Category Archives: Machinima News

New and Noteworthy in the Machinima Scene

machinimaEven though we’re not making so much machinima anymore here at Smooth Few Films, it doesn’t deter my interest in it. I still like to scour and search for what’s new out there in the wide world of video game movie-making, just to see what other people are doing and what games they’re using.

Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem that any game has made as big of a splash for the machinima community as Halo 3 did back in 2007. It’s crazy to me that it’s just over 2 years later, and we’re still waiting on the next engine to come and revitalize amateur filmmakers to try out some of their own stuff. Uncharted 2 just dropped for the PS3, and it has some machinima tools hidden within its depths, if only you can make it past the incredible single player campaign (and trust me, it is quite incredible). I also hear that Dragon Age: Origins coming out next month will make use of some rather robust tools.

In terms of some of the new things I’m seeing out there that hold promise, a couple of things come to mind. Red Vs Blue Recreation once again sets the standard for awesomeness. SgtPadrino has some remarkable Call of Duty videos that he’s been scripting together, and they’re impressive as anything I’ve seen in recent months. Likewise, Mystfit continues to work away on some custom TF2 animations. Can’t wait to see what the results of those experiments are. Running Gun (creators of Spriggs) are steadily releasing a fully scripted Fallout 3 machinima called JudgeMental. And then there’s good old Darkspire Films, who just released the Candy Coated Wonder Road, a Halo 3 children’s show.

So what do you guys think the state of machinima is? What are some of your favorite machinimas out there right now?

Also, Web Zeroes Episode 3 hits tomorrow, and some new TLW outtakes should be up later this week- hope to see you back for both of those!

Where the Magic Happens

tlwsetupNick and I have been hard at work on the series finale, parts 1 and 2 for the last couple of weeks. We’re hoping to release them close together, but we haven’t quite decided on how that will go down yet. We have a limited amount of time to finish all of this, and we’re working our butts off to do so. You’ll get the first screenshots this weekend or early next week.

I know that some of you long timers have seen some of our setup pictures before, but I thought it would be cool to talk about again. For those of you that don’t know, TLW isn’t made inside of a studio, but rather, in my spare bedroom, with a total of 6-7 computers, depending on what’s working at the time. That’s machinima for you.

Ideally, we’d show this in the making of video we’ve been wanting to do, but that’s been put on hold indefinitely while we try to finish this darn show. Anywho, there’s a general overview, with pictures, after the jump.
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Source Wars and Cameos

So it looks like the next few weeks of my life will be absorbed by either Hammer or Faceposer. No, I can’t tell you why. But here’s a hint: it’s for TLW. In case you missed the update, Episodes 6 and 7 are going to mark the halfway point for Season 2. Stuff is about to go down. For real.

Anywho, we’ve got a new TLW based short coming out this weekend, and Episode 6 will be dropping sometime next week. Get excited. There are a lot of fun elements in every aspect of production for the next two episodes, ranging from sound design to color correcting and Hammer work. I’m just pumped about how the end products are going to turn out.

There’s a chance many of you have already seen Cortez’s cameo in Source Wars, made by Xanatos and crew, but if you haven’t, you should give it a watch. Xanatos did this with our permission, and he’s a bud of ours, so I was happy to lend my voice. It’s pretty goofy, but definitely good for some laughs.

The Holiday HoeDown

Well here we are, another year down, and a new one upon us. We thought we’d send 2008 off with a bang, so we brought a kingly gift- The Leet World Holiday Special, redux.

In this edition, The Leet World characters run down their favorite things about the holidays. I think it’s a mighty good time. I hope you guys enjoy it, and remember, it’s a part of One Shared Vision, the machinima movement to promote Child’s Play. I’d definitely encourage you guys to look into Child’s Play, as it’s a rockin’ charity for gamers.

Speaking of video games, I hope you guys got a bunch of them for Christmas. I got Chrono Trigger DS, myself.

By the way, if you’re looking for some good entertainment at 7pm Eastern on Tuesday, December 30th, then check out Halo Community Live. It’s a live broadcast of several machinimas from the Halo community including TheDuoGroup, Halo 3 Mythbusters, and more. Unfortunately, we couldn’t participate because of late notice, but I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

Anywho, our new video is after the jump!

