Has the Slope of the Curve Increased?

I'm starting to notice an interesting trend that I think gives an idea of how machinima is currently viewed in the markets and may point to what's next. First there's the CNN Money article, "One word for you Hollywood: Machinima," which is interesting not only because it focuses is on how machinima may affect Hollywood monetarily, but that the article is in the Money section of CNN, vs. tech or the arts.

Or are we higher?

In addition to that, I've received a few calls recently from market research analysts. These are the guys at security trading firms whose sole job is to research current trends in a particular sector - technology, software – that could affect the companies they invest in and trade. Whatever you might think about Wall Street, one thing these guys are good at is sniffing out the smallest movement in a market that may affect their bottom line.

Now mix in Paul's experience in Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Will Wright conference (along with the recent NY Times article), where some well titled media VP's gave powerpoint presentations with our good word machinima in it, presentations that mentioned how they were monitoring machinima and discussing its potential for future entertainment. It seems eve the word machinima itself is starting to become a buzz word.

I'm no expert on the life-cycle of a nascent technique-process-market (and would like to find one that correlates to ours and study it, any ideas?) but it's clear to me that people who produce media are watching and possibly even positioning themselves for what may come. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years and look back to see who predicated and planned skillfully.

Characters at your Fingertips

One of the great features of the machinima process is its ability to make life easier for an animator (or non-traditional key frame animator). Given how computers have that knack, the skies the limit as far as the future is concerned. One such feature I believe could propel machinima closer into the mainstream: a simple but powerful character generator

If you play the massive online role playing game Everquest II you probably already know what I'm talking about. When you first create a character there, you don't just choose the usual RGP characteristic's of class, race and sex (humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves etc), you get to mold the features of your character into a distinct look. With thousands of other players on the same server, you want your avatar to stand out from the crowd.

Various character types generated in EQII's character generator.
In the character generator, you're given the choice of various head attributes to customize, like the eyes, hair, skin, face etc. But the beauty of it is it's not a limited cookie-cutter list, like blue, green or brown eyes. Instead you get a slider that chooses from a range of colors. You also get the ability to adjust the angle and the size of the eyes. Same for the skin and hair color, check bone position, mouth, ears and body height to name a few.

You don't get complete and total control over the look of the character but I think that's the point. Total control is called Max or Maya. Here it's about having the simply ability to adjust enough attributes within a range of choices so you can produce a rather unique avatar. In other words, a simple tool that allows for a certain amount of creative freedom.

Now in machinima production, lets say you needed a group of generic people for a small crowd scene, or to do walk-bys as the leads chat on the street (walk-bys are were the same people walk back and forth in the background to simulate a busy street or scene). Just jump into the character generator and create the racial/age mix of characters you need. Weather you're shooting on a busy urban street in New York City or on the boardwalk in Miami, you'll be able to quickly create the character types you need to flesh out that specific scene.

A chracter generator can create completely
different characters to fit your story.
The other great advantage of a character generator is that a novice machinima filmmaker could customize all their characters including the leads to fit their story. To me this makes sense because it's one of the directions that machinima is heading: empowering filmmakers regardless of their technical ability. With a simple character generator, a basic set of animation (walk, run, shrug, point, etc) shared by all the characters and a decent machinima toolset, you now have a machinima package that even kids could play and create with, right out of the box.

Yes we do that now to a certain degree but it's called fan fiction because we're using the game makers assets. But with a character generator, (and maybe a simple prop and environment generator as well, somewhat like in the Sims) you don't have to jump to the next extreme step of creating all new assets from scratch, a bit of a stretch for most people. Now you can learn your machinima and filmmaking craft first, then progress to a more advanced technical level (and quality) as fits the need of the production.

Technology is great when it allows creativity to flourish vs. getting in the way of it. Machinima is that kind of technological process (though at times it doesn't feel like it) and the potential of a character generator, I believe, will advance the machinima process as an effective and valuable animating tool.