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!

Daniel and I were definitely able to get out and talk to some dudes and gals about Smooth Few Films, so that was fun, too. Nick was there in spirit (he couldn’t make the trip), and he did such a good job designing the discs and the cards, I was proud to hand them out. I was probably awkward a couple of times, but I’m proud of us for having some balls and doing something that’s really difficult to do- put yourself out there. It’s one of those things that I’ve never been able to do until TLW really when it comes to creativity.

A lot of people talk and talk about doing something but never actually pull their pants up and do the darn thing, and this weekend, for good or ill, we took a stab at it.

Some of the highlights of the weekend:

• RoosterTeeth’s cartoon. The dudes behind Red Vs Blue debuted a cartoon of the same series, a project that they are taking a big risk on. It was incredible, hilarious, and looked gorgeous to boot. Being in the audience at their panel when Burnie paused the video, and informed everyone that we weren’t about to watch machinima, that was wild.
• Felicia Day and The Guild Screening. If you’re unfamiliar with Felicia Day, she was the female lead in the recent web series “Dr. Horrible” by Joss Whedon, and it’s a sight to behold, it truly is. She also is the writer and producer of The Guild, another online web show that really gave us some inspiration for Web Zeroes. Long story short, we waited in line to meet Felicia Day (who was signing The Guild DVDs) and handed her a DVD of ours, and she actually made us sign it in case we ever got famous. Later that night we attended a screening of The Guild, and it was the first time the gang had ever screened it live, so that was a cool moment.
• Geoff Keighley/ Hal Halpin panel. I attended a panel with Geoff Keighley of SpikeTV and Hal Halpin, head of the ECA, and it was a very thought provoking and intelligent discussion regarding the growth of the video game industry, lobbying for gamers, etc. Totally rocked. Gave each of them DVDs as well.
• Dinner with RoosterTeeth. Steak and beer with these dudes is a good time. It was especially fun after a long exhausting day at PAX. It’s nice to talk shop with guys who have been there, done that, and to just hang out and get fat with food.

Other highlights included Adam Sessler himself telling me that promoting ourselves at conventions was totally the thing we should be doing, meeting Jonathan Coulton and him remembering A Day in the Life of a Turret, hanging out with Travis from Darkspire Films and a dude asking us to sign his companion cube.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Daniel poses so I can take a pic of a dude sporting a headcrab, Daniel and I pose with Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh and one of them metal dudes from Fallout 3.

Me posing with a Gears of War promo, Daniel and I hanging with Jonathan Coulton (writer of Still Alive and other fine musicry) and the Left 4 Dead booth.