Archive for Machinima

Visual images and video

Posted on March 11, 2007 by

Ok, now that student evaluations are finally done…I am going to post those links to images that I find helpful, especially for inspiration,when talking with middle schoolers about making video. I’m really posting this for my own benefit (to have these links to video handy for next year)–which begs a question that I’m wrestling with these days–why blog?  I know that I started this to learn the ropes so that I could teach them, but I think I will continue to blog.  I’ve always had a habit of talking to myself in the library, and this blog has a small enough audience for it to qualify as mostly talking to myself, which is ok by me.  I’m not trying to get popular, and I’m not sure what place blogging should have in my life.  Right now,  I’m just finding it motivating–more so than personal journaling, since there is a possibility of a (small) conversation arising from a post.  More on that later.

1. I ask students to think about what point they want to make before beginning. Examine the data, decide your message, pick an image. It doesn’t have to be a bunch of camera tricks. I like Sony’s Bravia commercial, which  makes the simple point “Color like no other” without any computer trickery. Here’s the link:

In order to capture the vibrant reality of the balls and the way they moved, every single frame was shot on camera – computer graphics weren’t used at all.

Sony : The BRAVIA ‘bouncy balls’ commercial : United Kingdom

It is a beautiful video that my students enjoy. They also enjoy the “making of” explanations linked here next, where they show how they blasted balls out of cannons, were ready with many cameras to catch the quick action, and broke windows in the making…

Behind the scenes How we did it

Sony : The BRAVIA ‘bouncy balls’ commercial : United Kingdom

2. A fun spoof of the Bravia commercial and related website that an ad firm put together, using fruit instead of balls (they have a link on the web page that shows you the “commercial” they are complaining about).

Swansea North Residents Association website

Swansea North Residents Association – Welcome

We are a non-profit organisation that meets every Sunday, around about tea time, to discuss the needs and views of Swansea North residents.

3. Next, here’s a link to a Bravia spoof created as machinima (having “Avatars” in a game or other online world operated by people who arrange to go online to the already existing scenery provided by the game world and meet and act out scenes using their avatars. Having one or more avatars act as the “camera” stationed to observe the mayhem, the action is captured and can be shared). Warning, this is filmed with battlefield avatars, and each character is military, and carries a weapon as part of the gameworld design.

Circulating only throughout the internet, a video filmed by a clan features 64 players simultaneously hopping down a slope and over HMMWVs on the Sharqi Peninsula, a map in Battlefield 2. Instead of “BRAVIA – Color like no other” at the end of the original Bouncy Balls commercial, the clan’s video read “Bunny Hopping – Like no other”

BRAVIA – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an overhead shot from another spoof video/in-game melange. It doesn’t have the Bravia reference (it does include references to the seagulls in “Finding Nemo” (Mine), Monty Python, and CNN news coverage of Iraq). This was also done by the same group, dubbed “Snoken,”as the machinima above. Each avatar on the screen is operated by a different person, and they have coordinated quite a bit to accomplish this. Again, warning, the characters are armed, and in this one, there are some other challenges, like explosions.

 

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Filed under: Avatar, Cool Stuff I Found To Share, Machinima, media, My Middle School Tech Class, Web3D

The Generations of Narrative.

Posted on February 26, 2007 by

Oral storytelling. Written story (including recording of many originally spoken tales). Motion pictures. Animation. Live broadcasting. Video.

Transmutation isn’t quite the word for it. Neither is transformation. Nor evolution. I settled for “Generations.” We don’t discard older formats when we add a new one to our story-telling heritage.

Now, the power of story is transformed again, as the storyteller incorporates virtual reality.

Virtual Setting. The creating of avatars that live a virtual life can be used as a powerful form of story-telling. Think of the possibilities! Places like Second Life allow many people to create a landscape together. Landscapes (the setting for a story) can create a personal reality, jointly imagined. The look of a virtual landscape can be precisely engineered to give the viewer a sense of place. Newer processors allow cleverly rendered images and sound systems that immerse the reader in “3-d”. Virtual reality can be rendered so well they give participants who move too quickly in it motion sickness. Individual blades of grass, the speed of the clouds scudding across the sky, and the shadows they cast, can be programmed to respond to the “apparent breeze.” You may not notice the subtle changes in cloud shadows on the tree trunks and such, but I’ll bet they have a subliminal effect which adds to the sense of “reality” of the place. In fact, things can seem too real. I remember that the designers of Fiona in the original Shrek said they took a step back from looking too realistic, in order to make it “fit” their sense of a fairy tale story (I got this from the DVD I bought, it came with added features that explained some of the rendering work).

Character. Here’s another place where the story can be jointly imagined. In a virtual reality, your avatar is a character. People usually only helm one avatar at a time. Now with common meeting grounds like Second Life, you can bring as much of yourself to the landscape as you might as an author. You might choose to don a persona, like a traditional author dons a pseudonym.

Point of View. Jointly imagined. Or not. I suppose it is possible to render a world, and a story, completely, and then invite others to bring their avatars to come live it. Avatars entering the story can have their actions completely “scripted” by the person who created the story. Or, they can make some decisions on their own. Think of the new take on “choose your own adventure” type stories! The story would be communicated through an “avatar’s eye view.” Talk about a new point of view!

In my next post, I plan to list links to some videos I use to talk about traditional video, digital editing, story creation, the impact of web20, and machinima with my students. If you know of anything “avatar’s-eye view” that I can add, let me know.

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Filed under: Avatar, Cool Stuff I Found To Share, Machinima, media, Second Life, Storytelling, web3-d, Web3D