What is Machinima Filmmaking?

This means using the game engine of a computer game to make a film. A ‘game engine’ is the part of a computer game that brings together all the scenery, characters, sounds, lighting and describes how it will operate. Machinima Filmmaking takes this engine and modifies it to act out a scene rather than running what the game intended. See 'Summoner Geeks' in the Cinema for an example.

Sorry, You’ve Still Lost Me, Explain Again?

Take a game such as Quake or Doom. In it your character runs round a variety of techo-inspired locations shooting other characters. What if you could change it so, instead of shooting, your character went around the location talking to the other characters; thus acting out a scene. This way you can use the game engine with all it’s pre-prepared animations, physics, lighting and sound systems as your on personal virtual studio.

Why Not Just Use a Camera to Make Films?

You could, but Machinima offers several advantages:
1. It’s cheep. Dirt cheep, the Doom game engine is free, Quake III (the latest engine and game) you’ll find for under $40 (£30) and all the extra bits you need, you can down load free.
2. It’s quick and easy(ish?!). It’s not simple and there is quite a learning curve in getting to grips with the technology, but once your there, it’s like puppetry. You set up your scene and then go. Friends of yours can control all the Characters, moving them round the set you’ve created just like they are playing a game. There’s not need to learn complex motion capture animation or such like as you tell the game engine which direction to move and it will handle the rest.
3. It’s small. In data terms I mean. Over a standard modem a full length 35mm movie is going to take a long, long time to download, weeks possibly. A full length Machinima film is only going to take a couple of hours.
4. It’s open. The game engines that most Machinima filmmakers use are easy to modify. If you want to change the appearance of characters, objects, worlds event the physics by which the world operates – you can. Its like being able to manipulate the very fabric of reality of where your filming in.

So Where is This New Art Going in the Future?

It’s future is mixed in with that of the computer game industry and the Internet. It’s all converging. The new Sony Playstation 2 is both a DVD movie and console game player. The computer game industries revenue now eclipses that of traditional film. For the Machinima filmmaker, this means more and more money is being pumped into these game engines and more and more people will potentially have access to this technology.

An Example of How Things are Changing Then?

One problem for game engines had been that, unlike animated films, they have to produce footage in real time. They can’t set up an animated scene and leave it for several hours to render (produce the footage). When the player demands to turn left now, the game engine must respond, now also. But with the increasing power of technology and the power of the engines, areas that were previously out of bounds for real-time are now being explored. Areas such as facial expressions, curved surfaces, reflections and hair modeling are rapidly being covered with each new iteration of game engines. While cult filmmaking now, in the near future it could become essential viewing.

Further Information

Machinima A good starting places with loads of info, links and articles
http://www.machinima.com/

Strange Company A group of filmmakers who made the Eschaton series. Useful site.
http://www.strangecompany.org/

Illclan Machinima filmmakers who make various warpish films.
http://www.illclan.com/

Z-Studios Related mainly to Quake II engine, but loads of good info.
http://www.z-studios.com/

Planet Quake All things Quake related. Includes Machinima movie reviews, tools and tons of other stuff.
http://planetquake.gamespy.com/

And a Note on Language Use?

Oh! Yes, here’s a few terms you’ll see being used and what they mean:

• Bot – A computer controlled character in a game.
• Clan – The name for a team of game fans who band together, often to fight against other teams in huge multi-player games.
• Frag – A term that means to kill another character.
• Model – A term for a complete object in the game. Could be character, a chair, a corridor and so on. These are made up of smaller 3D building blocks called polygons.
• Skin – An image stretched over the canvass of a model to give it some visual form.