MEP soon

Just finished two MEP parts!

(I'll post a link to the MEP once it's up.)

EDIT: It's up! You can watch below :) the MEP is hosted by JuliLux3 and I am very proud to be a part of it :)

Arghhhh!

Glitch glitch glitch. I have like two more shots to film, FFS game!

Every 15-30 minutes man. And don't forget those 'delightful' error 12 messages.

SIFF Fall 2014 - My Faves

Well, it took me a while to get though the SIFF Fall 2014 entries (11 hours worth - whoa) but I've listed some of my top-picks below.

While there were certainly some very good ones, there were also others that weren't as good as I had hoped, or that I felt suffered from a long run-time or too many technical issues (I will not be listing these, of course).

Also, I'm personally not really a fan of series. I find I simply can't get into most of them. I much prefer one-off short films and this list reflects that.

That being said, it's great to see so many people participating in this festival, and it is also quite pleasing to see people's machinima-making skills improve from one cycle to the next :)

Top 3 favourites- in no particular order

"Kodaline - All I Want" by Dummond Machinima
I found this one quite sweet. Really lovely cinematography & editing too

"Lolita" by TheElonianCass
It was cool to see some Sims 4 machinima at SIFF, and in my opinion, this was hands-down the best. The editing really makes this one "pop" :)



"Bring Me Back To Life" by JuliLux3
I really enjoyed this one, I thought the editing was fabulous, the characters looked gorgeous and the plot was interesting. I am a fan of JuliLux's editing skills! :)

Honorable mentions

Best Original Story - "The Sixth Born" by Tali Sims Mogan (spooky, but quite original!)
Best Recreation of a TV Ad - "I Still Call Australia Home" by Ansett 4 Sims 
Best "Cinematic" Production Value - "Cinder EP 5 "Just a Mechanic" by GrayLeeStudios (yes, it's a show but the visuals/soundtrack is great)

Anyway, that's just my opinion :) feel free to disagree/agree in the comments. 

Thanks for reading

- Ballantyne

10th Sims International Film Festival

The Sims International Film Festival (SIFF) is coming up again!




This is "the big one" - a.k.a. the 10th anniversary of the festival. Anyone who is interested in joining, please check out the rules in the link below. Remember to get your submission form in no later than September 1st, 2014.  Films premiere about two weeks later on the 15th of September 2014.

http://issuu.com/simatography/docs/siff_rules_guide_all_seasons

Not sure if I will be able to get something done, because I am bloody awful at finishing machinimas (and real life has been busy lately). But.... I just got Final Cut Pro X, so .... who knows.

One thing I am certain of: IF I have something brewing, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut until I've got a finished product, because I've learned from experience that showing off "tidbits" or "previews" before it's done tends to kill off  my motivation for it. Yeah.

Sims 4 vent

Oh  man. I've just been reading so much bad news lately regarding The Sims 4 :(

I have to wonder what the heck is actually going on over at EA's headquarters right now. Is it a case of too many PR people, and too many executives with dollar signs over their eyes and not enough artists wanting to create a great product?  The amount of features they are cutting from the base game is utterly ridiculous. I mean, no "create-a-style" is already hard to accept but eliminating toddlers? Having teens the same height as adults?? What is this? 

????????

Gotta say, I feel sorry for some of the SimGuru's because they're getting a lot of heat from fans right now. For example, SimGuruGraham is actually a really good guy, and genuinely connects with fans (he even posts on modthesims) it's just a shame he works for such a messed-up company such as EA with their "i-know-best" executives stuffing things up. 

:(

P.S. Ok, this is the last rant I'm gonna make about TS4. (Even if things get worse) the whole thing is just annoying me too much. 

E3 2014 thoughts

Just caught up on some of the E3 videos. Thought I'd post my thoughts:

Sims 4 Press Conference.


This pretty much sums up how I felt throughout the whole video:

I was just very underwhelmed, as expected. Sims 4 just doesn't excite me much. EA isn't bringing anything new or innovative, they're just bringing us a marginally updated Sims 3. 

I was rolling my eyes at EA's "For the first time" and "Like you've never seen" rubbish. Because it was a pack of lies. We've already had "emotions" and "unique personalities" for our Sims with The Sims 3,  I mean, c'mon EA! 

Sure, I'll eventually get TS4 (because I'm a sucker for The Sims). But not on launch day.  Uh-uh. You had your chance to secure my pre-order, EA, but you failed. 

Sony Press Conference

http://au.ign.com/videos/2014/06/10/sonys-entire-press-conference-e3-2014

Overall Gif reaction:

Ok, I admit, I am a massive PlayStation fangirl. And for the most part, this conference was awesome. Not all the games interested me though. Destiny seems "meh" to me, as does "Far Cry 4". I'm just not into those sorts of games :/

However, a few games stood out to me in particular, and are likely buys:

The Order: 1886. Looks badass :D

Batman Arkham Knight Looks freaking epic sauce :D :D

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

OH MY GOD.

