Gaming takes on Hollywood

Guardian columnist Keith Stuart has posted an interesting article under the 'Game Theory' series. In the article Keith looks at the recent announcements of game inspired films announced at Comic Con 2009. One section of the article looks at how French publisher Ubisoft is developing a series of live-action shorts for Assassin Creed 2. This will use the game's 3D engine to create 'green screen' GCI backdrops. You can read the full article from the Guardian by following this link.

Machinima in Salford

I started a new machinima project today. In conjunction with 'Eyecatcher Productions' and 'Salford Foundation' the project will look at Salford, The Internet and Media from the perspective of a dozen 13-16 year old students from inner city Salford. The project plans to use the Moviestorm engine for machinima creation and will possibly integrate mixed media. Further details of the project will be posted soon.

Untitled : Prologue

Untitled : Prologue is an interesting example of how the MovieStorm engine can be used to create complex animation. This machinima was produced by an employee of Chemistry | Digital, a digital marketing agency based in Nottingham and London. The agency uses MovieStorm to create quick tests and storyboards for shoots, as well as rough setups before moving to 3D testing camera moves and stage setups. You can watch the film below and read more about Chemistry | Digital by following this link.

Futuresource Campus

You can watch a Second Life guided tour of the Futuresource Campus below. This virtual space consists of two key facilities - the Virtual Conference Centre and Real Time Research - visitors interact with one another, conduct meetings and carry out real-time, high quality, large-scale consumer research.

Borderline Game Installation

Mathias Fuchs has released a new game installation called 'Borderline'. The installation consists of a First Person Shooter level - staged on a European map with political hot-spots marked by particle effects. You can view the machinima by following this link to the cuture tv website.

Arthouse Machinima

I've just seen an amazing new machinima called 'Push' from digital artist Trace Sanderson aka Lainy Voom. Trace is based in the UK with a focus on animation captured in real time virtual worlds and game engines. You can watch the machinima below and view other work from the artist by following this link.

Push (Mini Project 4) from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

Another Perfect World

True Stories, the 4More documentary strand, ran an interesting programme last week on virtual worlds. Jorien van Nes and Femke Wolting's insight into online virtual worlds can still be watched on 4OD if you live in the UK. You can watch the documentary by following this link.

Eyecatcher Promo

Eyecatcher Production's MD Alan Mcglone commissioned the following promotional video to show the potential of the Moviestorm machinima software for education and training.

You can watch the promo below:

Eyecatcher Promo (Revision) from Ian Patterson on Vimeo.

Education in Leisure

I attended a screening last week for the DMex Lab production of Carol Ann Duffy's 'Education in Leisure'. It was a well attended premier and given the production team was new to the Moviestorm software, a very good first production. An interview was filmed with some of the production crew and will be uploaded after the television broadcast later in the Summer.

You can watch the film below:

Education for Leisure from The White Room on Vimeo.

Political Machinima

Hugh Hancock, Johnnie Ingram and Matt Kelland have made an interesting political machinima in relation to a new European law. This machinima was produced in 48hrs to highlight how the new law on piracy could introduce a 'three strike' rule for illegal file sharing. You can watch this video below: