About Machinima

This Is Halloween ~

2011-10-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Obstacle Or Opportunity, This Is Halloween ~

Recently having completed a lengthy Samhain machinima project which entailed lots of research, The Song Of Amergin, A Samhain Story, I still had a VERY halloween type theme floating about in my mind.

After a few days of wondering what it could be, I finally pinned it down to be
Tim Burton's amazing song This is Halloween
from his Nightmare Before Christmas animated film.

Jack Skellington The Pumpkin King

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. Burton wrote a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas when he was a Disney animator in the early-1980s. He took inspiration from television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from 'Halloween Town' who opens a portal to 'Christmas Town'. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. Marilyn Manson also sang a version of the song 'This Is Halloween'.

Believing in the power of serendipity, that random explorations often bear unexpected fruit, I decided that it would be fun to make a short machinima film tribute of the song.
And that's where the first Obstacle stepped in.

Realizing the pitfalls of using copyright controlled and Digitally Fingerprinted music in my machinima, not least of these is that my video hosting accounts could be frozen, blocked and even deleted, but perhaps more thoughtfully the problem of using someone elses creation without their permission, I set about finding a copyright free or creative commons version of the song,
from the Internet Archive here

The Internet Archive

My endeavors rewarded, I found what I was looking for of sorts, I found the music performed by someone other than the Tim Burton-Danny Elfman team, and no it wasn't the excellent Marilyn Manson version either.
The only piece I found however had 'no' copyright permissions details ie the usual set of choices including Attribution But No Derivatives, or the preferred Attribution Derivatives Allowed, as well as others....
My way around this lack I thought was to just post a standard Creative Commons License Attribution Share Alike like this (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) below the film in the credits and hope that as the music recording had not been marked one way or the other, that this would satisfy the 'spy bots' that trawl the video hosting sites for copyright contraventions.

But this still left me another Obstacle, that it was 'just' the music.

Another trawl through the internet and I found plenty of lyrics lists for my chosen song, and whilst I was concerned over the copyright permissions for the music, as many tribute versions of the song have already been performed in theaters as well as uploaded on you tube and etc, provided I give fair attribution and thanks, I think it will be clear and not appear as though I am claiming the lyrics as my own.
We could call this 'fair use' particularly as I have edited the words that I do use, that I do not sell my machinima films anywhere nor make any money from them in any way..

This Is Halloween

Performed by the Citizens of Halloween

SHADOW

Boys and girls of every age

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

SIAMESE SHADOW

Come with us and you will see

This, our town of Halloween

PUMPKIN PATCH CHORUS

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

GHOSTS

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene

Trick or treat till the neighbours gonna die offright 

It's our town,

everybody screamIn this town of Halloween 

CREATURE UNDER BED

I am the one hiding under your bed

Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red

MAN UNDER THE STAIRS

I am the one hiding under your stairs

Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair

CORPSE CHORUS

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

VAMPIRES

In this town we call home

Everyone hail to the pumpkin song

MAYOR

In this town, don't we love it now?

Everybody's waiting for the next surprise

CORPSE CHORUS

Round that corner,

man hiding in the trash can

Something's waiting now to pounce,

and howyou'll scream 

HARLEOUIN DEMON, WEREWOLF,AND MELTING MAN

Scream!

This is Halloween

Red 'n' black, slimy green

WEREWOLF

Aren't you scared?

WITCHES

Well, that's just fine

Say it once, say it twice

Take the chance and roll the dice

Ride with the moon in the dead of night  

HANGING TREE

Everybody scream, everybody scream

HANGED MEN

In our town of Halloween

CLOWN

I am the clown with the tear-away face

Here in a flash and gone without a trace

SECOND GHOUL

I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"

I am the wind blowing through your hair

OOGIE BOOGIE SHADOW

I am the shadow on the moon at night

Filling your dreams to the brim with fright

CORPSE CHORUS

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!Halloween! Halloween!

CHILD CORPSE TRIO

Tender lumplings everywhere

Life's no fun without a good scare

PARENT CORPSES

That's our job, but we're not mean

in our town of Halloween

CORPSE CHORUS

In this town

MAYOR

Don't we love it now?

MAYOR WITH CORPSE CHORUS

Everyone's waiting for the next surprise

CORPSE CHORUS

Skeleton jack might catch you in the back

And scream like a banshee

Make you jump out of your skin

This is Halloween, everyone scream

Won't ya please make way for a very specialguy 

Our man jack is king of the pumpkin patch

Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King now

EVERYONE

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!

CORPSE CHILD TRIO

In this town we call homeEveryone hail to the pumpkin song 

EVERYONE

La la-la la, Halloween! Halloween!

Tim Burton, This Is Halloween.

Whilst this resolved one Obstacle, that of 'what' to sing, it left me with another, that of singing the lyrics, in a suitable voice style, and tempo, to fit the music.

My first four or five attempts were deffinitely dreadful, as it took a while to get into character, but they did improve. I was playing the downloaded mp3 soundfile on my computer into my headphones and singing into the attached microphone at the same time, perhaps bellowing is a better description than singing and I hope that the postman did not hover too long at our door as he would have been very surprised haha.

Anyway, I then found that the computer had excellently recorded ely re-record any that were too bad to use.

Finally, I had my completed song with music and excitedly I uploaded it to test the copyright issues and wether or not my video host would flag it as copyright contravention.

Which it did,

about 3 minutes after the upload had been processed....the repeat plays of the soundfile but completely ommitted my voice efforts, another Obstacle.

So I had to re-sing the whole song, which I did another few times, poor neighbours.

These attempts revealed that my memory for timing and pace, as well as the characterisation of the voices used, were all pretty off.

