more about machinima
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| Red vs. Blue |
A convergence of animation, computer game technology and filmmaking, machinima films are created within the virtual reality of a game engine. Using sophisticated gaming software as the foundation, with its already beautifully realised 3D animated characters and landscapes, machinima-makers create animated films in real-time for a fraction of the cost of traditional computer generated imagery seen in big budget studio films.
With the earliest Machinima films dating back to 1996, Machinima is still a very new art form, but its rapidly growing success over the last 5 years has seen many games developers starting to incorporate movie-making tools into their products. Now when you buy games such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Sims 2 and Half Life 2, you can use their in-house editing tools to make your own movie, post your results on YouTube, and compete in major developer-sponsored filmmaking competitions.
machinima and the mainstream
Machinima techniques are also beginning to be used by Hollywood, with filmmakers such as George Lucas and Peter Jackson (both longtime videogame fans) using games engines during pre-production to create rough 'digital' storyboards of special effects-laiden shots in a movie sequence (known as 'previsualisation').
While existing games engines have been used to create pre-visual sequences for the planes flying around the Empire State Building in the final scenes of King Kong, and the aerial combat scenes in Rob Cohen's Stealth, George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic company recently announced its development of a new previsualisation tool created using a games engine as its base. A collaboration between games developer LucasArts (sister company to Lucasfilm), the new ILM 'previs' software is already being utilised for forthcoming films.
Machinima has also made its way to television - while Machinima-created music videos have appeared on MTV, and South Park recently aired an episode "make Lov, not Warcraft", involving World of Warcraft (one of the most popular games in the production office) in which half of the show featured custom machinima footage.
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