moo Money’s Machinima class

On March 5, moo Money did a one-hour session on machinima in the open area on Cybrary City. Below is the chat session (with minimal clean up). Someone will be posting photos to Flickr.

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[14:07] moo Money: I’m moo Money
[14:08] moo Money: I work with Alt-Zoom Studios to promote and educate residents about machinima
[14:08] moo Money: and I’m also about to work with Barry Joseph on Global Kids Island on the teen grid
[14:08] moo Money: under the name Machinima Guru
[14:09] moo Money: Machinima itself started out many, many years ago
[14:09] moo Money: People were using it with the Quake engine
[14:09] moo Money: it was originally called Machinema because it was a combo of machine and cinema
[14:10] moo Money: in an email that went back and forth with Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram, Hugh misspelled the word as “machinima” and they liked it
[14:10] moo Money: Fast forward to Second Life
[14:11] moo Money: An alpha tester named BuhBuhCuh Fairchild loved SL so much that he moved to San Francisco in 2003 in hopes of working at Linden Lab
[14:11] moo Money: He soon became Ben Linden
[14:11] moo Money: While there, they introduced the built in machinima option, and Alt-Zoom Studios was born
[14:12] moo Money: He purchased a backlot island, Lukanida, that can be used by anyone for low lag filming
[14:12] moo Money: and then he hired me to educate, which is why I’m here now
[14:12] moo Money: So how familiar are you guys with machinima?
[14:12] Danu Dahlstrom: not very
[14:12] Alexandria Knight: I’ve looked at a few
[14:12] Rosmairta Kilara: I’ve watched a lot and tried a little
[14:12] HVX Silverstar: YEs
[14:12] Christi Janus: me not at all
[14:12] Duder Pahute: Yes
[14:12] Munki Young: never heard of it:)
[14:12] Danu Dahlstrom: watched them though
[14:12] You: I’ve tried the built-in function with no success!
[14:12] moo Money: the built-in function is a tricky little beast
[14:13] moo Money: if you use things like Trillian for chat, those hotkeys take preference over SL
[14:13] moo Money: so you won’t be able to use them to record
[14:13] moo Money: okay let’s look at BuhBuhCuh ’s cheesy slides
[14:14] moo Money: okay so these are some machinimas made with different platforms
[14:14] moo Money: Red vs Blue is on Halo 2, Bloodspell with Neverwinter Nights, and A Scream in the Dark of Night by Pierce Portocarrero from the 1st annual Ed Wood Festival in SL
[14:15] moo Money: hrm
[14:15] moo Money: ah there the slide goes
[14:15] moo Money: one of the reasons that it’s so cool is that it can get treated like a real film
[14:15] moo Money: Bloody Mary, by Pierce Portocarrero, was actually shown at a real film festival in Paris
[14:16] moo Money: I should note that several SL machinimists also went on to be nominated for the big machinima festival in NY
[14:16] moo Money: four machinimists for a total of seven nominations
[14:17] moo Money: we only won in one category though
[14:17] moo Money:
[14:17] moo Money: so if you’ll all go to your graphics tab
[14:17] moo Money: in preferences
[14:17] Rosmairta Kilara: Are these slides on the web somwhere? I can’t read them at all
[14:17] moo Money: you’ll see that it’s changed a bit since these slides were made
[14:18] moo Money: I can pass them out
[14:18] Alexandria Knight: Where’s the graphics tab?
[14:18] moo Money: umm
[14:18] moo Money: it’s 4th down
[14:18] Rebekah Cavan: Go to Edit, then Preferences
[14:18] Munki Young: press strg+p
[14:18] moo Money: ah sorry
[14:18] moo Money: I forgot edit
[14:18] Alexandria Knight: Got it
[14:19] Munki Young:
[14:19] moo Money: how many run SL in full screen?
