This and that and stuff and things

"The Duleks" - Episode 5

2010-08-30T19:44:00.000+01:00

Thought of the day

2010-07-20T22:42:00.005+01:00

This popped into my head today, just wanted to share:

Make peace with where you are, as where you are is on the way to where you want to be.

2010-06-30T20:05:00.005+01:00

Here are the MachinExpo Trailers so far....

Want to have a go?

Go here to read more details > http://machiniplex.net/expo/2010/07/01/make-a-30-second-expo-trailer/

If you need some easy to use animation software, try one or ALL of these...

Moviestorm

Muvizu

iClone

Have Fun!

me

2010-06-10T22:47:00.000+01:00

Is this who I really am?

I like me, but I don't think anyone else will.

Life

2010-05-25T22:48:00.002+01:00

Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by a fucking idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Springtime is here

2010-04-25T13:12:00.004+01:00

I haven't blogged in a while, so thought I'd do something...

It's springtime, and I'm sitting in my garden enjoying the brief sunshine and 17ºC, I'm hoping to get one of those 'tan' things I've heard so much about.

Web Programming: Still adding things to Twizzlescape. Twitter have just released 'Anywhere' which is VERY good news, as currently if twizzlescape is used by more than 10 people at a time, it can put quite a load on my web server, slowing things down, but when 'Anywhere' is fully released, I'll be able to move the workload onto the user's computer (Javascript). I won't go into the boring technical details here, but twizzlescape will do a lot more communicating with twitter's servers directly, rather than go through my web server, so 100s or 1000s of tweeple could use it at the same time without any load problems. I've already implemented the available 'Anywhere' API, hovering your mouse over a @screenname in a tweet will pop up the users profile details, doesn't seem like much but, my server is doing nothing at all to do that, its all twitter+Javascript.

CG Animation/Machinima: Just got to add a little more dialogue to 'Duleks' Episode 5, then I can start making it and email the script off to the voice actors. As no one has even auditioned for the role of 'abdul' I'm going to voice act it myself! Eeeek, hope I can pull off a decent accent. It needs to be a modern day british/indian 20-something accent, rather than a Deepak Chopra style accent. Do hope I don't offend anyone with my acting or this episode, it's intended to make you laugh, and ridicule terrorist stereotyping, and has what I think is a very funny ending.

Other stuff and things: The new Doctor Who season is bloody fantastic!!! Well, the episodes written by Steven Moffat are. The Dalek episode last week was pretty good, but it didn't have me gripping the arms of my chair throughout, like an episode written by "The Moff" © 2010 Johnnie Ingram :-) Also, as Charlie Brooker (@charltonbrooker) pointed out, the new daleks "..look like furious crayons". Not at all menacing.

Making Machinima Music video

2010-03-18T18:26:00.000Z

Got a few tweeple using Twizzlescape, I guess its not for everyone, some folks just prefer the regular twitter.com site, I on the other hand like an animated bells and whistles kind of web-experience!

Anyway, now back to animating (CG / Anymation / Machinima). I'm currently making a music video, I'm hoping its going to turn out as nice and lovely as 'She moved through the fair' but its hard to tell right now. I'm making it using Moviestorm and iClone, blended together so seamlessly, it will hopefully be impossible to see the join, so it will literally be Anymation!

For the music, I'm using an obscure album track from the 1980s, but I'm doing my own arrangement and performance of it, so that it goes with the imagery better.

Not sure if I should post a few 'teaser' pictures from what I'm working on, or just keep it to myself before unleashing it. What do you think? (comments welcome below)

TwizzleScape

2010-03-15T18:15:00.000Z

I've not been doing any machinima/animations for the last couple of weeks. The reason is I have two big hobbies, Machinima and web programming. I do web programming as my day job too, but every so often I get an idea for something to do in my own time. I've been making a twitter web application on and off for several months now, changed it's name several times, and finally settled on "TwizzleScape".

The last two weeks or so, I've been re-designing a lot of it and it's now at a point where it's suitable for other tweeple to play on it. So, I should tell you what it is I guess. TwizzleScape's main thing is, it does twitter, but not like the boring, static twitter.com site... its ANIMATED! Think twitter.com re-mixed.

No need to update the page, as tweets arrive for you, they literally bounce onto the page. The layout is similar to TweetDeck in that it's arranged in columns or panels. Each panel does a specific thing like show your tweet replies etc. So, its twitter.com with bells and whistles, but wait there's more (infomercial voice), It does other things too, like showing you up-coming events in Second Life™ and even provides you with a 'Teleport' button to transport you in-world !

Anyway, stop reading this, and try it out for yourselves, there's no messy sign-up, just click a button to authenticate with twitter and you're on... no download either! If you don't like it, just go back to using twitter.com and you can de-authorise TwizzleScape in your twitter settings too - I won't be offended if you don't like it, I made it for me, because I don't like any of the twitter client programs out there, but I want to share it with anyone who wants to use it.

http://www.satscape.co.uk/twizzlescape/index.php

Right, I need to get back to making machinima now. Have fun!

oh, as its still beta, you can't use it if you are following more than 700 tweeple.