Next solution, to play the music file in sections and sing-record each phrase directly after, which worked much better as I was able to edit the new voice files onto the music directly and immediately

Another Obstacle, and a threat to my whole account and backlog of uploaded videos...

Quickly I deleted the offending upload.

Not to be beaten however and after quite few hours of messing about shouting the song at my microphone, I decided to try lateral thinking;

If the music itself is under copyright and creating problems,
Then remove the music.

Which I did, and then found that whilst not quite the same, because I had synched my singing to the original sound score and tempo, that the vocals nearly carried the piece well enough...

But not quite, and so with a few more more hours of tinkering with soundfiles downloaded from Royalty Free Creative Commons Attribution and Derrivative Allowed sources,
I completed my audio for my short tribute to this great work.

This Is Halloween by celestialelff

So in each case, every Obstacle that I met on the path to the audio for
This Is Halloween
has proved to be an Opportunity to create practical solutions that respect the original authors rights whilst still allowing myself to fulfill my mission.

Happy Halloween ~

You can't just walk in and start filming a Scene, You have to make it...

2011-08-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

Notes on Preparing The Scene....
Clearly it is not always possible to just arrive on site and start recording film footage, much planning is required, along with permissions to be sought and communication to be established.

Thinking About Scenes;
No scene will usually last very long, possibly 20 or 30 seconds, maybe 1 or 2 minutes at the most.
Whilst some machinima makers have experimented with a longer single scene, it is more usual to use much shorter segments of film to create a scene and vary the camera angles and views etc etc to maintain a visual flow, each section lasting maybe 3-10 seconds length....
But this short time can take from 10 or 30 minutes to arrange and set up because you will have to consider and prepare the 'wind-light' settings for sky and sea,
as well as the camera angles and camera views you will use at each location,
plus which animations to use and whether you have got them or need to set them on the ground or wear them.

Also remember to film a few 'takes' in case of error and to provide backup,
to cover each section of the scene.

And this is just for ONE Scene and must be done for EACH scene/location :D
The times I have filmed group scenes involving actors I have come on previous days or times and done all of the above setting up before they even arrive on the sets.

Re landmarks;
To set up landmarks,
In the first case you will need to locate your preferred land locations and views/sights,and bookmark them, lest you forget the name or location...
then Instant Message, Notecard or email the land owner and ask for their permission to film some scenes there, you cannot proceed until they have given permission.

If The Location is all on your own land, then you can skip that part of set up,
BUT will still need to consider the following;
You will need to fine tune your location settings for EACH SCENE
this will include deciding exactly which camera angles you want and which views.

Then pre-arranging and 'saving' wind-light settings' per scene ie you may want one at dawn, another at sunset or midnight etc, and these are best set up and then saved for ease of use later....
The subject of wind light settings can be as vast as the possible range of sky color and day/night light/dark varieties, for which reason I will not go into depth here.
The Imprudence viewer has a wealth of such wind-light settings and via use of my free software Gadwin Print-screen, I have captured some of these and then imported into my favorite filming viewer, in my case this is Snowglobe.
You can save these settings from an alternate viewer by opening up World, Environment, Environment Editor, Advanced Sky/Sea and entering all the preferred settings values;

Don't forget to capture and transfer each of 3 sets of settings, ie Atmosphere, Lighting, Clouds, and once configured, to save it with a new name that you will recognize.

Setting up any 'pose balls' or props that may be needed each scene....
Naturally you will want your characters to do something or other in each scene, which may include sitting at some spot to talk, or an other more active animation.
Whilst some animations are operable from within the individual users Inventory, in certain cases it may be preferable to locate, make, beg, borrow or steal (ok not to steal) a set of 'pose balls' which you will then need to set in the correct location for the scene.

To do this you will also need 'Rez rights' that allow you to 'Rez' or 'Raise' an object at the desired location.
To Rez means to create or to make an object appear. 'Rezzing' an object or prim can be done by dragging it from a resident's inventory or by creating a new one via the edit window.
The term was inspired by the classic science-fiction movie Tron.

To get Rez rights, you must either own or rent the location yourself, or be a member of a group that operates there and which confers Rez rights on its members , or have been granted these specifically, by the owner.
You could also Rez items etc in a Sandbox, which is a publicly available space that allows anyone to come and Rez and build objects there, also to open shopping items if you do not have a land plot or group membership to do so elsewhere.
The only rule here being that you are required to clean up after use and not leave many objects (including invisible ones) cluttering up the communal space.

Re the actual Pose Balls and animations themselves;
this is an endless challenge for the machinima maker, both how to use the tried and tested, if rather samey animations that everyone has, to create a scene that has some life in it, and where to find more exciting, longer or MoCap (Motion Capture) animations that have more realistic motion and perhaps have not yet been seen in countless machinima films.
The Great advantage of MoCap over more traditional forms of animated movements for 3D environmnts, is that whilst the latter are configured on a computer by programming each movement point, through ''motion capture systems'' (hence the name Mo-Cap) the former use real world mapping of actual movements to make the 3D animated human form more lifelike. The end result of MoCap animations are virtual movements that move and act as their real-world counterparts....
There are a number of stores selling such MoCap animations in SL, just type mocap in search and go shopping.

As a final reminder,remember that you can't just walk in and start shooting film footage, but that you will have to create and/or arrange all that you will show.
Preparation preparation preparation, if you do enough of it, it will become like second nature in filming Second Life.
Happy Scene-scaping :D

Machinima Theft......

2011-05-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

Although flattered, I am also somewhat dismayed that one of my earlier machinima films has been taken and edited without my permission and uploaded at you tube.

