Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnəmə/ or /məˈʃɪnəmə/), a Portmanteau of machine cinema,^[1] is a collection of associated production techniques whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is rendered using real-time, interactive 3-D engines, such as those of games, instead of professional 3D animation software. Computer animation Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI) is the application of the field of Computer graphics or more specifically 3D computer graphics Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model, by means of computer programs 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer Engines from first-person shooter and role-playing simulation video games are typically used. A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Consequently, the rendering can be done in real-time using PCs (either using the computer of the creator or the viewer), rather than with complex 3D engines using huge render farms. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated A render farm is a Computer cluster built to render Computer-generated imagery (CGI typically for film and television Visual effects, using Usually, machinima productions are produced using the tools (demo recording, camera angle, level editor, script editor, etc. ) and resources (backgrounds, levels, characters, skins, etc. ) available in a game.

Machinima is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends, and of artistic computer game modification. Emergent gameplay is the creative use of a Videogame in ways unexpected by the Game designer 's original intent Videogame art involves the use of patched or modified computer and video games or the repurposing of existing games or game structures The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional film-making can be reapplied in a virtual environment. As a result, production tends to be cheaper and more rapid than in keyframed CGI animation. A key frame in Animation and Filmmaking is a drawing which defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition. Computer animation Computer-generated imagery (also known as CGI) is the application of the field of Computer graphics or more specifically 3D computer graphics It can also produce more professional appearing production than is possible with traditional at-home techniques of live video tape, or stop action using live actors, hand drawn animation or toy props.

As machinima begins to break out of the underground community of gamers and becomes more widely recognized by mainstream audiences, tools are being developed to allow for faster and easier creation of machinima productions. A number of upcoming machinima products are expected to provide machinimators with original assets, as well as advanced features such as a timeline, gesture and sound creation, and precise camera tools.

Although most often used to produce recordings that are later edited as in conventional film, machinima techniques have also occasionally been used for theatre. A New York improvisational comedy group called the ILL Clan voice and puppet their characters before a virtual camera to produce machinima displayed on a screen to a live audience. The ILL Clan is a Machinima production

Contents 1 History 1.1 Precedent 1.2 Quake movies 1.3 Modern era 2 Genres 3 Production process 3.1 Relation to other media creation methods 3.2 Character control 4 Other notable examples 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Engine-specific sites

History

Precedent

In the 1980s, hackers who cracked software—that is, circumvented any built-in security—often attached introductory sequences, or intros, to modified programs to credit themselves. In common usage hacker is generic term for a computer criminal often with a specific specialty in computer intrusion Software cracking is the modification of Software to remove protection methods Copy prevention, trial/demo version serial number hardware key CD check ^[2] As the power of personal computers increased, so did the complexity of these intros. Eventually, the demoscene formed when focus shifted from the cracks to the intros. The demoscene is a Computer art Subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in 3D computer graphics and narratives appeared,^[3] and animation was calculated in real-time,^[4] but without the use of a pre-existing game engine. 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer A game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of computer and video games ^[3]

Disney Interactive Studios' 1992 computer game Stunt Island allowed users to create movies by placing props and cameras, orchestrating flying stunts, and splicing takes together. Disney Interactive Studios Inc (initially Walt Disney Computer Software, later Disney Interactive and Buena Vista Games Inc Events Notable releases Namco releases Suzuka 8 Hours, Bakuretsu Quiz Ma-Q Dai Bouken, Stunt Island is a Computer game designed by Adrian Stephens and Ronald J ^[5] The following year, id Software's computer game Doom included the ability to record gameplay as sequences of events later replayed in real-time by the game engine. id Software (ɪd officially is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Doom (officially cased DOOM) is a 1993 Computer game by Id Software that is a landmark title in the First-person shooter Because events, not video frames, were recorded, the saved game demo files were small and easily shared among players,^[6] thus developing, as Henry Lowood of Stanford University wrote, "a context for spectatorship. A game demo is an often but not always freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released computer or video game. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in … The result was nothing less than a metamorphosis of the player into a performer. "^[7] The game also allowed for third-party modifications, maps, and software tools, thus revising the concept of game authorship. Mod or modification is a term generally applied to Computer games especially First-person shooters RPGs and Real-time strategy games ^[8]

