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Breakfast Topic: Have you ever wanted to make your own machinima?
Most people know that I play a discipline priest in World of Warcraft. I play holy and shadow a lot too, but nothing really beats hopping around, casting bubbles on people, and preventing near death experiences. In League of Legends, I pretty much do the same exact thing, minus the hopping. In League I play a support champion named Janna, and most of what she does is float around, cast bubbles on people, and prevent near death experiences. I guess I just like bubbling things. I've always suspected it had something to do with the fact that the first game I ever owned as a kid was Bubble Bobble on the NES. Want to know what you do in that game? You hop around blowing bubbles at things. Anyway, ever since Wrath, I've wanted to make a video where my disc priest starts out shielding the raid on the heroic Lich King encounter, before accidentally falling through the platform and into a 2-D platform game (similar to Bubble Bobble). There she would have to use her bubbles to navigate levels and fight monsters. The problem is I don't really think I have what it takes to make machinima. Sure, I can hit the record button and film my character running around on a live server, but I don't think I have the patience or artistic talent to do stuff like Percula or the Hackleman Brothers. What they do is closer to animation, and animation is pretty intimidating to a second-rate artist like myself. Still, it doesn't stop me from dreaming. Maybe one day ... What about you? Have you ever wanted to make your own machinima? If so, what would it be? A short spoof, a feature length movie, or an ongoing series? Furthermore, what would it be about? Would it be the love story of your blood elf mage, or an epic war drama starring your human paladin?
WoW Moviewatch: Craft of War: BLIND
It Has Been 5 Months 0 Months Since Michael Gray Last Posted BLIND. Since the last time Percula's classic Craft of War: BLIND graced these pages, two WoW Insiders have had babies (not together), a new expansion has let out, we've endured a non-stop presidential campaign, sent a robot to Mars, and garnered lots of new readers. So, to those new folks, welcome to Craft of War: BLIND. It's awesome and will spoil you for most other machinima that you may ever see. Don't worry. You'll still like other stuff. But you'll look back on BLIND the same way you remember your first love. To you long-time veterans, yeah. Rogues still don't play this way. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
WoW Moviewatch: BLIND
There's a joke around the WoW Insider offices. Occasionally, we need quick language to describe when we've previously seen something. It could be a tip like, "Felicia Day appeared in a Sears commercial," or, "Onyxia Deep Breathes more." And the code language we use for that situation is "BLIND." Craft of War: BLIND was actually released a long time ago, but it went on a brief hiatus. When it came back, a bunch of viewers thought it was brand new. Even more notable, however, is the vast skill and talent of Percula. The artwork of BLIND is amazing, and the machinima has stood every test of time. (Even if people like to argue about the music every time BLIND appears.) So to celebrate the turning of the season, let's get this out of the way. Here's BLIND. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.
WoW Moviewatch: Craft of War: Blind rerun
Our intrepid Moviewatch host, Michael Gray, is fine but is dealing with the aftermath of far too much snow and has asked me to show a rerun. He tells me that he's been receiving submissions again for Craft of War: Blind. Percula's wonderful machinima is easily our most requested video and rather than try to fight it, we just succumb to reader pressure and show it every few months or so. The history: Percula made this amazing movie and promised us more. He hosted it on Vimeo, who decided that it was gameplay footage (which they don't allow) and deleted it without warning, taking all of the comments and views with it. Percula was able to get it rehosted with a promise not to delete it again. In the meantime, Percula has stopped playing WoW and is no longer planning on creating the much anticipated sequel. A sad, sad thing. Of course, we're mostly playing this again for our pleasure. We don't really think our readers will stop submitting this, telling us it's a crime that we've never posted it in Moviewatch before. But just to set the record straight, we showed it here first on December 26, 2008 and often since then. Enjoy! Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
No sequel planned for The Craft of War: BLIND
Uber-popular (and uber-cool) WoW machinima The Craft of War: BLIND has spurred more tipline emails than we can count, even after posting about it a second time, and rightfully so. Percula's work on the video was incredibly impressive and it was a joy to watch. The bad news is that Percula recently updated the video's YouTube description to let everyone know that no, a sequel is not planned for the video. He says that he was laid off earlier in the year and had to quit WoW to focus on finding a job, and in the time since, his interest in the game has waned. That's the bad news! The good news is that he still plans on making other animated videos, just likely not WoW-based ones. And for those interested in seeing what he's come up with between the release of BLIND and now, he says to look for upcoming Id Software releases, which he had a hand in. Too bad about the discontinuation of the series, but at least this means that we won't get a hojillion tipline emails for BLIND II, right? A boy can dream.
