Moviestorm gets recognition at TEDx talk by Libertaria creator Sabrina Pena Young

Readers of this blog may remember an exclusive guest post in September 2013 from Sabrina Pena Young telling of the story of Libertaria: her virtual opera, created entirely online using Moviestorm.

Award-winning composer and published author Sabrina Pena Young composes works heard in Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe.

Production for Libertaria was entirely online. The cast auditioned virtually through Music Xray and other sites, the animators worked together using Moviestorm, communication continued through e-mail and facebook.

Libertaria has been growing in popularity ever since the world premiere screening in October 2013.

Recently, Sabrina shared her story at a TED talk, answering the question of how you stage an opera without an opera company, or singers, or a stage, or anything except your own ideas.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives.

Since 2011, TEDxBuffalo has taken place each October at Canisius College’s Montante Cultural Center. 

See Sabrina's talk at TEDx below:

    

Sabrina told Moviestorm: "I spoke about Moviestorm in the live presentation, and I am working on a new "rock concert" project that will be shown in music concerts this spring, also using Moviestorm.

"I will be giving an upcoming online presentation on machinima and music this April. It will be for an online music festival."

Sabrina added that she chose Moviestorm for the TED Talk because without the 'easy-to-use animation software' she wouldn't have been able to create her work Libertaria: The Virtual Opera. 

She said: "I have been using Moviestorm for several years now and have found it an excellent program for multimedia and music works, as well as presentations like the TED Talk.  

"For example, I am currently finishing up the commission Destiny: Eondwyr that incorporates live music performance with fantasy comic book panels created using Moviestorm.  

"I am also using Moviestorm for my upcoming virtual online performance Urban Night: Sounds, which is a musical performance of animated characters in a virtual outdoor concert venue, to be presenting online and in New York this spring. 

"Moviestorm has truly taken my artistic expression to the next level."

Sabrina said one of the reasons she recommends Moviestorm to musicians is because it is very affordable and easy-to-use, not to mention fun and easily customizable. 

She said that right now another Moviestorm animator, Matt Pittsinger, inspired by Libertaria: The Virtual Opera, is using Moviestorm to create a truly cinematic Baroque opera Aetius. 

Sabrina concluded: "My hope is that other musicians use machinima to explore innovative ways to share their original music with the world without any of the financial and societal boundaries of the past. Technology is truly the great democratizer of our age."

WATCH LIBERTARIA HERE:

Further links

Artist Website: http://sabrinapenayoung.blogspot.com/
Official Film Website: http://virtualopera.wordpress.com/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQqnHt3a-Oo
Soundtrack : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sabrinapenayoung4

Harb40 Passion Competition set to return this year!

Good news film competition fans! Moviestorm are pleased to announce the return of the Harb40 Passion Competition, which will take place from August this year.

The competition urges contestants to make a film set to a specific theme of passion. There are usually some restrictions on content, but films could be made using any animation program, video game or live action technique.

This year, the specific theme for the competition will be released on August 2, and the submission period will run from August 23 until October 11. 

All submissions will go through a specific thread on the competition forums which will be opened at theme release.

Competition winners will be announced on November 22/23 during the Machinima Expo (which is run by a group that includes Kate Fosk, aka kkffoo, and an actor named Richard Grove, aka Ricky Grove).

See below for the first promotional video for the 2014 competition, by Moviestorm user Joseph Kwong, aka JosephKW:

The

Competition creator, Craig (Harb40) began experimenting with animation back in 2005 after playing a game called 'The Movies'. After following a website called The Movies Underground, he was introduced to other games animation tools such as Moviestorm. 

Today, Moviestorm is now one of his primary animation programmes.

Competition creator Craig told Moviestorm:

"Animation programmes like Moviestorm, The Sims and iClone are taking over in the competition.
In 2013, BiggsTrek (Pioneer) took top honours with an iClone creation but has used Moviestorm since it's inception.
"Second place went to JosephKw, using Moviestorm, while fourth and fifth places were MysterysGames, aka mystery_egypt, and Nahton, both using Moviestorm.
"Also, in 2012, Animatechnica took first place with an iClone creation and Chatnoir Studios took second with a Moviestorm film.
"One of the nice things about the prizes like Moviestorm is the winner is given a choice of a free user license or to receive credits to purchase more gaming assets and enhance their animation video skills
"Clips from the winning films are shown at the Machinima Expo which in turn puts the name Moviestorm out to wide audience of machinima and animation creators.

