The Machinimist's Revolution (Read if you're a Machinimist)

We Machinimists have been under the foot of game companies for too long. Now it's time to establish the community.

I have a concept. A concept that can change Machinima forever.

The Machinima Directors Guild

We establish ourselves. Just like the motion picture business. This is just a concept, I can't make a site for such a thing because I have no website experience (Global Node, my site, was not made by me, only run by me). It would also give us some balance, with directors registering when they plan to make a hobby out of it. Not to control the population, but to make it more of a hobby, and certainly not to combat Machinima.com. If such an organization was to exist, they would affiliate with Machinima.com.

It's time to get out from under the foot of companies like Eidos, and start stomping back. Just a thought.

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Last edited by Global Node on Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

	Global Node wrote:
	We Machinimists have been under the foot of game companies for too long. Now it's time to establish the community.

	Global Node wrote:
	It would also give us some balance, with directors registering when they plan to make a hobby out of it. Not to control the population, but to make it more of a hobby, and certainly not to combat Machinima.com.

The thing with machinima is that it's already pretty much considered a hobby, so I'm not sure what to tell you there. If you're thinking about trying to establish a more professional aspect to the machinima community, I think that would be a benefit and help add to the community beyond the 'hobby' mindset.

I'd also like to know more about what you mean by us as machinimists being under the foot of game companies- From what I figure, the only way that game companies are potentially restricting the machinima community is when they release games without any kind of modding support, or freeware modding tools- something that varies from company to company (as well as their policies on copyright, in which some companies are very open-minded).

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Well, the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS) is sort-of similar to what you've mentioned...

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I'm all for it.

Sign me up

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Dogma wrote:

I'd also like to know more about what you mean by us as machinimists being under the foot of game companies- From what I figure, the only way that game companies are potentially restricting the machinima community is when they release games without any kind of modding support, or freeware modding tools- something that varies from company to company (as well as their policies on copyright, in which some companies are very open-minded).

See "Back In NYC, A Deus Ex Machinima".

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Last edited by Global Node on Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

I'd be willing to join, and help a little. I have graphics/ a little html/music/and of course machinima experience.

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	BCINC wrote:
	I'd be willing to join, and help a little. I have graphics/ a little html/music/and of course machinima experience.

If there was anyone I wanted to join, it is you.

As for the AMAS, I explored that site, and it sucks. There is no community to it, it's just a bunch of links with a very small amount of info.

As for the MDG site, we'll work on a design and hosting in a group conversation on MSN. Everyone add me, my MSN account is in my profile.

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	Global Node wrote:
	See "Back In NYC, A Deus Ex Machinima".

You're probably going to have to be bit more specific as to what actually happened regarding that series and Eidos, I tried googling it and didn't find much on the topic.

Now, I am all for the creation of a machinima wesbite that deals with the professional production of machinima (with tutorials and guides to manipulating game engines and using any freeware modding programs, articles on machinima theory, discussion on machinima narratives, etc, etc), as the AMAS website is really, really lacking in that department. But I guess I still don't understand where you're coming from regarding the games industry holding us back.

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	Dogma wrote:
	Now, I am all for the creation of a machinima wesbite that deals with the professional production of machinima (with tutorials and guides to manipulating game engines and using any freeware modding programs, articles on machinima theory, discussion on machinima narratives, etc, etc).

Well, we'd like to believe we provide the service you are speaking of Dogma. If not then help us make what you are talking about.

I /agree.

Machinima takes a lot of time to make, and is very underappreciated.

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You're all getting carried away.

What will we do? Just be a bunch of guys posting tutorials?

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Global Node wrote:

	BCINC wrote:
	I'd be willing to join, and help a little. I have graphics/ a little html/music/and of course machinima experience.

If there was anyone I wanted to join, it is you.

As for the AMAS, I explored that site, and it sucks. There is no community to it, it's just a bunch of links with a very small amount of info.

As for the MDG site, we'll work on a design and hosting in a group conversation on MSN. Everyone add me, my MSN account is in my profile.

why me?

To me it all sounds like alot of work, when there actually are forums for machinima other that machinima.com that are better. Like Litfusefilms.com, theleetworld.com etc. that is if you looking for something non-halo related Rolling Eyes

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Alright, before I go any further, let me give a bit of a background on myself so you all have an idea of where I'm coming from.

I'm a senior New Media major at the University of Maine currently in the process of my senior capstone project. Initially I was hoping to create a machinima film roughly half in hour and length with the purposing of exploring machinima as way of delivering a complex narrative.

I've switched gears from trying to necessarily making my original machinima project, mostly because I let the project get so large I wouldn't be able complete it within the time allotted by my professor, and instead I am focusing on the community itself (with the possibility of making a few machinima videos detailing my personal thoughts on the genre, so at least I obtain my personal goal of making machinima).

From what I've personally experienced in the machinima, and from watching a lot of the current machinima out there, I do think Global Node has a point in the Machinima community and the genre as a whole could use with some revolutionizing, but maybe not in the way that he feels it needs to be (and this just my opinion, I would gladly like to hear more of your thoughts, Global). Personally I feel that Machinima may have reached a kind of stagnation in its development.

My theory on why it's reached this stalemate of sorts is that it's due to the fact that basic machinima is incredibly easy to make (just look at most of the Halo/Garry's Mod machinima that's out there on youtube). But what about more complex machinima? How easy is it to write an original script, generate original content, gather a crew, etc for a machinima project in say, Halo 3? How about in Half Life 2? It's not entirely difficult to learn how to use Faceposer from HL2's Source SDK, but what about more complex aspects, like re-texturing models, setting up scenes with multiple actors, and scripted events? Finding information from the machinima community can be difficult at times.

From what I can tell, there also appears to be stronger emphasis on the critique of finished machinima projects then there is on pre-production. You can create a machinima, release it on youtube/stage6/or this website, and people will comment on it, give you negative or positive reviews, etc. But when it comes to creating machinima in the first, it can be harder to get advice on what you specifically have in mind.

Take for example the Source engine from Half Life 2. It's incredibly versatile, it comes with all these freeware modification programs, and it has a vast amount of potential- However, a lot of the guides and tutorials out there are on how to create maps in Hammer and what not are geared towards creating multiplayer or single player mods more then machinima, and there’s a lot of information to sift through.

When I talk about a website that has this focus on preproduction, I’m generally referring to the idea of a central hub of sorts that focuses specifically on pre-production; IE, how to manipulate the various game engines that can be used to create machinima. Machinimators looking to make something beyond just another Red vs. Blue style tribute or Garry’s Mod slideshow would have a place to find out just exactly how Faceposer and Hammer works or tips and tricks with Halo 3’s replay ability- or any other game for that matter. I’d like to think this would be a benefit to the development of the machinima community and help encourage more amateur machinimators to push beyond basic Garry’s Mod and Halo videos into more complex and professionally looking machinima. But as said earlier, machinima is considered a hobby, so there’s no guarantee that there would be a significant change.

As for Machinima.com being that website, I think it is a central point of the community, but could use some more development in that pre-production aspect I'm referring to.

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I, and other new staff members, have noticed this exact problem (in reference to a machinima production guides).

We currently are in the works of revamping the site, not only to be more user friendly but to help new and potential machinima makers find the right tips to make quality machinima.

Our new programmer is spearheading a redesign as well as a shift in structure for better access to information and videos.

Please be patient with us.