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Tuesday, September 30

Exploring Machinima



I stumbled across the concept of 'Machinima' a few years ago but at the time the process seemed too daunting.
Recent examples and requirements seem more manageable and I am keen to sink my teeth into this. It seems this medium has huge potential to engage students in a challenging process of creating and communicating meaning.

What is Machinima?
Machinima combines the technologies of filmmaking, animation, and 3-D video games. A variety of technologies can be used to create 'machinima' but in a nutshell it can be done by:
1. Creating an avatar in SecondLife.
2. Learning how to walk, move, build and communicate with your avatar in
Secondlife.
3. Adopting a screen capture tool such as Cam Studio. This tool will capture the action of your avatar.
4. Prepare to capture
5. Start filming.
5. Transfer your footage into an editing program such as iMovie or Windows
Movie Maker.
6. Edit your film to your liking.
7. Upload the film to YouTube for sharing.


For more information and links check out ' Machinima Goes Mainstream'.
http://knowclue.wikispaces.com/*+How+Teens+Are+Using+Machinima

I am off to give this a go. I would appreciate hearing from others that have experienced this process or anyone interested in collaborating to explore 'Machinima' and the implications for NZ education. Any 'Machinima' workshops or the like offered at ULearn 08???

Check out this fine 'Machinima' example.
Warning: Contains powerful stories guaranteed to pull on your heart-strings!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey -

My Year 2 class and I have been exploring using 'Machinima' this year to create our work. We have been using a combination of CB Model Pro (a free 3d modelling program) and Unity (a not free but brilliant Game Creator) to set up our scenes and then 'film' the movie by playing the game before editing the movies with iMovie.

An example of this process I've done for the www.madeawards.com intro can be seen here -
http://tinyurl.com/5zypvu

Another program we have used to create machinima type movies is Spore Creature Creator. If you haven't payed with it yet, you need to! I haven't tried using secondlife yet, but love the freedom machinima can give. It'll be interesting to see where this takes us in the future!

Cheers,
Matt Thomas
Selwyn Ridge Primary

Mforiero said...

I'm not expert but I love to stay updated about the machinima things on some websites...

I suggest you to keep up your eyes on websites as
machinima.com
koinup.com
youtube

on these websites you can find a lot related to machinima and machinima artists

MrWoody said...

super stuff! see bevin yeatman at university of waikato screen n media dept for innovative uses of such concepts in media courses :-)