Doom's 1996 successor, Quake, offered new opportunities for both gameplay and customization,^[9] while retaining the ability to record demos. Quake is a First-person shooter Computer game that was released by Id Software on June 22, 1996. ^[10] Multiplayer games became popular, almost a sport; demo files of matches between teams of players, or clans, were recorded and studied. A multiplayer game is a Game which is played by several players. In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is a group of players who regularly play together in a particular (or various different Multiplayer games ^[11] Paul Marino, executive director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, noted that deathmatches, a type of multiplayer game, became more "cinematic". Paul Marino is an award-winning Film director, producer, Animator, Voice actor, and author currently focused on Machinima, the art The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences ( AMAS) is a Non-profit organization dedicated to the development and advocacy of the Machinima industry ^[10] At this point, the demo files produced were documented gameplay with no narrative. ^[12]

Quake movies

On October 26, 1996, a well-known clan, the Rangers, surprised the Quake community with the release of Diary of a Camper, which became the first machinima film to be widely viewed and distributed. Diary of a Camper is a short 1996 American film made using Id Software 's 1996 First-person shooter computer game Quake Events 740 - An Earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is a group of players who regularly play together in a particular (or various different Multiplayer games United Ranger Films was a Machinima production group responsible for the first examples of machinima Diary of a Camper is a short 1996 American film made using Id Software 's 1996 First-person shooter computer game Quake This short, 100-second demo file contained the action and gore of many others, but in the context of a story,^[13] rather than the usual deathmatch. ^[11] Although its narrative was simple, it established the machinima genre; so-called Quake movies quickly became popular. Dedicated demo-processing tools, such as Uwe Girlich's Little Movie Processing Center (LMPC) and David "crt" Wright's non-linear editor Keygrip, were developed;^[14] the latter became "known as the Adobe Premiere for Quake demo files". "NLE" redirects here For the standardized test see National Latin Examination. Adobe Premiere Pro is a Real-time, timeline based Video editing software application Distribution and review sites for Quake movies appeared; among these were The Cineplex, Psyk's Popcorn Jungle, and the Quake Movie Library. Notable works include^[15] Clan Phantasm's Devil's Covenant, the first feature-length Quake movie; Avatar and Wendigo's Blahbalicious, which won seven Quake Movie Oscars;^[16] and Clan Undead's Operation Bayshield, which used simulated lip synching. Feature length is a film term that refers to the length of a Feature film. Blahbalicious is a Machinima film made using the Quake game engine Operation Bayshield is an irreverent Machinima film made using the Quake game engine Lip-sync or Lip-synch (short for lip Synchronization) is a technical term for matching lip movements with voice ^[17]

In December 1997, id Software released Quake II, which included support for user-created 3-D models. Quake II, released on December 9 1997, is a First person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed The community continued to create films with the original Quake until editing tools were adapted to the new game. New Quake I productions included the Apartment Huntin' by the ILL Clan and Scourge Done Slick by the Quake done Quick group. The ILL Clan is a Machinima production The ILL Clan is a Machinima production Quake done Quick is a series of Machinima and Speedrun movies in which Quake, its mission Quake done Quick is a series of Machinima and Speedrun movies in which Quake, its mission Throughout 1998, Quake II editing tools were released; among them was Keygrip 2. 0, which supported recamming, the ability to adjust camera locations after recording. Paul Marino called this feature "a defining moment for [m]achinima" because of its power and flexibility. ^[18] The first Quake II machinima production made entirely with user-created models was Strange Company's 1999 film Eschaton: Nightfall. Strange Company is a group of Machinima creators and distributors based in Edinburgh, Scotland. ^[19]