Watch below for the film by Moviestorm user JosephKW that scooped second prize in the competition last year:

The winning films receive software prizes and the creators were interviewed on The Movies On Air Radio show.

Moviestorm will once again sponsor the competition this year. In the past, the competition has received other sponsorship from Sony and Reallusion.

Want to know more?

To find out more about the competition, visit http://www.harb40passioncompetition.com/
Visit the competition Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/211515672195252/.
You can also follow the competition on Twitter @Harb40PassComp

Free Greetingstorm iPad Moviestorm App

Happy Christmas from Moviestorm!

Enjoy an early Christmas present from Moviestorm with our free Greetingstorm app!

A fun way to create an animated video greetings card for your friends and family.

Get it from your App Store

Choose between a warm indoor scene with Christmas tree, presents and a blazing fire, or a snowy outdoor scene with friendly snowmen.

Both scenes include a screen that you can use to show photos of your family, holidays, school events or anything else that you want to illustrate your greeting with.

 

Looking for inspiration?

 

If you are looking for inspiration, check out the Pet Power Rankings by Nahton Studios on YouTube

Happy Christmas from the Moviestorm team!

2013 Harb40 Passion Competition winners announced

Moviestorm are pleased to announce the winners for the film animation 2013 Harb40 Passion Competition.

The competition urged contestants to make a film set to a specific theme of passion. There were some restrictions on content, but films could be made using any animation program, video game or live action technique.

Two films submitted using Moviestorm made it into the winners list and the top five.

The winning films receive software prizes and the creators were interviewed on The Movies On Air Radio show.

The competition has received other sponsorship from Sony and Reallusion.

Creator of the competition, Craig Harbison said:

"Animation programmes like Moviestorm, The Sims and iClone are taking over in the competition.

"One of the nice things about the prizes like Moviestorm is the winner is given a choice of a free user license or to receive credits to purchase more gaming assets and enhance their animation video skills."

Craig (Harb40) began experimenting with animation back in 2005 after playing a game called 'The Movies'. After following a website called The Movies Underground, he was introduced to other games animation tools such as Moviestorm. Today, Moviestorm is now one of his primary animation programmes. 

Winners List

Here is the official winners list:

1st Place
Biggstrek -- Haunter of the Dark -- made with iClone

2nd Place
Josephkw -- Pickman's Model -- made with MS

3rd Place
D.L. Watson -- Dichotomy -- Live action film

4th Place
Mystery Egypt -- Friends -- made with MS

5th Place
Nahton -- Your Brains -- made with The Movies

The winners were announced during the Machinima Expo on November 17th.

A list of all films submitted can be found here.

Craig Harbison added: "We also added a short story category this year. The top story was submitted by Richard Poshard, aka RPO.

"Along with some professional writing software he will receive a one year subscription to a Moviestorm themed bundle or 5000 Moviestorm points (if he is already subscribed) to either turn his work into a short video or help to illustrate the story or any other work he has done."

Sony Creative Software, HitFilm and Reallusion along with Moviestorm were the sponsors again this year for the video category and Scrivener, Reallusion and Moviestorm sponsored the short story category.

A list of all 4 stories submitted can be found here.

Further links

To find out more about the competition, visit http://www.harb40passioncompetition.com/ 
Visit the competition Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/211515672195252/.
You can also follow the competition on Twitter @Harb40PassComp

Libertaria: The story behind the virtual opera, by composer Sabrina Pena Young

Award-winning composer and published author Sabrina Pena Young composes works heard in Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe.

In this exclusive guest blog post, Sabrina tells the tale of the story behind the virtual opera and why she chose Moviestorm.

