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machinima
May 2009 
Machinima-licious!
~C4Chaos
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
I continue to immerse myself in the metaverse via Second Life for research purposes. The more I explore the virtual realm the more my childhood interests in graphics, programming, gaming, role-playing and 3D animation are rekindled. I feel like I'm back to my elementary days the first time I tinkered with a BASIC program that rendered cool graphics on a RGB monitor. Ah, those were the days...
The success of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), like World of Warcraft and Second Life, continue to push the boundaries of creativity. One of the many results is an explosion of a growing media called Machinima -- real-time computer-generated animation ripped and mixed from computer games or virtual worlds into a cinematic movie. For a funny (and violent) introduction, check out What is Machinima?
Machinima is already mainstream. In fact, the creators of South Park already had an Emmy-winning episode incorporating machinima. Check out Make Love, Not Warcraft. This episode cracked me up! It's the funniest South Park episode I've seen (see part 1, part 2, part 3). See also machinimas created in Second Life. There are tons of them out there thanks to the tools and support provided by Linden Lab for this emerging media.
The creators of Second Life envision a future when 3D computer graphics would be as realistic as what we see on films today. In the meantime, this short SL machinima set to a cool acoustic song makes you really think of a better life.
The metaverse is evolving slowly, but surely. We're still far from Neal Stephenson's vision of the metaverse, but the rapid technological advancements in hardware, 3D rendering and lighting, and collaborative editing tools continue to elevate the virtual world on a whole new level. Imagine a future when we can craft our own movies inside a virtual world, with virtual actors, unlimited camera angles and cinematography. Are we still going to watch movies created in the real world or will we "live" alternate personas in the virtual world instead? How will the metaverse impact our society, laws, economics, politics, and philosophy?
Sci-fiction gives us hints. But we'll never truly know until we get there.
Access: Public
awesome video… really made me think…
Thanks for this wondrous post! It hints at the potentials you write about here… It gave me chills to watch this. We cannot even imagine what is going to be possible in the arts, creativity, media, education and entertainment….WOW!
Dude- this is awesome beyond words. The machinima video was hillarious. lol I must have watched that WoW south park 10-15 times, showing all of my friends.
Can't wait to jump in! And if you haven't seen the ps3's version of second life coming out at the end of this year, def check it out!
NMD, yeah i've seen PS3 Home. the graphics is much better than SL but i think i'll stick with SL for now because it's more accessible and it has more potential in the long run. and it's not tied down with a hardware platform. i think it would serve Sony better if they hook up with SL Grid instead of recreating another massive virtual world.
~C
Yeah- I'd agree 2nd life has more potential at this point, unless sony takes theirs to the computer- which they might. The main pull will be seemlessly interacting with other players in the world, and being able to jump back and forth between different games together. More of a futuristic fun house based in media entertainment than an alternate reality at this point. ;)