Marie Vans RL/Amvans Lapis SL

VWBPE – March 11, 2016

Creating an Award-Winning Educational Machinima

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Curriculum Content Category Winners :

ISTE: The International Society for Technology in Education nonprofit organization serving educators and education leaders committed to empowering connected learners in a connected worldserves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world

Number Of Conference Participants Type of Participant

500 Companies

16,000 Educators

1,000 Sessions

Student Division:

2nd Place – Valerie Hill- Ethridge Minecraft Club 2015 We Built the School

Adult Division

1st Place – Marie Vans – Catherine de Medici – St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre

Annual Conference

Literary Quality Awards:(Honorable mention): Catherine de Medici – St. Bartholomew’s Day

Massacre by Marie Vans http://connect.iste.org/blogs/tanya-martin/2015/07/06/edumachinima-fest-2015-winners-announced

7,868 views as of 3/6/16

San José State University iSchool Virtual Worlds CourseImmerse students in Virtual Florence during the Renaissance (1350-1550)

Students meet or become famous characters of that time period, such as

Medici family

Niccolo Machiavelli

Borgia family

Michelangelo

Leonardo da Vinci

Botticelli

others

Students research into events taking place during this period

Students create and participate in an immersive role-playing experience

Students demonstrate ways in which librarians, archivists, and museum

curators create community and serve as teachers and leaders in using

virtual world technologies

Class met once a week, January 23 – May 1, 2014

San José State University iSchool Virtual Worlds Course

Translation: A lot of (fun) work!

I chose Catherine de ’Medici, a

member of the great Medici family

ResearchCharacter: Catherine de’Medici

As young bride – married at age 14

As Mother – 10 children, 8 made it adulthood

Role each child played in history

As Queen when King Henry II was killed

Effectively took over rule of the country

What she looked like at various stages of her life

She gained a lot of weight in middle age, she loved food

Historical events

Huguenots vs. Catholics

St. Bartholomew’s Massacre <- Machimina FocusDeath of almost all her sons

Renaissance Italy & France

Ruling class of Europe

Living standards, societal roles, dress, modes of communication,

technology, art, etc.

Machinima Assignment

1. Your avatar (introduce yourself as if you were the character you

created)

Explain character & role in village, create script for

introduction

Character’s name, occupation, family situation

Relaxation/entertainment

Biggest challenges/concerns

2. Character’s home in Virtual Florence

As if welcoming a guest and giving a tour

All students were assigned living space for their character &

were required to furnished the home for inspection by the

instructor

Include type of home (e.g., cottage, manor house, castle),

construction materials, number of rooms, furniture,

additional distinctive features (e.g., fireplace, availability of

water for washing/cooking, etc.)

Create a machinima that covers all of:

Machinima Assignment

3. The character’s village: cover 3 aspects of daily life, such as work, play, food,

economy, and rule of law

Describe village and the times in which the character lives in terms of

economy, rule of law, food source, entertainment, method of sharing

information by capturing video and sound

Machinima Assignment - Create a machinima that covers all of:

Setting – Home: Exterior

Setting – Home: Interior 1st Floor

Setting – Home: Bottom Floor – Office

Setting – Village & room of Admiral Coligny

Characters - MainCatherine

Her Daughter,

Margaret of Valois

Characters - MainCatherine’s Son,

King Charles IX

Admiral Coligny

Characters - Minor

Making the Story

Based on script for one day: The day of the St. Bartholomew’s Day

Massacre: Estimates of 5,000 – 30,000 killed, mostly Protestants.

Major Scenes – Mapped to Assignment Requirements:

Scene: Catherine reminiscing about her role in the massacre -- Hook

Scene: Catherine talks to Margot about why it was important for her to

marry Henry, who is Protestant – Historical background to the event

Scene: Show pictures of Catherine’s marriage, Catherine herself at

various times in her life, all her children at various times in their lives –

Character assignment requirement - Describe character’s name,

occupation, family situation

Making the Story

Scene: Catherine eating breakfast with Margo, interruption by King’s

messenger – Assignment requirement – Show daily life

Scene: Charles tells Catherine of Coligny’s attempted assassination.

Assignment requirement – Display of wealth for economic situation

Scene: Catherine discusses her worries of a Huguenot uprising and

decides to go visit him in show of solidarity. Historical background, set

up for village walk

Scene: Catherine and Charles walking through the village to the hotel

where Coligny is recovering from wounds. Assignment requirement--

Describe village and the times in which the character lives

Major Scenes – Mapped to Assignment Requirements: Continued

Making the Story

Scene: Catherine meeting Coligny in his room, falsely assuring him they

would look for the assassin. – Historical background

Scene: Charles waits outside, he likes Coligny and doesn’t want to see

him in pain. – Historical background

Scene: Charles, back at home, stares into the fire listening to Catherine

talk about why all the Huguenot leaders need to be killed to restore

peace. – Assignment requirement - What is their biggest

challenges/concerns

Scene: Catherine’s arguments hit home, Charles utters his famous “Kill

Them, Kill Them All” statement – Assignment requirement – Rule of law

Major Scenes – Mapped to Assignment Requirements: Continued

Making the StoryScene: While Charles is sleeping upstairs, Catherine talks to the Magistrate to give

orders about arming citizens, closing city gates (to trap the potential up risers),

ringing church bells. Assignment requirement—Historical background/rule of

law

Scene: Catherine talks to the King’s Guard to order the assassination of Huguenot

leaders Assignment requirement—Historical background/rule of law

Scene: Charles and Catherine, in the office, with background noises of people

screaming and shots being fired, complaining that they did not intend the killing to

go so far Assignment requirement—Historical Background

Scene: Two years later, Catherine alone, Charles is dead, reminiscing. Assignment

requirement - Display of wealth for economic situation/showing home

Scene: Catherine in her vegetable garden talking about what she want to eat for

dinner. Assignment requirement—3 aspects of life including food

ChallengesMaking characters true to historical accounts

Charles wan, sickly, skinny, disengaged

Catherine older, portly – not many avatars out

there look like her –I had to create her

The King’s Guard was a giant

Problem with his avatar: Could not get him to

stand exactly on the ground;

