








Red vs Blue Sweeps Machinima Awards 106
TheNomad writes "The Machinima Film Festival 2003 is over, and the results from the awards are in.
Red Vs Blue swept the awards with 3 awards for "Best Independent Film", "Best Writing" and "Best Picture". Katherine Anna Kang's firm Fountainhead did very well too, with wins for "Best Direction", "Best Commercial Machinima", "Best Technical Achievement" and "Best Visual Design".
Most of the films are available now, and there is a whole bunch of coverage of the event (with pictures) over at Machinima.com."
yay (Score:5, Funny)
Re:yay (Score:2)
Not as good as... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:yay (Score:5, Funny)
Re:yay (Score:2)
Re:yay (Score:1, Funny)
Can someone post BitTorrent links for any of these (Score:2, Funny)
BitTorrent links (Score:2)
Direct link to video (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Direct link to video (Score:2)
Re:Machinima (Score:2, Informative)
Navigate to google.com [google.com].
Copy and paste Machinima into the search window.
Search.
Read.
machinima [machinima.com]
anti-stupidity medicine (Score:2)
It never ceases to amaze me when folks (mostly at work) ask me some inane question that can be solved almost instantly by a google search. Easier than walking from their office to mine and asking me what's what.
I generally take the time to demonstrate how easily they can find subsequent answers to these inquiries by themselves by running their owned damned google searches.
Almost invariably the same person shows up a few days later asking another easily googled questio
Re:anti-stupidity medicine (Score:5, Funny)
Google...it's like an RTFM for the entire world.
RTFM for the entire world (Score:2)
Great... Thanks Slashdot!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently everyone on Slashdot...
Thanks a heap. (I can't even find bittorrent links - bugger!)
8P
Bittorrent links (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.redvsblue.com/torrent/RvB_Episode08_Lo
Divx:
http://www.redvsblue.com/torrent/RvB_Episode08_Lo
Follow the pattern from Episode08 to Episode19
Re:Bittorrent links (Score:2)
Bad timing (Score:2)
sigh.....
Murphy was an optimist.
Re:Great... Thanks Slashdot!!! (Score:1)
But I thought... (Score:4, Funny)
Which begs the question... (Score:2)
Re:Which begs the question... (Score:4, Interesting)
You can find it: here [ifilm.com]and probably many other better places than iFilm too.
There was also a followup which I got on a coverdisc once which was also piss funny...
ooh, I found the second one too (Score:3, Funny)
Re:ooh, I found the second one too (Score:1)
Re:Which begs the question... (Score:1)
The Quake Done Quick videos, especially the edited versions with plot stuff and narration (Scourge Done Slick and Quake Done Quicker). Funny commentary and totally skillful Quake playing, what could be better. =)
Also, the intro of Team Fortress rules - but it won't count because it's an actual game intro demo...
Re:Which begs the question... (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically they involve "best of" clips, blooper clips, and acrobatic stunts gathered from countless Quake deathmatches. If it has been a while since you have played Quake deathmatch, then I know you will be surprised with the stuff people are able to do in the game after playing it for seven years.
They c
Robbery! (Score:4, Funny)
"Where do you want to go today, dirtbag?"
Swept? (Score:5, Informative)
Ummmmmmmmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Stewey
Re:Ummmmmmmmmm (Score:1, Interesting)
Although... (Score:1)
Re:Although... (Score:2)
Not that it matters a hell of a lot, and not that one should expect better from a Slashdot submission or Slashdot editor, but still...
Re: Swept? (Score:1)
"Swept" may be stretching it a bit, but it's arguable that Red vs Blue's Blood Gulch Chronicles did the best.
Fountainhead Entertainment [fountainheadent.com] did indeed win four awards, but these were split between the two different films that they entered. Anna won one, and their (and Ghost Robot's) In The Waiting Line video won three. The three for Blood Gulch Chronicles, though, included Best Picture.
Congrats. (Score:4, Insightful)
Creative new ideas, good job guys!
Machinima FAQ (Score:5, Informative)
Machinima FAQ
By Frank "ILL Bixby" Dellario
What is Machinima?
Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment.
In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development. By combining the techniques of filmmaking, the flexibility of animation production and the technology of real-time 3D game engines, Machinima makes for a very cost- and time-efficient way to produce films.
What are the major advantages of this technique vis-a-vis the old-fashioned way of making animation?
Because it is shot live or scripted in real-time, it's much faster to produce Machinima then traditional CGI animation. A live action director will feel right at home and an animation director will be able to direct without having to rely on key frames. Multiple takes can be made in real-time or just a few takes while the rest is adjusted in post, dependent on the director's style. And because you can modify the original recorded data files, we can change anything in post--add characters, adjust camera angles, create camera moves, fine-tune animation, etc. It's much like doing a reshoot without having to call back the cast and crew.
What is so significant about shooting animation live?
Shooting live can produce a considerable time and cost savings of up to 30-40% and is a radical departure from the traditional key frame animation process. Now animation directors can direct puppeteers as they manipulate the character models in real-time while a live action director will feel right at home.
How does it save time and money?
