I just read a post suggesting HC as a machinima option. Do not buy it. Hyperionics, the maker of HyperCam has partnered with Solveig MultiMedia and is coming out with HC 3 very soon. Beta testing ends July 1st.
If you purchase HC2.1 the free updates for life are only for the 2.x version. Upgrading to HC v3.x will be an additional fee. I'm not sure about the pricing structure yet but getting v3 might be cheaper than buying v2 and then upgrading.
HC2 is a great program and the free trial is for life. It does leave a small water mark saying its an unregistered version in the upper left hand corner though. It is very customizable as far as video capture options go and my system hardly knows I'm running it.
V3 lets you customize video capture even further than v2 and has a video editing feature that lets you cut out chunks of video you're not happy with.
Get v2.1 here http://hyperionics.com/
Get v3 Beta here http://www.solveigmm.com/?Products&id=HyperCam