First off I’d like to thank the daily readers and commenters who gave me the idea for this post. Keep it up! I want more disagreeing and ranting!
Now to the ranting part…
The commenters gave some very valid arguments about the use of 3D modeling techniques and what is important in a movie.
People say that 3D modeling is like using WoW Model viewer and that the movie made with it cannot be called a true machinima film. Yes and no.
The true “off the shelf” machinima are normally only the movies that were filmed completely in a game. But the line get’s kinda blurry when you start filming in other software like model viewer. I disagree that movies made in model viewer cannot be called machinimas. The fact why I’m saying that is because model viewer is not generating new animations and models but is merely displaying (or playing) the animations and models he found in the .mpq files: Everything that is also present in the game.
Custom 3D animating in the other hand is not the same. Exporting WoW models into it is kinda similar to model viewer. The custom animation part is what I got a problem with. That’sthe point when a movie stops being an “off the shelf” machinima. Now, I wouldn’t forbid 3D animating (I’m thinking of trying it myself) in a movie so long it’s balanced with in-game and/or model viewer shots. But if a movie was made completely in a 3D animating technique, that’s where it cannot be counted as a machinima anymore since it became a 3D animation.
But this is not over yet. Theres more complication. Let’s look at the definition of machinima:
The rendering of computer-generated imagery using low-end (real time) 3D engines such as those found in video games, as opposed to the high-end, complex 3D engines used by professionals.
(Source)
3D editing is a professional rendering technique. But what is WoW model veiwer? It’s clearly not a professional tool. But it’s also not a video game. There we are again. Questioning the allowance of it. I guess it’s all in the hands of the community to decide if it’s a viable method (even though some members are more stupid than a piece of bread soaked in water).
Another interesting topic I found while reading the comments was how to get machinima into the “mainstream” communities. 3D modeling might really be the way towards this goal however it needs to be balanced. Like I said; if a movie is made completely by 3D editing then it’s not a machinima anymore but a 3D animation. Balance a great story, animation and editing and you can only succeed. Well, almost. The WoW machinima community and machinima in general needs some more luck and connections to get it really high. While competition is good, support and help is also important.
However it looks like the WoW machinima community is making slow but solid steps towards that. A good example was the Southpark episode “Make Love not Warcraft”. Another good thing is the fact that Gaming TV stations sometimes show the really great machinima films (for instance; I watched Tales of the Past III and The Craft of War: BLIND on GIGA. And I also missed a lot of them). So we’re atleast making progress.
Guess that’s enough for the time being. Keep on commenting and giving me ideas for future posts! And stay classy WoW machinimators!
