Machinima For Dummiesg-ecx.images-amazon.com/.../wiley-ems/MachinimaFD_Chap3.pdf · 2008. 7....

Machinima For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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Contents at a GlanceIntroduction .................................................................1

Part I: Introducing Machinima.......................................7Chapter 1: Getting to Know Machinima...........................................................................9Chapter 2: Your First Machinima Movie ........................................................................25

Part II: Getting Serious ...............................................33Chapter 3: Filmmaking 101 ..............................................................................................35Chapter 4: Storytelling and Scriptwriting......................................................................59Chapter 5: Engines, Engines Everywhere......................................................................79Chapter 6: Making Your World: Set Design and Texturing ..........................................97Chapter 7: The Casting Couch: In-Engine Character Design in The Sims 2 ............115Chapter 8: Cut! Directing Machinima with The Sims 2 ..............................................131Chapter 9: Get Out the Scissors: Editing Machinima.................................................153Chapter 10: Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Distributing Your Movie................................167

Part III: Advanced Machinima Creation......................187Chapter 11: Massively Multiplayer Machinima: World of Warcraft..........................189Chapter 12: Lord of the Rings on $50 — Mass Battles

with Medieval II: Total War .........................................................................................215Chapter 13: Noise! Sound Design and Recording for a Great Film ...........................239Chapter 14: Get It Out There! Publicizing Your Movie...............................................255Chapter 15: You’re Nicked, My Son: Machinima and the Law ..................................273

Part IV: The Final Frontier: Pro Machinima.................283Chapter 16: Making Things That Don’t Exist: 3D Modeling and Animation............285Chapter 17: A Storm Is Brewing: Moviestorm.............................................................305Chapter 18: Build a Better Mousetrap: Going Beyond Engine Limitations .............331Chapter 19: Pro Machinima? .........................................................................................349

Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................355Chapter 20: Ten Machinima Films You Must Watch...................................................357Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Ruin Your Machinima Movie..............................................365Chapter 22: Ten Machinima Sites to Bookmark..........................................................371

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Appendix: About the DVD ..........................................375Index .......................................................................381

End-User License Agreement ........................Back of Book

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Table of ContentsIntroduction .................................................................1

About This Book...............................................................................................2Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................3

Part I: Introducing Machinima ..............................................................3Part II: Getting Serious ...........................................................................3Part III: Advanced Machinima Creation...............................................4Part IV: The Final Frontier: Pro Machinima.........................................4Part V: The Part of Tens.........................................................................4

Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................4Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6

Part I: Introducing Machinima .......................................7

Chapter 1: Getting to Know Machinima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9The Future Is Here: Machinima Arrives.........................................................9Shooting in a Virtual World...........................................................................10Machiniwhatnow? ..........................................................................................12Using Machinima to Make Films...................................................................13

What Machinima does well .................................................................14What Machinima does less well .........................................................15

Making a Machinima Film..............................................................................17Controlling the Action: Live Versus Scripted..............................................20

Chapter 2: Your First Machinima Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25Installing Moviestorm....................................................................................25Walk before Running......................................................................................26Making Winston Drunk ..................................................................................27Time for a Witty Retort..................................................................................28A Quick Exit.....................................................................................................30Cinematography! ............................................................................................30And That’s All, Folks! .....................................................................................32

Part II: Getting Serious................................................33

Chapter 3: Filmmaking 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Film Is a Language..........................................................................................35

Faking the eye .......................................................................................36Painting with light ................................................................................37

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Interpreting Animation ..................................................................................37Making the Film: Anatomy of a Scene..........................................................38

Style........................................................................................................38Blocking .................................................................................................39Camera positioning ..............................................................................40Micro-flow..............................................................................................41Framing ..................................................................................................43Filming ...................................................................................................43

Thinking about Aspect Ratios ......................................................................44Framing Your Movie.......................................................................................45

Painterly composition .........................................................................45Framing characters ..............................................................................47

Mastering Shot Flow ......................................................................................47The Components of a Film ............................................................................49

Shot types: Wide...................................................................................50Shot functions: Establishing ...............................................................50Shot types: Two-shot ...........................................................................51Shot types: Reverse..............................................................................51Shot types: Point of View (POV).........................................................52Shot types: Close-up ............................................................................52Shot types: Medium shot.....................................................................53Shot types: General Visual (GV) .........................................................54Shot types: Reveal ................................................................................55Shot types: Insert .................................................................................55Moving camera: Pan.............................................................................56Moving camera: Dolly/crane ...............................................................56Moving camera: Zoom .........................................................................56Moving camera: Handheld ..................................................................57

Chapter 4: Storytelling and Scriptwriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59Debunking Storytelling Myths ......................................................................59

You can’t learn to tell a story..............................................................59You’ll ruin your storytelling by learning story structure................60There’s one true way to write a story................................................60Writing a story is easy .........................................................................61You don’t need to write like the pros do ...........................................61Fire hot. . . fan films bad .......................................................................61

Outlining the Form of a Story .......................................................................62Getting the Scoop on Reversals ...................................................................63

Sizing your reversals............................................................................64Beats.......................................................................................................64Scenes ....................................................................................................67Act ..........................................................................................................69

Developing Your Characters.........................................................................70

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Actually Writing a Script — Or Not! .............................................................731. The pitch ...........................................................................................732. The skeleton......................................................................................743. The narrative ....................................................................................744. The script ..........................................................................................755. The s****ing editing ........................................................................75

Writing Natural Dialogue...............................................................................75Adhering to Script Format ............................................................................76

Chapter 5: Engines, Engines Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79Exploring Key Features..................................................................................80The Sims 2 .......................................................................................................83The Movies......................................................................................................83Half-Life 2.........................................................................................................84Halo 2 ...............................................................................................................85Unreal Tournament ........................................................................................86Neverwinter Nights........................................................................................87Neverwinter Nights 2.....................................................................................88Medieval II: Total War ....................................................................................89DooM 3.............................................................................................................89Grand Theft Auto ...........................................................................................90Moviestorm.....................................................................................................92IClone...............................................................................................................92Second Life......................................................................................................93World of Warcraft ...........................................................................................94Battlefield 2 .....................................................................................................95Company Of Heroes .......................................................................................95

Chapter 6: Making Your World: Set Design and Texturing . . . . . . . . .97Knowing What Game Engines You Can Use ................................................97The Design Phase...........................................................................................98Creating a Set..................................................................................................99Entering the Modern Age ............................................................................101Creating a Set in The Sims 2........................................................................102Landscaping for the Win .............................................................................104Build Me Up, Buttercup ...............................................................................106Adding the Finishing Touches ....................................................................107Grabbing Props from the “Intarweb”.........................................................107

Finding mods.......................................................................................108Installing a mod ..................................................................................109

Making a Quality Set ....................................................................................109Research ..............................................................................................110Color and light ....................................................................................110Space....................................................................................................111Practicalities .......................................................................................112

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Chapter 7: The Casting Couch: In-Engine Character Design in The Sims 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

How Do They Do That?................................................................................115Creating Characters in The Sims 2.............................................................118Customizing Your Character.......................................................................120

Genetics: A new pair of genes...........................................................120Faces: Tragedy, comedy, or chimp...................................................120Modifiers: The real power awaits you .............................................122Facial hair, makeup, and glasses ......................................................122Clothing ...............................................................................................124

Designing a Character’s Look .....................................................................125Mastering Visual Character Design............................................................127

Chapter 8: Cut! Directing Machinima with The Sims 2 . . . . . . . . . . .131Making Movies in The Sims: The Advantages ..........................................131Checking Out The Sims Disadvantages .....................................................132Preparing to Film with The Sims ................................................................133Getting Your Sims onto Your Lot................................................................134Configuring The Sims 2 for Machinima .....................................................137

Adding a community add-on.............................................................138Adding game cheats...........................................................................138

Starting to Film .............................................................................................140Static shots..........................................................................................141Lights, camera, action!.......................................................................143I like to move it — moving shots......................................................144

Diving in to Character Filming....................................................................147Using Advanced Animation Tools ..............................................................148Creating Character Interaction...................................................................149Case Study: The Snow Witch ......................................................................150

Chapter 9: Get Out the Scissors: Editing Machinima . . . . . . . . . . . . .153Understanding What You’re Achieving with Your Edits..........................153Figuring Out How to Edit.............................................................................155Getting Started with Vegas Video...............................................................156Importing a Clip............................................................................................157Adding a Clip to the Video Track ...............................................................157Trimming a Clip ............................................................................................157Adding Transitions.......................................................................................158Working with Sound.....................................................................................161Speeding Up or Slowing Down a Clip.........................................................161Adding Title Sequence or Credits ..............................................................162Rendering Video...........................................................................................163Identifying New Shots..................................................................................163Editing an Action Sequence ........................................................................164Editing a Conversation ................................................................................164Editing a Romantic Sequence .....................................................................165Editing a Suspense Sequence .....................................................................166

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Chapter 10: Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Distributing Your Movie . . . .167Codecs, Codecs Every . . . What? ...............................................................167Video Formats ..............................................................................................168

QuickTime ...........................................................................................168AVI ........................................................................................................169WMV.....................................................................................................170

Thinking about Bitrates...............................................................................171Encoding Your Video ...................................................................................172

QuickTime ...........................................................................................172AVI ........................................................................................................175WMV.....................................................................................................176

Streaming Video ...........................................................................................179External hosting..................................................................................180Personal hosting.................................................................................181

Getting Your Video Out There ....................................................................182Standard (paid) Web hosting ............................................................182Internet Archive..................................................................................183Web video sites...................................................................................184Peer-to-peer distribution...................................................................184

Publicizing Your Movie................................................................................186

Part III: Advanced Machinima Creation ......................187

Chapter 11: Massively Multiplayer Machinima: World of Warcraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189

World of Warcrack — er, Warcraft..............................................................190World of Warcraft and Machinima....................................................191Tools of the MMO trade.....................................................................193

Writing for WoW ...........................................................................................196Decide what sort of story you want to tell......................................197Write your story .................................................................................197

LFG 3,745 More 4 Helm’s Deep PST!...........................................................198Executive producer ............................................................................198Permissions agent ..............................................................................199Casting agent.......................................................................................200Costume department .........................................................................200Crowd control .....................................................................................201Transport coordinator.......................................................................201

Shooting in WoW ..........................................................................................202Record pans in WoW..........................................................................202Record tracks in WoW........................................................................203Shoot characters acting in WoW ......................................................203

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Model Viewer FTW! ......................................................................................204And Now, View That Map! ...........................................................................207Mastering Post-Production Effects ............................................................208

Layering ...............................................................................................209Other compositing techniques.........................................................213

Chapter 12: Lord of the Rings on $50 — Mass Battles with Medieval II: Total War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

The Ups and Downs of Medieval II: Total War..........................................216The Filming Process in MTW2....................................................................217Getting Started .............................................................................................218Getting to Know the Battle Editor..............................................................219Making a Map................................................................................................223Recording the Action...................................................................................226Shooting the Carnage ..................................................................................226

1: The Medieval II: Total War window..............................................2282: The Visible Elements window.......................................................2283: The Curves View.............................................................................2284: The Playback controls ...................................................................2305: The Interpolation controls ............................................................2306: Zooming functions .........................................................................231

Creating Camera Paths ................................................................................231Adding a zoom ....................................................................................232Creating a close-up hand-held camera ............................................233Rendering a camera ...........................................................................234

Rendering a Shot ..........................................................................................235Getting the Scoop on Tips and Tricks .......................................................236

Chapter 13: Noise! Sound Design and Recording for a Great Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

Figuring Out What Sound You Need ..........................................................240Winning a Losing Battle...............................................................................241Understanding the Basics of Sound...........................................................241Getting the Kit — Recommendations for Cheap Equipment

and Free Software .....................................................................................243Microphone .........................................................................................243Mixing desk .........................................................................................243Headphones ........................................................................................244Software ...............................................................................................244Sound damping ...................................................................................245

Setting Up a Recording Studio in Your Bedroom .....................................245Makin’ Yer Aktual Recording!......................................................................247Recording from Different Locations...........................................................248Cleaning Up Voices and Balance Levels ....................................................248Finding Foley Sounds and Effects ..............................................................250Locating Music .............................................................................................252

