Ken Thain blogged early last year, tracking mention of the word “machinima” in blog posts via Technorati. I thought I’d take the liberty of following up to see if things are any different this year.
At first, I thought, “Oh, hmm, that doesn’t look much different from last year’s graph. But then I took a closer look at the Y-axis scale of this year’s chart versus last year. Whoa! Similar shape, much different scale. Things started ramping up in July of last year, and have stayed up since then. This while discussions are going on about a great machinima decline? Interesting.
If you think about what was happening at the time of that increase last July, you might come to the same conclusion / theory that I have: unless I’m missing something, I can think of only one person who was likely the major and deliberate catalyst for this increased exposure and discussion.
And no, silly, it wasn’t me…
Very interesting quote I just read (thanks, Cartoon Brew): “This year we’re putting some emphasis on reaching out to the gaming, mobile, wireless and interactive world. With more and more animation being made for non-traditional distribution platforms, it’s important that the OIAF celebrate the work being done in these new forms, so we’ve expanded our New Media Competition to include mobile content and interactive educational and gaming animation as well as shorts made for the Internet.”
Who said this? (more…)
I’ve been researching ways to improve the acoustics for my home recording, and came across this nicely put together guide at Sweetwater. I’m fortunate enough to have a very irregular shaped room as a starting point, but I’m wanting to take a step up from “quilting” the room to dampen noise every time it’s time to record… but without giving the room a look that will offend my wife’s sense of style. Affordable acoustic foam is, in a word, ugly.
(more…)
If you’ve read any audio recording tips, machinima-related or otherwise, you’ve probably heard two key points referenced:
- Get a decent quality microphone.
- Record in a quiet, noise-dampened room.
In this article, we’re going to focus on point # 2… what if you have a good microphone, but it’s impractical to acoustically treat your room, and you don’t like the idea of draping a big blanket over your head to achieve a similar effect? Or, what if you have contracted voice work from someone else, and their acting performance is good but you’ve got some background noise / hiss / that kind of thing?
There is a very easy technique you can try which may help you salvage a noisy recording, I’m going to detail it below.
(more…)
The OMFF cocktail party is this Saturday at 8:00pm GMT. In my previous post on the subject, I converted that to Eastern and Pacific times incorrectly, not taking into account the Daylight Saving weirdness this year. The correct time is 4:00pm Eastern and 1:00pm Pacific. Terribly sorry about that!
I blame Sanjaya.
A couple really solid threads recently cropped up on the Machinima.com forums, one by the always insightful Kephren, and another by a somewhat disgruntled MachiniMax. During the course of the latter, CJ Ambrosia of PEDS gives some sage advice about starting small when first embarking into machinima. Wise indeed; our beach is littered with the skeletons of massive, abandoned sailing ships which will never hit the seas. Smart in machinima - as in many areas of life - to bite what you can chew, and figure out how to eat the whole kielbasa once you’ve warmed up. Doc Nemesis chimes in as well, giving a succinct dose of self-reliance in learning that would make Ayn Rand proud.
It is encouraging to see good discussions going on, wherever they may emerge.
The other day, I relocated my forum to become part of Machinima Premiere, and I see that Britannica Dreams has also set up a section in the new “Affiliates” part of the MPrem forum. I’m not sure if their whole forum has relocated like mine, and Michelle and I didn’t share our reasons, but I think any way in which we can all be “coming together” is a good and timely thing.
Have you seen Cirque du Machinima yet? Tom Jantol, who recently set out on his own as a professional freelance machinimator, has crafted a hauntingly beautiful piece, which you can watch streaming here (hires downloads available there too). A really refreshing experimental piece that is getting very good reviews.
