zondag, februari 17, 2008
Animatronics: make a movie in Second Life
Lately, we have been experimenting making animatronics. Animatronics are movies that are shot in a virtual world like Second Life or ActiveWorlds, or in a game environment. Our idea is to use Second Life as a cheap environment to make 3D animations for use in e-learning courses. So far the tests look good. The alternatives are to make real-world video or do it all in Flash, but both options tend to be more expensive.
Shooting movies in Second Life or another virtual world are very similar to shooting movies in the real world: you need an avatar to be the camera man, you need an avatar for every actor, and you need to scout for good locations (and maybe ask permission to film there if you don't own them) and make sure nobody runs in the way. But the benefits are that compared to real live shooting, you cut the expensive recording equipment, you eliminate travel, and the avatars can be made to look like any actor you need. The downsides are that the interaction is more limited and expression of emotions (especially facial) is not so good. But for a lot of animations, that isn't a problem.
We have used a very cheap and good software called Fraps (I believe it stands for frames per second) to capture the in-world movie. The built-in video capture of Second Life gives more troubles, and the 37$ you pay for a Fraps license is worth it.
After the raw shooting the editing and voice synchronization remain the same as with other movies.
Here are some links that helped us on the way, and might do the same for you:
Amazingg life blog (in Dutch)
Second Life help: http://secondlife.com/showcase/machinima.php
Second Life Wiki
Shooting movies in Second Life or another virtual world are very similar to shooting movies in the real world: you need an avatar to be the camera man, you need an avatar for every actor, and you need to scout for good locations (and maybe ask permission to film there if you don't own them) and make sure nobody runs in the way. But the benefits are that compared to real live shooting, you cut the expensive recording equipment, you eliminate travel, and the avatars can be made to look like any actor you need. The downsides are that the interaction is more limited and expression of emotions (especially facial) is not so good. But for a lot of animations, that isn't a problem.
We have used a very cheap and good software called Fraps (I believe it stands for frames per second) to capture the in-world movie. The built-in video capture of Second Life gives more troubles, and the 37$ you pay for a Fraps license is worth it.
After the raw shooting the editing and voice synchronization remain the same as with other movies.
Here are some links that helped us on the way, and might do the same for you:
Amazingg life blog (in Dutch)
Second Life help: http://secondlife.com/showcase/machinima.php
Second Life Wiki
Labels: animatronic, Second Life
