Thoughts on machinima
Using video games to make movies allows people without animation expertise to tell stories. Rooster Teeth’s series Red vs. Blue is the preeminent example of machinima. Now, I never finished watching it, but I remember the early seasons (Chronicles of Blood Gulch) fondly. It was filmed in Halo: Combat Evolved, the most limiting engine they ever used throughout RvB’s 18 seasons.
If you want to appreciate old school machinima, I recommend watching a DVD rip of the series. The original 2003 release had a weird aspect ratio because the camerman player’s HUD had to be cut out. Although you can still see the weapon reticle in the middle of the screen. The 2010 remaster is good, but it doesn’t give you a sense of the technical limitations at the time..
In the Season 1 DVD commentary, Burnie Burns said they set a rule that each shot must be done in-engine, so that anyone could replicate it in-game. Although he admits that he used Adobe Premiere to have two people of differents colors in a vehicle, something the game prohibits. Machinima at this time was all about working through limitations. RvB had to work with the Halo engine, setting, and characters. In the same commentary, they said the pacing of the series was affected by how little vehicles/armor colors/maps there were because they didn’t want to reveal everything in the first few episodes. It’s these little limitations which force creators into making decisions that really display the novelty of the format. .
I say old school machinima like 2003 RvB was difficult yet accessible. Nowadays, it’s much easier with newer engines. But this isn’t for the worse (or for the better, really) because it allows creators to focus on the writing. As I said paranthetically, the ability for more people to create machinima and at a higher volume has led to much more low quality content. However, more volume allows creators to learn faster. RvB eventually used more CGI in later seasons, and Rooster Teeth (who shut down earlier this year) began work on 3D animated series RWBY. This brings me to my next point: machinima can be an early stepping stone for 3D animators. For example, SMG4 began by making machinima in Super Mario 64 and then went on to found Glitch Productions, the animation studio that produced several (2) successful web series. A lot of people find their beginning in accessible means like machinima. I know that plenty of game developers first started with Roblox’s engine or even on Scratch. Where would they be without these low-cost, accessible engines?.
I grew up with Gmod videos and Minecraft roleplays. Names like DasBoSchitt, kitty0706, and RubberFruit come to mind. I was also into quasi-narrative gameplay channels like VanossGaming and VenturianTale. More recently, people having been using VRChat to the same effect.