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Chapter 14: Get It Out There! Publicizing Your Movie . . . . . . . . . . . .255There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity ...................................................255Why You Should Always Lie........................................................................256Spin ................................................................................................................257Word-of-Mouth and Word-of-Mouse...........................................................259Can I Get a Second Opinion, Doctor?.........................................................260Online: The Key Sites...................................................................................260

Cast your net wider............................................................................261Other sites...........................................................................................261Create an RSS feed..............................................................................262

Offline Media.................................................................................................263Press Releases ..............................................................................................264

Writing your own press release........................................................264Hiring a PR agency .............................................................................268Trying a PR distribution agency.......................................................268

The Life-Cycle of the Lesser Spotted Publicity Machine ........................269Before you start ..................................................................................269Right in the thick of it ........................................................................269Almost done ........................................................................................270Release day .........................................................................................270About a month later ...........................................................................271Scraping the bottom of the barrel....................................................271

Chapter 15: You’re Nicked, My Son: Machinima and the Law . . . . .273The Lawyers Made Me Do It .......................................................................274Get ’im, Guvnor!............................................................................................274Get Your Knickers On, Love — You’re Nicked..........................................276

EULA-reading: The fine print.............................................................276Copyright: It’s back ............................................................................278

If You May Be Infringing . . ..........................................................................279Finding a Lawyer ..........................................................................................280Making Legal Machinima.............................................................................281Checking into Creative Commons..............................................................282

Part IV: The Final Frontier: Pro Machinima .................283

Chapter 16: Making Things That Don’t Exist: 3D Modeling and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285

Figuring Out Whether You Need to Model ................................................286Exploring 3D Packages ................................................................................286

Blender.................................................................................................287Milkshape ............................................................................................287GMax ....................................................................................................287

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Getting Your Model into Your Game ..........................................................288Creating Your First Model ...........................................................................291

Working with Blender ........................................................................291Creating a simple cube ......................................................................292Editing model points..........................................................................294Adding texture to your model ..........................................................297

Importing into The Sims!.............................................................................301Cloning a package...............................................................................301Checking the scale .............................................................................302Adding the model and texture to your game..................................303

Chapter 17: A Storm Is Brewing: Moviestorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305Using Moviestorm ........................................................................................305Movie-Making in Moviestorm: The Basic Principles................................307Creating Your Set..........................................................................................308Adding Props to Your Set ............................................................................310Creating Characters in Moviestorm...........................................................312Creating a Scene ...........................................................................................314Blocking with the Timeline .........................................................................316Creating Camerawork ..................................................................................320

Editing your shot ................................................................................321Adding a camera on a character ......................................................322

Editing Camera Sequences with the Master Monitor ..............................323Adjusting Your Set While Filming...............................................................324Using a Matte Backdrop ..............................................................................325Changing a Texture ......................................................................................326Rendering Out the Final Version ................................................................329Going Further................................................................................................329

Chapter 18: Build a Better Mousetrap: Going Beyond Engine Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331

Improving Your Engine’s Utility..................................................................331Fiddling with Tools.......................................................................................333What Can You Do with Tools?.....................................................................335Scripting in Your Engine..............................................................................336Developing Tools: An Example ...................................................................338Considering Hardware Add-Ons.................................................................340Removing Limitations..................................................................................342

Interpreting data.................................................................................343Hex editing ..........................................................................................344

Trying New Angles .......................................................................................346

Chapter 19: Pro Machinima? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349Getting Hired by a Games Company..........................................................349Starting Your Own Machinima Company ..................................................352

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Part V: The Part of Tens .............................................355

Chapter 20: Ten Machinima Films You Must Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . .357Anna...............................................................................................................357Hardly Workin’..............................................................................................358The Internet Is For Porn ..............................................................................358BloodSpell .....................................................................................................359The Snow Witch............................................................................................360Red vs Blue ...................................................................................................360Still Seeing Breen..........................................................................................361The Journey ..................................................................................................362Edge of Remorse...........................................................................................362The Return ....................................................................................................363

Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Ruin Your Machinima Movie . . . . . . . . . . . .365Don’t Plan! .....................................................................................................365Don’t Spend Time on Your Script...............................................................366Get Your Friends to Act ...............................................................................366Ignore Camerawork......................................................................................367Don’t Cut It Down to Size ............................................................................367Don’t Get Help ..............................................................................................368Copy Existing Machinima Movies ..............................................................368Don’t Read About Filmmaking....................................................................369Don’t Release Unless It’s Perfect................................................................369Don’t Tell Anyone about It ..........................................................................369

Chapter 22: Ten Machinima Sites to Bookmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371Machinima Premiere....................................................................................371Sims99............................................................................................................371Machinima.com ............................................................................................372Machinima Film Festival..............................................................................372Thinking Machinima ....................................................................................372Machinima For Dummies Blog....................................................................372Machinifeed ..................................................................................................373The Overcast ................................................................................................373The Internet Archive Machinima Section .................................................373WarcraftMovies.com....................................................................................374

Appendix: About the DVD...........................................375System Requirements..................................................................................375Using the DVD...............................................................................................376

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What You’ll Find on the DVD ......................................................................376Tutorial material.................................................................................377Moviestorm .........................................................................................377Our top films .......................................................................................377Open-source utilities..........................................................................378Freeware utilities ................................................................................378Trial software ......................................................................................379

Troubleshooting...........................................................................................379

Index .......................................................................381

End-User License Agreement ........................Back of Book

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Chapter 3

Filmmaking 101In This Chapter� Using Cinematic Language

� Planning and shooting a film

� Applying filmmaking technique to Machinima

Just to warn you: This is the chapter in the book where we confidentlyexpect, unless you’re already an experienced filmmaker, you’ll come out

feeling like you know less than when you went in. Sorry about that. But film-making is a huge, huge topic.

Both Hugh and Johnnie learned their filmmaking via the School of Hard Knocks,or in this case the School of Poor Shots. Hugh discovered early in 1997 thathyperactive Quake players on three liters of filter coffee make better camera-men when they’re not trying to dodge the invisible rockets. It took anothertwo or three films for Strange Company to start making movies that lookedlike, you know, actual cinema.

The reason isn’t that Hugh’s an idiot, although it’s always worth consideringthat as a potential cause. It’s because he didn’t realize, until about two monthsafter he made his first movie, that in order to make a movie, you have tospeak a new language.

Film Is a LanguageWe’re used to thinking of language as verbal. However, cinematography is alanguage, with a vocabulary of shots and techniques, and a grammar of edit-ing and spatial awareness. If you can’t speak the language at least a little bit,you can’t make a film. Hugh and Johnnie speak it well enough to order acoffee and find the nearest toilet. Meanwhile, Ridley Scott and David Lynchare the equivalent of Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway.

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To shoot a film that will make sense, much less have an emotional impact,you need to unlearn a lot of obvious potential mistakes with a camera. Youneed to know how the eye interprets the camera’s vision, and how the brainwill assume that one shot should flow from another, or how it will interpret asingle frame.

This stuff isn’t Machinima-specific. It’s applicable to all forms of filmmaking,and some people have forgotten more than either Hugh or Johnnie knows onthe subject. We give you some pointers to further sources of filmmakingexpertise at the end of the chapter.

Faking the eyeTo watch a film is not a natural act. The brain isn’t designed for it. We’re fool-ing our audience’s brains and eyes into thinking they’re watching actualevents, when they’re seeing nothing of the kind.

If you’re making cinema, you need to know how the brain will attempt to makesense of the sequence of disjointed images you’re creating. Some movementsand some shots will smoothly slot into each other, while others will jar andconfuse their audience.

Here’s a quick thought experiment. A brown sedan races across the screenfrom left to right, followed by a police car. Then, in the next shot, the brownsedan shoots across in the opposite direction, again followed by the cop car.That means that the chase has turned around, right?

Not necessarily. It could just mean that the director has failed to take accountof the line of action (see the section “Mastering Shot Flow,” later in this chap-ter) and as a result you’ve misinterpreted his intentions. You’ll get more con-fused later on in the movie, as you’re now working under an interpretationthat the director hadn’t taken into account.

A shot doesn’t stand alone, any more than the word “artichoke” stands alonein a story. “Hugh hit Johnnie with the artichoke” is a totally different sentencefrom “steam the artichoke lightly with butter.” In just the same way, a shot ofa guy looking up, followed by a shot of a girl at a window, suggests one thing.A shot of a falling piano, followed by a shot of a guy looking up, suggestssomething else; it’s a different sentence in the language.

Not only action, but intent, and even mood, carry across shots. A sequence ofshots carries meaning that a single shot never can.

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Painting with lightJust to make things even more challenging, you’re not just about to learn anew language. You’re also about to become a painter.

filmmaking is an audio-visual medium. And that means that your movie willfirst be judged on its visual appeal. Does it look attractive? Do the visualsyou’ve created stir emotion in your viewers?

Some of this appeal is down to the quality of your engine, obviously, but farmore of it is down to the skill of the director or cinematographer. Whichmeans you need to learn to paint, too. You’ll discover how to draw the eye,balance a portrait, strike a balance between empty space and a clutteredscreen, and use light and shadow as your paintbrushes on a scene.

The best advice Hugh ever received as a filmmaker was to make sure thatevery shot stands on its own as a piece of art. Now, to be fair, he hasn’t man-aged that. Indeed, he’d say a fair number of his shots are a piece of somethingelse entirely. But as soon as he started trying to achieve that, the quality ofhis filmmaking dramatically improved.

Film is audio-visual, not just visual. Sound plays a vital role in a movie, andwithout it, your movie won’t — or shouldn’t — make sense. You can usesound to tell the story, or to provide elements that aren’t otherwise present.Never, ever forget about it. See Chapter 13 for more on sound.

Interpreting AnimationYou’re not using conventional film and conventional actors here, you’re usingMachinima. That means three things:

� You don’t have brilliant acting to rely on. Whereas The West Wing canjust sit on a shot of Martin Sheen for 35 seconds while he does all thework of the scene, you’ll need to draw emotion from your franklywooden actors, using intelligent cinematography and framing.

� Your film looks like animation, not real life. Humans have millions ofyears of evolution to fall back on when trying to interpret pictures ofreal life — we can do so fast and effectively. By contrast, humans aren’tnearly so fast or effective at interpreting drawn images, meaning weneed more time for the brain to figure out what they mean.

37Chapter 3: Filmmaking 101

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� You have to convince your viewers that what they’re seeing is real.Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) filmmakers try very hard to mimicthe look of real film, paying attention to how real cameras look, move,and act.

Making the Film: Anatomy of a SceneCinematography and shooting descend in complexity just like a story. Inorder, here are the levels to consider, consciously or subconsciously.

1. Style

2. Blocking

3. Camera positioning and shot flow

4. Micro-flow

5. Framing

6. Action

The preceding steps describe how we shoot a film, not The One True Way. Itworks for us, but different ways work for other people, many of them muchmore famous than us. We heartily, enthusiastically, and without even a hint of profit-sharing recommend you pick up as many books on filmmaking asyou can!

StyleStyle is the most obvious and arguably least vital element of a film. Peoplelike this level — it’s broad, sweeping, and sexy, and it makes good coffee conversation.

Style is also probably the last thing you should be thinking about. Sure, it’sgood to make some stylistic decisions (like BloodSpell’s punk theme), and it’sworth thinking about the symbolism you’re using in your film (David Lynch isa master of this sort of filmmaking), but a lot of the style of your movie willcome from your subconscious preferences and your view of the world.

Your personal preferences and view will affect you as you plan individualshots, but they’ll be consistent through the movie, and before you know ityou’ll have a style. Later, when you’re a more experienced filmmaker, you canstart to tweak that.


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Confused? Here’s a (mostly) hypothetical example:

Hugh: “Okay, so I’m thinking that this is a very fantastic film, so we need toshoot in a very realistic way. I’m thinking Firefly and Battlestar Galacticahere — handheld shots, shakey cam, not a lot of crane shots, keep it allvery grounded.”

