Machinima.com
Encyclopedia
Machinima.com is a gaming and media streaming website
, that aims to be a hub for machinima
, the art of creating animated videos in real-time virtual 3-D environments. The site features machinima-related articles, and news. Machinima productions can be submitted for possible redistribution after staff review. Founded in January 2000 by Hugh Hancock of Strange Company
, the site helped to bring attention to machinima and to encourage productions based on game engine
s other than those of id Software
's first-person shooter
computer game
series Quake
. The site currently operates under the name Machinima, Inc.
software, are provided for the discussion of machinima. Additionally, Machinima updates their community with internal and external machinima-related news via dedicated Facebook and Twitter
feeds daily.
Machinima Respawn is an off shoot of the larger Machinima family which is dedicated to showing video of raw gameplay, often commentated by the uploader instead of actual Machinima employees. Prominent members of the Respawn team are Scott "Mr. Sark" Robison, Shaun "Hutch" Hutchinson and Adam "SeaNanners" Montoya. Mr. Sark was hired by Machinima, previously working for G4
's gaming show X-Play
, Hutch was one of the most popular gameplay/commentary uploaders on YouTube and brought many new fans to Machinima. In turn Machinima offered him a job. Similarly, SeaNanners started out his career as a contributor uploading gameplay commentary onto Youtube. SeaNanners is currently the most subscribed on YouTube of the Machinima members. The channel has gained much success with many directors and commentators contributing. The majority of videos consist of gameplay/commentary, with Call of Duty
being the most popular game used.
Machinima Sports is Machinima's second YouTube channel off-shoot, which is dedicated to the showing of all Sports related content that Machimima.com previously featured with everything else. It contains a mix of raw gameplay (similar to Machinima Respawn) and traditional machinima but with sport themes.
On June 19, 2010, another Machinima offshoot was created, dedicated to trailers of previous and upcoming Video Games. Named the "Machinima Trailer Vault", all trailers on the main channel were retracted and re-uploaded onto this channel. It was formally announced on Machinima's Facebook page on that day.
Machinima Realm is the latest branch in Machinima which is focused on RPG, RTS and MMO(RPG)games.
. According to Paul Marino
, executive director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences
, film makers who had been using prior versions of the Quake series to record animated videos, then called "Quake movies", were initially excited, but the enthusiasm dampened when id announced that, in an attempt to curtail cheating
in multiplayer game
s, it would take legal action against anyone who released details of Quake IIIs networking code, which was included in the game's game demo
file format. This precluded the use of custom demo-editing tools that had facilitated the creation of videos that used the older Quake and Quake II
demo file formats, slowing the release of new Quake movies. Another contributing factor to this decline was that the self-referential nature of the gaming-related situations and commentary of Quake movies was losing novelty. Marino explained bluntly that "the joke was getting old". Therefore, the Quake movie community needed to reinvent itself.
In January 2000, Hugh Hancock launched Machinima.com, a resource for video makers who used computer and video games as a medium. The site's name was foreign to the Quake movie community. The term machinima was originally machinema, a portmanteau of machine and cinema. However, Hancock had misspelled the term in a previous email, and the new name stuck because he and Anthony Bailey, who had worked on Quake done Quick
, liked the now-embedded reference to anime
.
The site opened with multiple articles, interviews, and tutorials, and was soon able to acquire exclusive releases of new productions. One such work, Quad God
, was the first to use Quake III Arena and the first to be released in a conventional video file format instead of a demo file format exclusive to a certain game. The switch to conventional media offended some machinima producers, but Quad God helped to introduce machinima to a wider audience and to solidify Machinima.com's launch. Matt Kelland, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd called the release of Quad God "a key moment in the development of machinima. In turn, as Machinima.com became more popular throughout 2000, other game engines, such as that of Unreal Tournament
, became the basis of new productions and the focus of new software tools for machinima.