Whilst I am widely in favour of Creative Commons and the sharing of original works for use in subsequent derrivative works, particularly in my case for sharing music to use in machinima films (many thanks to Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com for help in this regard).

I am also happy from time to time when asked and credited as the researcher, author, poet or machinima maker for my works to be shared on other peoples websites, either a video, poem or whole blog post.
I do not feel so happy however when my film is used without permission, also this is not one of my better films, being laggy and clumsy in execution, but I doubt I would feel any better had the chosen one of more technically profficient, later films either.
The film in question, mine, is StoneHenge 2010 (Virtually)

The pirate copy is LKA-Stonehenge.mov
by you tube user austintorn

AND posted by the same user some 3months after his first theft,
HERE IT IS AGAIN, Stonehenge.Mov only this time WITH my audio,
haha just as I intended it to be, nearly....
Im glad he finally saw sense and liked my music too !

My immediate response after surprise, was to comment below that video pointing out the theft below the stolen work and asking him to remove it directly;

ironically i have used a warner brothers image here to illustrate my feelings, i hope that everyone realises i do not pretend to own this picture, and i promise not to make any money by having shared it here. Perhaps we could call this respectful useage 'fair use' as i do not pretend to the ownership nor seek to profit by its use..

I have thoughtfully also made this suggestion for mr. austintorn;
As you have copied my machinima and possibly others, why dont you just download a free VR and get a game cam and make your own, much more rewarding and fun than theft.

What To Do When Your Original Content is Stolen, when your suffer a Copyright Theft?
Unfortunately I have had no response from the user.
Fortunately however, you tube have an option to report such violations, which can be found across the bottom of your you tube account page, see HELP, and then go to the Copyright tab and proceed to enter details of the infringement as follows;

This will once completed lead to a page of personal details where you may provide your actual name/address etc and aliases will not suffice.
Following submission you shall recieve an email that requests more information of the violations, details of which work of yours has been stolen, wether completely, just visual, audio or both.
It Is important at this point to provide the administrators with as much exact details as possible so that they can clearly and easily see the problem;
Here is my response;

What is the title of your copyrighted work?
StoneHenge 2010 (Virtually)

What type of copyrighted work is it?
It is a machinima film, which I filmed at Heritage Key Virtual Archaeological World

What is the subject of the work?
At the start I have shown the arrival platforms of Heritage Key VR and then go on to show the stages of StoneHenge at different periods of history, which i also flagged to the viewer by indicating the year with scrolling name and date across the screen ie STONEHEGE 1500 BC etc

When was it authored?
I had been filming and editing over a few days and published this to you tube on 26 June 2010

Where was it authored?
It was filmed online in Heritage Key Virtual Archaeological World, from my home address

By whom was it authored?
I am the author of this film.

What is your copyright registration number and date for this work, if registered?

I have not registered a copyright number, but have placed c. Celestial Elf 2010 onscreen at the end of the film (in the section with the thief has edited out).

I would like to share specifics over the theft of my film footage,

you tube account holder austintorn has replaced the audio entirely
and starts his version of my film by editing out all the Heritage Key refferences at start of the film

where his start point is 0.00 this corresponds to my film at point 1.53
(even including the detail of a tree 'popping' which is where it has not been rendered correctly in the virtual world viewer)

The footage contains and remains identical (other than that his version has a less distinct colourisation ) and at point 2.26 on my film/0.33 on his pirated version, you will notice a jolt or jump of the camera, this has occured because I was moving the camera on my computer faster than the graphics card could render the environment, so this is not a part of the Heritage Key experience but is unique to my computer useage and is like a fingerprint............

I would also point out that the camera views taken throughout as seen in both films, the camera angles, speed of movement, pan and zoom shots etc are all unique to myself and are not a part of the Heritage Key experience, it is not possible to just log on to Heritage Key and be 'taken' to the same views and angles etc etc, these are all choices i have made.

Also the progression from one time period to another, which I have symbolised with the scrolling letters and dates, these are not included in the Heritage Key viewer travelling across the screen but have been inserted in my film by myself.

Similar 'popping' as of the tree earlier can also be seen on the heads of two people in the stonehenge circle on my film at 2.32, and on the pirate version at 0.38-9

At his point 0.58 he moves on to my next scene of 3.08

in this way he has clipped out the footage where i focus on the avatar itself, which was myself.

The films run paralel and exactly the same (other than pirate being worse quality image) from that last edit of his onwards,

see at point 3.44 on my film/1.33 on the pirate copy, that both cameras wobble at exactly the same point, sadly for me the wobbling of camera does continue throughout my scenes, and you will notice, particularly if you play the films in tandem from the points that i have identified, the theft is inescapabale.....

Where the pirated version of ends at his point 3.32 of his version, this corresponds precisely with point 5.42 of my film, my film then goes on with other scenes.

Please therefore check the published by dates

check the copyright permissions in text below films which i have included and he has not,

(he has not even mentioned that his version of the film comes from Heritage Key, but i had explicitly asked them if it was ok to use in a film and been given permission)

AND please play both films in tandem from the points i identify;

His 0.00/MINE 1.53

His 0.58/MINE 3.08

His End = 3.32/CORRESPONDS PRECISELY MINE 5.42

Many Thanks for your assistance ~

Once replied, the outcome is in the hands of the you tube administrators and if they agree that my film, published some months prior to the copy is in fact the original and has been violated, we may expect to see that the copy should be removed from the offenders account.
He may also suffer consequences such as having his account threatened with closure if he carries out such a practise again.

heres another warner brothers image which i also do not pretend to own, but i think it speaks to the situation of powerles anger very well, and i promise not to make any money by having shared it here also.

