Fall SIFF 2015 - My faves

Ok. SIFF review time :)

So this season's SIFF was fairly good, but I couldn't help thinking it didn't quite reach the heights of Spring's 2015's SIFF. Don't get me wrong, there were some excellent films - but there just weren't as many of them.

I think the main reason for this was because quite a few Machinima Masters pulled out of the festival. I know there were about 3 or 4 that I was especially looking forward to, but sadly they were absent. I'm 90% sure at least two of them would've made my favourites list.

Anyway, with that being said, here is a list of my favourites, and honourable mentions.

Top 3 favorites

Dead to Me hosted by TheElonianCass

A fabulous looking MEP and a great song. Gorgeous editing work by all.
(Note, if the embed doesn't work, you can view directly by clicking here)

Odd 1x01 - Taken by Adriano Magnavita
A story about odd happenings, this pilot drew me in immediately. It was mysterious and engaging the whole way through. The characters were well-written and it had some unexpected moments of humour.


Circles by JuliLux3
Another stunning film by JuliLux. Man, I looove her work. A lot of powerful emotions are created in this machinima through her thoughtful camerawork and wonderfully artistic editing. This machinima tells the story of a soldier gone to war and the love he left behind (that is my interpretation of it, anyway :)

☆☆☆Honorable Mentions ☆☆☆

To the Moon and Back by Ansett4Sims

Staying Up Late by MsRockTheClock

Overall impression of SIFF Fall 2015 in .gif format:

SIFF Fall 2015 soon!

Only about two weeks until the Sims International Film Festival begins on the 15th September 2015!

I'm not participating, but I'm looking forward to watching the submissions - there are a HUGE amount of films this season!

I will be watching all Masters, Films, Music videos and MEP's and will be posting a list of my favourites a couple of weeks later. However, I will not be viewing series unless a few happen to fall into the Master category.

Gonna be honest here , and I have stated this before, but I'm not really a fan of Sim's series - there are very few I like.  While I respect the dedication that goes behind them, Sim Series just aren't my thing when it comes to SIFF.

(But still looking forward to SIFF overall)

- Ballantyne

Source Filmaker tutorial vid

Finally finished the tutorial video :P




For comparison, here is Valve's much more polished one:

I didn't add the film grain & colour correction to mine, as I wanted it more colourful.

Yeah.

Sims 4: Get Together EP

Thoroughly unimpressed by the new Sims 4 EP trailer.

Just sayin'

SFM Test

My first test using Source Filmmaker! :D

This program is hard! D:

But also badass

Anytime But Now [Sims 3 Machinima]

*Warning, contains mature content*

This is a very old, unfinished project that has been stagnating on my hard drive for a couple of years. I was originally hoping to release it for SIFF 2013, but couldn't get it done before the deadline.

I shelved this project for a while, but it got to a point where I couldn't bring myself to finish it, yet I couldn't bear to throw out all the footage, so in the end I thought I'd edit together what I had on hand and hope that it's at least semi-watchable.

(I'm still not happy with it, which is why I'm not uploading it publicly - just here and on Simatography)

By the way, this is a fan-film about two characters from the Resident Evil series, Leon. S. Kennedy and Ada Wong. I ship them very intensely, but you probably noticed that from the video :P

"My Demons" MEP

Hi guys,

Here is a new MEP I participated in, hosted by JuliLux3. yay! :D



This is probably my last MEP with The Sims 3, I'm uninstalling my game and going to be making videos with another program for a while. I don't like to say the word "quit"when it comes to The Sims 3, so I'm gonna call it an "extended hiatus".

- Ballantyne

P.S. Still haven't bought The Sims 4. If an animation player is released... I might change my mind. But, the game still looks very mediocre to me.

Spring SIFF 2015 - My faves

Sorry for the delay with this guys, real life has been busy! :O

Here are my favourites for Spring SIFF 2015. I must say, I it was a great SIFF this season!

As a result, I have five favourites instead of three this time :D

Top 5 Favourites in no particular order:

It Only Hurts by JuliLux3
My god, this was gorgeous to watch. Stunning cinematography, beautiful editing and emotional story. The sims are damn sexy too! I don't know how she does it, but it's awesome!



Tangled Wires by Tali Sims Morgan
This film. Wow. I know this list is in no particular order. But in terms of story, this was my favourite piece of storytelling at SIFF. Tali has an amazing imagination and she has created a deeply moving, disturbing and emotional film. This needs more recognition. Seriously.



Truce by Apocalyptic Dog Films
Another well-crafted and emotional story. I was blown away by the dialogue in this film.  It also had great voice acting and a creatively used indie soundtrack.



Actor by Machinima Will
This was an intriguing story about acting and jealousy, creatively told through a use of black and white and colour. This story was loosely inspired by "Rope" by Alfred Hitchcock, and so, has a wonderful "hitchcockian" atmosphere.



Unbreakable Fate Episode 1 "Prologue" by DNL Films
The production value on this machinima was just outstanding, probably one of the most professionally polished machinima's I have ever seen. A great start to what looks like an intriguing series.

Honourable Mentions

Best psychedelic fight scene - "Shura" by Bahariawans

Best "omg-is-this-a-movie?" - "Tomb Raider - Lux Veritas" by vinnyvis

Sweetest Grim Reaper story  - "Shinohana The Death Flower" by Bahariawans


Overall impression of Spring SIFF 2015 in GIF Format:

Thanks for reading! :)

- Ballantyne

SIFF Spring 2015 MEPS!

Hi Guys,

Here are two MEP's I participated in for the Sims International Film Festival (SIFF). I am very proud of both MEPS and the creativity of all machinima makers involved.

"Oblivion" hosted by TitusLinde

"Sky's Still Blue" hosted by JuliLux3

Also, I forgot to post a link to the full SIFF playlist. Please visit the link below to view all films in the festival :)

http://simatography.webs.com/siff-archive-spring-2015

- Ballantyne

SIFF Spring 2015

Well guys, it's that time of year again! :D While I won't be submitting any machinimas, I'm proud to announce I will be participating in two MEPs this SIFF! One for JuliLux3, and the other for TitusLinde

At long last, I can *finally* say that I have participated in SIFF!

I will make a new post with the two MEPs as soon as they are available, as well as voting links, once they're up! Wooooo!

By the way, SIFF is only a few days away! Films premiere on the 15th of March. I will be posting a link to the full playlist on the day.

(And of course, I will be posting my personal faves from the festival in a week or two, as usual ^_^ )

Stay tuned :D

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.)