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Living in a Machinima World

It’s been a machinima filled weekend for us. Mostly in filming Episode 3, of which I’ll have some screenshots up shortly. Also wrote the Christmas special yesterday, and we’ll be working on that some this week before we break a little while for the holidays.

A couple of machinima videos for you to watch. First, there’s Clear Skies, a production by Ian Chisolm which uses the Source engine and EVE Online. Lots of good stuff there. Very impressive Hammer/GMod work.

Secondly, a few weeks ago I posted about OneSharedVision, a machinima community effort to promote the charity Child’s Play. Anywho, Dave Tyner made this week’s video and it kind of rules. Unreal squaring off against Halo, “You Got Served” style. A tad bit of language, so be warned.

Our video for this will appear next week. If you hadn’t guessed, it’s the Christmas Special.

Machinima for Charity, One Shared Vision

Just wanted to give you guys a head’s up about One Shared Vision, a totally sweet machinima project put together by several machinimakers in the community, with the goal of letting people know about Child’s Play, a charity that donates games to children in hospitals.

Each week, a new machinima will be out, promoting Child’s Play and also providing some bueno holiday entertainment and/or lulz. That’s a proper film making term, be tee dub.

Smooth Few Films is a part of this project, and you will see a short from us later this month. It might star some of your favorite TLW dudes.

For now, enjoy the launch of One Shared Vision by watching this video from machinima dude supreme Phil Rice, and be sure to find out more about Child’s Play to help! It’s an excellent charity that raises millions of dollars worth of games for sick kids in hospitals.

Seriously, the ending slays me every time.

Premiere Pics

We appreciate all of the comments on the Season 2 teaser/Halloween message/release announcement thing we put out. Glad you guys are enjoying the ride leading up to the second season. Trust me, we are too. We’ve had some bumps, but now everything is running smoothly. Much thanks to Lord Ned for the assistance with some of my Hammer frustrations.

And while I’m thinking about it, I have some screenshots from Episode 1 of Season 2. Enjoy!

I know that some of you are having problems logging in. That comes from some pretty hardcore caching we’ve got set up on the site- all you need to do is just refresh the page (try it more than once if you need to) and it should help.

There’s a cool new post up on GamerSushi, titled “5 Features That More Shooters Need”. Thought you guys would like it since I mention some Counter-Strike in there.

Also, the dudes over at The Duo Group have just put out a new Gears of War machinima, as well as the guys over at LitFuseFilms. It seemed appropriate to mention these in honor of the hallowed Gears of War 2, which I will be beating like it stole something later this week.

Start Your Engines

Season 2 production is fully underway. We got together and recorded audio for episodes 1-3 the other night, and it was definitely a time saver already to do them all at once. Since the hard part is getting everyone together and then getting started, it really took about the same amount of time as it does for one episode. The method is already working!

The reason I waited so long to update this week is because I was hoping to have something cool to share with you guys, but I’m going to have to wait just a little longer. Rest assured, a barrage of content is going to start coming out next week, ranging from Web Zeroes episodes to TLW teasers, screenshots and even the soundtrack very soon.

Also, I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Ross Scott’s work, but he has put together a brilliant machinima piece called “Oil’s Well” that he produced in Half-Life 2. Give it a watch, and visit his website.

The Machinima List

As some of you know, we were nominated for some awards recently. Well, the machinima lords and lasses have handed down the full list of 2008 Machinima Filmfest Nominees, so go ahead and get your browsing on. There are a few good pieces on there- some of it I had seen, some of it was new to me.

Notable among those are several nominations for our friends over at Lit Fuse, a fun short called World of Workcraft that combines cs_office with WoW, and a cinematography nomination for TheDuoGroup. If you’re unfamiliar with that last one, you need to check out Without Providence, which has some stunning visuals for a Halo short. Big fan of their work. Great stuff.

Check out the whole list of nominations here. Seen any of the other entries? What are your favorites?