Genres for Machinima Movies

matt wrote:

One of the key aims of Moviestorm is to have characters who can deliver a real emotional performance, not a bland or over the top performance.

This is one the most significant limitations of current and all previous Machinima programs!

I think it's the subtle variances in a characters motion that make or break believability in a performance. This is just not possible with anything else i've used, so really limits immersing the viewer.

One of the main problems I see with current tools is everything is largely a preprogrammed motion, with little variations, scene to scene, reaction to reaction, character to character.

Are you planning on using character physics models/weighted kinematics that would let you move realistically without limiting motions to only canned animation playback?

If so, the flexibility of being able to add even the smallest built-in variances would add much more believability to a character performance!

Will you be able to apply an emotional reaction like a filter, with a range:
Length of scene...Length of current sentence...Length of interaction with specific character or object?

I think the ability to individually tune the range of a performance will make all the difference in believability that's just not currently possible with any other tool.

neopresul wrote:

Are you planning on using character physics models/weighted kinematics that would let you move realistically without limiting motions to only canned animation playback?

Sorry for bothering you with this question, I had not yet read your using ODE for physics & motion modeling. Thank you Russell Smith!

Interesting list of Genres. What's the source? I'd be curious to hear his distinction between 'crime' and 'detective' genres. Also I'd like to know what the definition of the 'masterpiece' genre is. I've been doing this writing/directing thing for a while now. I haven't done my Les Miserables or my Hamlet yet... I've decided that my next project will be in the genre of 'masterpiece'.

The key may be that any story can be told with machinima, as long as the creators remember they're animators and that a lot of work has to be done with nuance of character. And that's a lot of elbow grease, but I think we're up to it.

Carl wrote:

I'd be curious to hear his distinction between 'crime' and 'detective' genres.

I'd say movies like Oceans 11, The Ladykillers, The Italian Job, Thomas Crown Affair etc are "crime movies" that aren't "detective movies": the story isn't about trying to catch a criminal, so much as seeing how a crime takes place - and it could end either way.

Interestingly, all those movies were remade in the last few years - does that say anything about the genre?

Fair enough. But I'm still calling foul on the 'masterpiece' genre.

Personally, I like to cross over genres. Not sure why, exactly. Maybe it's my inbuilt rebellious nature? lol

For instance, I've crossed Romance/Action/Sci-Fi/Horror in one film. It wasn't deliberate, it was just the way the story evolved.

More recently I mixed sci-fi and romance in a music video.

Don't you try and pigeon-hole me! muhahaha!

BiggsTrek wrote:

Personally, I like to cross over genres. Not sure why, exactly. Maybe it's my inbuilt rebellious nature? lol

For instance, I've crossed Romance/Action/Sci-Fi/Horror in one film. It wasn't deliberate, it was just the way the story evolved.

More recently I mixed sci-fi and romance in a music video.

Don't you try and pigeon-hole me! muhahaha!

Yeah, and many genres (in essence) aren't necessarily set in their typical settings... the sci fi I'm working on now is using an Old West Town... before I digress too awfully far, I'd want a large choice of (mod-able)sets and props, because many genres can take place most any (time and) place!

I'm really hoping Moviestorm will add subtlety. I've used both The Sims 2 and The Movies to produce Machinima. My problem with The Movies was the limited control in many aspects, however, it was easy to use. My main problem with The Sims 2 is that emotional scenes get ruined by the fact that sims seems to go into spastic fits all the time. I think my favorite genres are drama, comedy, and sci-fi and are probably the ones I will be making the most movies out of.

To come back to the starting post: genres should be used a vague descriptive tool only and not as a defining tool. As otherwise we are not talking about genres, but are in the field of about what is (a great) art and what art consists of. And that has been explained, among others, in a detail by Roman Ingarden and Russian Formalists (Skhlovsky, Eichenbaum et alii). And they proved, that art is above any genre definition, for example.

So, my 0,02 Euros are, that genres, on their own, are not important; but trying to make art, is. Using genres as a defining tool, has been shown to be futile so many times.

Trying to understand what is art and trying to make art - that is serious business

Art and genre can coexist on the same plain. For example: Blade Runner. That film is very much a mash-up of the sci-fi and crime genres, and is very much an art film - from frame one to frame last. Goddard's Alphaville is also a good example of the peaceful coexistence of genre and art.

I'd like to make a barnstorming action kung fu fiesta.

I just need the moves, I can do the rest externally

Barn Storming?