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How To Make a Machinima
Dr. Anthony Curtis – University of North Carolina at Pembroke |
A simulation of the International Space Station orbits high above the Eye4You Alliance Island in Teen Second Life. |
Recordings of computer-generated imagery (CGI) of actions rendered in real-time by the interactive 3-D engine in the Second Life viewer are edited in the same manner as conventional film or video productions.
Second Life machinima are produced using SL resources – such as sky, land and water backdrops, buildings, vehicles, elevations, avatars, skins, hair, and clothing – and the built-in tools for recording images – movement controls, camera controls, snapshot camera, building and landscape editing controls, and script editor. Video products made in Second Life use the 3D virtual world's constructions, scripting, and avatar customizing tools.
Professional 3D animation software is not used. The rendering is done in real-time using an individual's computer, rather than more complex 3D engines in render farms.
Some popular digital video capture software used to record images moving on the computer-monitor screen include Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac, Fraps, Snapz Pro X and SnagIT. Most available digital video capture software is listed and compared here.
To edit your captured video, use iMovie or Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro on Macintosh to piece together all of your in-world shots, other produced elements, and audio. Other software applications you may find helpful include Windows Movie Maker and WinAVI. iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are free and particularly easy to use.
Machinima production is faster and cheaper than keyframed CGI animation. The product is a more professional appearing production than is possible with typical amateur techniques such as live video tape, or stop action using live actors, hand drawn animation or toy props.
Getting ready:
- Conceive an idea. Draw a storyboard. Write a script. Don't try an impromptu production.
- Open Second Life and establish your scene. Use SL as a virtual back lot as if it were a soundstage, choreography studio, costume and prop repository, and special effects house.
- To reduce movement lag, limit the number of actors in a scene. Having several avatars in a scene will reduce the frame rate, especially if they use extra animations or wear a lot of attachments.
- Prepare your digital video capture software. Set frame size and codec and then, as action progresses, save the recorded footage to your hard drive.
- The more capable your computer, the higher the resolution you can choose. A computer is more capable if it has more RAM memory, a faster processor speed, and a higher quality video card with more video RAM.
- A trick sometimes used to maintain higher quality through the editing process is to capture footage in a larger format than the size in which you plan to deliver it in. For example, you might capture at 640x480 if you know the finished product is going to be 320x240.
- For many projects, the final product is 640x480. That window size is appropriate for a video to be uploaded to YouTube without losing quality.
- Change the Second Life window size to second smallest, 640x480.
- Hide the Second Life user interface (UI) when capturing the action on the screen. Hiding it removes the visible menus and other distractions.
- Start recording the video and dialog. Give the folder and the video capture file helpful, logical names.
- Remember to capture several frames in front of the action and then at the end of the action. This will be helpful when you editing scenes together.
- Smoother camera movements may be captured in the Second Life viewer's Mouselook mode.
- Don't move the camera quickly. That confuses the audience and disrupts continuity.
- Isolate your action so extraneous background objects and scripts don't come into view. That helps maintain a more consistent frame rate, especially if the scene has s a lot of action.
- Shoot multiple views of the same action sequence. Capture more than you think you'll need. You will be able to delete while editing. Having several different shots of a scene lets you make more creative decisions when you are editing.
- High resolution video capture uses a lot of hard drive memory, so you may wish to shoot at a lower resolution than you might use to simply walk around in-world.
- You will be asked to choose a compression. You can choose any option you wish, but the easiest is Full Frames (Uncompressed). The movie files will be bigger, but they will be of the highest quality.
- Stop recording when you have completed all the shots you want and may need.
- Be sure to turn the user interface (UI) back on.
- Use Second Life's Snapshot camera to shoot any still photos or "freeze frame captures" you may need. Save them to your desktop and take them into Adobe Photoshop to edit them to the way you want those images to look.
- Record any voiceover audio you may need.
- Prepare the text and images for the program title and credits.
- After you have captured more than enough footage, recorded audio, and prepared title and credits, you must edit them into the finished production.
- Macintosh is recommended over Windows PC for this work, although a Windows machine will provide a finished product.
- Use iMovie or Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro on Macintosh to piece together all of your in-world shots, other produced elements, and audio. Other software applications you may find helpful include Windows Movie Maker and WinAVI. iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are free and particularly easy to use.
- All final productions should be clear, and well shot and edited. Audio should sound clear and have correct volume levels.
- The language, tone and content of your edited video should be appropriate for a PG audience.
- Save the finished product as a .mov file for uploading to YouTube.
Machinima FAQ
Machinima on YouTube
Space Today Online
Second Edition blog
Second Life wiki