Some of my favourite machinima fall into the first 2 categories, but these need little explanation in terms of structure and composition.
Structured Stories by contrast can benefit immensely from a properly considered storyboarding of the plot, its developement, key points and conclusion...
In the realm of Narrative Machinima, there are again further sub divisions including Humour, Suspense, Action, Romance, Social Causes & etc....
To begin with What;
It is helpful to have a clear idea in mind at the outset of any machinima project of its style and subject matter, such as wanting to make a Humourous, or Dramatic Action film about subject A or exploring environment B or etc.
Having this objective to the front will enable your subsequent plans to develop in an integrated way.
I will assume that you already have a 3Dimensional platform that you prefer, in my case I am using the free systems of SecondLife, InWorldz, and ocassionally explore further VR's.
The Sims, and World of Warcraft also seem to be quite popular with their own set of machinima makers.
Be aware however that each system brings its own limitations.
It can be challenging to explore the capabilities differing VR worlds offer, in terms of visual graphics, animations, ablity to be autonomous or extent to which one's Avatar is confined to pre-programmed movements or etc, but is a good idea to find a system with which you are happiest and not necessarily to mix them in a project.
However if you are skilled in more than one VR and can do so sucessfully, a combined film can work to excellent effect playing off the contrasting styles againsst each other, as Phaylen has done with her hilarious DIVAS Season2 Episode3 using a combination of SecondLife and World of Warcraft.
A word on iClone.
Whilst I find their productions to be remarkble, such as Anima Technica & abukhatar's Voyages of the Sojourner, and do rate them very highly, I do not discuss the techniques employed in making these machinima because iClone is a 3D rendering and animation software program that enables users to make 3D animated films based on their own computers, not an MMOG or Massively Multiplayer Online Game 3D Environment which I am working in.
To be clear, the iClone film maker will have to 'make everything' you see on his film, and whilst similar considerations may apply re story and camera angles etc,
the business of finding these & actors & animations etc is very different.
Often I find that the most challenging or fun ideas present themselves at inopportune moments and therefore start out life as a hasty sketch, note or title on the back of an envelope, to be expanded later.
Once I get some free time, I fill out the initial sketch by creating a storyboard progression for it, sometimes taking a few days googling for facts to rearange into a screenplay, othertimes writting a poem or piece of prose that will serve to structure the project.
I have just discovered Celtx however and downloaded the free edition, which claims to be perfect for producing all types of media - film, video, documentary, theatre, machinima, comics, advertising, video games, music video, radio, podcasts, videocasts...
The entire production, allegedly, can be managed in and from Celtx - from writing scripts, storyboard scenes and sequences, sketch setups, develop characters, breakdown & tag elements, schedule productions, to preparng and circulating informative reports for cast and crew....
If anybody has any helpful tips on the use of Celtx, please do share them in comments below.
About Who,
Once you are clear of What your story will be about, is the time to consider the leading characters, and most crucially....their avaliablility.
Whilst many machinima may feature the machinima maker as the lead character(s), this is not necessarily because of their ambition for fame and public recognition haha, but more likely due to the difficulties of getting willing and cooperative Virtual Actors, who are avaliable in one's own World Time Zone.
It is for example very frustrating when trying to film a scene or sequence to find that Actor A was unable to get up at what for him is 3am, but for you (and the other assembled cast) may be 12 noon, to take part as agreed..
If you can collect/develop a small group of Actors within your own Time Zone, that would be a great advantage,
if not...perhaps gathering a troupe from across various Time Zones who may be ready to stand in for one another would be a way to work around this challenge.
This would however result in more complicated duplication of texts to be learned, clothing and animations to be made, bought or shared..
No easy answers on the question of Who then, but lots of ad hoc innovation.
Where, may be a key consideration in creating the type of feeling that you want in your machinima project.
For example whilst some films rely on more closely filmed relations between people and so would not need much by way of environment, others rely heavily on location to set the scene, ie a Gothic Horror could be a bit lost if filmed entirely at Welcome Island and a moody Romance might benefit from windswept moors and heaths etc.
Very important in arranging your prefered Sim Location, will be negotiating permission and possible 'Rezz Rights' to allow you to use your props, from the Land Owner.