Johnnie: “Shaky cameras? In Machinima? Kill me now.”

Hugh: “No, seriously, it’ll be cool. We can totally do that. Dragal can write usa tool.”

Dragal: *Splutter* “I can?”

Hugh: “Relax. It’ll be fine.”

BlockingNow we descend to a scene level. The first thing you need to do when you’replanning a scene — and we do mean planning, well before you point a cameraat anything — is to decide how your characters move and react in each scene.In theater, these decisions are referred to as blocking.

We’re talking about the broad stuff. Where are your characters standing? Wheredo they walk to? Where do they fight? How does the flow of the fight work?

You need to think about the characters’ motivations. Where does your char-acter want to end up standing, and why? You need to think about the way thescene will look; will the character be framed against a dramatic backdrop?

You need to think about keeping the scene interesting. How do you avoid twocharacters standing in the same place talking for five minutes? Can theymove around? Step closer to each other? Turn away from each other?

Blocking is hard, because you’re acting for your characters at the same timeas you are starting to design your shot flow. At the same time, remember thatwhat you’re doing is about effect, not about physical realism: The characters’locations should be chosen to interest the viewer and give them clues aboutthe characters’ relationships. Think dramatic and symbolic.

Here’s an example:

Hugh: “And now they’re getting pretty intense, but I’m looking at this, andwe’ll have been swapping back and forward in a couple of two-shots forabout a minute here. So, Jered’s looking scared, the Master’s getting reallyangry, what’s happening?”


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Johnnie: “Er. . . . They move closer?”

Hugh: “Naah, dull, dull. Barely changes the shot. Okay, here we go. You’reJered, right? And . . . *Rustling* This coat on a stick is the Master. Now, see,he’s getting angry, he’s intimidating.”

Johnnie: “Hugh, it’s a coat on a stick. I’m worried that you’re going to hit mewith the blunt end.”

Hugh: “Work with me here.”

Johnnie: “Okay. So Jered’s feeling like he can’t show he’s scared, right? Soperhaps he deliberately turns his back.”

Hugh: “. . . And that moves us into a new two-shot!”

Camera positioningAfter you know where your characters are, you need to think about whereyou position your cameras. Note that you’re not actually looking through acamera at any point here, except maybe to scout the location. Plan your cam-eras on paper, for the entire scene. Then, and only then, move onto the nextstage.

Of course, this is Machinima. You can put a camera anywhere you darn wellwant. You can use a different camera for each shot in a 200-shot sequence.You can shoot the entire thing from a spinning crane shot. And you reallydon’t want to do that.

Humans thrive on consistency. We’re also really good at spotting when some-thing isn’t real, even when we’re trying to pretend it is. Real-life cameraworktends to be as simple as possible for cost reasons, so if you want to mimicreal life, you should start there.

In addition, overly complex camerawork gets in the way of the story. Asdirector, your job is to shoot the scene in the simplest way that gets the storyand its emotional content across — but, under no circumstances, to get anysimpler than that.

Imagine an invisible producer shouting about the cost of crane shots in yourear. Can you shoot that conversation more simply? Do you really need a craneshot there? Can you trim five close-ups elsewhere into a single long dollysequence? Simple and elegant.

Of course, sometimes you’ve just got to crank the special effects up to 11 andget with the Peter Jackson mad flying camera action. But the less you useawesome-mad shots, the cooler they’ll look — and the more time you’ll haveto make sure that your uber-camera shot looks incredibly awesome.


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Here’s what we mean:

Hugh: “So I’m thinking that we shoot this conversation a bit like this.”

*Slaps Figure 3-1 down on the table*

Johnnie: “Good. Because I can totally understand all of those randomsquiggles.”

Hugh: “No, look, it’s simple. We’ve got a wide shot, a two-shot, and a reversecovering this conversation, and then when Jered turns, we’ll just dollyaround to face him.”

Johnnie: “Into the coffee stain?”

Hugh: “Yup.”

Micro-flowAfter you decide your camera positioning, you can start thinking about twoor three shots at a time — maybe up to 12. This is the point where Hugh willgenerally start storyboarding — by which we mean drawing out roughimages of his intended camera shots (see Figure 3-2).

Figure 3-1:Camera

positioningdiagram

fromBloodSpell.


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In conventional films, storyboarding is a way of saving money — it’s cheaperto draw your shots than to crank up a film camera and get Sir Ian McKellenon set just to figure out what you want.

However, this is Machinima. We don’t have to pay for film by the foot, andeven if by some miracle you’ve got the man we call Gandalf in your film, he’llbe looking confused in a closet lined with duvets (see Chapter 13), rather thanon an actual stage. There’s very little point drawing detailed storyboards.

But rough drawings of the shots you’re trying to achieve are still useful, sothat you can remember what you’re trying to shoot, and so that you cancheck that your proposed shot sequence will work visually.

Your storyboards don’t have to look good! Provided you as director canunderstand them and visualize the end shot, that’s all that matters.

Hugh will usually draw out a dozen or so shots at a time, in his inimitable —not to say unintelligible — artistic style, and then close his eyes and fly hishand around like he’s pretending it’s an airplane:

Hugh: “Okay, here’s a quick storyboard of the next dozen shots. Questions?”

Steve: “A squiggle attacks another squiggle, and then there’s . . . anincontinent elephant?”

Hugh: “Oh, shut up.”

Figure 3-2:Rough

storyboardfrom

BloodSpell.You really

don’t haveto be a fine

artist!


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FramingNow we’re cooking with gas. Unless we’re using Neverwinter Nights. Thenwe’re cooking with ghast. My, that’s geeky even for us.

Finally, after all that nonsense, we get to actually shoot some darn shots.You’re in the map, you’ve got any assistants you need, er, assisting you. It’stime to figure out how each individual shot will look.

You’ll need to sort out framing — exactly where are your characters in yourshot, and how does that relate to your background? If you’ve got movingcharacters or a moving shot, you’ll need to check your framing and composi-tion at each key point within the movement and sort out the intended timing.

Now’s also the time to cue up speech and animations, either in the game orby discussing with your filming assistants. And lastly, you need to move andarrange your lighting, in whatever form you have it, to make your shot lookboth pretty and clear.

This is the “painting with light” part.

Hugh: *Tap* “Okay, Johnnie, left a bit.” *Tap* “Right a bit.” *Tap* “Okay,now back.” *TAP* “He’s nearly there — just move him back a bit more.”*TAP!* “Oops. I meant forward.”

Johnnie: “I kill you. With my mind.”

Hugh: “And we’re done with the framing. Now, lighting. Someone get me aninvisible glowing badger and put it next to Jered’s bottom.”

FilmingThe next step is to shoot. Or rather, to try to shoot. Filming is where it allgoes horribly wrong. In real film, and ten times more so in Machinima, this iswhere Mr. Reality stomps in the door, bleary-eyed and hung over, and pro-ceeds to do something unmentionable to your lovely theoretical planning —which is why you planned in the first place.

Characters who just won’t go to the right place, timings that require yourassistants to have the dexterity of a concert pianist, poor understanding ofexactly what’s meant to happen — all these things will force you to re-do, re-try, think laterally, re-think the shot, or, in extreme cases, write entire newtools just to make this shot possible.

Given all these factors, you absolutely don’t want to be trying to figure outthe creative details of the film at the same time! The actual process of filmingwill stretch your creativity to the limits, not to mention your patience. On


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BloodSpell, it wasn’t uncommon for complex shots to take upward of an hourand ten takes to get right.

Hugh: “And, rolling. Take 14. And, action. Cue Jered!”

*CLICK*

Hugh: “Cue the Master.”

*CLICK*

Hugh: “And animation 3 at the same time as he looks . . .”

*CLICK* *CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK*

Various crew members: “OH, S***** (*&(£!!! O*&(*!! @@@!”

Hugh: “And the Master turns into a giraffe rather than, as we’d hoped,playing his bow animation. Again. More coffee, anyone?”

Thinking about Aspect RatiosYou should make one very important decision when you start making your film:the aspect ratio you’ll be shooting in. By aspect ratio, we mean the shape ofthe screen. Figure 3-3 shows three popular aspect ratios you should consider.

Figure 3-3:Common

aspectratios for

film.


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� 16:9: We generally recommend 16:9. It’s the most commonly used ratioin film and TV and provides a nice filmic feel without the intimidatingsize of Cinemascope. Plus, if you’ve got a widescreen monitor, you canshoot in this resolution without cropping your footage later. If you can,you should aim to shoot at a high-definition resolution like 1,280x720.

� 4:3: The old TV format, 4:3 is also the format used by a lot of onlinevideo sites, notably YouTube. If you’re aiming primarily for YouTube, a4:3 aspect ratio (800x600, 640x480, 320x240) ensures that you get themost use out of your available screen space.

� Cinemascope is the high-end format used by blockbuster films. If you’reshooting something seriously epic, it can look great in Cinemascope.However, its size means that it’s difficult to display on non-widescreenmonitors, and it’ll suck horribly on YouTube. The sheer available screensize can also feel quite empty if you don’t have epic vistas to deploy onit. And by vistas, we don’t, nor will we ever, mean Windows.

Framing Your MovieEvery time you set up a shot, you’re essentially painting. You’re constructinga 2D image that should convey both information and emotion. And you canensure that both come across by improving your shot composition.

Painterly compositionYou can learn a lot from painters and photographers. Here are some tips oncreating an artistic scene:

� Keep it simple! Don’t crowd your shot. A shot should have at most threeimportant elements — more often one or two. Your audience won’t beable to follow more than three separate elements in a shot at the sametime.

Keeping it simple doesn’t mean that you can’t have a flight of 50 dragonsin shot — that’s a single element! But if you try to shoot a battle betweendragons and eagles as your hero cleaves his way through an army towardthe heroine, all in one static shot, your audience may get confused.

� But don’t make it too simple. Most shots will work better with more thanone element contrasting. That’s not a hard-and-fast rule; close-ups ofcharacters, for example, are definitely the exception. But if you can, tryto capture two elements in shot at once — a contrasting or important


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element of the background, part of a crowd or passers-by, or two of yourcharacters.

� Remember the Rule of Thirds. Divide your frame into thirds horizon-tally and vertically. You’ll have four points where the dividing linescross. If you center key elements of your shot — a character’s face, forexample — on one of those four points, you will tend to create a strongimage. You can also sometimes center an element on one of the pointswhere the lines meet the edge of the screen — for example, if you’reframing one character with another.

� Break the frame. If you’re shooting a crowd sequence, it’s tempting toshoot in such a way that all the background characters are neatlyenclosed by the frame, rather than having arms or legs cut off by theframe. But that’s exactly the wrong way to shoot! If you arrange yourframe so that key characters are in frame but background charactersoverlap the frame, it suggests a bigger, more continuous crowd.

� Be dark or light — don’t be brown. Don’t be afraid to use total dark-ness as part of your frame. Shooting through a doorway, for example,where only half the frame is light, is fine. If only the key character’s faceis light and the rest of the frame is dark, great.

However, don’t shoot if the key element of your shot is poorly lit. If thereis even a chance the audience won’t be able to see the action, add morelight. It’s always better to be over-lit than to be a gray mush.

� Use quick and dirty lighting. You can write an entire book about light-ing (and many people have). If you want a quick-and-dirty way to makeyour lighting look good, make sure that one side of your character’s faceis darker than the other or lit in a slightly different color. Contrastbetween the sides of the face nearly always looks dramatic.

� Include lines. Diagonal lines look dynamic on-screen. If you can, shootwalls, doors, and pylons so they aren’t straight in frame. You can usesuggested lines to point to key elements of your frame: a horizon point-ing to your key character or shadows on the floor lining up to pointtoward your villain.

� Shoot curvy lines! Curves look great on-screen. In particular, paths thatform an S-shape heading away from the camera look very nice indeed.See Lord of the Rings for about a million examples. Human shapes andsilhouettes, particularly, ah, the kind of female silhouette you’ll get frommany computer games, also look great.

� Hang it on your wall. Before you take any shot, ask yourself this ques-tion: Would you be happy to take a still from it, have it printed, and dis-play it on your wall? If so, you’ve got a good shot.


