Machinima

Part of the Schome E-learning awards entry ELearning Awards intro --- Welcome

Machinima is a portmanteau of the words 'machine' and 'cinema'. It basically means filming computer-generated scenes.

Second life comes with built-in machinima tools, which film exactly what you see on the screen.

How to film in Second Life

You have several options:

• Use the built-in filming tools
• Use an external screen capture program
• Use the alt-zoom camera in conjunction with one of the above

Using Second Life's built-in video capture

To capture video:

1. Go to File --> Start/Stop Movie to Disk (make sure you aren't in mouselook mode), or press ctrl-shift-A
2. Select where you want to save the movie file. It appears for many PC users (myself included) that the film will not save to anywhere except the desktop so you may want to try saving there first. Aston Schomer
3. Select the video codec you want to use from the drop-down list (more info on the video codecs page)
4. Press OK

And you're filming! Whatever you see on your screen is being recorded. (Repeat the first step to stop filming)

Using the alt-zoom camera

The alt-zoom camera is a moving platform, which you can use to create steady tracking shots. To get one, just ask Fox, Aston, Wheelo, Marsbar9, or anyone else who has one.

Setup

1. Rez the camera from your inventory (found in the 'alt-zoom camera' folder)
2. Rez the object 'initial' from your inventory.
3. Re-position the initial marker (red face on top, green face to the right). This is where your camera will start from.
4. Rez a waypoint from your inventory. Waypoints indicate what path your camera will take.
5. Re-position the waypoint (red face on top, green face to the right). Touch it to activate it.
6. Rez more waypoints, and position them. Touch them in sequence to activate them.

Usage

1. Say 'initial'. The camera will move to the initial marker.
2. Right click the camera and select 'film' (you will sit in the camera).
3. Activate the 'action' gesture in the camera folder (or type '/action' if it has been activated)

The camera should now move along the path of waypoints. You can now start recording (see how to use the built-in tools, above).

See also

• The wedding video, made using the built-in tools
• Intro video to Schome Park
• A guide to video codecs
• Machinima Projects