Machinima facts for kids

Machinima is a cool way to make movies and animations using video games! It's like using a video game as your movie set and the game's characters as your actors. You record what happens in the game, then add voices and edit it all together.

Think of it as making a 3D animated film, but instead of drawing everything from scratch, you use a game's world. This can make it much faster to create than regular animated movies.

Machinima films often show off game stunts or gameplay. But they can also tell stories like dance videos, comedies, or dramas. Some creators even try to make their films look less like a game and more like a regular movie.

There's an organization called the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS). It's a group that helps promote machinima. They even give out awards called "Mackies" at their yearly Machinima Film Festival. Some game companies like Epic Games and Blizzard Entertainment have also held contests for machinima creators.

How Machinima Movies Are Made

The AMAS says machinima is "animated filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3-D environment." This means you create movies inside a 3D game world as things happen.

In other types of 3D animation, creators control every tiny detail. But with machinima, you use the game's built-in movements and looks. This can limit what characters can do, like showing many different emotions. However, experts say a few emotions are often enough for a good story.

Another big difference is that machinima is made in real time. This means the computer creates the images as you record them. Other animations are "pre-rendered," which takes a lot longer. Real-time graphics need to be fast, so they might not look as detailed as pre-rendered films. But as game technology gets better, machinima films look more and more realistic.

Just like making a live-action movie, machinima is recorded as it happens. Real people can control the characters and the camera. Filmmakers often follow movie rules, like how to use the camera. But unlike live-action, machinima has cheap digital special effects and sets. You can have explosions and stunts over and over without cost or danger.

In 2002 and 2003, the University of Cambridge tried to remake a scene from the movie Casablanca using machinima. They found that character expressions were limited. But camera movements were much more flexible and could be made up on the spot.

Machinima is a mix of old and new ways of making films. It uses modern 3D games but often tells stories in a straight, linear way. Shows like Red vs. Blue and The Strangerhood are like TV sitcoms. Some machinima can even be performed live with an audience! The ILL Clan made comedy shows on stage, mixing real and virtual acting.

Making machinima can be much cheaper than other types of filmmaking. For example, the film BloodSpell cost less than £10,000 to make. The creators of Red vs. Blue spent only $600 on four Xbox consoles to make their show. This low cost makes it easier for anyone to try filmmaking. It's like a "democratization of filmmaking."

Some creators use platforms like Second Life to make machinima for free! A director named Chantal Harvey has made over 200 films this way. Famous film director Peter Greenaway even judged a machinima film festival because of her work.

Controlling Characters and Cameras

There are a few main ways to make machinima, from simple to more advanced:

• Using Game AI: This means letting the game's computer brains control most actions. It's easy, but the results can be unpredictable. For example, when making The Strangerhood with The Sims 2, creators had to make many versions of each character to get the right mood.
• Digital Puppetry: Here, each person on the film crew controls a character in real time, like playing a multiplayer game. The director can use game cameras or have another person act as a camera operator. This allows for improv, but needs more people and is less exact. Some games, like the Halo series, only allow this method.
• Recamming: This builds on puppetry. First, actions are recorded as a game "demo file," not a video. Then, artists can change the demo file to add cameras, adjust lighting, or change the setting. This is more precise but only works with certain game engines.
• Scripting: This is like giving very exact instructions to the game. A filmmaker can work alone this way. For example, J. Thaddeus Skubis made the long film The Seal of Nehahra by himself. But writing perfect scripts can take a lot of time. This method is like stop-motion animation. Some games might not have good scripting tools. A tool called Matinee, from Unreal Tournament 2004, made scripting popular for machinima.

Solving Challenges

Early machinima creators had to invent ways to edit their films. For example, Eric "ArchV" Fowler wrote his own programs to move the camera in Quake films. Now, people often use regular video editing software.

Machinima creators also find ways around limited character expressions. In the Halo games, characters wear helmets, so you can't see their faces. To show who is talking, the characters in Red vs. Blue move slightly when they speak, just like in some anime.

Some creators use special software to add more facial expressions to their characters. Game companies like Epic Games and Valve Corporation even provide tools for this. Another trick is to mix in non-machinima elements. For example, one film added painted characters with more expressive faces.

Images for kids

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  A scene from Diary of a Camper, an early machinima film.

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  Hugh Hancock started Strange Company and came up with the word machinima.

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  Matt Kelland (left) and Keith Halper at the 2008 Machinima Film Festival with an award.

See also

In Spanish: Machinima para niños