his filmmaking, Phil often composes music, both for his own films and for other directors, and, indeed, he has written the score for "The Remake".
The premiere has already attracted attention within the machinima community, and the livestream viewing offers a real time theatre experience, without the lag associated with large second life events.
It was wonderful to chat to DL Watson, owner and manager of the TMU online theatre . His enthusiasm shines through and I wish him every success in running these community film shows.
It will be interesting to see how the viewing framework is experienced, especially by those who haven't attended The Movies Underground events before. (TMU sprang up around the linonhead movie making game 'The Movies', but has expanded beyond that program to include a wide group of non-game machinimators)
If the format proves as successful as I suspect, then I'm hoping the TMU community might consider some rescheduling to allow easier access to these online shows.
There are very few time slots in the week which include the wider machinima community, and unfortunately midnight on Sunday night is definitely 'off-peak' for those from the UK.
Having said that, insomnia is the social glue which hold our community together, so I'm sure a few brave European souls will make it anyway!
If you can attend, I hope you will be as inspired as I have been by Tom's unique style and sensibilities.

Why are the aliens playing trombones?

2010-03-08T23:57:00.000-08:00

Close encounters of the third kind, the final scene, my son asks "why are the aliens playing trombones"?

It's complicated son. You remember the spaceships earlier on, you asked why the spaceships were just lights with lots of lens flare?
Well, in the seventies, these were what passed for special effects even in big budget movies.

We've been having a Steven Spielberg season at home, and re-watching those 'big movies' has been eye opening. The quality has shifted.

Jaws is still good. Richard Attenborough now shines past the dinosaurs in Jurassic park. There's a wonderful scene I completely missed in close encounters. One of the Dreyfuss characters children climbs into his sister's playpen and violently, and gleefully dismembers a doll.

Instead of being fascinated by the special effects, I'm seeing, and appreciating the live action.

I wonder how Avatar will be perceived in twenty year's time. Is there enough content beyond the visual spectacle? I haven't seen it yet, and if I had would probably be as dazzled now as I was in my youth, by the low frequency rumble of Close Encounter's mother ship.

Grandma, why is this holo-movie so flat and funny looking?
Well you see, back in those days......

MaMachinima International Festival - 2010

2010-02-22T04:54:00.000-08:00

Playlist of films shown now available,

Here

Satscape's capture of some events, including Chantal Harvey's opening speech

here

I'll be working my way through the playlist as there are many films I haven't seen before, and was unable to stay past the first hour on Saturday night.

The Vampyre was the first non second life made machinima to be shown in the mammoth, seven hour MMIF schedule, so I was somewhat nervous to see how a Second Life orientated audience might react, but I needn't have been concerned. All the films had an enthusiatic and warm reaction from the crowd, whatever their engine of origin.

The event had a great positive vibe, and the hosts were very welcoming and generous. I hope the MMIF will continue to grow in the future.

There seemed to be a good number of people who had attended both the MMIF and last Autumn's Machinexpo, also held in Second Life, and I'll be interested to see how these, and other events, spark off ideas for next year.

The current limit to growth for both the MMIF (and Machinexpo) seems to be lag. Worse for some than others on the night, I'd be interested to see if there are any solutions available, and how the live event organisers in Amsterdam faired with their live streaming.

Kate

Cardimation

2010-02-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

Machinima made by someone who owns, or who is actually wearing a cardigan.

More of a mind set than a technical definition, cardimators fall into two main camps, grey (Iclone) and beige (Moviestorm), with the off-shoot heretical pastels (second lifers) making a more than significant contribution.

Within these broad definitions, and often affectionately called the 'turtles', single engine cardimators tend to be loyal to their clan, and be happy with a small audience of friends viewing their work.
V-necks are more ambitious, think V for verve, entering films into festivals and setting up websites to publicise their own work.

Zip-ups are technologically minded, always looking for the next big tool which will revolutionise their work process. This group love to learn, and share that learning with others via tutorials and wikis.
The buttoned brigade are thoughtful and introspective, they take things to heart and will think before they speak.
Tie-fastened cardimators are fun loving and sociable. They seem as happy to watch other's films as make their own, and they often hang loose and remind everyone not to take themselves too seriously

Double cardis are battle scarred veterans, those who remember a life before specialist movie hacks and programs. They may wear one cardigan back to front, just in case, and then meet themselves coming backwards.

There is often confusion around definitions, and cardimator's forums are full of anxious queries about tabard wearing, and the sociological significance of button faced velcro, will it catch on?

What about the festivals? Can cardimators hope to compete artistically with sweater wearers? Should ponchos be reconsidered in the context of greater cultural awareness, and openness to new ideas?

Who knows what the future will hold. There will always be those who simply will not admit the validity of anything other than mustard yellow fair-isle with a raglan sleeve, and others whose last suitable garment was savaged by a pack of slavering hyenas, but who still consider themselves died in the wool cardigan wearing machinimators.

The boundaries of any creative environment are always difficult to determine. It is inherent to the nature of artists and writers to want to break through perceived barriers. This is, after all, what keeps our medium fresh, vibrant and alive.

Maybe the time has come to revisit the wardrobe, assess whether the moths really have nibbled away at our very identity, and renew ideas about ribbon yarn and the benefits of mixed fibres in tropical climates.

Will we throw off our woollies, or more confidently say '*** it', I don't care if it the world appears to think front fastening cosy garments are uncool? I like cardigans, I like wearing cardigans and I am a cardimator!

Machinima is dead, long live machinima

2010-02-04T00:26:00.000-08:00

The word machinima was a mistake, a misread word in an email sent from Anthony Bailey to Hugh Hancock.
Nevertheless the term served a purpose, so it stayed around.
Then when machinima.com completed the split from its founders, and headed off into the parallel universe in which it now resides, there was a renewed feeling of 'us and them' within the community.

This kind of bifurcation has happened many times before.
It's not real machinima if,
1) it is rendered video, rather than a game mod.
2) it isn't made in MY engine.
3) you don't capture in real time

At the moment the debate focuses on,
'Is a movie still machinima if it isn't made in the same way as game mach?'. See Phil Rice's blog entry and comments for an example of reflections on this (and other) ideas.
This time instead of gamers making that claim, the thought comes from non-game filmmakers.

The films that Mike and I create in second life (and open sim) come closer to the game machinima work-route than the process of making movies in Iclone and Moviestorm. By the time I started making sims movies, the movie enabling mods available meant that the experience had already drifted some distance from classic notions of machinima creation. I haven't experienced the jarring shift that movie makers, like Pixel Eyes, have noticed, switching directly from classic game capture to the more recently developed animation tools.

As I've become more involved within the machinima community as a whole, the unifying 'M' word has come to have satisfying connotations. I like the contradictions, they are part of the whole.
I love the geeky, contradictory, argumentative, surprising and ever expanding world of Machinima.

I probably never really was a machinimator, in the way that word was originally intended, and yet I've become one anyway. The term generously expanded to include me.

I support those who would like a more positive forename for the branch of mach which centres around Moviestorm/Iclone. 'Indie' Machinima? Can we drop the apostrophes now? Can we acknowledge the family history without feeling we're getting sucked back into something which we have grown away from?

Is the parent really as scary as the revisited father in this wonderful film? (thanks to Ricky Grove for finding this)

Who's afraid of the big , bad wolf? I find I'm not, not anymore.
It isn't often that I'm mistaken for a fourteen year old boy recording'shoot 'em ups' in my spare time, and the rare occasion that does happen is cause for amusement all round.

Being who we are means acknowledging all of who we are, and we are both unique and also part of the machinima family.

Defining Machinima 2

2010-01-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

Machinmators generate digital animation in a variety of ways,

They render 2d footage from a virtual 3d environment, such as a game, virtual world, or specialised machinima program.
Character, prop and camera animations can be manipulated in real time using game type inputs, or partly or fully preprogrammed.
Most machinima film-makers then edit and reorganise the captured footage to create an artistic sequence, or storyline.
They may at this time add sound effects, and post-process the footage visually, either to alter the appearance of the whole film or to introduce specific effects.

As technologies merge, it becomes more difficult to distinguish absolutely between a machinima and CGI (computer generated imagery) work path. Previous distinctions, such as whether footage is captured live, or preprogrammed then rendered out, no longer apply.
It may be more accurate to say that 3d digital animation is a continuum, and that there is considerable overlap between output that is generally considered to be Machinima, and film made in programs which are classically defined as producers of 'CGI'.
A tension exists between the practical needs of academics and archivists to classify cultural phenomenon, and the dynamic need for the Machinima community to define itself in its own terms.
Whilst film festival entry criteria are often seen as an absolute arbitor of what can and cannot be considered machinima, these criteria actually reflect what is considered to be a general community view, and change over time.

So what makes us think we are machinimators? When we see film-makers describe themselves using that term, what is it that we recognise? What are the mechanisms for determining the boundaries of what is, and is not machinima, and why is it that some determinations are more abiding than others?

I find Richard Dawkins as irritating as a plastic bag stuck in a fence, but his concept of memes might be useful here, or rather the general approach of looking at cultural phenomena in evolutionary terms.
The current understanding of the term Machinima works. How do we know this? Because it survives, and it survives because it works!

How is it working, what is the word doing? How is defining the films we make as Machinima useful to us? What are we gaining from using that label that outweighs the difficulties? What is it about the word machinima which defines our identity as a group in a more satisfying way than simply being digital animators? What is it, exactly, that we fight for and defend? - Kate

How To Define Machinima

2010-01-18T04:53:00.000-08:00

How To Define Machinima
After mulling over this

In what context?
Let's say a magazine article aimed at your average reader.
How many words can we have?
Let's say a paragraph, followed by a strapline.

Paragraph could be.

Machinima (machine-cinema*) is a form of animation which began as collated screen captures from video games, and developed, as specialist tools were developed, into animation made using games technology.
Machinima is defined as much by it's online social context as by any particular genre or technology used. Generally created by amateurs, working alone or in small teams, the films tend to be short, eg 3-8 minutes and are designed to be viewed on video sharing sites.
Whilst skilled practitioners are able to bend the technology to imitate most other types of animation, in general these films can be recognised by their 'video game' like appearance.
Existing as part of a network of online communities, machinima films cover a huge variety of forms and topics, varying from documentaries, drama and art films to almost unaltered game footage.
Being cheap to use, and in many cases, easy to learn, machinima has opened up the possibility of film creation to anyone with a medium range pc and internet access.
Commentators see the machinima movement as an integral part of the digital media revolution.

Machinima is film for all.

* insert the usual Hugh thing here :)

Kate

Moviestorm Base Contest Entries

2010-01-13T01:07:00.000-08:00

Tiberius Kenneth Desdomona the 27th*, felt that the best way to prove the free version of Moviestorm really could make movies, was to show rather than tell. So began the Basecontest .
Using only assets from the free moviestorm base pack, and a month to complete, entrants were free to work in any genre, adding only sound, or flat images to 'picture' objects within the program. No modding, no post processing and only very simple editing methods were allowed.

I find the results very interesting and varied.
The film genres span comedy, slapstick, sci-fi, drama, fantasy and surrealism.
Some used stock, or simple sets and focused on dialogue, others seemed to use as many stock sets and base assets as could be fitted into one story!
A few found the challenge of creating new sets from a restricted set of parts more of a fun challenge.
'Doing what you're not supposed to be able to do' is a tendency that runs deep within the Mach community.

