Spotlight on Machinima #8 IS OUT NOW! OMG!

Every now and then, we will put a spotlight on convenient machinima tools and nifty tricks. Bringing you this is Origano, machinimator of Flying Cow Studios and Farinar of Farinar films.

#8: 1,2,3, ACTION! 3/3 - How to record interesting shots by Farinar
Hello there!
We're back again! This time with the last part of "1,2,3, ACTION!" by Farinar. This time it will be about how to record interesting scenes and shots for your movies in order to make them more interesting. We've previously covered programs that could help you with this and how to make a storyboard. You got this ready? No? Well, it's your own choice, but you'd better have!

Now, what I like to do is print out a Wow-map of the zone in which I'd like to record. If my scene takes place 2 or 3 places in the same zone, I draw on these maps. Mark where the individual characters stand etc. It makes it a lot easier when you have to compose it later and also helps you figure out how many shots you'll need. Once I have done this, I usually go to the zone in-game and follow my storyboard and drawn maps from here. The drawn maps can also help you coordinate how to reduce the ingame travel-time.

Now, when a scene is opening you'd maybe want to have a scene of the zone from above, the camera "flying" over the trees. Yes? Okay, use the machinima tool for this as it can both make the camera go at the pace you want to, but it can also modify the atmosphere and/or zone if you need a little more purple light. Generally, whenever I record I like to use the Machinima Tool. It helps a lot in creating dynamic scenes.

Also, when doing for example a conversation, don't just record one angle on each characters. It makes it dull and uninteresting. Try and spice it up with a few new angles everytime. Some repeating is okay, I do that myself, but try not to use it too much.

I know it's a short one, but that really concludes "1,2,3, ACTION!"
Next time, Origano will deliver some cool advice to you! :)
- Farinar

#7: The Shameless Advertising by Origano

Imagine, or actually don't. I guess most of you guys reading this are in this situtation or almost at it. So, you have finished (or are nearly finishing) your precious machinima you have spent hours and hours of your own, free time. You want to show it to the people of internet, but you wonder how. Aha! You come up with an idea, let's upload it to WCM, Youtube, Wegame, Vimeo and myndfaleme. When they have processed you sit down and watch the view countdown rise.

After a week it barely reaches 100 views. What Went Wrong? Easy, you didn't advertise at all.

Let's go for it then! As this is for those who are on their first or almost first Machinima I will start with what not to do.

Do NOT make trailers

Trailers, the greatest sin of beginers in Machinima business. You decide to make this great trailer of your awesome Machinima before even starting the production of the real clip! In the end, you have a trailer, that nobody notices if it doesn't have anything partly well done in it. You get depressed of that and say, "Screw this machinima business" And that's the end. Or, you start producing your Machinima but get bored because you have no motivation (nobody seemed to be interested about your trailer) and quit.

So, as beginner Machinimanist never ever make trailers!

Allright, that's the no-no part : ) Let's move on the Highly Recommend To Do parts!

Adertising as a newbie machinimanator should be always done after uploading. This is the standard procedure I use(d).

Choose 3 different upload places. For me they were Youtube, Wegame and WCM. That way people know where they can find you!. Secondly, create a thread on Wegame's Machinima forums with description of the story. Thirdly, if it is WoW machinima, create thread on Oxhorn's forums. Yes! Oxhorn's forums. So many people follow(ed) him that if he liked something it would instantly get 1000 views atleast.

Fourthly, create a thread about your machinima on WCM's forums too. And fifthly, and most importantly, throw an email to WoW.com's daily machinima review. The Email address is here. "machinima AT wow DOT com" without quotes. Create few fake emails for yourself and send one message to WoW.com from each of them. Just brag on how good that Machinima is and so on, it will do the trick if you did something good enough (which isn't much for Michael Gray)

Then the tiny things, like your videos yourself on wegame, rate them without logging in on youtube..that kind of stuff. This is kinda simple afterall. You can attach the forum threads with posters, images and so on. : )

That finishes it up, I hope you learnt something from Shameless Advertising! C ya next time!

