Good quality Machinima? Tricky in practice... (Score 1)

To make good-looking machinima, you need both to direct and to do: that is, to script, conceptualise, build, design, light, animate, texture, audition, record, lipsync, direct, choreograph, programme, customise, optimise, and tweak like crazy - and then keep at it for months on end. And if that sounds like making a whole game or CG movie yourself, then you're starting to get the idea.

All the same, machinima quality (just as in films) is neither about engine pixel fill rates, nor coloured shadows, nor even about funky middleware - it's about having a vision, and the determination, imagination & resources to bring it to life. I say this because I and my "ragtag band of internet misfits" [(c)M.Rein] tried to do just this for the Unreal/PSOne cutscenes/game we were writing, and (all in all) I think we came pretty close... until Infogrames bought GT & pulled the plug on the whole development, nearly bankrupting me in the process. *sigh*

Remember, though Orson Welles undeniably had vision, determination & imagination, he also had a $500,000+ budget from RKO for Citizen Kane... and it still tanked at the box-office! :^o http://www.sparknotes.com/film/citizenkane/context .html

All of which is to say: although film-making can look easy in the classroom, it really isn't - and (for most people) machinima probably won't help make it significantly easier. Sorry to break the bad news, don't shoot the messenger, good luck with your sparkling career, etc. :^o

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....