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January 26, 2007
New Series: Machinima Fridays!
Today I'm starting a new series on the ole blog, Machinima Fridays. (I tried to find a way to make that alliterative, but I lack The Spouse's awesomely astonishing alliterative abilities.)
I know that other blogs have series -- Friday Random 10, Around Azeroth, Eye Candy Mondays (which is, technically, safe for work, but you might enjoy it more at home) -- but I don't like following the crowd. If those other blogs were to have Jump Off A Cliff Tuesdays, you can rest assured that, rugged individualist that I am, I wouldn't do it. I think.
No, this is something that hits nearer and dearer to my heart, and I think it'll be a regular feature around here. (At least until my Cybercultural Studies course ends, and I stop cross-posting things from here over there. And vice versa.)
Anyway, machinima is MACHIne-made aNIMAtion, in which the "machines" in question are actually game engines. That's probably not much clearer. The code that makes a PS2 game like Okami produce pretty pictures on your TV screen, or that lets your mighty mighty Night Elf Druid kick monster butt in World of Warcraft is called a game engine. It does lots and lots and lots of math and sends the results to your computer's processor and graphics card, which in turn send lots and lots of pixels to your screen. In other words, game engines usually are used to create game play.
But certain enterprising gamers realized that game engines are also (as part of their normal operation) producing what could be called movies on your monitor. And, either using the features included in the games or screen-capturing programs, those movies could be saved, edited, re-scored, and displayed outside of the game environment.
And presto-magico... machinima was born!
So, each week I'll be introducing you loyal readers (both of you), to a thought-provoking (or sometimes just funny) piece of machinima.
This week's machinima, an amusing trifle to ease us into this new feature, is inspired by the recent YouTube phenomenon LonelyGirl15, who asked "So what is the deal with kissing?" (For more on LonelyGirl15, read this.) Well, mixme1 does his/her/its best, using Lionhead Studios' The Movies game to help Bree out. Check it out.
Special Added Bonus Machinima Cultural Note:
Those wild and crazy innovators at the University of Kansas are now offering a graduate film seminar that will include machinima, apparently as both a subject of study and as something the students will produce. Though similar classes exist at other major research film programs (and Harvard, not usually known as a film mecca) and at schools of design and technology across the world, I salute the Kansas film grads who will finally gain the ability to critique films. As one of the co-teachers of the course, Stacey Fox explains, "'You can’t critique a film unless you’ve made one yourself.'" Good luck, machinimating Jayhawks!
(X-posted, in a slightly redacted manner, to Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at January 26, 2007 6:19 PM