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/
************************************

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
____________________________________

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
____________________________________

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/

Second Life: Education in a Virtual World (on slideshare.net)

Mica Braun (a.k.a. Danielle Kane) and I (HVX Silverstar, a.k.a. Bernadette Daly Swanson) took a look at what libraries and academics are doing in Second Life. Many of the examples are drawn from projects at University of California or from our volunteer work with the Alliance Library System, founder of the Second Life Library & InfoIsland/Info International Island.

Slidecast from the LAUCB Conference, Academic Library 2.0
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LAUC/academiclibrary20/speakers.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LAUC/academiclibrary20/schedule.html

The powerpoint slides and machinima can be downloaded from the LAUCB site or viewed with the audio of the 1.5 hour presentation/workshop from Slideshare.net, current "Slideshow of the day" -
the permanent link allows for downloads:
http://www.slideshare.net/HVX.Mica/second-life-education-in-a-virtual-world-slidecast/
The original slides (some not included in the slidecast) are available in two parts from the location.

Introduction to Machinima: Filmmaking in Second Life

In early December, two sections of the UIUC/Alliance Library System's Virtual Worlds Librarianship continuing education course met for the Introduction to
at the new location for the Machinima Institute in Second life. A new offering of courses to be taught in Second Life as well as using Moodle (distance education content management system) will be announced shortly on the UIUC site.



The Machinima Institute was recently relocated from ALA Arts InfoIsland, where it was located since Feb. 2007, to its new location on Eduisland 3.
If Second Life is already installed on your computer, use the SLURL to get to the new location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%203/60/30/22/?title=Machinima%20Institute

I will be teaching the spring sessions for UIUC and will be taking two sessions (4 hours) to introduce machinima and its application to libraries which will include hands-on activities and a group movie assignment.

New Method for Streaming Machinima using SilverStream Servers in SL:

I am currently using a server and screen system for playing video (on playlists) at the Machinima Institute. It costs $600L and is available from AWM Mars who represents Silverstream Network and is affiliated with WBA Advertising on the Innocence sim in Second Life. They are based in the UK. It’s excellent (meaning "no fuss" and easy to set, reset or add new videos to the playlist). The video is triggered when avatars approach the vicinity of the servers placed around the building. The URL for your quickime video file will not show to anyone viewing the video in sl.
I am currently using a server and screen system from for playing video (on playlists) at the Machinima Institute. It costs $600L and is available from AWM Mars who represents Silverstream Network and is affiliated with WBA Advertising on the Innocence sim in Second Life. They are based in the UK. It’s excellent. The url for your quickime video file will not show to anyone viewing the video in sl.
The server is located on the floor to the left of the screen (black and white box) and the video is streamed to the proprietary screens without using the media tab in the ‘about land’
Other great services include MerlinRocket.fr and Veodia for live video streams.

Force Sun to Midnight: Daruma Picnic's Art to blow your mind...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDw-AxosPRk

Force Sun to Midnight: Daruma Picnic.

Daruma Picnic's interactive sound and movement exhibit high above the Library Islands in the very beautiful Second Life.
From Infotainment Island....look up, jump up!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infotainment%20Island/132/127/31

Give one, get one: one laptop per child from laptopgiving.org

slide_laptop, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

one laptop per child from laptopgiving.org

Chat Log from Introduction to Machinima Session, Nov. 10th

sleeds org chatlog from machinima class, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

View the chat log:I have used the very cool sleeds.org/chatlog tool to pretty up the text chatlog.
http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=174
Note: please disregard the links in the body of the chat as they do not appear to work in the log.. all relevant URLs have been listed at the top. Thanks.
Answers to some of the questions that I missed:
Flash videos from YouTube or other sites will not play in SL. You will need to convert your videos to a quicktime movie optimized for streaming to play in SL. See the slides for more details on that. The URLs for sites and slides discussed are available from the chat log. Alt-enter causing a black screen and change in screen resolution? - I will have to look into this...

Second Life Link and Facebook

SnapshotSLLinkFacebook1_002, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

As of yesterday there were 116 users on Facebook with the Second Life Link application installed. The installation is simple and just requires entering your Second Life profile name (exactly as it appears in your SL login) and entering your home region and coordinates to your home location. You will be prompted to login to SL and click on the Facebook/SL Link post as shown in the image. This will register you in the Second Life Link database. Now, you can click on the SL Link icon in the applications section of your Facebook page and jump into SL.. well, via the SL login screen. Mine is set to the Machinima Institute on ALA Arts InfoIsland in the Info Archipelago.

Machinima Intro for Academic Library 2.0 Conference: UC Berkeley

Mica's and my brief intro (1.5 mins) before our break-out session at the LAUCB (Library Association of University of California Berkeley) Academic Library 2.0 conference, Nov. 2, 2007, Berkeley, CA. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LAUC/academiclibrary20/

Click To Play

Slides available (Part 1, Part 2): http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LAUC/academiclibrary20/schedule.html

UCLA beats Cal: Alterraun Verner interception...

UCLA beats Cal: Alterraun Verner intercepts ball with 1:33 seconds remaining, Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena, California.

Click To Play

IFLA in Durban, South Africa

Summary handout of the paper I presented at World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference, Aug. 19-24, Durban, South Africa.
www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/133-DalySwanson-en.pdf

Machinima & Libraries

Summary handout of the paper I presented at IFLA, Aug. 19-24, Durban, South Africa.

Stop typing!

Yes, you too can shed yourself of the L-pose and stroll around chatting with your arms at your sides. Take a look at Torley's instructions for stopping the typing animation while chatting...Torley's page

AVI files in Vista won't play

So, when I try opening any uncompressed AVI files captured on Vista... it looks like they're one frame long.. just a picture.. what the heck... other times I get the dreaded error message
This is from back in February...
A post from VirtualDub confirms the bug: "I ran test the test application and can confirm that this bug occurs in Windows Vista RTM. Essentially, every program that uses the Microsoft AVIFile APIs (avifil32.dll) to generate AVI files will produce them with a malformed RIFF structure!" http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=145

Most Viewed YouTube Video Searching on the keyword Machinima

With 4,253,041 views, Male Restroom Etiquette ranks first in YouTube when searching on the keyword machinima. The machinima was created by zcOverman and filmed in Sims2 and Sim City 4 with the use of other tools. The high Quality DIVX version is available at: High Quality DIVX Version available at:

http://z-studios.com/films/mre/. The machinima was uploaded a year ago to the Comedy category and contains the following keywords in the YouTube record: machinima, overman, sims, restroom, etiquette, rules, men, toilet, bathroom, humor, larry craig.

alibrarians, comedy, DIVX, hosting machinima, keyword, male

Searching on the string "Second Life"... what is the most viewed machinima on YouTube?

Right! U2 in SL Virtual Concert in Second Life

Philip Rosedale - Second Life Object Creation Demo

Thank you, Philip Rosedale. We love SL! ...video from longnow.org

Wohl Enoch using ThinC Book Press in Second Life

Wohl and HVX at the Machinima Institute on ALA Arts InfoIsland.. in the beautiful Second Life.

http://library.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/film/machinima_bibliography.html

Machinima: A Published History (real life bibliography & Second Life Book)

Machinima: A Published History, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

Yea, Wohl/Colyn!!!!! Look for it soon at a campus near you.. SJSU in SL.


http://library.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/film/machinima_bibliography.html

Machinima Weekend on Second Life Teen Grid: July 21-22

machinimaWeekend036a, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

Eye4youAlliance Island and the machinima and wellness educators and teen instructors welcomed teens from across the grid to our first ever Machinima Weekend - July 21-22. We are shown here at the end of sessions taking group shots during the NASA rocket ship blast off with a previous launch being streamed to the screen behind us. The file was streamed into SL from the Merlin Rocket server in France. Slideshows were created in Powerpoint and images of the slides were imported into Second Life to create ThinC books and corresponding scripted projection screens which the teens and adult instructors used to familiarize themselves with the topics before the hands-on sessions. View some of the slideshows on Slideshare.net/hvxsilverstar (FRAPS, A Very Brief History of Machinima, Using YouTube's New TestTube: Video Remix, Audio Swap, Camtasia, Prism, Shoot Better Machinima Using the Second Life Browser, Machinima & Actors: Using Gestures & Animations,Online Editing - Group Movies: an introduction to Jumpcut.

Thanks Foobar Lindeman, Bride and the MerlinRocket.org staff and developers for hosting our video.

Try out the YouTube Remixer Engine by Adobe Premiere Express

So, Youtube's new remixer service is up, but the music remix is "coming soon". Isn't this the most important part? Not to downplay the other features, it does offer transitions, great borders such as htis one, text bubbles, icons, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scvl2mh8IZg

Ramapo Islands, Second Life!

Ramapo_overhead_night_ancients1, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

The Art & Vision of Peggy Sheehy, Fred Fuchs & Ramapo Central School District. Machinima coming soon.. tonight

Screen shots taken from Ramapo Islands, Second Life machinima:
taken on location in the Ramapo Islands, Teen Second Life
Ramapo Visionaries: Peggy Sheehy / Maggy Marat and
Fred Fuchs / Gus Plissken and the
Ramapo Central School District
Scripted Bots: Lyr Lobo
Project: KJHax / Kevin Jarrett
Soundtrack: Chris Hambly
Machinima by HVX Silverstar / Bernadette Daly Swanson

HVX Silverstar

hvx_silverstar_bernadette2, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

Here we are in front of my HVX lens!

Mica!

mica_and_danielle2_800x586, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

And here's Mica...

Thinking Machinima: NBC taps SL Machinima guru for new series

Thinking Machinima: NBC taps SL Machinima guru for new series

YouTube's TestTube

Thank you, YouTube!
www.youtube.com/testtube

The YouTube engineers say this is where they try out their "recipes and concoctions that aren't quite fully baked."
So, let's join in and put up some of our machinima.