Update No. 1. at 31 May 11.25pm; Great News...
you tube admin have today removed the first illegal copy of my film.

Update No 2. at 2nd June 8.00am; More Great News...
you tube admin have removed the second illegal copy of my film :D

Thank You You Tube Admin :DD
Best Wishes and Good Luck out there, elf ~

Viewless at Venus

2011-05-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

On The Problems
of Filming To The Venus Project;
I have included
this dialogue here
to demonstrate the
difficulties that can
be involved in
arranging a machinima film,
particularly in this case
to portray the necessity
to get the owners permission
to film over each SIM
or location used,
and how unexpected misgivings
or cultural differences
of perspective can
present unforeseen obstacles.

The film maker is invited to an interview over his use of a prospective SIM or location for use in a machinima film based on The Venus Project, particularly to answer some doubts that had arisen among the SIM's management committee;..........

The Region Representative:
well, I guess one member found a link to your web site on a popular socialist web site...
The Machinima maker:
Oh really? wonder who had put that link there, but if my work has inspired someone to care about the Earth, that must be a good thing whoever they are surely?
The Region Representative:
understood, here is a bit of text from one of the notes I received;

Although I am pretty familiar with that Idea of overcoming money - thanks to Gene Roddenberry who showed us this solution already - I personnally feel that not everybody in real world will be way too happy with this ideas. Also in several countries those ideas could be regarded illegal and attempt to overthrow governments. Therefore we shouldn't stress too much that some of those Idea(l)s could be ours, too.
If you would really consider doing things with those people, I would have them a clear set of rules what they can do and what not, and by contract I would make sure that you will have to right to acknowledge the publication beforhand. So they must show you what they are going to puplicate and that they must get your prior approval.
Also I would ask them to descripe in each and every tiny bit what they want to use our Name, SIM etc for beforehand any of them stepping on our premisses.

The Machinima maker:
Ok thank you, wonder why that someone was on that website, and for reference I am not political haha. Re the view of them being illegal, I would never endorse any conflict against any legitimate government, and to the best of my understanding nor does The Venus Project, rather that they invite people to use sustainable cities for a safer world, politics is for the politicians, I am a simple and Earth caring film maker who likes to share messages about caring for the earth.

The Region Representative:
super
The Machinima maker:
My films as you will see are not political but do demonstrate caring principles...

The Region Representative:
May I copy this chat and share it with our senior officers?
The Machinima maker:
Please do so, thank you.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to answer these doubts and hope that my answers will have gone some way to calming any worries that may have arisen :)

And whilst I realise and respect that you must protect your SIM from any and all abuse or incorrect useage, I have seldom been so rigorously interviewed over my use of any SIM, and to be honest I do feel somewhat dissapointed and let down as I had thought that this might be an opportunity for your SIM to get a wider appreciative audience who would be in favour of all things star trek based such as a positive future...
I supect that you must have had some problems here before now to make you all so wary, and I regret this as you are a wonderful environment....it has been very educational speaking with you and yes I would love to film some scenes here, but I realise that your management commitee must decide over the matter, therfore I shall take my leave of you now, I wish you all the best, and if your commitee considers that they would allow my film to use a few scenes here I shall be very grateful to you all. farewell for now ~

The Region Representative:
bye bye ty for coming
The Region Representative:
and ty for considering us.
The Machinima maker:
You are very welcome and thank you for interviewing me.

The Machinima maker:
nb as I allowed you to share our conversation with your committee, may I also share our conversation (names of people and SIMS to be excluded) by way of discussing on my blog how it is important to get permission to film scenes at a SIM?
The Region Representative:
yes
The Machinima maker:
Bless you, thanks and bye ~

I have never encountered such caution over filming of scenes at any SIM, and hope that this example may demonstrate the need for machinima makers to be both courteous and considerate in their location arrangements.

Here is my research and eventual Machinima film
To The Venus Project;

Best Wishes Elf ~

HowToo Machinima Camera Shots

2010-09-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Following pre-production, which includes writing the screenplay, storyboarding your plot and developing your characters, previsualisation is the keyword.

Best practise is to draw sketches of your key scenes, to look at photos and magazines to get an idea of your prefered style, even basic sketches will help.

Do not be too blinkered however in trying to apply your visual guidelines, be ready to integrate unforseen developments, as the art of careful improvisation has saved many a machinima when absent actors or failing software have offered an untimely closure to the project.

Your Views;

Prior to any filming, here are 2 very useful tips;

To HIDE ALL onscreen TEXT/TITLES/SPEECH BUBBLES etc
Press Shift+ALT+F1 simultaneously, to undo press again;

To HIDE All OnScreen HUDS
Press Shift+ALT+H simultaneously, undo press again;
(in both cases you may have to substitute 'Ctrl for Shift')

These 2 tips will clear your screen of extraneous and unfilmic information, which if you tried to remove via editing the size of captured screen to exclude, would otherwise result in reduced size of scene and loss of carefully prepared view...

Take 222;

Film MORE takes than you plan on needing, to facilitate additional angles and views for editing, thus create more visual diversity and be free from editing restrictions based on lack of footage.
My machinima friends advise 3-6 takes per scene...

Camera Tools;

The camera shots used in your machinima will create through Variety and Movement, the actual feeling of your film.
An excellent tool for this purpose that facilitates the cameras 3dimensional movement within the virtual environmentis 3D SpaceNavigator, which I have introduced previously (look here).

The BijoCam by Yumi Murakami is another way to acheive greater control and repeatability of the camera, its position and angles....
Enabling you to set up camera positions in advance for taking snapshots of events, model poses, and more - then activate them with a single spoken command and cycle between them with a click!
Monitor areas you control by placing cameras on them and view them from your central control room!
Build camera effects into your structures - no longer be limited by the distance of the SL camera! Create grand halls viewed from one end, staircases where you walk towards the camera, and dark tunnels where the avatar shrinks to a point...