If you have time to watch all the entries and would like to vote, you need to be a member of the Moviestorm forum, and visit this thread. There are two further prizes, one chosen by founder Matt Kelland, and another by TDK27, the community member (see above*) who is running the event. these should be announced after close of voting next Tuesday, 19th January.

Check out this previous post for my reflections on using the Moviestorm inhouse editor for The Vampyre, my entry for this competition.

The Vampyre

2010-01-10T06:06:00.000-08:00

Mike and I took a break from our ongoing projects over the Christmas holidays, and took the chance to catch up, Mike with his research, while I made some short movies.
The following film was made within the rules of the Moviestorm base contest, using only the assets provided in the free version of that program.

I started out using much more complex sets, and as I became more involved found I wanted to concentrate more on the character. Ricky's voice acting being strong enough to remain the main focus.
This was my first successful use of the MS internal editor, which, while basic has come a long way since the original beta version. The huge advantage is in being able to tweak scenes and have the results appear instantaneously within the final cut. Another benefit was that the film only needed to be rendered once, as opposed to rendering out each scene/camera angle and then re-editing (and re-rendering) within an external editor. These is a time saver and improves quality.
Thirdly I was actually able to use the sound effects straight from Moviestorm, footsteps, the sound of a punch etc, due to codec troubles I have struggled in the past to use these assets.
Additionally I had less problems with the lip synch and audio track drifting apart..as often happens in my external editor.
The editor is very basic, but it does now work properly,and the features are due to be expanded shortly.
I struggled with the lip synch at times, on occasions the lips didn't close, but moved while open, and no amount of adjustment to the settings seemed to affect this.
The internal lighting to the mouth looked a little weird against my low ambient backlighting.
I would have benefited from a facility to 'kill' the spontaneous gestures scene by scene, rather than having to set these on or off for the whole film.
Overall, Moviestom is really coming on, and the functioning of the base pack is a good guide to the usability of the whole program.

Small Inspirations

2010-01-06T00:24:00.000-08:00

Did you watch the sky 1 season of ten minute tales ?

The biggest names in writing, acting and directing come together in a series of shorts on Sky1 HD this festive period. Experience a novel Noel with these original, uplifting and highly creative slices of silent cinema that prove actions do speak louder than words. Starring Mackenzie Crook, Bill Nighy, Peter Capaldi, Ross Kemp, and a host of major stars, each of the 10 Minute Tales promises to be a unique and engaging look at life, loss, and love.

I found these to be something of a revelation.
Each drama is without explicit dialogue, and is limited to ten minutes airtime.
The experience, for me, was so much like watching (very good) machinima movies.
I found myself thinking strange things like 'these live film machinimators have more gestures than we do', or, 'what a great shopping centre set'.
We were all wondering, way back when machinima.com were planning to get unemployed hollywood writers to create monetised mach series, how these would turn out, would it have been something like this?*

I recommend that you try and see these if you can. There some wonderful examples of story economy, painting back-stories in a few images, creating a sense of time passing.
Most of the time it is new writers who are let loose on short format films, but in this case experienced scripters are given the challenge, and they bring their large story big picture back into the small film. I think all the writers were brave to expose the bones of their skill in this way..it is very helpful, and refreshing.

**spoilers**

It doesn't all work, they make the same mistakes we do, which is comforting. Neil Gaiman's Statuesque is original but misses something to make it complete, the 'duck man''s ending is a little flat (but his beginning is one of the most engaging and challenging).
One could have had writer Jorge Campos tacked onto and credits and my only reaction would have been 'another goodie from him then'.
The Timothy Spall character's story felt nearest to 'Pineapple', to me anyway.

I have one left to watch. So far there is nothing 'Voomy', or Phil Rice like. I think they would need more budget, and a bit more bravery to get into a Lainy Voom groove. Budget, and an english leaning would be a factor in the lack of 'Riceyness' I think. There was no Hardy Capoesque shot at midnight ambiguity either (probably because this was a Christmas event)

As a whole, these five live shorts represent a much higher consistency of quality than we as a machinima community could produce. In a year we might come up with one that comes close, but then these are professional productions made with a team of experienced actors, writers and directors.

James Cameron's Avatar is so out of reach that it isn't helpful in terms of something to aim at. This sky1 productions are a different flavour of beast.
We can do this chaps, we can you know!

Kate

*Did that ever happen I've lost track?.

Star Wars Uncut

2010-01-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard of this project it is well worth a look.
Here's what creator Casey Pugh has to say;

This is kind of how Star Wars: Uncut came to be. While working at Vimeo, I was toying around with the idea of creating a collaborative tool for film makers and using it to create a film. A tool that would help organize the film crew, actors, assets, etc. This tool would most likely be very complicated to build, so my brain automatically defaulted to the common denominator. Think of the easiest way to create a feature-length film. Split a movie into pieces and crowd-source it.

There are many permutations and evolutions of this model that could be greatly beneficial to the film community. I think this specific model has been most useful to budding film makers who are finding a creative outlet and even their fifteen seconds of fame.

Of course there are the usual issues that machinimators know only too well,

Given the current rate of uploads, it should all wrap up by December hopefully. Comicon has helped me initiate talks with Lucasfilm to see how plausible it is to create DVDs despite the legal nightmare.

Casey Pugh

It isn't possible to say how close the film is to being finished. Each participant has 30 days to complete and there's just been a big take up of the last bits and pieces. Most people who volunteer don't manage to finish (or start probably) but even so the project looks 'nearly there'. Not sure what the plans are for sorting through multiple entries. It seems like the site allows up to four people to claim each clip & some fragments have up to four versions uploaded.

There's the expected spattering of live action dudes in white dressing gowns and stop motion animated lego, but some participants have made completely surprising contributions. Many are wonderfully funny, and all seem to express an underlying love of the film.

I must thank Phil Rice for inspiring me to have a go,

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 386 from Phil Rice on Vimeo.

and Bigg's Trek for his timely and hilarious reminder.

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 430 from Phil Browne on Vimeo.

Any other machinima contributions we know of?

Here's mine, made using zencub3d. I padded out the assets & backgrounds using generated media from sony vegas, filtered with newbluefx (all the floors & most of the walls were generated in the editor as zencub3d is short of props in its current beta form, roll on Vovees, zencub3d's next incarnation!)

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 015 from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

Would this crowd-sourcing approach work for a film with which we weren't already familiar? I don't think so, too confusing for the audience, but for a well known classic, it's an inspired idea.
It isn't susprising that scene 15 was one of the last to be taken, it isn't a memorable section and the tiny clip had four different sets and around thirty characters.
I chopped out some of the extras and it took me around ten hours to make, a live shoot would have taken a lot longer.
It is obvious that many participants devoted weeks to setting up their scenes and invested much love and attention to the results. I have really enjoyed watching these tiny films..checkout the tag Star Wars Uncut on Vimeo to get a sample of what's been made.
The link with Vimeo is well polished, and the whole set up is impressive.

Currently there's only 1 scene free to try, but as participants are limited to 3 scenes each, and the deadline is automatically enforced I suspect more free scenes will appear shortly.
Why not have a go?

Kate

late edit:

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 451 from Darth Angelus on Vimeo.

Pineapple Jottings

2010-01-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

Some serious, some less so!
Happy New Year

A Heartwarming Christmas Tale

2009-12-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

Results of mucking about with Moviestorm for a bit :)

A Heartwarming Christmas Tale from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

Bicycles and bells.

2009-12-15T05:03:00.000-08:00

As a student, my morning blurry-eyed walk passed a well-frequented bicycle rack.
In the three years I trudged to class, I observed an arms race in cycle security.
The simple chain and padlock being replaced by steel bars, alarms while some ingenious students took to arriving each day with a tool kit, so as to remove saddles or handle bars, hoping to fox all but the most determined thieves.
Those learners with a legal mindset took to reclaiming the cost of their lost transport from the purveyors of so called 'unbeatable hardened steel nobody can saw through this guaranteed' security bars.
The talk in the sandwich bar often revolved around the latest device, claiming invulnerability to welding equipment (my memory fails me as to what eventually happened to those bikes whose owners, a) lost the key, or b) forgot the combination)
The application of brainpower was immense and took on a competitive edge..he who retained the most expensive bike unmolested won kudos amongst his peers.
Amongst this testosteroney furore, my morning-fogged mind took some time to notice another vehicle, left casually amongst the shining egowheelers.
A lady's, small-wheel, slightly rusted folding bicycle, often propped casually against a wall, sometimes left by a bench. Once I saw the same odd vehicle left in the middle of a busy plaza, the rushing crowd parting around it like an invisible rock in a stream.
One morning, by some chance I arrived early enough to catch the owner.
A slightly portly young man, with a startling ginger handlebar moustache wobbled around the corner, propped up his eccentric transport on a fence post and sauntered off towards the nearest lecture theatre.
I watched in astonishment, until I was asked to move by a sweating youth dismantling his sparkling roadster in order to skewer all the parts onto the latest 'invented by NASA' anti-theft device.
Who was that? I asked.
Simon.
Simon who kept the same bicycle for three years, and never had a hint of anyone trying to make off with it.
Simon who once took great pleasure in sliding undetected, SAS style across a foyer in order to post a frozen two-pence piece down the top of my pixie boots just to see what I would do.
Simon, who seemed, outside any kind of logic or common sense to be continually surrounded by women, and who, by the clever tactic of forming a university Morris Dancing troupe, found a way to negotiate student life without once having to buy a drink.
I wound up hanging with the Morris Men, they were all rather interesting.

I had occasion to think of Simon this week, when the wheel of my somewhat scruffy, but not actually embarrassing bike deteriorated from barely functional to 'people pointing at it in the street'. Due to the Christmas period, and general lack of time repair was not an option, and I was forced to fall back on one of the spare bikes dominoed into our garage.
I then had the choice between emptying out all the junk in order to get to the best one out from the back, using a child's bike or getting the nerve up to risk the remaining model, a mechanical nightmare designed to look a bit like a very flashy expensive mountain bike, but failing to complete the illusion due to bits of flailing plastic and general tryingtoohardblinginess.
It goes without saying that no mudguards or carrier were supplied. I had to strap my wicker basket onto the handlebars with bungee cord, and festoon myself with balance endangering shoulder bags for the rest.
Luckily the last user had left the monstrosity in a manageable gear, as I couldn't face the learning curve required to change the ratios. So long as I didn't mind pedallingreallyfast sometimes, and r-e-a-ll-y slow at others, and could put up with the motion sickness inducing bounce induced by the looksjustliketheexpensiveoneinthecatalogue split frame, I was fine.
Apart from the embarrassment of course.

So what does this have to do with Machinima? (this being a machinima blog and all)

I guess the question I am asking myself is, to what extent are the technical and artistic decisions we make driven by ego.
Is it sometimes more important to be RIGHT than for things to be right?
Are there other ways of doing things, which might be dismissed by the general crowd?
Are there times when technological arms races are just that, unwinnable expensive and exhausting?
Just how much Chutzpah do you need to be a ginger moustachioed Morris dancing cross-gender cyclist in a world full of uptight competitive, trying to be soocool students?

Outside of machinima, in world of big budget film, 3d, the latest most detailed motioncapture, expensive crew and equipment..is this the only way to win? Are we allowed to question those rules?
How much ego would we need to put aside in order to find another way forward, and if we could do that, would the result be more..interesting? -Kate

Thoughts on the new Moviestorm subscription

2009-12-01T04:35:00.000-08:00

It has taken me a week to think through the new Moviestorm subscription system to the point where I understand where they are coming from.
I've had many reactions in common with those posting over at the Moviestorm forums, and have written and deleted forum posts and blog posts here, having realised whilst writing that what I was saying made no sense.
I can empathise with one friend, who said after reading so many opinions he didn't know what he thought any more.