The December 1999 release of id Software's Quake III Arena posed a problem to the Quake movie community. Quake III Arena or Quake 3, abbreviated as Q3A or Q3, is a Multiplayer First-person shooter The game's demo file format included information needed by the networking code; to prevent cheating, id warned that revealing these details was grounds for legal action. Thus, the editing tools used for previous games could not be upgraded to work with Quake III. Around this time, too, the novelty of Quake movies was disappearing; as Marino explained, "Simply said, the joke was getting old. " New productions became less frequent, and the community needed to "reinvent itself" to offset this. ^[20]

Modern era

In January 2000, Hugh Hancock, the founder of Strange Company, launched a new website, Machinima.com. Strange Company is a group of Machinima creators and distributors based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Machinimacom (məˈʃiːnɨmə or /məˈʃɪnɨmə/ is a Website, operated by Machinima Inc The new term machinima surprised the community;^[21] it arose as a misspelling of machinema, a contraction of machine cinema, and was intended to dissociate the in-game film production process from a specific engine. A game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of computer and video games ^[22] The variant with the additional i stuck because it included a reference to anime. (anime in Japanese, The site included tutorials, interviews, articles, and the exclusive release of Tritin Films' Quad God. The first film made with Quake III Arena, Quad God was also the first to be created by recording game-produced video frames, not game-specific instructions. ^[23] This technique was initially controversial among machinima producers who had preferred demo files and their smaller sizes. However, because it was recorded in a traditional video format, Quad God was accessible to a wider audience, and was distributed on magazine-bundled CDs. ^[24]

Machinima soon began to receive mainstream notice. In June 2000, Roger Ebert called it an "extraordinary" new art form and praised Strange Company's machinima setting of Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias". Roger Joseph Ebert (iːbɝt born June 18, 1942) is an American film critic and Screenwriter. Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4 1792 – July 8 1822 ˈpɝːsɪ ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛlɪ was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among ^[25] The ILL Clan's 2000 film Hardly Workin' won Best Experimental and Best in SHO awards at Showtime Network's 2001 Alternative Media Festival. The ILL Clan is a Machinima production Showtime is a subscription television Brand used by a number of channels and platforms around the world but primarily refers to a group of channels in the United During production of his 2001 film Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Steven Spielberg used Unreal Tournament to test scenes involving special effects. The year 2001 in film involved some significant events (For more about non-English films check sources in those languages Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (Hon (born December 18 1946 is an American Film director, Screenwriter and producer. Unreal Tournament is a First-person shooter Video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. ^[26] Game developers became interested, too: In July 2001, Epic Games announced that Matinee, a machinima production utility, would ship with its upcoming game Unreal Tournament 2003. Epic Games, also known as Epic and formerly as Epic MegaGames, is a Video game development company based in Cary North Carolina, United Unreal Tournament 2003 or UT2003 is a First-person shooter Video game designed mainly for Multiplayer gaming ^[27] As involvement increased, machinima releases became less frequent in favor of higher quality. ^[27]

In March 2002, five machinima makers—Anthony Bailey, Hugh Hancock, Katherine Anna Kang, Paul Marino, and Matthew Ross—met at the Game Developers Conference and formed the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, which held the first Machinima Film Festival during QuakeCon in August of that year. Katherine Anna Kang is a Machinima Film producer and Video game industry figure The Game Developers Conference ( GDC) is the largest annual gathering of professional Video game developers focusing on learning inspiration and networking The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences ( AMAS) is a Non-profit organization dedicated to the development and advocacy of the Machinima industry The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences ( AMAS) is a Non-profit organization dedicated to the development and advocacy of the Machinima industry QuakeCon is a bring-your-own-computer ( BYOC) Computer gaming event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA At the event, which was covered by mainstream media, Anachronox: The Movie, by Jake Hughes and Tom Hall, won three awards, including Best Picture. Anachronox (əˈnækrənɒks is a 3-D, third person Computer role-playing game produced by Tom Hall and the Ion Storm games ^[28] The next year, In the Waiting Line, directed by Tommy Pallotta, became the first machinima music video to air on MTV. Tommy Pallotta (born May 25, 1968, in Houston Texas) is an American Film director and producer. Tommy Pallotta (born May 25, 1968, in Houston Texas) is an American Film director and producer. MTV ( Music Television) is an American Cable television network based in New York City. As graphics technology improved, other games and consumer-grade video editing software were used to create machinima. The second season of Rooster Teeth Productions' popular comedy series Red vs. Blue, created with Bungie Studios' Halo series of video games, opened at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 2004. This is a list of episodes for season 2 of the Machinima comedy series Red vs Rooster Teeth Productions is an award-winning production group from Buda Texas that specializes in the creation of Machinima, or films created using real-time interactive Red vs Blue The Blood Gulch Chronicles, often abbreviated as RvB, is a Machinima Comic science fiction video series created Bungie is an American Video game developer founded in May 1991 under the name Halo is a Science fiction Video game franchise created by Bungie and owned and published by Microsoft Game Studios. ^[29]

