What do you think?

Team Fortress 2 was awesome. :cool:

So what do you think is controversial about this? Gamers have been making fan-films for as long as I can remember, from basic screencapture of the monitor to extrracting 3d models from the game to throw into 3dmax environments.

Wolfenstein Online must be close to 15 years old now, and even then you could "record" your entire realtime battles into a textfile that could be emailed to others so they could watch your gameplay after the fact. You could even wander around the map, and view everything from whatever angle you wanted. Heck, in that game you could even create your own custom worlds to play in. Wolfenstein Toy Story-esque land & the Wild West were both a lot fo fun.

For a very creative look at game-movies, check out the Clear Skies videos, which uses a lot of Half-Life models (and their story engine) set in the EVE Online universe. Very witty & creative.

A lot of people will undoubetdly use these types of tools just long enough to catch a meme-wave, but there'll be a handful of really great imagineers (hope that's not copyrighted, Disney!) who can not only create a huge following for themselves, but spur interest (and fanbase) in the game they are modding.

Whatever. I'm rambling now. :blush:
 
There's a certain mindset that ENJOYS fooling around with compositing every aspect of a film as an animation on a computer.
I do not enjoy the experience myself, but certainly understand the appeal to those where the animation spectrum allows them to cost effectively produce what would otherwise be impossible or illegal to perform in the real world.
 
I don't see how there's anything to argue about. This is great. Fans of the video game can create fan-fiction, and filmmakers have a free animation tool made available for them.

I checked out the FAQs, and you are free to use this software on a for-profit project, so long as you don't use any of the company's assets. You'll have to create your own map, your own characters, etc., but the gaming engine is all yours, for free. Cool! :)
 
Ive actually messed around with it myself. Its pretty easy to use (for some basic stuff), but honestly its a bit too much for a production of my size. There is a lot of control of different character movements.I would use it if I can't visualize a scene in my head, or need to communicate with another crew member what I want in the end, but since I'm a one man band - it just slows me down.

But non-less -- its a VERY cool toy :)
 
Yeah, I think it's a great toy. I remember when I was about 7 playing a game where you could create your own movies, and it was essentially a less technically advanced version of this.

It's a great idea for those hardcore gamers who love making game-movies. And I can see it's use as a quick pre-viz application for feature live-action and animated movies. But there's nothing to argue about.

One would still have to design the world, and the characters and model the characters and the world and have the basic animation in place before releasing into the program where the modifications could take place. Great for a game where all that is done already, but starting a movie from scratch? What if you don't want your wold and characters to be the same as those from video games..? What if you want your modelling/lighting/whatever to be more realistic than in games?

If anything, I can see new filmmakers using it as an excuse as to why they're not out making a film(s) - 'oh but I am making a film....'
 
Right now this is pretty limited, you can only use assets from TF2. Once that changes you will see some cool stuff coming from it.
On a related note there's a movie being produced with a modified version of the source engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSMZ6_YKQa4

Using a game engine like this eliminates rendering each frame. Its a good time to be an animator. :)
 
it's great for people who don't have a camera, and who doesn't have friends who want to help out...

also, you can import more skins into the editor now a days, such as halflife 2, portal 2 and more... so it's getting better and better, and having more skins to use to customize your stuff.
 
It's a phenomenal tool, I've dabbled with it a little while myself.

I can't really be intimidated by it any more than I would be intimidated by the people over at Rooster Teeth or Dorkly. Each of them have used video games to make their shorts for quite a while now. This is simply a more comprehensive way to DO that.
 
jax_rox said:
It's a great idea for those hardcore gamers who love making game-movies. And I can see it's use as a quick pre-viz application for feature live-action and animated movies. But there's nothing to argue about.
Click to expand...

You beat me to it. :D

Free Pre-Viz tool? Don't mind if I do!
 
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