Machiniplex Blog

Machiniplex Looking for New Owner

It’s with sadness that I have to announce that I can no longer keep Machiniplex going as a viable website and organization. Too many responsibilities with the upcoming Expo 2011, my own personal projects and a renewed interest in writing non-fiction have kept me from being able to devote time to Machiniplex. And with Phil Rice on a sabbatical for a year (he was a big part of Machiniplex), I just can’t get it done any more.

So I’m looking for an individual or group that is interested in taking over the archive, blog and activities of Machiniplex. If you have any interest you can post here as a reply or contact me directly at rgrove@iliadbooks.com

Machiniplex was the brain-child of Jason Choi who came up with the idea of an archive for “quality machinima”. Phil, Ingrid, Damien and I spent a lot of time expanding the site/idea to include meetings, tutorials and a blog. There are some remarkable films archived at Machiniplex.  Just take a look and you’ll see what I mean.

And to the filmmakers who have allowed their films to be archived: if we are unable to find anyone to take over the site, I’ll most likely move the films to a video channel at Vimeo.com. Your comments and/or questions will be answered promptly.

Avatar Kinect

There’s been a lot of talk lately about using Kinect as an affordable motion capture solution.  The device has already been hacked for motion based puppetry, so there’s definitely potential for machinima.

It seems Microsoft is well aware of that potential, at CES last night they announced Avatar Kinect, a virtual world for Xbox 360 users to interact. The idea is each person will be represented by their Xbox Live avatar, which is controlled via Kinect. This will not only include the obvious things like arm and leg gestures but even facial movements. And the best part? Microsoft are including a video recording feature.

Kotaku have posted an article with the video shown last night. It only shows avatars sitting around and talking, which may limit how it can be used but it will be very interesting to see how this turns out.

It should be available in the spring.

Machiniplex to Screen “Ghosts” by Maxime Lebled on January 9th

Note: we will continue the Classic Machinima series in January.

The Machiniplex is proud to screen French director Maxime Lebled’s GHOSTS on Sunday, January 9th at 10am Pacific time. We will be using this Machinima Expo web portal address for the show which is at

http://www.machinima-expo.com

Following the screening we will have a Q&A with Maxime, who is a student living in northeastern France. You can learn more about Maxime at her website:

http://maxofs2d.cafegaming.fr/?pages/about

I was immediately impressed with GHOSTS when I first screened it for the Expo this year and have been following Maxime on Twitter and her website for several months now. The film was shot in Half-Life 2, but has a much more cinematic look. The script is very strange and unusual, addressing after-death realities and inter-dimensional travel. The style is unique and the cinematography is among the best I saw at the festival. I’m very excited Maxime has made herself available for this Q&A and look forward in learning more about how she put this remarkable film together.

Again, the screening of GHOSTS will take place on Sunday, January 9th at 10am at our Expo website. You’ll be able to screen the film which is approx 30 minutes long and then meet the director afterwards for a live Q&A. You can ask questions or make comments via text chat.

See you there!