[14:19] Alexandria Knight: I do
[14:19] Munki Young: me too
[14:19] Davee Commerce: nope
[14:19] Duder Pahute: yeah
[14:19] Alice Burgess: me too
[14:19] Rebekah Cavan: me too
[14:19] HVX Silverstar: I do..1920×1200
[14:19] Daisyblue Hefferman: yes
[14:19] Danu Dahlstrom: not me
[14:19] You: Not sure.
[14:20] moo Money: I personally run mine windowed because I’m a chat junkie
[14:20] moo Money: but if you run full screen, it’s best to let it auto detect your ratio
[14:20] Alexandria Knight: Oh, sorry–I do run it in a window
[14:21] You: Me too…now that I know what you’re lookig at.
[14:21] moo Money: full screen means that you would have to alt tab or exit SL to access your task bar
[14:21] Rebekah Cavan: Oh. I’m not full screen, etither
[14:22] moo Money: okay
[14:22] moo Money: a word about draw distance
[14:22] moo Money: you only want as much draw distance as you need in the scene
[14:23] moo Money: every bit more that it has to draw is more lag
[14:23] moo Money: ideally you want to film in a void view
[14:23] moo Money: meaning that your scene is facing the ocean
[14:23] moo Money: even if it’s a building
[14:23] Evie Mikazuki is Offline
[14:23] moo Money: if you are facing nothing, that’s less your computer has to render
[14:24] moo Money: You can build your own sets, or choose to film somewhere that’s already built
[14:24] moo Money: it’s a good idea to ask for permission from the owner of the plot though
[14:24] You: Moo…The draw distance is set for 64. Is that too high?
[14:25] Danu Dahlstrom: can someone capture the transcript and post it somewhere public?
[14:25] moo Money: that’s the minimum that SL willdo
[14:25] moo Money: *will do
[14:25] moo Money: it goes from 64 to 512
[14:25] moo Money: in 32m increments I believe
[14:25] You: Danu….I’ll try to post online wiht SL librarans.
[14:25] Danu Dahlstrom: thanks
[14:26] moo Money: as far as people go, you can get actors from your friends list or groups like Machinimatographers or the Actors Guild
[14:26] moo Money: but you only want as many people there that is in your scene
[14:26] moo Money: every person with their prim hair, shoes, etc is more lag
[14:27] moo Money: ah I need to remove this slide
[14:27] moo Money: Ben’s sense of humor
[14:27] Danu Dahlstrom: can it be used for just scenery rather than actors?
[14:27] moo Money: a set?
[14:27] moo Money: or the people
[14:28] moo Money: you can use people for scenery
[14:28] Danu Dahlstrom: ok
[14:28] moo Money: ask them to sit in coffee shops etc
[14:28] moo Money: I have heard that the First Look client is good with frame rates
[14:28] moo Money: but I’ve had only bad luck with it
[14:28] moo Money: okay so resolution
[14:29] moo Money: it’s darn near impossible to see what you’re filming in 320×240
[14:29] moo Money: that will be the eventual resolution you render down to for internet uploads
[14:29] moo Money: but you want to film at at least 640×480
[14:30] moo Money: if you can’t see the slide, you would go under file –> set window size –>
[14:30] moo Money: it’s just above the quit option
[14:31] moo Money: I realize it’s quite small for people running their monitors in HD resolution
[14:31] moo Money: but it’s bearable at 640×480 or 800×600
[14:31] moo Money: okay so to record
[14:31] moo Money: there are a couple of ways to do it
[14:31] moo Money: you could either hit CTRL SHIFT A at the same time
[14:32] moo Money: but as I mentioned previously, if you have something such as Trillian, it won’t work
[14:32] Danu Dahlstrom: same for a mac?
