Hear me brown-nose Overman on the latest edition of The Overcast


Free Pixel asks: What are the 10 most innovative Machinima films?


Here are some of mine:

The Journey/Person 2184 – Friedrich Kirschner
These films encapsulate the power of visuals, the pure unadulterated essence of emotion, in motion. The art, the presentation, it’s all right here, made possible with Fiezi's powerfully innovative production techniques. Certainly inspired me, anyway.

Hardly Working – Ill Clan
This was the first Machinima film that I had to pull other people into the room, to watch it with me. It was the first time I had ever seen a Machinima made so well, that you didn’t care about how it was made, or with what.

Ozymandias – Strange Company
When this came out, it was a promotion for the now defunct LithTech Film Producer. (WOE IS ME! STILL TO THIS VERY DAY!) It was also the first Machinima I had seen with full-on custom animations and art. It was clean, atmospheric, and hell, it showed me the new bar. It was high, but I knew we must meet it or die!

Anachronox: The Movie – Jake Hughs/Ion Storm
Everything on the screen is innovative; I could spend hours calling out the awesome here.

The Seal of Nehahra – Mindcrime Productions
One man, one dream, and one kick-ass four hour long feature-length film. If that’s not the breeding ground of innovation, I don’t know what is. Not to mention the brilliant brute-force engine hacking needed to pull it all off!

In the Waiting Line/Anna – Fountainhead Entertainment
Another fine example of art in Machinima, production values so high that they nullified the “game” within. Anyone could watch these Machinima films and say, “That was beautiful!” Even years from now they will still hold up, more comparable to more traditional 3D animations than to other Machinima films.



To me innovation in Machinima is when a film breaks the mold of “video game” and becomes closer to an animation or film. Sure you can do awesome and amazingly entertaining things with Halo/Quake guys, but I will always hold a soft spot in my heart for those gals and guys who tear into the engine, implant their own vision, and come out with something truly unique. It’s not film or animation, as we know it, it’s the machine meeting us half way.



Oh, and I guess I owe you some pictures too.

A week goes by pretty quick when one spends it driving to the end of the road.

And when we got there?




I've got about six rolls of film to get develop and printed to CD, then after a bit of sorting, I'll try to have a nice full gallery of my little drive up here for all to see by Monday.

Until then: Good Night!

Today on Slashdot they are having this epic poll, with many of the worlds greatest rivals aiming for the most epic of all. Currently Ninjas vs. Pirates is about tied with Emacs vs. vi, and it was made suddenly clear to me, after I cast my vote and beheld the current results, what was going on here, BEHIND THE POLL!

/copy-paste

You see, all the Pirates vs. Ninja voters are on Windows, and have no idea wtf Emacs vs. vi is. (I must admit, I had to look it up.)

And, well, here we are.

Anyway, the Ninjas will be winning until the Pirates turn on their Jet-Packs, however before there is even a clear winner in this epic battle, the robots will strike and they (Ninjas and Pirates) will have to band together to fend off the motorized bringers of doom. Both Ninjas and Pirates know that nothing beats nothing like some nigh unbeatable robotic fool army interrupting your own private epic battles. Jerks.

So, that's how it is. Honest!

/copy-paste

Machinima: None. Well, not that I can speak of in public. I'm plotting a few courses, and judging the waters of tomorrow. I'll fill you in after...

THE ROAD TRIP!

Following in the footsteps of countless young men before me, I am partaking in the all American drive to the west coast. With spring break next week, and a bunch of other vacation plans fallen through, Pepper and I came to the natural conclusion that chasing girls in San Diego is the thing to do, so away we go! (Especially when there's a nice beach side condo waiting for us) Trust me when I say there will be a lot of pictures. I've never been out west, and driving through it is like a dream come true. (right after the "cultural festival" of '05)

If you have to ask why, you're better off just staying home and watching TV like usual.


CompUSA is closing a bunch of stores, and 110 some odd locations are having a fire sale. I lost 200 bucks in one day. Jerks. But I did get an HDMI upscaling DVD player for mega cheap.

However! HDMI cables are not so cheap. I've seen them from 30 to 100 bucks. OUCH! I asked the guy at the store (I wont say which, try to guess!) and he told me that the cheaper ones don't produce colors as well as the 100 dollar gold plated monster cables. What he didn't know is that I know better, that HDMI is a digital signal, not analog, and that it either is 1 or 0. On or off. I just smiled, nodded, and walked out.

Then I found Mono Price

My new cable(s) will be in before the Road Trip. In fact I ordered something like 10 cables for less that the cost of the cheapest single HDMI cable I could find at any Brick'n Mortar. Take that ridiculous markup subspace!

I've run an update to my blog soft, part of my on going fight against spam.

There may be some broken elements, so if I've missed anything, feel free to point them out!