Lunchtime Discussion: Machinima

Kris Lipscombe 25 Comments

If you don’t know what machinima is it’s essentially videos made using a game. In most cases it’s all put together by users, and quite often it’s done without the game supporting it. A lot of modern games do support some kind of theater mode that makes the whole thing easier to pull off, but if you go back to early examples it’s clear that the whole thing is just being recorded by another player.

Now personally I absolutely love machinima. For a start it’s a great way to show off just how cool a games engine actually looks, but mostly I just find what people pull off is amazing. If you go back and look at the early series of Red vs. Blue (my favourite series) they shot scenes that look pretty incredible using only standard multiplayer. They got aerial shots by using a ‘cameraman’ on the turret of a tank and used a bug in the original Halo (the game that’s used to create Red vs. Blue) to make characters position their gun down whilst looking up. To me figuring out how to pull off those kinds of tricks is what amazes me about the whole concept of machinima, you’re often doing things that even the developers didn’t know you could do.

Of course with modern theatre modes the whole thing is easier to pull off, but that just raises the production values and makes the things they pull off even crazier. I love the fact that Uncharted 2 gave a green screen option, although I don’t know if I’ve seen anyway use the mode yet. When I do it’s going to be incredibly interesting.

So do you love machinima too, or am I just a bit weird (for this in particular, I’m very weird in general). Is it just a waster of resources for developers to be supporting this in games?

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25 Comments

  1. i LOVE RvB, have them all on DVD and various T-Shirts, one of the best shows on the internet!

    • Same, getting Revelation on DVD this christmas. :D

  2. I don’t understand the lack of video coming out of Uncharted 2

    The green screen is/was groundbreaking on the PS3, but I’ve seen nothing similar to red vs blue come out of it. Odd.

  3. Can’t be bothered with it at all. Don’t know why. Just not for me, I guess.

  4. I watched season 1,2,3,almost all of 4 (don’t know why I didn’t watch all of it) and all of 5 of RvB. It’s great. Haven’t been bothered with any other machinima though.

  5. Machinima is excellent. Recently I have got into watching RvB. It’s amazing to see such a well made show come out of a game. It’s a shame that nothing has really come out of Uncharted 2 from the Green Screen yet.

    • I wonder if it’s because people didn’t know about it? I certainly didn’t until just now, but then maybe I’m just a bit slow.

  6. The only one I know of is RvB, are there any other good ones I’m missing out on?

    • The DC Chronicles (Fallout 3 machinima) was really good.
      Also The Strangerhood (also made by Rooster Teeth) is excellent also.

  7. Not actually a concept I’d heard of, having fallen well and truly into the category described in the bold type at the top of the discussion.

    Shame I am not able to youtube red vs blue at work, as I;d be able to see what all the fuss is about!

  8. Examples?

    I’ve seen people replicate skate video parts using similar spots in Skate 3 which is pretty awesome.

  9. I’ve not seen RvB before, though I was impressed by the Eve Online machinima, Clear Skies – a rather funny couple of 40 minute episodes, with the space-based sections built using the Eve engine, and the interior shots using Half Life 2.

  10. I guess the best example of this is the red dead advert/mini film that was shown on terrestrial tv during a couple of ad breaks when the game was released.

    Where can I watch rvb? Is it a you tube thang?

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