Xbox As An Indie Movie Studio 114
jhsiao writes "The NYT has an article about machinima and movies set entirely within video games. In the article they interview a number of machinima artists including the folks at Rooster Teeth Productions who brought us Red vs. Blue." From the article: "He created a comedy series called ''Red vs. Blue,'' a sort of sci-fi version of ''M*A*S*H.'' In ''Red vs. Blue,'' the soldiers rarely do any fighting; they just stand around insulting one another and musing over the absurdities of war, sounding less like patriotic warriors than like bored, clever video-store clerks."
Re:More of Microsoft's marketing spin (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:More of Microsoft's marketing spin (Score:3, Funny)
Obligatory pointer to the Monty Python Skit (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory pointer to the Monty Python Skit (Score:1, Funny)
For reference, here is the aforementioned "funniest joke ever" (which kills anyone who reads or hears it):
Re:Obligatory pointer to the Monty Python Skit (Score:2, Informative)
Hitler: "My dog has no nose."
Crowd: "How does he smell?"
Hitler: "Awful."
Oh No... (Score:2)
Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaarrrrggh....
Re:Obligatory pointer to the Monty Python Skit (Score:1)
Keith
Re:Obligatory pointer to the Monty Python Skit (Score:2)
Sure, a lot of the movies you will find are just recordings of pvp battles or new techniques for doing something but there are some true films (though I have yet to see one with full voiceovers like rvb). Check out "Not Just Another Love Story" which has a fairly large cast (lot of extras), cool "sets", in-game special effects and a fairly entertaining story
Uh NO (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Uh NO (Score:2)
Re:Uh NO (Score:1)
Re:yea (Score:1)
Re:yea (Score:1)
Re:yea (Score:2)
you want funny? the live action pure pwnage [purepwnage.com] is a scream.
Re:yea (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:5+orange=teal (Score:2)
As for the copyrights lawsuits I do not know, can Red vs Blue count as a derivative work of Halo?? I think that is an interesting ground for laws uh? I do not doubt the big companies will try to suck the last dollar from those indies film makers..
Re:5+orange=teal (Score:2)
Re:5+orange=teal (Score:2)
Red vs. Blue uses maps, textures, models, etc. directly from Halo. It definitely counts as a derivative work. If, as some machinima, it used all-original textures and models, it would not be.
I do not doubt the big companies will try to suck the last dollar from those indies film makers...
In is case, Microsoft/Bungie has been openly supportive. In fac
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Get a clue (Score:2)
What makes you think Microsoft owns the copyright to every game played on the XBOX? Those rights lie with the game manufacturer. And where's the defeating of a protective measure that would bring the DMCA into play? This is done by capturing non-Macrovisioned analog outputs. Or is any recording device now considered a circ
Ha! Could make Doom the way it should be made (Score:1, Funny)
Watch out Pixel! XBox, PS3, and Mac Mini's are coming to an apartment near you!
Re:What am I missing? (Score:2)
I personally love playing games (and I mean actually playing them, not watching them) but I find Red vs. Blue to be brilliant in a very smart-ass way. It's another example of using a medium to spoof the medium. A lot of the humor of RvB revolves around making fun of FPS conventions (like that island or whatever from season 2 where everyone talks like those annoying 12 yea
Re:What am I missing? (Score:1)
What you're missing is a personality. (Score:2)
I think it's kinda funny, you don't, but it really has nothing to do with the game Halo itself.
People purchase computers to do whatever they want with them - not just your rigid idea of what you SHOULD do with them.
Re:What you're missing is a personality. (Score:2)
Sure it does:
Re:What am I missing? (Score:2)
These guys use the Halo engine to cut together their own comedy show, a technique called machinima. It's similar in principle to using modelling clay and a video camera to produce animation comedy. You download and watch videos of this from their website. You can also buy DVDs of past series. It's not like you're actually playing Halo with them!
If you like their style of humour, you'll find it pretty damn funny.
Try it out [roosterteeth.com], see what you think.
Re:What am I missing? (Score:2)
Something actually new (Score:5, Insightful)
It actually shows pretty clearly what is wrong with present attempts at continued IP extension; it suppresses innovation and originality at the expense of a fossilised business model.
Kids have always played with dolls and toy soldiers and engaged in imaginative play. This is actually a way of actualising that play in a reproducible manner. It's getting back to a core process of the human imagination, and suddenly making it more than just a transient entertainment for a few children.
