2 great machinima short films

[sconlogue]

These are well put together, and the second is even touching.

But Antics being used here raises the question: Is this machinima?

IMHO I don't think you can call these machinima. Antics is a product for animation playback via game engine tech that has some real-time elements to it, but it is basically a tool built for making animations, with a timeline, assest library etc. True machinima on the other hand is supposed to be "Animated" with programs / games not originally intended for that purpose using in game capabilities and maybe mod tools for sets / characters. The hacking together of an animation within a game is what makes machinima difficult and interesting. Do a similar vid in second-Life or HL2 and then you have some real machinima. Otherwise you are just adding realtime tools to an established animation work-flow. Nothing hard about that. I think products like Antics have a place in pre-vis but I can't go along with calling them machinima. Though even wiki flip flops on this point so maybe I'm just a purist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima

[torresmedia]

The first one was vell done, but the only thing I got to say is when your finalazing the movie: turn on progressive scan (in the movie edit program), so that you don't get thoose line distortins in the final movie...

The second does not have that problem. The story is quit tuching :) Nice....

[BradKolacinski]

These are well put together, and the second is even touching.

But Antics being used here raises the question: Is this machinima?

IMHO I don't think you can call these machinima. Antics is a product for animation playback via game engine tech that has some real-time elements to it, but it is basically a tool built for making animations, with a timeline, assest library etc. True machinima on the other hand is supposed to be "Animated" with programs / games not originally intended for that purpose using in game capabilities and maybe mod tools for sets / characters. The hacking together of an animation within a game is what makes machinima difficult and interesting. Do a similar vid in second-Life or HL2 and then you have some real machinima. Otherwise you are just adding realtime tools to an established animation work-flow. Nothing hard about that. I think products like Antics have a place in pre-vis but I can't go along with calling them machinima. Though even wiki flip flops on this point so maybe I'm just a purist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima

Thanks for the post. I understand your questioning that these clips be considered as machinima and maybe as a purist, Antics doesn't fall into machinima, as these clips are not produced out of a game, albeit gaming technology. In looking at the Wiki definition, Antics would be considered machinima, as its output is computer-generated imagery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery) (CGI) rendered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_%28computer_graphics%29) using real-time, interactive 3-D (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_computer_graphics) engines, such as those of games, instead of professional 3D animation software. In this case, Antics wouldn't fall into the category of professional 3D animation software, as they are alluding to products more like Maya, Max, Lightwave, XSI, Cinema 4D, etc. Consequently, the rendering can be done in real-time using PCs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer) (either using the computer of the creator or the viewer), rather than with complex 3D engines using huge render farms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_farm).

I definitely understand that the machinima movement arose out of the gaming world and that it's roots were founded in a hacker/modder mentality. I guess one of the points you've made that sticks out in my mind is that the whole modder mentality is what makes machinima "difficult and interesting" and that making the animated clips in a tool like Antics isn't difficult or much of an accomplishment, but making them in 2nd life or Halo would be true machinima and intrinsically more difficult and remarkable.

I guess my counter-argument would be that isn't making it easier the whole point? It seems to me that the reason the machinima community is burgeoning is that it is making 3D animation more accessible. Certainly, the work that is produced with Maya, Max, Lightwave, XSI, etc. is far more visually complex and wowing to look at, but these tools require years of learning curve and their costs are also very high.

The machinima movement has basically democratized the creative process and now any average gamer can produce 3D animated movies to share their vision and filmmaking prowess. With Antics, it's just taking that idea of making 3D animation even more accessible by removing the obstacles of modding/hacking and allowing anyone to produce 3D animated movies outside of games environments with custom characters that can still be modded and integrated into other product workflows, which most machinima does as well.

I look forward to your response and others chiming in on the lively academic debate, but maybe I'll concede that Antics isn't purist machinima in the gaming sense, but rather that it's 3D animation made simple, which I don't think is a bad thing at the end of the day.

[BradKolacinski]

The first one was vell done, but the only thing I got to say is when your finalazing the movie: turn on progressive scan (in the movie edit program), so that you don't get thoose line distortins in the final movie...

The second does not have that problem. The story is quit tuching :) Nice....

Thanks for the note about the progressive scan setting...

[sconlogue]

The machinima movement has basically democratized the creative process and now any average gamer can produce 3D animated movies to share their vision and filmmaking prowess. With Antics, it's just taking that idea of making 3D animation even more accessible by removing the obstacles of modding/hacking and allowing anyone to produce 3D animated movies outside of games environments with custom characters that can still be modded and integrated into other product workflows, which most machinima does as well.

Point well taken. I guess I am old school when it comes to my machinima. I think of RED VS BLUE etc.. It will be interesting to see how Machinima develops outside of the game niche. Perhaps a new form altogether is being created. Products like NVIDIAS Gelato thrown into the mix make things even more interesting. Using the power of todays graphics cards to shortcut the render process and drastically cut down on the cost of Pre-rendered animation could change the whole game down the road.

[BradKolacinski]

Point well taken. I guess I am old school when it comes to my machinima. I think of RED VS BLUE etc.. It will be interesting to see how Machinima develops outside of the game niche. Perhaps a new form altogether is being created. Products like NVIDIAS Gelato thrown into the mix make things even more interesting. Using the power of todays graphics cards to shortcut the render process and drastically cut down on the cost of Pre-rendered animation could change the whole game down the road.

Yes, I could definitely see this whole movement developing into 2 major paths: games machinima and maybe real time content software, like Antics. Certainly, the gamers are more likely to stay put in the gaming world, but the animation hobbyists and more traditional creatives would gravitate towards Antics.

Do you use Nvidia Gelato?

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