The Long Tale

I’m watching a video series, DigitalPh33r’s Guide to Making Halo 3 Machinima. So far it’s an excellent, no-bullshit guide with plenty of funny interludes to keep it interesting. I’ll take notes of some key points while I watch.

Part One

> Halo 3, with its Theatre mode, is the only console game with enough flexibility to make a decent machinima. On PC, Half-Life 2 is the best, but you have to learn how to use the developer’s scripting tools. (If only I’d watched this video a month ago, we could have saved so much time…)

> If the machinima looks too much like regular gameplay, it’s boring to watch. To make a good machinima, you have to forget the principles of gameplay and think about the principles of cinema. (The dull video of griefers bombing a funeral in World of Warcraft is proof of that.)

> Microsoft’s Game Content Usage Rules:

Microsoft grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and display Game Content and to create derivative works based upon Game Content, strictly for noncommercial and personal use. We can revoke this limited use license at any time and for any reason.

If you share your Items with your friends or post them on your web site, then we’d also like you to include the following notice about the Game Content. You can put it in a README file, or on the web page from where it’s downloaded, or anywhere else that makes sense so long as anyone who sees your Item will also find this notice.

[The title of your Item] was created under Microsoft’s “Game Content Usage Rules” using assets from GAMENAME, © Microsoft Corporation.

> He covers audio copyright issues, but points out that thousands of videos and flash animations have been published on the web using unlicensed music and nobody seems to mind as long as it’s not for profit. (Harry and I will be using a mix of audio from Halo 3 itself, covered under Microsoft’s allowed usage rules, and audio in the public domain, as part of our Public Service Announcement theme.)

Part Two

> A detailed explanation of how to capture footage from Halo 3 and what you can’t do. Key point: you need a video capture device between your Xbox/TV and your computer. (Again: if only I’d watched this a month ago…)

> If you’re going to yell, just yell, and accept the peaked-out sound. It has a certain charm that’s missing from a clearly audible yell, and yelling-while-whispering sounds ridiculous.

Part Three

> Write a decent script and give each bit of dialogue a numbered code, to match up the audio files with later.

> Use Forge to set up the level. Remove all optional items, such as weapons and vehicles, so you don’t catch them on camera by accident. In an area that will not be filmed in the scene, place spawn points for each player and at least two of every weapon and piece of equipment you might need, set to the lowest possible respawn time. This cuts down on waiting for equipment while filming.

> Have multiple levels constructed if necessary, for different scenes. Label them clearly.

Part Four

> For the game settings, increase the running speed to 125%. This looks more realistic, as the default running speed in Halo 3 is slower than in real life. Think about whether you want the character to appear to be holding a threatening weapon, and set the starting weapon accordingly. Remove grenades, for reasons explained below.

> There is an option to lower your weapon in Halo 3, but it’s disabled in online play. Characters look strange when they’re pointing their gun in a non-combat setting, obviously, so this basically limits any machinima with non-combat acting to local play.

> To lower your weapon: LB + RB + left stick click down + d-pad down + A. Hold for three seconds.

> To raise your weapon: the different attack buttons will raise your weapon in different ways. To raise your weapon calmly without firing it, you have to hit the grenade-throw button without any grenades equipped.

> Don’t bother with head-bobbing for speech. It’s unnecessary and makes filming dialogue much more difficult. But it can be useful for more expressive head actions, like sighing, yawning or spitting.

Part Five

> Go easy on the analog sticks when walking and looking around. Tilt the stick smoothly and with an even, constant pressure. Remember that looking around in a direction too far away from where your character is facing will cause it to jump around.

> To make a character turn while walking, maintain a constant upwards pressure on the left stick and make slow, wide turns using a constant unchanging pressure on the right stick. Always walk forward, and let the right stick do all the turning.

> Save films, name them and number them appropriately. Don’t leave them in the Recent Films list.

> You can film objects moving, such as doors opening, in Forge mode. These films will be under Forge, not in with the rest of the films.

> Consider starting the machinima with an environment shot. For a static shot, frame a few obvious objects and leave the camera still. For a panning shot, make sure the camera has room to move and maintain a constant light pressure on the stick.

> When shooting characters, remember composition. When framing a character’s face, leave more room on the side of the screen they are looking towards. Always keep the camera on the same side of the characters.

> You can use shaky-cam to enhance action shots, but it’s tricky to get it right. It’s important to keep the camera moving the whole time and to keep the character in-frame. It may take many attempts.

> When framing action, such as a character entering a scene, you can fast-forward to where the character is already in position, frame the shot, rewind to before they arrive and then record them walking in.

> Record action from multiple angles.

> Use a pan or a slow zoom to emphasise a dramatic moment or a monologue – but don’t overdo it.

Part Six

> Record and edit voice acting before editing the footage. Raise or lower the vocal pitch slightly to create different “characters”. Save and label edited voice tracks appropriately. DigitalPh33r’s system: for the 32nd line of dialogue, spoken by John Brent, save it as 32JB.wav

> To achieve a low-quality sound effect, such as for voice heard over radio, lower the sampling rate from 44100hz to 5000hz.

> For scenes that are primarily dialogue, lay the audio tracks first and trim the video to suit. For scenes that are primarily visual, lay the video first and trim the audio to suit.

> For a video that will be uploaded to the internet, render at a resolution of no more than 640 x 480 and an audio quality that’s good enough but not too large. Aim for around 2.5MB per minute of footage.

Tags: animation, community documentary, machinima, video

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 12:04 am and is filed under Transient Spaces. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.