SErik

Machinima reactivated*
*according to the use of the expression “reactive” by Jim Campell
Proposal for a Master-Thesis by Erik Schneider
Introduction
Machinima is a way to produce animated films by using a 3d computer real time engine. The makers often speak of a cheap, fast and easy and therefore independent way to make animated films. The use of real time environments has significant advantages in the production process. Most machinimas are produced with game engines which add a lot of extra advantages. For example most of the times the makers of machinima not only use the engine but also the content of the game like graphics, animation and sounds.
Machinima as a technology uses the benefits of a real time engine to shorten or ease the production of animated film. But most of the time the producers leave the real time world and distribute their movies in a linear and therefore pre-rendered way.
This is the point where I want to take a step “backwards” towards the real-time world. One of the great benefits in this world is the possibility to make changes on the fly. Therefore I want to use this potential and give the viewers the possibility to interact with the work.
I want to show up three ways of using this potential of machinima with three practical examples.
Multipurpose Concept
Providing self-made graphic- and animation-content is a complex and time consuming thing to do. Therefore it rarely happens that people are providing own content in mainstream machinima productions. Most of the people working on machinima are doing this in their spare-time.
All of my three practical examples will have a basic concept which includes story, graphics and animation. To base the three different examples on one basic concept offers me the chance of reusing content like 3d models and animations. This will enhance the possibility to make time efficient productions with machinima.
Thesis
My thesis will consist of two parts. One is the theoretical part where I examine and describe the three ideas of creating interactive media with machinima. The other one is to examine the practical side of these concepts by working on tests and prototypes.
Video installation
The first practical concept will be that of a video installation. In this installation a story will be told. The goal of this thesis is to examine some of the interactive potential with machinima. The use of interaction is a step back to the origin of machine: Computer games. I want to make to use a similar idea of taking a step back in the matter of story telling. Since some time now various scientific efforts were made to use computers for interactive or generative storytelling but never reached a stage where it would be of any interested to normal viewers/players. The only work which made its way to a significant amount of people outside the scientific field was the interactive drama Façade by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern.
My intention will be not to achieve maximal variations through the use of artificial intelligence or to produce a lot of story parts for the use in a pathway like a rhizome, tree or labyrinth which is the case in most interactive story telling approaches. The interest I have is to make a rollercoaster ride in which interactive elements increase two things: The joy of the participant and his identification with a character. This approach has its roots in the world of computer games. In a lot of games cut scenes are there to dramatize the game play. The story is there to enhance the game experience. My approach is to add interactive parts to enhance the story.
In a video installation normally several people are there at one time to view the work. Therefore it is also my goal to develop a multi-user interface. In addition to that there are two more requirements for the interface: It has to be easy to use to not interfere with the attention of the user to the story and it has to work with a various amount of people using it.
In the last years the costs of little cameras have been decreased to a point of negligibility and in addition there are a lot of camera tracking solutions. Therefore the idea is to use cheap cameras to track various people and use their position in space as an input value for the interface.
Virtual puppeteering
Virtual puppeteering is a machinima term. It is used to describe a production method where people animate the actors in real time. Normally they use standard input devices like keyboards, mice or game pads.
The idea is to use the technology of machinima in puppet theatre. One of the two German universities which offer the opportunity to study “Figurentheater” is the “Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Stuttgart”. The idea is to work with students of this course and to enable them to animate a 3d model in a real time environment. The main goal will be to find interface devices with which the students will be able to use animation techniques which are familiar to them.
In addition to that it would be great to have the chance to proof this technique in a live performance. This play would be made out of the basic concept and could use nearly the same story and graphic as the video installation, only without the interactive game like parts from the video installation. In addition the work could be an opportunity to use the animation technique for the production of the video installation.
Live cinema
The third practical case in which machinima technology can be used would be in the field of live visuals. There are several terms for this field: live visuals, live cinema, expanded cinema or, more popular, vjing.
In this field a lot of concepts and techniques are in use. To narrow the goal here is a must. The main goal is to give the artist the chance of easy and direct manipulation of several parameters because in most cases the visuals will be a live improvisation for live or recorded music which is played. A common interface is a midi keyboard in addition to a mouse and keyboard. In live performances one can only control a certain amount of things at a time. To be able to produce live cinema with the content of the basic concept it is therefore necessary to choose a certain amount of parameters and actions which can be manipulated. In the end the interface should be manageable and flexible.