"I've been wanting to create a film for a long time, and Moviestorm had the perfect tools that I need to make my dream of a sci-fi animated opera a reality.

Sabrina's work has been performed at venues like the Beijing Conservatory, the International Computer Music Conference, Miramax's Project Greenlight, the Athena Festival, the New York International Independent Film Festival, Art Basil Miami, Turkey's Cinema for Peace, and Pulsefield International Exhibition of Sound Art.
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The story behind Libertaria

In 2011 I started writing a story about a young geneticist that worked in a cutting edge facility that absorbed the energy from the ill and dying to make a new serum that rejuvenated the younger, healthy populace. In the short story, the scientist, orphaned at a young age, discovered that one of her test subjects was actually her mother.

The short story evolved over time and instead o ffocusing on the scientists, the young girl was placed in the genetics factory herself, escaping it to discover her addict father runs the resistance against the factory. With a hundred twists and turns, Libertaria tells the story with true operatic drama and sci-fi energy.

Libertaria is an opera for the Digital Age. Created with virtual characters in a computer-generated environment, Libertaria is easily disseminated through the internet and simple DVDs. An animated opera offers a lower cost than a full live production, although there has been acoustic versions of songs like Lonely Mother’s Cry.

In the end Libertaria is a groundbreaking opera experiment. Creating an opera for a fraction of a budget, an opera that requires no rehearsals to enjoy, appeals to the masses, and has a diverse cast of characters reflecting the global nature of our culture.

Libertaria questions our current sociopolitical reality and the actions of the government, it questions war and even family.

Libertaria challenges musically and ideologically and will change our time.

Production for Libertaria was entirely online. The cast auditioned virtually through Music Xray and other sites, the animators worked together using Moviestorm, communication continued through e-mail and facebook." 

Why Moviestorm?

"I enjoy using Moviestorm because it is very intuitive, affordable, and easy-to-use. As someone with a film and music background, it was easy to jump into animation head-first using Moviestorm's excellent tools and simple platform. 

For my film Libertaria: The Virtual Opera I needed to use a program that could quickly lip sync over an hour of original vocal music, and Moviestorm was up to the task with the help of talented Moviestorm animators like Kera Hildebrandt. 

The easy integration of Moviestorm footage with third-party software like Final Cut and the use of settings like Cel Shading helped Libertaria: The Virtual Opera have a distinct graphic novel with epic visual effects for a micro-fraction of the cost. 

The Moviestorm community is invaluable and incredibly supportive, even volunteering time and talents towards production. Moviestorm made my dream a reality. I look forward to using Moviestorm for many years to come."

More information

What:  World Premiere Screening of LIBERTARIA: THE VIRTUAL OPERA, by Sabrina Peña Young

Where: Calvary United Methodist Church, 301 1

When: 3:00 P.M., Saturday, October 5th

Cost: $10 Donation. FREE admission for students (w/ID).

Contact: Call the church office at 561-585-1786 or email shoreclare@aol.com

Further links

Artist Website: http://sabrinapenayoung.blogspot.com/

Official Film Website: http://virtualopera.wordpress.com/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQqnHt3a-Oo
Soundtrack : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sabrinapenayoung4

Baby Machine from Libertaria (Rough Cut) Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8x4ZUw-_oo

Opening Credits (Rough Cut) Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWdNH5rxpsQ

Cafe Insomniac - from Moviestorm animation to novel

 

Cafe Insomniac - from animation to novel

A popular Moviestorm animation titled Café Insomniac has now been officially released as a novel that is available for download on Amazon, Kobo and the iBookstore. This is the brief story of its journey from Moviestorm animation to novel by its creator Mark Capell.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovering Moviestorm

"I remember coming across Moviestorm just after I'd finished directing a TV series. I needed a fresh creative outlet and thought about making a live-action short film, but I didn't want to have to deal with the logistics.

Then I came across Moviestorm — animation software that didn't require traditional animation skills. I could just concentrate on making the most of my directing skills. I couldn't believe my luck.

The journey

I started with a couple of short films. After that, I started thinking of ideas for series. That's when I came up with the idea for Café Insomniac. I wasn't sure how it would develop, but I was enthralled by the mystery of the original premise — an insomniac gets lost in the space between dreams and reality.

