Books on Machinima?

Slide30, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

There aren't many books out there on machinima, but the ones that are available are written by the experts/machinima pioneers. All of the books listed (with publications dates from 2004-2008) are still highly relevant for new media, arts, gaming and film collections, whether for a personal library or institution(schools, public and academic libraries.
3D Game-based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima (Paul Marino - Thinking Machinima blog is a few years old, but still highly relevant and useful for anyone with an interest in machinima or working toward gaining skills as a machinimatographer. Marino, Director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, defines machinima; he walks the reader through its early development and popularity as well as getting down to the details and dedicating part of the book to a step by step machinma tutorial; Machinima (Kelland, Morris & Lloyd) is clearly a piece of art with colourful visuals, history, machinima pioneers and current award winning machinimatographers in the industry; Machinima for Dummies (Hugh Hancock & Johnny Ingram) is a "must-have" for all machinima enthusiasts and written by the pros. Hugh Hancock and Anthony Bailey coined the term machinima. Hugh and Johnny, who are both in SL, are blogging the book... if you buy only one book. It's this one. If you are a librarian and you are reading this, buy a few more.
The second edition of the Second Life: The Official Guide has a great chapter dedicated to machinima written by BuhBuhCuh/former Ben Linden. Another book that will be out at the end of January, comes from Holly Cefrey, Career Building through Machinima: using video games to make movies.
Also:
Real-Time Cinematography for Games (Game Development Series)
Brian Hawkins.

ISTE Machinima Workshop: Jan. 27, 2008

SnapshotISTE 004, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

Chatlog: Jan. 27 chatlog for ISTE Machinima session.
We had about 18-20 avatars show up for the workshop; the weather was great so we moved the sofas outside and had a lot of room for the "hands on" activities. With the group up on their feet, it gave us a chance to try out use the shortcut keys for SL camera controls to follow, pan and orbit nearby prims and avatars. With chat windows closed (edit | preferences | text chat tab | close chat after hitting return ) we were able to use the keyboard shortcuts (E, C, M) for jumping up and down and moving in and out of mouselook.
We spent some time talking about the options on the client menu (previously called the 'debug' menu) and made some selections to increase the use of our camera (by disabling the camera constraints. This menu is opened using the ctrl-alt-d keys (toggling on and off).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/2224052152/in/set-72157603800920350/
With the menu open (active) we were able to make use of the 'show' and 'hide' UI feature, allowing us to get rid of the user interface.
We were up in the air shaking it out and using the keyboard shortcut to get rid of the SL user interface (UI) and move in and out of mouselook at the same time. Some, like yours truly, took advantage of the moment and flew up into the clouds with the added boost from the Armord Steamboots, a great find at $L300.

View the instructional slides on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603800920350/
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ISTE Machinima Workshop: an introduction with HVX Silverstar

When: Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM PDT (SL Time)
Where: Eduisland 3, 60, 30, 22 - Machinima Institute & Cafe
Software: No software required, just the SL viewer so you can see what is going on. See the Machinima wiki for software options for screen capture, editing, etc.: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Machinima
The SL built-in movie capture, FRAPS and SnapzProX , iShowU will be discussed during the session.

Part I:
- Why shoot machinima in Second Life?
- Getting Ready: Preferences & Debug (Client) Menu
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Machinima
- What about the User Interface (UI)?
- Camera Controls: using keyboard combinations to focus, alt-zoom, pan and orbit your camera

Part II:
- Testing your built-in movie capture (PCs only)
- Third-party software for storyboarding, capturing video, file compression and editing.
- Online editing & Sharing (Eyespot, Jumpcut, YouTube's TestTube)
- Streaming your machinima into Second Life
- Creating a group movie project

Background Viewing & Reading:

A few books from the Pros:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/2222195417/in/set-72157603800920350/

Machinima Wiki:
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Machinima
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Hands-on Session: Slides from Jan. 12, 2008:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603698634505/

Introduction to Machinima: Slides from Jan. 12, 2008:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603693424324/

FRAPS Introduction from Teen Second Life Machinima Weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603628441781/
http://www.slideshare.net/hvxsilverstar
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Machinima Class: Jan. 12, 2008

Machinima Class: Jan. 12, 2008, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

View the updated slides (An Introduction to Machinima) and the set of 6 used for the "hands-on" session:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603693424324/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603698634505/
Classes held on the second Saturday of the month from 10-11:30 AM PDT on Eduisland 3 (60, 30, 22) at the Machinima Institute & Cafe.

FRAPS and Second Life

A series of updated slides from the Eye4YouAlliance Island Machinima Weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibraries/sets/72157603628441781/
Download the free version or paid version of FRAPS to capture video on a PC in Second Life.
A free version of FRAPS (version 2.9.3, no audio, only 30 second capture at at time with the FRAPS watermark at top of capture): http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3934.html
Full version of FRAPS (audio, no watermark, and no capture limit) US$37.00 - well worth it!: http://www.fraps.com
Use SnapsProX for capturing video on a mac: US$69.00 http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/