Awesome:

[Volshi]

I meant yours Azheron, Twas quite good tbh

[teege]

Very cool movies, makes me wish I had the talent on software to make something really nice. CotH totally needs one.

[Harmonic]

I've wanted to make a -true- CoTH machinima for a long while. It'd be mazing to make something like Pelicula did, however, he's very secretive with the program he used. I -suspect- it's a program he wrote himself.

[rentreality]

I would hazard that Pelicula exported the models (both for the characters and the scenes) from Modelviewer and imported them in to 3DS Max to animate and render them. It's difficult to say -- but that's what I would do if I was in their place.

Perhaps I'll run a proof-of-concept when I'm back at my usual desk, with Blender and Modelviewer. I don't have $4000 to drop on Max.

[Kiffles]

If it can be done in Blender, then I know what I'll be doing when I get back home, too. ._.;;;

[Terant]

If it can be done in Blender, then I know what I'll be doing when I get back home, too. ._.;;;

Oh god. I can just imagine one of these videos with a Gnomer theme.

Also, I think someone posted Blind here like a year ago. It was awesome then, and it's still awesome now. XD

[Kiffles]

If it can be done in Blender, then I know what I'll be doing when I get back home, too. ._.;;;

Oh god. I can just imagine one of these videos with a Gnomer theme.

videos with a Gnomer theme.

Gnomer theme.

Gnomer

...YOU KNOW IT'D BE COOL TO HAVE A MEKKATORQUE-FRONTED ARMY OF GNOMES BATTLING LEPERS AND TROGGS TO THIS. ;3;

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDWgsQhbaqU[/youtube]

[Piroska]

Oh god. I can just imagine one of these videos with a Gnomer theme.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evUo0XlWAVg[/youtube]

God bless BaronSoosdon. Some of his work is a little, uh, out there, but he is amazing. And his love of gnomes is well-documented. He was one of the winners with in a recent contest with the original version of Gnomecraft. He tweaked it afterward to add in some new scenes (and also highlight that his entry had won!).

I just assumed that Pericula used 3D Max. It's the one that a lot of people within the community use when they want to manipulate the models. There are a number of other programs that he may have used, but that seems to be the most prevalent.

I'm working on making a machinima now, but there's no way that I can be anywhere close to that level of professionalism. This would be the first project I've done and -- while I do a lot of image editing and have put together video tutorials for my old job -- machinima is something a little new to me. Whee! Once I get it completed, I plan on writing up a guide (or maybe a series?) on Looking For Roleplay that others might find helpful. I know that people have used my wiki guides and were looking forward to my guides on the WMV and image manipulation.

Which I still haven't gotten around to doing. Bleh.

[rentreality]

Righto. I'm back at my regular desk, and I threw something together in a couple of minutes. As I thought, the WoW model viewer can export .obj files -- which Blender is more than happy to import.

Proof of concept:

Spoiler:

As a side note, the model viewer does not export the model's control structure (rig, armature, skeleton, whatever you want to call it) so you have to build one yourself with Blender's tools. It's not too hard, and there's documentation on all of it, but it takes time. If you didn't guess, time was not something I took when throwing the concept together.

EDIT: When I have more time, I might create a few things:

• A tutorial on exporting and importing models with Modelviewer and Blender
  
• A generic, labelled armature that people can scale and use for any given humanoid-type WoW model.
  
• A short guide on how to connect your armature to your model so you're ready to animate.

[PiesOfNub]

Rent, you have now made me interested in graphical modelling... Even though I already do it for Warcraft 3. :P

PIESEDIT: Would it be possible to import two models into one thing, and perhaps even use a seperate skeleton for each? I'm having dastardly ideas for combat machinimas.

[rentreality]

Rent, you have now made me interested in graphical modelling... Even though I already do it for Warcraft 3. :P

Ha! It's a blast.

PIESEDIT: Would it be possible to import two models into one thing, and perhaps even use a seperate skeleton for each? I'm having dastardly ideas for combat machinimas.

That's the entire point. Here, a more complex version of this kind of stuff. While it's the same model, and the same skeletons, you could really have it be anything you want.

[HelveteSong]

Since ths seems to fit, I need to ask:

What are good programs for this sort of thing? I want to make machinima, but I have no idea what programs to use. If anyone wants to suggest some good programs, I would luff you forevah. 8D

[Piroska]

I've been using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, FRAPS, WoW Model Viewer, and WoW Machinima Tool. The WMT in particular is something that I recently found (God bless Baron Soosdon and his insistence in listing all of the programs that he uses in the credits of his movies). It's phenomenal. I've been using it to tweak the appearance of Icecrown while getting camera angles.

I made the following image while manipulating the overlay, the skybox, and the position of the sun, while applying an enhanced glow effect:

Spoiler:

The Valley of Fallen Heroes looks like an entirely different area of the game. It's great; I was able to make it look like dawn in Icecrown and manipulate the appearance of the zone so that I can film the battle scene as I had originally desired. I was certain that I'd have to edit things frame by frame by frame in post-production to get the effect that I'd envisioned.

WMT also has a number of camera effects that allow you to move independent of your character, as if you were flying -- though it's not a flying hack. I'd still like to eventually spawn some mobs so that I can test a number of different options and also camera angles, but I'm hooked. This thing is ridiculous.

I'm using the WMT to set up the environment I want and do various camera effects. FRAPS allows me to record both in-game footage and stuff from the WMV. I then am able to use Premiere Pro 2.0 to combine all of the parts. I'm particularly fond of the program's green screen effect, since it allows me to import WMV captures and then easily remove the solid color backgrounds. At this point I'm still playing around with different things in order to eventually compile it all, but it's been an interesting project to undertake.

[HelveteSong]

Mmmm. FRAPS, my arch nemesis. xD Also, I assume Adobe Premiere is not free. D: I have model viewer, so WoW Machinima tool. Need to look into that one. Any alternatives for free? I am not as wealthy as I wish I was. XD

[Harmonic]

I've always wanted to make a Rensin/Arena Machinima. Against Rofupi, or with him against an Ogre. Maybe I'll check this stuff out.