TestTube's Features include:

Active Sharing:
Show your fans what you're watching

AudioSwap:
Replace the audio on your videos with officially licensed music.

Remixer (New):
Rexix your videos with text, overlays, audio, graphics, etc.

Streams:
Join the streams to chat with TestTuber's watching the same videos.

Example of Quicktime Streaming Server and Nokia N800 Internet tablet in SL

"The basic idea is to use GStreamer on the Nokia N800 to stream live audio and vdeo and transmit the streams via RTP to a Quicktime Streaming Server which reflects as an RTSP stream to interested clidents, such as a Second Life client.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~lifton/snippets/n800_to_sl/

Second Life Community Conference (SLCC): Aug. 24-26

For anyone intersted in attending the SLCC 2007: Chicago!

Registration and hotel booking has not yet been announced, but keep an eye on the site for updates that should be coming shortly.
http://slcc2007.wordpress.com/
Machinima Track:
http://slcc2007.wordpress.com/machinima-track/

Join the SLCC Googlegroups discussion list:
http://groups.google.com/group/slccdiscussion

Torley Linden's Video Tutorials

Admit it! We all need them. Take a look at Torley Linden's tutorials:
Torley's Video Tutorials
New Videos include:
How to create and send a Notecard
How to use Undo
How to make a flag that waves in wind
How to make tiny prims
Yea, Torley!!!

Second Life: Academic Libraries & Student Avatars: Poster Session and Machinima at ACRL in Baltimore

Meet the librarians behind the avatars at the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) poster session in Baltimore this weekend. This 10 minute "light-weight" machinima was created to promote the comeraderie that is Second Life.
Librarians of Second Life: http://blip.tv/file/180218

Ma-chin-i-mark-et-ing

Catch "the falling star" and a glimpse of Vincent Van Gogh's Second Life as you experience the permanent exhibit constructed by Tr3ssis Virtual Worlds of the Netherlands.

View the YouTube version

Click To Play

Machinima created for the opening of the Virtual Starry Night Exhibit, March 30, 2007 by HVX Silverstar (a.k.a. Bernadette Daly Swanson).
*The Falling Star* (excerpt) Music created and performed by Uwe Drechsel
www.insilmaril.de
Tr3ssis Virtual Worlds
www.tressis.nl
In Second Life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/kythio/59/188/105

Second Life Voice in Beta with the Beta Viewer!

If you are interested in testing the voice beta in the Second Life Beta Viewer, you will need to download the beta viewer software. Be sure to keep your original Second Life Software in tact, as the beta viewer is for testing purposes only and is a separate piece of software.

March 28th SL voice beta announcement
Read Joe Linden's original announcement from February 27th.

Second Life Machinima Tutorial, White Paper & Forum

Check out the zipped machinima tutorial file posted on the Second Life web site: Intro to Machinima: zipped file for PCs only.

Eric Linden's White Paper: "Eric Linden's Machinima in Second Life"


Also of interest: Second Life Movies & Machinima Forum

Don't miss Machinima Guru, Moo Money, at Cybrary City open air auditorium on March 5th

Moo Money will be giving an introduction to the built-in camera in your Second Life software. Join us at Cybrary City open air auditorium for the session on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 2:00 PM. Thank you to ZnetLady for making the arrangements and to Abbey Zenith for providing the space in Cybrary City.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/209/61/24/
Join the Second Life Library's googlegroup at: alliancesecondlife - googlegroup

Machinima Institute on ALA Arts Island Coming Soon

The Machinima Institute will be opening in the Spring of 2007 and will provide Second Life residents with a location for machinima displays, events and immersive group instruction. Thank you to Lorelei Junot for the wonderful location and inspiration for librarians, students and library visitors who will be introduced to machinima for recording their SL lives and sharing it via YouTube, Blip.tv and other social software sites.
Info Island Machinima Institute, ALA Arts InfoIsland (149, 161, 31)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Arts%20InfoIsland/151/164/47

Machinima instruction from Kiwi Alfa Feb 15, 17, 19

Machinimatographer, Kiwi Alfa, will be continuing to give free machinima classes on the Fox Atomic Sim (Feb. 15, Feb. 17, Feb. 19). It's the same class with options for date/time.
This class will provide you with the basics for using the free scripted camera (Alt-Zoom Camera Update) to create smooth shots.
The sessions will be hosted on Fox Atomic island.
Join in and enter the upcoming machinima contest.
This class is hosted by Kiwi Alfa.
Where? Fox Atomic Sim
When?
Feb 15th - 12:00 PM SLT/PST
Feb 17th - 03:00 PM SLT/PST
Feb 19th - 12:00 PM SLT/PST
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fox%20Atomic/131/145

Machinima: Permission to Shoot?

Posting by Caliandris Pendragon from Second Life Insider:
Machinima in Second Life: Permission to shoot?

Electric Sheep Blog Archive for Machinima

Interesting postings from the Machinima category of Electric Sheep's 'Out to Pasture.'
Machinima Archive