Getting started with machinima:

Lights, Camera, Action!

By Pollywog Gardenvale

Of all the things in Second Life, machinima is the one thing I have wanted to learn the most. There are forums and groups you can join, but I just wanted someone to tell me in as few steps as possible what I need to know to get started—and also how to pronounce it.

If you go to dictionary.com and do a search on the word “machinima,” you will get no results. However, if you go to google.com, you will get over 1,700,000 results. Machinima is still under the radar, but not for long.

Mah-sheen-eh-mah, as in machine and cinema. Now that I know how to pronounce it, the word just rolls off my tongue. Machinima, as in machinimatographer. And machinimatographer, as in someone who just sold the rights to HBO for a series shot in Second Life. Machinima originated in the game culture as a way to shoot “home movies” of in-world battles. Using an immersive game or 3D environment as a backdrop and avatars as actors, you can direct a movie, create a sitcom, or be a talking head on your own evening news. You can even create an art film and enter it in the first European Machinima Film Festival to be held October 12-14, at De Montfort University in Leicester, England.

Last month, Surfdaddy wrote an article about Thinkerer Melville and his pursuit of meaningful creativity in Second Life. While visiting his website, I discovered that he produces machinima and has a channel on YouTube. He even wrote a step-by-step tutorial called the “Vidder Maker Workshop,” that if followed, is guaranteed to have you up-and-running with your own machinima on YouTube.

He promises: “Conquer these six gates, seeker, and you shall enter the city of YouTube.” So I sat down at my laptop to begin the quest.

At the First Gate, I defragged my drive and bought an external hard drive. Then I went online and downloaded the free trial version of FRAPS, a video capture program that lets Windows users record live action in Second Life (or any other 3D world). It’s called FRAPS because it monitors how many Frames Per Second (FPS) are being recorded. The number appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. Although I’m not yet quite sure what to do with that information, I did learn how to turn FRAPS on and off by pressing the F9 key. I also learned that when the number is yellow, nothing is being recorded but when it is red, everything is recorded. So I saved my first machinima file and passed the First Gate.

At the Second Gate, I learned how to import a raw video (.avi) file into Microsoft Movie Maker and save it in a compressed movie format as a .wmv, .mov, or MPEG4 file.

At the Third Gate, I learned how to use the timeline and trim video clips.

At the Fourth Gate, I learned how to add audio to the movie using the free Audacity audio editing software.

At the Fifth Gate, I learned how to add voice-over to my movie.

At the Sixth Gate, I learned how to add transitions between frames, a title, and credits. It was also at this gate that I created my own channel on YouTube and uploaded my first video. And after having mastered the Sixth Gate, I received a virtual Power Badge from Thinkerer as a video maker.

Here are a few important things I have learned so far:

• How to turn off the interface
  One thing that I didn’t learn from the tutorial that I really needed to know is how to turn off the interface screen clutter. Here’s the answer I found in the Second Life Machimima forum: CTRL-ALT-F1.
• How to capture a single frame
  Traditional screen capture methods don’t work with video. but there are several frame-capture utilities available online, including one called FrameShots. The AVS Video Editor also supports frame capture.
• How to extract the audio
  There are advantages to working with the audio and video tracks separately and then combining them at the end. I bought a handy utility called Extract Audio Converter for $29 that does the job quite well.

FRAPS does a very good job capturing in-world audio, but you may want to include additional sound effects and music in your production. There is a wide assortment of sound files available online and many are free. The site SoundDogs.com has a huge selection of royalty-free music and sound effects, for a price, of course. But I’d rather pay for music than have the RIAA come after me.

In addition to Microsoft Movie Maker, I have been using AVS Video Editor, which I picked up online for $39. It has more powerful editing features than Movie Maker and supports a wide variety of output formats. I have been using AVS for the bulk of the editing, and Microsoft Movie Maker to add the scrolling credits at the end and to output the final version. So far, I have invested three weeks and $321 on my new hobby. I spent $136 on software, $145 for an external 320 GB drive, and $40 on music and sound effects.

Even after such a short period of time, I can see the benefit of using an industrial-strength video editor like Adobe Premier Pro. I already use Adobe InDesign, PhotoShop, and Acrobat to produce this paper, so it makes sense to move in that direction. I intend to buy myself a copy as soon as I have $800 to spare.

And I must say that Thinkerer’s claim that, “When you finish this workshop, you will have a video posted on YouTube” proved true. After completing the Vidder Maker Workshop, I did gain entry into the city of YouTube. Not only did I create my own channel and upload a video, but I actually won the YouTube “Editor’s Pick” award. I also got flamed alot, but that’s the Internet. As it turns out, the city of YouTube is not as friendly as Second Life. There’s definitely a different vibe going on there—actually, it’s more like a big flame war. People can leave comments about your videos which may not be very flattering. Here are a few that I’ve received so far: “The quality of this video sucks!”or, “This music is boring!” or, “The introduction’s way too long!” or, “What a waste of time!“ or—and I like this one—”You should never have been born!” (And these are just the ones I can print!)

I’ll try to take it all as constructive criticism. But, putting it into perspective, out of over 75,000 viewers, only about 0.0016% bothered to leave a comment and of those, enough were positive to let me know that I’m on the right track. So this is about all I’ve learned so far. In a few more months, I’ll write another article from a more experienced perspective and try to feature more sophisticated tools and techniques.

Online Resources

SL Groups & Forums

Cheap Software

Video Capture

Video Editing

Audio Editing

Video Frame Capture

Sound Effects & Music

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Good article -- thanks -- 2 notes -- You can use MS movie maker to convert any frame to a JPG. (Probably true of any vid editor) and Fraps will take a jpg with a click of F10.

-- Thinkerer M