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� Change your Field Of View (FOV). The default field-of-view for mostgames is 90 degrees. To make your work look less like a game and morelike a film, if you have an engine that can change FOV, try changing to anangle closer to 40 degrees. Changes in FOV also alter how close objectsappear to each other laterally. If you want to fit two objects into yourshot but can’t quite manage it, try changing your FOV.

Framing charactersKnowing how and where to place your characters in frame governs the kindof story you can tell with them:

� Don’t center your characters on-screen. Most of the time, your charac-ter should be on the left or right of the screen, talking either to thecenter screen or past the center screen. Only put them center-screen ordirectly facing the camera if you’re sure you know what you’re doing.

� Handle sympathy. As a rough general rule, the closer a characterappears to the center of the screen, and the more head-on he is shot, themore sympathetic he will appear to the audience. This effect is subtlebut powerful. Set up two shots, one where your hero is talking from a bitright of center, almost head-on to the camera, and another where yourvillain is right on the left of screen, talking across to the hero. Suddenly,your hero and villain will feel heroic and villainous, respectively.

� Frame! If you can frame a character with natural features, such as anarch, in the background it will make the image stronger. Likewise, on awide shot, finding something — a rock, a candle, a doorhandle — to placein the foreground to give depth to the shot often improves your shot, too.

� Shoot from up and down. You can dramatically change the impact andovertone of a shot by changing the vertical angle you’re shooting from.In general, shooting down on a character will often make him look vul-nerable, while shooting up at him will make him look impressive.

Even in a field full of unreliable advice, this piece is particularly unreli-able. For example, if you have a character look down (so that you’reshooting him effectively from above) and then have him look up at thecamera, he’ll look menacing, in a Hannibal Lecter–style.

Mastering Shot FlowOn the other side of the filmmaking coin are shot flow and storytelling. If yourshots don’t tell your story, you’re in trouble, no matter how beautiful they are.


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Fortunately, you can follow a few simple rules to help ensure that your shotsmake sense:

� How will your audience know what’s going on? Make sure that you’vegot shots that establish everything important in the scene. You don’t haveto use them immediately — it’s an old trick to start on a series of close-upsand then go to an establishing shot that explains their relationship —but make sure that you know how and when your audience will find outwhat’s going on.

� Be consistent with direction of action. If your character runs out of theshot from left to right, and the next shot is of him running in the samedirection, he should run from left to right on-screen again. Direction ofaction is super-important in making a sequence viewable: Anything thatmoves out of shot moving one way across the screen should nearlyalways move the same way in the next shot.

(There are a few exceptions to this rule — notably if you’re pulling outfrom a close-up to a new wide shot, or if you’re going from a characterrunning into screen to the same character running out of screen.)

� Follow eyelines. Viewers follow the direction a character is looking. Ifyou’re going to go from one character to a new character entering thescene, it’ll make a lot more sense if the first character looks around inthe direction of the second character’s entrance before you cut. Likewise,if you’re setting up two characters who are talking to each other, makesure that they look like they’re talking to each other. Watch out for eyeheights in frame in particular.

That doesn’t mean they actually have to be looking at each other.Perception is king. If your character is in reality looking right at his co-conversationalist, but it looks a bit funny when you shoot it, by allmeans move him around until it looks right on film, even if he’s now staring at your lighting badger’s left nipple.

� Left, then right! If you’re shooting two characters, an easy way to makethe scene make sense is to put one on the right and one on the left. Thispositioning holds if you’re shooting a close-up, a wide shot, or a two-shot. At some point, if it’s a long scene, you’ll want to swap them aroundsomehow (see the sidebar “The line”). But until then, shoot them left,right, left.

� Remember the details. Forgetting to shoot close-ups of items, charac-ters holding items, characters opening doors, and other such things iseasy to do. But these little elements really add a lot to the intelligibilityof the scene. If you can, shoot close-up inserts of action that may beeven slightly unclear — or even just action that looks cool. It’ll help theflow of your sequence.


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The Components of a FilmBefore you construct your novel, you need to know what words you have towork with. Here’s a whistle-stop tour through the varieties of shots availableto you.

You’ll notice that we very rarely give specific details as to how to shoot a particular shot. Most shot types are more general categories than specific


The lineIt seems that every area of technical knowledgehas one deeply arcane and highly specificpiece. With the programming language C, it’spointers. With Machinima, it’s Half-Life 2. Andwith filmmaking in general, it’s the line.

The basic rule is this. Any time two charactersare interacting, an invisible line of action extendsthrough both of them (see figure). If you ever cutover that line, you’ll confuse your audience.

Now, nothing stops a camera from moving overthe line, using a dollying shot, or the line frommoving over your camera, if one of the charac-ters moves. Both methods are reliable ways tochange the line — if you want to reverse the

positions of characters on-screen, for example.But you must never, ever (well, almost never)cut over the line, or everything will reverseplaces, and you’ll confuse your viewers.

Sounds simple, right? Well, it is — provided thatyou’re dealing with only two characters. If fiveor six characters are all talking to each other,determining where the line is at any time is dif-ficult. As a general rule, the line is between thetwo most active characters at any time. Butreally, once you’re past fairly simple scenes,you’ve just got to take your best guess, go for it,and fix the results in pickups!

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framings. The way you frame each shot layers on top of its general intentionto give the meaning and purpose of that shot and that sequence.

Sounds complicated? Don’t worry. Just come up with a rough idea, try it, andthen junk it if it doesn’t work. You’ll get the hang of filming soon enough.

Shot types: WideArguably the simplest type of camera shot, a wide shot, shown in Figure 3-4,captures an entire scene or large part of a scene. A wide shot shows spatialrelationships, gives the viewer an emotional break in intense scenes, showsaction happening over a wide area (or full-body action, as in a martial-artsfight), and establishes a scene.

Whatever else you do during filming, make sure that you take a wide shot ofyour action. You’ll never know when you need it.

Shot functions: EstablishingAbove all else, your film must establish in the viewer’s mind what’s going on,and where it is happening. Your establishing shot, or shots, set the scene. Itmay be a single wide shot that shows the area and the characters, or It mayconsist of a close-up shot of a sign or other salient detail, followed by a wideshot. Your establishing shots may even be a series of close shots followed bya wide shot (à la the bar scene in Star Wars), or a mixture of general visualshots around an area.

Figure 3-4:A wide

shot fromBloodSpell.


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A new establishing shot is often required after a period of action. Cut to awide shot to update the viewers on what’s happening now, who’s still up, andwho’s lying down bleeding.

Shot types: Two-shotA two-shot (see Figure 3-5) is, unsurprisingly, any shot with two characterswho are significant to the shot in frame. This type of shot is typically used forinteractions between those characters.

A particularly strong type of two-shot is one arranged so that both characters’faces are visible. While this type of shot is sometimes a nightmare to shoot,being able to see both characters’ interaction makes for a very strong image.

The infamous over-the-shoulder shot is arguably a type of two-shot. In thisshot, part of one character’s body (usually shoulder and head, hence thename) is used to frame another character in shot. This shot is usually usedduring dialoged sequences. Many directors hate it, but it’s still worth havingin your toolbox.

Shot types: ReverseA reverse shot is — er, well — how do we put this? It’s like the shot before it,but backward. So, for example, if you’re shooting two characters head-on,looking out over some battlements, and then you go to a shot from behindthem looking out over their shoulders, you’re shooting a reverse.

Figure 3-5:A two-shot

from the end of

BloodSpell.


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Reverses can be useful for revealing plot elements — a shadow appears atyour heroine’s shoulder as you’re looking at her from behind, and you thenreverse to a shot in front of her. Reverses are also a rare example of a shotthat is acceptable to use even though they (often) cross the line. (For moreabout the line, see the earlier sidebar in this chapter.)

A reverse has to have some obvious clue that you’ve reversed. So, if bothcharacters are looking forward and you’re cutting from looking at their facesto looking at their backs, that’s okay. But if they’re facing each other, and youcut from one side of them to the other, that shot will jar as you cross the line,because the visual clues aren’t obvious enough.

That’s not the only meaning of the term reverse in filmmaking. As distinctfrom a reverse shot, filmmakers or editors will sometimes refer to a reverse,which is an opposing shot in a conversation sequence. Which might some-times also be a reverse shot. Or not. Aargh!

Shot types: Point of View (POV)A Point of View (POV) shot is taken as if from the point of view of a character,usually just after or just before a close-up on that character, which cues theviewer as to which character’s POV you’re using. You can break all sorts of rulesin a POV shot. Most notably, you can shoot other characters head-on, as you’resaying to the viewer, “Okay, so this is what it looks like for this character.”

Use a POV shot when you want to put the viewer in the character’s place —when the character’s creeping through a shadowy house, when an authorityfigure is shouting at him, or when he’s watching his love interest anxiouslyafter she’s been shot.

Shot types: Close-upYou know what a close-up is — a shot with only a character’s face in shot (seeFigure 3-6). These shots are great — they’re emotionally intense, and they’resimple to shoot because there’s rarely more than one or two elements in frame.

There’s another use for a close-up, too: When you’re short on time and needto get a scene wrapped. A close-up is almost always the easiest type of shot totake — there’s not a lot else in the scene.


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Don’t over-use close-ups. In general, you should save close-ups in conversa-tions for emotionally intense moments. The closer you are to a character, themore strongly you feel his emotion.

You can have a two-shot close-up, where two characters are close enough orappropriately positioned that you can fit close-ups of both of them in frame.You can also go in closer on a character, to mouth and eyes, for an ExtremeClose-Up (XCU). Don’t be afraid to use them; they can be very powerful.

Shot types: Medium shotThe absolute workhorse of character shots, a medium shot, shown in Figure3-7, shows a character’s torso and perhaps a little bit of her legs. It’s the shotused for news reporters, interviews, and any shot where you’re not in a wideshot, but you don’t want the intimacy of a close-up. Get used to mediumshots — you’ll be using them a lot.

Be careful with the framing on a medium shot. In general, never cut a charac-ter off at the waist — either frame above it, at chest level, or below it, aroundthe hips to mid-thigh.

Figure 3-6:A close-up from,yes, you

guessed it,BloodSpell.


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Shot types: General Visual (GV)Go watch any James Bond movie. Wait for him to travel to a new country. Seethat you’ve got a couple of quick shots of flavor of the country — Big Ben anda big red bus for London, a guy in a kilt for Scotland, the Kremlin for Moscow?That’s a GV (see Figure 3-8). It’s used to immediately establish the look andfeel of the area, which carries over to the main scene (which was probablyshot in Burbank, but now feels like it’s in Scotland!).

Figure 3-8:A GV of the

cathedral inBloodSpell.

Figure 3-7:A mediumshot from

BloodSpell.


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Shot types: RevealAny shot that reveals a plot element is a (what else?) reveal shot. The absolutelyclassic reveal is the two-shot over a heroine’s shoulder, shot from in front ofher, which then changes focus to reveal the villain standing behind her.

Give some thought to your reveals. As a general guideline, if it’s genuinely adramatic reveal, you either want to ramp up the tension as high as you can inearlier shots or (as more modern films like The Descent have started to do)simulate the randomness of real life with a sudden reveal with no warning atall. The latter technique’s hard to get right and relies a lot on genuinelyshocking material, but if it’s used well, it hits really hard.

Shot types: InsertBond’s sitting in the villain’s office, pointing a silenced gun at the unfortunateBlofeld. But secretly, the man with the white cat is going for the button thatwill dump Bond into a tank full of sharks. How do you show that? With aninsert, of course.

An insert is a close-up that isn’t centered on a character’s face (see Figure3-9). It can be of something that is hidden or just something that wouldn’totherwise be obvious. Martial arts movies live, eat, and breathe inserts toshow off the neato blocks, punches, and brutal violence that’s going on.

Figure 3-9:An insert

fromStrange

Company’sMatrix: 4x1.


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You nearly always need more inserts than you’ve got. Sprinkle them in liber-ally. If a scene doesn’t quite flow and you don’t know why, chances are thatyou either need another wide shot or another insert.