On 30 January 2006, Hancock announced his resignation as editor-in-chief of Machinima.com and that control of the site would be transferred to the staff of Machinima, Inc. Among the reasons cited for the change were differences in approach to the site and a desire to devote more time to Strange Company's 2006 machinima production
BloodSpell
. Hancock called the decision "possibly the biggest step I've taken since I founded Strange Company nearly nine years ago".
Awhile ago, Machinima released the series called Terminator Salvation
: The Machinima Series, a prequel before the 2009 film
. It was about the story of one of the characters named Blair Williams (voiced by Moon Bloodgood
) and her story about her reaction to the apocalyptic war between machines and humans. It was also distributed by Warner Premiere
, Wonderland Sound and Vision
and The Halcyon Company
. It is currently for download in iTunes
, XBOX Live
, Playstation Network and Amazon Video
.
Towards the end of 2010, Machinima revamped their webpage and removed the forums (wanting users to use the Facebook page instead), and the ability to upload videos.
Gamertag. Kovic has since risen to be a "star" within the Machinima community. He is often seen in Halo 3
-themed machinima form, which is recognisable by his lava-red Recon helmet. Inside Gaming is the successor to Machinima's discontinued segment, Inside Halo, which was less successful due to the lack of news surrounding the Halo series. Inside Halo was also hosted and started by "Soda God" and he let Adam do the show one week and Soda God do the other. When Soda God ceased hosting Inside Halo as often, Kovic unintentionally gained control of the series given that he was doing more recent episodes.
After seeing popularity spikes solely on their YouTube
channel, Machinima focused on expanding it, and now all videos featured on their website are now available via the Machinima YouTube channel. Machinima has also released an iPhone application, where all videos can be viewed from Apple Inc. mobile devices, including iPhone
, iPod Touch
and iPad
. On May 19, 2010, Machinima released a statement on their Facebook
page that they were developing an Android App, and they were in need of "fan beta testers". The App has been released since October 2010.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, that aims to be a hub for machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
, the art of creating animated videos in real-time virtual 3-D environments. The site features machinima-related articles, and news. Machinima productions can be submitted for possible redistribution after staff review. Founded in January 2000 by Hugh Hancock of Strange Company
Strange Company
Strange Company is a group of machinima creators and distributors based in Edinburgh, Scotland. They are known in the medium as the longest-standing machinima production company, having produced machinima films since 1997, and for creating the Machinima.com website, which distributes such films on...
, the site helped to bring attention to machinima and to encourage productions based on game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
s other than those of id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
's first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
computer game
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
series Quake
Quake series
The Quake series is a line of first-person shooter video games produced by id Software.-Overview:The Quake series is somewhat unusual in that its focus changes frequently; the story of Quake II has nothing to do with Quake, and Quake III Arena has little to do with either of its predecessors...
. The site currently operates under the name Machinima, Inc.
Content
According to the Machinima.com home page, the site hosts thousands of machinima videos. Videos are organized by channels, which group the films by game engine, and by series, for episodic works. The site contains articles, interviews with people involved in machinima, and tutorials on the creation of machinima. Visitors can submit news items, which are moderated and posted by the site staff. Community forums, powered by the phpBBPhpBB
phpBB is a popular Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board...
software, are provided for the discussion of machinima. Additionally, Machinima updates their community with internal and external machinima-related news via dedicated Facebook and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
feeds daily.
Machinima Respawn is an off shoot of the larger Machinima family which is dedicated to showing video of raw gameplay, often commentated by the uploader instead of actual Machinima employees. Prominent members of the Respawn team are Scott "Mr. Sark" Robison, Shaun "Hutch" Hutchinson and Adam "SeaNanners" Montoya. Mr. Sark was hired by Machinima, previously working for G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
's gaming show X-Play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
, Hutch was one of the most popular gameplay/commentary uploaders on YouTube and brought many new fans to Machinima. In turn Machinima offered him a job. Similarly, SeaNanners started out his career as a contributor uploading gameplay commentary onto Youtube. SeaNanners is currently the most subscribed on YouTube of the Machinima members. The channel has gained much success with many directors and commentators contributing. The majority of videos consist of gameplay/commentary, with Call of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
being the most popular game used.
