Half-Life Fiction - machinima

Awesome dude! Really cool. Would've been better without the hud though. What kind of Machinima were you thinking of starting?
 
I was thinking some parody stuff. I'm guessing that if I tried to remake the whole movie pulp fiction (which would be...hmmm...pointless) that Mirimax would probobly sue my a** off...

Like a Pulp fiction spoof or something starring characters from HL2. I thought the G-man did a pretty good christopher walken. Hey if there was ever a HL2 movie (god forbid) That's who they should cast.

G-man as christopher walken
Barney as John Travolta
Eli as Samuel Jackson, or stick a bandaid on the back of his head and you got Ving Rames
Alyx as Uma Thurman
 
Sounds interesting. Though Eli ain't very like Jackson (bit too old) so maybe that black citizen as him instead? G-man could double as The Wolf maybe?
It's a cool idea no doubt. Too bad I ain't good at modding.
 
You were attempting to get Uma and ended up with the Virgin Mary.

Awesome. :D
 
Haha, wow pretty cool, even fewer shot changes than Tarantino!
 
i tried to start up a machinima, in the HL2 universe, we're working on the script right now...
 
evilsloth said:
i tried to start up a machinima, in the HL2 universe, we're working on the script right now...
Click to expand...

Well, if you guys get things off the ground with your script and need some props or faceposer help then let me know... :thumbs:
 
Looks like you have the lip-synching down, along with some head, eyelid, and eyebrow flexing, and a good amount of blinking. 1:04-1:08 is pretty neat.

I know it's a WIP, but here's a couple of suggestions:

- Move the eyes around a little more. Having the actor look straight at the camera/player for the entire time, especially while the head flexes, makes the scene more intense than it really is.

- Use the wrinkler and cheek raiser flexes. Those sections of the face never moved in the teaser.
 
Thanks for the tips. You're right about the eyes.

If anybody is interested in recreating the original set in hammer :)
 
Veering slightly off topic:

Have you been able to use the gesture_updown and gesture_leftright flexes?
 
Hmmm.....not sure if I've tried. A while back I had a problem where when in faceposer the head left/right head up/down was not working in the preview window. I think the same thing was happening with the gesture things.

Then there seemed to be an SDK patch that fixed the problem. I don't know if I've tried the gestures yet though. Y do you ask?

I hid this uncomfortable hunk of sdk up my ass 2 years...btw
 
Yeah, I remember that bug. The head was locked, and the chest and body flexes didn't work either. I'm thinking that the same thing is happening with the gesture flexes.

I remember a video that Softimage and Valve made showcasing XSI's Mod Tool and Face Poser, and it showed Kleiner in one of the k_lab scenes having its arms move up/down/left/right with the gesture flexes. Being able to move different parts of a model's body within a sequence or gesture should create a lot of different body movements and make the choreography look more realistic.
 
Yea, I started thinking a little bit about some other potential problems.

For the really intricate animations, like cap'n coons holding up the watch to the kid and showing it to him, I would have to be able to have a rigged g-man model so that I could do my own animations and stuff. I don't know if that is possible? Unless I did it myself?
 
I'm not a modeler, so I don't know. I guess that modifying existing models is possible. I've seen someone working on a Gabe model for CS that's based on one of the female City 17 citizens; animating existing models would probably be up there.

I've been experimenting by blending different gestures, and modifying them with the Gesture and Ramp tools to get different poses. I blended three gestures and got this. Having the gesture flexes available would make this pose look more unique. Perhaps you could give it a try?
 
I'm not too familiar with the ramp tool or the gesture tool to be honest but I can give it a shot.
 
No luck on the gesture sliders. It doesn't seem to do anything in the preview window.
 
I've only just decided to read this thread after seeing it pop up a bit, and I've gotta say I'm impressed! I've love to see some of the work as it's getting developed.

Incidentally, I'm not too bad at using Hammer so if you could help me out with what it looks like I may be able to help map the area out..
 
OMG Hahahaa.

That is some awesome shit.

That's like one of my favorite scenes from Pulp Fiction too.
 
DarkStar said:
OMG Hahahaa.