Moving camera: PanWhen you’re turning the camera without moving it, you’re panning. Pans areamong the cheapest of camera moves in real life — all they need is a tripod.They’re also quite hard to use well.

In general, a character’s movement should suggest a pan — panning to tracka character through a crowd, for example, or panning to follow a character’seyeline as she looks off-screen. They can also serve to introduce a scene. Other-wise, pans with no obvious cause and no other movement tend to look forced.

Moving camera: Dolly/craneAny time you’re moving the camera in two dimensions, without changingheight, you’re dollying — so called because the platform on which a realcamera is moved is called a dolly. Add height to that mix and you’re probablylooking at a crane shot, so called because — oh, right, you got it.

Both dolly and crane shots are comparatively cheap and common in real film,meaning that you can afford to use them relatively freely in your Machinima,too. It’s worth thinking about how a crane, in particular, actually moves — it’s a platform on the end of a long lever. Try to fake this movement for morerealistic-looking shots.

Cameras moving in real 3D space are great for adding life and movement to ascene; many Machinima filmmakers have made a style out of continual subtlemovement within a scene. They’re also great ways to change your position inrelation to the line, move between a wide shot or medium shot and a close-up, or shift from one character shot to another.

Moving camera: ZoomA zoom isn’t actually a camera movement at all, but a change in the FOV ofthe camera, which appears to make some things closer and other things fur-ther away. Zooms went out of fashion through the ’90s, but the handheldstyle of series like 24 and Firefly have ensured their return to popularity, atleast in hand-held-shot series.


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Zooms tend to look rather clunky, which you can sometimes use as a deliber-ate feature. You can effectively use a subtle zoom to heighten tension in ascene, à la classic Sergio Leone Westerns. Otherwise, you won’t have a lot ofuses for them unless you’re going for a hand-held style.

It’s worth noting that by zooming in one direction while tracking in the opposite direction, you can achieve a very weird effect, as the entire sceneappears to foreshorten or lengthen. Peter Jackson is a particular fan of thistrick, called a dolly zoom, which was pioneered in the film Vertigo.

Moving camera: HandheldJerky, blurred hand-held camerawork has become increasingly prevalent inmodern filmmaking and TV. Handheld camerawork is almost more of a styleunto itself than a technique, and it’s very hard to replicate in Machinima.While you can achieve something similar using mouse control, the typical


Where to find more on filmmakingYou can find dozens of good books on film-making. Here are a few that we’ve found par-ticularly valuable over the years:

� The Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook —Chris Jones and Genevive Joliffe, pub-lished by Continuum International. Morefocused on filmmaking as a whole packagethan shooting in particular, and quite UK-focused, this book is our bible for all aspectsof real filmmaking. Use it to learn abouteverything from funding to filming to publicity.

� Shot by Shot — Steven Katz, published byMichael Wiese Productions. One of theclassic tomes covering the basics of cam-erawork, the book is a bit dry, but very infor-mative. The techniques it shows aren’tparticularly flashy, but they work well andare a good basis for springboarding yourown work while being confident that you’vegot the bases covered.

� Hollywood Camerawork — Per Holmes(www.hollywoodcamerawork.us).This isn’t a book — it’s a set of DVDs, and a pricey set at that. But you get a fan-tastic introduction to some very sophisti-cated camerawork techniques, from thevery basics to Hollywood-level shooting.

� The Grammar of the Shot by Roy Thompson,published by Focal Press. Comes to ushighly recommended as a story- and edit-focused guide to shooting.

Other than these books, watch movies and TV.In particular, turn the sound off and then watchthem. You’ll pick up a lot more of the techniquethat way because you won’t be distracted bythe story.

And don’t be afraid to try to copy sequencesshot-by-shot for your own education — you’lllearn fast by doing what your heroes do, andlearning what works and why.

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handheld shake really has to be added in post-production or camera control.Medieval II: Total War does particularly fantastic handheld simulation (seeChapter 12).

Nonetheless, a handheld feel — characterized by rapid swish pans betweensubjects, fast crash zooms, and jerkiness — is a great way to achieve a feelingof realism, particularly in Machinima. If your film would benefit from such astyle, it’s worth considering, particularly for fast action and fight scenes,where the blurriness and jerkiness of the style can conceal a thousand dodgyMachinima animations. See the trailer for The Return 2 by Rufus Cubed for avery good example of handheld simulation in Machinima.


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• Numerics •3D box transition, 1593D Game Animation For Dummies

(Murdock), 3023D model

adding to your game, 288–290adding texture to your game with, 303–304checking the scale of, 302–303creating, 291–300exporting, 290game information, 289importing into The Sims 2, 301–304

3D modelingcloning a package, 301necessity of, 286

3D packagesBlender, 287problems with, 11types, 286–288

3D Studio Max. See GMax4:3 aspect ratio, 457-Zip on the DVD, 37816:9 aspect ratio, 45

• A •action

scripted versus live, 20–23sequence editing, 164

activating tools, 336actors

finding, 366recording, 18

actsreversals and, 69–70in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of

the Ring, 69–70

add-on(s)adding a community, 138Dual Core CPU, 340external storage, 341FRAPS and, 340Garrysmod, 85hardware, 340–341monitor, 341Motion Capture equipment, 341Nintendo Wii, 341Nostramo keypad, 340PC, 341potential of Machinima, 80scripting, 337steering wheel, 341

adding3D models and texture to your game,

288–290, 303–304audio tracks, 161cameras on characters in Moviestorm,

322–323cameras in Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 218clips to video tracks, 157community add-ons, 138decorations, 107doors in Moviestorm, 309game cheats, 138–140game data, 290game information to models, 289landscaping, 104–106props to Moviestorm sets, 310–311tattoos to characters, 123–124text, 162texture to models in Blender, 297–300transitions, 158–60units in the Battle Editor, 222–223walls in Moviestorm, 309windows in Moviestorm, 309zooms, 232

Index

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Adobe Audition software, 245Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which

Lie Did I Tell? (Goldman), 77All The Presidents Men (Goldman), 77ambient noise, 240angles, tips on, 237animation

advanced tools, 148–149eyes, 80importing a new, 80interpreting, 37–38overview, 302

Anna, Machinima film, 357–358Archive.org Creative Commons

distribution site, 282aspect ratios

defined, 44types, 45

assembling footage, 155assigning camera positions, 143Audacity software

on the DVD, 378recommendation, 244

audiocategories, 240–241checking current levels, 249equipment retailers, 244file imports, 248–249Foley sounds and effects, 250–251modifying levels, 249processing tips, 248–250recording, 247–248

audio trackadding, 161isolating specific sections, 249

Audio Video Interleave (AVI)encoding video with, 175–176video format, 169–170

Aurora editor, Neverwinter Nights 2, 88, 89AVI (Audio Video Interleave)

encoding video with, 175–176video format, 169–170

• B •Babylon 5 (Straczynski), 77backdrop, using a matte, 325–326Baig, Edward, Macs For Dummies, 375Bailey, Anthony, Quake done Quick, 12balance levels, cleaning up, 248–250Batal, Kheri, The Snow Witch, 150–151Battle Editor

adding units in the, 222–223buttons, 220–222navigating in the, 219–220

Battlefield 2character creation features, 117engine, 95engine ratings, 82package extractor, 345scripting add-ons, 337tool development, 334

beatsdefined, 64reversals and, 64–67in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of

the Ring, 65–66bitrates

finding optimal, 171–72overview, 171

BitTorrent peer-to-peer distributionprogram, 185

Blender3D package, 287adding texture to models, 297–300creating 3D models, 291–300creating simple cubes, 292–293on the DVD, 378editing model points, 294–297overview, 291–292

blocking scenes, 39–40Blogbridge on the DVD, 378Bloodspell (Hancock and Ingram)

downloading, 266equipment used for, 243–245, 341filming, 23, 44lead character appearance in, 127lighting, 111

382 Machinima For Dummies


Machinima film, 359making of, 11–12, 197music, 252press release, 265–267problems with, 343publicity, 260, 265–267removing limitations in, 347researching for, 110sample storyboard, 42screen shots, 50, 51, 53, 54size, 168speed of filming, 17tool development, 338–340

Body Shopeditor, 118–120Undo function, 120

bookconventions used in this, 4–5organization of this, 3–4overview of this, 1–3

Brittanica Dreams, The Snow Witch, 150–151Broadcast Machine, tracker, 185building walls, 106–107Bump maps, texture, 100Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

(Goldman), 77

• C •C&D (Cease and Desist) letter,

receiving a, 279cal3d model, Moviestorm, 307camera

adding on characters in Moviestorm,322–323

adding in Medieval II: Total War 2(MTW2), 218

creating a close-up, hand-held, 233–234creating a simple, 231–232effects, 146mode, 80moving the, 142parameters, 145positioning for a scene, 40–41rendering, 234–235

camera movementscrane, 56dolly, 56handheld, 57–58pan, 56zoom, 56–57

camera paths, creating, 231–235camera positions, assigning, 143camera sequences, editing in

Moviestorm, 323CameraPlus MMO (Massively Multiplayer)

tool, 194–195camerawork

creating, 320–321handheld, 238importance, 367tips, 238

case study, The Snow Witch, 150–151cast creation, 18casting agent organizational role, 200Cease and Desist (C&D) letter,

receiving a, 279Celtx on the DVD, 378Ch2r package extractor, 344Chambers, Mark, iMac For Dummies, 375changing

clip speed, 16Field Of View (FOV), 47textures in Moviestorm, 326–328

characteradding a camera in Moviestorm, 322–323adding tattoos, 123–124advanced creation techniques, 117characterization versus, 71controlling more than one, 81creating interactions between, 149–150creating in Moviestorm, 312–314creating a new, 81creating in The Sims 2, 118–120customizing, 27–28, 120–125design tips, 128–130designing, 125–127developing, 70–73filming, 147–148filming in World of Warcraft (WoW),

203–204

383Index


character (continued)framing, 47giving a voice to, 28–30importance of opposition for, 70–71modeling in The Sims 2, 116positioning, 26–27, 30scripting in World of Warcraft (WoW), 192types in World of Warcraft (WoW), 190

character model, importing a new, 80characterization, character versus, 71Choi, Jason, Edge of Remorse, 209, 362Chroma-key, 210Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

(Donaldson), 71Cinemascope aspect ratio, 45Cinematics Editor

Curves View, 228–230Interpolation controls, 230–231Medieval II: Total War window, 228Playback controls, 230Visible Elements window, 228Zooming functions, 231

cleaningbalance levels, 248–250up voices, 248–250

clipadding to the video track, 157changing the speed of, 161fading, 160importing, 157sound, 242trimming, 157–158

clipping sound, 242cloning a 3D modeling package, 301close-ups

overview, 52–53tips for, 237

clothing character customization, 124–125codec

defined, 167DivX, 170HuffYUV, 378LAME MP3, 176overview, 167–168

colorColor Wheel Pro Web site, 129tips for using, 110–111wheel usage, 129–130

Color Wheel Pro Web site, 129The Complete Book of Scriptwriting

(Straczynski), 77command-line options, removing

limitations with, 342commands

console, 336, 342emote, 203

commercial license, Machinima enginesand, 81

community add-on, adding a, 138Company of Heroes

character creation features, 117engine, 95–96package extractor, 345tool development, 334

compositingthe Map Viewer and the Model Viewer,

209–211techniques, 213

composition, tips for improving shot,45–47

Configuration files, removing limitationswith, 343

configuring The Sims 2 for Machinima,137–140

console commandactivating tools with the, 336removing limitations with the, 342

conversation, editing a, 164–165Cool Edit Pro. See Adobe Auditioncopying existing Machinima movies, 368copyright

law, 276overview, 278

cost of Machinima, 14–15costume department organizational

role, 200crafters, 200craning, 56



creating3D models, 291–300camera paths, 231–235camerawork, 320–321casts, 18ceilings in Moviestorm, 309–310character interactions, 149–150characters, 81characters in Moviestorm, 312–314characters in The Sims 2, 118–120close-up, hand-held cameras, 233–234fences, 311floors in Moviestorm, 309–310legal Machinima, 281–282Machinima films, 13–14maps in Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2),

