Machinima Advice and Collaboration Call

My name is Ender Broda, I'm a Second Life resident. I was hoping someone could help me with this, as it's a bit of a quagmire.

Though the universe and complete plot are still being fleshed out through drafts upon drafts of stuff, I'm working on something that I'm hoping to be revolutionary, as much as it is ambitious.

It's a scifi television show, with the intention of being made specifically for release on the internet (with later releases of the work as DVD collections). The original idea was to do this all in Flash, mainly because it's easy to create and animate if you have the talent, and converting that all to DVD editions that people can see on TV wouldn't be too difficult.

However, I'm curious about the abilities and limitations of Machinima. (interestingly enough, the series is called Machina: Revolution). I was thinking about designing the character looks, uniforms, spaceships and such through SL, or even just the sets themselves (later animating characters using Flash or Swift 3D). I wouldn't mind even doing the whole thing through SL as complete machinima but I don't know how that would work, as there's a range of emotions in my characters that need to come through.

Beyond that, my main concern, even if just creating sets and animating over them later, is how the resolution will play out when expanded to DVD. What I mean is, with Flash, it's all vector drawing - it doesn't matter the size you start, it will look the same with no distortion blown up into something larger. How can this be avoided with machinima, if at all?

I understand completely that what I'm intending to do is far beyond the norm for what is considered the standard length of machinima. I'm trying to develop a two-hour pilot, see how the reception for that goes, and then take it the next step into a series. I know it would need a lot of work, a lot of help, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get this off the ground and moving in whatever format is deemed best.

This is also being done with the intention of starting a production company called Neon Apocalypse Entertainment, which can be centered in SL, or anywhere really. I just want to make it happen, get this off the ground in whatever format, and leave the door open for other series or movies, be they machinima or not.

I'm looking for people to help me with the design of this universe, as well as the design of character looks etc. I do have some things I can send you if you're interested, and my intention is to start a company that operates through SL, even if what we make is not Machinima. Any help or interest would be appreciated. Just find me on SL.

Thanks, and please let me know what you think.

Take Care,
Ender Broda

Well, if you record your stuff from a large enough window (appropriately sized for proportion) you should be okay putting it on TV. The window size menu entry has various different options, but both NTSC and PAL are smaller than you would usually use for SL - you could quite easily double the dimensions on a decent monitor, and then reduce by half. I would try recording some samples at differing sizes and then playing them back on a TV to see whether you're happy with the results.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I don't really have any recording programs though (and i don't think i have a computer that can handle it), so that's actually another problem i'm dealing with LOL).

Ender

If you're on Windows, FRAPS is the standard program. I have a copy and it produces very good results, though you will need to recode the output. On a Mac, the options aren't that great - Snapz Pro records window output but I found it to be quite flaky.

The free version of FRAPS will let you test out different window sizes certainly.

Okay I'll check that out. Thank you!

Ender

The next thing I'm curious about is if one can crop parts of the movie, say to a certain frame size they're looking for, without having to do it frame by frame. I doubt that's the case but might as well indulge in my curiosity.

Ender

That sort of thing is going to depend on the editing package that you use.

Any suggestions on editing packages?

Okay, you're really coming at this from a basic POV? You'll need to get hold of some sort of video editing package, to splice together clips, add titles, do sound editing and so on. I understand that you're on Windows - for basic use, to test things out, Windows Movie Maker is okay, but it really is very basic and only lets you export as WMV, or one particular type of DV. You don't want to export to WMV, it's a rubbish format, the compression is terrible; it's okay if you just want to put stuff up on YouTube but that's it.

What you will need if you're going to do this properly is a fully-featured pro video package, something like Avid Xpress. There's a free version, though I didn't like it much personally, I'm more used to Mac packages which I find much easier to use.

Personally, I use Adobe Premiere to do my editing (I'm a Windows user) and output a high res H264 encoded Quicktime file. Those files tend to be huge.