Origano

#6 1,2,3 ACTION! Part 2/3 (Recommended programs and AddOns.) by Farinar

Hi! And welcome to part 2 of “1,2,3 ACTION!” here on the Weekly Spotlight.
We covered storyboards last week and with our storyboards done, we are ready to film our epic movie trilogy, right? Oh, wait! We need some programs to do that! Well, look no more for this week I will cover a lot of programs that you can use while recording to make your movie even better.

First of all, we need a program to record. There are many good and easy-to-use programs out there, but there are two programs I prefer above the rest. These are Fraps and WeGame. But ofcourse, there are pros and cons about each of the programs that might have an influence on which of the programs YOU might want to use.

Fraps – Trial available at www.fraps.com
Pros:
- Great quality
- Adjustable FPS
- Can take screenshots as well
- Can record sound

Cons:
- Not free
- Trial can only record 30 seconds and there is a watermark
- Big files

WeGame – Full program available at www.wegame.com
Pros:
- High and low quality selections available
- Can track your gaming habits as well
- Free
- Can take screenshots as well
- Small files
- Can record flash

Cons:
- Not as good quality as Fraps

Ofcourse there are countless alternatives to these two programs, but these are, by my experiences, the two best out there without doubt. If you are looking for another alternative, then check out Zamros’ thread right here, which lists pros and cons for a lot of programs: http://www.wegame.com/forums/Machinima/T...

So, when you’ve selected your recording program it’s time to get out there and record! Isn’t it? Well, I guess you could, but there are many ways to manipulate the camera inside World of Warcraft, that you might as well just try them out from the beginning.

CameraPlus – Available at http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addon...
CameraPlus is not a program but an AddOn. What CameraPlus does, is that it allows you to manipulate your cameramovement in any way possible. For example you can change the speed at which it zooms in- and out and the rate at which it circles around your character. While this AddOn is brilliant and can create some brilliant and awesome shots of your character, it can only circle around your character, which might be great for some shots but useless for others.

And then, at long last, the final tool I’ll be discussing today:

The WoW Machinima Tool – Available at http://www.madx.dk/wmt/
The WoW Machinima Tool is the ultimate tool, and I have still to learn how to control it properly, but it is a very, very powerful tool. Basically, it allows you to control your camera in any way, even release it of your characters’ grip and film some great aerial shots. The newest version should also allow the possibility to blue-screen out your sky and replace it with another. A powerful tool in the right hands, and there is an extensive guide on the download site as to how to control it.
Tip: By going far away from the location you want to film and then moving the camera there, you’ll erase all mobs around that place as your character is not nearby.

Now you have all the programs that can make your shots really great. The next part will come out soon!
//Farinar


#5 1,2,3 ACTION Part 1/3 (The basics of a storyboard) by Farinar

Hi, and welcome to this weeks’ Weekly Spotlight, written by Farinar.
So, you’ve written your epic tale of love and conflict, of chaos and peace and of politics and battles, you’ve made it original and stunning and you’re ready to begin recording. This is where this article comes in!

Basically, you could just go out and film the movie from one end to the other, from beginning to end, but it would take a lot of time. Your recordings should be structured and planned. Making a storyboard is a really good idea here, as it lets you film exactly what you want to, and you can always come up with new shots while at the scene. Making a storyboard also helps you structure the scene exactly as you want it to be when you sit in pre-production, as it can be really difficult to come up with camera movements and such on location.

I’ve made a clean storyboard-sample for you, that you can download and use for your own movie and shots here (.doc-file): http://www.gratisupload.dk/download/3185... (no viruses)

Basically, a storyboard is like a little comicbook and blueprint of your movie, that you make, for your entire movie, or perhaps just for a specifically hard scene or special scene. There are small squares, in which you can draw how you intend the current shot to be. Whenever you intend the camera to change angle or clip to another location, you draw the next shot in the next square. Like a comicbook, changing angles. If you, on location, realize that one of the shots will turn out badly or cannot work properly, you can always improvise (I tend to do this a lot).