THOSE GRAPHICS. 

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE. 

WHAT IS MY LIFE.

HIGH-DEFINITION NATHAN DRAKE IS GLORIOUS. 

Bravo Naughty Dog, you've secured my pre-order. And my first-born child. Well done. 

Editing

Man, I gotta stop using iMovie to edit my stuff. While I love the simplicity, it is very limiting.

It's definitely time to upgrade.

But I can't decide between Sony Vegas and Final Cut Pro X.  (I have both Mac and PC)

I'm more familiar with FCPX, but Vegas just seems to be very creative-friendly.

Hmmm

In other ramblings, I haven't had as much time or energy to work on my machinima projects in general. (Just started a new full-time job recently, and it's great but mentally exhausting.)

I managed to finish off an MEP part today at least, so that's good. There's a bunch of other MEP's I wanted to join as well, but I just don't have the time to do them :'(

Teach me how to edit :'(

I wish a magical editing elf could come and edit my videos for me :3

Edit (heh): Ok, I did a rough first edit of this "mystery" project on Saturday. My test audience (aka my awesome Sis) tells me it is very nice, but far too long-winded, which... I sadly agree with.   

Gonna try a second edit next weekend and try and *sob* leave some of my precious scenes babies on the cutting room floor :'(  Wish me luck. 

Little Rambling Update

Just thought I'd post a little update.

"Going Under" has been shelved indefinitely, most likely to be harvested for parts. It's sad, but that's the way it has to be, for my own sanity.

I have been animating a bit recently though. I may or may not be working on another machinima project. However, in my spare time I have been messing around in Blender (have I mentioned that I loooooove Blender? ;D).

Anyway...... I made this kiss animation from scratch including the walking. It's supposed to be a "semi-dramatic" kiss that I may (or may not) use in a future machinima. I made it because I hated all the face-munching "nom-nom"-ness that most of the in-game kisses had. Plus, I wanted the male taller than the female.



It still needs a little work (there are some clipping issues, I know). I'm trying to decide whether I should improve this one or scrap it and start again on a better kiss. Hmmm.

- Ballantyne

SIFF Winners Announced

Yeah boi!

http://issuu.com/simatography/docs/siff_buzz_spring_2014_final

Finally, the winners have been announced for SIFF Spring!  I must say, there were a few that surprised me, but all involved were worthy winners :D

(Now, only five or six months until the tenth SIFF anniversary. Plenty of time for me to procrastinate to make something. Or not.)

SIFF Spring 2014 - My Faves

So, as part of my "watching-things" binge, I've finally gotten around to watching all of the SIFF entries this weekend (all 7 hours worth - wow!)

Anyway, I thought I'd post a few of my own personal favourites. Note, this is just my personal opinion. Of course, there were a number of good films that I liked, but these few stood out in particular for me.

My top 3 SIFF Favourites, in no particular order:

"The Merman" by WhiteBlueCherry
Although this film is quite long (at 43mins) I found this to be a very sweet & enjoyable film, and it kept my interest the whole time. The storytelling and voice-acting was very well done :)




"Arsenic Show" by Willoshanna Will
I'll admit, I am already a big fan of this guy and I've been subscribed to him for a while.  He has a very unique and highly creative visual style, and this video does not disappoint. "Arsenic Show" is offbeat, highly stylish, and very cool :D
Content warning: this vid has some brief nudity, so may be semi-NSFW




"I'll Forget You Not" by Sylentwhisper
Even though the story was a little unclear (until I read the description), I loved how this was put together, the sims, sets, music & cinematography were lovely and it all just flowed together really nicely :)



Overall, very impressed and inspired by everyone's creativity this round, I think the next round (SIFF10) is going to be crazy-good.

Sad News

I'm withdrawing "Going Under" from SIFF, I'm just extremely unhappy with how the film is turning out, despite having made over 20 custom anims and working very hard on it.

I'm so frustrated right now, it's hard to put into words.

Sorry to Simatography, and anyone else looking forward to it.

And sorry to ShakespearesSunshyne, you have been so lovely and supportive of my machinima projects in the comments (I have really appreciated it) so, I feel bad for letting you down too.

I'm going to eat some chocolate now, and binge-watch Game of Thrones or Hannibal or something. Anything that gets my mind off smashing up my Sims 3 CDs.

(P.S. I'm not abandoning the project completely, I still think there are some good custom animations in it, and the basic story is interesting. But I just can't deal with it right now). 

Few Teaser Pics

Ok, I'm gonna get this up by this Friday night (USA time) and I have let Simatography know. (Even if the final edit sucks spectacularly, at the very least I've submitted something that I can get constructive criticism on).

