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.
35 comments:
Did Noasis pay you to do this ?
No, I'll receive a percentage based on how many copies are sold.
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.
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. :)
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.
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?
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?
Hey Ross, Did i remind you that it was out :P 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.
I love you
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.
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
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!!
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.
I'll definitely buy it.
awesome, and make more CP i love that stuff!!!!
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
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.
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?
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.
so u almost finished with the new episode yet its been like almost a month, not that i want to rush you
and being like "OMG WHAERS DA N3XT EPESOD3 Y0u Sl0W M@N GOd"
congrats on getting this out.:P
jim anonymous: yeah there's more coming, I plan to have a post on that later after the next episode
david: thanks, if you still have a question after going through the whole tutorial and I'll answer it if I can
adventshot: Yeah, that's right, this one has taken about a month. I ended up having two animators unable to work on most of this one, so I had to fill in a lot more of this than I was planning to.
Soon as I get my paycheck I'm buying this :D. Always wanted to learn how to do these sorts of things after watching your amazing stuff, Keep it up.
where is that update??
its been like two weeks now..
/the Bibidi
God you go on about needing more time but you take FUKIN ages i have now given up lookin for updates either make something or dont im patient but this is a piss take. To be honest i dont give a fuck bout some tutorial just start making decent videos again without a sodding year imbetween each one!!!!!!!!
next episode on the Tuesday or on a Tuesday..
as in any Tuesday A.D.
rude anonymous guy: I don't see you hiring me to make these videos and most CP episodes take me hundreds of hours to make. If you're going to get pissed off because I'm not making videos faster then don't keep checking here.
To the rude anon dude that Ross just replied to...
If you had actually read Ross's last update, you will see that he was trying very hard to get it out on Tuesday, but sound processing might cause it to take an extra day... Meaning Wednesday.
Well, Well, it's still Wednesday, and will (at least for me) still be Wednesday for another five hours.
So just chill out and wait like the rest of us...
-G. B. Jackson
I just bought the DVD. Nice job. It's really good.
actually, scratch that. The tutorial was good up until about 18 minutes when it suddenly ended. I checked the video info and it still says that its 1.18GB. I have no idea WTF is wrong with it. Not blaming you though, Ross. I'm contacting Noesis to see what I can do and if I can get a DVD instead of the download. The part that I got to see was still good. Loved the Pivot stuff.
drkessence: Yeah sorry, definitely contact Noesis. I had nothing to do with the final publication. All I did was send them the videos along with Premiere edits (and the cover screenshots actually) and they handled production after that. Hope you can get the rest of it working.
I got the problem fixed. Great job. I love the random nature facts while you wait for Hammer to load the maps. Now I know that I have 160 pounds of ants waiting around the corner for me. XD
hey ross.
I got this the other day and i waited when i got home i downloaded it only to find i cant open it i downloaded divx still nothing
Please help
help: Sorry man, I didn't have anything to do with the final encoding or putting it on the disc itself, only creating the tutorial. You'll have to contact Noesis, but they should be able to help you get it working.
Sorry but I don't have enought $ to buy ur guide, so I DL it from a torrent...The explanations are extremely clear and coprehensive, thanks a lot.
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