It’s been extremely hectic here at The Show over the last few months but finally things have cooled down and I can get back to updating this blog and working on our next big film.

Some of the work we’ve done recently, you will know about, whereas others have been kept fairly quiet. Shortly after finishing Roommate Wanted I started another commissioned project for Antics Technologies. Very much like RW, the aim was to make a film that showed some of the strengths of the tool and show how accessible it can be. For anyone who has used Antics (there’s a free version now, so you really have no excuse if not) it has some great benefits such as simple set construction and the great way the characters can interact with objects and scenery. Everytime I use it I end up thinking it’s very much like The Sims 2 without all the annoying things you have to do to get the characters to behave.

One thing that was very difficult to get around though, was the basic lip sync and lack of facial animation, and of course using one of my favorite Reallusion products to fix that was not a big option in this case. Regardless, I think it turned out quite nicely. It’s actually been out for a few weeks now, but because I’ve been so deep in another commission and recently moved house, I could only announce it now. It’s called Anonymous Coward and you can catch it in the Antics Cinema (where you will also notice a film by CJ Ambrosia). The guys at Antics seemed quite pleased with it, so hopefully you guys will enjoy it too.

The third project was a big one. Unlike the previous two which I was easily able to do alone, this project had a much bigger budget so really needed the team and as always, Dreaded Kane emerged from the bat cave and rolled up his sleeves (for any1 who doesn’t know, Kane is a long standing member of the Justice Lea – er.. Binary Picture Show). The film was called Peter’s Story, and was unlike anything I ever imagined us doing. This was a 6 minute information video and as the title suggests, it’s a narrative film and I worked very closely with Professor Paul Foley of De Montfort University (going to last years UK Machinima festival was very worth it).

It was great to do (first ‘useful’ thing we’ve done) and everyone loves money, but now that’s over I can get back to writing films with lots of swearing, angst, and possibly some nudity until the next such project comes along. For ages I’ve been meaning to fix up our website, so that’s a big priority too.

I’m resuming work on the project I started shortly after BEAST. It’s a Sci-Fi film in which I hope to use Daz 3D character models . Yes, they’re way too high in polycount, but tomorrow I hope to shed some light on it all (should be very interesting), along with the part the recently released Craytalk 5 will play in the film.
What’s more, I was given a sneak peak at Iclone 3 and it’s got me very excited!
But enough for today. check back later for more happenings at Binary Picture Show and my thoughts on IC3!

Since doing BEAST I’ve been so busy I haven’t even had time to blog about the new things I’ve learned, or the new plans that I have for the next big Binary Picture piece. I haven’t had chance to talk with many of my close online friends, and the research I was doing for our next big film has been on pause for about a month now (when I finally unveil that it’ll be so cool though!).

But it’s not all bad news! One of the things I have been able to do recently is a little comedy short for Reallusion, using Iclone 2.5
It’s a fun little piece fit for the family (no need to cover your kid’s eyes while a man bashes the crap out of another man who’s tied up in the chair this time) and it’s called “Roommate Wanted”. Although not yet at it’s peak, I’ve always liked Iclone, and thought it has potential to contribute very nicely to Machinima. For various reasons most of the things made in it seem to be music videos so I was quite happy to do a film. Hope you all Enjoy it. You can find the youtube link below and a Stage 6 version should follow shortly.

For any of you Icloners I’ve also made available the living room set that I made for the film. You can import it to Iclone as a prop. Has transparent windows, and you can edit the texture.

Youtube Link
Living Room prop (for iclone)

I’d also like to give a big thanks to Phil Rice who very nicely did the voice of “Mr Bilko”!

As promised, these notes, though written after the films production, will try to explain some of the creative decisions behind Beast. I’ve already made a couple of posts regarding it’s significance in terms of facial animation in Machinima, so I’ll leave out the technical stuff.

As many already know, Beast was made in an attempt to make the audience engage strongly with a Machinima film. I would say it’s designed to evoke an emotional response more so than most Machinima films so was very difficult to make. Many Machinima artists are familiar with making comedy or action whereas is this is something much less practiced for many of us.
First of all the idea behind the film is something many people feel strongly about as revenge is a well visited theme in cinema. Some of you may have watched the film and found that it reminded you very much of certain others and in fact it’s heavily inspired by Park Chan-wook’s ‘Vengeance Trilogy’: Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. It may also have reminded you of other films like Reservoir Dogs and maybe Se7en, the list could probably go on and on.

(Read the rest)

While the film is nothing revolutionary in terms of storytelling it was a massive challenge not only because of the limitations often experienced in Machinima, but also because it was meant to exist as a short story and as such needed to be kept concise, potentially compressing a feature length story into a five minute film. This means the film’s objectives had to be laid out clearly and while I didn’t want the audience to understand what was happening immediately, I had to make sure the film wasn’t too confusing at any point.