Here's a few teaser pics. They're kinda boring.

(Still not sure on the deranged knight-guy, he might end up getting cut from the film, because he's kinda freaky.)

Next post will be my film. Either that, or I'm crying under a big pile of doonas. 

Running late

Running a bit late with my SIFF film.

I will post here as soon as it's done. (It's a nightmare to edit.)

In the meantime, you can catch up on everyone's awesome SIFF films here!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJQh8duBqcfgFVHkY5KkBxGnqKIoh9ciJ

Yay!!!

Fridge Getting Funky

Another accessory I converted.  I have my reasons.  Excuse the low-quality vid.

Still working on SIFF film. (I don't know why I leave these things till the last minute!)

SIFF Poster: "Going Under"

Here is a poster I made for my upcoming SIFF Film.  I'm quite crap at graphic design, but I gave it a go anyway.

(right-click & open in new window for a larger view)

I can't believe it's March already, omg! Still so much to do. 

First Attempt at Meshing & Blah-blah

So, this is my first-attempt at meshing something in Milkshape.

I made it because I reeeeally needed a leg-cast for my SIFF film (and I couldn't find one for TS3 anywhere). It's not fancy (it's just a cylinder that I squished and pulled a bit  :3 )

It's essentially like a giant sock.  I got mega-lazy with the texture too, but the texture isn't terribly important for my film. Ehhhhhhh.

Progress on my SIFF film is going quite poorly, still stuck on the animation phase (I still have at least 10-15 more custom animations to make in Blender).

It doesn't help that I'm getting distracted by this epic animation book I just bought (or maybe it does?).

Hopefully my next post will be more productive. I'll stop whinging now.

Randomness

Alright, I think I can get something done in time for SIFF after all. Got an idea for a short that goes for about a min or so :3

SIFF Spring Unlikely

Not sure if I'll be able to get a SIFF film done now.  I had about three different ideas, and was starting to roll with an exciting sci-fi one, then I realised it was too similar to another machinima I had seen previously, so I figured it was safer to scrap it :P

Second idea was kinda cliché (about some guy that got in a fight with some other guys that landed him in the hospital) and the fight scenes would've been difficult to animate >_<

Third idea was straight-up trippy, "weird shit", which I kinda liked, but not sure if anyone else would :3

Ah.... I might take a break from all things Sims I think. Just for a week. Maybe that'll refresh things for me.

Maybe  >_>

(/ end mini-ramble).

"Counting Stars" Parts 12 and 13

Finished :) This is a short machinima part I made for DrewStudio's Multi Editor Project.

It was fun to make, but I had a lot of technical issues >_<

Apologies for the lag and not-very-good greenscreen scenes. Two things I need to work on in the future!




Anyway, I'm going to work on my SIFF entry next. I just need to get over this pesky writers block .... :P

Couple of Random pics

Screenshots from a little machinima part I'm working on :)

It's short and silly, but I'm having fun with it :)

Sims International Film Festival [Spring 2014]

The Sims International Film Festival (SIFF) is on again soon!  Yeeeeeaaaaahh! *excited dance*

Here is the official poster for Spring 2014! Poster design by Cloudwalkersims:

The festival is hosted by Simatography.webs.com and is held twice a year.

If you're interested in submitting your film, here is the link with all the rules, info and deadlines:
http://issuu.com/minraed/docs/siff_march_2014_rules_and_tips/1?e=1784792/5752476

Both Sims 3 and Sims 2 machinima is accepted :D

Personally, I reeeeeeeeeally want to try and submit a film this year, dang it! Hopefully I can find the time to get one done :3

:O

Greenscreen tests

Some green-screen tests of car interiors.
Unfortunately, I'm not great at green-screen and I just used iMovie to blend it together.
It looks a bit fake to my eye, but I don't think I can do much about it. *shrugs* Oh well.

2014 in the house, yo!

Happy New Year, anyone reading this :)

I hope 2014 is a good one for you all.

Anyway..... please forgive the state of this blog, I know it's an absolute disorganised mess. It's kinda fugly as well, but I'm going to try and attempt a re-design in Feb sometime. I should have some more machinima up by that time to warrant a redesign.

May as well list my resolutions, hey :P Not gonna list my real-life resolutions though, because they sound way too pathetic!

Hobby Resolutions/Goals:
- Talk less about making machinima, and just actually make it.
- Actually submit a film to Siff Spring 2014. For reals this time.
- Try be original where possible.
- Release at least two Sims  3 machinimas worth watching.
- Learn how to animate better! Study more tutorials
- Learn how to edit better!
- Practice writing and character/plot development .
- Learn to use Source Film Maker and make at least two films with that.
- Make at least one machinima with The Sims 4 (once it is released) no matter how crappy it may be.

That's about it. Got things to do, I guess @_@