WoW Moviewatch special: 7 movies you should know
Machinima's a pretty big topic. Depending on who you talk to, "machinima" could include story-based movies, PvP footage, boss kills, music videos, and even videography of altered in-game landscapes. There are uncounted thousands of videos about World of Warcraft roaming the internet, so it can be very difficult to know where to start.In honor of the ticket queue for BlizzCon 2009, Moviewatch presents seven machinima movies and machinimators you should know. Certainly, these aren't the only 7 movies or authors you should know, but they do include some of the most popular staples of the art. If you find yourself chatting it up with a machinima enthusiast around the BlizzCon water cooler, you can probably be certain they've seen these shows.We went for variety in this selection, choosing videos with different styles and subjects. They certainly aren't listed in "countdown to the best" format, since trying to rate these videos like that would be dang near impossible. Instead, they are simply listed alphabetically, according to the creator of the movie.Check out the selection behind the cut.
Blind has made me want to play Hide And Seek
Everyone and their mother has seen Blind by Percula, right? If not, go ahead and watch it above. Better yet, go to the actual vimeo page and watch it in high definition. Then come back here for more Blind-goodness.Blindly satisfied? Great! It's been the #1 search topic on WoW Insider for a bit, so I know people must love it.The only complaint that folks have about the video is the sound can be rather rough at times. I have to admit that I think this as well (to some extent), however it's nothing that really detracts from the video itself. Further, it's interesting to note that the audio distortion is present in the original song Percula uses as well, which leads me to believe it was an artistic choice of the artist.But no matter what you think of the audio quality, I haven't ran into anyone who thinks the song doesn't match up beautifully with the animation and story itself.But therein lies the question – what are the lyrics? The song playing is "Hide & Seek" by Namie Amuro. I wasn't familiar with her, so after some Wikipediaing, I learned that she is a Japanese singer that was, and to a large extent still is, quite popular.Take a look after the break for more about the song "Hide & Seek," including the lyrics.
[1.Local]: Readers gone Blind
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.You'd have to be "Blind" not to have seen the machinima everyone's been talking about this week. We posted about it not once, not twice but three times – and we're still receiving chastising notes to get busy and run it. (Come on, folks, read the blog!) So what's all the fuss about? This machinima has garnered rave reviews (and even offers to have "man2man babies") from virtually everyone corner – although some viewers aren't fans of the music selection. "I disagree with many of the others about the music choice," observed Fawkes, who took up a midstream position between hotly contested views. "While these weren't my favorite genres to listen to, I must say I found the 'Hide and Seek' song a playful match with the action scenes. My advice to Percula would be to take their complaints into consideration, but still take this your own way."But we didn't hear only from WI readers. Machinima rock star Baron Soosdon and "Blind" creator Percula himself weighed in.
Tuesday Morning Post: Blinded by the Light edition
Have you seen Blind yet? Seriously. It's on the site, I swear. It's so good we posted it twice, even. Well, I guess three times, now. And seriously, guys. The music is fine. Awesome even. This is probably the most dynamic, well plotted, well choreographed WoW Movie to come across the desk here at WoW Insider, so even if you don't watch WoW videos, you are going to want to give this one a watch. Also, I just realized that the title "Blind" refers to the rogue skill, so that's cool too.If you can't find the time to watch it now, you'll have time in a little bit when the rolling restarts start. They start at 5 AM Pacific for American servers, 10 AM Pacific for the Oceanic servers. And once you're finished watching that and you pop your jaw back into place, try some of these articles:
Percula reveals future of BLIND
If you didn't catch the Craft of War: BLIND when we featured it on Friday, now's a good time to check it out above. The release of this machinima has hit several WoW news and comment sites like a storm, even being featured on the front page of MMOChampion. But the real news is that Percula, the creator and animator of the movie, has issued a little more information about who he is, and where he comes from. According to Percula, the future of BLIND is somewhat uncertain. This is because he did work for a game studio, but was laid off a few months ago. The high praise he's received makes it more likely that he's going to do a sequel, probably called something along the lines of Execute or Counterspell. Percula does say that he's thankful for both the positive feedback and constructive criticism he's seen since the release of BLIND. Although, as you might expect, he's having trouble keeping up with sheer volume of emails. It's heartening to see a newcomer to the machinima scene make such a big breakthrough. I'd like to thank all the folks who commented on Friday's post, since Percula definitely saw that feedback. Here's hoping that we'll see a new release soon!
WoW Moviewatch: The Craft of War: BLIND
Let's take a small break from the holiday festivities for something absolutely spectacular. Percula posted The Craft of War: BLIND on Vimeo, claiming that it's only the second creative work he's ever publically shared. I can't imagine what reams of work he must have privately, because I found this movie to be incredibly astounding. There's no dialogue, but BLIND didn't need it. You can imagine a storyline, filling in the holes from the tropes and memes as you watch an expert assassin working her way through Stormwind. This is some of the best action footage I've seen from WoW graphics. The movements are believable and complex, the fights are well paced. Percula says if the response is postiive enough, he'll follow-up with more. I can't imagine anything but postive response to this movie. Even the soundtrack was spot-on, expertly pacing the aerobatics and ninja skills. Definitely take the time to check out BLIND, and let Percula know what you think. We'd really like to see more. If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
