More Machinima Details
Published January 4th, 2008 by Wolfull

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This is still more of an idea of where the project is heading rather then a finished plan, anything is up to change.

The Title: License to Stab

The Map: 2Fort
2Fort was chosen because the winning objective is the simplest, and for continuity I wouldn’t have to worry about capture points.
Also it allows for an ultimate goal of protecting/capturing the intel.

The Characters

I decided on only using 4 characters, this will keep the amount of extra help needed limited and allow for a bit of character development.

  • Blu Team - Spy
    • The Spy will be an aggressive character with a dark sense of humor; he always keeps the other team on the defensive(this is also why the Spy was set on team Blu (on capture maps in TF2 Red is automatically the defending team))
  • Red Team - Engineer, Heavy, Pyro
    • The Pyro is prone to panic
    • The Heavy leads the charges and is the most aggressive member of Red Team
    • The Engineer has no unique traits
  • Misc - Camera Man

The Plot

Extremely simplistic plot which is nearly no plot, it’s just a bunch of mini skits tied together as the red team slowly fall backs through the fort as they get killed by the spy.
They will start defending at the bridge, and their final defense will be at the intel.

The Scenes

This is only a very vague outline, so I have an idea on where I am going. Each scene will be expanded upon in other blog entries.

#1 - Will show the Red Team getting a defense up on the outside of their fort
#2 - This scene will be setting up the spy to look as ‘awesome’ as possible, lots of rapid cuts will be used while it shows him getting ready. It will be recorded inside the prep room. (Think Rambo getting equipped for an idea of what this scene will be like)
#3 - Cut back to the Red Team waiting, camera flies across the bridge and shows the spy waiting on the other side. (They start firing, spy starts running across the bridge and vanishes).
#4 - Cut back to Red Team, puzzled
#5 -

….. More coming

Edit, Instead of writing scene I’m going to split it into outline of segments. Each segment will be expanded upon in individual blog posts. The list here is just what happens (not all is sequenced).

  • Segment #1 Prepare -
    • Red team preparing defence
      • Heavy camps upper part of fort
      • Pyro jumps down from top and guards bridge
      • Engineer also jumps down and goes to the side of the bridge and builds a turret
    • Spy getting ready for attack
  • Segment #2 First Assault -
    • Red team is shown waiting for assault
    • Spy is shown appearing on opposite side of bridge
      • Red team notices
      • Spy starts running across bridge
        • Red open fires
      • Spy vanishes
      • Red attacks randomly but ends up looking around confused
        • Lots of voice effects
      • Engineers goes back to sitting next to his turret
    • After a few moments another engineer runs out of lower fort and crouches next to turret with the other engineer
      • Spy engineer uses the voice sfx(vsfx) ‘Well done’
      • Real engineer vsfx ‘Thanks’
      • Spy saps turret and runs back into the fort using the vsfx ‘Evil laugh’
    • Entire Red Team Chases after him
      • Spy runs to the left (down the stairs towards to the sewer pipe)
      • Reds follow him but get the to pipe opening and can’t see him
      • Another Heavy(spy) turns up behind the group of reds.
        • Red notice an extra heavy
        • Spy quickly shoots everyone
          • Then does Evil laugh
  • Segment #3 - Second Assault (based around upper part of the fort)
  • Segment #4 - Final Assault (based around the intel room)

More details coming…

After a nice long shower pondering the ideas for Machinimaism(is that a word?) I decided to go ahead, should be fun.

In my previous blog entry I listed some potential issues.. well I’ve got a solution for most of them.

  • 1. So I’ll need to find a way to disable the HUD
    • Answer: To disable the HUD you need to first enable cheats; type ’sv_cheats 1′ in the console
      • then type in ‘cl_drawhud 0; r_drawviewmodel 0′
        • this will remove the HUD and the character model (arms etc)
  • 2. I presume NOCLIP still works in TF2
    • Answer: Yep it does, type ‘NOCLIP’ in the console, again ’sv_cheats 1′ has to be active
  • 3. Ideally there is a way to limit the movement speed of NOCLIP to allow for smooth dolly-esque shots
    • Answer: Triple Yay, ’sv_noclipspeed X’ controls the speed you move at when clipping, the default value for X is 5.