The script was divided into four sections I called the introduction, the banter, the reveal, and the revenge and it was in these sections the very short growth of the characters was to take place. The opening of the scene is something that is very easy to recognize as borrowed from some of the inspirations that I mentioned above. The beauty of having Skiff tide up is that it placed the man in a position of complete power and control. This automatically makes the viewer start to ask questions, which are further compounded by the man asking a question that must doubtlessly be running through Skiff’s mind. Not “Where am I?” but “Who is this man?” and “Why am I here?”. With the introduction over there was only the ‘banter’ section left for the audience to glean what kind of people these characters where before the film changed. I think this is where the bonds with, or dislike of the characters is best made. Some might think this is something that really happens in the ‘reveal’, but in reality the reveal doesn’t give you much choice as far as emotions go. It set the Man up as the victim and Skiff as the bad guy –period. In the banter there was more room to maneuver and the characters have a chance to judge each other in addition to us deciding who was good or bad at this point. Of course the reveal is where the heartstrings are ultimately pulled yet where the ambiguity many people have expressed feeling also seems to come in.
The Man’s story is obviously a sad one, but it’s afterwards that we seem to see a change in Skiff’s character, and the abrupt move on to the revenge section snatches his ability to show any remorse or verbally express any possible feelings of regret. That’s great if you’re on the man’s side, but for those in the audience who anticipated an option for forgiveness or defiance – that is snatched away. At the film’s release event, at The Machiniplex someone even brought up the possibility that this wasn’t the man who committed the crime and that it may have been a case of mistaken identity. While I think that’s a stretch, it’s none the less one possibility that the viewer might be left exploring due to the sudden change of pace. This isn’t how things were planned originally. My first idea was to make the man gradually decend into a rage during the reveal, but I felt that the energy during the revenge wouldn’t have the same high.
The last aim was to hint at a feeling of emptiness in the man after Skiff had been killed. This is what I thought would ultimately make the story a tragedy: the fact that although the man had now succeeded in his long-term aim, he was at a dead end rather than relieved or satisfied. This in turn could raise further questions for the viewer. What now? Where will he go? Can he rebuild his life? Does he deserve to?
This is why in the end, despite the films burrowed premise, and somewhat familiar scene of the “guy tied to a chair” it was difficult to craft.

If anyone would like to find out even more, Ricky Grove has written quite a bit about the film, over at the Machiniplex blog.

Well, Beast is finally out and from the response it received at its premiere all its aims where met. For those who haven’t yet seen it, here’s the youtube upload.

The time spent working on the story was worth it, and it has indeed turned out to be an emotional film. As such the facial animation played a key role and as someone who’s watched it without, it makes a big difference. Of course the time spent trying to get it done in time for the Europe Machinima fest wasn’t worth it, as it didn’t get nominated but I’m hoping this flic is of a level that will see a Binary Picture Show film doing alright at other festivals. Thanks a lot to the guys at Machiniplex.com for organising the release event, and you can see a high quality stream of it over there, or at Stage6. Stay tuned cause I should soon be posting some notes on the film’s production for those interested in how the creation process went.

The last test video (Meet the heavy Spoof) went well. I definitely intend to use this method on the new ‘Bouncers‘ series, but before I commit to it entirely we’ll actually be making a short film that will rely heavily on the technique, to see just how far we can push it and if it’s really feasible to do it for a runtime above 1 minute.
So this test project is called ‘Beast’ and it’s heavy on the dialogue.
One problem Machinima has almost always been plagued by since inception is the lack of emotional expression available. Facial animation was always difficult to implement and on the whole emotional Machinima has had to rely solely on audio. Great actors and a few choice tunes were really all you could do, and you don’t need to be a veteran to know that great acting is rare.

Thankfully now, there is Half-Life 2 and UT2K4. However many of the popular engines still have no lip syncing tools. The Sims 2 is a great example. The film dialogue has to be laid over characters who are actually moving their lips to something else (ie lines from the game). Because of this I’ve always thought the technique relied too much on luck, or accidents. Facial expression’s are do-able using a few tricks, but it’s not really possible to get a range of emotions to be as fluid as in an engine with a dedicated tool.
Another great example is Second Life. Highly popular for Machinima, but unlike it’s counterpart, There.com, it doesn’t come with lip sync abilities. And this is where it get’s interesting.
It’s becoming popular, not just in Second Life but also other lip sync lacking engines, to use Crazy Talk. This way you could potentially lip synch any engine, although some video editing is often required, and it can be extensive.

In Machinima’s progress, not only are we seeing better graphics as the engines improve, but also a greater ability to connect with the audience. It’s from this ‘fight for emotion’ that ‘Beast’ will be born. With any luck the facial animation will do what the voice acting cannot, as we are one of the many groups who don’t have easy access to great actors. ‘Beast’ is designed in such a way that the facial animation is not a nice extra, but rather an absolute necessity. Simply having lips move is not enough anymore, and not having them move at all…. So hopefully in a week, we’ll have some interesting results. We’ve been working on it for almost 3 weeks now so it’s very close.

It’s been ages since I posted any progress on Bouncers, so this 1 is massive. I finally got round to trying an idea I had for Lip syncing in the new Bouncers series and here’s a demonstration. Those of you who have seen the “Meet the Heavy” video for Team Fortress 2 should get an extra laugh from this.

I never imagined I’d have that kinda control. The facial animation is done in Iclone’s Crazytalk, then brought into Motionbuilder. I did a few animations to make sure he wasn’t standing still, and perfecto. This is a great improvement from the old method I used when in Quake 2.
And to think I had the idea when waking up one morning.

For anyone wondering why the blog is so sparse: due to an unfortunate event all the old posts are gone. This is technically a new blog. I was able to salvage the html file, so my old article “Machinima’s Missing Child” was re-posted. I may bring back other semi important ones later.