watch machinima movies

These movies are © Sam Malone and were created in Shadow of the Colossus, The Sims 2, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer and The Movies. Some have real video mixed in. Other programs used include Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Virtual Dub (amazing program), Paint Shop Pro 7, SWiSH 2, Aviscreen Classic, Fraps and GameCam. I captured the video from my PS2 using a Winfast TV card. For the real life stuff (just rooks atm) I used my Canon DV MV3i.

Just lately I've been getting more into mixing game video with video I've taken of rooks from around where I live, using the blue sky as a blue screen. It does tend to wash the background out a bit, but still gives better effects than using chroma key. Anyway, I'll be adding music to these when I get the inspiration.

I'd like to get better video of the rooks and have them in close up and make them generally more interesting, so I'll probably have to build a hide.

		Rooks on a Wire Near a Tree I videoed the rooks and stuck a time lapse sky from Shadow of the Colossus behind it. The tree is real. WMV, 4 MB
		Storm Rook I videoed the rook and stuck a stormy sky from Shadow of the Colossus (Malus' hideout) behind it. WMV, 4 MB
		Rooks on a Wire I videoed some rooks and stuck a time lapse sky from Shadow of the Colossus behind it. WMV, 4 MB
		Rook with Time Lapse Sky I videoed a rook and stuck a time lapse sky from Shadow of the Colossus behind it. WMV, 0.6 MB
		Time Lapse Sky 1 Panoramic time lapse sky from Shadow of the Colossus. To be honest, I couldn't hold the controller still, but it worked out all right WMV, 1 MB
		Time Lapse Sky 2 Static time lapse sky from Shadow of the Colossus WMV, 1 MB
		Robot Hamlet A green screen merge of Shadow of the Colossus and The Movies. Audio is Richard E Grant as Withnail playing Hamlet. Just a dumb pointless thing WMV, 1.5 MB
		Google Earth Ever tried to find Tibet on Google Earth? You can't, unless you use China - the occupying army - as a keyword WMV, 4 MB Real, 5 MB
		Surf Just a surfing video, filmed at Cortez Bank with sick 60 foot waves WMV, 4 MB Real, 9 MB
		Vietnam 1972 It was supposed to be a routine search and destroy mission in the Ho Chi foothills ... WMV, 4 MB Real, 9 MB
		Bugs The rise and fall of a civilisation - are we Lords of all the Earth yet, pa? WMV, 4 MB Real, 16 MB
		Eagle A little experiment with Shadow of the Colossus. I hope more will follow, as this is a beautiful game WMV, 1 MB Real, 2 MB
		Reptile Invasion All she wanted to do was buy a nice handbag, not fight off a reptile invasion with righteous kung-fu WMV, 2 MB Real, 10 MB
		Transportal A group of hi-tech interplanetary space faring robots find a rusty old robot and they are not kind to it WMV, 2 MB Real, 7 MB

There follows some of the good stuff we've come across out there elsewhere on the web. This isn't by any means anything like a definitive list - just a few things we thought worth passing the word about.

Bandwidth is a real issue with a lot of machinima downloads. Bitorrent is probably going to be the best way to disseminate films. If you don't yet have it, give it a go. It's a much faster way of moving 1s and 0s around on the net. And since files are being shared amongst users, there isn't the same drag on the originator's bandwidth.

		machinima.com - has lots of ace machinima to download. The prime source for this kind of stuff.
		Sims99.com - Tons of user submitted Sims movies. Some of them are of a really high standard.
		Kick - Worth a special mention. Tracechops has mixed machinima and real life video to excellent effect.
		Game On - awarded Best Picture in the 2005 Machinima Film Festival. A man who is really into video games, suddenly becomes a part of the game. But can he escape? Sponsored by Volvo 350.
		The Strangerhood - a kind of sitcom created with The Sims 2.
		Red Vs Blue
		The Highwayman - A tragic tale based on Alfred Noyes' poem, 'The Highwayman', set to music of the same title by Loreena McKennitt. The scene is set in England, around 1770.
		Anna - the life of a flower in a forest. Beautifully rendered, with some great cinematography. This should give you some great ideas of camera movements etc. Created with the Quake engine and I think entirely custom content.
		The Sims 2 horror film competition winners - should give you some great ideas for your own Sims 2 films.
		The Sims 2 new beginnings competition winners - should give you some great ideas for your own Sims 2 films.
		The ILL Clan Movies - including the award winning Hardly Workin.