Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a rank tyro machinimist. That's why I am very interested in FAQ's and tutorials that more experienced creators have made to help out people like me.
Initially, I was excited to come across a 'how-to' article called How to Make a Machinima at a site called WikiHow. But then I read it.
Take half a minute to read it yourself - that's all it will take - and you too can apparently know how to make machinima.
I'm old enough to remember that Monty Python already covered all this. Have a look:
Friday, July 11, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Unify'd Field Theory
Work progresses on our little tennis project, and this has refreshed my interest in Unity, which I remain convinced has tremendous potential as a machinima tool. But its been over 6 months since I worked with it regularly, so I'm rusty. To make matters worse, the tutorial I was planning on starting on, the FPS tutorial, no longer exists on their website! There is a new, much larger, 3D platform game tutorial, however.
I have been warming up by reading the documentation. I have to admit though, it does make me feel old. I learned to code at a time when object-oriented programming was a theoretical construct in research labs in California, when there were no GUI's, when you POKE'd machine code directly into physical memory addresses, when programs where stored on cassette tape. Anybody else remember those? So the elegant object-oriented architecture of Unity is a bit daunting to an old salt like me. Where are all the BNE's, JSR's and Gosubs?
I have been warming up by reading the documentation. I have to admit though, it does make me feel old. I learned to code at a time when object-oriented programming was a theoretical construct in research labs in California, when there were no GUI's, when you POKE'd machine code directly into physical memory addresses, when programs where stored on cassette tape. Anybody else remember those? So the elegant object-oriented architecture of Unity is a bit daunting to an old salt like me. Where are all the BNE's, JSR's and Gosubs?
Friday, July 4, 2008
Wiither machinima?
Big props to Damian Lacedaemion for his help moving my first machinima piece from concept to reality. I am trying to make a short using the Tennis game on the Wii. Damian graciously offered me the use of a Wii, as I don't have one, and helped write the script, too. (He may even appear as voice-talent.)
Of course, I learned an object lesson in the endeavor, one that D was trying to tell me - you gotta be playing the games to really be able to make machinima with them. Here's what happened. I have only played Wii Tennis once, about 2 years ago. I got an idea for a script that would go with a one-on-one tennis match, and according to my perforated memory, the Wii would be a hilarious medium to use.
Now, any Wii fans out there are way ahead of me already: there is no singles game in Wii Tennis. Its all doubles only! We'd already recorded the voices by the time we got to capturing footage, so we were kind of up a creek. To make matters worse, there doesn't seem to be any way of controlling which avatars the computer picks when you play in single-player mode. And in double player mode the screen is split - not much good for machinima, methinks!
So its time to think on our feet to come up with a solution. Rest assured we'll find one, and the film will be a blockbuster, don't doubt that!
The experience has been instructive, and the film's not even done yet! It has called to mind again the central problem of Machinima with a capital M. Can it be a form for general-purpose film-making, or will it forever be limited to game-related stories?
As a middle-aged filmmaker whose only real experience with 3D videogames since the days of Missile Command, Asteriods, and Defender (the kind you need quarters to play) was Castle Wolfenstein and Doom, I harbor a desire that the real-time power of 3d games can be harnessed to serve any story idea, or at least any class of story idea. In particular dramatic narrative. I would certainly like to see that happen.
On the other hand there is a school of thought that holds that that is a foolish dream; that instead, filmmakers should find in games inspiration for stories that are suited to them. Don't try and force a square peg into round hole, in other words. Before my recent mano-a-mano with the Wii Tennis engine, I would have dissmissed this idea as self-limiting, as a rationalization of shortcomings.
Now I'm not so sure. The problem for me personally, though, is that I don't really play games as a hobby any more. This leads to a more serious problem, which is that I'm not really an active part of any community of gamers. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and if one hopes to make films with videogames one needs a group of gaming friends. Nevertheless, I have come around to seeing machinima a little differently thanks to my conversations with Damien. (sorry about the typo, Damian! -K, 7/4)
Instead of bringing the expectations of traditional media like film to machinima, look for ways in which machinima can create new forms. If we expect Machinima to be able to make dramatic feature films, we may well be disappointed. Similarly, if machinimists make something new but we're looking for something that's familiar, we're likely not going to appreciate it for what it is.
So there's something to mull over. Next time: toolsets, puppeteering, and animation.
Of course, I learned an object lesson in the endeavor, one that D was trying to tell me - you gotta be playing the games to really be able to make machinima with them. Here's what happened. I have only played Wii Tennis once, about 2 years ago. I got an idea for a script that would go with a one-on-one tennis match, and according to my perforated memory, the Wii would be a hilarious medium to use.
Now, any Wii fans out there are way ahead of me already: there is no singles game in Wii Tennis. Its all doubles only! We'd already recorded the voices by the time we got to capturing footage, so we were kind of up a creek. To make matters worse, there doesn't seem to be any way of controlling which avatars the computer picks when you play in single-player mode. And in double player mode the screen is split - not much good for machinima, methinks!
So its time to think on our feet to come up with a solution. Rest assured we'll find one, and the film will be a blockbuster, don't doubt that!
The experience has been instructive, and the film's not even done yet! It has called to mind again the central problem of Machinima with a capital M. Can it be a form for general-purpose film-making, or will it forever be limited to game-related stories?
As a middle-aged filmmaker whose only real experience with 3D videogames since the days of Missile Command, Asteriods, and Defender (the kind you need quarters to play) was Castle Wolfenstein and Doom, I harbor a desire that the real-time power of 3d games can be harnessed to serve any story idea, or at least any class of story idea. In particular dramatic narrative. I would certainly like to see that happen.
On the other hand there is a school of thought that holds that that is a foolish dream; that instead, filmmakers should find in games inspiration for stories that are suited to them. Don't try and force a square peg into round hole, in other words. Before my recent mano-a-mano with the Wii Tennis engine, I would have dissmissed this idea as self-limiting, as a rationalization of shortcomings.
Now I'm not so sure. The problem for me personally, though, is that I don't really play games as a hobby any more. This leads to a more serious problem, which is that I'm not really an active part of any community of gamers. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and if one hopes to make films with videogames one needs a group of gaming friends. Nevertheless, I have come around to seeing machinima a little differently thanks to my conversations with Damien. (sorry about the typo, Damian! -K, 7/4)
Instead of bringing the expectations of traditional media like film to machinima, look for ways in which machinima can create new forms. If we expect Machinima to be able to make dramatic feature films, we may well be disappointed. Similarly, if machinimists make something new but we're looking for something that's familiar, we're likely not going to appreciate it for what it is.
So there's something to mull over. Next time: toolsets, puppeteering, and animation.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Excuses, Excuses
So, since my last post I've been knee-deep - nay, up to my eyeballs deep - into cutting my first feature-length project: New York Street Games. What a great documentary this is going to be, even if I say so myself! I'm very proud of the work I've done on this film, which really has been far beyond what an editor normally does.
All the work on the film has definitely distracted me from my 'machinima' ambitions. In particular I stopped teaching myself Unity. I still really believe that this platform has great potential for machinima, and now that the Machinima Festival is coming back to town, I am reinvigorated. So stay tuned to this space - I'll be bring you some fresh reports on how I go with Unity.
All the work on the film has definitely distracted me from my 'machinima' ambitions. In particular I stopped teaching myself Unity. I still really believe that this platform has great potential for machinima, and now that the Machinima Festival is coming back to town, I am reinvigorated. So stay tuned to this space - I'll be bring you some fresh reports on how I go with Unity.
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