Under each picture you can write anything specific to the scene, for example the dialogue you intend to have while recording this clip, any background effects, special effects or SFX. Even though it takes a lot of time, it is definitely worth it.

If you’re confused about this, you can watch some of these awesome storyboard tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yeI83fN...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9q1b6AiU...
A good example of an advanced and deep storyboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf-y89BNP...

Oh, and you do NOT have to be good at drawing – the important thing is that YOU understand what’s going on in the pictures :)

There will be a part 2 next week, covering programs you might need to make YOUR WoWmachinima the best!
//Farinar

#4 .. Of Music and Sounds by Origano
*Poke peeps! It is me, Origano here again writing something on behalf of Farinar who apparently and unfortunately can't access internet from Italy : (. Anyway to the today's Subject! This is a special week and a special day so I will talk about a special and very, very important aspect of Machinima business. Hereby this week's Title is...

So, you have a raw, edited piece infront of you with all voices inside it. You are propably thinking what the heck should I do next? Should I release this as it is? The answer is short "NO", you have to Score and put some sound effects inside it so it will become a MASTERPIECE!

Let's begin with the music. You all have different tastes of music and you favour different bands. More or less. You would of course want to put some of your favourite band's songs inside your piece because it fits godlikely! But the answer is again short and stort "NO". Actually double "NO"

So why not? It fits! You might ask. But tbh it propably only fits for you and other's don't like it at all. Especially if it is Death Metal or somekind of punk. Actually everything that is close of the farrest border of that genre. At this point few of you propably think. Hell, this is mah vid, I will use it anyway! And here comes the even bigger "NO". It is copyrighted, man! If you put a copyrighted song inside your (master)piece it is stealing. Yeah , Stealing! Cybercrime, Piracy, whatever Wecloc and I want to call it. If you use this kind of copyrighted thing inside your vid you propably wont get any SWAT kind of thing outside your house trying to snipe your head off but rather it makes you look like arrogant child. Especially if it is Machinima. Okay, I have used copyrighted music in my Boss videos I made for my guild too but if you put one in Machinima it just shows how much effort you want to put into it. On the another note it won't help at all if you give em credit in description. You still haven't got any rights! So don't do it!

Now you are disappointed, where can I get my score then? Answer is easy. The music composers! There are plenty out there. Some are free, some charge you but there is enough of free ones for everybody. Just search for them in Machinima.com for example and write a detailed, polite email to them. CraigK has very good thread about Music Composers, read it here.

http://machinima.com/forums/viewtopic.ph...

Also be sure to check out this blogpost.

http://myndflame.gameriot.com/blogs/Guid...

There, that's also one very important blogpost to read : ) Be careful!

We covered up the music. Let's cover you up in sound fx! (Effects) Fortunately here is no "NO"s so I don't have to poke around with not do's and do's. Let's have an example. Ypou have just received your score from your composer and began rendering it out happily. But wait! You aren't done yet! You are missing one critical part, the SOUND EFFECTS.

sound effects are those little clashes and footsteps that make your video LIVE. It is annoying to see otherwise nicely produced machinima, expect that it lacks sounds and Ambience! Let's cover up Ambience at first.

Ambience is the thing you hear in the background, be it the traffic sounds, wind or sounds of water clashing into shorestones. All this makes your machinima feel alot more lively. You might propably be now like "Yes! I will go to the local forest and record some with mah MOBILE PHONE!" But wait! There is an alot easier way! Using WoW's own ambience musics in your vid! (If you read up the Blogpost I linked earlier you know that using Blizzard's own music and sound files is permitted). Check out this program.

http://wowdev.org/wiki/index.php/Mywarcr...

It is basically like all those fancy WinMPQ etc programs most people are using but unlike them this one actually works. So download and extract it + Open it up!