223–225moving shots, 144–146RSS feeds, 262scenes in Moviestorm, 314–316sets, 18, 99–101sets in Moviestorm, 308–310sets in The Sims 2, 102–104simple cameras, 231–232simple cubes with Blender, 292–293static shots, 141–143transitions, 160

Creative Commonsaudio site, 252catalog, 252distribution sites, 282overview, 266, 282Web site, 266

Creative Commons Audio Remixes,creative commons licensed audio, 252

Credit Roll plug-in, Vegas Video, 162crowd control organizational role, 201CubaseSX software, 245Curves View, Cinematics Editor, 228–230Custom Encoding Settings dialog box,

177–178customizing

characters, 27–28, 120–125sets, 80

cutJump, 159transition, 159

• D •data

adding game, 290interpreting, 343

data files, removing limitations with, 343decorations, adding, 107Decorgal

game hack tools by, 132lipsynching tools on the DVD by, 378

demo software, 376Democracy Player on the DVD, 378Democracy Video channel guide as a form

of publicity, 262depth of field compositing technique, 213derivative works, 278designing

characters, 125–127phase overview, 98–99tips for characters, 128–130tools, 101–102

Deviantart.com Creative Commonsdistribution site, 282

dialog boxCustom Encoding Settings, 177–178DivX Codec Properties, 175Edit Unit Details, 223Export Size Settings, 174File, 175For Sale, 136Movie Settings, 172–175Package Lot, 136Record Line, 29Save Exported File As, 172Select Audio Compression, 175–176Select Video Compression, 175Session Properties, 177–179Sound Settings, 174Standard Video Compression Settings, 173Windows, 232

385Index


dialogueoverview, 240writing natural, 75–76

Diffuse Map, 327digital grading compositing technique, 213Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), 279dissolve transition, 159DivX

codec installation, 170Codec Properties dialog box, 175on the DVD, 379

DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), 279

dollying, 56Dolphin Music audio equipment

retailer, 244domain name, purchasing, 183Donaldson, Stephen, Chronicles of Thomas

Covenant, 71DooM 3

character creation features, 117engine, 89–90engine ratings, 82graphics, 90package extractor, 345scripting add-ons, 337tool development, 334

downloadingBloodspell, 266FRAPS, 19VirtualDub codec, 170VLC, 169Windows Media Encoder, 171

Dreamhosts Web site, 182Dual Core CPU add-on, 340Dungeon Master tool, Neverwinter Nights

2, 87, 89DVD

7-Zip, 378Audacity software, 378Blender, 378Blogbridge, 378Celtx, 378contents, 376–379customer care, 380Democracy Player, 378DivX, 379

GIMPShop, 378installing, 376lipsynching tools, 378Making Machinima documentary, 17Moviestorm, 305, 377open-source utilities, 378SimPE, 378Sony Vegas Trial, 379system requirements, 375trial software, 279troubleshooting, 379using, 376VirtualDub codec, 378VLC, 378Warcraft Map Viewer, 378Warcraft Model Viewer, 378

• E •Edge of Remorse (Choi), Machinima film,

209, 362Edge Select tool, 294Edit Unit Details dialog box, 223Edit World Package tool, 222editing

action sequences, 164camera sequences in Moviestorm, 323conversations, 164–165defined, 153final, 156goals, 154Hex, 344–346in Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 218model points with Blender, 294–297overview, 19–20package in Vegas Video, 156–157process, 155–156romantic sequences, 165–166scripts, 75sets in IClone, 98shots in Moviestorm, 321suspense sequences, 166

effects, camera, 146Electronic Frontier Foundation Web site,

279, 280



Elevation tools, 104–105emote commands, 203Emotive Color Theory, 129enabling

game cheats, 139–140interactions, 139

encodingwith Sorensen, 3 169video with AVI (Audio Video Interleave),

175–176video overview, 172–179video with QuickTime, 172–175video with WMV (Windows Media Video),

176–179End-User License Agreement

components of, 276–278overview, 276

engine-specific Web sites, using forpublicity, 260–261

enginesBattlefield, 2, 95character creation features, 117Company of Heroes, 95–96DooM 3, 89–90Grand Theft Auto (GTA), 90–91Half-Life 2, 84–85Halo 2, 85–86IClone, 92–93improving the utility, 331–332Machinima types, 97–98Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 89The Movies, 83–84Moviestorm, 92Neverwinter Nights 2, 87–89offering live filming, 22offering map and model viewers, 22offering scripting, 21ratings, 82scripting, 336–338Second Life, 93–94The Sims 2, 83Unreal Tournament (UT), 86–87World of Warcraft (WoW), 94–95

Environment maps, texture, 100

equipmentrecommendations, 243–245used for Bloodspell, 243–245, 341

Eschaton: Nightfall (Hancock), 287Espenson, Jane, blog by, 77evaluation software, 377executive producer organizational role,

198–199Export Size Settings dialog box, 174exporting a 3D model, 290external hosting, flash video, 180–181external storage add-on, 341extractors, Package, 344–345

• F •faces character customization, 120–121facial hair character customization,

122–124fading

clips, 160transitions, 159

fan-fiction, 61–62feed reader, 262FFMPEG

encoder, 169personal hosting and, 181

Field Of View (FOV)camera element in Medieval II:

Total War 2 (MTW2), 228changing the, 47defined, 145

File dialog box, 175files

Configuration, 343data, 343importing audio, 248–249re-attachment of split, 238ZIP, 125

film-making, 369filming

adjusting Moviestorm sets while, 324–325Bloodspell, 23, 44characters, 147–148

387Index


filming (continued)characters in World of Warcraft (WoW),

203–204engines that offer live, 22Medieval II: Total War 2 process of, 217–218preparation for, 140–141scenes, 43–44shots, 143–144The Sims 2 process of, 133–134

films. See also moviesAdventures in the Screen Trade and Which

Lie Did I Tell?, 77All The Presidents Men, 77Anna, 357–358Babylon 5, 77basics, 35–37Bloodspell. See Bloodspell (Hancock

and Ingram)Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 77camera movements, 56–58Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, 71components of, 49–58creating with Machinima, 13–14Edge of Remorse, 209, 362Eschaton: Nightfall, 287framing, 45–47Hardly Workin’, 358The Internet Is For Porn, 358–359The Journey, 362live versus Machinima, 14–17The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of

the Ring, 67–70Male Restroom Etiquette, 184Matrix: 4x1, 55, 286Neverending Nights, 260Ozymandias, 100Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of

the Black Pearl, 65planning in Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 217The Princess Bride, 77process overview of using Machinima to

make, 17–20Quake done Quick, 12recommendations, 357–363Red vs Blue, 360–361rendering to Windows Media Player,

31–32

The Return, 363scene components, 38–44shot types, 50–56The Snow Witch, 150–151, 360Still Seeing Breen, 361When Harry Met Sally, 62–63

flash video. See also streaming videoexternal hosting, 180–181personal hosting, 181–182

Flickr.com Creative Commons distributionsite, 282

Flooring tool, 105Focus, camera element in Medieval II: Total

War 2 (MTW2), 228Foley, Jack, origin of Foley sounds, 251Foley sounds

finding, 250–251overview, 240

footage, assembling, 155For Sale dialog box, 136format, 168forums as a form of publicity, 261FOV (Field Of View)

camera element in Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 228

changing the, 47defined, 145

frame grabber, 19framing

characters, 47films, 45–47of a scene, 43tips, 237

FRAPSadd-ons and, 340downloading, 19on the DVD, 379MMO (Massively Multiplayer) tool,

193–194Freese, Adam, Neverending Nights, 260freeware programs

defined, 376on the DVD, 378

frequencies, modifying, 250functions

Undo, 120zoom, 231



• G •game

data, 290hack tools, 132hex-edit, 345–346

game cheatsadding, 138–140defined, 138enabling, 139–140

Games Company, working for, 349–351games-licensing agreements, 17Garrysmod add-on, 85General Visual (GV) shot, 54genetics character customization, 120GIMPShop on the DVD, 378glasses character customization, 122–124GMax 3D package, 287–288GNU software, 376Goldman, William

Adventures in the Screen Trade and WhichLie Did I Tell?, 77

All The Presidents Men, 77Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 77The Princess Bride, 77

Google Reader, feed reader, 262Google Video, uploading to, 180–181Gookin, Dan, PCs For Dummies, 375The Grammar of the Shot (Thompson), 57Grand Theft Auto (GTA)

character creation features, 117engine, 90–91engine ratings, 82package extractor, 345tool development, 334

graphics, in DooM 3, 90GTA (Grand Theft Auto)

character creation features, 117engine, 90–91package extractor, 345tool development, 334

The Guerilla Film-maker’s Handbook (Jonesand Joliffe), 57

Guilds, 189GV (General Visual) shot, 54

• H •Half-Life 2

character creation features, 117engine, 84–85engine ratings, 82package extractor, 344scripting add-ons, 337tool development, 333

Halo 2character creation features, 117engine, 85–86engine ratings, 82package extractor, 344tool development, 333

Hancock, HughBloodspell, 265–267coining of the term Machinima by, 12–13contact information for, 267Eschaton: Nightfall, 287Matrix: 4x1, 55, 286

handheldcamerawork, 238defined, 57–58

hard-code, 332Hardly Workin’ (Marino), Machinima

film, 358hardware add-ons, 340–341head movement, manual, 80headphone recommendations, 244heartstones, 201heightmaps, 101–102help, finding, 368Hex editing

defined, 344a game, 345–346

Hollywood Camerawork (Holmes), 57Holmes, Per, Hollywood Camerawork, 57hosting

FFMPEG and personal, 181flash video and personal, 181–182Open-Source Flow Player and personal,

181–182Riva Encoder and, 181–182

HuffYUV codec on the DVD, 378HxD

on the DVD, 378hex editor, 345

389Index


• I •IClone

character creation features, 117engine, 92–93engine ratings, 82package extractor, 345set editing, 98tool development, 334

icons, used in this book, 5iMac For Dummies (Chambers), 375image editor, MMO (Massively Multiplayer)

tool, 195importing

3D models into The Sims 2, 301–304animations, 80audio files, 248–249character models, 80clips, 157prop models, 80

improvingengine utility, 331–332shot composition, 45–47

in-game item, activating tools with an, 336in-game menus, removing limitations

with, 342Incidental Use, 278IndependentFilm.com as a form of

publicity, 261Indie Film Spot as a form of publicity, 261infringement, results of, 279–280Ingram, Johnnie

Bloodspell, 265–267contact information, 267Matrix: 4x1, 55, 286

insert shot, 55–56installing

DivX codec, 170the DVD, 376LAME MP3 codec, 176Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 218–219mods, 109Moviestorm, 25–26

The Internet Archive Machinima SectionWeb site, 373

The Internet Is For Porn, Machinima film,358–359

interactionscreating character, 149–150enabling, 139

InternetArchive video publishing, 183–184obtaining props from the, 107–109, 125

interpolationcontrols on Cinematics Editor, 230–231defined, 230

invisible wipe transition, 159

• J •Jennings, Scott, Massively Multiplayer

Games For Dummies, 190, 195Joliffe, Genevive, The Guerilla Film-maker’s

Handbook, 57Jones, Chris, The Guerilla Film-maker’s

Handbook, 57The Journey (Kirschner), Machinima

film, 362Jump cut, 159

• K •key bindings, removing limitations

with, 342keyframes

defined, 228working with, 229–230

Kirschner, Friederich, The Journey, 362Kuleshov, Les, and the Kuleshov effect, 165

• L •LAME MP3 codec installation, 176landscaping, 104–106lawsuit, 279–280lawyer, finding a, 280layers

defined, 209importance of using, 72masking, 211–212overview, 209



legalityof creating Machinima, 273–275obstacles to, 276–278

levels, sound, 241light

basics of, 37tips for using, 110–111usage in Bloodspell, 111

limitationsof Bloodspell, 347removing, 342–346removing with command-line

options, 342removing with Configuration files, 343removing with console command, 342removing with data files, 343removing with In-game menus, 342removing with key bindings, 342

lineof action defined, 36importance of the, 49

live action, 20–23live filming, versus scripting, 23live recording. See live actionLogue, Tawmis, Neverending Nights, 260The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the