Coming Easter 2010

2010-03-11T15:46:00.000Z

Coming easter 2010

Fixed my PC

2010-03-05T15:45:00.000Z

Yay! Fixed my PC. The CPU fan had rattled slightly loose causing the CPU temp to rise to a toasty 85ºC, which caused the CPU to slow its processing down. Now idling at a more confortable temp of 30ºC.
Shame I missed the Machiniplex Forum in Second life, I was looking forward to it.

Duleks 4

2010-02-19T15:44:00.000Z

The latest Duleks episode (4) seems to have gone down well, 260 views on youtube after 2 days and quite a few more comments than I usually get, most of my videos get 260 views after several months!
Not sure why, but it seems “The Duleks” is more popular with my non-machinima friends/followers than it is with Machinima friends/followers. Now obviously the Moviestorm community isn’t going to be huge fans of the show, as its made entirely in iClone.
Anyway, Episode 5 is written, cast and ready to start making, but I’m putting it to one side and going to do a ‘serious’ project next - not going into details yet, but it will hopefully be another “lovely” short video that might even make you cry. Also for this project, I’m going to try out a technique I’ve been playing with which will blend iClone and Moviestorm seamlessly, no, not just regular green-screening, a little more advanced, I want to have the best of both worlds, the ease of animating characters in moviestorm combined with the soft-shadow-photo-realistic loveliness of iClone.
If you haven’t seen the new episode yet, here’s episode 4 of “The Duleks” - enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWIR1sYohbw Oh and BTW, I’ve switched off Google Buzz, maybe once google work on it a bit more things will change, but for now, it goes on the wait-and-see pile along with Google Wave. :-)

Duleks Episode 1

2010-01-06T15:43:00.000Z

My Latest machinima short : “The Duleks” episode 1 - (ok, they’re Daleks, but slightly different enough so that BBC worldwide Ltd don’t mind…I hope.) - This is what I hope to become a web series comedy about a family of ‘duleks’ : Malcolm, Sandra and little Jimmy. Its turned out to be a mixture of Sitcom and Sketch show… a SketchCom…SitSketch….I dunno. Just had fun making it using iClone 4 and a bit of Moviestorm. In later episodes, I may need some voice actors to play the part of some puny humans, so keep an eye out for the open role call. Ok, thats it, enjoy!

Prodding a cat

2009-12-18T15:42:00.000Z

Prodding a cat, sleeping on the warp-drive core.

My first iClone Movie

2009-12-15T15:41:00.000Z

My First iClone Movie! - Ok, don’t get excited, its just a test. A short and old horse joke.
Bought myself the full version of Reallusion’s iClone 4 at the weekend. Been playing with it and learning how to use it, and I’m really impressed. Its a little more difficult than Moviestorm, but theres a ton more you can do with it. You can even import Sketchup files WITHOUT a publisher licence or subscription *WINKS at Moviestorm Ltd*

New action adventure

2009-12-12T15:39:00.001Z

Action/Adventure/Sci-fi Six-part mini-series, although chapter one fits more into the thriller/action genres. Later chapters get more sci-fi-ey. Sorry, just can’t contain it in ONE genre!

——————
A group of people collaborate to uncover secrets that could completely destroy the earth sometime in the next 20 years. One man must make one giant leap, if they are to succeed in stopping the disaster.
——————

New 'Lovely' short film

2009-09-22T15:37:00.000+01:00

New 'Lovely' short film

I’ve was working away making sets for my ‘in production’ Sci-fi machinima mini series, when I was struck by inspiration to make a kind of music video/short film for Julianne Regan’s rendition of the traditional Irish folk song “She moved through the fair”. I’d actually made notes about it a year ago, but never got around to making it.

I dropped what I was doing and made it over the course of about 4 days (Been off work on leave this week, which was handy). It’s turned out to be quite lovely, and a vast departure from the usual machinima that I make. I’ve been getting some great responses from the machinima community, could be my most popular peice so far! THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Anyway, here it is, hope you like it too…

2009-07-14T15:22:00.000+01:00

Originally posted on my old blog on 14th July 2009

For about a year and a half, I’ve been making short machinima comedy skits usingMoviestorm and I’ve often wanted to do something serious for a change. The other day I stumbled on an old screenplay I wrote a few years back, written as a 2 hour sci-fi/action/adventure film, not finished, but I was reading through it, and its not bad. It has everything you’d want from this genre… Aliens, time-travel, explosions, evil bad guy, and a touch of comedy.

I’ve decided to split up the movie into 4 or 5 parts to make a mini-series, that way I can get the first chapter out, get some feedback and continue with the rest, also having a mini-cliffhanger at the end of each chapter will hopefully interest the viewer to want to see the next one.

Normally, I’d make machinima comedy skits totally myself, even writing music, and a spot of bad acting. But for this one, I’m going to see if I can find some voice actors on the moviestorm forum site willing to volenteer. I’m quite exited about this!

Anyway, I’ve got the script for the first chapter edited together from the original screenplay, maybe a few tweeks required, and then its time to do some serious set construction in Moviestorm.

If you’d like to see any of my previous Machinima comedy skits, please check out my YouTube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/SatscapeFilms

(also contains non-machinima videos)