In the spirt of experimentation, I didn't plan anything. I wanted to make the series as surreal as possible. No idea was too wild. And I was lucky to find some great voice actors among the Moviestorm community.

The response from people who watched it was overwhelming.

A couple of years on from the last episode of Café Insomniac, I wrote a novel, a thriller, that shot past The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to reach the top of the Amazon crime and thriller charts. I was committed to writing.

And after finishing a couple more books, I rooted around for my next idea. A little voice suggested that Café Insomniac wasn't finished, that I'd only touched on the surface of Justin's strange world. Café Insomniac became my next novel. 

Story development

Has Café Insomniac changed since those experimental days? Well, yes, quite a lot. The storyline is different. There are new characters. In some ways it is stranger than the original series but also makes more sense. If you read it, you'll see what I mean.

And in the novel, the story of Café Insomniac is told entirely from Justin's point of view. This allows the reader to get inside his mind, to feel his fear and confusion, as events unfold and become ever more strange.

Why Moviestorm?

But the guiding slogan from those Moviestorm days has remained the same: "I don't know what's real and what isn't. And which is most dangerous."

Without the Moviestorm version of Café Insomniac, I don't think I would have had the courage to attempt a full-length story with such an outlandish premise. It was thanks to the software and the positive reaction from the Moviestorm community that I could embark on writing the novel, thinking, hey, this might just work."

Cafe Insomniac is now available for download from Amazon, Kobo, and the iBookstore. There is a special promotion on Amazon for the first few days at 99p.

Further links

More about Mark Capell

Official website

Buy Cafe Insomniac

Other books by Mark Capell

'Animation as a killer marketing tool, and Moviestorm's role' from the New York Film Academy

Moviestorm are pleased to promote a post from the New York Film Academy, which explores the history of animation, it's role as a marketing tool, and Moviestorm's role in advertising and marketing.

By Zeke Iddon, lead content consultant for the New York Film Academy

For decades, animation has been a major vehicle for advertisement. In fact, animated commercials actually predate animated features by many years. In the early 20th century, when Vaudeville was giving way to silent movies, animated ads for various products were often shown on the big screen, accompanied by sales pitches. By the time Gertie the Dinosaur, the first character-based animated feature, came to the screen in 1914, audiences were already accustomed to animated marketing messages.



As animation became more advanced, commercials continued to be important. Today, many well-known mascots and beloved advertising campaigns are delivered through animation: From talking M&Ms to the GEICO gecko, many brands have created iconic advertising campaigns through the use of animation.

Why Animation is So Effective for Marketing

Part of the reason why animation is so valuable for marketing is that it interacts with the brain differently from real-world imagery. Animations are a type of caricature that exaggerate the features of their subjects. The resulting combination of bright colors and simple shapes can be instantly absorbed by the brain, making animation extremely adept at triggering an emotional response.

Today, animation is just as relevant as it was a century ago. If anything, it's even more vital than it used to be as a generation of tech-savvy web users has little patience for text. The fast-paced, simple-to-digest nature of animation makes it very appealing for many businesses.

Of course, there are a few other reasons why animation is a popular option for marketers:

• Animation is not constrained by the limits or reality, allowing messages to be delivered through a more symbolic or fanciful approach than would be possible in live-action commercials.
• Unlike static print advertisements, animation can tell a story and capture the viewer's attention through motion and sound.
• Animated commercials age more gracefully than those featuring live actors, who can quickly become dated by clothing, hairstyles or other factors.
• Animation appeals to a wide segment of viewers, and it's possible to direct a marketing message at several demographics at once.
• It's simpler to brand animation than live-action advertising. Many of the mascots that serve as brand spokespeople have been “alive” for more than 50 years thanks to clever reimagining.

Whether a business is planning to launch a full-scale marketing campaign with animated advertisements or just wants to take advantage of animation to jazz up some existing informational materials, there are plenty of compelling reasons to use animation for your business.