Ringacts in, 69–70beats in, 65–66scenes in, 67–68

Lulu.tv, uploading to, 180–181

• M •Mac users of the DVD, 376Machinema. See MachinimaMachinifeed Web site, 373Machinima

advantages of using, 14–15beginnings, 9–12company startup, 352–353configuring The Sims 2 for, 137–140copying existing, 368cost, 14–15, 16

defined, 10disadvantages of using, 15–17features, 80–82Film Festival Web site, 372legality of creating, 273–275, 281–282named by Hugh Hancock, 12–13overview, 266Premiere Web site, 371process overview of making a film with,

17–20publicity Web sites, 260removing limitations in, 342–346speed, 15versus live film, 14–17Web sites, 186, 266, 371–374

Machinima Engines. See enginesMachinima films

Anna, 357–358Babylon 5, 77Bloodspell. See Bloodspell (Hancock and

Ingram)Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, 71on the DVD, 377Edge of Remorse, 209, 362Eschaton: Nightfall, 287Hardly Workin’, 358The Internet Is For Porn, 358–359The Journey, 362Male Restroom Etiquette, 184Matrix: 4x1, 55, 286Neverending Nights, 260Ozymandias, 100Quake done Quick, 12recommended, 357–363Red vs Blue, 360–361The Return, 363The Snow Witch, 150–151, 360Still Seeing Breen, 361ways to ruin, 365–370

Machinima For Dummiesblog Web site, 372–373Web site, 79, 218

Machinima.com Web site, 372Macs For Dummies (Baig), 375

391Index


MagnatuneCreative Commons distribution site, 282Creative Commons licensed audio, 252

makeup character customization, 122–124Making Machinima documentary on the

DVD, 17Male Restroom Etiquette (Rice), 184Map Viewer

compositing the Model Viewer and the,209–211

engines that offer, 22using, 22–23, 207–208

mapping UV, 297maps

Bump, 100creating in Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 217, 223–225Diffuse, 327Environment, 100Normal, 100Specularity, 100

Marino, PaulHardly Workin’, 358Still Seeing Breen, 361

masking layers, 211–212Massively Multiplayer Games For Dummies

(Jennings), 190, 195Massively Multiplayer (MMO)

games popularity, 189TeamSpeak, 195tools and FRAPS, 193–194tools for using, 193–196Ventrillo, 195Voice Communications, 195World of Warcraft Map Viewer, 195World of Warcraft Model Viewer, 195

Master Monitorediting camera sequences with, 323Moviestorm, 323

Matrix: 4x1 (Hancock and Ingram) screenshots, 55, 286

matte backdrop, 325–326McKee, Robert, Story, 63, 77media, offline, 263–264Media Generator, Vegas Video, 162Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2)

advantages of using, 216Battle Editor, 219–223

character creation features, 117Cinematics Editor, 228–231creating maps, 223–225disadvantages of using, 216–217editing, 218engine, 89engine ratings, 82filming process, 217–218installing, 218–219package extractor, 345patches, 218recording action, 226replaying action, 226–227tips and tricks, 236–238tool development, 333

medium shot, 53–54Miche Sim’s body animation converter, 133micro-flow of a scene, 41–42microphone, recommendations, 243Milkshape 3D package, 287minchange, 145mixing

desk recommendations, 243–244sound tips, 253

mixing console. See mixing, deskrecommendations

MMO (Massively Multiplayer)games popularity, 189tools and FRAPS, 193–194tools for using, 193–196Ventrillo, 195Voice Communications, 195World of Warcraft Map Viewer, 195World of Warcraft Model Viewer, 195

MMO (Massively Multiplayer) TeamSpeak, 195

Modding. See also modsdefined, 108

modecamera, 80pause, 81

model. See also 3D modeladding game information to, 289exporting, 290importing a new character, 80morphing, 116



Model Viewercapturing video from, 206–207compositing the Map Viewer and,

209–211engines that offer, 22tool, 22, 204–207

modeling character, 116Modifiers character customization, 122modifying

audio levels, 249frequencies, 250

mods. See also moddingfinding, 108–109installing, 109

monitor add-on, 341morph facilities, 312morphing models, 116Motion Capture equipment add-on, 341The Movies

character creation features in, 117engine, 83–84engine ratings, 82package extractor, 344publicity Web site, 261tool development, 333

Movie Settings dialog box, 172–175movies. See also films

copying an existing Machinima, 368fine editing, 155planning, 365–366previewing, 155release, 369

Moviestormadding cameras on characters, 322–323adding props to sets, 310–311adding walls, doors and windows, 309adjusting your set while filming in,

324–325advantages of using, 306basic movie-making principles, 307cal3d model, 307changing a texture, 326–328character creation features, 117creating camerawork, 320–321creating characters, 312–314creating fences, 311

creating floors or ceilings, 309–310creating scenes, 314–316creating sets, 308–310disadvantages of using, 306–307on the DVD, 305, 377editing camera sequences, 323editing shots, 321engine, 92engine ratings, 82installing, 25–26Master Monitor, 323package extractor, 345painting walls, 309rendering from, 329timeline, 316–320tool development, 334using matte backdrops, 325–326Web pages and forums, 329

movingcameras, 142objects, 139–140shots, 144–146viewpoints, 27

MTW2 (Medieval II: Total War 2)advantages of using, 216Battle Editor, 219–223character creation features, 117Cinematics Editor, 228–231creating maps, 223–225disadvantages of using, 216–217editing, 218engine, 89filming process, 217–218installing, 218–219package extractor, 345patches, 218recording action, 226replaying action, 226–227tips and tricks, 236–238tool development, 333

multiplayer feature, 81music

for Bloodspell, 252locating, 252–253

musical soundtracks, 240

393Index


• N •narrative of a story, 74–75natural dialogue, writing, 75–76NaturalPoint Motion Capture

equipment, 341navigating, in the Battle Editor, 219–220Neverending Nights (Freese and

Logue), 260Neverwinter Nights 2. See also Neverwinter

Nights (NWN)Aurora editor, 89character creation features, 117Dungeon Master tool, 87, 89engine, 88–89engine ratings, 82package extractor, 344scripting add-ons, 337third-party tools, 334tool development, 333

Neverwinter Nights (NWN). See alsoNeverwinter Nights 2

Aurora editor, 88character creation features, 117Dungeon master tool, 87engine, 87–88engine ratings, 82overview, 266package extractor, 344scripting add-ons, 337third-party tools, 334tool development, 333Web site, 266

Nightlife expansion pack, 119Nintendo Wii add-on, 341noise

controls in Medieval II: Total War 2(MTW2), 228

overview, 242Normal maps, texture, 100Nostromo keypad add-on, 340NURBS, 101NWN2Packer package extractor, 344NWNExplorer package extractor, 344

• O •objects, moving, 139–140offline media as a form of publicity,

263–264online publicity, 260–262Open For Business expansion pack, 119Open-Source Flow Player, personal hosting

and the, 181–182open-source software, 376open-source utilities on the DVD, 378organizational roles

casting agent, 200costume department, 200crowd control, 201executive producer, 198–199permissions agent, 199transport coordinator, 201

orientation, 145outlining the form of a story, 62–63The Overcast Web site, 373over-the-shoulder shot, 51Ozymandias (Strange Company) set, 100

• P •package

cloning, 301extractors, 344–345

Package Lot dialog box, 136PakPoker package extractor, 344pans

defined, 56recording in World of Warcraft

(WoW), 202swish, 236tips, 236

parameters, camera, 145patches, Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 218pause mode, 81Pawfect Films toolset, 91PC add-on, 341



PCs For Dummies (Gookin), 375peer-to-peer distribution for video

publishing, 184–186permissions agent organizational role, 199personal hosting

FFMPEG, 181flash video, 181–182Open-Source Flow Player, 181–182Riva Encoder, 181–182

Pets expansion pack, 119Pettit-Mee, Michelle, The Snow Witch,

150–151pick-up shots, 155, 163Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black

Pearl, beats in, 65pitch, for a story, 73–74Place World Package tool, 222placeables, 102planning

in Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 217for your movie, 365–366

Plateau tool, 221Playback controls, Cinematics Editor, 230plug-in, Credit Roll, 162plumbbob, removing the, 139Point Of View (POV) shots, 52polygon

defined, 99modeling usage, 99–101

pop shield, 243Position, camera element in Medieval II:

Total War 2 (MTW2), 228positioning

cameras, 40–41characters, 26–27, 30

PR agency as a form of publicity, 268PR distribution agency as a form of

publicity, 268practicalities, tips, 112–113press release

Bloodspell, 265–267as a form of publicity, 264–268writing, 264–268

The Princess Bride (Goldman), 77programs, shareware, 376

prop models, importing new, 80props

adding to sets in Moviestorm, 310–311obtaining from the Internet, 107–109, 125

PRWeb PR distribution agency, 268publicity

for Bloodspell, 260, 265–267importance of pre-checking, 260life-cycle, 269–271offline media, 263–264online, 260–262overview, 255–257PR agencies, 268press releases, 264–268spin, 257–258types of, 257–268Web sites, 260–262word-of-mouth, 259for your movie, 369–370

publishing video, 182–186purchasing domain names, 183PvP server, 199

• Q •Q-Xpress Installer custom tool, 109Quake done Quick (Bailey), 12QuickTime


QuickTime 7 video compression, 169QuickTime Pro, purchasing, 169

• R •Randomize button, 119–120Rathbone, Andy

Windows Vista For Dummies, 375Windows XP For Dummies, 375

ratings, engine, 82recolor, 125recommendations, for software and

equipment, 243–245Record Line dialog box, 29

395Index


recordingaction in Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 226actors, 18audio, 247–248in Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 218overview, 19pans in World of Warcraft (WoW), 202sound setup, 245–246tracks in World of Warcraft (WoW), 203

recording studio. See audio; soundRed vs Blue, Machinima film, 360–361release, 20removing

limitations, 342–346plumbbobs, 139speech, 139thought bubbles, 139

renderingcameras, 234–235film to Windows Media Player, 31–32from Moviestorm, 329scenes in Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 218shots, 235–236video, 163

research techniques, 110The Return (Rufus Cubed), Machinima

film, 363retailers, audio equipment, 244reveal shot, 55reversals

acts and, 69–70beats and, 64–67overview, 63–64scenes and, 67–69

reversedefined, 52shot overview, 51–52

Revver, uploading to, 181Rice, Phil

Male Restroom Etiquette, 184, 245mixing tips from, 253

Riva Encoder, personal hosting and the,181–182

Roll, camera element in Medieval II: TotalWar 2 (MTW2), 228

romantic sequence, editing a, 165–166Roofing tool, 106Rotate tool, 293RP servers, 199RSS feed as a form of publicity, 262Rufus Cubed, The Return, 363Rule of Thirds, framing and the, 46RvB. See Red vs Blue

• S •SA Multiplayer mod Web site, 91Save Exported File As dialog box, 172scale checking on 3D models, 302–303Scale tool, 292, 296scenes

blocking, 39–40components, 38–44creating in Moviestorm, 314–316defined, 67framing, 43micro-flow, 41–42rendering in Medieval II: Total War 2

(MTW2), 218reversals and, 67–69in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship

of the Ring, 67–68tips for fight, 237

scriptcomponents, 73–75defined, 19, 20, 62editing, 75format, 76–78time expenditure, 366writing, 17–18

scripted action, 20–21, 23scripted sequences. See scripted actionscripting

add-ons, 337characters in World of Warcraft, 192engines, 21, 336–338versus live filming, 23



Second Lifecharacter creation features, 117engine, 93–94engine ratings, 82package extractor, 345scripting add-ons, 337third–party tools, 334tool development, 334