So what do I think?
I'm not subscribing (for now). In the end, the thing that mattered most was the moviestorm modshop. I don't find it easy to use compared with, say, creating new items in Open Sim.
In addition, my organisational skills are such that I don't really want to manage a whole host of user generated mods with potentially different licenses, so the advantage of being able to load mods made by others isn't a big draw at the moment.
I have quite a few of the content packs, so the discount isn't the attraction it could be in the future.
My thoughts are to wait a year, use the free version, and see then if the evidence suggests that the modshop has improved significantly.

If this sounds like I'm 'down' on Moviestorm that isn't my intention. The free version works really well and is a complete bargain. I admire the crew's determination to innovate, both in terms of their program and their business plan. I certainly admire the movies that the best of the moviestorm community produce, and these have deservedly won many accolades and awards this year.

If this time next year there is a similarly costed scheme in place, and the modder's workshop had been developed significantly the Moviestorm subscription would seem like a really good deal.

If, at that time, a brave modder had proved able to deal with the continual updates, produced content of high quality, and was offering goods with the same license as MS offical addons then it would seem reasonable to pay similar prices (proportionally) to those on offer at MS.

However, there is a caveat to all this. In the time it takes Moviestorm, and modders to get to this point other engines will have also developed new features, stability and extra content.

I don't envy the guys their continual balancing act, but I certainly wish them well. I rejoice in those MS users who use the program to create both grown up drama and wonderful comedy.

I look forward to the explosion of colour that is likely to happen as soon as the shadows are fixed (just in case you were wondering why the pros all seem to going for the 'filmed at midnight' look, its because it hides the pixelated shadows which are a problem on larger sets due to the resolution of the shadow map)

Users always find ways round problems, and no machinima engine is issue free (our open sim has the somewhat major problem of only working half the time just now). There are others whose creative path is not as interrupted by the current state of the modding system (it is afterall easier than modding a game which was never intended to be modded)
The Moviestorm cameras are a joy to work with, the props produced in-house are high quality, and apart from the distraction of occasional weird hair-styles, the characters are human and expressive.
The lip synch works really well, and the community is healthy and growing, with many willing to voice act and help out when others get stuck.

Moviestorm will rock on without me, and I'll keep dropping in and trying stuff out to see where they are at.

The stormers are a very important part of the indie machinima scene.

Kate

A Tale of Two Aunties

2009-11-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

Second life can be such a beautiful place and it's easy for me to forget just how much time, love and effort have been invested by creators in order to create that effect.
The pain, doubts and false starts in any creative craft aren't that obvious when we only come in contact with a finished product.
The costs of creating aren't on show.

Likewise with so many of the wonderful films collected together at the expo.
"Why haven't we made something with the open sim yet??!!" I may quite possibly have whined at Mike, once or twice, possibly more, between attempting to shop online for non ridiculous Christmas gifts for my many nephews and nieces, who I don't see often enough to know what they like, or would find interesting.

I found myself thinking back to Christmases past and two aunties.

First of all there was Aunty X (names have been withheld just in case random relatives start trawling the blog..well you never know do you?)
We'd visit, maybe for a mince pie, and whilst not particularly paying attention I'd notice the cutlery, and afterwards mention it in passing to another relative, who would be keen to share that the knives and forks which seemed a good ten percent nicer than anything I'd seen before cost ten times as much as I'd thought possible.
Upping the 'niceness' seems like an exponential curve, both in terms of money and effort (shopping and seeking out, in X's case)
Then there was the Auntie Y.
Auntie Y had the self awareness to realise that she was unable to keep up with the trends of teenage girls, but still wanted to buy us 'something to open' for Christmas. So she bought a multitude of cheap gifts at table top fund-raisers and jumble sales, hoping that we may like at least 1 in 10 (and the dog's home/ old people's bus fund / church roof would benefit in any case)
This 'scatter' strategy sometimes really paid off.
One year, amongst the eccentric collection, we were given a large bag of plaster and a rubber mould in the shape of a seated Buddha.
For some reason known only to hormonal teens, my sister and I really took to this gift.
The rest of that holiday period was dominated by the smell of setting plaster.
We had disapointments along the way, air bubbles left heads short of a few features, a bad mix wouldn't exit the mould, leaving us to pick out the pieces, but Christmas 1976 left us with a windowsill heaving with multi-coloured miniatures of the enlightened one, several wearing fetching hats made from glued on shampoo bottle tops.
It was of course at this point that parental indulgence ran out, and we needed to find homes for our creations.
So my sister distributed them amongst her friends.
They seemed to like them.
(Not so long ago my sister recontacted an old school pal via friends reunited, whose first thought was to mention that they still had 'one of those plaster buddha things')

So what is this about?

I guess the effort required to edit round, and polish some jerky, tricky animation is exponential. Each step takes twice as much effort as the last and is ten times as dull to perform (unless you like that kind of thing, and some people DO!)
Whereas, tolerating a high failture rate, and continually trying new things can pay off in the most unexpected ways, and be a lot more fun in the process.

The failures do feel awful at times, whether in films, or any other endeavour. I guess I must believe that which Mike is always telling me..those films which sometimes seem easiest to do, which flow and are full of fun and laughter are those which are received best by others, so it is worth keep trying new things, rather than geting bogged down in perfectionism.
The best films, I think, are a joyful bag of mistakes, held together by something invisible, unknowable yet terribly important - Kate

Machinexpo 2009

2009-11-23T01:07:00.000-08:00

I was unable to capture photographs at the event, but Russell Boyd took some wonderful shots.

It is remarkable how many features of a real life event are captured in the virtual world, including the mad rush when Russell and I suddenly realised the presentation room had been changed since rehearshal..luckily we didn't have far to run!
For me anyway, it always the case that it takes a while to absorb everything that happens at these online events. Being focused on the upcoming presentation meant my concentration was poor at other people's talks, so I'm very much looking forward to catching up once the captured footage is published.
Like many others I was involved in organising small parts of the expo. Trace and I were lucky enough to be allocated a generous plot to promote the Fallopian magazine, and we committed ourselves to publishing issue 2 to share at the event.
Ingrid invited me to be a participant of the Women In Machinima panel, and I was delighted that the new Euro friendly scheduling allowed me to join in that line-up this year.
I was fortunate that Russell was able to find time in his hectic filming schedule to share presenting second life as a machinima engine with me...second life in twenty minutes..oh boy not easy, and working with Russell made it such an enjoyable experience, I hope we get the chance to collaborate again.
I'm not yet fully up to speed on 'who won what' (some audio and crashing out problems for me at presentations) but congratulations to everyone who was nominated, what a fine show of talent, we can be proud.
I'm hoping to call in and catch some more films, as the expo exhibiiton will remain in place for another week, and one of the joys of these events is meeting new film-makers, both in virtual person, and through their on-screen work.
I think everyone knows how hard Phil and Ricky, and many others have worked towards making this event such a success. Even being on the fringes has occupied so much of my thoughts and focus, so for the those more central to this event, it must have simply taken over their lives for several months.
It must have been intensely stressful, especially in the first half hour when access problems meant many attendees couldn't get to the UCSVILLE island.
Glitches of all kinds are endemic to organised gatherings, and it is to the central teams' enduring credit that hitches were sorted, problems overcome and the event was able to proceed with such a degree of success.
So huge cheers to Phil Ricky, Damien, Ingrid, the UCsVILLE hosts, and all the unnamed others who built, filmed, brainstormed, designed and presented this year's expo!

Random thoughts on Machinima Programs and Virtual Worlds

2009-11-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

MOVIESTORM – ICLONE – SECOND LIFE – MACHINIMA – OH MY!

Lately I have been trying to swim through the many blogs which ask: “Do films using Moviestorm or iClone qualify as Machinima.”

Hmmm…. What about using a program like “The Movies” – granted it is a game, but it has a sort of sandbox mode which parallels very close to Moviestorm and iClone. “Game” seems to be the operative word for the Machinima definition.

What about Second Life? There are those that speak of it as a game. Since the term game has been used to describe it, then maybe films made in Second Life are ok as Machinima. Then again what about those films made in the Opensim? I don’t hear the term “game” used to describe the Opensim – so maybe those films made in the Opensim should not be allowed.

Hmmm – decisions, decisions.…

That brings me to my newest turn in the computer animation evolution process:

VIRTUAL WORLDS

The more I work with all these programs (and I’ve invested heavily in both Moviestorm and iClone – everything else like Poser, Unreal, Blender are just too dense for my old brain to handle. Plus I’m not a gamer - that is if you don’t count Pong), the more I just want to get the visual storytelling material in my hands and move onto my editing system.

My interest in how I get that visual material has lead me into the realms of Virtual Worlds. In all of these machinima creation methods, you can mirror parts of live action filmmaking. But only in Virtual Worlds you can choose to work in real time with other people. Even if you are working in a solo mode, the variables of live action filmmaking enter into the equation. Unlike Moviestorm and iClone, where the action of the puppets and camera can be repeated with mathematical precision, in a Virtual World most of the elements are sort of free flowing unto themselves. Just like real life. It seems to make the process of filming more interesting, since one never is sure exactly when something wonderful may happen.

My main focus lately has been on not only using Virtual Worlds as a machinima tool, but on how much the Virtual Worlds we build, seem to propel not only the story, but the back stories of the characters and places we are filming. The Virtual Worlds are giant studio back lots, just waiting to be sprung alive. All of this has led me down a very familiar path. What we are creating are Theme Parks in a computer. Virtual Worlds, have taken on certain aspects of Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. Not the thrill rides, but the theming of streets and the detailing of locations. Now this can be an expensive proposition in a place like Second Life, where you have to buy or rent land in order to build your sets. But in the Opensim, especially a Standalone Opensim you can get a huge working space and basically it is free.

So off I go into the Opensim, working with Kate on a rundown street in a dubious neighborhood. This is so much like building a backlot street, but it is more than a façade. The stores and rooms are complete, just like many spots in Disneyland. A quote I heard years ago starts flowing in my mind, “What would Walt do?”

You see, I think that Disneyland for Walt Disney and the Ghost Town for Walter Knott, were more than just money making enterprises. They were in part the next step into immersive entertainment. I wonder, if Walt had access to the computers we have today, would he be building Virtual Worlds?

I also had bouncing around in the back of my mind the game experiences I had with Myst, and more recently The Tale of Tales games “The Path” and “Fatale”. All had mysteries to solve in Virtual Worlds.

Now What would Walt do? Well maybe he would create a Virtual World, captured in time, with a story to tell or a mystery to solve.

This is where I’m headed. I’m feeling that one of the roads to follow in Machinima and Virtual Worlds is into create full worlds, with a stories to tell. Right now a solo experience can be created, not unlike Myst or the Tale of Tales games. But the bonus to the Opensim idea is that once the “game” is solved, you still have the Virtual World standing by as a film location. Also there is the current development in the Hypergrid for the Opensim, allowing access to your Virtual World by more than one Avatar. Bingo! Just like Disneyland (“please keep your hands and legs inside the car while it is moving”)

The possibilities seem endless.

The following are some web sites that show some examples and leads – there are many more a well:

The Tales of Tales: http://tale-of-tales.com/
These games are set in a virtual world.

