There is a feeling that the European machinima scene is no longer a group of isolated individuals but a strongly bound collective of artists, working altogether. Do you agree? How does this collective function? How do you interact with each other in spite of the distances, and how do you manage to collect all contributions in order to integrate them into the final montage?

Yes, I agree. We work together and we work alone, depending on the machinima we are working on. Sometimes we share ideas and samples of our machinimas with each other over the net and discuss them. Mostly we interact via IRC (channel #machinima at Quakenet), instant messengers, and e-mail. Collecting and merging contributions is fairly easy; only the net speeds and storage capacities (even if you compress the files, they might still be quite big) are the limitation.

WoW-Europe Community Spotlight: Baron Soosdon

We here at Madx Machinima wishes you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

We also want to note that as mentioned on the #Machinima channel we allready have some tutorials ready for release here on the Madx Machinima. The tutorials with both cover Adobe AfterEffects and Digital Fusion however currently we only have the Fusion tutorials ready and due to the usual Bussy, Study and Christmas factor we havent been able to finish thoes yet.

But one of the first weeks in the new year we will start off with the first set of Machinima video tutorials covering 3D Tracking and how it can be used for visual effects.

If you got any suggestions for Tutorials or stuff you want to learn more about you are welcome to send a request to us..

Serious about Compositing?

From a overall generalized view of the community the main compositing software is Sony Vegas.
One cleaver old man once told me that its the talent -not the tool, and boy he was right!
However even talent can be limited by the tool. Now Sony Vegas is a all in one tool for Sound, Editing and Compositing.
And is great for the overall work, but when it comes down to complex shots you will in times long for more advanced tools. And in case you want to go further than just machinima you in the end will need to get your hands dirty on other software.
However it is a jungle out there and mainstream doesn’t always mean the best.
It all comes down to what you need, whether it’s features, workflow, performance or the big counter “the price tag”.

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(LiNK FixED)

Incase you want custom gear in your movies there is no need to worry. Thanks to Cryect, the original author of the 3DStoM2 source code, we are able to import gear created in 3d applications into World of Warcraft and use it for movie magic instead of a tracking hell, or the other way around (export).

We have made a small tutorial on how to create your own custom gun by importing the shotgun from Doom 3 into 3d Studio Max, and then export it into World of Warcraft. With a little imagination, you will be able to change all the gear of your characters, to help you make the world the way you want it.

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Key points:

• Their “offensive content” clause is pretty clear: keep it within the T for Teen ESRB rating of WoW. That’s a clear guideline that’s easy to work within.
• They don’t allow commercial work, but there are exemptions for sponsorship. This is very cool - it’s clear that Blizz’s primary concern is to make sure as many people can see WoW Machinima as possible, and it’s very cool they’re allowing some revenue opportunities within that. The wording here also might imply that RvB style “premium memberships” or selling DVDs is permitted provided that your production is still available to view for free - I’m not at all sure about that, so I’m going to try to get some clarification and report back. I initially misread this clause - don’t take this one to the bank yet.
• There are no fanfic or sound usage limitations. Woo!
• They’ve got a direct contact address for any Machinima-related questions: machinima@blizzard.com

Blizzard posts Machinima rules!
Letter to the Machinimators of the World of Warcraft

The WarcraftMovies network just started a promo contest, where they wish you to submit a clip with their logo for one of their three sites; WarcraftMovies.com, WHMovies.com and AoCMovies.com.

You can submit your clip in two categories, short version (MAX 6 sec) and long version (MAX 15 sec), and the first prize for the short version will be $100 while the longer version winner will recieve $150. If they decide to feature any of the clips that didn’t win, that author will recieve $50.

You’re free to make as many submissions as you want, and the submission periods ends September 21st, and the winners will be announced September 28th.

The rules other than the time limitations on the clips, are that they shouldn’t feature any in-game asset, model-viewer or art-design from any of the games, most likely due to copyright issues. So basicly, you should make a 6 sec or 15 sec long clip featuring their logo. For inspiration and to read more:

Machinima Entertainment Promo Contest!

The standard Depth Of Field effect in machinima movies are usually faked up with masks blur/defocus filters and are somewhat time consuming and doesn’t look that realistic. However, there is a tool that makes it possible to capture the real Zbuffer from DirectX games, making it possible to make real DOF effects and alot more.

Captured Z-buffer:

DOF Applied

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The standard ingame camera controls within World Of Warcraft are somewhat limited. You maximum zoom range is not that big and when swapping between 2 redefined camera locations the speed is fast and locked.

There is a addon that changes all that, making it possible to set various camera settings that could prove useful for Machinima and general ingame video and still capturing.

Read more…

The Madx Machinima is up and ready to recive love, guides and tutorials.