Tikaf Viper has made an excellent introduction to this tool;

Lights, Camera, Action;

To create the life, action and drama in a machinima, the camera needs to employ a range of diverse styles, each suited to their purpose within the larger structure.
These may be obvious to anybody who has ever watched a film, but we often forget the obvious as we are swept along in our projects.

Contextualiser shots, such as of the scene from above, or from one side or another, will help to set the scene at the outset.
Useful techniques here are the horizontal or vertical Pan shots, in which the camera will gently move across the view, or People Moving shots in which avatars may walk or travel ie via boat or etc, across a set scene, these shots will draw the viewer into the story..

Lighting (and Windlight settings of which another post) are central in portraying the time of day/night, which also set the scene and mood for the whole story.
These may change as differing scenes require, but in all cases they will create the atmosphere of the work, from misty magical mornings, to starker sillohueted cutouts highlighted against a bright sky beyond.
Consider the angle of your camera and view, such as peering up a hill to the sky = thoughtful, or down a well to the depths = moody, all combine to create potent visual scenes and may be dramatically disslodged to add extra uneasiness or tension.
See Toxic Menges excellent reworking of The Little Red Riding Hood for an excellent example which includes almost lithographic silohuette scenes..

Closeup and Zoom;

Closeups and Zooms are another way of drawing the viewer to the characters, lots of machinima use these techniques to illustrate either thinking moments, talking or conversations and use lipsynch with some sucess, such as Osprey Therian's sci fi report; Virtual Reality in the Future...

In this case Osprey has used the technique of 'Green Screen' or Chroma Key,
to set the character ontop of a different background.
This is acheived by having first filmed the foreground character against a green screen or neutral background colour, and then selecting this colour to be voided in the editing software, and a second set of footage applied below it as a second timeline.
First Select the color that you want to make transparent.
Drag the eye dropper icon from Select Color and move it over the color you want to select.
Alternately, select a primary color to be made transparent from the Primary Color array.
Then Click OK.
Add the film footage Avi file with the green background to the Video track 2 on the Timeline.
Add the video you want to superimpose onto Video track 1 on the Timeline.
The Green Screen or Chroma Key effect will thus superimpose the edited apsect of your film onto another film as background.

But, to avoid a 'newscaster' style of presentation, unless this is what you want for the specific project or section of it, you might also consider use of
Point Of View shots, in which the camera assumes the view point of your central character.
In such scenes as this we will see what 'he' sees, and this is a method which further draws the viewer into the film.
Usefull in this section are
Over the Shoulder views, which by including the character in foreground and his view further afield, thereby unmistakeably associate him with the view and in the scene.

Editing Tips;

Editing footage of Close ups, Zooms and Point of Vew shots, you may then employ a mixture of these and Cut them into the Master Shots.
So, we may have a Master shot of a character at a scene, which then Cuts into Zoom/Closeups as he speaks and Jump Cuts into Point Of View as we look at what he is speaking about.....
These mixed scenes, varying at between 2-6 seconds each, depending on wether you are creating action or suspense, are ideal for portraying dynamic moments.

For the sake of diversity holds attention, use Cut In's with scenes of an alternate day/night/location/situation etc to serve as visual memories or refferences which the narrative may be considering at the time, ie of a port or harbour as the talker discussess his journey, or of a thunder storm as he warms by the fire etc, so contrasting the current with a prior/or a future situation...

Adjusting the relative Speed of each scene will add drama to your film, and provided the recording is relatively lag free, your film file speed can be increased in your editing software for comic or excitement effect, and decreased for more reflective or sadder moments.

In the following machinima, The Medium is the Message, which is based loosely on a representation of Marshall McLuhan's cultural theory view of technology impacting cultural evolution, I have employed various speed adjustments as well as jump cuts and dissorienting transition effects to create a sense of ongoing action..

I am learning that when filming scenes, two common failings may occur;
The First is that of Continuity - do your scene/lighting/outfits etc match the previous if this is what you had wanted...
The Second is a Lack Of Footage to work with, better to have 3 or 4 takes of each section from varying angles from which you may cut and jump cut for added interest, than to rely on only one and find yourself limited thereafter in terms of creating action and diversity.

Heres a short List of helpful reminders for before you begin filming in SL and similar VR;

* Plan Plan & Plan ahead; storyboard your film with sketches, notes and scripts, build sets or negotiate locations to be used, get friends or actors, provide costumes and script information for them...

Once in World,
* Lower your draw distance to whatever depth of view is required for the scene(s), as this will enable a higher Frames Per Second rate and better quality of imagery, because it relieves the system of attempting to render more objects and greater distance...
* Set graphics preferences to 'Ultra' if your graphics card can manage them, this will result in higher quality of imagery.
* Experiment with Windlight's light and shadow settings, more on Windlight later...
* Try alternate viewers, I am using Imprudence for its fuller range of Atmospheric Windlight settings, and because it allows you to save a Windlight Sky setting for easy use next time you continue with your project
(as does Snowglobe and possibly others?)...

* Set your Away 'timeout' to 'Never', otherwise you may be logged out as you are filming.
* Set your avatar status to 'Busy',otherwise you may recieve Instant Messages as you try to film.
* Use CTRL+ALT+F1 and Shift+ALT+H shortcut keys to clear the screen during filming

You might try to record smooth and well paced camera shots using the external and inworld camera tools as discussed...

* Record more footage per scene than you think you will need, this allows diversity and avoids reductionism of quality and interest.

