MACHINIMA

3D Animation Movie Making

If you want to make a movie cartoon or a 3D animation, but have tight budget, then a low cost way to do it, is to use a 3D game to generate the action, and a tool such as Windows Movie Maker, (which is included in some versions of Windows) to edit and assemble the movie clips into a complete movie. This low cost technique is known as Machinima.

Machinima is the art of film making, using game engines as the means of producing virtual worlds, characters, objects and action, which are recorded as a movie. Traditionally the software required for making 3D animation movies has been prohibitively expensive for the amateur film maker, whereas 3D games are easily affordable for most individuals. Professional tools usually require a period of batch rendering (i.e. the computer runs in background mode to work out mathematically how shadows and reflections fall, water ripples etc.), 3D game engines render in real-time (i.e. the shadows, reflections, leaves rustling in a strong breeze and water ripples, are generated virtually instantaneously).

Microsoft's 3D Movie Maker could be argued to be one of the first machinima tools, although it was not a game engine, but specifically built for the purpose of making movies. As a software product of the mid 1990s it was basic by today's standards. Because personal computers were not very powerful at that time, the graphics were limited in scope and collision detection far from perfect (i.e. it was possible for parts of characters to disappear into walls etc.). Microsoft abandoned the product early in it's life, which is a pity because until recently I was not aware of any other budget product, that deliberately puts you in the director's seat and gives you all the main tools required to easily make animated 3D movies (Since writing this I have become aware of a product called iClone. More on this later).

One of the most popular Machinima engines today is the game SIMS2. You can select scenery, objects (such as tables and chairs) and characters from a long list of ready provided items, or construct your own with the tools provided. There is also a camera function although I have found this to be rather resource hungry (on my computer the camera films in slow motion, although the end result is normal speed). The biggest difficulty with using SIMS2 as a machinima engine is that SIMs tend to have minds of their own and are not easily directed. People arrive on the set who are not supposed to be there, others depart when they shouldn't and an actress might throw an unexpected tantrum, because you the director forgot to tell her to go to the bathroom or eat some food. Having set up a scene for a SIMS2 movie shoot, you will typically have to film many takes and then end up using only a small fraction of the footage shot in the final movie. Click the SIMS2 Movie Tips button on the left, for some tips I have gleaned, that will help in using SIMS2 to make Machinima.

Other popular Machinima engines are Quake and Unreal Tournament. These games come with tools for creating and editing levels and objects, so that you can create your own sets, and also for creating skeletons and skins for characters. Most of the Machinima I have seen made with these tools are simple shoot-em-ups, which just look like someone recorded a gaming session. I have tried making a movie with Unreal Tournament. I guess I didn't devote enough time to it, since I never did manage to work out how to include a character who was not carrying a weapon of some sort. You can make very high quality sets with the Quake and Unreal Tournament engines, newer versions such as Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004 also include the editing tools and operate on more advanced graphic engines, although the scenes somehow seem to look somewhat ethereal. Ethereal is of course very appropriate for some types of movies.

In practice just about any computer game can be used for shooting Machinima footage. A single movie could be constructed using footage captured from multiple games. Many games do not have an in built movie shooting facility and some of those that do, are resource guzzlers. I recommend using Fraps in there situations. In most cases a well specified PC with plenty of hard drive capacity is essential for smooth movie production.

Once footage has been shot, it needs to be edited, assembled and combined with a sound track, transitions and titles. Windows XP comes with the bundled Windows Movie Maker software, which provides basic facilities for all these actions. There are more sophisticated products available for purchase. I use Pinnacle Studio (I did have problems importing SIMS2 movie captures into Pinnacle Studio and so resorted to using Fraps for movie capture instead).

The final movie can be rendered at various qualities and saved to the computer hard drive. Lower quality (small file) renders can be posted on web sites, whereas higher quality ones (big files) can be burnt to VCDs and / or DVDs and watched on a normal television equipped with a VCD / DVD player.

Since writing all of the above I have come across a product called iClone, which appears to be close to ideal for the purpose of amateur computer generated movie making. Having used the trial version I purchased a copy. Click on the iClone link ine the menu at the top left of this page to read about it and my experiences of using it.