Heritage Key: http://heritage-key.com/
Heritage Key has used the Opensim to create an immersive visit to King Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

Diva Distribution: http://www.metaverseink.com/blog/?p=21
Diva Canto has provided her Opensim download which is a Standalone Opensim with Hypergrid capabilities. Not the only one out there, but it may prove to be a little easier to setup.

- Mike

Expo Schedule - GMT Version

2009-11-17T02:00:00.000-08:00

***Please notes These are UK times***

Sunday 22nd November (this weekend)

5PM Tracy Harwood Keynote Speech
Tracy Harwood is the Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Creative Technologies and is well regarded as a machinima scholar. Her recent article “The Machinima Movement” is required reading for those interested in the current state of machinima and it’s future.

5:15PM Awards Ceremony

-4 Jury Prize awards

-1 Asian Film Prize awards

“Special Achievement in Directing” -presented to individual who has contributed greatly to advancing machinima as an art form.

-Grand Prize Winner award

(Photo op at end)

6PM “Women in Machinima” panel. Headed by Ingrid Moon/Dulci. Featuring Tari Akpokiete, Kerria Seabrooke, afterThought, Sisch, Chantal Harvey, and Kate Fosk.

This was our most popular event last year and it should prove lively this year. Some of our best filmmakers talking about their work.

7PM Special Edition of “The Overcast” live podcast with Ricky and Phil. We will host a special version of our machinima podcast where we will discuss current events in Machinima like the Unreal SDK, iClone 4, Dragon Age toolset, Blender 2.5 update and more. We’ll also have special guests from the Jury Film directors pool. Iain Friar, director of “Clockwork” is confirmed
at the time of this post. Come and watch us make fools of ourselves yet again.

“Which Machinima Engine is for You? presentations:

Each director will present their machinima engine of choice; giving an overview of the engine, workflow, advantages/disadvantages, with Q&A at the end.

8PM -Iclone 4 with “Wolf and Dulci” & added help from John Martin

830PM -Open Sim/Second Life with Kate Fosk and Russell Boyd – (Parallel Event: IClone 4 Follow up in Reallusion Pavillion)

9PM -Half Life 2/Gary’s Mod with Ian Chisholm -(Parallel Event: SL Follow up in Dr. Who Tardis)

930PM -Moviestorm with Phil Rice -(Parallel Event: Open Sim Follow up in Dr. Who Tardis)

9:50PM -The Movies, Sims2 and CJ’s GTA with Phil Rice. Q&A afterwards

10:30PM (approximate) Closing street party with DJ to be announced.

***Please notes These are UK times***

Film screenings are running from this Friday onwards, Ricky will post a timetable for those.

Thanks to Russell Boyd for the time translation, and thanks to the Expo team for making this year's event so Euro time friendly

Fallopian Issue 2 - Now Live!

2009-11-13T07:48:00.000-08:00

Read it here.

Don't forget to click on the magazine to view full screen for most comfortable reading.
This quarter's issue concentrates on bridging the digital divide by bringing accessible and affordable technology to youngsters who would otherwise see film making as a distant and unreachable form of self-expression.
These experiences are complemented by a delve into the increasing use of machinima within university media courses.
We hope you enjoy the magazine, and hope you will pass the link on to any friends or colleagues who may be interested.

Kate and Trace

Moviestorm Furries

2009-11-10T00:34:00.001-08:00

Moviestorm furries, or should that be shinies?
Chris Ollis again (remember the skipping pylons?) Moviestorm staff member, mucking about to great effect.
Not sure if they are planning to sell these or not.

This is such a different look, it makes me wonder what *could* be done with the movistorm engine by modders to completely change the look.
I'm particularly impressed with the elbows. Seem to bend like claymation..ie not like prims overlapping for second life tinies.

ICEAXE interviews...

2009-11-05T00:29:00.000-08:00

Johnnie Ingram
Hugh Hancock
Roger Strange Burlong
and
David Lloyd

I am working my way through Iain's interviews recorded at the Cambridge film festival. I found his interview style to be friendly, focused and very easy on the ear.
I hope Iain continues to do these, maybe over the net if live opportunities don't crop up?

Kate

Unity

2009-10-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

Haven't read through everything, just wanted to give Fraps a whirl. Looks pretty cool. Base version free.
High FPS on web browser version.
See here

Thanks to David Beukes for pointing out this new engine.

Voovees (formerly known as Zencub3d)

2009-10-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

Just in case you missed it last year,

MachinExpo from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

Like our previous 'big' collaborative film Voices, Mike and I used Zencub3d to create some of the characters in this Anymation mix for Machinexpo 2008
The small creative team from New Zealand were happy to help us with custom animations and props, and we loved the results..which other program has a suckotronic device, or a 'stir with chainsaw' animation?
We started to believe these three guys could do anything..except make money.

When the world recession hit hard the team seemed to realise they couldn't keep going the way they had..a wonderful easy to use free program, great animation set and a unique look but things didn't seem to take off.
The user group remained small, and the team confessed that they were 'no good at marketing'.

Time for a rethink. Billy, Tony and Indy came back with Voovees, a site where users could parody movie scenes, using premade animations. This wasn't aimed at machinimators, but an attempted move out into the mass market. The artwork was edgier, and the characters' body shapes changed to give a more adult look.

Now beta sign-ups are available for Voovees phase 2. We have no inside information about where this is going, only that more customisation will be possible and that phase 2 will be more suitable for those who like to mix it up.

Sign up here if you would like to keep on the inside track, and keep up the pressure for these guys to develop the machinima side of their project.

I certainly want to keep an eye on what these guys do. Most of you probably didn't try the system at the Zencub3d stage, you may have been put off by the cartoony look.

What did you miss?

Elegant simplicity, ease of use and surprisingly advanced features for a beta product, and the possibility for the created films to appeal to mainstream viewers, remember this?

Sweet Nothingness from Phil Rice on Vimeo.

Made by Phil Rice, won the machinima award in this year's animatu festival. Did you also know that the zencub3d creators had their own promotional film nominated for the same festival last year?

This program was a real contender for machinimators who wanted to go down the animation route, rather than creating game or live film style pieces.

Will the new style appeal to a broader film-making audience?

I certainly hope so. I have my fingers crossed that enough people will want to make movies for it to be an economically sound proposition to develop that side of the business further.

I remember my days as an Avon rep, getting the customer to try a new product was half the battle, marketing IS tough. Consumers get locked in to something which just about works for them and fear trying something new. How much harder is that when the learning curve is unknown?

All I know is, that it took me 15 minutes to make a short movie in zencub3d, timed from opening the zip file. I loved the artwork (not everyone liked the look I know, but the quality was wonderful).

Ok, guys find a product which you can sell to the masses to prop up the film-making side of things, but make the machinima engine, it NEEDS to be done.

If Billy, Indy and Tony don't make a machnima engine out the Voovees program I fear that a revisit from Violet Elizabeth Bott may be in order. -Kate

Hidden Talent

2009-10-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Much like being a school-teacher, if you work at a machinima tool company and post on the internet, somebody is going to find out what you did at the weekend.

Big thanks to Terence Kenneth Donaydampfshiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenskajuetenschluesseloch* the 27th for outing the comic talent of Chris Ollis, resident artist at Moviestorm.

This film is a little low res and has had its music track thoughtfully substituted by the youtube elves, but wow did it make me laugh.

* I hope I remembered TKDs name correctly there, seems like too many syllables somehow...hmmm

Kate

The Long and Winding Road

2009-10-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

When we joined forces, Mike was keen to express that he wanted to try new things, as going over old ground and revisiting past ways of doing things wouldn't hold his interest for long.
Machinima was a new challenge, and a film-world that he could easily participate in from his desk-top.
As we've gone on I learn in more depth the meaning of the word producer. Mike is interested in how films are made, and in new ways to make film.
He is of course also interested in the stories we tell.
I find that he tends to think further ahead than I, and is continually scoping out new environments and tools that might be useful.
He likes talking to the creators of new programs, and is driven as much by problem solving as by sheer curiosity.
We can both feel technically challenged at times, but he is the more dogged, and will continue to try and find ways to get things to work long after I have flitted off to some other aspect of our work.
I tend to work in leaps of understanding, will store problems away in my 'back-brain' and sometimes the unconscious processing bears fruit.
I love colour and texture, he structure and modelling for its own sake.
I love to design with sound, he is fascinated with 3d body animations.
I guess that's a classic male/female split but there are many cross-over points.
I tend to write, but my writing is around conversation between characters, Mike questions the plotlines, or the sense of what is happening within a storyline.
I will interact more with the machinima community, and he more with the technical providers.
We make each other tick better.
Sometimes when Mike's doggedness turns to stuckness I dig in my heels and insist we do something else.
At times when I jitter from things to thing, trying to find something that will work, Mike pulls me back, slows me down to thinking speed.
It works, we know it does.
Just recently, while trying to complete our expo film (expo 2010 at this rate!) we've seen glimpses of possibilities.
Those three full length scripts we have, the full no compromise anymation stories are driving us without realising it sometimes.
We've found ourselves on sets which mimic scenes from one or other of the big movies. They seemed to just grow.
The organic film-making that Mike find so interesting.
These flashes and glimpses have been a long time coming.

Next week our virtual landlord is migrating our sim to a new server, and we will no longer be connected to the open grid with its forced updates.
I would say more chance of stability should open things up, but I am always aware that these things are often not as simple as they can first appear.

Unlike MDot strange I am not prepared for all possible problems, things usually do go wrong, mostly because we are as driven by our curiosity and sense of fun as we are by making films. Sometimes things go wrong because we stand there and prod them until we do, other times because we have chosen to work in such a beta environment.
Things in our life take priority..sick children, wanting to have a little time to breathe and look at the sky.

As machinikeenies (rather than film professionals) we have the good fortune that the next meal does not depend on getting it right. We can afford to make mistakes, can walk towards them and see where they lead.
Some days I forget that this is a priviledge, and forget to appreciate it. In fact some days I have a jolly good whine that NOTHING is going right and threaten to turn into Violet Elizabeth Bott who will scream and scream.

I kick and scream when life takes over, and filming gets kicked out of play, but there is a strong undertow which brings it back, whenever the space and time are available.

Mike is the best person to remind me that things take time, but that you get there. He's been there already, so he doesn't mind taking the scenic route this time around.

Thoughts about motion capture

2009-10-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

Thought the first;

What if machinima was hardware based, instead of software? If it was, what would a machinima-machine look like?

Encountering the demoscene for the first time has challenged my ideas about the limitations of home pcs. I've always known that the operating system takes a big thwack of processing power to run, it is the price we pay for adaptable generalised hardware.
I don't know from week to week which program I might want to use, or which direction our work will take, so the adaptability seems crucial.
However, some part of my engineering instincts remain, and it irks me that so much potential capacity is being used up by clutter and junk.
I can't knit my own motherboard, and nobody sells seeds for graphics cards so it seems that scrapology would work better than home tooling, but even then I lack the knowledge to quilt myself an animation machine.
I'll pause that thought for a moment and move onto,

Notion the second;

What if there was a 'google warehouse' for body movements, ie bvh type files donated free by users. Motion capture devices are becoming more affordable, what if uploading a 'blowing out birthday candles' animation, was as easy as taking a photo, or making a model in sketchup?
Surely then we'd have enough animations to cover every machini-situation? Experience suggests it would still not be enough, but that it might make a reasonable start.

