What is Machinima?

By Meg Sugden
So, what is machinima? Machinima is the use of real-time computer graphics to create a video or piece of film; usually produced from a video game. Some of the very first examples of machinima is when the early games came out in the 90s produced from video games like Doom and Quake. Originally these were usually just videos showing off speed runs, a players attempt to complete the game as quickly as possible and usually doing the run perfectly. But more recently this method of recording video games has been changed slightly where the player will guide the character through the environment, making them interact with objects or do funny things which will then be recorded and made into a video, along with other pieces of footage. This is a much more effective way of producing footage as there is no extra costs for actors or equipment and you do not have to worry about the danger of the acting involved or the restrictions of physics as everything in built into the game already.

Machinima is normally film using the AI (artificial intelligence) in the games as well, along with controlling the characters and also cameras in game. They can produce interesting results and think about every detail as long as they know they can get the camera or character to do that said action. The only problem is that you can run into legal issues as the existing video games characters is already copyrighted to the manufacturer, meaning that no money could ever be made from machinima, it is purely for fan-based fun. Although saying that a lot of companies have come to accept it as being there as long as it remains non-profit, such as Blizzard Entertainment as players of World of Warcraft are known for making machinima to help promote issues of the world along with other interesting pieces.

Red Vs. Blue
When most people mention machinima the first thing that comes to mind is Red vs. Blue produced by YouTuber Rooster Teeth. This was probably one of the most innovative pieces of machinima ever made and always will be as most things made now are copies of this. The original sketches are all taken from recordings of the game Halo for the Xbox console and continued onto the Xbox 360.  Red vs. Blue didn't offer much at first but witty dialog that was placed over footage of two teams of people talking but as it grew the dialog became even better and this was accompanied with movement, shooting and proper interaction with other AI and characters in the environment. The series also grew in terms of graphics as well due to the advancements of technology, and proved better and better as they went on, now in there 11th series.

What we hope to do as a team is produce something similar to this, although not a parody of anything already out there on YouTube. We intend to come up with a unique story, which we think we have got so far, and show that you can produce a character and environment from scratch to use in the machinima world and not just as a game, although it could be used for this purpose as well.