I won't go into details on how to use it, you should be able to figure it out by yourself easily. Open up a MPQ and there you have list of all files the MPQ file holds inside it! Go go explore, they are kinda easy to find. Especially Ambience is easy one. when you have found the ambience desired just extract it out!

That's the easy way of gaining ambience sounds and sofar it has never failed me. So there we have the Ambience, let's move to the Sound FX.

This one isn't any trickier than the Ambience but you have more options. You can get good sword clashes, footsteps etc from MPQ's but some things like good Beeps can't be found inside them. Take a look at this page

http://www.freesound.org/

It is basically the largest free sound FX site on web, and it has no Spyware (Guaranteed!). You can find everything you cannot find from MPQs from there, just register and poof! They are yours.

So, there you go peeps! Everything covered up. If you have something to ask poke me on my Wall or this thread.

Origano over and out!





This week's spotlight goes on and on about organized Machinima production and is written by Origano

#3 The Organized Machinima Production by Origano

So, you came up with an idea and want to make it true as Machinima for everybody to watch? The process might seems simple but in bigger projects it definately isn't. Especially if you aren't familiar with Organzided production!

The first thing you have to do is to write the script. Do it with care, first write a basic structure of all events and then add the dialogue in. Think about the characters, what's their personality? How they react to different things? Do they have special bonds to other characters? Also it is good habit to make some Mindmaps out of them since it helps you alot when you think about the reactions. When the script is done it is time to move on the Voice-actors!

This is an important step. Poor voice-actors mean poor movie even if you have all those fancy graphics and effects and story is pure gold. It's also important that the VA is active so you can poke him easily if you need some corrections. First thing you have to do when searching for VA's is to come up with a good recruitement package´for each character. The package should include the full script, audition lines (best if in seperate .txt file) and the personality and background info. Think about the email too, you will have to look as a professional so add your singnatures and your production team names (if any). When you have the package done for each character go looking for them in special threads like Wegame's voice-actor thread or this thread on Machinima.com:

http://machinima.com/forums/viewtopic.ph...

Generally I only check Voice-actors with premade audition lines and Age over 15 (depending on the character I am looking VA for) but sometimes I do an expection. Otherway to get VA's is forum threads but this the best tactic since most people cannot be arsed to do it from forum thread, atleast not the most professional ones! So stick with the package mailing in the start of your career.

When you have got a Voice-actor that fits it is time to let him do his or her job. If he is progressing slow keep on checking on him and give hints that you want your voices faster. Also if you notice anything you want to correct don't just say it is ok but force him to do it again. Be evil and you will get the best conclusion. Just when you are getting the voices from him tough, be nice otherwise!

Now you got the Voices and you wonder what to do? You have to options, either you start the editing process now or go to poke some Music compooser who will score your film. I always get Music composer first, propably just a habit tho! There is some free ones like Calixworld2 (sometimes) and Craig.K (sometimes) Act as professional and they will propably give it a go : )

Then there is just an editing process left. But wo! Halt it on. We have to create a good folder structure first. Go to your Videos folder and create new one named "My Machinima Project" or generally anything you want. Then create folder for scripts and packages and copy them there. Go back to your mainfolder and create folder named "Music and voice-lines" Put music straight to this folder but create subfolders for all different lines, named after the characters. Go again back to the main folder and create Videos folder and Screenshots folder (for Backgrounds and stuff). You are ready to start the editing!

There is not much to cover about editing process. I begin by opening up my private/map viewer/Whatever you want to use and go to the first act's grounds. Then I look around a bit and wonder how I should put the characters and camera movements. When I have decided about it I take all the backgrounds and film camera movement if necessary. Remember to switch fraps or whatever program you use to correspondanging folder! In this case the screenshot folder. When you are done get back to your editing program and open up the WoWmodelViewer, load the character in or design it if you haven't already. Then open the first background you are using up so that you can see it beside the WoWmodielViewer. Angle you character. click play and shoot! Then poke your editing program again, put the charatcer and background in and voilá , there we go. Create the whole scene, add all the special effects and dialog and render it up. Yes, render. Never ever let your project file to be over a scene long or you will have some problems later! Create a new folder called "Rendered clips" and name the scene you rendered "Scene 1". Now delete everything in your project file and start the next scene. Do not start different project since you might have some setting differences.