Up till now animation has been a relatively expensive process which puts it under the control of studios, or results in tiny cartoons produced with great labor by students. This shows that the process is now ready to be democratised - if it is allowed to happen. Potentially Open Source could do this, by creating Open Source animation engines which work with Open Source avatars - meaning that kids (and people a lot older) could create and release those avatars. The result? Well, if it's like music, where the means did NOT result in talented outsiders getting much exposure via the P2P networks, but does result in a lot of piracy, it will be disappointing. But it would be nice if, for once, educators and others got a clue and encouraged kids to use their creative talent on computer generated animation.
On a slightly relatied topic, I do not believe that the real driving force behind the attack on P2P networks is fear of piracy. Piracy just legitimises the existing pyramid structure of content creation and distribution. They are under attack because of the fear that one day they might result in democratisation of content creation and distribution - which would destroy the recording industry and the movie industry as their "blockbuster" lowest common denominator model had to compete within a huge number of niche markets. That's where freedom (the right to create and distribute without being suppressed by the monopolist) meets Marxist socialism - the idea that citizens rather than capitalists should own the means of production and distribution.
Re:Something actually new (Score:1)
Re:Something actually new (Score:4, Informative)
Animation is *still* an expensive, complex, and labor-intensive process. RvB is easy to produce because it's using animations that took the original studio months to create. All they provided were the scripts, voices, and players to use the extremely simplified character controls in the game- all of these can easily be done in spare time and with zero budget and day jobs. Modeling, texturing, rigging, and animating from scratch are far more complicated processes, and they're not going to be simplified anytime soon because specifying the exact appearance and motions of every single movable part of the human body several times a second for the period of several minutes is an inherently labor-intensive task.
Motion capture? (Score:1)
specifying the exact appearance and motions of every single movable part of the human body several times a second for the period of several minutes is an inherently labor-intensive task.
Inherently? Why would it take any more than "several minutes" once the character is modeled, textured, and articulated? Can't an actor put on a highly contrasty suit and act on stage in real time, where video cameras and/or other sensors feed the performance into the computer and turn it into a motion sequence?
Re:Motion capture? (Score:2)
There is software being worked on to do just that. But it's expensive (for now) and it's still not ideal. For one thing, parts of the actor are obscured during a take. The software attempts to work out what was going on from the previous and following frames, but it still requires cleanup. Sometimes it's faster ju
I'm sorry, you can't show that in the movie .. (Score:2)
Ah yes, and the color the room is painted in is trademarked by our subsidary.
talking heads (Score:1, Funny)
Red vs Blue reminds me of the Garfield comic strip. Gee, what's Garfield up to today? Sitting on the table and talking to John? And he hates Mondays? And he steals Johns Lasagna then smacks Odie in the teeth? HAAHHAA
Re:talking heads (Score:1)
Where Garfield is same crap, different panel. (Oh, you missed a huge portion of strips, Jon being rejected over the phone.)
Re:talking heads (Score:1)
Re:talking heads (Score:2)
8-bit Theater [nuklearpower.com]
Ctrl-Alt-Del [ctrlaltdel-online.com]
Van Von Hunter [vanvonhunter.com]
Cup of Suffering [keenspace.com]
Elf Only Inn [elfonlyinn.net]
Enjoy.
Re:talking heads (Score:1)
--------
My Pop Culture Theme Quizzes, have fun reading and solving them.
The First [blogspot.com]
The Second [blogspot.com]
The Third [blogspot.com]
Solutions to #1 [blogspot.com]
Re:talking heads (Score:2)
Fixed it for you.
Re:talking heads (Score:2)
But seriously, I like online comics, but I find animation of any kind interesting even if it's David Firth on Newgrounds. Talking heads or not... It's still made me laugh and thats what counts.
Re:talking heads (Score:1)
No, Thanks... (Score:5, Funny)
Buy your copy of the game at the store today to get it autographed by a bored, lazy video game store clerk! Hurry while supplies last.
Re:No, Thanks... (Score:1)
Kevin Smith should be able to sue for prior art.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 00IQC8/qid=1123451168/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-343896 7-9445729?v=glance&s=dvd [amazon.com]
Stunt Island (Score:1)
Bypass NYT registration (Score:2)
2. Paste into google search
3. click on link that appears on the google search page.
4. ???
5. Profit
Just A Game (Score:2, Interesting)
Why Xbox? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's up with Slashdot, and these other publications like the New York Times, talk about Xbox like it's what the kids are playing these days? It's selling like 1/5th the rate of the PS2. I don't have either of these consoles, but I'd still like to know why the less successful product in an industry composed of only a handful of competitors get this publicity.