Machinima Sports is Machinima's second YouTube channel off-shoot, which is dedicated to the showing of all Sports related content that Machimima.com previously featured with everything else. It contains a mix of raw gameplay (similar to Machinima Respawn) and traditional machinima but with sport themes.
On June 19, 2010, another Machinima offshoot was created, dedicated to trailers of previous and upcoming Video Games. Named the "Machinima Trailer Vault", all trailers on the main channel were retracted and re-uploaded onto this channel. It was formally announced on Machinima's Facebook page on that day.
Machinima Realm is the latest branch in Machinima which is focused on RPG, RTS and MMO(RPG)games.
History and impact
In December 1999, id Software released Quake III ArenaQuake III Arena
Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
. According to Paul Marino
Paul Marino
Paul Marino is a film director, producer, animator, voice actor, and author currently focused on machinima, the art of using engines from video games to create films. He is a co-founder and the executive director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences , a non-profit organization formed in...
, executive director of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences
Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences
This is a list of film festivals dedicated to machinima, the use of real-time 3-D engines in filmmaking. The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences regularly holds such festivals, and recognizes exemplary machinima works through awards nicknamed the Mackies.-Machinima Expo:The is an annual...
, film makers who had been using prior versions of the Quake series to record animated videos, then called "Quake movies", were initially excited, but the enthusiasm dampened when id announced that, in an attempt to curtail cheating
Cheating in online games
Cheating in online games is an activity that modifies the game experience to give one player an advantage over others. Depending on the game, different activities constitute cheating and it is either a matter of game policy or consensus opinion as to whether a particular activity is considered to...
in multiplayer game
Multiplayer game
A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that put the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or AI-controlled opponents, which often...
s, it would take legal action against anyone who released details of Quake IIIs networking code, which was included in the game's game demo
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
file format. This precluded the use of custom demo-editing tools that had facilitated the creation of videos that used the older Quake and Quake II
Quake II
Quake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in coming up with alternative names.The soundtrack for Quake II...
demo file formats, slowing the release of new Quake movies. Another contributing factor to this decline was that the self-referential nature of the gaming-related situations and commentary of Quake movies was losing novelty. Marino explained bluntly that "the joke was getting old". Therefore, the Quake movie community needed to reinvent itself.
In January 2000, Hugh Hancock launched Machinima.com, a resource for video makers who used computer and video games as a medium. The site's name was foreign to the Quake movie community. The term machinima was originally machinema, a portmanteau of machine and cinema. However, Hancock had misspelled the term in a previous email, and the new name stuck because he and Anthony Bailey, who had worked on Quake done Quick
Quake done Quick
Quake done Quick is a series of machinima and speedrun movies in which Quake, its mission packs, and a few of its related games, are completed as fast as possible, utilizing any shortcut or trick necessary...
, liked the now-embedded reference to anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
.
The site opened with multiple articles, interviews, and tutorials, and was soon able to acquire exclusive releases of new productions. One such work, Quad God
Quad God
Quad God is a 2000 film made by Tritin Films. It was created using the machinima technique of recording video frames from id Software's 1999 first-person shooter video game Quake III Arena...
, was the first to use Quake III Arena and the first to be released in a conventional video file format instead of a demo file format exclusive to a certain game. The switch to conventional media offended some machinima producers, but Quad God helped to introduce machinima to a wider audience and to solidify Machinima.com's launch. Matt Kelland, Dave Morris, and Dave Lloyd called the release of Quad God "a key moment in the development of machinima. In turn, as Machinima.com became more popular throughout 2000, other game engines, such as that of Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
, became the basis of new productions and the focus of new software tools for machinima.
On 30 January 2006, Hancock announced his resignation as editor-in-chief of Machinima.com and that control of the site would be transferred to the staff of Machinima, Inc. Among the reasons cited for the change were differences in approach to the site and a desire to devote more time to Strange Company's 2006 machinima production
2006 in machinima
The following is a list of notable machinima-related events in the year 2006. These include several new machinima productions, season finales, and the 2006 Machinima Festival.-Events:...
