PART ONE OF ONE

I have had a lot of requests lately for this information. Rather than having to repeat various parts of this, I decided to write this up into one guide. Please keep in mind that I too am learning as I go, so this is far from complete. This is also what works best for me and everyone will be slightly different when it comes to their own works. This is just a guide line to get you going.

This is basically the Machinima (12 Steps) guide I found. I just did some editing and added more   more...information to it. I hope it helps and enjoy!





STEP ONE - Test The Waters
"Every time a new game comes out, we try to figure out if we can use it for machinima. What we'll do is take a game--say, a first-person shooter--install it on a couple machines, and spend time just walking up to each other in multiplayer. We check each other out, the way each character walks... we're just stupid that way." - Mike "Burnie" Burns - Rooster Teeth

Simple enough. Just see what you can do with the game of your choice. See what your restrictions are and what your abilities are. Look at all aspects of the characters appearances and the versitility of being able to alter them as needed. Check out your camera angles and see if you are able to get all sorts of good angles and movements. Also check to see if the HUD will cause a problem with film as it is ideal to be able to remove the HUD while filming.





STEP TWO - Write The Script
"We start with Burnie. He writes the script, and then we sit around, read it, and tell him what a terrible job he did." - Matt Hullum - Rooster Teeth
"I wanted to make it funny." - Mike "Burnie" Burns - Rooster Teeth

That great idea that's been bouncing around in your head? Put it down on paper! Or, rather, a word processor. Get into the habit of carrying around a small notebook everywhere you go. You never know when a great idea will pop into your head and you dont want to forget it. You might even hear or see something funny and with your handy little notebook, you will be sure to never forget it. One day you could be working on a project and run out of ideas, that is when you pull out your notebook and start flipping through it. It is a very helpful tool.

Now you can sit down and write a full script, which is recommended if you are having several other people help you with your film. This way they all know what they are supposed to do and when. If it is just yourself doing the filming, then as long as you know your story well in your head, you could probably skip this part. For all you fancy types that want to feel like Hollywood moguls, use what the pros use: Movie Magic Screenwriter (www.screenplay.com) or Final Draft (www.finaldraft.com).




STEP THREE - Start Casting

Your first instinct will be to tap some friends to do the voices. That's cool, but don't be afraid to try hosting casting sessions. Post on a game's forum page and you're sure to find a bunch of people willing to help. Another angle: tap your local college's voice-acting students. Now a commercial success story, Rooster Teeth uses actual actors--y'know, the kind that expect to be paid at some point.





STEP FOUR - Coordinate

Odds are you won't have everyone in the same room. This requires planning, or what they call in the business "preproduction." Set up calls, online chats, whatever it takes to make sure people are available when and where you need them.

This can be real challenging as people you count on to be there flake on you. Dont let it get you down and dont let it stop you. Just try to come up with other ways to bypass them and move on with the project. Try working on other parts of your project until the missing parts are available. Once it has reached the point where you need those missing pieces and they are still not available, go with replacements and substitutions. If you gave yourself a deadline, do your best to meet that deadline.





STEP FIVE - Storyboard It (Or Don't)
"When you're trying to storyboard something you draw pictures and whatever to set the stage. Suddenly, you have to find stuff in the environment to make it work. The nice thing about machinima is that you can play in a 3D environment and storyboard on the fly. It's fun, it's flexible, it's fast. Of course, dialogue drives Rooster Teeth's movies. Action sequences still need planning." - Mike "Burnie" Burns - Rooster Teeth

Some recommend storyboarding everything first, but this ain't Hollywood. You can get by with just a mental picture of your film in your head. An exercise that is goods to help with this is to take a blank sheet of printer paper and stare at it, imagining your film playing out on it. Do this a few times until you are sure you have your film working the way you want it to work in your head.





STEP SIX - Record The Audio
"Rooster Teeth separately records all audio tracks first, and then cuts them together into a kind of radio play. - Matt Hullum - Rooster Teeth

While Fraps will record audio in game (Which I recommend using just for game background noise), another option is Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net), a free program that both records and stitches audio clips together. Hullum prefers to use professional software like Adobe Premiere (www.adobe.com/products/premiere/). When done, the audio forms the basis for how they begin shooting the video.

Some of the better ways to record your voice actors online is to use programs like Ventrillo or Teamspeak. However, those two require servers to be used, and often times servers have to be paid for. To go the "free" route, you can use things like Yahoo Messenger but I personally prefer X-Fire (www.xfire.com)as it is free also, but has many other functions great for gamers.  less