Democratizing filmmaking... sorta
There's an artform called Machina. It's when people use game engines and models from games to make their own movies. It's interesting, because you don't need the super expensive software to do CGI from scratch, just a game and a little hacking knowhow (and most games these days are fairly open thanks to the popularity of mods). The rest is just your eye and sense of timing.
I wish I knew more about this stuff before I embarked on my video project, as I probably could have saved myself a lot of time and issues using a game engine to do my music video, instead of bringing it all into 3D Studio Max and doing it from scratch. Indeed, some of my models are straight from games. On the plus side, I've learned a shit-ton about 3D graphics, and even max-script, the language used in 3D Studio Max.
Meanwhile, here is a video that some guy made. Mainly himself. Using characters from two game franchises, Final Fantasy and Dead Or Alive. The choreography and cinematography is INCREDIBLE. It's frankly the best action sequence I've seen in... I don't know how long. Without even having character or story to drive the action, it still manages to be intensely awesome. I think I may have to hire this guy for SOMETHING.
EDIT: I've been told this ISN'T machina. But rather, something somebody did in an animation package using models pulled from game engines. This makes most of the politics of this post obsolete, but, I still think machina offers an interesting alternative to filmmakers without a budget, actors, sets, cameras, etc. Also, I'm not sure whether the dude who made this used animation sets associated with those models, associated with other models, in available motion-capture data, or keyframed the stuff himself. Regardless, it's awesome, and the physics are quite impressive as well. Working on a CGI video myself, I'm well aware that the time it takes to blow some cloth in the wind is actually nothing to sneeze at. Nothing at which to sneeze.
I wish I knew more about this stuff before I embarked on my video project, as I probably could have saved myself a lot of time and issues using a game engine to do my music video, instead of bringing it all into 3D Studio Max and doing it from scratch. Indeed, some of my models are straight from games. On the plus side, I've learned a shit-ton about 3D graphics, and even max-script, the language used in 3D Studio Max.
Meanwhile, here is a video that some guy made. Mainly himself. Using characters from two game franchises, Final Fantasy and Dead Or Alive. The choreography and cinematography is INCREDIBLE. It's frankly the best action sequence I've seen in... I don't know how long. Without even having character or story to drive the action, it still manages to be intensely awesome. I think I may have to hire this guy for SOMETHING.
EDIT: I've been told this ISN'T machina. But rather, something somebody did in an animation package using models pulled from game engines. This makes most of the politics of this post obsolete, but, I still think machina offers an interesting alternative to filmmakers without a budget, actors, sets, cameras, etc. Also, I'm not sure whether the dude who made this used animation sets associated with those models, associated with other models, in available motion-capture data, or keyframed the stuff himself. Regardless, it's awesome, and the physics are quite impressive as well. Working on a CGI video myself, I'm well aware that the time it takes to blow some cloth in the wind is actually nothing to sneeze at. Nothing at which to sneeze.