As I often say, my wife finds the kewlest things, and after I awoke from a nap today, she pressed me to watch a made-in-Second Life music video called "Bounce". Have a look and tell me what's right with this. (If you're reading this in your RSS feeder, click through to view the video on my blog.)
Even better, this collaborative effort by 3 friends — Surrealia Anatine, Joga Kidd, and Faith Rosenberg, has a voyeuristic doppelganger: Joga's edit of the original footage which the trio filmed and shared. You'd almost think this could be tha flipside of a record, with original and instrumental versions. WARNING IF UR EASY-OFFEND: T&A references…
(I'm also partial to Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." for the credz.)
This all happened in the space of about a day, which is long enough for a mature mastermind to know what they're doing, yet brief enough to allow raw energy to burst forth without the stupid hesitation of a false perfectionist mentality.
To my knowledge, this is the first "two sides of a coin" SL music videos created from the same base footage. Reminds me of remix circles, as well as alternate versions of rap songs where they get a guest to bust a few rhymes. (Recall Cypress Hill's "Rap Superstar" vs. "Rock Superstar"?)
I am mad crazee in particular about Surrealia's approach to focusing on avatar motion, like a closeup body study. Some of the Sine Wave mocap animations look killah when timestretched, Ctrl-8 zoomed out, doused with a touch of Flycam, and ghosted (@ 1:38 in Surrealia's version, which almost feels like a Matrix bullet dodge). This is like the Hype Williams or David Meyers of SL hip-hop artistry!
The techniques deployed within also pinpoint what's missing from so many Second Life music videos which would make them better: paying more attention to fluid kinetics. Also, where high framerates can't be normally attained, there are means of creative cheating, such as the Twixtor plugin I drool over (but I'm not an After Effects maven… yet). Relevance: if more motion interpolation was achieved, and even better, if it was widely available at a low cost, so many SL moviemakers would benefit from increased smoothness!
Inspiration, fo sho.
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September 30th, 2008 at 10:04 PM PDT
This wasn't so much a discovery as it was a gift from ColeMarie introducing me to this really cool chick, Surrealia, who had a video to share. I knew when I watched it you would totally dig it too. Surround yourself with awesome and your chances of seeing awesome rise dramatically.
I've spent my entire day inspired by Surrealia's vid's, I love that feeling.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:08 PM PDT
PRAISE BE COLEMARIE FOR SHARING!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:02 AM PDT
Wow, I am so blown away to the response to our videos. It was such a fun undertaking and its completely rejuvenated us both in our desire to continue to create SL machinima.
"…which is long enough for a mature mastermind to know what they're doing, yet brief enough to allow raw energy to burst forth without the stupid hesitation of a false perfectionist mentality….
That's IT Torley. Of all the humbling words you've given, that was the best description of WHY we chose to make these videos. Thank you so much.
@Ravenelle- It was an honor to meet you too! Sorry about my "OMG TORLEY LINDEN LIKES MAH VIDEO!!11!!" noobness!! haha I had no idea! xD
Also, being called 'inspiring' .. is the greatest compliment one can hope for, and it really means TONS- thank you both!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:44 AM PDT
Wow … flawless editing here… congrats Surrealia! Thanks for sharing Ravi & Torley… Awesomeness abounds!
October 1st, 2008 at 10:32 AM PDT
ZOMG, thanks for all the great info here. I'm just beside myself with the new heights in movie-magik attained by this team. On an even more personal level, watching this video, I want to run out and learn more and make more myself. Is Twixtor available for Sony Vegas? Please, Torley, tell us even more about plug-ins for movie editing. Your last two tutorials on machinima editing gave me a step up.
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:24 AM PDT
:0 holy smokes, i am gonna remove any machinima stuff i have! this was brilliant!!!
must have been made by pixar . . . nicely done is a massive understatement. =D
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:50 AM PDT
@Surrealia: Hopefully this encourages you to keep making more videos, because I certainly want to watch! Ravenelle & I enjoyed viewing some of your Sims work over dinner, and I really liked Joga's Grindhouse tribute (Tarantino is one of my fave directors, with his multiplicity of homages and his keen knowledge of cinematic references).
@Lowe: Glad you liked it too!
@Bettina: Sadly, Twixtor is not. Wish it was, but I'll cover more plugins in future posts as they come up. For Vegas, be sure to get these great freebies! http://torley.com/4-free-sony-vegas-plugins-you-should-know-about
@Ener: Don't remove yours, be inspired and keep making! Every time I see something that blows me away, I'm tempted to learn from it — infact, yesterday, I was playing with velocity controls in Vegas to change clip playback.
Learn on, share, and kick ass!
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 AM PDT
Ener.. do not do that! Your prior stuff serves as a historical timeline to what you've learned. If you look at the rest of my youtube page,or Joga's, you'll see movies that go WAY back.. and they aren't very good either.(They were at their time tho-but not by today's standards) Machinima is a hard earned craft that takes time- much like learning to draw. If you really love it, please stick with it, in time you'll get better and better and more creative with practice- and in the end, you'll have something to show others how much you've grown and will be an inspiration to future directors. =D
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:47 PM PDT
"…and they aren't very good either." waaaaah
i'm just teasing you Surrealia (beautiful name btw). you are right, that video above is so fantastically made, it's breathtaking actually and very inspiring!
thank you for your words of encouragement =)
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:44 PM PDT
Thats my Lil Pumpken Faith! shes so awesome. Wtg Sweetie. Im proud of ya!
October 11th, 2008 at 3:54 AM PDT
Nice video! The one with the original sound I think is best. Keep up the good work!