Indeed, the festive season has kept me quite busy. I've also had to work some, as the landlord has this odd obession with getting a check from me every month. As a result, I've thought more about Unity than actually practiced using it. Oh well. In any case, I'm going to buy license this week so I can deduct it in my 07 taxes.
Did manage to tinker productively with the cameras; however, I need to spend more time grokking the scripting.
otee has recently posted some new tutorials that the user fora all abuzz about. Can't wait to check them out.
In other news, got a copy of Parallels Desktop. I hope this will allow me to install iClone and crazytalk on my mac. I'll let you know!
Happy new year everybody!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
First goal: cameras
I've set myself a small challenge to get started. I'm going to try and set up several fixed cameras in the default "Island" scene that unity opens into, and script them so that the view switches to the camera that is closest to the first person controller.
I'll let y'all know how that goes.
I'll let y'all know how that goes.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Why Unity?
Why did I decide to focus on Unity?
Well, first of all, it runs on a mac. That was a big deal, because mac is my primary platform. I need to use Final Cut Pro in my work, and so I need a powerful mac. Budget and space constraints prevent me from investing in a powerful windoze machine.
Secondly, it looks good.
Thirdly, the GUI and development environment are very nicely integrated with lots of drag and drop support.
Fourthly, I can publish as many copies of the game as I need to give to my puppeteers and camera crew free of charge.
Also, I haven't yet studied this, but the literature suggests that Unity has good support for outside 3d apps, so I hope to be able to use low cost or free 3d (read Silo, Milkshape, Blender) when I absolutely need it, or more likely turn to 3d artists knowing that I don't have to worry too much about what 3d app they're using.
Finally, my biggest hope is that the scriptability will allow me to add some puppeteering functions not available in standard games that will help me make characters more interesting.
Wouldn't you know it, but just today I learned about something called dim3 or dimension3d from Klink! Software. A free 3d game development system. I'll be checking that out, too.
Well, first of all, it runs on a mac. That was a big deal, because mac is my primary platform. I need to use Final Cut Pro in my work, and so I need a powerful mac. Budget and space constraints prevent me from investing in a powerful windoze machine.
Secondly, it looks good.
Thirdly, the GUI and development environment are very nicely integrated with lots of drag and drop support.
Fourthly, I can publish as many copies of the game as I need to give to my puppeteers and camera crew free of charge.
Also, I haven't yet studied this, but the literature suggests that Unity has good support for outside 3d apps, so I hope to be able to use low cost or free 3d (read Silo, Milkshape, Blender) when I absolutely need it, or more likely turn to 3d artists knowing that I don't have to worry too much about what 3d app they're using.
Finally, my biggest hope is that the scriptability will allow me to add some puppeteering functions not available in standard games that will help me make characters more interesting.
Wouldn't you know it, but just today I learned about something called dim3 or dimension3d from Klink! Software. A free 3d game development system. I'll be checking that out, too.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
It all begins (again)
I've been a machinima afficionado for several years now. A relative newcomer. More specifically, a complete n00b: I haven't created any machinima beyond the tutorial stage. I've experimented with Half-Life, HL2, UT2004, The Movies, GTA Vice City, IClone, even Machinimation - which I really like, by the way.
A complex of factors have held me back. First and foremost, inertia. I'm a middle-aged creature of habit who has to work to pay the rent, so I've had to battle my lazy inclinations.
Secondly, isolation. It's been hard to connect with a community of machinimists. This is down to a number of reasons as well. I'm not much of a gamer any more. When I was my game-playing peak, the games were called Missile Command, Asteroids, Defender, Tempest, and Choplifter, Rescue on Fractalus, and so forth. I enjoyed Castle Wolfenstein and Doom, but that was really the extent of my experience with FPS's. Never any multiplayer or online experience. So I didn't really know anyone who gamed in any major way.
Another major reason that I never really connected with a machinima community was the fact that I was globetrotting, in a way. I spent most of the 90's away from my home town of new york. So work and travel kind of usurped time I might have spent on my filmmaking interests.
A big part of machinima's appeal to me is its low threshold of participation. A half-decent computer, one or two popular games, and an internet connection is all you need. Yet ironically, I still find it easier to make traditional films - shot on film, even. This is because I understand it and I know how to find people to help me. Whether it's writers, actors, camerapeople, etc, I can assemble a crew in under 48 hours and be shooting in no time.
Also, machinima lends itself to certain styles and genres, not so much to others. Drama is challenging in machinima because it's so hard to nuance an actors performance. In this respect traditional puppetteering is far more expressive. Alas, most of the stories I want to tell are dramas. Similarly, machinima is most accessible if your story can be told using the stock assets provided with your game. If it can't you have to master the art of content creation - 3d modelling, level design, character animation, texturing, etc. That I can tell you is a daunting prospect for an aspiring machinimist.
So there it is - I've spent years wanting to make machinima, thinking about it, but not doing it. Well, I've finally decided to change that. I'm going to buy otee's Unity for the Mac. Did I forget to mention that I was a mac user when I got interested in machinima? Machinima tends to be heavily windows-centric, alas.
And that's the starting point for this blog. I'll be documenting my adventures in machinima using Unity. I hope you'll stay tuned.
A complex of factors have held me back. First and foremost, inertia. I'm a middle-aged creature of habit who has to work to pay the rent, so I've had to battle my lazy inclinations.
Secondly, isolation. It's been hard to connect with a community of machinimists. This is down to a number of reasons as well. I'm not much of a gamer any more. When I was my game-playing peak, the games were called Missile Command, Asteroids, Defender, Tempest, and Choplifter, Rescue on Fractalus, and so forth. I enjoyed Castle Wolfenstein and Doom, but that was really the extent of my experience with FPS's. Never any multiplayer or online experience. So I didn't really know anyone who gamed in any major way.
Another major reason that I never really connected with a machinima community was the fact that I was globetrotting, in a way. I spent most of the 90's away from my home town of new york. So work and travel kind of usurped time I might have spent on my filmmaking interests.
A big part of machinima's appeal to me is its low threshold of participation. A half-decent computer, one or two popular games, and an internet connection is all you need. Yet ironically, I still find it easier to make traditional films - shot on film, even. This is because I understand it and I know how to find people to help me. Whether it's writers, actors, camerapeople, etc, I can assemble a crew in under 48 hours and be shooting in no time.
Also, machinima lends itself to certain styles and genres, not so much to others. Drama is challenging in machinima because it's so hard to nuance an actors performance. In this respect traditional puppetteering is far more expressive. Alas, most of the stories I want to tell are dramas. Similarly, machinima is most accessible if your story can be told using the stock assets provided with your game. If it can't you have to master the art of content creation - 3d modelling, level design, character animation, texturing, etc. That I can tell you is a daunting prospect for an aspiring machinimist.
So there it is - I've spent years wanting to make machinima, thinking about it, but not doing it. Well, I've finally decided to change that. I'm going to buy otee's Unity for the Mac. Did I forget to mention that I was a mac user when I got interested in machinima? Machinima tends to be heavily windows-centric, alas.
And that's the starting point for this blog. I'll be documenting my adventures in machinima using Unity. I hope you'll stay tuned.
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