Also, Always request permission of a Sim owner before filming in their environments & Always credit the Sim owners, the makers of content included in the film & those who appear in your film as actors etc.

In conclusion,
the more thought you have given
to desired camera angles and shots,
lighting and movement,
panshots and cut shots,
the more engaging
your machinima film will be.

Got Videos / Get Views

2010-09-10T03:10:00.000-07:00

Most Machinima Makers that I know, make machinima films because it is great fun to do, a challenge to see what can be done, and sometimes because it is a way of re-adressing an issue, Literary, Social or Virtual...

Once your project is complete however, their remains the matter of making your machinima visible....
And whilst it may be true that great works will speak for themslves and need no advertising,
Unless your machinima films are in a place where your intended audience might easily find them, they might otherwise remain
virtually invisible.

To acheive some level of public awareness of your masterwork then, will inpart be down to where you upload your film,
and inpart will rely on the methods you employ to distribute it from your host site.

There are a growing number of sites and groups to which you may upload the finished film, many of whom will allow linking from their site so that you can use it as a platform for sharing it further afield, perhaps on your twitter account, facebook page, or in a pertinent comment to some relevant online article..

They all do however have varying demands in regard of Encoding the Formats, Codecs & BitRates that they will accept.
This is a dark and disturbing Art on which I hope to post more when I am better versed in clearly and simply describing the differences involved.

To Host & Distribute;

Clearly the most popular video host is
YouTube, a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos.
Videos uploaded to YouTube by standard account holders are limited to 15 minutes in duration (the ten minute limit was increased to fifteen minutes in July 2010).
File size is limited to 2GB for uploads from YouTube web page, and to 20GB if Java-based Advanced Uploader is used(?).
YouTube also offers lots of advice pages including
How to Optimize your video for You Tube,
& a number of specific machinima groups such as;
Second Life to share machinima made in SecondLife..
Machinimadwhich is a place for you to submit your videos and be considered for the Machinima Directors Program(get featured on our their channel and be paid).
Machinima Artists is a collective of filmmakers, where video games are not just games, but the tool for an artform...
About InWorldz Machinima To share machinima made at InWordlz.

Vimeo is perhaps the second choice and backup host for many machinima makers, offering a video-centric social networking site which also supports embedding, sharing, video storage, and user-commenting on each video page.
In contrast to You Tube however, you only get 500MB upload per week in the free version (with the first upload pr wk of this allowance allowed as HD), your upload in the free account will delay for some hours before processing,
and you can't embed HD.
You could go Pro and get 5GB of HD uploads pr wk, with unlimited HD embed and Priority uploading, but there are charges (approx $60pr yr, or $10pr mnth) ~
Vimeo also has a number of specifc Machinima groups, including
Machinima, SL Machinima, About InWorldz Machinima, and many more..

Daily Motion, allows users to browse and upload videos and make user-created groups. The maximum size of a video file is 2GB & the length is upto 20 minutes.
Problems for me were that to have HD videos you must send a lot of personal information and register to become a Motion Maker, and that once the videos are uploaded, they play with advertisments at the start.

Viddler offers a personal Advertisement-supported, not for commercial use account with a 500MB per video limit.
That 'Ads may be run on videos to make up for costs' and a 2GB limit on storage and monthly bandwidth use have combined to dissuade me from testing these waters.

metacafe allows 10 minute films upto 2GB only, and has a surprisingly long list of site rules which I found daunting..
Metacafe is similar to other video viewing websites such as YouTube or Dailymotion, but with several differences, including; duplication elimination(see below for irony), a community member reviewer panel, VideoRank, and Wiki-editing of metadata.
Its VideoRank system gauges viewer reactions to videos in order to feature those that prove most popular to its viewers.
I found the size restrictions a bit cramping on this one requiring re encoding/compressing of films for upload, and that it starts film with an advertisement sequence is a point against, although it does show film at HD which is a plus.
I also found that whilst they state 'Original content is uploaded to the site by independent video creators, small to mid-sized production groups, and major media companies'....what this means in practise is that if you have uploaded to a number of sites and You Tube is one of them, then via a system which titles you as an 'Affiliate Submitter', your videos may already have been linked by You Tube at Metacafe, and not in HD as you may have uploaded them.
If this matters to you, and I cannot see any way to block the process, you might consider uploading your work in HD under your own Metacafe account along the lines of 'If you cant beat them, then Join them' at least the viewe will be able to see the film as YOU had intended ...

TubeMogul is a rather different sort of host, which enables you to multiple upload your video directly to many different video-sharing websites, such as YouTube, MySpace and Google Video, in one run.
All you need is a free account with TubeMogul and then set up and link each of the sites that you wish to upload your video(s) to.
Then, select your QuickTime (QT) movie and upload.
TubeMogul 'should' make it easy to upload to all your sites ONCE, instead of doing it individually, but I have found that the system is again not clear, and anyway I prefer to manage those I use on an individual basis.

Moving on to
ping.fm which by contrast is not a host, but a redirection site, that allows you to post one comment here and this may include your video http, and it will be immediately posted to all the accounts that you have registered with and linked to ping...

Again I do not use this as I prefer a more personal interaction with any potential viewer, so its not necessarily the quantity of views that count, but the quality of community relationships that matters...

Another contestant for useful distribution network is..
blip.tv, which focuses on "web shows' to the exclusion of other types of online video. "The blip.tv formula purposefully does not emulate the YouTube viral video sharing and friends and family video hosting model" (ZDNet blogger Donna Bogatin wrote). It also employs advertising in your video; All revenue from advertising is split 50/50 between content producers and blip.tv....
Whilst users can opt in and out of advertisements at any time, wether they may have to declare any earnings and pay tax on these I cannot say, as have not used this system.