It saves money by eliminating the time intensive processes of non-real-time character animation and scene compositing. In traditional 3D animation, characters are animated traditionally with keyframes. These animations are either painstakingly choreographed with other characters or composited together into the same scene. A one minute Machinima scene, for example, can be shot in real-time with all characters in the scene at once. And just like a film set, you shoot multiple takes until the director is satisfied. Without the need for a compositing process, you can view each take right there and then.
Sorry, I'm a laymen, can you explain that a little more?
Two-dimensional (2D) animation, like Disney's Tarzan or a Warner Brothers Looney Tune Cartoon, is drawn, inked & painted by hand and then shot frame-by-frame for the final animation. This is obviously labor and time intensive. A half hour cartoon could take six to nine months to draw and is usually done overseas to minimize labor cost. A feature could take two to four years to complete.
3D Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) animation, was pioneered in the late 80's early 90's and put on the map by Pixar's Toy Story. Instead of each frame being drawn by hand, a computer "renders" all of the characters and backgrounds. But a team of computer animators have to animate each character model individually for each scene. Once done, a "compositing" bank of computers renders all of the characters models and objects into the 3D background, making your complete shot. But because of the large amount of 3D graphic, lighting and animated information in each frame, it can take a very fast bank of computers hours, if not days, to render each frame. Some frames of Pixar's Monsters Inc took over 90 hours to process using over 400 computers ganged together in parallel. With 24 frames per sec of footage, you can image how long this process can get. Subsequently, Monsters Inc took four years to produce.
What a minute, are you saying you can produce Pixar level animation in almost half the time?
Well, no, not yet. A company like Pixar will always push the boundaries of what's possible in animation, I mean, come on, they're Pixar, and they've got an Oscar. But, with the advances in computer hardware coming in the next year, it looks pretty good that we can get much closer.
How do you use a c
Re:Machinima FAQ (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Machinima FAQ (Score:1)
Re:Machinima FAQ (Score:2)
Re:Machinima FAQ (Score:1, Troll)
At Last! A definition! Thankyou! (Score:1)
So thanks very much indeed.
Wrong tense (Score:1, Redundant)
They were available -- until this article got posted.
Now they're stuck on the server, vainly trying to make their way against a veritable SYN flood.
Very influential (Score:2, Funny)
This just in ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This just in ... (Score:2, Funny)
Just to inform... (Score:5, Informative)
Red vs Blue has created some hilarious work using the Halo engine. The "Blood Gulch Chronicles" are about a bunch of dopey marines stuck in the bottom of a dry creek bed. They live, they love, they laugh, they blow stuff up.
Check out the trailer [o1.com].
Red vs Blue [redvsblue.com]
Fountainhead (Score:4, Informative)
Although it doesn't quite count as machinima, I always found Summoner Geeks [ifilm.com] (warning: annoying flash ads) pretty funny.
Re:Fountainhead (Score:2)
-a
Re:Fountainhead (Score:2)
Ayn Rand lived and wrote in a very different era from ours. I see no trouble combining the notion of free software with her ideas: I think people who do have misunderstood free software just as bad as Gates and Balmer when they claim it is "un-American" (or more likely
Re:Fountainhead (Score:2)
Ayn Rand lived and wrote in a very different era from ours. I see no trouble combining the notion of free software with her ideas:
I don't hold Ayn Rand's opinions as sacred, but I have read several of her books and I think you'd have trouble doing that sensibly. She believed that ultimate control of the product should remain with the creator, not the end user (that was the whole theme of the Fountainhead).
Free software is not about socialism, or even charity - everybody who writes it is working freely
Re: (Score:2)
I can see it now (Score:2, Funny)
/.ed (Score:1)
Re:/.ed (Score:1)
RvB FAQs (Score:2, Interesting)
BitTorrent links for the early episodes? (Score:3)
I wish they'd put more effort back into writing (Score:4, Insightful)
However, as the season gets on, the writing seems to degrade noticeably and the plot gets a little wonky at the end when Church decides to do that thing he does (avoiding spoilage).
I'd advise them to slow down a bit, produce fewer episodes and take us back to the excellent writing of the first 5 episodes.
"Simons.... I want you to poison Griff's next meal"
Re:I wish they'd put more effort back into writing (Score:2)
I didn't really like the ending, though. Not goofy enough. They had this great silly tone going on, and the ending didn't quite match.
steveha
Re:I wish they'd put more effort back into writing (Score:2)
I'm sure there will be plenty more silliness before the end.
steveha
Re:I wish they'd put more effort back into writing (Score:1)
Season 2 should start in a couple of months, once they've shipped all the Season 1 DVDs to the Super Sponsors (including me, w00t).
Now part of my everyday vocabulary... (Score:1)
"Chicks are like Voltron; The more you hook up, the better it gets."
Gr@ve_Rose
Re:Now part of my everyday vocabulary... (Score:1)
Stop the madness! (Score:1)
Complete RvB torrent (Score:4, Informative)
You should watch the trailer [o1.com] before you abuse everyone's bandwith.
True HDTV content (Score:1)
I remember Operation Bayshield for Quake allowed me to up the resolution. Nice and crisp. 360x240 is bleh.