Machinima

And you thought film fans were geeky?

‘What’ (I hear you cry) ‘is machinima?’ Well, for a start, it’s going to be one of those things you know about or don’t, simple as that. The actual word itself is a portmanteau of ‘machine animation’(badly spelled in the end, but the name stuck), and is pronounced mash-in-imma, approximately. For those of you who have been away from the computer gaming scene since Space Invaders and Frogger, I can tell you that things have really moved on from boxy graphics, beeping soundtracks and the ‘pew pew’ of lasers.

Computer gaming now involves multi-level, multi-player worlds with seamless landscapes, well-drawn graphics and a strong sense of community, particularly in games such as World of Warcraft and The Sims. These games have a sophisticated core set of software that allows them to run smoothly, and provides the code to animate the characters and landscapes etc. Apologies if I’m teaching you to suck eggs here, but there are some who don’t know, and I’m trying to keep this easy to read and not geek out too much. Put simply, machinima is people using online games graphics to make animated movies.

The core software components are known as the ‘engine’ of the game, and this engine is what is utilized by animators of machinima. Usually, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) engines have a built-in set of pre-defined movements and animations. Machinima animators use these movements to create the visual part of the animation, either recording it directly, or editing the movie file afterwards. Sound is normally added afterwards,and final editing done to synchronize movement, scene changes and dialogue.

In case I haven’t explained this very well, please feel free to go to the home of machinima, the unsurprisingly titled machinima.com, where they have a whole section on the how and why of this art form called Machinima 101. There’s a tongue-in-cheek introduction to the art, and plenty of practical advice, should you feel compelled to give it a go yourself. Although the actions are already provided by the game engine, I am bettting that it’s no walk in the park.

Games used to create machinima animations are many and varied, but the most popular tend to be The Sims, Halo, Call of Duty, Half-Life and World of Warcraft. In fact, one of the most famous (infamous?) bits of machnima out there today is based on World of Warcraft. If  you ever wondered why the internet was invented, the question is answered here.

Some animations are set as a kind of sitcom, with different episodes appearing at various intervals One of the most popular is a series based on the Halo engine, called Red vs Blue.  The humour is very self-referential, and carries a lot of in-jokes about the game itself – such as one of the characters saying: “The sun never changes position, how come nobody ever wants to talk about that?” While it’s a real geek-fest, the stories are well scripted and there’s an extremely strong continuity to them. For all Red vs Blue videos and much lore machinima stuff, go to roosterteeth.com and take a look around.

Here’s a few links if you’re interested in learning a bit more about this art, and I am not being facetious calling it art, because it’s as clever and complex as any other animation form. Bear in mind that many major film and animation festivals now accept machinima as a valid form of animation:

Machinima for Dummies: They are, as they state “blogging the book”. A varied and interesting site, showcasing some outstanding bits of work, discussing the film-maker’s art and lots of other interesting titbits too. Worth a look.

Machinima.com: Goes without saying, really. The resource for all things machinima.

Thinking Machinima: A blog dealing largely with the business and political side of creating machinima. Still worth a read for a broader view of the art.

How Stuff Works: A very nice guide, set out in simple terms, that explains how machinima works, and how to get started yourself.

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