[14:32] moo Money: the hotkey is already used by other programs
[14:32] moo Money: I think CTRL is replaced by the Apple
[14:32] moo Money: the other way to do it is to use the menu
[14:33] moo Money: so go under the menu
[14:33] moo Money: file
[14:33] moo Money: file –> stop/start movie to disk
[14:33] moo Money: it SHOULD list the hotkey for the Mac to use
[14:33] moo Money: it’ll pop up the option to save it to a location
[14:33] Danu Dahlstrom: yup, thanks
[14:33] moo Money: you can’t save it to the desktop
[14:33] moo Money: it’s an error
[14:33] moo Money: it won’t work
[14:34] moo Money: anywhere else should be fine
[14:34] moo Money: you want to save it in full frames (uncompressed)
[14:34] HVX Silverstar: yes, it’s command-shift-a on a mac
[14:34] moo Money: I should mention that the built-in tool is really clunky
[14:34] HVX Silverstar: … apple-shift-a
[14:35] moo Money: it will cut your frame rate in at least half, and one minute of footage will run at almost one gb
[14:35] moo Money: just for 640×480
[14:35] Rosmairta Kilara: How do you get rid of the itnerface?
[14:36] moo Money: if it’s entirely possible, I would suggest fraps to people
[14:36] moo Money: that’s the next question
[14:36] Rosmairta Kilara: the one time I recorded it was all clunky with people’s anmes and stuff
[14:36] moo Money: it’s CTRL ALT 1
[14:36] Danu Dahlstrom: any good mac alternative to fraps (free ideally)?
[14:36] Susan Lightfoot: where do you get fraps?
[14:36] moo Money: or Apple Alt 1
[14:36] Alexandria Knight: What are “fraps?”
[14:36] Danu Dahlstrom: google it
[14:36] moo Money: Snapz Pro is the only one I’ve heard of
[14:36] moo Money: for the Mac
[14:36] Danu Dahlstrom: it costs thought i think
[14:36] moo Money: a lot of people are using bootcamp
[14:37] moo Money: and fraps
[14:37] moo Money: Fraps costs money as well
[14:37] Susan Lightfoot: http://www.fraps.com/
[14:37] moo Money: it’s roughly 37 or 40 bucks for a license
[14:37] moo Money: HOWEVER
[14:37] Danu Dahlstrom: there’s a free one that grabs 30 seconds at a time
[14:37] moo Money: if you get 4 other people to go in on it with you, it’s only 20 bucks a piece
[14:37] Susan Lightfoot: so it can be shared?
[14:38] moo Money: I have to object to the free one because it says “www.fraps.com” at the top of your machinima
[14:38] moo Money: which looks ugly
[14:38] moo Money: and I would not endorse sharing
[14:38] moo Money: I’m saying that it would be 20 per person for a 5 person license
[14:38] moo Money: so 100 USD
[14:39] Susan Lightfoot: ok, thanks for clarifying
[14:39] moo Money: but you’d be saving 20 USD per person
[14:39] moo Money: so as a test of how your frame rates are, everyone press CTRL SHIFT 1
[14:39] moo Money: That’s how you find them out
[14:40] moo Money: I’m getting 17-18 FPS
[14:40] You: fps? ~20
[14:40] moo Money: but I’m running a ton of programs on my PC right now
[14:40] Alexandria Knight: I have 8.5-8.8
[14:40] HVX Silverstar: 45
[14:40] Danu Dahlstrom: i’m at around 4-ish
[14:40] Christi Janus: 22
[14:40] Rosmairta Kilara: Is that sim fs?
[14:40] Rosmairta Kilara: or physics fps
[14:40] Alice Burgess: 25
[14:40] Duder Pahute: 32.2
[14:40] moo Money: It’s ideal to have nothing else running on your system while you’re recording
[14:41] moo Money: the FPS at the top
[14:41] moo Money: the one measured by the bar
[14:41] Rosmairta Kilara: I don’t see a bar
[14:41] Danu Dahlstrom: is low bad?
[14:41] You: Above the bar area is a number
[14:41] Alexandria Knight: It’s under the word “Basic” at the top
[14:41] moo Money: the lower your FPS, the more it will skip and jump
[14:41] Danu Dahlstrom: ok - how does one change it?
