Thursday, January 19, 2006
My New Geek Monkey
Regular reader Ash Chairiet once called her new digital camera her "digital Lolita". In keeping with the Monkey Principle, I now have a new geek monkey.
No doubt you've been wondering why I haven't been posting as much. Part of it is that January is a gloomy month in Canada, so I just haven't felt like it. A big part is that my freelance communications work includes political clients and it's election time in Canada, so it's been a busy harvest season for me.
But there's a third reason: I have a new obsession that's been consuming my free time.
Machinima. Short for machine animation. Simplified, user-friendly, almost dummy proof computer animation programs that allow anyone to be a film maker.
The big commercial product out right now is a game from Activision called The Movies. As games go, it's boring. It's one of those very tired old sim type games. In this case, the premise of the sim is that you are running your own movie studio, hiring stars, building sets, etc.
The cool part is a little utility called Advanced Movie Making that is slipped under the surface of the game. It allows you to access hundreds of stock scenes (two people talking; people walking down a corridor; two people in a fist-fight, etc. etc.), piece them together into a plot and then put in your own (custom-sculpted) actors, backdrops and props. You can even voiceover your own dialogue.
If you're the kind of person who enjoys the self-expressive empowerment of blogging, you will love machinma.
The Movies is not the last word in machinima. It has many design flaws, not least of which is that it's buried underneath a bad game. But it's a start.
Soon, I will get back to the comedy blogging, but probably only two or three times a week. Eventually, I'll start a new blog to share my machinma productions.
I've already made four shorts (each approx 3 minutes in length):
- A Room Full of Angels - my first crude experiment, the "plot" involves a comedic romantic triangle among a giant chicken, a robot and a space vixen.
- Loveblind - an Elvis-style romantic comedy set in Hawaii, involving a huge catfight between two girls competing for the attentions of a hip dude named Mentok
- The Pirates of Nebulon - a '50s style sci-fi short in which a weird alien besieges an Earth ship that is commanded by a dude named Mentok and run by a crew of original-series Star Trek style mini-skirted space soldiers
- Stinky - a Russ Meyer style '60s comedy in which a whacky bon vivant chases girls at a crazy party (this time not involving a dude named Mentok. I only cast my Mentok actor as the male romantic lead in features in which I cast Mrs. Mentok as the female romantic lead, which is not the case here)
See? Doesn't that sound like fun. So keep checking back and await word on my soon-to-be-launched machinama site.
- MTMT
posted by Mentok @ 8:57 a.m.,
5 Comments:
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At 2:46 p.m.,
Gyrobo said...
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I once made a three minute animation. Trust me, you're better off without the stress that comes from working for a faceless monolith.
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At 2:56 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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As a faceless monolith, I take offence to your racist comments.
Faceless monoliths are just like other North Americans. They came to this country with nothing but a dream to make a better life.
And now we have to face these kinds of attitudes. Shame! -
At 9:25 a.m.,
A. B. Chairiet said...
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Hi Menty!
YAY! So happy you're posting again!! And this really was a good post. You don’t have to do the fake bits to be great, you know. But I’d read it no matter what. :)
And I LOVE video games! Love em. And don't say the Sims are tired...I mean, I know they've been around now for a while, but I think people take it for granted, how ingenious that first, original "The Sims" was for the PC. Wow...
Sorry, I'm a bit of game geek too. Among my many other geekitudes. Which, by the way, thanks for dropping my ol' John Hancock up at the top there. Always nice to be thought of when mentioning Lolitas and such. ;)
And you really should set up a blog for your movies, which, by the way, sound great! I mean, that's really why I set up DL: I didn't want my real blog to get overrun with pictures. So that'll be fun for you...setting up a new template and such.
Also, as for The Movies: I'm so jealous! I read about it MONTHS ago in Gamers magazine, and wanted it so bad, but I'm quite poor, you know...so. No game for me. But that's cool. I'll just live vicariously through you and your cinematic achievements. ;)
Can't wait to see them, and I'll get to the other stuff later tonight.
As always though, good luck with the political endeavors. Hope you're well.
~ Ash -
At 3:44 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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I had no choice...
someone shot my blimp down. -
At 1:03 p.m.,
mkecurler said...
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I saw this game and got all giggly. My hubby said no to it adn reminded me of my 4 year Sims addiction. I'd do marathons and play for hours and sometimes days.