Putting the thoughts together;

If there were a generalised machinima-machine, surely the core would be based around body movement files? Prop movements are getting much easier, but manipulating character moves is still tricky.
What if the imagined machini-box could accept live input from some source, eg a year 2015 pound-shop motion capture device or an orchestrated stream of movement files
Then plug the magic machini-box into some other device, a more specific environment, eg online world, cgi style skinning program, and we could do this live.
What if we had 'auto-smoothing', fractal type randomised twitches.
What if, instead of having the full body suit we could 'colour' existing movement with a wii-type controller, or a usb puppet glove.
This would take us away from only being able to reproduce only our own movements via home-motion capture.

Musicians have learned to incorporate delay into their live second-life performances, what if we could collaborate and live-puppet in a virtual world.
Not merely reproduce our own movements, but act into a virtual self, with help from intelligent motion layering, that would smooth and add variance and character.

The sims was nearly like that, you could direct and persuade but the characters had their own agenda, and sometimes this helped.

What if I could download the movement file of 'Terry from Texas' waving hello to his wife, and extract some of the quirks of that movement, mix it with facial data taken from a youtube video 'Linda from Poland' complaining to the gas company, and make a character file in my machinibox. Then puppet my Ter-Linda model, using my own movements.

Are we nearly there yet?
If we are what are the limitations? Home pc processing power? Broadband data rate? Software, hardware? Ease of use?

-Kate

Set your stopwatch, I just saw a gun.

2009-10-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's a challenge for movie buffs. Watch one of your favourite movies with your watch on stopwatch mode. Every time someone pulls a gun start the timer.
If the gun is still present after three minutes, and nothing *else* much has happened (running through dark corridors waving previously mentioned gun doesn't count as 'something else') then the movie is not aimed at the mass market.
This is because a significant proportion of the movie watching audience are switched off by weapons.
It's a balancing act, because obviously there's another section of the audience whose movie watching experience isn't complete without a 'bit of shooting'.
Did you ever wonder why 'big film' fight scenes are often fought against a background of interesting scenery / city-scape? It gives the bored and twitching 'gunz are a big yawn' viewers something to look at.

So how does this translate to machinima movies?
My personal view is that any scene which has a weapon needs something else to hold the audience's interest. The gun happy viewer doesn't even have to notice your careful attention to background detail, but other audience members certainly will.
Do we need to see the whole gun? Is there an interesting shadow, bit of clutter that might help to tell the story better?
Could a sense of menace be created with camera angles, sound effects?

I believe as short form film-makers we can't afford the cliche of the 'gun-stance', and don't get me started on 'running with gun' scenes.
The gun can't act, speak or move the story forward.
Gun time is dead time, especially in an animated piece.
We have such a short timeframe to get the audience to care enough if someone dies in a short movie. In my opinion, establishing the reality of a character should be given a much higher priority, and even in a comedy, weapons should be used with caution.

Kate

The dog ate my homework.

2009-10-12T05:10:00.000-07:00

Mike and I were hoping to have a film completed in time to enter into the machinexpo, a community led festival headed up by our friends Phil Rice and Ricky Grove. We had no illusions about winning any prizes in our very beta state of filming on the open grid, but we support this event whole-heartedly and just wanted to take part.
When the deadline was increased to the 7th October we knew that we at least had a chance of pulling something together. Then events started to pile up, and when I sat down on the morning of the 6th, with a untidy folder of footage we managed to snatch between sim crashes, I left the door open hoping to catch sight of the electrician, amongst the trail of builders doing work on our (Kate's) house.
In the end, everyone except the electrician knew to tell me before the electricity was turned off.
It is a little hard to think when the whole house seems to be bouncing up and down (removal of brickwork) but it seems as if the electrician wandered in un-noticed, assumed I was out, and started to work on the ring-main.
He was a little startled, as he emerged from the meter cupboard, to find machinima-woman skiing down the stairs in high panic.
My big mistake was to try and ascertain the damage/attempt a fix straight away. The power supply was interrupted several times after that, on many occasions due to unplanned rcd trips, and the raid configured disks couldn't cope with being interrupted when in self-repair mode.
The whole network was affected, and took several days to reload itself. After five days we managed to re-image my disk from a maintenance copy we had on a hardrive, (taken back in July).
So I'm still catching up.
This was a classic case of our whole home system being affected by a common problem, ie all backups were powered by the same , temporarily spiky power supply.
Needless to say this has been cause for some thought, some of which has been directed towards online backup strategies. -Kate

Physics led Animation Using Cinema 4D

2009-10-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

Organic style no key-frame animation made using cinema 4D. Depends on 'physics' for object interactions. Wonderful to watch, but wish they had changed that (default?)wallpaper..surely not every CGI guy is that into vinyl damask?

No_keyframes from 1st on Vimeo.

Can Anyone Write About Camera Work from A Machinima Perspective?

2009-09-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

To be fair, I think the machinifeed is a poor context in which to view Mike Jones' blogs. If I came across Mike's writing via another route I would attribute my recurring bewilderment to a lack of background knowledge of his particular branch of filmmaking.
As it is I have spent too much mental energy and frustration trying to separate the basic useful factual information from opinion in these two articles.
The pictures were helpful, but only one set were given, those to show examples of long focus.
So in my attempts to track down some solid examples of the overused short focus, I finally found this page full of links, thanks to a commenter mentioning the 'Redrock Micro look'.

I have nearly never used a live film camera, and my last encounter with the concept of focal length of lenses was during an A level physics class.
Machinima has always been on a 'need to know' basis. There is just so much to do on all levels that the culture of camera use just hasn't figured for me. If my virtual camera has only one focal level I might as well ignore any thoughts about rack focus, and concentrate on the things I can do something about.
Programs like Moviestorm are much more camera-centric, short focus and dynamic changes in focal length are possible, so I guess someone using that system will be more tuned in to the nuances and choices available.

I am very open to new ideas and conceptual frameworks, but direct comparisons with live film only go so far.
I need someone to talk about cameras from a machinima point of view, and take the time to fully explain live film concepts when these are useful.
Mike Jones' perspective is too much of a leap for me, and nearly all the camera-work tutorials I can find are written from within the environment of live film (please tell me if I'm wrong here).
I find it vastly inhibiting and unhelpful to be exposed to camera snobbery, and there's a lot of that around.

I have an instinct that trying to emulate live film camera work isn't a way forward, for me anyway, and that seems an underlying theme in Mike's article also.

Is there anybody out there who can write clearly on this subject from a machinimator's point of view? Someone with a flexible approach who isn't particularly attached to any one style of animating / filmmaking, who is passionate about what they do but unlikely to become too attached to aspects of detail. Someone who understands that we may only have 5% of our time to devote to thoughts about camera work, but who is positive and optimistic that improvements can be made within that time-frame? Someone who is still learning themselves, and who sees debate and openess as part of that learning process?

I believe there is a need for this, I certainly feel it, and would welcome anyone who would like to try.

Kate

The Imperfectionist - Youtube Pick

2009-09-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

Like many of my machinimating colleagues, I find as much inspiration in conventional animation as I do in live film. This animation short really caught my eye.

The Cat Exploded

2009-09-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

That was the subject header of my morning mail from Mike.
We're a little short of tools in the open sim, linked prim animation is possible, but there aren't the easy programs I used to love, like prim puppeteer.
Having run out of brain power for the moment I think we will resort to assembling items loosely without linking, if we need to have them moving.
I am reminded of Claus Schulz's remark in the machiniplex premiere for his film '9'. He bemoaned the fact that there is only so much new stuff that it is possible to absorb at once, that new learning takes significant time.

I particularly notice this if I come across a good tutorial, the steps are clearly laid out in front of me, but if my brain isn't feeling receptive I just can't make the information go in.
Open sim and second life are so similar in many ways, that it's hard to know sometimes why they feel so different, but they do.
One thing that emerges is that the work we are doing now looks like 'Pineapple', looks like us, so we must be gaining enough control over the environment that our style is allowed to emerge.

I really did not realise how much time it would take to absorb this new virtual landscape.

I suppose I'd better go start picking bits of cat out of the sofa / carpet / curtains.

Hugh Hancock talking at the Ephemeral Media Conference

2009-09-20T03:48:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed watching this. Hugh taks about his perceptions of what Machinima is, where it came from and where he thinks it is going -Kate

Why is it that compo results tend to get screwed up?

2009-09-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it can be useful to look outside the world of machinima and see how other communities perceive the inevitable ups and downs of competitions and festival judging. I found the following helpful explanation of sometimes oddball results in the demoscene party competitions quite enlightening,

Often, you might wonder why a certain compo result seems to be f***** up.
Bad stuff ranked high, while a much better production is nowhere near the
place it deserved. This might be due to the following:

- People might not have been sober during voting

- People often DO have a strange taste

- Some stuff looks much better/worse on the big screen/compo machine
than on your home machinery (different colour/gamma intensity/more powerful
hardware in the compo machine etc.).

- People tend to vote for their own productions or for the
production of their group or their friends. (aka self-voting, group-voting,
buddy-voting). You can imagine that a group with 20 members can 'distort'
the results of a 200 people party quite a bit.

- People cheat (exploiting voting systems)

- Never underestimate the fun-factor of a party. Technically and artistically
bad productions might get a lot of votes if they're funny or just catch
the mood of the audience.

- The demo crashed the compo machine and most of the good stuff was
yet about to follow. Does not happen very often though.
Thomas Gruetzmacher 2004-06-16

If you would like to see this in context, I copied the text from point 4.5 in the events FAQ of a site explaining the demoscene.

Interestingly, demoscene 'films' seems even more hard to define than machinima. Herr Gruetzmacher has an admiral try at explaining it nontheless.

Ultimately, a demo(nstration) in a demoscene sense, is a piece of free software
that shows realtime rendered graphics, while playing music. Often, the music is
tightly connected/synced to the visuals. Modern pc demos run linear from start
to finish and are non-interactive. There is no whatsoever rule what a
demo must/can show. The creator is free to decide whether he wants to show
stylish and/or impressive effects, an epic story, funny/bizarre/satirical
audiovisual artwork or a distorted mindf***.

A scene demo is not a try-out version of a commercial application or game.

Some days, I have those moments when I feel like I know next to nothing about the world of computer animation, working my way through some of the beautiful films on demoscenetv , and reading about the evolution of that home filmmaking community has been one of those moments.

edit: and it continues, thanks to CD Schulz for sending me a link to this demoscene reel that he found on youtube;

The First Fallopian Article Is Now Live!

2009-09-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

In case you missed the Fallopian Facebook mail,

Trace and I are tremendously excited to that Tracy Harwood, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Creative Technologies agreed to write our first article.
http://www.voom-machine.com/fallopian/?page_id=5

We've already found much to think about after reading her reflections on the place of machinima in the new digital age. We'd love to hear your reactions, and have started a discussion thread here on Facebook.
Please feel free to invite your friends to join the debate, if you feel they would be interested.

We are trying out a magazine format for this new feature, and we'd love some feedback on how easy you find that to deal with (a few people have had problems with pages not loading, we've discovered reloading the browser page can sometimes help with this problem)

How readable is the text when the publication is viewed at full-screen? Are the controls intuitive enough?

We've included a text version of Tracy's essay, complete with her original links (see bottom of page) in case you have problems,

thank you for all your support so far
and we hope you have an enjoyable read :)

Kate

Machinima? CGI?