I then reencode using Quicktime Pro and the 3ivx MPEG4 encoder to produce something that can be played easily on all PC's. But that's more a distribution concern for my clips.

Adobe Premiere has many options to render your movie directly for PAL/NTSC, HD, ...

I love the software. Although if you are serious about your movie, Adobe Premiere alone is not going to cut it. You will want to purchase the add-ons to add special effects (Adobe Effects, I believe), ...

I also use Blufftitler to create titles and credits. It's a nice solution but I'm sure there must be a Premiere add-on with similar functionality.

Wendel

Believe it or not I have premiere and after effects, just haven't learned to use them yet. Everyone was telling me they're the best so... I had plans to make my flash animations, (or to get people together that knew how), present the flash on the web, and for DVD redo it all in Premiere and After Effects, and make QT movies or something akin to that for DVD (however that would work).

So I have the stuff LOL, I just haven't the talent unfortunately. At least not as I sit here. However if you want to check out something I did last spring, just as a test --

www.enderhq.com/machina/tests/callsigntest.mov

It needs more effects, I'd like some rain, it needs music (which I can do... I'm a songwriter so I want to try my hand at scores)... so... yeah check it out and let me know what you think.

I think I'll try doing some editing with it, perhaps in Premiere or After Effects, see what I can think up.

Ender

Okay, no offence, but for 9 meg I was expecting a bit more there

You'll need to get familiar with whatever package you're using, Premiere it seems, just the basics of cutting up clips, adding transitions and titles and so on. Set yourself a project. I've been learning by making promotional films for products I'm selling, for instance - maybe try imagining that you're making a promo for a certain place in SL that you like.

Yeah LOL I know. I'm just trying to see what it can all do before I start worrying about bandwidth and file sizes etc. I'll see what I can do in coming up with some ideas. Still haven't decided on Machinima v Flash yet but we'll see.

Thanks!
Ender

I haven't had a chance to check out your file yet but why don't you try the way I and other people here do it. Either use one of your songs or a well known song, go forth in SL and try your hand at capturing footage. See what the constraints are, how to move the camera, ...

Then spend a few days using Premiere to turn this into a video. Learn the transitions, how to integrate effects and generally cut something.

I know you are set on the movie but it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least something edit 4-5 minutes in length first and then get some feedback on that.

Wendel

I use a Mac but this can also be done on Windows.

I have a DVI to S-Video adapter for my MacBook Pro. I run the video out to my DV cam and mirror my desktop on the camera. Then I switch my screen resolution to 800 X 600 and choose the overscan feature. This ensures the entire DV frame is filled. Then I run SL full screen and turn off the UI while I capture video. Doing it this way mean I don't take any performance hit from trying to record video and render the game at the same time. The camera does all the video recording work. Also, what I'm left with is a SD master copy of what I've shot which is perfect for making a DVD if wanted to.

I agree, except for a slight change. Spend a few days in Premiere cutting without effects or transitions. Most people starting out overuse them and get into the habit which makes them clichéd.

If you'd like more help, I'll be holding editing classes IW starting sunday 10 September at 3pm SLT.

As for resoution for TV, you can't just 'pick' one. There are standards
· NTSC (resolution 720 x 480 - preferred format)
· PAL (resolution 720 x 576)

What if I want to do widescreen. I understand that 16:9 is an accepted ratio. How do I do that and make it usable for transposing to DVD?

My intention is of course to make it as basic as possible for the web, either leaving it as flash or maybe QT, but I want to make it easy to transpose to DVD in the future.

Ender

For square pixels what I'm sure SL has, I'd guess that 16:9 is 1024x576, 4:3 is 768x576 for pal. NTSC 4:3 720x486 720X540 for 16:9.

I know I sound retarded but i'm a little confused as to what all that means. If I make a flash movie, for instance, do i not want to do it specifically in JUST 16:9? Should I automatically put the black around it (the letterbox) to fill up that space? I'm just confused as to how that works.

Ender