The Cost of Animation: A (Potentially) Limiting Factor

If there's one thing that prevents many businesses from taking advantage of animation in their marketing campaigns, it's cost. A simple live-action ad featuring a single talking figure in a business setting may be boring, but it's affordable. Animation can be more labor-intensive and costly, especially if outside vendors must be hired to complete it. When businesses do try to cut corners on animation, the results can turn off potential customers who are accustomed to higher-quality work.

Animation is expensive because it's labour-intensive. Whereas a static image for a print ad must be drawn only once, animation requires 24 illustrations per second of film. It takes a staff of 15 artists approximately three months to create a single half-hour animated television show. Despite the many benefits of animated advertisement, that sort of expense simply isn't in the budget of many businesses.



Fortunately, there are a few solutions that can help make animation more affordable for marketing departments. Computer-generated animations are not as labor-intensive as traditional cel-shaded animation, and audiences are growing increasingly accustomed to the 3D-rendered look in animation. In addition, talented illustrators from places like the NYFA are constantly entering the workforce, willing to apply their degree-level skills for a comparatively inexpensive graduate wage.

In many ways, video games have paved the way for improvements in animation, and some creative players have learned to modify existing animations from games into completely new products through an artform called machinima.

Moviestorm takes advantage of some of the technology behind machinima to enables artists to create unique animated features. The software is affordable and intuitive, and it offers the first video-sketch tool. 

Users can utilize the content packs offered in the download and customize them to suit their needs, and affordable bulk licenses are available for business use. If you're curious, you can try a free 14-day sample and see whether Moviestorm can provide the advertising solution you've been looking for.

The 'Stars and Storm 2013' Movies FR competition now launched

A new machinima competition called 'The Stars and Storm 2013' has now been launched by The Movies FR (the French speaking community for The Movies, Moviestorm and Muvizu).

Alutt, admin of The Movies FR, said:

"After the first edition of Stars and Storm in 2010 which had great success, the French-speaking Moviestorm community felt it was about time to launch a new edition of this international contest.

"The Old Times theme condition came to us as we were looking for a concept that could gather various genre or subject of movies.

"In addition, we wanted to erase the language barrier, so the no dialogues idea emerged as a second condition."

The registration period for the competition runs from July 21st to September 30th, and the winners will be published in the results on October 15th.

Alutt added:

"The Movies FR has been a strong supporter of Moviestorm since 2008 and this contest is an occasion to encourage all users, including new ones, to create movies.

"It's also the occasion to acknowledge and encourage the great contribution of some very talented modders such as our partners Shirley Martin (Squirrelygirl) and Chris Ollis. It will also be a good occasion to enjoy new movies from all over the world and spend some good time creating or watching them."

More details about the competition can be found on the following forum here

Competition conditions:

The general conditions to enter the competition will be:
- free subject or genre but in adequation with a general theme : "Old Times"
- maximum one movie per director
- the movie must not have been published on the internet before 2013 - to enter the competition, directors must post a presentation of the film and a link towards the film on the special Stars and Storm topic on TMFR (so they will have to create a free account if they don't have one yet)

Prizes:
1^st prize:
1) 3000 MS points on content packs from Moviestorm: http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/hub/content_packs?cat=0
2) The all 6 exclusifs French mods on TMFR made by Cinecitta: http://www.themovies.fr/viewtopic.php?t=6601
3) a £25 gift voucher on Moddingstorm by Chris Ollis: http://www.moddingstorm.co.uk/getmods.shtml

2^nd prize:
1) 3000 MS points on content packs from Moviestorm: http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/hub/content_packs?cat=0
2) The all 6 exclusive French mods on TMFR made by Cinecitta: http://www.themovies.fr/viewtopic.php?t=6601
3) a $30 gift voucher on Mods and More by Squirrelygirl: http://www.modsnmore.net/moviestorm/

3^rd prize:
1) 3000 MS points on content packs from Moviestorm: http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/hub/content_packs?cat=0
2) The all 6 exclusive French mods on TMFR made by Cinecitta: http://www.themovies.fr/viewtopic.php?t=6601
3) a $15 gift voucher on Mods and More by Squirrelygirl: http://www.modsnmore.net/moviestorm/


Further links

The Movies FR website: http://www.themovies.fr
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/themoviesfr
More competition information: http://bit.ly/1b40OvE

Moviestorm in Education: Long Road College, Cambridge

Students from Long Road Sixth Form College recently completed their animation coursework videos using Moviestorm.