That is some awesome shit.

That's like one of my favorite scenes from Pulp Fiction too.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Me too. Christopher Walken is just awesome.

Gonzo...Check out this reference pic. This is pretty much the only angle you get from the scene.
 

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Latin_Jones said:
No luck on the gesture sliders. It doesn't seem to do anything in the preview window.
Click to expand...

Bah, another broken part in Face Poser, just like the "Make Screenshot" feature.

Anyways, how much of the movie are you going to remake?
 
Sodabus said:
Anyways, how much of the movie are you going to remake?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'll remake anymore of it. It depends on a lot of different things. I'm not sure if Mirimax would put a stop to it? I'm using the audio from the movie and they probobly wouldn't like me distributing it. I know that you can legally use sound bites, but I'm not sure where to draw the line.

I'm half tempted to call them and see.

If I were to create my own script and make it a parody of pulp fiction with my own audio, that would be perfectly legal....
 
I'm in the same boat as you. The video I'm in the middle of also deals with copyrighted material, but I think you can get away with this.

Assuming this point, I don't think that you should call them. Since machinima is practically unknown to the general public, calling up the company and telling them about your machinima will project to them as, "Hey, I've ripped off a sound bite off of Pulp Fiction, embedded it within a CGI movie, and I'm redistributing it. Do you mind?" They'll probably fire off one of those pre-made copyright infringement letters your way.

The author of "Still Seeing Breen" hasn't been sued, and he used an entire song. A three minute clip of the movie for a unpopular machinima (relatively speaking; nothing against you) shouldn't be that bad.
 
Man...that was awesome, top scene to play out. I want to see more, maybe the scene at the end of pulp fiction where sam jackson holds tim roth hostage and gives this classic speech about a change of work, his transitional phase...anyway that would look brilliant on source.

keep it coming.

suggestion: you could make a small comedy series like RedvsBlue
 
Before I started the watch scene I started with the 'ezekial 25:17' speech Jules give at the beginning...That was before I figured out the flex animations so it's basically just lip synching...

I think I'm going to post in the Help Wanted section.

look for a mapper and maybe a couple modellers for static objects and maybe some voice actors.
 
You're making good progress.

I like the eyelid flexing and how the eyes should lead the movement of the head whenever the actor's focus breaks away from the camera, like in 0:24 and 0:31 to 0:35.
 
Better, much better! Just before the 2 minute mark is a brilliant expression and also at around 2.15. Really shows off the power of the source facial system!

One bit I'm disappointed with though is the "...up his ass" bit. I'm sure when he says it there's a quite dramatic bit of movement - coz it makes me laugh every time :)

It's definitely getting there but it's still a bit too static for too long in some sections. Also the head remains upright (not tilting on the verticle axis) for practically the whole thing, is there a way to make it tilt that way. I'll try to explain with ascii - His head remains like | but you should get it to move like this \ or like this /

Also could do with occasionally changing the camera angle, I know Tarantino likes his long cuts but would add a bit of variety to it.

Sorry if I'm sounding negative, I really like it - it's one of my fave scenes ever - but just thought I'd try to give some constructive criticism.

MORE, LETS SEE MORE!!!
 
Thanks for the crits.....

I'm definately going to use your advice. I'm not happy with the 'up the ass' part either. I need to go back and work on it some more and try to fill in some of the static gaps you mentioned.
 
I like it, though I was hoping for an action scene :(

If you want to do more filming or something like you were talking about, talk to me and I could help (machinima is the sex).
 
I could use a little help trying to setup static cameras and switching between them somehow? Somebody needs to come up with some type of 'source engine' camera rig or something....Like a live TV set where you could switch cameras...

maybe take a commercial break...

Anybody know how to toggle between a couple static cameras?
 
PM me, if you need some help for some minor characters or such...
I thought the Machinima program had Static Cameras, and switching inbetween them
 
Latin_Jones, how close are you from finishing your work? I'm planning on releasing something that'll help with Face Poser's lip-synching abilities relatively soon. If you have some spare time, you could incorporate it into your machinima, and it could bolster your work, especially with that Ezekiel piece.
 
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