Recently, I've been impressed with several Sedond Life machinima videos which have great editing and a sparkling style in common. While not a big fan of the word "machinima" (it reminds me of "paper mache", which falls part too easily), I enjoy what gets produced in the "style".

Natural Selection Studios have a wonderful Camera Tutorial, the first installment into their "n00b be gone" series. Its logo is a stickman with a box on its head. It's a good thing the default attach point is now the right hand. Trivia: Aura Linden fixed it so boxhead syndrome is a past agony.

The points Bebop and Orchid feature in the vid will sure have you smiling, and it's put together really, really well. A lot of delicate nuances and strong, cinematic brushstrokes. In an ongoing process of improving my own computer moviemaking, I learned some tips 'n' tricks from them. Tight, tight editing, great onscreen overlays showing which keys to press — there's even dancing at the end… OMG. Perhaps one of their future installments could cover tutorials about making tutorials. I just gotta say, "I'M A FELON!"

Straight off the reel and hot today is Trent Hedges' new ad for his Griffin vehicle. The voiceover is rugged and wry-grin-inducing, and it didn't bore me like many car ads do. If there were more SL TV stations, this would be a superb commercial. I'll also say: we need integrated lensflare fx like what's featured within. To all who think it's an overused Photoshop plugin: we have these beauties in nature, and I'd like, similar to There: Virtual Laguna Beach, to run down the sandy seashores and have a the distinctive rainbow iris glint across my field of vision. That really adds value to a vehicle, I think you'll agree.

Aside: masterful atmospherics look like they'll be delivered in Alan Wake, the forthcoming "psychological thriller". As Second Life sees more compelling storyteling, I firmly believe it's worthwhile to explore… the darkness. I haven't seen much SL machinima which really uses lights (and I hope shadows come back to SL someday!) as a nuance-stirrer in the dark —

someone, please set their Nighttime Brightness to 0.000 and boogey like the boogeyman!

I've been watching what The Illusion Factory's been doing: I think their trailers wows, even if the actual visuals are derived from low-FPS inworlding. Lots of great glow transitions, and I'd like to hear more exhuberance expressed by avatars which wasn't put in postproduction. It's a common theme: what I get out of watching machinima, often, is observing what needs to be added "after the fact" which should be emergent and spontaneous. A good habit of mine ever since my techno music days — studio production vs. playing live.

Keep yer senses open, the # of secondlife-tagged YouTube videos grows!