Robert Carter

so i keep getting kicked off of our youtube page mid-upload...so hopefully it'll be online by noon...

I enjoyed doing this project, I was able to combine skateboarding and machinima to make a piece that I'm pretty satisfied with. It's pretty much what I had intended it to be, but doing it just made me realize the potential that this has, you could spend countless hours looking for skate spots in the game that looked like real spots with real tricks etc....

Any advice I'd have for the vider modding community would be to take time thinking about the project before jumping right in, I could have saved a lot of time had I done that.

pimp myspace
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so I've figured out exactly what I'm wanting to do, it's just proving to take a lot longer than I was expecting. I'm hoping to make a short movie that blends real footage of skating and footage from the game EA Skate well enough so that it gets hard to differentiate the virtual skateboarding from the real skating. What takes a lot of time is figuring out a clip I've filmed or in another skate-video, finding a spot that looks like a spot in real life, starting a new game with a character dressed similarly, then taking the time to do the exact same trick...

pimp myspace - Gickr

pimp myspace - Gickr

these are frames from the piece I'm working on.

My idea for a machinima piece is to blend real video and footage taken from the game "SKATE" and tony hawk series and make a realistic skatevideo. I work w/ final cut and motion everyday so I think I'll be able to work more creatively on this project.

MAIN POINTS:

CHOOSE A GOAL AND A TOPIC
-you must have a clear goal/problem to overcome
RESEARCH AND PREPARATION
- game must be researched
DESIGN PHASE/ Game Structure
-playability- the game must be easy enough to enjoy hard enough to take time
Evaluation of the Design
-evaluate the flaws in the game
PRE-PROGRAMMING PHASE, PROGRAMMING PHASE
-program structure- the way the game is set out- you want the game to load in a way that makes sense- important objects should be rendered w/ more detail and vice/versa
PLAYTESTING PHASE
-test the game
weigh your options/fix what must be fixed but don't spend unnecessary amounts of time

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KXrtC5Y7Das

This is a machinima piece by StateTrooper947 that recreates scenes from the movie "I Am Legend" using Halo 2 as the game engine. The piece uses the actual audio from the film. The creators are relatively proficient in making this- they switch between camera angles well and all the audio/scene transitions are clean- this is not too original or complicated of a piece to do.
I didn't find the piece to be very interesting beyond its relationship to the movie " I Am Legend" - other than using the audio though, not too much is similar- mainly because the artists are limited to using videogame characters. Although this is a popular machinima piece on youtube, I don't see how anyone could be more entertained by this rather than just watching the movie. I believe one's time would be much better spent making an actual videogame out of "I am Legend" rather than a machinima piece. As said in the article, "Machinima reminds us that the nature of computer games as software allows for an almost limitless flexibility of content," i don't think that "StateTrooper" used technology in the most creative way.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/161507.html

   I think I may have found the coolest mod on the internet... this machinimo/mod piece by combines two games that are very dear to my heart- Mario Brothers for Nintendo, and DOOM.  I really like the idea of combing games, like a double image photo or video, but far more advanced, i'd like to learn how to combine games so that you see both and they actually interact with each other.  In this piece, you are the first person shooter character from DOOM going through a 3-D level that has been taken from the 2-D Nintendo game.  I like that you are pretty much playing Mario as the Doom character- you go between stages through a big green tube, you shoot the weird mushroom characters with a gun and get Doom-like blood splatter effects- I'm just extremely impressed with this piece, it perfectly conveys what I wrote about in my entry about videogames as art, this is one of those ideas that creates an awesome effect by doing something relatively simple. (I know that combing the two is probably really complicated, but it's the idea that's simple)

if you have any interesr in reggae or hip hop, give it a listen and let me know what you think, it took me a good chunk of december to make : http://www.sendspace.com/file/y36rj4

I seriously believe that the effect of video games on society is
understated.  Not in that way that people have always said that
playing violent games will have the effect of turning its' games into
violent people.  I don't think that a videogame is poweful enough to
turn an innocent kid into a violent kid, they're probably not good for
people who are already violent though,... and there's always the
argument that people are releasing their anger in the videogames, I
don't really think that if someone is angry and stressed out that
killing a bunch of virtual people will truly calm them down.
  My main argument about videogames in society today is the
acceptance to virtual reality that we have.  It seems that the line
beween virtual accmplishments and physical accomplishments gets
thinner and thinner.  Kids play videogames all day long and think that
they're actually doing something, it's true that videogames have
advanced a huge amount over the last decade and you can actually spend
weeks playing a videogame, and as games get better and better, it
seems more commonplace for kids to spend longer amounts of time
playing- to the point where it loses its recreational roots.  Playing
video games should only be considered a fun pastime, something to do
when you're bored- no different than watching tv.  To think that
saving your game every day and advancing levels etc. is accomplishing
something doesn't make sense.  I have huge respect for video-game
designers and artists for creating such a huge multi-billion dollar
industry, but the industry is built on video game addicts.  Videogames
are vital to our economy (and better for Japan's) so it's no wonder
kids are so encouraged to spend time playing videogames.  America gets
fatter, lazier, and more unhealthy every year, kids that play
videogames for hours every day are only working a very small part of
their brain- even watching tv you learn things constantly, not as
often true in videogames.
  In short, I don't believe that "virtual accomplishments" are
anything, I think video-games are fun and a great recreational thing,
but kids need to play sports and use their imaginations and learn
things from books and all the other things that will help you grown
into a normal person.