[14:41] moo Money: You’ll have to speed it up in post-processing
[14:42] Alexandria Knight: So, close all other apps–anything else to get it higher?
[14:42] Danu Dahlstrom: k
[14:42] moo Money: Well, run as little as possible
[14:42] moo Money: other than SL
[14:42] Rosmairta Kilara: There isn’t anything under Basic just a line
[14:42] moo Money: hrm
[14:42] HVX Silverstar: mine is 30
[14:42] moo Money: does everyone have debug activated?
[14:42] moo Money: CTRL ALT SHIFT D
[14:42] You: dunno
[14:43] moo Money: you should have two menu options after help
[14:43] moo Money: Client and Server
[14:43] Rosmairta Kilara: yes, always
[14:43] Alexandria Knight: Yes
[14:43] moo Money: an interesting aside….do you guys know how to teleport people through their profiles yet?
[14:43] moo Money: since they did away with it
[14:43] Rosmairta Kilara: yes
[14:44] Alexandria Knight: I saw a message about how to do it, but can’t remember now
[14:44] moo Money: for those that don’t know, go under client –> and check view admin options
[14:44] Rosmairta Kilara: view admin options
[14:44] moo Money: then the next time you bring up their profile, you can teleport them
[14:44] Rosmairta Kilara: you have to do it every time you log on - but it is worth it
[14:44] moo Money: yes
[14:44] Alexandria Knight: thx
[14:45] moo Money: unfortunately, one of the only ways to get better frame rates besides turning down all your graphics settings is to get abetter computer
[14:45] moo Money: and
[14:45] Danu Dahlstrom: how do i get rid of my fps info?
[14:45] Rosmairta Kilara: it toggles
[14:45] You: Rosmairta…on that FPS…click on the word BASIC and see if you can see it then.
[14:45] moo Money: no matter how good your computer is, SL will still run badly
[14:45] moo Money: CTRL SHIFT 1
[14:46] Danu Dahlstrom: ank
[14:46] Danu Dahlstrom: thanks
[14:46] moo Money: Now the Mac users are lucky
[14:46] moo Money: they get awesome editing software in iMovie
[14:46] Alice Burgess: What kind of frame rate are we shooting for?
[14:46] moo Money: the windows users…
[14:46] moo Money: you want 15-30
[14:46] moo Money: and that’s the recording frame rate
[14:47] moo Money: the built-in tool will cut your frame rate in half
[14:47] moo Money: fraps only drops one or two frames because it does almost lossless compression
[14:47] moo Money: also, with fraps, your recording size will be 100-200mb for 1 minute of footage
[14:47] Percival’s Short Bench: Right click me and choose ‘Sit Here’ to sit down
[14:47] moo Money: vs the 600mb-1gb that I mentioned with the built-in tool
[14:48] moo Money: the built-in tool is really a way to find out if you like machinima enough to invest in it
[14:48] moo Money: you might make your first film or two that way
[14:48] moo Money: but it’s so much easier with a program like fraps
[14:48] moo Money: </infomercial>
[14:49] moo Money: so for windows users, the free editing option for us is Windows Movie Maker
[14:49] moo Money: You would drop the files you want to edit in to the program and cut them as needed
[14:49] moo Money: I originally used WMM before I switched to Sony Vegas
[14:49] Yohan Althouse is Online
[14:50] moo Money: it crashed on me repeatedly
[14:50] moo Money: okay does anyone have any questions on that?
[14:51] Christi Janus: if we get stuck, are you available for questions later?
[14:51] moo Money: absolutely
[14:51] Christi Janus: thanks
[14:51] moo Money: even if I’m offline, you can send the questions to me
[14:51] moo Money: and I’ll get back with you soon
[14:52] Rosmairta Kilara: Do you need to be able to script actions to take a smooth shot?
