Playin' Catchup

Woof. Wednesday already. We've been deep in production at work blocking cutscenes for various story elements of Mass Effect. Once the scenes go through the 'approval' process then we'll take the next step of implementing them into the game. So this part of production is fun because you can kind of explore the different ways you cinematically want to have your 5 - 20 second story clip come across, all while working within the limitations of the engine ("You want to make how many people bust through that door?").

After being knee deep in cinematics all day I then come home and after my designated 'family time' I jump back in front of the computer and dig into HL2. I've got my animation pipeline figured out so now I can go from animating model's in Max through to having them play in-game once triggered. So I'm using this pipeline for posing the models so I can set up my storyboard shots in game with general character poses. I was thinking maybe this time I'll try to get a few animators onboard to help with generating some of the character action within MAX so I'll be scouting out some animator related discussion forums in those in-between moments.

As far as what's happening in the machinima news world, much of it may be old news by now but I should catch up... Hugh and Bloodspell were featured on the BioWare site. This is great exposure. Along with this Bloodspell EP5 is hot off the presses...or wire... or airwaves, depending.

Paul Marino has a great write-up on Machinima and Second Life posted today. I seriously checked out SL for an idea I was on the fence with but ended up going with this project in HL2. I didn't go with the idea because I was worried about solid framerate captures via an online world. Also, as Paul points out in his article, you have to really build your production from the ground up. But with the self contained economy of SL I think we'll begin to see bigger and better machinima projects come out of it. Imagine begin able to hire someone to build your set based on Linden Dollars? That is truly the middle ground of current machinima filmmaking and the budgeted world of independent filmmaking. Definitely drop by and give the page a read.

Overcast Numeral Seven is out. I haven't had a chance to listen to the full production (only about 5 or 6 minutes in) but is definitely worth a timeslot within ones' listening schedule.

And I think that's about it. Now I'm caught up I can proceed with the regularly scheduled program.