2009-09-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

"What is the difference between machinima and CGI?" asks my second child.
You can do machinima on your home PC, but for CGI you generally need a render farm*, I answer, hopefully, but knowing this answer won't be enough.
'What's a render farm?' he asks, as I thought he might.
"A bank of dedicated computers, all joined together, sharing their processing power, some firms hire them out to freelance animators"
So my son asks, 'can I build a render farm in the understairs cupboard, and hire them out to people?'.
"Do you mean is it possible, or are you allowed?", I ask.
I know the 'what is machinima' debate is continually being revisited but my question is never 'am I doing machinima?', but 'can I do this, at home, using resources I can afford?'
Is the machinima community fundamentally attached to game engines? Or is it that those game engines offered the possibility of home filmmaking to a completely new population of creative people, in the way that the technology of the printing press opened up new worlds of written literature?
Motion capture devices are very nearly within the hobbyist's price range, good quality digital film cameras are almost within reach.
Maybe my son's imaginary home render farm isn't that far off either.
I find the possibilities exciting.- Kate

* note- this isn't the official definition used in festivals :)

Film Competition Judging Criteria

2009-08-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

I'm sure one the reasons I give myself such a headache about festival nominations, is that my brain tries to guess the judging criteria. In many facets of life, assessment criteria are explicitly given, even if the interpetation of these can sometimes wind up being a matter of opinion.
In maths examinations, you get so many points for the right answer, and so many points for the working out. If the question doesn't specify a method you can get to the answer anyway you like. Most modern examinations have a guide to how many marks are awarded for each part of a question, so you don't spend too long answering questions which require only short answers.
In a court of law, the crime for which the suspect is being tried is specified and explained. The sentencing type is accompanied by argued reasoning.
The Royal Horticultural Society have a fixed set of requirements against which they award points in different section for submitted gardens. Does the garden meet the original brief of the designer? Are the plants of sufficient variety and quality.
So why is this level of transparency not usually present in film competitions?
Is it expected, and accepted accepted that films will be chosen for purely subjective reasons?
Is it because a belief system exists which puts film in a branch of creative endeavor which isn't open to analysis and only a gut reaction is the true test of worth.
I don't believe that for one moment.
Maybe people don't know why they like something?
That can be true, and sometimes education makes a difference to that situation. Students develop a language to describe their reactions, focus on particular aspects of a piece of work, realise from where their emotional reactions derive.
Maybe most film competitions do have structured judging guidelines, but keep these secret?
After all, nobody goes to prison, or fails their GCSE maths on the say so of a film judge, so what difference does it make?
Almost all aspects of life, where someone in a position of power has the ability to change the life of others, have a mechanism for scrutiny. These procedures to ensure fairness don't always work, but it is now accepted beyond question that they should exist.
What about the general public though, don't film competitions reflect the way that most people view film? Not many of us sit with a score-card whilst watching a Saturday night flick, we love it, we hate it, we move on.
Maybe that kind of subjectivity is fairer though, because of the mass of people involved. It is unlikely that one person's prejudice will affect things very much.
Are most films competitions archaic then, existing outside the normal checks and balances of everyday life? Are they inherently unfair? No, not inherently, it depends on the people running the event. Archaic, definitely yes.
Does it matter, yes it does -Kate

Open sim - where are we now?

2009-08-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt that the Open sim project is still in development. Each upgrade throws out an interesting new glitch, though, partly due to our Landlord's controlled upgrade program, and partly down to increased software stability we haven't had the major setbacks we suffered earlier this year.
More than that, Mike and I are learning to 'roll with' the hitches. We save our sets in chunks, and stash them in our inventory, we develop ways of working which skim over any down-times. We're adapting to open-sim life, feeling less anxious about things occasionally disappearing, when 99 times out of a hundred, they reappear again quite soon.
We've also got used to the advantages,
1)filming at 50fps
2) being able to upload textures for free, see them on the actual model we're creating, then upload a tweaked version, over and over until it looks just as we like.
3) having lots of space and no neighbouring buildings to film around.
With increased stability our sim is looking like home, experiments and duplicates, bits of this and that, Sets from different films mixed together, Kate's effort to make some sort of coffee time trailer, Mike's freebie finds, half a pair of home-made shoes.
We've learned to ditch our avatar attachments for filming, but running round naked isn't entirely practical due to the possibility of being suddenly air-lifted to a populated area if we log-in when our sim is down. What with this issue, and glitch of the week being that attachments can suddenly turn an avatar invisible, I've been revisiting creating system hair and clothes.
I found some full permission photoshop files, for skin, and tweaked these around. made some simple flat sandals, and found a quilt texture in my inventory to make a seventies style patchwork dress.
The outfit fits the vibe of open sim life, retro chunks of second life as it was, but with much nicer textures. - Kate

So why did we call it Fallopian?

2009-08-19T00:43:00.000-07:00

Trace and I (Kate) have been working away on an arts in machinima site called Fallopian which launched yesterday. Our first question was ...

Q: Is it just for women's films or what?
A: Well no....
Q: So why Fallopian then, isn't that some sort of, you know biological thing?
A: Fallopian is the point of conception, male meets female and life begins.
Q: Ok, so how does that relate to machinima then?
A: Well have you seen Red Vs Blue?
Q: Of course, everyone has seen that.
A: Well, not everyone, but I take your point. Have you come across a machinima movie made using a war game?
Q: Well duh!
A: Exactly.
Q: Exactly what? That doesn't answer my question.
A: If you ask someone in the pub / street / on youtube, what is machinima, what would they say?
Q: Guns, fighting, war games, men in helmets, funny videos of men in helmets.
A: They wouldn't mention issue based drama, abstract experimental art, documentaries?
Q: Maybe I need to visit a different pub?
A: Or website?
Q: Alright, alright I get it. The big boys promote game based machinima because it helps sell their games right?
A: A bit more complicated than that but you've got the gist of it.
Q: So how can one small website make a difference against that kind of corporate might?
A: It is a contradiction.
Q: You've lost me now.
A: The trick is, it only takes one small contradiction to break a rule.
Q: So if someone thinks all machinima is gunz and tankz...
A: Exactly.
Q: ..but won't they just think...oh..maybe there's the odd film here and there..what difference does it make?
A: Which films do you remember?
Q: Well, the ones that made an impact on me in some way.
A: Were any of those machinima films?
Q: Of course.
A: Were you curious to find out who made it?
Q: You bet, I actually sent an email to the guy..oh I see where you are going with this.
A: You were affected, you were curious..
Q: I suddenly realised there were all these other wonderful films out there I wasn't aware of.
A: Exactly. Small stimulus, big reaction. It happens all the time.
Q: Wait, is this about viral marketing?
A: The problem with viral marketing is that it tends to reach people who have already been infected.
Q: They already know if they love it or hate it?
A: Yes.
Q: So what do you do?
A: Change the packaging.
Q: If it is that simple, why doesn't everybody do it?
A: They do, there are lots of little websites out there, each trying new ways of showing people just what amazing films are coming out of the machinima community right now.
Q: So if enough people shout loud enough, in enough different ways...
A: It's worth a try, don't you think?
Q: Yes, it is! Hang on, point of conception, what was that about?
A: Machinimators can tend to hang about in their small communities.
Q: Keeping quietly to themselves?
A: That can happen. We believe that each of those separate communities has something to give, and something to gain from spending time together.
Q: Something new is is conceived?
A: Which was greater than the parts.
Q: 1+1=3
A: That's the kind of maths I like!
Q: So there's all that macho machinima out there...
A: Which lots of people know about..
Q: ..and if we raise the profile of the more, for want of a better word..feminine approach..
A: Yin Yang bam
Q: Thank you Mam.
A: You're welcome!
Q: Very metaphysical for this early in a morning.
A: You need to change your timezone mate :)
Q: Yes, I do keep getting urges to be more ..European
A: Atishooooo!

Web 3.0 Is Going To be (the right colour of ) Pink

2009-08-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

...and full of cushions.
For some reason this week has hammered home the realisation that it is one thing for women to be using the web, but once the humans with wobbly bits move in, they have a natural tendency to want to 'do the place up a bit'.
Hundreds of less than techy women ground their way throught learning the sims mod tool SimPe, because they wanted better curtains.
I suspect greater numbers of second lifers spent ridiculous portions of their life learning the ins and outs of 3d texturing because the default Linden skin was so hideous.
Even now, there will be machinimators with the double XX chromosone wondering what the @*%£ am I supposed to with moviestorm's new purple/pink hair?
A similar set of motivations are being bred in all areas of web life. Don't like the market stall ethos of ebay? Set up a web boutique. Fed up with male-centric web radio? Grab a microphone.
The subtle shift from female user to female creator flaps the butterflies wings, and somewhere in the netiverse, currents change.
Back in 1982, having never tapped an electronic keyboard, I was thrust onto the early net. Bizarrely this means I was part of the very early vanguard of female surfers (shallow paddlers maybe..well to be honest I had so little clue what I was doing that is only looking back that I realise I was ON the net at all)
So what did this female pioneer do, at her first historic encounter?
Look at the loomy green text on black and think, yeuch.

Are we too obsessed with technique?

2009-08-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

The Chat Noir studio blog has just appeared in the machinifeed stream, and one post in particular has encouraged an interesting discussion in the comments section.
Kate Lee shares her thoughts about the bias of the machinima watching community as a whole towards technique rather than content.
Kate's first machinima movies were made using The Movies in partnership with Sherwin Liu, and she is now experimenting with moviestorm.

How To Win Festivals and Influence People

2009-08-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

"How To Win At Festivals" I think that's what it was called, a virtual book written form the perspective of a live film creator, and sent to me by..I think it was probably Matt Kelland, but sorry if I have that wrong.
Anyway, it contained a lot of very sensible advice about filling in the forms correctly, and paying attention to deadlines, and a more interesting section on 'how to choose your festival'.

The concept that particularly stuck with me was this;

Only enter festivals you have a chance of winning.

For a live film creator in particular, the time and expense is significant, and the author suggested concentrating efforts on those events which were most likely to accept your film.
He suggested researching previous winners, reading up on the judges, and examining the criteria which would be used when selecting movies.

Machinima festivals tend to be less expensive to enter, and are often free, so it can be tempting to enter for as many events as possible, and hope for the best. Often this method works out, and it isn't necessary to put any more thought into the process.

However, for a sensitive soul, an endless round of rejections can sap the motivation to make film, the emotional cost of this approach can be high.

So what about taking the live film approach, and only entering festivals and competitions which seem to like your kind of film? This task isn't as easy as it might first appear.

For one thing, whilst the organisers of festivals may have a clear agenda, they don't always communicate this with the same clarity. The invitation to 'Send us your great movies' doesn't give much away.

A history of past winners can be as confusing as it is illuminating. Judges are hard to come by, and organisers can't always find people with both the relevant experience and the amount of time needed to wade through hundreds of movies. Sometimes pragmatism dictates a massive variation in style of winning movie from year to year, with the whim of the current drafted judges. It is almost unknown for judging panels to give detailed feedback as to why particular movies were chosen, and this confuses the issue further.

Another random variant can be pressure from sponsors. Again, organisers won't necessarily state make these, sometimes hidden, criteria clear.

Try and think from the point of view of whoever is stumping up the cash for the event. Is it a games company? If it is then what do they want?..to sell more games of course! The films that are likely to win will be those most likely to attract the attention of the company's potential customer base. Your moving film about Halo Chief's traumatic testicular cancer scare probably won't get through.

Is the contest paid for by a film tool company? Their customer base are movie makers, so the agenda is slightly different, but this is still a commercial environment, and the company's overriding concern will be to show their tool in its best light. They may ask for original work and good writing, but your film will stand no chance at all if your technical skills don't showcase the latest big feature, or add-on pack.

Maybe you've seen a contest sponsored by a tv channel. Who watches that channel, mostly male, a mix of ages? Choose your film to fit that profile. Remember, they won't suddenly change their whole marketing strategy just to fit your piece of artwork, no matter how brilliant you think it is.