While in the video installation the visitor can interact in live cinema and virtual puppeteering the interactivity lies only in the hand of the performer. There is a simple difference between the virtual puppeteering and live cinema. A virtual puppeteer plays a character as it is written in a script. In live cinema the visuals are normally without a concrete story and the VJ is corresponding to the music which is played at the time of the performance.
Structure
At first the thesis has to introduce machinima. There are only a few scientific works about this topic and therefore I will write about machinima today, its keystones, possible future and of course about its interactive potential. Because of this potential there will be some thoughts about possible uses in the field of interactive media.
One topic will be the development of a multipurpose concept for the three applications I am going to examine.
In every of the three ways to use interactive machinima I am going to work on the concept itself and on certain selected concrete aspects. In the chapter for the video installation this will be my interactive storytelling approach. In this chapter I also want to define the differences between interactive media/machinima/computer games and I am going to write about the concept of a multi-user interface. In the chapter about the live virtual puppeteering it will be the comparison of machinimas virtual puppeteering and “normal” puppeteering and the development of a puppeteering interface. In the chapter about live cinema my main theme focus will be about the use of a game engine for live visuals and the use of a keyboard for the manipulations of a 3d environment.
Practical work
Because of the extensive concepts on which I want to work on in my thesis there will most certainly not be the time to realize all if not one of them. But also if this is the case my intention is not to only theoretically write about these concepts but also to make first practical tests and prototypes. I think this practical work will bring the concepts to more clarity and practical use and if I am in a situation to do so I will defiantly continue my work on these subjects to bring my concepts to life.
Work together
It is possible to be a one man team for the production of a machinima but it is also possible to cooperate with others. To enhance my work I want to work together with people. In case of the virtual puppeteering of course with students of the “Figurentheater” course. But also in the basic concept there is a lot of room for collaborations with 3d, sound and music artists.
Technique
For the game engine I want to use Epics Unreal Tournament 3. Because it was released very recently I was not able to test or view it on my own. I have no skills for game development. That’s why I have to spend some time to learn the techniques of scripting and programming in Unreal. The game studio Epic is well known to give very good tools to there community so that users will be able to modify the game in very many ways.
For the work on interfaces and camera-tracking I will most certainly use vvvv or Pure Data. These programs are extremely good for interactive purposes and are also fast prototyping tools.
At the hardware-side I of course will examine different input devices like midi-keyboard, gametrak, wiimote and maybe some other gadgets which will come to be handy.
Bibliography
The following list shows some works on which I maybe base my thesis. In addition to this I will use several online resources. This is necessary because there is only a small amount of scientific literature about machinima. A lot of the ongoing development can only be seen in the internet.
Books
Bolter, Jay David: Writing Spacse. The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Hillsdale 1991
Halevi-Wise, Yael: Interactive fictions : scenes of storytelling in the novel. Westport 2003
Hagebölling, Heide: Interactive Dramaturgies. New Approaches in Multimedia Content and Design. Springer 2004
Inkinen, Sam: Mediapolis: aspects of texts, hypertexts, and multimedial communication. Berlin 1999
Kelland, Matt and Morris, Dave and Hartas, Leo: Machinima: Making Animated Movies in 3D Virtual Environments. Ilex 2005
Laurel, Brenda: Computers as Theatre. Addison-Wesley 1991
Marion, Paul: 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima. Paraglyph Inc. 2004
Murray, Janet H.: Hamlet on the Holodeck. The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York 1997
Suter, Beat: Hyperfiktion und interaktive Narration. Zürich 2000
Hagebölling, Heide (2004): Interactive Dramaturgies. New Approaches in Multimedia Content and Design.
Bullivant, Lucy: 4dsocial - interactive design environments. Chichester 2007
Magazines
Machinimag: Issues 1-7 2004-2006
SCEEN: Issue 01 September 2005
Theses/Papers/Articles
Jacobson, Jeffery and Hwang, Zimmy: Unreal Tourment for Immersive Interactive Theatre. In Communications of the ACH January 2002/Vol. 45, No.1
Kuntze, Dirk: Machinima, gespielter Film oder gefilmtes Spiel? Zwischen Film, Game und Figurentheater. Universität Leipzig 2006
Schmitt, Lutz: Machinima: Medium und Technologie. Köln International School of Design 2006
Makela, Mia: Live Cinema: Language and Elements. Helsinki University of Art and Design 2006
Elson, David K. and Ridel, Mark O.:A Lightweight Intelligent Virtual Cinematography System for Machinima Production

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 11:45 am and is filed under Thesis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.