Quake machinima seems forgotten (Score:5, Interesting)
Another movie worth mentioning is Eschaton: Darkening Twilight, which was one of the few attempts at serious machinima (along with Nehahra). I think it had some Cthulhu themes in it. A sequel was made for Quake II (Nightfall), but as far as I know it was discontinued after that.
Quake had a lot of great machinima, far more ambitious than what I've seen these days. I've seen a bit of Red Vs. Blue and it didn't really impress me. Maybe I just watched some lackluster episodes. Over the Counter-Strike had a few funny episodes, but it was really just voice acting in official CS maps. I admit that I don't actively follow machinima, so I don't really know what kind of stuff is being made these days, but the more famous (or "mainstream") machinima like RvsB isn't as good as the older Quake stuff.
The new Half-Life 2 short movie, "A Few Good G-men," is a nice example of what Source can do with its facial expressions and lip synching and such, but I wonder if anyone will take it further by making a longer, original movie.
As for that article, I find it very strange. It makes machinima seem like it was invented by Red Vs. Blue, and that there's something profoundly mysterious and amazing about it. I mean, does RvsB take as much work as making maps, models, music and textures from scratch along with engine modifications? I doubt it. Some of the earliest machinima pieces for Quake were much like RvsB, but they became more complex, and now it seems like we're back at square one.
Re:Quake machinima seems forgotten (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm in late script-writing phase for an original full-length machinima for UT2004, I'm calling "Skaarj Wars". I'm looking to release it sometime around this time next year. Depending on how soon I can get the attention and efforts of good modelers and mappers, it may get released s
Re:Quake machinima seems forgotten (Score:4, Interesting)
In fact we still sometimes use a modified version of Quake 2 called Qfusion which allows us to use Quake 3 assets within the open source Quake 2 game engine. A nice example of this can be seen in a series of shorts we did for SpikeTV called Gamer Gags. [spiketv.com]
hey, you're really late. (Score:1)
Bored Video Store Clerks (Score:2)
Small Price to Pay (Score:1)
Clerks. (Score:1)
2005 has been a good year for Machinima (Score:4, Informative)
The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences has announced the 2005, not so annual, Machinima Film Festival [machinima.org]. The festival will once again be held at the American Museum of the Moving Image [ammi.org] in Astoria, New York.
Machinima in general has grown in popularity and commercial success since the last festival in 2003 with such recent work as Paul Marino's Half Life 2 music video, "I'm Still Seeing Breen" [machinima.org] appearing on MTV2's Video Mods, Rooster Teeth's recent series of shorts [ifctv.com] for IFC, the Nisha Chronicles [stolena3.com] for GMD Studios' latest A.R.G. promoting the Audi A3, and The ILL Clan's [illclan.com] "Gamer Gags" [spiketv.com] for SpikeTV.
In all it's been a good year for Machinima, and it's only August.
Someone had to say it... (Score:2, Funny)
Just have to say... (Score:2, Interesting)
I can't remember when I read it but Gabe at Penny Arcade explained why you should not use sprite animations in a comic strip. He wasn't talking about drawing your own sprites, he was referring to making a comic from Mega Man sprites or some other game. The fact is you don't own the sprites and while
Yeah, its okay funny but... (Score:1)
Doesn't the new york times have something better to write about in their sunday mag?
What a god-awful boring story...
I would of probably enjoyed an expose on the lightsaber dude better.
M*A*S*H (Score:2)
M*A*S*H was a war comedy about a medical unit during the Korean War -- wounded soldiers were flown/driven to their location, operated on, and sent back into the war. They were rarely under fire
Re:nyt (Score:2)
It may be a "soul sucking registration", but at least I can click on the original link and RTFA.
As a side note... The series this company does called The Strangerhood is also quite good.
Re:nyt (Score:1)
Re:nyt (Score:1)
Re:nyt (Score:1)
Re:nyt (Score:2)
Ironically, the link in the summary apparently contains the neccessary HTTP GET cruft to make NYT think that it's coming from a partner, bypassing the need to register. You could have simply clicked on the link to read the story.
You let your soul be sucked off for no
Re:nyt (Score:1)
Just right click on the "Signup" thing and click "bugmenot" and it goes on the internet and finds you a login. It also works for alot of other sites out there.
Check it out
Re:nyt (Score:1)
Why must you come to conclusions mr angry Anonymous Coward ?
Got firefox? Use this extension. (Score:2)
Re:VISUAL STUDIO 2005 ROCKS (Score:1)
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Re:VISUAL STUDIO 2005 ROCKS (Score:2)