Galaxy Gulp

Synopsis

"Galaxy Gulp" is a comedy about the eccentric visitants to a small filling station located between disparate worlds.

(more...)

Synopsis

"Galaxy Gulp" is a comedy about the eccentric visitants to a small filling station located between disparate worlds.


Description

"Galaxy Gulp" is a short machinima film made to illustrate different concepts and techniques for making machinima using Valve’s Source game engine. It is a comedy set in a gas station located on an asteroid in the middle of space. When making the film, we wanted to show some of the different models in action that had already been developed for previous Noesis Interactive projects. However, their diversity was so extreme that no typical setting seemed to encompass them. Thus, an environment was imagined that was detached from the standard Half-Life sphere and promoted the melding of characters, situations and realities. Many different techniques were used in creating this movie, resulting in a piece both entertaining and bizarre.


Director Biography

Ross Scott is a 25 year old film and game enthusiast. He became interested in machinima in 2006, seeing it as a way to make movies with very little resources. His most popular creation has been "Civil Protection", a comedy series about police officers in the science-fiction environment portrayed in the game "Half-Life 2". He has extensive experience working in the Source engine to create machinima, which was the engine used in the creation of "Galaxy Gulp". He currently has a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and is exploring different career options. You can visit his website at www.civil-protection.blogspot.com


Production Company Biography

Noesis Interactive is a production company focusing on the development and distribution of training modules for video game modders, indie developers and machinimakers. Working with industry leading partners such as Valve, Softimage, Autodesk and IGN, Noesis works to promote knowledge and creativity within these rapidly growing fields. “Galaxy Gulp” signals Noesis’ first efforts to produce independent machinima while documenting the processes involved for the benefit of the mod community. For more information visit www.noesisinteractive.com


About Machinima

Machinima is a term for movies created using a video game engine. It is a relatively new medium and is still in its infancy. It can be as simple as recording ordinary game footage and arranging it in a meaningful way, or as complex as developing custom models, animations, and other assets to create complex choreographed 3D scenes. It differs from conventional 3D animation in a number of ways. Since the content is originally meant to be displayed in a real-time environment, it can also be recorded in real-time. This allows for a large time savings compared to traditional 3D because it is not necessary to render footage before assembly. It also allows for many procedural and script based events; all of which make any changes in production much more efficient. Machinima also typically has much lower resource requirements than standard filmmaking, and can be less intimidating when compared to professional 3D software. Combine this with the fact that video games already include their own content libraries which machinimakers can utilize, and machinima becomes one of the most accessible and interesting mediums for aspiring filmmakers today. (less...)