Once uploaded by whatever means possible and to whichever combination of hosts you have chosen, you may concentrate on the distribution aspect of this project.
The social networks such as Facebook, & Twitter etc etc may be suitable places to share with family and friends...

A more dedicated peer to peer site for machinima films is
Yourmachinima Community a recently created group run by and for machinima makers across numerous platforms, with the intended aim of enabling them and everyone with an interest in the genre, to find and view the latest productions.
This site accepts video submissions via url code hosted elsewhere, and as is often the case with sites sharing films hosted elsewhere it does not convey the view hits back to its source.

TMUNDERGROUND is also a specific machinima based site, for machinima films made with TheMovies, MovieStorm, iClone, Sims, Blender, Poser, Antics3d, SecondLife, and other purpose-built programs for making animated movies. Geared for peer to peer reviews, this is a useful site and allows 'upload or embed' from another host, which may save time and effort...

Machinima Makers Peer Groups;

By far the greatest feedback that you may ever be likely to get, unless you are discovered by a national brodcast network, or have a particularly patient friend, will be in one of the peer moderated groups.
Run and managed by machinima makers who have personal insight and experience into the artistic and technological skills involved in the craft, here you may find genuine and constructive comments about how to improve your output.

SecondLife Machinima Artists Guild is a thriving community website where SecondLife machinima producers, actors, directors and technicians collaborate and share experiences.
The membership ranges from absolute beginners who are just starting to make machinima, to seasoned professionals.
The Guild also has an SL group called the SL Machinima Artists Guild for real-time help in-world...

Machinima.com is a gaming and media streaming website, which hosts the works submitted.
It aims to be a hub for machinima, the art of creating animated videos in numerous real-time virtual 3-D environments.
The site features machinima-related articles, news, and Internet forums.
Machinima productions can be submitted for possible redistribution after staff review and approval..

I hope that you may now find adequate outlets to share your machinima films with your potential audience and so have more fun and possibly get more, usefull feeedback.
If you do know of more or better video hosting and networking sites, please do share them with the community via a link in the comments below.

The What, Who, Where & How.... of Machinima making..

2010-09-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

Machinima films cover a wide range of sub-genres such as Ambient/Abstract, Music Videos, and Structured Stories.
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.

Copyright, Music & YouTube

2010-09-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

The use of Music which makes many Machinima come to life, can be a thorny issue.

Music tracks that you have bought for example from itunes, or from cd's that you have on your computer, does not grant permission for their use in 'derivative works'.
It sometimes results in the video having its music removed by YouTube,
and may in the worst case scenario result in having your account closed,
your uploads deleted....
I read further that they do not address only the offending account, but the ISP ie your internet user addres, so to try making a new account would not necessarily work, unless you can also change your ISP.
This applies IF the music used is under copyright to a publisher which has agreement with YouTube to identify the infringement....

One of the systems used for the purpose of identifiying and managing Copyright control is Digital Rights Management(DRM) which are Access Control technologies used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to limit the usage of their digital content.
We tend to refer to this method as Audio (or Digital)FingerPrinting embeded in the audio (and other) files.

Some machinima films clearly do have music that is not made by the film producer and is not from Open Source or Copyright free sources.
In this case, it may be that they have avoided issues because the music is published under a small company without the youtube infringement scheme in place.
Alternately they may endure possible blocks in some countries,
Or an itunes advertisement (displayed below the film at the you tube page), as is the case with aidenwitrial's excellent machinima film
'And the Gods Made Love' which samples a Jimi Hendrix track, enjoy...

To identify wether your music has infact contravened these copyight reguations by a registered publisher with youtube, you would either find your video music blocked (sometimes only in a limited number of Countries)
and/or you may find on your youtube account page the following details...

When you go to the details about this video may find something like this...

YouTube do helpfully offer an Audio Replacement facility whereby you can select from music tacks that they make avaliable for use,
although in this case you would lose any sound effects that you may have worked on and would also experience advertisements along the bottom of your film...
To acccess this option, select Audio Swap via the drop down menu arrow beside the film on your videos list page..

If this option does not suit you,
You could consider hosting the same film at other sites which may have less astringent copyright controls in place, some say Vimeo might offer the solution here although I cannot guarantee as I have not tested this option there.

Alternately, you might research and make use of some of the vast array of OpenSource, Creative Commons and Copyright Free music that is shared online specifically for creators and others to take, use and make 'derivative works' from and with...

Here are a few of the sites online which share such music;

Stonewashed has an index of the various sites sharing Creative Commons free to use music sources (check which licence applies to your piece of music)...

CCmixter has an excellent indexed method of finding music by genre and style.....

Jamendo Discover the 40992 albums available for free and legal download on jamendo....

Incompetech.com by Kevin MacLeod.
Incompetech hosts music which Kevin MacLeod has made himself for various purposes and is happy to share with the world for their use, requesting only acknowledgement of his source by way of courtesy.

The Internet Archive which contains a vast range of music from diverse sources, not tending to be particularly modern tho..
(be warned with this one that you must select music which is specifically licensed under the Creative Commons as in The Public Domain

Note on Creative Commons;

Musopen.com which provides a good range of classical music tracks from ancient to more modern pieces.

Freesound is a good source for sound effects and samples.

SoundCloud has more modern pieces made by up and coming musicians of various genres and many of these allow download for derivative works also...

I am certain there are many more, and if you know of some please do add them below so that others may use them also.

You could also consider making your music yourself, in whole or part, either entirely with multi track editing software, or by mixing refrains and etc that you have made with copyright free pieces and sound efects as I have done in this piece..