[14:52] You: moo…can I copy this chat history and post where others can see it? (SL librarians)
[14:52] moo Money: sure!
[14:52] You: Thank you!
[14:52] moo Money: hrm
[14:52] Alexandria Knight: Thanks!
[14:52] Rosmairta Kilara: It seems like pseballs or invisible vehicles or something would help
[14:52] moo Money: you can use scripts available
[14:52] HVX Silverstar: Moo, does FRAPS allow for widescreen and 4:3?
[14:52] moo Money: it allows for whatever you choose your resolution to be
[14:52] HVX Silverstar: I use a mac, but I have windows at work
[14:52] moo Money: it supports high res
[14:53] HVX Silverstar: thanks
[14:53] moo Money: I film in widescreen
[14:53] You have offered friendship to moo Money
[14:53] moo Money is Online
[14:53] Alexandria Knight: Can you film with a PC and then edit with a Mac using iMovie?
[14:53] moo Money: Do you guys have time to learn about tools that make your filming easier?
[14:53] moo Money: ahhh oof
[14:53] Rosmairta Kilara: do you storyboard all your work?
[14:53] Danu Dahlstrom: i coudln’t get fraps to play on my mac
[14:53] moo Money: I have heard that it’ a pain in the butt
[14:53] Rosmairta Kilara: yes
[14:53] moo Money: it involves re-rendering
[14:53] Danu Dahlstrom: but i used the free version
[14:54] moo Money: you would need to render your footage to be in quicktime format
[14:54] Alexandria Knight: Ok
[14:54] moo Money: there are some really cool cameras
[14:54] You: Moo, for some of us, we need to record SL for demos, where the Internet connection may be crappy, so this has been quite helpful. Thank you
[14:54] moo Money: they’re not cameras in the sense of the built in tool
[14:54] moo Money: that’s a recorder
[14:55] moo Money: a camera in SL allows you to change your viewpoint
[14:55] Rosmairta Kilara: like the follow cam Torley demoed?
[14:55] moo Money: so for example, the filming path HUD
[14:55] moo Money waits for it to rez
[14:56] moo Money: this camera is 1500L
[14:56] moo Money: and is so easy to use
[14:57] moo Money: the yellow ones are waypoints
[14:57] moo Money: it’s a HUD system
[14:57] moo Money: and the green thing is the target
[14:57] moo Money: it’s so easy
[14:57] moo Money: just the click of a button
[14:57] moo Money: now it’s processing the data
[14:57] moo Money: so I hide the waypoints
[14:58] moo Money: adjust the speed
[14:58] moo Money: now it’ll hide the HUD for me
[14:58] moo Money: and when I stand up, it’s back!
[14:58] moo Money: like magic
[14:59] You: So you create your filming path, then film it?
[14:59] moo Money: and to clean up, I Just type “reset scene”
[14:59] moo Money: yes
[14:59] moo Money: you turn off the UI
[14:59] moo Money: when it counts down to 5
[14:59] moo Money: well
[14:59] moo Money: in the case of the built-in
[15:00] moo Money: you would toggle the recording first
[15:00] moo Money: then turn off the UI
[15:01] moo Money: the other camera is the BijoCam
[15:01] moo Money: The Filming Path HUD is for moving shots
[15:01] moo Money: dolly shots
[15:01] moo Money: the BijoCam is for fixed angle shots
[15:01] moo Money: the other camera is the BijoCam
[15:01] moo Money: The Filming Path HUD is for moving shots
[15:01] moo Money: dolly shots
[15:01] moo Money: the BijoCam is for fixed angle shots
[15:01] moo Money: one of the really cool things about this
[15:02] moo Money: is that everyone can see what you’re seeing
[15:02] moo Money: so let me set this up
[15:03] moo Money: okay
[15:03] moo Money: so this allows you to film yourself in a scene
[15:04] moo Money: does everyone have their interface on?