Select Audio Compression dialog box,175–176

Select Video Compression dialog box, 175servers, types of, 199Session Properties dialog box, 177–179set

adding props in a Moviestorm, 310–311adjusting while filming in Moviestorm,

324–325creating, 18, 99–101creating in Moviestorm, 308–310creating in The Sims, 2, 102–104customizing, 80editing in IClone, 98Ozymandias screen shot, 100

set designadding props, 107–108building walls, 106–107color, 110–111creating a set, 99–101creating a set in The Sims 2, 102–104decorating, 107design phase, 98–99landscaping, 104–106light, 110–111modernizing, 101–102mods, 108–109practicalities, 112–113research, 110space, 111–112

7–Zip on the DVD, 378shaped dissolve transition, 159shareware programs, 376shoe-leather shots, 157–158shooting

characters in World of Warcraft (WoW),203–204

tips in World of Warcraft (WoW), 204

Shot by Shot (Katz), 57shots

close-up, 52–53composition tips, 45–47editing in Moviestorm, 321establishing the function of, 50–51filming, 143–144General Visual (GV), 54identifying, 163insert, 55–56mastering the flow of, 47–48medium, 53–54moving, 144–146over-the-shoulder, 51pick-up, 155, 163Point Of View (POV), 52rendering, 235–236reveal, 55reverse, 51–52shoe-leather, 157–158static, 141–143two-shot, 51wide, 50

Shure SM58 microphone, 243The Sims 2

adding a community add-on, 138adding game cheats, 138–140adding Sims, 134–137advanced animation tools, 148–149advantages of using, 131–132camera changes, 146camera parameters, 145case study, 150–151character creation features, 117character filming, 147–148configuring for Machinima, 137–140creating character interaction, 149–150creating characters, 118–120creating sets, 102–104disadvantages of using, 132–133engine, 83engine ratings, 82expansion packs, 119filming process, 133–134, 140–146importing 3D models into, 301–304in-engine character modeling, 116

397Index


The Sims 2 (continued)moving the camera, 142moving shots, 144–146package extractor, 344publicity Web sites for, 261scripting add-ons, 337static shots, 141–143tips for using, 151tool development, 333using sound effects from, 251

SimPEon the DVD, 378package extractor, 344

Sims, adding to your set, 134–137Sims99 Web site, 371sites. See Web sitessize

of Bloodspell, 168constraints, 367

skeleton story, 74Skype, 248slo-mo. See slow motionslow motion, 161Smooth tool, 221Smudge tool, 221The Snow Witch (Batal and Pettit-Mee)

case study, 150–151Machinima film, 360

softwareAdobe Audition, 245Audacity, 244CubaseSX, 245demo, 376evaluation, 377open-source, 376recommendations, 243–245trial, 377, 379versions, 377

Sony Vegas Trial on the DVD, 379Sorensen 3, encoding with, 169sound. See also audio; audio track

basics, 241–242clipping, 242damping recommendations, 245

levels, 241mixing tips, 253quality, 241

sound effectsfinding, 250–251from games, 251overview, 240The Sims 2, 251

Sound Settings dialog box, 174soundtrack

locating music for, 252–253overview, 240

space, tips on, 111–112special effects compositing technique, 213Specularity maps, texture, 100speech, removing, 139speed

changing in a clip, 161of filming Bloodspell, 17

spin as a form of publicity, 257–258Stage 6, uploading to, 181Standard Video Compression Settings

dialog box, 173Standard Web hosting, 182–183static shots, creating, 141–143steering wheel, 341Steven, Katz, Shot by Shot, 57Still Seeing Breen (Marino), Machinima

film, 361story

defined, 62outlining the form of, 62–63pitch, 73–74skeleton, 74tips, 237writing, 17–18writing in World of Warcraft (WoW),

197–198Story (McKee), 63, 77storyboard, 42

sample from Bloodspell, 42tips, 238

storytelling myths, 59–62



Straczynski, J. MichaelBabylon 5, 77The Complete Book of Scriptwriting, 77

Strange Companycontact information for, 267Ozymandias, 100press release for Bloodspell, 265–267RSS feed for, 262

streaming video, 179–182style of a scene, 38–39suspense sequence, editing, 166swish pans, 236system requirements, DVD, 375

• T •Takedown Notice from the Digital

Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), 279tattoo, adding to a character, 123–124TeamSpeak MMO (Massively Multiplayer)

tool, 195text

adding, 162editor tips, 236

textureadding to your model in Blender, 297–300Bump maps, 100changing in Moviestorm, 326–328defined, 100Environment maps, 100Normal maps, 100Specularity maps, 100types of, 100

Texture tool, 222The Complete Book of Scriptwriting

(Straczynski), 77The Grammar of the Shot (Thompson), 57The Guerilla Film-maker’s Handbook (Jones

and Joliffe), 57The Internet Is For Porn, Machinima

film, 358–359The Journey (Kirschner), Machinima

film, 362

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

acts in, 69–70beats in, 65–66scenes in, 67–68

The Moviescharacter creation features, 117engine, 83–84engine ratings, 82package extractor, 344publicity Web site for, 261tool development, 333

The Overcast Web site, 373The Princess Bride (Goldman), 77The Return (Rufus Cubed), Machinima

film, 363The Snow Witch (Batal and Pettit-Mee)

case study, 150–151Machinima film, 360

Thinking Machinima Web site, 372third-party content in World of

Warcraft, 192third-party tools potential, 334Thompson, Roy, The Grammar of the

Shot, 57thought bubbles, removing, 1393D box transition, 1593D Game Animation For Dummies

(Murdock), 3023D model

adding game information to, 289adding to your game with texture,

303–304checking the scale of, 302–303creating, 291–300exporting, 290

3D modelingcloning a package, 301necessity of, 286

3D modelsgetting into your game, 288–290importing into The Sims 2, 301–304

3D packagesBlender, 287problems with, 11types, 286–288

399Index


3D Studio Max. See GMaxTIGA Web site, 279, 280tiles, 102time marker, 28timeline

defined, 27, 317Moviestorm, 316–320

tipsangles, 237audio processing, 248–250camerawork, 238character design, 128–130close-ups, 237color, 110–111composition, 45–47fight scenes, 237framing, 237for getting a job with a Games

Company, 351light, 110–111Medieval II: Total War 2 (MTW2), 236–238pans, 236practicalities, 112–113shot composition, 45–47sound mixing, 253space, 111–112story, 237storyboard, 238text editor, 236The Sims 2, 151World of Warcraft, 204

titles, adding, 162tools

activating, 336advanced animation, 148–149basic, 335designing, 101–102development, 333–334development in Bloodspell, 338–340Dungeon Master, 87, 89Edge Select, 294Elevation, 104–105Flooring, 105game hack, 132

lipsynching, 378Massively Multiplayer (MMO), 193–195Model Viewer, 22, 204–207Place/Edit World Package, 222Plateau, 221potential for new, 333–334potential for third–party, 334Q-Xpress Installer, 109Roofing, 106Rotate, 293Scale, 292, 296Smooth, 221Smudge, 221Texture, 222third-party, 334Vegetation, 222Wall Coverings, 106Walls, 106Water, 105

tracks, recording in World of Warcraft(WoW), 203

Transformativedefined, 278Fair Use, 278

transitionsadding, 158–160creating, 160defined, 158types, 159

translation, 145transport coordinator organizational role,

201trial software

defined, 377on the DVD, 379

Trimmer, in Vegas Video, 158trimming

clips, 157–158defined, 157

troubleshooting, DVD, 379–380tutorial material on the DVD, 377two-shot

close-up defined, 53overview, 51



• U •UI (User Interface), activating tools with

the, 336UndergroundFilm.org as a form of

publicity, 261Undo function, Body Shop, 120University expansion pack, 119Unreal Tournament (UT)

character creation features, 117engine, 86–87engine ratings, 82scripting add-ons, 337tool development, 333

uploadingto Google Video, 180–181to Lulu.tv, 180–181to Revver, 181to Stage, 6, 181to YouTube, 180–181

US Digital Millenium Copyright Act(DMCA), 279

User Interface (UI), activating tools withthe, 336

UT (Unreal Tournament)character creation features, 117engine, 86–87scripting add-ons, 337tool development, 333

utilitiesfreeware, 378open-source, 378

UV mappingoverview, 297process of, 297–298

UV unwrapping process, 298

• V •Vegas Video

Credit Roll plug-in, 162editing package, 156–157Media Generator, 162Trimmer, 158

Vegetation tool, 222

velocity, 145Ventrillo MMO (Massively Multiplayer)

tool, 195vertexes, 294video

capturing from the Model Viewer, 206–207encoding, 172–179encoding with AVI (Audio Video

Interleave), 175–176encoding with QuickTime, 172–175encoding with WMV (Windows Media

Video), 176–179formats, 168–171publicizing your, 186publishing your, 182–186rendering, 163streaming, 179–182

video publishingInternet Archive, 183–184peer-to-peer distribution, 184–186Standard Web hosting, 182–183Web video sites, 184

video-sharing Web sites as a form ofpublicity, 262

video track, adding a clip to the, 157viewpoints, moving, 27viral marketing as a form of publicity, 259virtual puppeteering. See also live action

defined, 22VirtualDub

codec download, 170on the DVD, 378re-attaching split files with, 238YouTube and, 180

Visible Elements window, CinematicsEditor, 228

VLCdownloading, 169on the DVD, 378

Voice Communications MMO (MassivelyMultiplayer) tool, 195

Voice Over IP (VOIP), 248voices, cleaning up, 248–250Voxels, 101VTF Explorer package extractor, 344

401Index


• W •Wall Coverings tool, 106walls

building, 106–107painting in Moviestorm, 309

Walls tool, 106Warcraft Map Viewer on the DVD, 378Warcraft Model Viewer on the DVD, 378WarcraftMovies.com Web site, 374Water tool, 105waveform, 249Web hosting, Standard, 182–183Web sites

CameraPlus, 194Creative Commons, 266Dreamhosts, 182Electronic Frontier Foundation, 279–280engine-specific, 260–261The Internet Archive Machinima

Section, 373Machinifeed, 373Machinima, 186, 266, 371–374Machinima Film Festival, 372Machinima For Dummies, 79, 218Machinima For Dummies blog, 372–373Machinima Premiere, 371The Movies publicity, 261Neverwinter Nights, 266The Overcast, 373publicity, 260, 260–262SA Multiplayer mod, 91Sims99, 371Thinking Machinima, 372TIGA, 279, 280Wikipedia, 108, 129World of Warcraft Model Viewer, 195

Web video sites for video publishing, 184When Harry Met Sally, story in, 62–63wide shot

overview, 50using a, 30–31

Wikipedia Web site, 108, 129Windows dialog box, 232

Windows Media Encoder, downloading the, 171

Windows Media Player, rendering a film to, 31–32

Windows Media Video (WMV)encoding video with, 176–179video format, 170–171

Windows users of the DVD, 376Windows Vista For Dummies

(Rathbone), 375Windows XP For Dummies (Rathbone), 375wipe transition, 159WMV (Windows Media Video)


word-of-mouth as a form of publicity, 259World of Warcraft Map Viewer MMO

(Massively Multiplayer) tool, 195World of Warcraft Model Viewer MMO

(Massively Multiplayer) tool, 195World of Warcraft (WoW)

advantages of using, 191–192character creation features, 117character scripting, 192characters, 190disadvantages of using, 192–193emote commands, 203engine, 94–95engine ratings, 82Map Viewer, 207–208Model Viewer tool, 204–207Model Viewer Web site, 195organizational roles for filming, 198–201overview, 190package extractor, 345post-production effects, 208–213publicity Web site, 261recording pans, 202recording tracks, 203scripting add-ons, 337shooting, 202–204shooting characters, 203–204third-party content, 192third-party tools, 334tips for shooting, 204



tool development, 334tools, 336types of film available, 197using sound effects from, 251writing for, 196–198

writingnatural dialogue, 75–76press releases, 264–268scripts, 17–18in World of Warcraft (WoW), 197–198

• Y •YouTube

RSS feeds and, 262uploading to, 180–181

• Z •ZIP files, reading, 125zoom

adding, 232defined, 56–57functions in Cinematics Editor, 231

Zornhau, on storytelling, 63ZZounds, audio equipment retailer, 244

403Index


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