Machinima is a type of film making that makes use of the programming, animation and real-time graphic rendering of video games (or other existing digital content such as virtual worlds) to create new content. This type of filming came from a history of capture game play. Many times it was used to show off a gamer's run through of a particular level of a game and frequently seen now as a way to look back at existing games as they were rendered and played at the time they were current. The process of filming machinima is more like live action filming than techniques used in animation. The filming captures what is happening at the time--taking advantage of existing programming to create the scene.
After some time, machinima evolved to begin being used to tell stories from the gameplay captured. Some of the first machinima films of this kind were used to tell stories from a game called Quake and then as it became more popular, other games also were used as it became more well-known. Makers of machinima use control of their created characters as well as existing A.I. in the world to create the story. Today, many video game companies and makers of virtual worlds encourage the use of their games in machinima and consider it a way to broaden their potential audience as well as encourage long term use of the game. In other cases, the companies that produce the games are less open to the use of their work and it has lead to legal issues. Because of that, some makers of machinima go to great lengths to disguise the games that they used to create their films.
In some ways, machinima is more simple than both traditional filming methods and capturing animation. Unlike a film where the animation is created specifically for the project, makers of machinima are mostly limited by what programmers in the game have already allowed players to do within the existing world. Expressions of characters, types of actor movements, and types of interaction with the world itself have all been relatively predetermined where in an animated film, a programmer would be able to create new versions of these as needed to tell the story.
At the same time, machinima also allows for breaks with other issues with restrictions of those other filming methods. Unlike traditional filming, by using video game worlds and actors, there is less confined by what is safe or possible in reality. Through this method of filming, makers of machinima can can faster processing and better graphics than what most people (and their computers) could do otherwise; not to mention it is much cheaper for them. Much of the backend work has already been done and they are really only limited to what they can imagine or hack in the game world.
-References-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima
http://www.howstuffworks.com/machinima.htm
After some time, machinima evolved to begin being used to tell stories from the gameplay captured. Some of the first machinima films of this kind were used to tell stories from a game called Quake and then as it became more popular, other games also were used as it became more well-known. Makers of machinima use control of their created characters as well as existing A.I. in the world to create the story. Today, many video game companies and makers of virtual worlds encourage the use of their games in machinima and consider it a way to broaden their potential audience as well as encourage long term use of the game. In other cases, the companies that produce the games are less open to the use of their work and it has lead to legal issues. Because of that, some makers of machinima go to great lengths to disguise the games that they used to create their films.
In some ways, machinima is more simple than both traditional filming methods and capturing animation. Unlike a film where the animation is created specifically for the project, makers of machinima are mostly limited by what programmers in the game have already allowed players to do within the existing world. Expressions of characters, types of actor movements, and types of interaction with the world itself have all been relatively predetermined where in an animated film, a programmer would be able to create new versions of these as needed to tell the story.
At the same time, machinima also allows for breaks with other issues with restrictions of those other filming methods. Unlike traditional filming, by using video game worlds and actors, there is less confined by what is safe or possible in reality. Through this method of filming, makers of machinima can can faster processing and better graphics than what most people (and their computers) could do otherwise; not to mention it is much cheaper for them. Much of the backend work has already been done and they are really only limited to what they can imagine or hack in the game world.
-References-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima
http://www.howstuffworks.com/machinima.htm
-Examples of Machinima-
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