(5 hours- start to finish using illustrator, final cut, motion, and livetype)

http://download.yousendit.com/F30FDBCD6269B4CB

(5 hours- start to finish using illustrator, final cut, motion, and livetype)
Download file

When I play Half Life 2 it seems far more fast paced and
stimulating than some movies or books, not always in a good way, video
games have become more ADD-friendly in the last 15 years, as have tv
shows.  Playing counter-strike seems like watching MTV to me.
  The thing I enjoy about games like Half Life 2 is the depth that
can be reached, watching movies and reading books you usually learn
far less about each character, rather the plot spans a much longer
time.  In HL2 you become the character that your playing as and live
in a real-time plot.  When comparing reading to playing a video game,
a game takes most of the imagination away, rather than imagining how
scenes look, they are animated for you to see.   It is debatable
though, that playing a video game takes a certain sense of
imagination, a good video game like HL2 will engage you to a point
where hopefully you will be feeling strong emotions- as you would
watching or reading an intense movie or book.  For a game like this to
work, the visual and sound aspects must be on point.  The gameplay
must be fast-moving enough but still drawn out enough to get involved.
    Sound in HalfLife 2 is critical, the gun-sounds and background
music need to match the feel of the game at the moment.  The example
that comes to mind is Dynasty Warriors, when you're walking in an
unpopulated area, the music is low-key and forboding, as you approach
some enemies the guitar will pick up and as you finally start
fighting, the music picks up to full intenseness, you beat the bad
guys and continue on and the music tones down again, all on the same
track.  To achieve the best narrative sense while playing HL2, I think
you need a big screen tv with the volume turned up.

When I consider video games as art, I think that there must be a
certain amount of creativity involved before it can be considered art.
 It is easy to take advantage of some programs built into videogames,
such as the Sims, that let you "create" your own personality, design
your character, guide them through their lives etc. , but I think that
the artists here are the ones who've created the game.  Kids can play
the Sims, when I was 12 I could've made a great movie of my Sims, but
at the same age I could never have done any kind of legitimate hacking
or modding.  The game lends itself to kids with a very standard set-up
that "creates" a character, it's like comparing the map-building of
HL2 with the skatepark designing of the Tony Hawk games, with THPS
you're given extremely simple tools to build a skatepark, it's set up
almost as if the map-builder was just another level.  At the same
time, you're very limited in what you can build, you have a few ramps
and rails to choose from, and about 3 backgrounds, with HL2 it's
possible to wireframe map before rendering, customize all aspects of
scenery, buildings, weapons, characters, etc.  You can build a
skatepark in 10 minutes, desiging a map in HL2 can take years.
    So, for me to consider art created by videogame engines, it needs
to be either very customized (to the point where it really feels like
your playing a different game) or the ideas that can simply mod things
to be beautiful and artistic, such as Cory Arcangels "Super Mario
Clouds" or the map designer BlackShark's "Revenge of the Clones"  I do
not consider movie-making in the Sims real art, no one would want to
watch a whole movie of the Sims anyways...

View image

When I consider video games as art, I think that there must be a
certain amount of creativity involved before it can be considered art.
 It is easy to take advantage of some programs built into videogames,
such as the Sims, that let you "create" your own personality, design
your character, guide them through their lives etc. , but I think that
the artists here are the ones who've created the game.  Kids can play
the Sims, when I was 12 I could've made a great movie of my Sims, but
at the same age I could never have done any kind of legitimate hacking
or modding.  The game lends itself to kids with a very standard set-up
that "creates" a character, it's like comparing the map-building of
HL2 with the skatepark designing of the Tony Hawk games, with THPS
you're given extremely simple tools to build a skatepark, it's set up
almost as if the map-builder was just another level.  At the same
time, you're very limited in what you can build, you have a few ramps
and rails to choose from, and about 3 backgrounds, with HL2 it's
possible to wireframe map before rendering, customize all aspects of
scenery, buildings, weapons, characters, etc.  You can build a
skatepark in 10 minutes, desiging a map in HL2 can take years.
    So, for me to consider art created by videogame engines, it needs
to be either very customized (to the point where it really feels like
your playing a different game) or the ideas that can simply mod things
to be beautiful and artistic, such as Cory Arcangels "Super Mario
Clouds" or the map designer BlackShark's "Revenge of the Clones"  I do
not consider movie-making in the Sims real art, no one would want to
watch a whole movie of the Sims anyways...