The Level 2 Media students were asked to come up with a short three to four minute moving image product using Moviestorm. The groups gave initial ideas into a typed proposal and from this generated storyboards and in some cases design sheets. They then moved on to producing their final videos, which can be watched here.

Two groups (3 & 4), one all boys and the other mostly girls, chose a scenario about teenage party life. Two groups (1B & 2) chose to do a music-based production, a music video and a reality music TV show. The last group (1A), ventured an ambitious first episode of a ‘Youtube’ style series.

 Long Road Media teacher Steve Thorne said:

"Great time and effort was spent adding the small details. One example was the music video group’s work to recreate the band to look the same as the real one! After working with Moviestorm again this year I think working in pairs generates the best results and group time management."
 
Before the final Moviestorm videos were produced, the groups of students worked on either the characters or settings and then brought them together to add the camerawork and action.

Steve chose Moviestorm to give the students the opportunity to work with a 3D animation software so they didn’t have the same limited scope of the usual video productions shooting scenes around the college. He added:

"This was their chance to use filmmaking techniques in a virtual setting. They also had complete control over every element within their production. I think the generated animations link well to game design and advanced 3D animation software packages."

"Overall it’s been a fantastic resource for the course. The students have really taken to it and enjoyed the production work very much. It’s definitely going to be built into the course more next year!" 

 The initial production stages followed the Moviestorm six-stage production process. All groups were very committed to the ‘Sims’ style character design stage and the production of the virtual settings. CEO of Moviestorm Andrew Kennedy said:

"The students at Long Road demonstrated a rapid development of filmmaking skills and final sophistication between their demos and final movies, and it is nice to see ideas that were formulated whilst they initially played with the software for the first time coming through in their final pieces. 

Steve Thorne needs to be congratulated in creating this module, as it is giving the students an opportunity to test and develop their individual filmmaking skills without the normal logistical and budgetary restrictions, from production design and casting, into scene direction and camerawork, and through to sound design and editing skills. We hope to see more collaborations and films from this group of students, and look forward to supporting Long Road Sixth Form College into the future."

Further links

Final videos here: https://vimeo.com/album/2367854

Demo videos here: https://vimeo.com/album/2302569

Flickr Album here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30136544@N08/sets/72157633378985852/

2013 Harb40 Film Passion Competition

Moviestorm are pleased to promote and sponsor the film animation 2013 Harb40 Passion Competition.

The competition urges contestants to make a film set to a specific theme of passion. There are some restrictions on content, but films can be made using any animation program, video game or live action technique. The winning films receive software prizes and the creators will be interviewed on The Movies On Air Radio show.

This year's theme for both the film and story categories will be announced on the 4th of August with the submission period to be the 24th of August to the 19th of October. The winning films and stories should be announced on the 17th of November during the Machinima Expo.

The competition has received other sponsorship from Sony and Reallusion. Creator of the competition, Craig Harbison said:

"Animation programmes like Moviestorm, The Sims and iClone are taking over in the competition. One of the nice things about the prizes like Moviestorm is the winner is given a choice of a free user license or to receive credits to purchase more gaming assets and enhance their animation video skills."

Craig (Harb40) began experimenting with animation back in 2005 after playing a game called 'The Movies'. After following a website called The Movies Underground, he was introduced to other games animation tools such as Moviestorm. Today, Moviestorm is now one of his primary animation programmes. 

"Many contestants are career oriented, looking to get into either film production or animation at the professional level. The prizes of Moviestorm allow them to enhance their skills along with learning different aspects of film making including camera placement and movement, set design, storyboarding and more. They are able to move forward and be more hands on in their future endeavours."

