I’ve been a big supporter of the Blender Foundation over the last few years. If you don’t know, Blender is a the FREE, open-s0urce 3D application that allows you to create 3D films, create games and build models (and more). Very much a tool that rivals applications like 3ds Max and Maya, Blender has benefited enormously from several feature film projects where teams from all over the world come together to create a feature-length animated film and at the same time upgrade Blender and add to the applications “real-world” functionality.
One of the things I love about the Blender Foundation is that they are true to their word. In a fund raising campaign last year, I paid about $60 toward their special DVD release of Sintel. In addition to the hi-res version of the film and dozens of Blender tutorials created during the filmming of Sintel, you also get all of the films assets for free. Unbelievable! And you know they raised their money in a very short time. I’ve been following the development of this film step by step. If you are interested check their blog.
“Sintel” is their most recent film project and the Blender Foundation has just released a short trailer of the film-in-progress. You can also download hi/low res versions here.
Phil Rice, one of machinima’s best filmmakers and promoter, is offering a free introductory course in using Moviestorm, Note: Phil’s got a bad cold this weekend so the Free course is post-poned to a new date: SATURDAY, JUNE 12th from 9:00AM to 10:30AM PST. If you haven’t signed up for the free intro head over to his website and follow the links as I think Phil is a terrific teacher. This course called “A Movie in an Hour” will be 90 minutes long and will feature about 60 minutes of Phil taking your through Moviestorm step by step on his desktop. They’ll be a 30 minute Q&A at the end of the session.
Phil is also offering a second more focused course called “Camera Mastery” which will take place on June 26th (Saturday) at 9:00 AM Pacific/5:00 GMT and will cover how to use the Moviestorm camera in depth. Again, he’ll be screen casting from his desktop and will conduct a Q&A at the end of the session. There are also giveaways and extras for those who sign up. The price of the course is $25. I signed up last week and the process of paying via Paypal is easy and simple.
Looking forward to learning Moviestorm from Phil. He’s created some excellent films in Moviestorm and was part of the original group to adopt Moviestorm as a machinima tool.
If you want to learn Moviestorm (and machinima production in general) you should check Mr. Rice’s guided lessons.
If you’ve never picked up a copy of the “Vice guide to….” in the sleaze section of your local bookstore you are denying yourself a very great pleasure. Established in Montreal in 1994, Vice is both a free magazine and a media conglomerate with offices currently in New York City. Focused on indie and youth culture initially, the Vice folks have branched out into strange and controversial topics. They take an ironic approach to culture with no concerns about morality or ethics. Hence their stuff is often hit or miss, but never dull, never uninteresting.
Being a connoisseur of sleaze myself, I was overjoyed to discover that Vice has their own internet TV/Film site VBS.TV. One of their first releases was a very cool documentary called “Heavy Metal in Bagdad” which follows the members of a metal band there. Very, very cool. Now, from an article on Twitch.com, I see Vice has to released their very own “Vice Guide to Film” series and are featuring a 3 part series on Mexican Narco Cinema. This engaging documentary is full of strange, dirty fun. I’ve always loved Mexican Cinema (especially the horror films of the 50′s and 60′s), but I don’t know much about Narco Cinema. That is until now. Check out the first episode in the series. Thank you, Vice!
Ricky Grove (aka Richard Grove, "gToon") is an actor, sound effects editor, writer, machinima filmmaker and bookstore clerk all rolled into one. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner, author Lisa Morton, in an apartment filled with books, Hong Kong DVD's and Halloween Antiques. Oh, and there are two swell cats; Roxie and Sylvia.
Current News
Here's what's going on with me this week
-All sound projects completed (Yay!)
-Just finished review of E-on's Vue xStream 8.5 for Renderosity
