Friday 19 March 2010

Mighty Morphin' Moviestorm

This is from Chris. It's a screengrab from 3DS Max of a wireframe Moviestorm head with new fewer than 73 morphs overlaid onto it. It looks like a complete mess, but he assures us that (a) he knows what he's doing and (b) it's going to be cool when it's finished.

We believe him.

Wednesday 10 March 2010

The Way We Were

Digging around on YouTube earlier today, we came across this forgotten gem. It's a video tutorial on how to use Moviestorm, from May 2007, created by user revdoug.




It's fascinating to see how much has changed since then - and how much hasn't. Although we've had a complete new interface, most of the basic menu structures are the same. But look, for example at the basic way we went about creating characters (or puppets, as we called them back then). No options to customise the costumes or hair, no morphing faces, and no stock characters. Cameras didn't have focus, and we still had that horrible please wait panel!

Monday 8 March 2010

Moviestorm 3D - coming soon!

Whether we like it or not, 3D is becoming a key part of movies these days. Last weekend, Tim Burton's Alice broke all opening records at the box office, taking $210m worldwide, half of which was in 3D screens. Avatar is still taking over $5m a week in 3D, even after three months. The release of Clash of the Titans was delayed by two months so they could convert it to 3D. Which is all very well for the big Hollywood studios, but what about no-budget film-makers like us?

Well, here's the good news. Very soon, you'll be able to make your own 3D movies with Moviestorm. Check this test clip out:


You'll need to watch it on YouTube's site, and you'll need some of those red/blue glasses. The cheap cardboard ones they give away with 3D DVDs will do just fine.

That was made right in Moviestorm. No post-processing. No multiple shots combined later. Just switch the 3D on, and when you render your movie, that's what you get. It couldn't really be any easier.

The Moviestorm 3D feature is still in development, but we're planning to ship it with the next major upgrade to Moviestorm, probably in a month or two. And then - we're really looking forward to seeing what you do with it!