FIRST GUIDE OUT!

[Ross Scott]

 

Breaking news here! The first tutorial is now out! I literally just found this out, I haven't even seen the finished product myself yet! Here's a link to it here:

 

Machinima Choreography Guide

 

Being a real cheapass myself, I admit the price seems little high. I didn't set it, plus this is a VERY comprehensive guide. I wrote the whole thing targetted for people with NO experience with the Source SDK. An incredible number of hours went into this, so for all that do buy this, you have my thanks. You can read more about it on the page, but here's what this guide will cover:

 

-Setting up your scene

-Character movement

-Character animations

-Lip syncing

-Beginning usage of Hammer (enough to get you started with machinima)

 

To sum it up, this is the technical end of machinima-making in Source. If you want to know how I've done a lot of the more elaborate animations in Civil Protection, this tells you how. This guide definitely teaches you everything I knew when I created "Friday" , and more beyond that.

 

However this guide does NOT teach things like camerawork, demo recording, audio/video editing, motion blur, all the other things related to making a video. That will be covered in the NEXT guide, which I'm still scrambling to get done.  Also since creation on this began before HL2: Episode 2 existed, this is all done using HL2: Episode 1.  However, easily 90% of what's taught here is applicable to any Source engine game. 

 

EDIT:  I'm trying my best to get the episode out on Tuesday, though it's possible the audio processing might add another day.

[Guest]

Did Noasis pay you to do this ?

[Guest]

No, I'll receive a percentage based on how many copies are sold.

[Guest]

One thing I noticed when creating tutorials, or even just explaining things to other people, is that you will learn new stuff in the progress, or at least get better at it. And you can't spend knowledge, only gain it.
You must put a lot of your time in machinima, and I hope it pays off for you.
I'm looking forward to your next machinima video, and good luck with the other tutorial.

[Guest]

Yeah, for instance after Galaxy Gulp was released, and 'What is Machinima?' came out, I noticed a lot of custom animation was used. I'm sure they picked that up off trying to make the Noesis Tutorial and it really did some good, which makes me excited for future episodes.


Hehe, guess the topic of this I just made at the forums is useless now.

[Guest]

Actually no, Ryan's been making custom animations for the series for over a year, it's just that the larger episodes are still unreleased yet. For Galaxy Gulp that was Ben Mears doing the custom animations. In both cases, they were made in XSI, which is unfortunately beyond the scope of the tutorial. However CP Episodes 1-5 don't contain any custom animations, they're all from Valve's set.

[Guest]

As soon as I get the extra cash, I'm buyin' this. I have always loved machinima. CP and Freeman's Mind are top draw BTW. Speaking of Freeman's Mind, Now that the tutorials are getting finished, when can we expect to see more episodes?

[Guest]

Wow. I hope this takes off for you!
As a HUGE fan of the CP and FM series I hope this Tute brings you the rewards you deserve for your work
Can't wait to see the new episodes, more Freeman's Mind please?

[Guest]

Hey Ross, Did i remind you that it was out Cause after i posted in the last Post. You released this later on. Or did it only just come out? :S

Any way. I'm gonna buy this DVD very soon. =D

Congrats.

[Guest]

I love you

[Guest]

Yeah, I saw it at the Noesis website recently too. I'm sure they told him when they released it and he was just writing the blog.

[Guest]

Awesome the guide from what it says in the description sounds really good.I might buy it when i have some money on hand,and I'm looking forward to the next CP episode that will hopefully come next week

[Guest]

Nice, those tutorials finally seem to be done.
Can't wait until next week for CP. And then later maybe some FM as well? WooHoo!!

[Guest]

Awesome!
I'm definitely going to get this when I have the money.
I've always wanted to make my own machinima, but the only thing I know even a little bit about is Hammer.
I look forward to experiencing this achievement, you obviously put a lot of work into it.

[Guest]

I'll definitely buy it.

[Guest]

awesome, and make more CP i love that stuff!!!!

[Guest]

Hey Ross, quick question.

I'm currently making a FPS(all solo, sorry folks) and I was wondering if this guide could help me out with some of the animated cut scenes?

Thanks,
Chris

[Guest]

Kevin: I still have to finish the other half of the tutorial, but I'm hoping sometime late October. After that I want to try and get new content out every 1-2 weeks.

lala: Yeah it's coming, probably one next month.

Chris: If it uses the Source engine it sure will. This shows you how to animate almost everything short of custom XSI animations.

[Guest]

actually i only turned up when chris (linked) mentioned freemans mind and i was instantly hooked. if i had a choice i would say more FM please?

[Guest]

I bought this dvd tutorial, and I am currently working through it. It's good! The price is annoying, but I think it will save me some headache figuring out how to do basic things.