Machinimation

I've been pondering writing some machinima shorts for a while and in the new year I might give it a serious go, certainly in the Summer.
For those who don't know; machinima is the latest new media to spring out from gaming. Using various games (Halo, Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft and many more) as 3D modelling and background creators then using camera angle options to create films.

While roving around on the Interwebs I found a piece which isn't actually machinima but full animation after taking World of Warcraft's models and sounds and slapping them into an animation studio.

I thought this was pretty dazzling:


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

For the non-WoW people the female who is the target of the Blood Elf rogue is actually a dragon called Onyxia in human-form, she has infiltrated the city of Stormwind in order to manipulate the young king.

The potential for these tools staggers me and though I have no chance of producing something as amazing in an animation sense, I will definitely be giving machinima a whirl at some point in the next year (impending parenthood and starting a new degree not withstanding).