Stranger 109

Say what you will about the Wiley Press series of For Dummies books; that they are a reflection upon a fast-food culture that equates seeking knowledge to perusing the candy counter at a late night convenience store, or they embody the dissolution of our once famed Protestant work ethic into a penchant for shortcuts. Nonetheless, in this current age of information aggregation where a singular source no longer holds the same clout it once did, such a model of knowledge building can no longer be written off as lazy. It may still be too soon to say this is the smart way to learn, but we can certainly agree that it is likely the most efficient way to learn something. And given that machinima as an “area of study” (perhaps one day we’ll say discipline) exists primarily in pockets of wisdom spread across the web, a Machinima For Dummies book seems more than justified. Enter Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram.

Those more familiar with machinima know Hugh has been a fixture on the scene since the early days, and most of you in-the-know have likely heard the story of how he misspelled machinima with the i instead of the e (machinema) as Anthony Bailey had first intended. If you haven’t heard it, it’s detailed in the book with that distinctive self-deprecating humor that Hugh is known for. Having played important roles in machinima’s history from his work at Machinima.com to the establishing of Strange Company, there are few who could be said to have more expertise in machinima (I should note that both Paul Marino’s book as well as Morris, Kellend & Lloyd’s book are important early editions to the rather non-existent body of machinima literature, so check them out as well). The co-author Johnnie Ingram made a name for himself as a site editor for Machinima.com and served as assistant director to Hugh on Strange Company’s feature length machinima film BloodSpell.

As with the challenge of reducing any complex subject into a single volume, Machinima For Dummies takes on a rather formidable task of being comprehensive. Coupled with the fact that it primarily discusses technologies that evolve not just annually anymore but even monthly, the prospect of providing up-to-date information in a printed form like this almost seems impossible to do with any authority. Wiley, however, tried to overcome this by minimizing the time from inception to publication to less than ten months. In addition, Hancock and Ingram set up a Machinima For Dummies blog to use as a space to provide updates to information in the book. Also, the blog details the writing process of the book so it is worth checking out.

The book is broken up into 22 chapters and seems to follow the template of other For Dummies books, a strategy Wiley has implemented to maintain a brand consistency. With Part I covering the surface of machinima, from what it is to its history as well as discussing the several techniques for creating machinima that will be covered in the book. This structure lends itself well to functioning as an informational resource to a wide array of machinima experiences. Novices will appreciate this rudimentary section while seasoned vets are encouraged to skip ahead to the more complex chapters. The tone throughout this section, as is the case throughout the entire book, is one of a conversational humor. Let there be no question that Hancock and Ingram take the art of machinima very seriously. However, they make it a point not to take themselves too seriously as “experts” on machinima. While some may find this sort of intrusive narration, marked by self-deprecating humor and geeky jokes, as distracting, I found it made the read more enjoyable.

Part II of the book tackles the core of the introduction material, spanning from basic filmmaking tutorials to easily the most comprehensive cataloging of game engines being used today to create machinima. Because there are so many engines now being used, the coverage of each engine is not really possible (as there are nearly 20 the book mentions). Therefore, the authors choose to highlight some of the more established engines being used. The Sims 2 engine receives the most coverage (3 chapters) due to the fact that in addition to being the greatest selling game of all time, it also represents the engine that is most widely used. With mechanisms built into the game’s design that make machinima easy to do, The Sims engine offers the ideal entryway into making machinima. Fans of this game will find a tremendous amount of information on how to start making their own films. Other areas covered in this part include scriptwriting, basic editing techniques, as well as strategies for distributing your films online. One of the engines that does not get covered is the Second Life engine that has grown exponentially in popularity mainly due to the investment of corporate America into this persistent online community, buying up virtual real estate and setting up their shops. As a piece of open software, SL marks a significant moment in both gaming technology and machinima, so it will likely rub several people the wrong way by excluding it from the engines covered. The recent Molotav Alva deal with HBO will likely only exacerbate this omission for fans of the SL universe. Linden Lab’s presence at the past few Machinima Festivals demonstrate that they are committed to enabling the machinima community in any way possible; however, when choosing to create a comprehensive text that has at least some depth to it in sections, omissions are an inevitability. Perhaps the unstable frame rates that are so common in SL and the fact that most in world items require actual real world dollars to develop and design were too much of a hurdle to overcome for the authors, and they made a decision to not include it as part of the book. Just like the Major League All-Star game, someone is bound to get snubbed.

