Marie Vans RL/Amvans Lapis SL
VWBPE – March 11, 2016
Creating an Award-Winning Educational Machinima
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Curriculum Content Category Winners :
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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:
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