There are many ways to create three dimensional
animations in the comfort of your own home or office. Some techniques
have steep learning curves. The many software packages written specifically
for building and animating one's own 3D characters and 3D worlds
are not designed for those with a casual interest in telling stories
through a visual medium; however, there is a way for anyone, with
a little practice, who loves playing PC games to make animated features
of any length. It's commonly called
machinima.
Some of the more generalized information and tutorials on making
your own machinima will be listed here as they are found on the
Internet.
• Wikipedia
on machinima
You may notice that most of my resources for
in-game filmmaking have to do with the game Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas. Here is the simple answer as to why: it's the game I was
hooked on when I got hooked on Machinima.
THE GAME: GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS
•
Grand
Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA)
This is the official web site for the game.
•
Pawfect Films
You can download this very necessary tool called San An Studios
from here. The program will allow you to control many aspects of
GTA:SA in order to make your movies. They also produce the GTA machinima
series called "Peds" for your enjoyment.
•
SA
Cam Hack
ToCA Edit's free program that lets you take control of the camera
in the game GTA:SA.
•
Fraps
A powerful piece of software used to record any action taking place
on your computer monitor. Think of it as the viewfinder of a video
camera. Whenever you want to record your in-game experience and
turn it into a movie file on your hard drive just have it running
and hit the record button. Download the demo from their web site.
•• MODDING SITES ••
The following are sites that will help you modify GTA:SA. You can
make your movies using the stock characters, textures, maps and
props in the game, but sometimes you may want or need something
custom.
•
GTA Garage
This site contains a slew of mods and modding tools for the GTA
series of games. A "mod" is a modification to the game
made by the players. Mods range from being as simple as changing
the color or the texture of a game character or prop to as extensive
as whole new environments and missions.
•
GTA Forums
This is where you'll want to go if you ever decide to make your
own game mods. If their tutorial forum was a paperback book on my
desk, it would be worn to shreds by now. You can also interact with
all the most prolific mod makers. Most of them are very helpful
and very smart.
•• MY MODS ••
•
My Big Green Building Mod
Download
this RAR file which contains my quick and dirty map mod. It places
a new building on the movie studio lot in Vinewood and doesn't alter
any existing maps in the game.
The
new building is large and green (color used, red:0 green:255 blue:0)
It's not pretty to look at from the surrounding area, but it's only
supposed to be used to film chroma key scenes with 360 degrees of
movement inside. It can even fit large land vehicles. I haven't
tested it with all vehicles (like a semi-tractor/trailer rig), but
I have driven the nearby spawned RV into it without problems.
For
those of you that don't know what a green screen (or chroma key)
is used for, in a nutshell: it's a backdrop for movie scenes your
characters act in front of. After filming, during the editing process,
you can merge any background you like behind the actors. Just make
sure your actors/props have no green colors in their textures.
)
)
)