Machinima has also appeared on television. " Make Love Not Warcraft " is episode 147 of Comedy Central 's animated series South Park which first aired on October 4 2006 Time Commanders, a BBC television show in which players re-enacted historic battles, used Creative Assembly's real-time game Rome: Total War. Time Commanders is a series of programmes made by Lion TV for BBC Two that ran for two seasons from 2003 to 2005 Creative Assembly (officially The Creative Assembly Ltd) is a British Video game developer established on 28 August 1987 Rome Total War (often abbreviated to RTW or Rome) is a critically acclaimed Strategy game composed of both Turn-based ^[30] The MTV2 television show Video Mods re-creates music videos using characters from video games, such as The Sims 2, BloodRayne and Tribes. MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on Digital cable and Satellite television, and is progressively being Video Mods is a Television show on MTV2 that turns Video games into Music videos Music videos The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation Computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic For the film of the same name see BloodRayne (film. BloodRayne, is a horror -themed third-person action ^[31] In 2006, the creators of the comedy television series South Park used machinima techniques in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment to set parts of an Emmy Award winning episode, "Make Love, Not Warcraft" inside Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. South Park is an animated American television comedy series created and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for Comedy Central Blizzard Entertainment is an American Video game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine California. " Make Love Not Warcraft " is episode 147 of Comedy Central 's animated series South Park which first aired on October 4 2006 A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG ^[32]

As time progressed, more commercial machinima was produced. Red vs. Blue is sold on DVD. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is To promote The Sims 2, Electronic Arts sponsored Rooster Teeth Productions to create a machinima series, The Strangerhood, using the game. In 2005, Volvo sponsored the creation of Game : On, a collaboration of machinima and mainstream advertising. This article is about Volvo Group - AB Volvo Volvo Cars is the passenger vehicle maker owned by Ford Motor Company, using the Volvo Trademark ^[33] In 2007, Electronic Arts commissioned Rooster Teeth to create the first machinima broadcast commercials to promote their Madden NFL 07 video game. Madden NFL 07 is the 2007 edition of the popular Madden NFL series ^[34]

Game developers continue to provide more support for machinima. Products such as Lionhead Studios' 2005 business simulation game The Movies, Linden Research's virtual world Second Life, and Bungie Studios' 2007 first-person shooter Halo 3 encourage the creation of user content through the inclusion of machinima tools. Lionhead Studios is a United Kingdom -based computer game development company led by industry veteran Peter Molyneux, and acquired by Microsoft Game Business simulation games, or economic simulation games, An important facet of economic simulations is the Emergence of artificial systems gameplay and structures The Movies is a Business simulation game created by Lionhead Studios for Microsoft Windows and subsequently ported to Apple Mac OS Linden Lab is a privately held American Internet company that is best known as the creator of Second Life and the Virtual world platform Second Life Grid A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars These avatars are usually depicted Second Life ( abbreviated as SL) and its sister site Teen Second Life are Internet-based 3D Virtual Halo 3 is a First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie exclusively for the Xbox 360. ^[35]

In 2008 HBO bought the Nothern American broadcasting rights for the first machinima documentary, "Molotov Alva And His Serach For The Creator: A Second Life Odyssey". "Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator A Second Life Odyssey" is a Machinima documentary produced entirely inside a Virtual World. The director Douglas Gayeton shot and masteried the entire 52 minute film without ever leaving a spare bedroom on his Northern California farm.

