The second Talk the Machinima Talk audio conference took place earlier today, this one being at a not-so-crazy time of day for European participants, but at a very early morning hour for those on the U.S. west coast. And the attendance reflected that. We will very likely continue to alternate back and forth between these two time slots, in the interests of balance. A couple people had the occasional headache with Skype, but for the most part the call proceeded well and discussion was lively.

Participants: Peter Rasmussen (AUS), Phil Rice (US), Hugh Hancock (UK), Johnnie Ingram (UK), Leo Lucien-Bay (UK), Ben Grussi (US), Charlemagne Fezza (where are you from?), CJ Ambrosia (US), and Sasha Rudie (US).

The conversation was again very free form. The topics covered this time included:

• Motion Capture
  • http://www.nmav.com/products/SOFTIMAGEXSI/SOFTIMAGEXSIFoundationV5
  • http://www.naturalmotion.com/
  • http://nanoflix.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/dynamic-motion-synthesis/
  • http://www.naturalpoint.com/
  • http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/products/motion-capture/
• “Free and Clear” machinima tools
  • MovieStorm
  • iClone
  • Antics
  • Second Life
• BloodSpell Feature Cut
• Baron Soosdon’s machinima work
• Old Barriers in film / media are falling down… (democratization of filmmaking)
  • Tools accessible, leads to discovery of new artists
  • Decline of the old school aristocracy to “control” the talent industry
  • Affordability of the tools - marginalizes budget issue
  • Internet distribution means no political stoppage either (think French Democracy)
• Interesting project related to affordability of computers: http://laptop.org/

Stay tuned to http://z-studios.com/conference/ for information about the next conference.