What if there are no machinima contests, or competitions which fit your style of movie? Maybe a general animation competition might suit your style better, or a film contest which centres on a topic you feel strongly about.

If there's an organisation which needs publicity, why not suggest a film contest? That Halo Chief health scare movie you lovingly crafted might wipe the board at an event run by a health charity trying to raise awareness in young men.

If you feel strongly enough that an aspect of machinima is being neglected, you could start your own event or competition. Make sure you're prepared for the hard work and stress involved though, and think through carefully what kind of films you are looking for.

There are biases in competitions, if you understand how these work you can avoid a lot of trauma and self-doubt.

Of course you don't *have* to compete. There are many other ways to find extra viewers for your work, and it might be a more efficient use of your resources to pursue those alternatives, especially if your work is more art based, or led more by your writing rather than technical challenge.

Remember contests are not fair, they aren't meant to be. There is no such thing as a best movie, only a movie which best fits the particular mix of judges, and the needs of the sponsors on a particular day.
Even the Oscars are based as much in politics and commerce as they are in art.

Kate

Machinexpo 2009

2009-08-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

The Machinexpo is a treat, a free festival, with no transport costs and as a consequence has been really well attended. All machinima ,all the time, the second life venue allows the organisers to concentrate on the core program, rather than having to worry about accomodating sponsors, or fitting around other exhibitors.
Also Ricky Grove tells me that the 2008 women's panel was so popular that it will be repeated this year.
Submissions are being taken up to the 30th September. Visit Machinexpo for details.
Ian Chisholm's Clear Skies had some impact last year, I remember catching a glimpse of an Eve space sequence on a festival screen and being immediately blown away by his attention to detail.

Clear Skies from Ian Chisholm on Vimeo.

I wonder if there will be any such surprises this year?
Second life has become much more noob friendly of late, but still needs a little preparation time before the event.
Those used to other online virtual worlds can probably get away with diving in, but if you are a real newcomer then why not get signed up now? Accounts are completely free and there are plenty of resources available to deck out your avatar for no money also.
If you are looking for somewhere to visit in world why not drop by the Pineapple Office?
Once you have an account you can click on the Pineapple Office picture to the bottom right of this page and drop to see our build in Boomtown.

Rotten Tomatoes - A Kkffoo animated vegetable production

2009-07-31T07:02:00.000-07:00

Freesound is actualy a really cool site with a very simple way of attributing lots of samples.

Main vocal by Brian C Jordan.

Looking For A New Perspective

2009-07-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

There is a huge area of common ground between male and female movie makers, but it isn't necessarily that area which interests the organisers of festivals (the kind of festivals which accept machinima anyway) There isn't currently the space to explore these kind of films, so they don't grow.
In the live film industry, the 'cross-over' films, the ones that pay attention to both genders, and are appealing to a wide range of ages are the big films, the A films. The mostly single gender films are B films, the guy movies, B-male and the chick flicks, B-female. To get an A movie, you need to combine B-male and B-female.
Festivals are important, they highlight, showcase the best that is around. The ideas contained within the best films feed back into the community, they recharge creative batteries, inspire new thought.
Currently, most of the festivals which showcase machinima are B-male orientated, they are happy to live in the geek stream, to encourage minority interest films based on cult genres. Some of those much needed female creative and inspirational sparks are missing.

I'm sure there would be many that would disagree with that statement, remember, a b-film looks like an A film if you are the right gender, age and interest group to watch it.

An A film appeals to both genders, but for different reasons! It manages to be two films at the same time.

'A' films do win at festivals. For example, I would consider 'the days after', the bitfilm 2006 winning film to be an 'A' film, but by my own definition, I can't be sure.

I think this one got in almost by accident, there's enough of a b-male film in there to get through the selection process.

If I were a male film-maker, capable of making festival popular films, then that is what I would do. I would do my best to sneak in something different, under the cover of being a b-male film.

I should think I might get creative cramp a lot of the time but what is the alternative?

Women don't have that option. Not only that, but many festival films don't offer clues forward either, there's not much to go on.

I believe that when female machinimators do find an outlet for their best work, men will follow, hopping with pins and needles from the creative cramp, not having fully realised the restrictions under which they have had to work in order to find an audience.

Once you escape from a creative constraint, there is no going back - Kate

Some fun with crazytalk and sqirlz - Cool!

2009-07-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

I've been researching crazytalk as part of our pre-production for the big film. This is the result of combining crazytalk and sqirlz morph , another great free program from sqirlz -Kate

Jellyfish, Pigeon and Jerry Maguire

2009-07-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

The rules for jellyfish pigeon.

Choose a film which the players have never seen before (or have seen an equal number of times)
Each player must choose an animal and inform the other players of their choice before the start of the film.
The first player to spot their animal wins, providing they don't see five other examples of the same animal within the film.

Players should decide before the game whether animals need to appear 'live', or if images, sound effects and dialogue references count towards the score.
To keep things interesting, by mutual agreement, a player can change his or her choice of animal after 1/2 hour, but the new choice must be an animal which has not yet appeared in the film, and if it then happens that an example of the discarded choice appears the player will instantly lose the game.

Jerry Maguire is heaving with aquarium fish, both live and depicted. They even appear as stickers on a door at one point. Thankfully I switched to pigeon just before the start of the film, or the five or more disqualification would have been applied multiple times already. My son decided to abandon his intial choice of jellyfish after the first half-hour, even though in an intial, and somewhat random dream sequence, Mr Maguire finds himself in the ocean, there were no sea creatures visible. Son is now looking for cats, and muttering 'come on, night scene, night scene' under his breath, whilst I am scouring football pitches, airports and window sills for my surprisingly elusive bird.

We have a half hour to go yet, and the 'no shouting rule' has been broken several times, once by the chief enforcer of that rule, my hubby, who is not playing the game at all but exploded with an indignant 'how on earth can Tom Cruise hit his head on a ceiling light?????'

So the tension mounts, and if, in the final scenes Mr Maguire is attacked by a swarm of jellyfish I win by default.

Video Pick - Wrought by WOW Machinimator Legsmachinima

2009-07-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

Music video with a storyline, quoting from the creator's blog

Our interpretation of their song is a tragedy which unfolds as you see flashbacks from the perspective of an undead warrior who recalls how he fell in love with a beautiful blood elf before his undead existence, a forbidden love which was unacceptable to her people.

Another female machinimator working within the WOW community. (see also Selserene)

I have issues with the raw game textures in WOW, and both of these film makers overcome those problems admirably, playing to the strengths of the engine.

Flickr Pick - KLSanderson

2009-07-24T02:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Artgirl for linking to this artist. I was particularly fascinated by the album Transmorph-ography, a series of performance shots, each image scanned line by line as Sanderson, formally a choreographer, uses her body movements to alter the images in real time (see third image here as an example) -Kate

Video Choice - Selserene - In For A Penny

2009-07-23T01:08:00.000-07:00

I am always interested to see how female creators use machinima engines with which I am not familiar. Selserene is a popular film maker within the World of Warcraft community, so some of you may have come across her work before.

In For A Penny: Prologue from Selserene on Vimeo.

This sample is the prologue to a drama series. I admire how Selserene has optimised the look of the sometimes tricky to film WOW world, brought out colour and smoothed over the edges. This leads to some really colour rich dreamy looking sequences.
-Kate

Personal Ramblings on 40 years and a Career

2009-07-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

Life seems so short at times, but then again with the correct perspective, it can also evolve into lifetimes.

For the past 8 years I have been helping my widowed mother adjust to a slow decline, mostly due to dementia. And last week she just faded a little more each day until she gracefully just slipped away. Sad but for me, it was very elegant. What an interesting life she had. She lived up the street from the Disney Hyperion Studios. Later she was an executive secretary at Twentieth Century-Fox working for the top Art Directors at the studio, she then became a very successful housewife and finally took a brief career as a stock broker, before easing into “retirement”.

As my mother was this week making this final transition here on earth, I was also aware of the news of Walter Cronkite’s passing and the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. These events got me thinking about life and careers.

Wow, it’s been 40 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing? That event is one of those moments that you remember where you were.

I had just graduated from High School and was preparing to start attending the University of Southern California (USC), looking into Public Administration as a major, following 2 generations of Joyce’s into a career of city work. My Grandfather had been an associate of William Mulholland (shades of Chinatown) and my father was a Commissioner on the Board of Public Workers (he actually had to ask Steve Allen not to do a stunt in the street outside his studio for the Tonight Show – Allen dragged my Dad into the studio, live on the air. I guess Steve Allen figured he had some 'splainin' to do)

So forty years ago, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were putting small footprints on the surface of the moon, I was perched to carry on the family legacy to be a City of Los Angeles civil servant. As the fates would have it I paid my tuition by working as an intern in the City Planning Department (5 long years). I hated civil service. So half way through my University career I decided to become a Cinema major. It required the least amount of courses required in the subject (so I could study other areas such as Literature, Archeology and Logic).

What was great about the school of Cinema in those days, was that it was conducted in the old World War I riding stables. Old stalls had been converted into classrooms, the soundstage was an old barn (thank you Andy Hardy) and our equipment was old but reliable. Lunch and slumming sessions were always in the center paddock where old picnic tables served as congenial meeting spaces.

Upon graduation I went from studio to studio and lucked out getting a job filing index cards in the Employment Office of Twentieth Century-Fox. And because I had a film degree, it fell upon me to start and stop the backlot crews and to interview potential film crew members. At this time the Union halls were stretched thin, so if you happened to be hitch hiking down Malibu Canyon to surf, a Fox construction truck heading out to the Fox Ranch to build the sets and miniatures for Towering Inferno could very well pick you up. And if you could swing a hammer for 30 days, you could be on your was to a Union card and a new career. (Imagine being impressed into service for the studio – reminds me of Clark Gable impressment gangs in Mutiny on the Bounty)

The first film set I stepped onto (dealing with timecards and such) was for “Young Frankenstein”. Today I hear people refer to that film as an old classic. Well it is a classic, but old? Heck I was working with those filmmakers when it was made. “Gone with the Wind” is an “OLD” classic.

Well what I’m getting at, without rambling forever on a career in film, is that 40 years ago, I was a primordial amoeba without form or function. Now I have had a successful film and producing career, finally leading to my retirement. Is it all over? Is it time to shuffle off to the great beyond?

Hmmmm, I think not. For the past few years as I adjusted to not being the Producer in Charge of everything, I have entered into the world of Machinima. What a great artistic tool it is. Because I come from the edge of the old days of film (cutting on a Moviola or hoping when we crashed the Silver Streak through the Chicago Train Station set built out at a Burbank Lockheed Hanger – the one off shot would work). This new fangled computer technology has stretched my little grey cells. But then I have to look back on 40 years and I realize that my cinema learning curve was also very slow and intense.

So given that my DNA is like my parents, I figure I’m good for at least another 40 years. Time enough for an all new career.

Looking back to that July in 1969 so much has happened, so much has changed. As I now think abut tackling a new career, I wonder if I should be looking for Doc Brown’s DeLorean with the flux capacitor in order to keep up with the changes to come.

-Mike

Kate's First Film..recently unearthed!

2009-07-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

Please see previous post, for some reason I can add film directly from photobucket, but any attempt to change title of post or add text seems to generate errors.

I was asked to find my first film, and really didn't think I would be able to dig it up. Amazing to look back and see that I had the Anymation bug right from the start.
Not sure if Mike has even seen this.