[15:04] 50 Winx: No
[15:05] Rosmairta Kilara: yes but I don’t see a hud
[15:05] 50 Winx: I on
[15:05] moo Money: you will
[15:05] moo Money: type /202 1
[15:05] 50 Winx: I don’t
[15:05] moo Money: and let it control your view
[15:05] Danu Dahlstrom: neat!
[15:06] moo Money: so if you type /202 3 you’ll see me
[15:06] moo Money: as I see myself
[15:06] moo Money: and I can walk back and forth
[15:06] Duder Pahute: Moo - can I get the hud?
[15:06] moo Money: talk about an out of body experience
[15:06] Danu Dahlstrom: fun stuff
[15:06] moo Money: the HUD is on the stage
[15:06] Rosmairta Kilara: Hmm. the controls seem to be behind teh stand up button and rather than tearing off it goes away
[15:06] moo Money: click the sign
[15:07] Danu Dahlstrom: how does one stop the view? just take it off?
[15:07] moo Money: now I should also mention that you can hide your HUDs
[15:07] Yohan Althouse is Offline
[15:07] moo Money: oh
[15:07] moo Money: press release camera
[15:07] Danu Dahlstrom: ok
[15:07] moo Money: go under view –> and uncheck show HUD attachments
[15:07] moo Money: it will hide them on your screen
[15:07] moo Money: for filming
[15:07] moo Money: because if you film, HUDs will show unless you hide them
[15:08] moo Money: and then you can set up gestures
[15:08] moo Money: for your F keys
[15:08] moo Money: F1 might be /202 1
[15:08] moo Money: etc
[15:08] moo Money: and bounce back and forth
[15:08] moo Money: I’ve used it for timelapse movies
[15:08] moo Money: it really comes in handy
[15:09] moo Money: and it’s only 200L I believe?
[15:09] Rosmairta Kilara: Hmm. Nothing ever happened
[15:10] 50 Winx: Thanks.
[15:10] HVX Silverstar: Moo, were you giving copies of the camera out?
[15:10] moo Money: np
[15:10] moo Money: I can’t give out copies of the camera
[15:10] HVX Silverstar: Ok..
[15:11] moo Money: those are all for sale
[15:11] moo Money: but make your life easier
[15:11] HVX Silverstar: THanks, it was great. Would you mind if I posted some pictures of the presentation? I can let you know the URL on flickr
[15:11] moo Money: absolutely
[15:11] moo Money: now who wanted the class slides?
[15:12] moo Money: I hope this helped
[15:12] HVX Silverstar: Can we share these with other librarians?
[15:12] moo Money: they’re no transfer
[15:12] moo Money: I don’t have those permissions
[15:13] moo Money: I mean I can transfer them to you
[15:13] Rebekah Cavan: Can I get a copy of the slides, too?
[15:13] moo Money: but you can’t transfer them
[15:13] HVX Silverstar: That’s fine
[15:13] Duder Pahute: Lukanida - is that sim freely available for machinimators?
[15:13] moo Money: yes
[15:13] moo Money: just clean up when you’re done
[15:14] Duder Pahute: are there any sets built?
[15:14] Duder Pahute: that can be used
[15:14] moo Money gave you Machinima Class Slides.
[15:14] moo Money: there are
[15:14] moo Money: there’s a hospital, a theater, and an entire city
[15:15] Duder Pahute: TY
[15:15] Duder Pahute: Moo
[15:15] moo Money: you’ve been a great audience
[15:15] Duder Pahute: I’m in the middle of building an entire sim for machinima
[15:15] Duder Pahute: free to use
[15:15] moo Money: wow!
[15:15] moo Money: I’d love to see it sometime
[15:15] Duder Pahute: if anyone is interested in using it
[15:16] Duder Pahute: I would love your feedback on what would be good to put in there
[15:16] Duder Pahute: or anyone else as well
[15:16] HVX Silverstar: Great. We’re opening a machinima library to share our work and provide info about teh work of others
[15:16] moo Money: excellent