BloodSpell
BloodSpell
BloodSpell is a 2006 fantasy film produced by Strange Company. BloodSpell employs filming techniques known as machinima, and is the first feature-length production to use BioWare's Aurora Engine, developed for the computer role-playing game Neverwinter Nights, to generate the video portion of the...
. Hancock called the decision "possibly the biggest step I've taken since I founded Strange Company nearly nine years ago".
Awhile ago, Machinima released the series called Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by McG and starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. The fourth installment in the Terminator series, the film is set in 2018 and focuses on the war between Skynet and humanity, with the human Resistance fighting...
: The Machinima Series, a prequel before the 2009 film
Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by McG and starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. The fourth installment in the Terminator series, the film is set in 2018 and focuses on the war between Skynet and humanity, with the human Resistance fighting...
. It was about the story of one of the characters named Blair Williams (voiced by Moon Bloodgood
Moon Bloodgood
Korinna Moon Bloodgood is an American actress and model. She starred as "Lt. Blair Williams" in the film Terminator Salvation alongside Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. Bloodgood previously starred in the films Eight Below and Pathfinder.-Early life:Bloodgood was born in Anaheim, California...
) and her story about her reaction to the apocalyptic war between machines and humans. It was also distributed by Warner Premiere
Warner Premiere
Warner Premiere is the direct-to-video label of Warner Home Video, itself the home video unit of Warner Bros.In 2006, Warner Home Video announced they would enter the market of releasing original direct-to-video films, a market that has proven lucrative for studios over the past few years...
, Wonderland Sound and Vision
Wonderland Sound and Vision
Wonderland Sound and Vision is the production company of producers McG and Stephanie Savage. They are responsible for producing The O.C. and Supernatural as well as Chuck. Wonderland also co-produced all of McG's films since Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.-History:McG and Stephanie Savage formed...
and The Halcyon Company
The Halcyon Company
The Halcyon Company is an American privately financed, media development company headed by Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson. They are perhaps best known for acquiring the global rights to the Terminator franchise in 2007 and for producing Terminator Salvation, which was released worldwide in the...
. It is currently for download in iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, XBOX Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
, Playstation Network and Amazon Video
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
.
Towards the end of 2010, Machinima revamped their webpage and removed the forums (wanting users to use the Facebook page instead), and the ability to upload videos.
Inside Gaming
One of Machinima's most notable and popular series is their daily segment of Inside Gaming. The segment combines the aspects of creating machinima and delivering gaming news. It is hosted by Adam Kovic, an employee of Machinima, under the alias The Dead Pixel. In fact, it was this alias under which his notability and fame were built when it was his initial Xbox LiveXbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
Gamertag. Kovic has since risen to be a "star" within the Machinima community. He is often seen in Halo 3
Halo 3
Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...
-themed machinima form, which is recognisable by his lava-red Recon helmet. Inside Gaming is the successor to Machinima's discontinued segment, Inside Halo, which was less successful due to the lack of news surrounding the Halo series. Inside Halo was also hosted and started by "Soda God" and he let Adam do the show one week and Soda God do the other. When Soda God ceased hosting Inside Halo as often, Kovic unintentionally gained control of the series given that he was doing more recent episodes.
Expansion of distribution mediums
Currently, Machinima has expanded onto many websites and platforms to distribute their content. Machinima currently maintains their main website, five YouTube channels, an iPhone/iPad application, an Android application, and Facebook/Twitter feeds that distribute news content.After seeing popularity spikes solely on their YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel, Machinima focused on expanding it, and now all videos featured on their website are now available via the Machinima YouTube channel. Machinima has also released an iPhone application, where all videos can be viewed from Apple Inc. mobile devices, including iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
and iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
. On May 19, 2010, Machinima released a statement on their Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page that they were developing an Android App, and they were in need of "fan beta testers". The App has been released since October 2010.