Also I’ve decided to go with Idea #2 (see previous blog entry), I’ll start posting more plans/ideas soon.

A TF2 Machinima?
Published January 4th, 2008 by Wolfull

As I’ve been enjoying TF2 a little too much I thought I might try my hand at making a one off Machinima.

Rough Outline

  • Based around the exploits of a spy.
  • Comedy
  • Map will be either Forts of Gravel Pit
  • Will only use in game sound effects (not including music)
    • hence no voice recordings, and wont have to worry about lipsyncing

Possible Story lines

  • Idea #1, A bumbling spy who always screwing up
  • Idea #2, A fear inducing spy
    • This idea will be somewhat of a black comedy
    • Blue team is only a spy (main character)
    • Red Team is a heavy, engineer, scout + maybe pyro
      • Red time will be on defense(or acting defensively)

Probably Issues

  • You need a dedicated Camera character, as when recording demos in TF2 it only records from the first person.
    • So I’ll also need to find a way to disable the HUD
    • I presume NOCLIP still works in TF2
      • Ideally there is a way to limit the movement speed of NOCLIP to allow for smooth dolly-esque shots
  • Might need to beg and plead with my friends to lend me on of their Steam accounts to experiment with.
  • Also since I can’t script anything I will be need to find players/friends willing to waste a few hours recording with me

Back to the film
Published January 3rd, 2008 by Wolfull

 I now have lots of time free to make mini-films… need to do something to keep my mind busy. =/

I’ll do something to try and get a few laughs again.

Oops forgot to Blog
Published October 8th, 2007 by Wolfull

Ack long time no update but I’ve been distracted by other novelties.

Sadly I’m still waiting on my Widescreen lens to arrive, if it hasn’t arrived by the end of this week I’ll probably pull my money back and grab it locally($30 more, but at least I wont have to wait another 4 weeks).

Went up lower Mt. Wellington with my GF yesterday to grab some nature footage for my green screening. I managed to get 10 minutes of REALLY good footage before it started to rain, I’ll hopefully head up Mt. Wellington again this coming weekend.
Also on the video editing front I’ve been doing a lot of storyboarding but not much editing, previous projects I’ve done the filming first then the planning second… finally going to do it the proper way hence when the project is done expect it to be decent! (for real)

On a random note; I had too much Chinese the other week.. decided I didn’t like it anymore, then after a short break I realised I missed the Chinese… Although I’m still undecided if I really like Chinese or not, but I think I do like it.

*On a site related note; spammers seem to of found this site(over 100 msgs over the past fortnight) so I had to make comments via approval only(you only need to get approval once then all your future comments will be auto approved.)

Green screen part2
Published September 19th, 2007 by Wolfull

I’ve been having fun experimenting with my green screen, the only drawback I’ve noticed so far is that when chroma keying the programs have a few minor problem differentiating between the foreground and background(the green screen). I’m figuring this is because there isn’t enough light landing on the screen, so tomorrow morning I’ll give it another shot but using natural light instead.

 

New clips shouldn’t be far off.

Green screen part 1
Published September 18th, 2007 by Wolfull

Short post tonight, I made a small portable greenscreen tonight using a pin board and attaching my tablecloth screen material onto it using thumb tacks. Surface is smooth enough for my level of green screening.

Will post some photos and test footage tomorrow.

VideoEquip & Girlfriend jealousy
Published September 17th, 2007 by Wolfull

Just a bunch of pics today,

Girlfriend jealousy.. Was my friends birthday today and his girlfriend made these for him…
James Birthday James Birthday
Yes it’s a home made Optimus Prime birthday card! painstakingly made over 8 hours using scrap booking skills. So insanely jealous!

He also got a homemade Army Cake.
James Birthday Cake

Battlefield anyone?

