Daunting Inferno

For the final machinima project, I was once again teamed up with the two Film students from my previous project and two new CS students. These CS students too know the programs so the group was evenly split once again.

The story for this project was pitched by one of my Film major partners. It was actually, a last-minute idea that he came up with just before pitch ideas were due for the class. Turned out to be a decent idea. His philosophy was that what we were going to be doing would be easy on us because we didn't have to do anything too complicated and would limit some of the frustrations that we've had throughout the semester with the programs we use.

The division of work was broken down based on the settings where the animation takes place. I was assigned with all the scenes where the main character talks to the camera. The work load for me wasn't to bad as all I had to worry about was lip-syncing and facial movements. Too bad the lip-syncing portion of the work didn't turn out very well again. The timing isn't right at all. I began to think that maybe the program just doesn't like me at all. That was until the rest of the group was having the same problem. In the end, we did our best and try to weather the storm.

While working on this project, I was also working on a documentary film for my Film Production class. I figure this was an opportunity to kill to birds with one stone: Do a documentary about the making of a machinima video while working on a machinima project. For details on this documentary project, click here.

This is animation is a documentary-type short where a guy tells about his burden having born with powers. Having powers isn't always the best thing and sometimes, it's just a burden as is the case with the main character. His powers is a burden to him as people spontaneously combust if anyone is near him. By the end of the animation, he finally finds a path that his powers are no longer a burden to him.

Despite all the sound and lip-syncing problems with this project, the project was shown at the annual University of Utah's Machinima Fest. This event is a host to projects done by students and are shown off to all that attends the event. The works are based on digital entertainment done by students such as animation shorts, such as the ones I was a part off throughout the Machinima class, and student-made video games. It was a special moment for me to see something that I was a part of to be shown on the big screen for large audiences to see.