The film later became the first machinima film released by a studio, with screenings in both Los Angeles and New York in September of 2007. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous

Genres

Gameplay and stunt machinima began in 1997 with Quake done Quick. ^[36] Although the project was not the first speedrun, its creators used external programs to manipulate camera positions after recording the speedrun, which, according to Lowood, marked a "shift from cyberathleticism to making movies". ^[37] Stunt machinima remains popular; games commonly used for the genre include Halo: Combat Evolved and Battlefield 1942. Halo Combat Evolved (commonly known as Halo or Halo 1) is a First-person shooter (FPS Video game developed Battlefield 1942 is a 3D World War II First-person shooter (FPS Computer game developed by Swedish company Digital Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd state that stunt videos created with Halo: Combat Evolved offer a new way to look at the game, and compare Battlefield 1942 machinima creators to the Harlem Globetrotters. The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism and Comedy. ^[38] Built-in features for video editing and post-recording camera positioning in Halo 3 are expected to facilitate gameplay machinima. ^[39]

MMORPGs have enabled players to live a different life online. An example of non-stunt gameplay machinima is Miss Galaxies 2004, a beauty pageant that took place in the virtual world of Star Wars Galaxies. Star Wars Galaxies (abbv SWG) is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment Footage was distributed on the cover disc of the August 2004 issue of PC Gamer. PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. ^[40]

With gaming-related inside jokes, comedy offers an entry point for new machinima producers. Many machinima comedies are presented as five-minute sketches, and are analogous to Flash animations found on the Internet. A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated Film which is created using Adobe Flash animation software and often distributed in the ^[36] The ILL Clan, based in New York, pioneered this genre in machinima; their productions include Apartment Huntin' and Hardly Workin'. The most successful machinima series, Red vs. Blue, chronicles a futile civil war. ^[41] Although its humor was game-based, strong writing and characters caused the series to "transcend the typical gamer". ^[42] The series spanned five seasons and 100 episodes. ^[43] An example of comedy targeted at a more general audience is Strange Company's Tum Raider, produced for the BBC in 2004. ^[44]

Although stunts and comedy offer entry points, committed filmmakers more often use machinima for drama. Many such productions bear some resemblance to the original visual setting of the game; for example, Unreal Tournament is used for science fiction, and Battlefield 1942 for war-based themes. Other creators start from the original setting and subvert it, or completely detach their production from the game. For example, in 1999, Strange Company used Quake II to create Eschaton: Nightfall, a horror film based on the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy A later example is Damien Valentine's series Consanguinity, filmed in BioWare's role-playing game Neverwinter Nights and based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. BioWare Corp is a Canadian electronic entertainment company founded in February 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. Fictional narratives (and works of art exist beyond their completion e ^[45]

Another genre consists of experimental works that attempt to push the boundaries of game engines. One example is Fountainhead's Anna, a short film, reminiscent of Fantasia, about the cycle of life. Fantasia is a 1940 Animated film produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. Other productions are designed to look nothing like a 3-D world. Friedrich Kirschner's machinima productions The Tournament and The Journey appear hand-drawn, and deliberately avoid 3-D graphics and photorealism. Fake Science, by Dead on Que, appears two-dimensional, and resembles 1970s Eastern European modernist animation. ^[46]

Production process

Relation to other media creation methods

The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences defines machinima as "animated filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3-D environment". The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences ( AMAS) is a Non-profit organization dedicated to the development and advocacy of the Machinima industry ^[47] In other 3-D animation methods, creators can control every frame and nuance of their characters and must consider issues such as key frames and in-betweening. A key frame in Animation and Filmmaking is a drawing which defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition. Tweening, short for in-betweening is the process of generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that Machinima creators leave many rendering details to, and are thus limited by, their host 3-D environments. Many machinima characters have difficulty crying, hugging, and sitting. ^[48]

Another difference is that machinima is created in real-time, but other forms of animation are pre-rendered. This discrepancy is possible because many real-time engines trade quality for speed, using less sophisticated algorithms and simpler models. For the 2001 animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, every strand of hair on a character's head was modeled independently; in a real-time environment, hair is likely to be treated as a single unit. Final Fantasy The Spirits Within is a Science fiction film by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series of Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd argue that, as consumer-grade graphics technology continues to improve, more realistic effects will be possible;^[49] Paul Marino relates the feasibility of machinima to the increasing computing power predicted by Moore's Law. Paul Marino is an award-winning Film director, producer, Animator, Voice actor, and author currently focused on Machinima, the art Moore's law describes an important trend in the History of computer hardware. ^[50] For cut scenes in video games, issues other than visual fidelity arise: Pre-rendered scenes can consume large amounts of digital storage space, harm the player's suspension of disbelief by contrasting with real-time animation of normal gameplay, and limit player interaction by having been already generated. A cut scene is a sequence in a Video game over which the player has little or no control often breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot present Suspension of disbelief or "willing suspension of disbelief" is an aesthetic theory intended to characterize people's relationships to art ^[51]

As in live action, machinima is recorded in real-time, and real people are involved in performing parts and controlling the camera. In contrast, machinima involves less expensive, digital sets and special effects. Set construction is a process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of the production to create the set for a theatrical film or television The illusions used in the Film, Television, Theater, or Entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called Science-fiction and historical settings are feasible. Explosions and stunts can be tried and repeated without monetary cost and risk of injury, and physical constraints of the host environment may differ from those of reality. ^[52]

Character control

Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd define three main paradigms of creating machinima, from simplest and least complex to most powerful: relying on the game's artificial intelligence (AI) to control most actions, digital puppetry, and precise scripting of actions. Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers One game that encourages the use of the first technique is The Sims 2, which has built-in recording capabilities. The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation Computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Although simple to produce, results dependent on AI are unpredictable, and can resemble home movies. Home movies are motion pictures made by Amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends Incorporating a preconceived script can be difficult; when Rooster Teeth produced The Strangerhood, they had to use multiple instances of each character in different moods to achieve the intended result. ^[53]

In digital puppetry, machinima creators become virtual actors; each puppeteer controls a character in real-time, as in a multiplayer game. Either one or more crew members become camera operators by capturing footage from their characters' perspectives, or the director uses the game's built-in camera controls. Advantages of puppetry are that it allows for improvisation and controls familiar to gamers; a drawback is the personnel requirement. ^[54]

Scripting, the paradigm closest to older animation methods, became popular with third-party machinima creators due to Matinee, a machinima tool included with Unreal Tournament 2004. Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic First-person shooter computer game A technique commonly used by game companies to create cut scenes, scripting involves the specification of precise actions for every character, allowing for fine-grained control. Although a single person can do this, unlike puppeteering, the process of perfecting these commands can be time-consuming, and effects of changes cannot be seen immediately; in this respect, Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd compare scripting to stop motion animation. Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own ^[55]