Onto almost serious stuff now, my Fig Rig with my Camera in it(see previous blog entry on how I made it)
Fig Rig with Camera 2 Fig Rig with Camera

My Green Screen Material
Green screen material

Incase you can’t read the text on it, it’s a table cover from a partyshop(30 meters) should be good, will post an entry on how it goes later.

Till next time.

Top Music Videos of the 80s
Published September 16th, 2007 by Wolfull

10. Herbie Hancock - Rockit(1984)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=S7dAxvj2mlU[/youtube]
Robots dancing in beat with music, what could be more awesome? Obviously not much as it was nominated for 7 MTV Music Video Awards in 1984 and won 5 (Best Concept Video, Best Special Effects in a Video, Best Art Direction in a Video, Best Editing in a Video and Most Experimental Video).

9. Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=FfW46MZ6mb8[/youtube]
With an Indiana Jones-esque theme and directed by the Highlander director it’s unsurprising this was a smash hit music video of the 80s.
Fun fact: Bruce Campbell did a cover of this song for an Old Spice commercial

8. Men Without Hats - Safety Dance(1982)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=HcOZ6xFxJqg[/youtube]
Successful 80s music video check list, memorable dance check, repetitive lyrics check and a kooky midget check. The safety dance was the only hit for the group before they faded away into obscurity, yet the safety dance will always remain synonymous with the 80s

7. Dire Straits - Money for Nothing(1985)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=aNaKWXqXkhw[/youtube]
A song criticised for being sexiest, anti-gay and racist yet it still had a ground breaking CGI music video and for it’s time it was state of the art CGI.
Fun fact: The animators who worked on this founded Mainframe Entertainment which went on to do Beast Wars, Beast Machines & ReBoot.

6. Weird Al - Fat(1988)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jw00EUh0GT4[/youtube]
More Chins then China town. The second parody of a Jackson song by Weird Al and it was a 1988 Grammer winner(Best Concept Music Video)
Fun fact: Apparently MJ enjoyed the parody.

5. Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer(1986)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=hqyc37aOqT0[/youtube]
Sperm, Dancing Skinned Chickens and whole lot of stop motion animation, how can you go wrong? Obviously you can’t as in 1987 it won 9 MTV Video Music Awards which is a record that still stands today.
Fun fact: Aardman Animations was responsible for the claymation and stop motion animation, in the following years Aardman animations would go on to produce the classic Wallace & Gromit.

4. Michael Jackson - Thriller(1983)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=rT90keJ51bY[/youtube]
With a Budget of $800,000(approx 1.7 million today) it was the most expensive music video of its time, the longest music video of its time and is still regarded by many as the best music video of all time.
Fun fact: You’ll notice that Michael Jacksons face appears normal when he’s singing the chorus with the zombies, according to the making of documenty this was because the mask was making his face feel unconfortable.. imagine that, MJ actually wanting to show his real face..

3. Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract(1989)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=FbknGnZXHUk[/youtube]
Come on’ a cool cartoon cat dancing with a presumably pre-alcholic babe, this really should be placed at no.1
Fun facts: Directed by David Fincer(Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac), and it was parodied in family guy

2. Genesis - Land Of Confusion(1986)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3MzShg7yXik[/youtube]
With a music video featuring such top class names as Arnold Schwarzengger, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Leonard Nimoy, Prince, Madonna, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and many more it was destined for greatness.
Fun fact: The music video featured puppets from the UK Show ‘Spitting Image’, and the voices were provided by Chris Barrie(best know for playing Rimmer in Red Dwarf)

1. A-HA - Take on me(1985)
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=CUod3jGQt0U[/youtube]
Directed by Steve Barron(the director of the original TMNT film), the pencil drawing effects were achieved by using a duckload of rotoscoping, much respect for the effort.
Fun fact: Was also parodied in Family Guy

Long day
Published September 15th, 2007 by Wolfull

Spent the afternoon messing about the HDR7 Slow Motion recording, I’m kinda disappointed by the quality drop in the footage but it’s still fun as a novelty.
Will post another top10 list tomorrow, something 80s related no doubt and I’ll hopefully blog a couple of slow motion clips.

Also on random note had a lot of Chinese today, which was kinda odd but cool none the less.