By Kevin Johnson
Machinima is touted as the next new artform. The term refers to movies
made using 3D engine from computer games. Such of a method of movie
creation offers up nearly unlimited possibilities for films as everything
is created in a virtual space. Machinima.com can be considered the
homepage for the machinima movement. While the site is thoroughly
comprehensive, poor design and a slight bias towards game players
bring the site down a little.
The site is home to a new participatory culture and features all
the typical 'community' features such as message boards, mailing lists,
and chat rooms. Also, there is (relatively) easy access to the 100+
movies that have already been made. The site also features tutorials
on how newbies can get into making machinima movies. This part is
kind of a double-edged sword.
There are lots of tutorials covering many of the major 3D game engines
(Quake 2 and 3, Unreal, Half-life) but the page does not group them
in any way other than date posted. Loading the page just gives you
a long list of varied topics and it can take quite a bit of time to
find something useful. Also, since the only way to make these movies
is to be manipulating complex 3D engines, it's really hard to write
a tutorial that's not too complex for people new to gaming. Gamers
will probably be able to deal with all the terminology, but the current
state of the culture intimidates outsiders from trying their hand
at it. Fortunately, there is a group working on the Lithtech Film
Producer - a software package that is made specifically for making
machinima (rather than using little hacks on interactive systems to
make movies). Once this comes out it is very likely that this 'new
art' will begin to have a large following.