2009-07-16T08:36:00.001-07:00

Stunning Short Project by Lainy Voom - Push

2009-07-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Push (Mini Project 4) from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

Crazy Talk 6 -+ Kkffoo film starring Sisch in a very fruity role!

2009-07-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Sally Strawberry from Pineapple Pictures on Vimeo.

Mike and I are pursuing parallel paths. Whilst he is absorbing the technicalities of Opensim, including working out reliable methods of saving set elements, I am pursuing facial animation using Crazytalk.
Our current plan is to use crazytalk on opensim avatars, and then , when open sim lip synching becomes available, to use a combination of the two.
Creating this series of animated fruit and vegetables is giving me plenty of opportunities to try things out for our upcoming series, and it is wonderful to hear my words being given life by such talented voice artists.
Crazy talk 6 can also be used to portray a range of emotional expressions, and although it is possible to 'press and go', greater control requires diving into the myriad of sub-menus which populate the interface.
There seem to be two modes to everything Reallusion, the easy-peasy straight out of the box mode, and the advanced features which are sometimes very well hidden.
I am looking forward to seeing what is possible.

Vimeo Pick- The Crisis of Credit Visualized

2009-07-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

This vimeo video already has close to two million views registered, so you may have seen it already.
It is a great example of animation being used to communicate complex ideas in a simple way.
I particularly like the three 'waterfall' trays Jarvis used to demonstrate different levels of risk in investments, and the way the animator uses humour to make points, (the 'bad risk' family seen in silhouette)
Using a simpified colour palette and icons keeps visual overload to a minimum, and allows the viewer to concentrate on the points being made.

Monster Afflictions

2009-06-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

Monster Afflictions from Jesse Overman on Vimeo.

I was searching for my friend Sisch's video the afflicted when I found this made by Jesse Overman (no relation to our own Overman I guess?),

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy :)

Clear Skies 2 Premiere

2009-06-28T12:00:00.001-07:00

Clear Skies 2 Premiere
Originally uploaded by Pineapple Pictures

Mike and I were lucky enough to be able to attend a special showing of Clear Skies 2 in second life, which included an interview with Ian Chisholm, the creator of this popular mini-series.

Please check out Ian's vimeo page if you haven't already seen these wonderful space sagas set in the Eve universe, and featuring characters from half-life.

The adventures are well written and have spectacular battle sequences which required hundreds of volunteers to create.

Thoughts On Web 2.0, and web 3.0?

2009-06-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have found myself thinking more about the concept of Web 2.0 . Even the supermarket I use is now asking for star ratings and feedback!

What is Web 2.0? Many people simplify and say,

more interactivity = more popularity
(and presumably more popularity = more sales)

Though, for me, the discussion about decentralisation, and organic community growth seem more compelling.

Amazon is often quoted as a beacon of web 2.0 marketing. They took the risk of allowing consumer reactions to be posted directly on a products sales page, even if those comments were negative. This may have knocked a few sales here and there but it built trust for the whole brand.

Viral marketing is a web 2.0 concept, let your customers do your advertising for you!

Sounds great, cheap advertising, and this could be cool for low budget filmmakers, what could possibly go wrong?

From a viewers point of view?

Maybe an example would help.

Do you enjoy listening to people discussing their favourite songs? Would you like to know what kind of music your fave celebrity is listening to right now? You would? Did you join twitter?
I bet you did.

Don't misunderstand me, I love twitter, I tweet, some of my best friends tweet, I am not twitterphobic, but wading through pages of 'were the arctic monkeys better when George Formby was on drums' type posts gets somewhat wearing after a while, no matter how much I admire the postee and am fascinated by their normal output.

This is what pubs were made for, dull conversations that nobody else would want to listen to.

Music posts get a reaction. Even the most even-keeled personalities are flattered by the deluge of responses. It doesn't take a pyschology student to work that positive reinforcement cycle out.

Is it interactive? Indubitably, and sites are springing up all the time to enable this creeping tide to spread to less celebrated mortals.
Fed up of lurking at traffic lights with your windows down and stereo blaring? Why not share your musical taste with the whole world wide web!!!!

How does this relate to machinima?

My friend Lainy Voom once said, "as soon as something gets too popular, all the interesting people step sideways into something even geekier and more obscure".

This is my problem. So often those creators who make the newest and most stimulating material have a natural tendency to skulk out of the limelight. They hate web 2.0. They only want to interact with a select few friends. They live in basements, loving the work for its own sake and occasionally railing against a world which does not recognise their talent.

Occasionally, almost by accident, a piece of work floats above the public horizon and that is the point at which Web 2.0 kicks into action.

This isn't to say that all basement dwellers are interesting, far from it, that would be too easy.

It is easy to think of the next step web 3.0 as 3d , virtual reality, Facebook in hyperspace.

Real innovations tackle problems which don't currently have a solution.

Before the internet my trousers were never long enough, now my ankles are covered thanks to the mass electronic market place.

My sister sold ten of her paintings this week, many had lurked in the outhouse for years. Ebay has developed as an arena for artists to sell their work.

My prediction is that web 3.0 will be technology of the long tail

My unsolved problem is, that it takes such a long time to find interesting things, interesting music, interesting people on the net.

The machinima community, amongst other things, brings me into contact with wonderful creators, some of them will freely admit that they fall into the 'basement dweller' category.

The really obscure members never even make films, and you can't get more out of the limelight than that.

Web 2.0 favours the chatty, the pleasant, the everyday interaction. It is a step forward.

Web 3.0 needs some serious excavation technology, and a long-beamed search-light.

-Kate

Trying Out Kloseup with newbluefx

2009-06-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see how Kloseup would look after applying some filters and effects in Vegas.
I used fraps as the capture device, as I didn't have the right codec to directly open kloseup footage in my external editor.
For most people this won't be an issue as the inbuilt editor, though basic, works very well.
Here is the raw program generated output file if you want to compare, note the original has a watermark and is 4:3 ratio rather than widescreen.

My footage has some bumpy moments, this is purely due to my cavalier use of the pan/edit function in vegas, as I converted to widescreen. The camera moves in the original program seem very smooth.

No lip synch available, don't know if they are planning to add it later (the program has a subtitle function) I haven't tried the moving vehicles but they look interesting.

Faces are a little flat looking, again no idea if there are any plans to change this.

There are an iclonish range of swirly camera moves, no key-framing, but custom camera work is easy. The custom characters are a bit strange, don't see why the photo-face function couldn't be added to the human actors.

There's a huge range of 'stuff' for a free program, scenes are high quality and the character movements are very easy to apply.

I downloaded this yesterday evening, and the above video took about 3 hours, including all the filter kkffoolery.

I briefly skipped though the youtube help video , and paused one time to look up the camera system on the website FAQ section.

So it is as easy to pick up as they say.

I like it!

Grabbing The Tail Of The Hype Monkey

2009-06-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

I wonder, if it IS just me, but whenever I read 'this is the first movie ever to', or 'this is going to completely blow the lid off, er machinima', in my minds' eye, I see a laughing monkey.
This sprite seems to hover over film projects, waiting its chance to leap in and hyperbolate, "this is going to be the best movie ever, EVA EVA EVA" it screeches, swinging through a plotline, tearing out the heart with its tiny bony fingers.
The hype monkey is accompanied by the Galloop, a strange jelly-like, hopping creature, probably blue, with large sucking pink lips. The Galloop limpets onto novelty, draining the life force from any story which is stretched out of shape simply to include the 'newest, bestest, most amazing thing'.

Mike and I are pursued by both these creatures. Usually, our hype monkey is confined to his cage, sulking and sending depressing edicts that unless we 'do x' the we will both shrivel away in the darkness of eternal artistic spinsterhood and be eaten by alsations (logic is not the pineapple monkey's forte, he favours emotive imagery to further his cause)
Our Galloop is not so easily contained. He is so positive, enthusiastic, and in some ways, even helpful.
"Look at this, this is sooooooo cool, Galloop, Galloop" he gollops, frog-leaping over new technology, new opportunities, and then galloop, gallop, he has disappeared around the next corner, to the next, and the next thing, always happy, enthusiastic.

The hype monkey's film is never made, nothing could be grand enough to match his hyperbole, better to leave quietly by a back door, and take up another sport.
The Galloop's film is always just around the next corner, and is never finished.

Galloop, screech, galloop.

And yet..our illogical monkey thinks we can make a moie that people will want to watch..he just goes a little overboard sometimes..and our froggy galloop wants the new toys and tools because it WILL help tell the story..but he gets overexcited at the possibilities and loses the plot..literally.

Galloop, screech, galloop, and we carry on.

Pineapple Chunks

Renpy and the Fairies in Peril

Syberia - a story within a game

The empty net....

Journal of Visual Culture Machinima Edition - free for a month

Moviestorm Featured Movie Criteria

Machinima, Opensim, Second Life – Oh My?

Dear Fairy by Tom Jantol

Do we need normals? The Eyes Have It, Frankenstein visits Shanghai and Mike loves Langley

The Hawk

Lego Vs Combine

Curling up with Moviestorm, and Reading a few Blogs

A Movie Studio in your Backpack

Want Some Advice & Inspiration From Experienced Machinimators?

Have Ipad Will Travel - the large and the small

Up Yours Miss Hawaii, and Machinima.com

New Year Thoughts

Big Bang Willy and the Demented Potatoes

The Lists - Quicky Film

Ten boxes of choco squares and a digital partridge in a pear shaped tree

Peter Greenaway at 48 Hour Film Festival

What Are You Up To Pineapple?

Dragon*con

Machinima on TV - for Boyz or Granz ?

Fitzcarraldo and the Ocelot in the Shed

Jump.wmv

4-frame photo-booth theater

Hogs and Normals

I finally subscribed to Moviestorm

Can video games ever be art?

It's finally here! New Pineapple Film - Park Tennis

Pineapple Premiere at TMU Theatre Online

Star Wars Uncut - trailer released

Moviestorm or Second Life?

I have to tell you, I am slightly im-pressed...

Clause in new Second Life User Agreement, relating to machinima

The Remake

Dagon

Games with Story

TMU Internet Premiere: "The Remake" by Tom Jantol

Why are the aliens playing trombones?

MaMachinima International Festival - 2010

Cardimation

Machinima is dead, long live machinima

Defining Machinima 2

How To Define Machinima

Moviestorm Base Contest Entries

The Vampyre

Small Inspirations

Star Wars Uncut

Pineapple Jottings

A Heartwarming Christmas Tale

Bicycles and bells.

Thoughts on the new Moviestorm subscription

A Tale of Two Aunties

Machinexpo 2009

Random thoughts on Machinima Programs and Virtual Worlds

Expo Schedule - *GMT* Version

Fallopian Issue 2 - Now Live!

Moviestorm Furries

ICEAXE interviews...

Unity

Voovees (formerly known as Zencub3d)

Hidden Talent

The Long and Winding Road

Thoughts about motion capture

Set your stopwatch, I just saw a gun.

The dog ate my homework.

Physics led Animation Using Cinema 4D

Can Anyone Write About Camera Work from A Machinima Perspective?

The Imperfectionist - Youtube Pick

The Cat Exploded

Hugh Hancock talking at the Ephemeral Media Conference

Why is it that compo results tend to get screwed up?

The First Fallopian Article Is Now Live!

Machinima? CGI?

Film Competition Judging Criteria

Open sim - where are we now?

So why did we call it Fallopian?

Web 3.0 Is Going To be (the right colour of ) Pink

Expo Schedule - GMT Version