Either stood a few centimeters above

ground, or was entirely in the ground with

only his head sticking out

Getting two, sometimes three avatars into same

room and still be able to film

Load on processor of three interfaces PLUS video

recording software almost crashed my system

Caused so much lag, recorded time 3x what it

should have been

ChallengesFinding props without having to make them

Coligny needed a bandage on his elbow and his

finger – not easy to find

Needed to find realistic avatars and clothing for

King’s Messenger, King’s Guard, and Magistrate

Finding scripts for avatar actions

Bowing, sleeping, standing, walking, eating

Looked for coughing for Charles, but ended

up just recording the coughing without

accompanying animation

Combination of texture changing and lag meant

many pictures in the house were grey for a time.

Finding realistic textures and sometimes making my

own textures when I could not find what I wanted

Creating a garden representative of a Renaissance

Garden in a small area

ToolsCapture

Adobe Captivate

Easy to use

27 Sequences (from scenes), 150 minutes footage shot

Saved 1280x720 HD, mp4 format

Editing

Adobe Premier Pro 6.0

High learning curve

Great functionality – animation, effects, etc.

Final machinima 23 minutes

Voice

Audacity

Voice recorded for 6 different characters

Used Effect functionality like pitch/speed changes to

get different male and female voices

Tools

Music

Jamendo – Music with Creative Commons (CC) licenses

Downloaded music ALONG with licenses

Recently changed their licenses, may be more

difficult to use music found on their site

CCMixter

Download music – CC licenses

Sound effects

Sound Bible.com

Most clips are downloadable with CC licenses

Sound effects – crowds, screaming, gunshots

Freesound

Sharing site, uploading and downloading of sounds

CC licenses

ToolsTextures

Textures.com

Huge library of textures

15 textures can be downloaded for free every day

Allowed to modify, no permission required

No reselling of texture permitted

Wiki Commons

Database of 30+ million freely usable media files

Image Processing

Adobe Photoshop

High learning curve

High Functionality

GIMP

High learning curve

Free image processing software

Good functionality, not as extensive as Photoshop

Tools

Scripting

Linden Scripting Language (LSL)

SL Portal with scripting library

Helpful language construct pages with example usage

Still probably helpful to know how to code

Scripts can have unanticipated consequences

Deleting a particle script doesn’t mean the

particles go away

Virtual World Viewer

Firestorm/Second Life/Singuarlity/Cool VL Viewer

Similar functionalities

Singularity may be a little easier for new users

Firestorm is most popular viewer

Firestorm supports OpenSim

Lessons LearnedPlanning is key!

I developed the script first, only created a high-level scene

description

Spent inordinate time on finding/creating textures

Frequently needed to stop and go look for

props/costumes/sound clips

Understand how to use your tools

I learned how use tools on the fly, which slowed me down

First time use of Audacity for vocals

6 different characters to create distinctive voices for!

LSL Code

Had to unlearn some software coding principles

Testing parameter values is really the only way to get the

correct effect for the scripts

Get it from somewhere else if it’s available

Lessons LearnedSet up and use your viewer correctly

Go unavailable

Editing out group announcement boxes later is annoying (and time

consuming)

Editing out IMs and group chat later is also annoying

Turn off ALL sound

You are using Audacity and canned sound effects anyway

Depending on your editing tool, you may not be able to get rid of the

screeching birds, the typing noises, tapping shoes, other noises that

don’t fit with your script

Drop the back of your head

Unless the script calls for it, get your avatar out of the picture using

your camera controls and mouse look

Use Camera controls to move around the scene

Don’t get stuck filming a boring scene that doesn’t change

Pan in and out for effect, take in some scenery

Lessons Learned

Set up and use your Capture software correctly

Turn off the mouse in your capture software

That little pointer in the middle of every shot will be

a focal point for everyone watching the video

Take the highest quality shots available in your

software that your editor can handle

Does no good to shoot 30FPS, 1280x720 HD, when

your editor can only handle 15FPS, no HD

Take a lot of footage

Err on the side of too much

Meaningful names on files so you can find them

later

Lessons LearnedSet up and Use your Editing program correctly

Match editing parameters to input or sequence

parameters

Trying to create an HD video from non-HD footage

won’t work

Understand how to

Create titles

Add music & adjust volume

Create appealing transitions between cuts

Use common controls like scale and opacity

Know the target video player to export correctly

YouTube understands mp4 and Avi

ConclusionsCatherine de ’Medici got an A before it won an award

With the house and garden already built, it took more than a week

total (8 hours per day) to make the video:

1 Day to create the high-level plan

2 Days to find, alter, clothe 6 different avatars

3 Days to film, including hunting down/making props for each

scene and compensation for lag

1 Day to create vocals and find sound effects

3 Days to edit, find & add music and sound effects

2 Days to upload to YouTube

I have made at least 33 machinimas,

Posted to my YouTube channel (amvans888) or

Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration (VCARA)

YouTube channel

One on Jane Boleyn for assignment in earlier VW course

Rest are events on VCARA or other educational activities

Thank you for your kind attention

http://www.boredpanda.com/mr-bean-historic-portraits-rodney-pike/ http://www.boredpanda.com/mr-bean-historic-portraits-rodney-pike/