This year, a short story writing category has been added to the competition which hopes to bring writers and screenwriters into the fold and introduce them to the world of animation. Some of them may join into the community and use Moviestorm to either make short videos to help sell their stories, lay out storyboards or even use some scenes for artists to illustrate their stories.

Further links

To find out more about the competition, visit http://www.harb40passioncompetition.com/ 
Visit the competition Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/211515672195252/.
You can also follow the competition on Twitter @Harb40PassComp

"GRAND PALMARÈS 2012" (2012 Palms of the Year) Movies FR Moviestorm Winners Announced

Moviestorm are pleased to announce the winners of the 2012 Palms of the Year awards via The Movies FR, (the French speaking community for The Movies, Moviestorm and Muvizu). 

Alutt, The Movies FR community admin, had this to say of the awards: 

"Once again, website THE MOVIES FR organised its annual celebration "Le Grand Palmarès 2012" (2012 Palms of the year). The winners of our seasonal contests of the year 2012, in each 10 categories (best scenery and costumes, direction, editing, soundtrack, script, character, dialogues, voice performance, movie and special prize of the public), were in competition for the Palms."

"After the winners were announced, they were rewarded with prizes (exclusive MODS for The Movies and Moviestorm, DVD's, theatre tickets, board games and, thanks to our partner Moviestorm, some MS points and a perpetual license.”

Winners of the awards are listed below:

Best Movie and Best Direction: Laviv42 with "La Colline a des Yeux 3" (using The Movies software) is awarded 12 000 MSP. http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/?u=laviv42

Best Scenery and Costumes: Michael Mayers with "From Hell" (using The Movies software) wins 1000MSP and donates these to Vincent C.  http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/?u=VincentC

Best Editing: Frederis with "No Man's Land I : la Première Fois" (The Movies software) is also awarded 1000 MSP. http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/?u=frederis

Best Soundtrack, Best Voice Performance and Special Public Prize goes to user Wabby with "Libre Arbitre" (using Moviestorm software) who wins 3000 MSP. http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/?u=wabby

Best Script and Best Character: Gilga with " Dernière Ligne" (The Movies software) and is awarded 2000 MSP. http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/?u=gilga

Best Dialogue: Code52 with "Huit petits Gags" (The Movies software) and is awarded 1000 MSP. http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/?u=code52

Further links

The Results Video Show is available here (in French only but directed with Moviestorm): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k2vwA5OT4KQVD63Skfl#.UVLeBlc6fxw

The Movies FR website: http://www.themovies.fr

Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/themoviesfr

Next gen iPad technology demo at BETT

We are delighted to have been invited to demonstrate our next generation technology on the Epson stand (Number D284) at BETT 2013, from Wednesday 30 January to Saturday 2 February. 

Are you visiting the Bett Show? If so, please come and find us on the Epson Stand D284, where you can play with our new iPad app, and discover the ease and creativity the app offers to make simple movies with just a few screen touches. You will also be able to enter a prize draw to win a FREE Moviestorm Education Site License for your school or college, worth up to £2000!

Come and get involved, we'd love the chance to meet some of you, to show you or new Moviestorm iPad app AND for you to enter our prize draw. 

For more information about BETT, click here: http://ow.ly/gTFdV 

For more information about the Moviestorm iPad app, click here http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/hub/ios/home

Ssssh, he's sleeping...

This just in from the dev team...

Matt - There was a thread on the forums last week about a request for a "close eyes" animation, for dead people, or people sleeping etc. An animation has been created and will be distributed as an upgrade to the base pack with 1.4.1.2.

Translating that into English, the "close eyes" animation will be part of the standard Moviestorm, not part of a pack, and you'll get it free. We're aiming to ship 1.4.1.2 before Christmas, hopefully later this week.

One, two, three. THREE?

One of the things we're currently looking at - and before you get your hopes up, this is firmly in the category of "when it's ready" - is animations involving more than two characters. This was something we've decided we need to do to improve our fight scenes, and something that's been on the wish list for about five years. Way back when we wrote the first spec, we were throwing around ideas about movie cliches. Here are a few that came up in the section on fighting:

• One guy pins another guy's arm behind his back while a third socks him in the stomach.
• A wounded guy is carried with his arms around the shoulders of two others.
• Caught in an alley, fighting the guy in front, get sapped from behind (or kidney punched).
• Caught by a mob.
• Step between two fighters, push them apart. (Referee?)