Keep on doing it step by step until you finish your Ultimate goal. When all scenes are done put them all to your Editor. If you are using AAE you should get Sony Vegas since that's easiest compositing program around. Render it first with minimum settings and send it to your composer so he can score it up. When you get the score add it to the project file with all clips and Render it with High Quality. Remember to add your studio's logos and Wegame logos etc at this point!

When the last rendering is done you propably have a file over 1gb which is no no for most sites. I recommend getting Adobe Encoder for somewhere but if you cant get it you can also try Windows movie maker. It is kinda good if you set the settings up correctly (Pal HD 720p). After it is done you can pat yourself in the back, you have done it! But it is not over yet!
Netx thing you will have to do is to upload it up. If you arent restricted by any agreements with studios post is to 3 main places. I recommend Wegame, WCM and Youtube/Myndflame. Why 3? Because then people will know where to find you easily and one of the spots will become your "Trademark" spot. When the upload's have finished you have the last thing to do, write a good description for it and ADVERTISE. If it is your first movie and the quality is higher than average go go advertise it everywhere without shame. You want alot of people watch your handwork anyway? :)

That's almost it but I see I forgot to put up something about trailers. If you are newcomer in Machinima business, making your first movie and so on do NOT, I repeat DO NOT make a trailer! It will just draw your resources and you will propably never get the movie done! Just go straight to the main movie! When you have more experience you can start making trailers. The project queue goes as in the main project but it has to be a good trailer for it to be notified. If you succeed in making one you will generate alot of Hype.

That's it folks, c ya next week!

#2 The World of Warcraft Model Viewer by Farinar

Okay, yeah, hi. I know that Origano is supposed to do the Weekly Spotlight, but as he is currently on a trip to Denmark, he asked me to write the next Spotlight. Also, I know it is not Thursday, but I'll be busy for the rest of the week, so I have to upload and write it today (Monday).

Origano told me that the next Weekly Spotlight would focus on WoW Model Viewer, unfortunately he hasn't given me any information on what exactly to focus on, so I'll just tell you about the tool.

WoW Model Viewer is a stand-alone program developed by Darjk in the beginning and later developed by other fans of World of Warcraft. What it basically allows you to, is to access all the models that are avaiable in World of Warcraft and equip them and toy around with their animations, which makes it a much appreciated tool of every World of Warcraft-machinimator. However, while it does allow players to toy around with the models it is absolutely legal according to Blizzard and used in many popular machinimas.

You can get WoW Model Viewer at www.wowmodelviewer.org, where there is also a huge community centered around it. It is worth noting, that if you have Wrath of the Lich King or patch 3.0 and above you will have to download a specific version of the viewer.

When you enter the Model Viewer, you are greeted by two boxes: One which allows you to browse models (character, creature etc.) and one that lets you browse the animations of the specific model. You start by choosing a model, for example a character -> human -> male. Now appears a new box, which only appears when browsing characters, the equipment box, that allows you to equip characters (creatures cannot equip anything). In that box you can also toggle Death Knight skins (if you use the WoTLK viewer) to make glowing eyes and change hair style, face etc.

To make a machinima, you can change the background to either 255 blue (if your character doesn't wear blue) and 255 green (if your character doesn't wear green). 255 red has been said to work as well, but I haven't tried it out. Now equip your character and record him/her/it doing a specific animation using WeGame. The outcome will be a clip with your character doing an animation on a single colored background. You're now able to import this into Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere/After Effects and key out the green and blue backgrounds, depending on the color you chose. That's how you get more characters into a single shot. There is no other way.

Hevgirl posted a cool screenshot of the program, which gives a good overlook of the program:
http://www.wegame.com/view/WoWModelViewe...

- Farinar