If a Sim owner was not approached and subsequently denies the right to film on their land, this could result in a lost film and a lot of wasted effort.
Alternately, to arrange permissions with the Land Owner can add substantially to your project as they may arrange a 'people free period' for you to film in undisturbed, and they may enrol Actors from their own Sim group.
It can also make a machinima more interesting if a number of locations and even contrasting Sims are used, as this will add to visual diversity and so provide the viewer with more to see, as well as represent differing stages in the story.
Once it is clear What the story will be, Who the lead and supporting Actors are & Where the Sim Locations (and precise coordinates on each of these, to Teleport late arrivals or additional extras)
We may consider the How to do the filming;
In terms of software for filming, this will be largely system specific depending on wether you are using a Windows XP or MAC OSX computer.
Controlling your Camera Angles;
I had struggled like many to get smooth movements in my machinima by directing the screen action via my keyboard mouse, until I was introoduced to the remarkable
3D SpaceNavigator, which really is like reaching into the screen and holding/moving the Avatar with your hand, in 3 dimensions rather than just right/left forwards/backwards.
This tool replaces use of mouse when filming in 3D VR's(though some machinima makers use both simultaeneoauly)and I cannot recommend thsi highly enough to any would be machinima maker.
Be aware however that you will need to configure its speed of movement and rotation, otherwise you may find it to be too fast and flexible for easy use, but practise practise practise will deliver the best results that simply are not acheivable without it.
Here is Torley's introduction to the 3D SpaceNavigator
Whilst some of the 3D VR's have inbuilt cameras for recording their games... these had not appealed to me and so I used initially
CamStudio, a free screen recording software that you can set up (via you tube tutorials) to record full screeen and sound.
I found CamStudio most suited however for use in small projects, and found that because of my computer preferences changing, I would prefer a more dedicated software for use in recording games.
I now use Frapps, which offers a free version and a paid version.
The free version records only short lengths of film and must be constantly restarted, it also embeds a company logo at top center of your recorded AVI footage, which you can remove by editing the portion of film used in your film editing software.
The paid version does not embed a logo and does not stop after a short period, perhaps 10 seconds or so, but will run as long as you require.
Note on finding your AVI footage once recorded via Frapps, go to your Frapps icon, right click and choose Open File Folder(F), select MOVIES, and 'Send Shortcut to Desktop'.
Note on AVI files;
Audio Video Interleave or AVI files, are a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft which contains both audio and video data in a high quality file that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.
Avi Video files however are often unmanageably large due to the extent of information encoded in them.
Whilst the prefered file to record film footage with due to the high quality they offer, they also fill up your hard disk, slow down your PC, get too big to be copied to other computers, and can be almost impossible to distribute over the Internet.
For this reason you will ussually Compress your Avi files, and this may be done before use in a Video editing softawre, or in some cases such as the Serif MoviePlusX3 which I use, they will be compressed in the Video editing software.
There are many Avi Compression softwares that you might use, although I cannot recommend any as I have not used them, however colleague machinima makers tell me that
Virtual Dub is a good system.
If you know of others or better, please do share them in the comments below.
Another freeware alternative which I have just been introduced to is
OxelonVersion 1.1 Supported Operating Systems: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and has a vast range of output formats....
So, you have your recorded Avi files, possibly on a folder on your desktop, if necessary then compressed for use, if not necessary..then ready to edit,
and now you need your Video editing software:
As mentioned, I use Serif MoviePlusX3, because it is an affordable, all-in-one digital video editing software, produces professional looking movies with a very easy editing process allowing numerous video and audio tracks to be combined.
Serif MoviePlusX3 allows me to import and to edit Avi as well as Audio files (and jpeg images) and to install these in prefered point of film via drag and drop.
There are many others Video editing suites of varying cost and complexity,
including;
Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9
Roxio Creator 2010
Corel DVD Movie Factory Pro 7
I include here my InWorldz Interview with a Vampire machinima, by way of showing how I had structured the story with a spoken introduction, subsequent progressive sscenes, and a conclusion of sorts...
Good Luck with your projects.
Very helpful, thanks Celestial. I'll take a look at Fraps as I am just not that happy with CamStudio.
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