I robot in snow crash remix by celestialelff

On my Windows XP I use
Mixcraft5 multitrack audio editing software for this purpose,
Mixcraft is a recording studio with effects, featuring Reverb, Delay/Echo, EQ, Compression, Flanger and Chorus, as well as resonant filters and a powerful loop editor.
The high performance 32 bit sound engine supports broadcast quality WAV files and will even import compressed MP3, OGG & WMA files.
Use it to record your own music, your band or even a remix for a dance recital.

If you are using a MAC OSX computer, their version of Mixcraft5 would be
Garage Band, which is very similar and provides a home mini music studio.

Whilst I prefer the above two softwares to create music with, If you want to record your voice to include prose or etc in your work, I recommend
Wavepad with which you can create and edit music, voice and other audio recordings.
When editing audio files you can cut, copy, and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification, and noise reduction and etc..

And to convert any downloaded audio files such as sound effects or etc that may not be in wav or mp3 format, I use
Switch Sound Converter.

In a nutshell then, whilst you may use music that you already 'own' your ownership generally extends to use for yourself only, and not derivative works.
To avoid difficulty such as loss of music
(you may have synched film movements to sound for example)
you might use Copyright Free sources of music from the outset of your machinima project, mix these with your own music, or rely entirely on your own sound creations..

I made a tongue in cheek machinima film discussing these problems,
in which the summary is that at the end of the day we own nothing haha....

Happy Machinima making :)

Shadows in VirtualReality Worlds...

2010-09-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Shadows in SecondLife, InWorldz & Other VR's...

Having gotten a better system (Christmass 09) & now more able to explore the 'Physics' that Virtual Worlds may have to offer,
I was astonished to see the first You Tube video of SecondLife that included 'Real Shadows'!!!!
(ak i have forgotten which it was....)

It took a while to find some online instructions via Google,
but here they are;

Once running your VR viewer, ie Imprudence, Snowglobe or etc..
Press
Ctrl/Alt/D simultaneously...
This will 'create' an ADVANCED tab at top left of screen.
Click this, and scroll down untill you find
Debug Settings
Click this and scroll firstly to
Render Deffered & ensure this is set to FALSE
then scroll further down to
Render Use FBO and set this to TRUE
return to
Render Deffered & now set this to TRUE also

By editing these settings, your computer system will either
refuse/and crash if the Graphics Card is not up to the task
(look here for SecondLife & Similar VR system requirements)
((computing real time physics for shadows on every angle of a VR is demanding work))

OR you will have Amazing Shadows!

Be warned however that even if you do get to run shadows, they will considerably slow your Frames Per Second rate ie how quickly your VR or game runs on your computer, and although wonderful to see in machinima films, are best used sparingly to avoid the otherwise likely outcome of very reduced FPS = heavy lag and jolt.

Here is my example of a relatively sucesssful shadow excercise machinima;
Tai Chi Sky Test.

Team Work & Research

2010-09-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Depending on what kind of Machinima Film you may be making,
sometimes it is worthwhile to do some Historical Research into your initial idea before even beginning to shoot/record any film footage.

The results of this research will inform you of what type of locations, animations and outfits will be required to give your machinima any sort of credible presence.

It can be helpful to delegate the historical research if you have someone dependable to rely upon, as I was fortunate to have in Firely Joubert.
Firefly already had done lots of research on her pet topic of the time, of the Shermetev Family in Ancient 18th C Russia, and of Count Nikolai Shermetev's Romance with his serf girl turned Opera singer, Praskoyva 'The Pearl'.

Most specifically, Firefly and friends had recreated The Shermetev 'Fountain House' which was the historically correct location that the family had used to develop and showcase their Serfs artistic/musical talents.
This gave me a perfect location for my machinima and avoided difficult issues such a 'Rezzing Rights' or gaining of the land owners permission to set objects down, without which our animations balls and props would have been restricted.

In my ensuing machinima film, I sought to represent the possible Key Points of this romance, as if I was making study notes for an exam...

A Russian Romance;

This project was also notable for me, in that researching and finding suitable and copyright free authentic Russian music sources took perhaps longer than filming the project itself, in another post I will detail copyright free music resources.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the case of my venture into 18th Century Aviation History, the problems were greater, partly because I am not always well motivated to my historical research,
and partly becaue I was on my own without anyone having my subject as their own pet topic or historically accurate sim location.

To work around my failings of location and actual facts,
I contacted Bedrich Panacek, the Duc DeCouer, and his Duschesse, co-owners of the Duchy De Couer Sim themed in the 18thC style of my subject period and discussed with them the possibilities of making a machinima based in their environmment, to which they were ammenable.

A few afternoons on Google and Wiki provided adequate aprroximations of the missing facts, such as names and dates, enough for me to make a historically incorrect rendering of the event...

This left only actors, costumes and props for me to resolve.
Forever a problem filming multiple people in VR's is the matter of multiple Time Zones and coordinating the actors arrival to be in synch with each other and most importantly with yourself...
At one time I have had upwards of 6 distinctly diverging time zones representing my 'actors' and this becomes insurmountable when they are needed simultaeneously, when their scenes cannot be shot indipendant of each other...

I am happy to say that providence and courteous contact making assisted me here, as I had the good fortune to meet Trasgo Beaumont (only 1hr away from my own GMT time zone)who both makes wonderful period costumes and was willing to take part as my co-lead actor.
The Duc and Duchesse sent out a message for support and gathered along with themselves further extra's for the filming.

Without too much exacting attention to the facts then, here is the further results of my attempts to teamwork..
The Great Balloon Adventure of 1783