Other notable examples

See also: List of machinima productions

• Portal was the first television experience to machinima. This is a list of notable productions made with Machinima techniques Portal is a former TV show which aired on G4. During its two-season run from 2002 - 2004 It aired on G4 for two seasons largely playing on comedy. It took many MMORPGs, with exceptions like the Sims Online and Second Life. It also had the main host in live action.
• Red vs. Blue a Halo Machinima based on the multiplayer teams of Halo. Red vs Blue The Blood Gulch Chronicles, often abbreviated as RvB, is a Machinima Comic science fiction video series created HaLo ( Ayako Hirakata) is a Japanese J-Pop Musician. Hirakata can be heard on Lori Carson 's The Finest Thing. Red vs. Blue had an engaging, well thought storyline and characters that were unforgettable. Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles lasted 5 seasons spanning over 10 hours which began on April 1, 2003 and ended on June 28, 2007. A new series, dubbed Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction, began on May 26, 2008.
• Borg War is a feature-length Star Trek-themed movie whose raw footage was generated with two games: Elite Force 2 (a Quake III variant), and Starfleet Command 3. ^[56]
• The largest project yet made with Pacific Fighters/IL-2 Sturmovik is Faith, Hope and Charity, nominated for Best Direction, Best Story and Best Visual Design at the Machinima Festival Europe in 2007.
• Strange Company's BloodSpell is a feature-length "punk fantasy" series about a world where "Blooded" mages spill their blood to use their magic, and are hunted by the black-clad Church of the Angels, it created an entirely original storyline. Strange Company is a group of Machinima creators and distributors based in Edinburgh, Scotland. BloodSpell is a 2006 Fantasy film produced by Strange Company. It was mentioned in the Suicide Girls website, the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper, and mega-blog BoingBoing. SuicideGirls is a Website that features Softcore Pin-up -style photos and text profiles of goth, punk and indie-styled young For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. ^[57] A "Director's Cut" feature is due to premiere at the Machinima Europe festival in October 2007.
• Relic Entertainment's Company of Heroes, a 3D real time strategy game for the PC, with some built in machinima capability, was released in September 2006. Relic Entertainment is a Canadian game development company that specializes in 3D Real-time strategy games and has released a number of innovative Company of Heroes ( CoH) is a Real-time strategy computer game developed by Relic Entertainment. To publicize the game, Relic produced an eleven-minute in-game machinima piece, which subsequently won the award for Best Virtual Performance: Custom Animation at the 2006 Machinima Film Festival. The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences ( AMAS) is a Non-profit organization dedicated to the development and advocacy of the Machinima industry
• A notable example of Half-Life 2 machinima is A Few Good G-Men, a machinima produced from the famous courtroom scene from Rob Reiner's film A Few Good Men. Half-Life 2 is a Science fiction First-person shooter computer game and the sequel to the highly acclaimed Half-Life Robert "Rob" Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American Actor, director, producer, Writer, and A Few Good Men is a play by Aaron Sorkin, first produced on Broadway by David Brown in 1989
• One of the most notable features of Half-Life 2's Source engine is Faceposer's ability to take any voices in sound form and have an ingame character automatically lipsynch to the words. The Source engine is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. A fairly known example is I'm Still Seeing Breen, by Paul Marino, set to music by Breaking Benjamin. Paul Marino is an award-winning Film director, producer, Animator, Voice actor, and author currently focused on Machinima, the art Paul Marino is an award-winning Film director, producer, Animator, Voice actor, and author currently focused on Machinima, the art Breaking Benjamin is an Alternative metal band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
• During the release of Sam & Max Season One, developer Telltale Games also released fifteen short machinima cartoons in between episodes. Telltale Incorporated is a Video game developer based in San Rafael California and founded in June 2004 The shorts range from one to two minutes in length and typically feature Sam and Max interacting with locations and characters from the most recent episode, though the shorts are not part of Season One's storyline. For the 2007 Independent Games Festival, Telltale Games also created several machinima shorts, in which Sam and Max greet the attendees and make cracks about game design. The Independent Games Festival ( IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry
• Similar to Half-Life 2's machinima capabilities, Crytek's CryENGINE 2 is capable of complex facial animation as well as choreographed animations. One of the first narrative examples of these techniques being applied is Eden: The Zhang Chronicles from Big Push Productions. It is set for 12-episodes.
• A full-length (90 minute) remake of the H. G. Wells The War of the Worlds, about a group of computer servers being attacked by new users, called War of the Servers, has been released by Lit Fuse films on DVD and online (in two parts). The War of the Worlds (1898 by H G Wells, is an early Science fiction Novel which describes an invasion of England by
• Another example using the Halo series as a platform, This Spartan Life was a talkshow rather than the more common story style machinima. This Spartan Life is an award-winning Talk show created by Bong + Dern Productions and produced and directed by Chris Burke who hosts the show under the Pseudonym The series has featured several notable guests including the audio director of the Halo games.

Notes

References

External links

• Machinima at the Open Directory Project
• Machinima for Dummies, supported by a blog with errata and additional content

Engine-specific sites

• Warcraft Movies, a resource for World of Warcraft machinima
• Flight Sim Machinima, links to flight-sim machinima

The Open Directory Project ( ODP) also known as dmoz (from directory

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