Part III offers more advance approaches to making machinima that provides something for the novice to work towards or the seasoned vet to delve right in once they buy the book. The two engines covered here (World of Warcraft and Medieval II: Total War) are more complex and offer a whole new host of concerns, but the authors do an excellent job of providing examples as well as resources on the accompanying DVD that allows for you to start your own machinima as soon as you get the book home. Again, the challenge of a book like this is the lack of space to cover everything. As a devout fan of Half-Life 2 based machinima, I was disappointed not to see a chapter here covering the work being done with Garry’s Mod. Part of the problem is that the most recent iteration of G-Mod only recently came out and was beyond the scope of the time frame set for writing the book. Not to mention the fact that a book dedicated entirely to making machinima with that engine, given its complexity, could easily cover some 300 pages (could someone please write that book). In addition, this part offers a chapter covering the all important aspect of sound in machinima (Phil “Overman” Rice served as technical reviewer to the book and his talents in sound design shine through particularly in this chapter). This section also includes a chapter covering the legal issues facing machinima. The waters continue to be muddied as to the issues of intellectual property rights and machinima; however, this chapter touches upon some of the more pertinent concerns. Not to mention that the ongoing debates around both the Microsoft and Blizzard rules have been getting a lot of coverage over at the book’s blog.

Part IV surveys the growing area of Pro Machinima and offers a great in depth look into one of the latest pieces of software designed specifically for making machinima. I probably found this section of the book most intriguing as I had only recently heard about the Moviestorm software. My first response to the development of softwares specifically for making machinima is one of cautious concern. So much of the cultural significance that machinima offers is that it is rooted in so many rich fan cultural traditions of appropriation. The early recamming done in games like DOOM and Quake stand as watershed moments where consumers became producers in rather profound ways. Making machinima more available to people is absolutely something I want to endorse; however, I fear the professionalization of the software could actually work against democratizing the medium even further. Moviestorm is a free download and comes on the book’s DVD. But as a software like this develops and becomes even more powerful, how much longer will it be free? And once it reaches a Photoshop status, will machinima exist in the same way it did in its fledgling stages? Only time will tell, but it is something to be wary of. That concern aside, these chapters offer some great insight into really getting under the hood of a game’s engine as well as what it takes to start your own production company. As for the Moviestorm software, just take a look at Morning Run Amok to see what you can achieve with this powerful engine.

The last part of the book follows the typical “Parts of Ten” that finishes all the For Dummies books. Here the authors provide a list of machinima films that you “must see,” some of which are on the DVD as well. Along with some crucial mistakes not to make whiling making your film, they provide the most common online resources for information on the many aspects of machinima as well as sites dedicated to specific engines like Sims99 and WarcraftMovies.

If you have absolutely no idea what machinima is, this book offers a great starting point to a rather complicated art form. If you’ve been making machinima for years, it offers a great resource book that will likely touch upon some engines you may not be aware of as well as techniques for maximizing the potential of the ones you are using. Is the book absolutely perfect in its coverage of machinima, no. No book could do that, which speaks not to any sort of inadequacies on the part of the authors so much as the vastness of the field and richness of technologies being used. So while some omissions may seem like a mistake to those who have affinities for the excluded engines, the merit of this book as an important contribution to the machinima community should not be dismissed. Hancock and Ingram have done machinima a great service in providing the most comprehensive resource available to date. And while the inevitable Monday morning quarterbacking will take place in the forums about the Second Life snubbing and the lack of Garry’s Mod coverage, the book as a whole remains an impressive effort and will serve as a resource for machinimators for years to come.