How to Film Machinima for Amazing Machine, Animation & Cinema Combinations
Machinima is a unique combination of computer graphics or animation and live action cinema that renders some powerful storytelling in unique environments. Creating films that incorporate the amazing characters you’ve grown to cherish from popular video games or that utilize the make believe worlds and environments from video games like Halo, Super Mario Bros or Zelda are just the beginning when you learn how to film machinima. The sky is literally the limit and once you’ve taken the steps to learn how to film machinima you’ll be amazed at the endless possibilities before you.
What is Machinima?
Before we dive into the detailed information on how to film machinima, it’s important to address some basic details about this unique form of film production. Machinima incorporates a mix of computer graphics, animation, and live action filmmaking. The technique essentially utilizes the existing programming of a video game, that includes the pre-created environment or world, objects, characters and all of their movements and mixes in live action cinema to produce a film that effectively costs hundreds of thousands or even millions less in overall production than a typical computer animated motion picture.
How to Film Machinima
Machinima is filmed through the use of in-game artificial intelligence. Effectively, if you’re interested in learning how to film machinima you’re going to focus on learning how you can manipulate or control the characters of the game and cameras within the game in order to achieve the desired outcomes. In other words, you’re going to produce some digital puppetry in order to achieve the desired outcomes within the game so that you can then manipulate your shots in post-production in order to create your film.
Sounds complicated, right?
While machinima is a bit complicated, it’s nowhere near as technical as computer animation. This is because with machinima, you’ve already got all of the movements, objects, and elements programmed into the game and you’re just manipulating your experience as you navigate the game so that you can acquire the desired footage. That footage is then further manipulated with additional video editing techniques utilized in post-production in order to produce the desired finished film.
Step 1: Choose Desired Game & Story Idea
The first step to producing a machinima is to choose your desired video game and the story idea that you will create. Just as you would with any film, when figuring out how to film machinima you must first come up with your concept or script. Think about a game that you are familiar with and that would have the characters, backgrounds, environments and objects that will work well for the creation of your story. Consider games like:
- The Sims
- Halo
- Minecraft
- Grand Theft Auto
- Super Mario Bros
- The Legend of Zelda
Step 2: Secure Desired Hardware & Software
Learning how to film machinima is going to require that you have essential hardware and software in order to produce your film. You’re going to need the game unit or PC, depending on the game that you choose, and you’re going to need a microphone. A video capture card will also be necessary if you’re not using a game that is on a PC. If your game unit is equipped with video capture, a card is not necessary.
You’re also going to need software in order to film machinima. Naturally you’re going to need whatever game you choose but you’ll also need video editing software. Make sure you’ve got a video capture program for your computer such as Fraps or a similar real time video capture software program. You need to be capturing your game in real time at the desired frame rat somewhere between 1 and 120 fps.
Step 3: Write Your Machinima Script
Remember when we discussed the importance of choosing your story? This is where that will tie in. Writing your machinima script is going to largely depend on the video game that you choose to work with. Determine where your story is set and create your backstory.
Develop your characters and make sure they are interesting. Characters should attract your audience. Consider the options you have based on your chosen video game and know your limitations. Consider how characters interact on your game, this way you can think closely about how you will deliver the desired images when you create your film.
Make sure you’ve also established the conflict within your story. This will also help you to form the character dialogue for your script. What is the purpose of your story? Why are your characters communicating? Once you’ve established all of this, you can write the actual character dialogue for your script.
Step 4: Create Your Storyboard
Once you’ve got your script written and your story is planned it’s time to storyboard it out. Storyboarding your script will help you to visualize each of the scenes and important character interactions that must take place to deliver your story to your audience. Make sure that you account for all characters and interactions that are to take place as well as each of the key scenes for your film.
Step 5: Plan Your Cast for Voiceover
You’re nearing the process of producing your machinima film so it’s time to cast your voiceover artists. Who will represent the character voices for your film? This can be professionals, your friends, or someone else entirely. If you only have one or two characters, you might voice over the dialogue yourself. It’s entirely possible for one actor to perform as multiple characters if they can change their voice.
Step 6: Begin Capturing Footage
Much of the process of learning how to film machinima is in learning how to manipulate the game so that you can capture the desired footage for your film. Begin recording during essential periods of game play in order to capture the desired clips for your film. Remember that you can manipulate all of these in post-production and you’ll be able to rearrange or otherwise adjust footage at that time as necessary for your story.
Make sure that you’re capturing at 30fps or greater in order to prevent your video from lagging. You’ll also want to make sure that you consider all of the important character elements that you need to capture in order to deliver your story. It’s possible, with Fraps, to utilize green screen to record your character actions in a separate recording.
Step7: Record Desired Audio
Once you’ve established all of your desired footage it will be time to begin recording your audio. Make sure that you’re recording audio that best matches your footage. This may take a few tries in order to get it right but in the end you’ll find that you’ll get better as you go!
Step 8: Post-Production Editing of Machinima Film
Learning how to film a machinima is really about practice! Once you’ve captured your audio and video footage, you can take steps in post-production to achieve the desired finished results. This is your chance to rearrange footage and to incorporate any additional sound effects or special effects that are necessary to fulfill your desired story. It’s certainly going to take practice, but have fun with it and trust the process!