Introduction

Machinima is a way of creating movies using game engines in real-time, what I and a lot of people do is slighly different, we create CG animations, a bit like Pixar or Dreamworks, but on a much lower budget or zero budget. I use software such as Moviestorm or iClone. It's also known as "Anymation", but I guess the main stream would refer to it as Computer Graphics Imagery or CGI

Watch this video by Hardy Capo to see a glimpse of what can be done on a PC or Mac.

I first started making Computer animated short films a while back. I used 'Microsoft Movie maker 3D' which is a kids program, but you can build sets, add characters and tell a story.

Later I found 'The Movies' which is a Movie business simulation game, one feature allows you to make a movie using pre-fab sets and scenes, but I found this a bit limiting so I went looking for something better, and found 'Moviestorm'. That was in December 2007, and have been making short films/comedy sketches in it since then. Using Moviestorm is better than using a game for me personally, as its designed to make CG movies so you can build sets or use the pre-fab ones, design your own characters or again,

use the pre-fab ones, use the props that come with it, or buy add-on packs with more props, you can also subscribe to open up the ability to make and add your own props.

I'm now playing with Reallusion's iClone 4 to use as well as Moviestorm, both offer different ways of making CG Animations, and I like them both very much. iClone tends to be more nearer the 'high-end' graphics rendering, takes longer to render, but the quality is closer to what you'd see produced by Pixar, whereas Moviestorm renders almost in real time, the shadows and shading are not stunning, so its speed over quality. I'll be using both iClone and Moviestorm in the near future, who knows what software will be available next year. One things for sure, its just got a whole lot easier to be a film maker.

There has been a bit of controversy regarding using the word 'Machinima' when making films in non-real-time, such as using Moviestorm or iClone, which is fair enough, other words such as 'anymation' have been used. I'd best describe this hobby of mine as Amateur CG animation. We're doing exactly what Pixar and dreamworks do, but instead of huge custom-made rendering computers, we're using a PC or Mac.

One advantage of this term is that the general public know the term CG or CGI, so if we say "I'm an amateur CGI animator", they'd tend to know what you do, to say "I'm a machinimator or Machinimatographer" and most people havn't got a clue. Anyway, that's my view on it. I make this stuff for fun, a hobby and enjoy every minute of it, lets not get bogged down with terminology.