They're all great movie moments, but all of these require three or more characters to be closely involved in the action. And that, according to the guys building it, is a real challenge.

Animating one character is tricky enough, when you think of how many different actions you need to combine (walking, talking, breathing, holding something, gesturing, and so on). Animating two characters working together is really hard. You have to make sure they fit together without intersecting or missing. According to one of the guys working on The Sims 3, they spent several years trying to get two characters to walk hand in hand, and they eventually gave up. If you look closely at any game, you'll see people intersecting or air kissing. That usually doesn't matter in a game, where you're focusing on getting through the level or landing that dream job. But in a movie, where the viewer is focused on the characters, it's a big problem.

We have some two-person animations. Not as many as we'd like, admittedly, but enough to have some basic character interaction.

But now we're going to have a go at three person animations. We won't get everything on that list above, and it may take a while, but hey - we'll see what we can do.

While the cat's away ...

Most of the Moviestorm team are taking a well-deserved break at the moment, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are sitting on our laurels. Everyone's favourite hard-working art guy, Chris Ollis, has this to share with you all:

Now that the dust has settled on the early access release of version 1.4 I'm taking the liberty to let slip some other stuff that we've been doin

g that should be with you shortly, and some even more exciting things from the future!

First up we've got a new and incredibly useful content pack nearing release. It may not seem like the most exciting thing we've done when you first set eyes on it, but I can guarantee every serious Moviestorm film maker will want it and it should make character driven dialogue sequences all the more impressive.

Looking further in to the future we're tackling some stuff that we've wanted to do since day one. It should also make a fair few users happy, and save a few from having to struggle with their own mods of existing animations.

Yes that's right - we've finally had some fun with swords. While Dave would like us to break this down in to all the different sword types, weights, rules and other professional standards, I'm more keen on just whipping them out and hacking away a bit :D

While on the subject of violent acts, I've also been messing around with similarly unpleasant animations in my spare time, and given a good wind I should start handing out handy little packets of jumps, falls, punches and stabbings to help Moviestorm step up a gear. I know people have been shouting for this for a while, but believe me the video footage I recorded as a template was in the can so long ago I've had to get a cinefilm converter to play it back on :D

Don't bother asking for dates, you should know by now ;P

Chris

Skeleton vs Bins: a walk on the smooth side

We've been dropping hints about Mark's new walk code for months, and we can finally show you what it actually does.

QA chappie Dave#6, who made this little movie, says:

In the old days, this poor skeleton would tackle these bins like a tank. Stopping to align himself, needing strict user supervision, pondering the lack of flesh on bones. Not especially like a tank then, but he felt like one.

These days, he's just pointed where he needs to go and he... just goes. Any obstacles he faces can be swiftly and most importantly, smoothly navigated. He's still concerned about the lack of flesh but feels less like a tank.

But really, this marks a big leap in visual quality and intuitive user accessibility. Less time spent navigating bins means more time thinking up clever stuff, and there's still more to come in this regard.

Sweet, huh? Combined with the rest of the animation improvements, this takes Moviestorm another huge leap forward from clunky old game style machinima to something much more natural and realistic.

Smoothly does it

One of the most irritating things when making a movie - to my eyes, at least - is the unwanted animation "pops" when a character suddenly snaps from one pose to another. And then you get limbs going through each other, characters going through the floor, and so on. Glitches like these can ruin an otherwise perfect shot, it's disconcerting, and, well, dammit, it just doesn't look good. Sure, there are ways to shoot or edit around it, and it's a common problem with videogame characters, but it's still bloody annoying.

The problem is caused by layering animations one on top of each other, and linking them together. If we knew exactly what you were going to do, we could ensure that everything just worked fine. However, because this is a movie tool, the range of possibilities is, quite literally, infinite. We can find ourselves blending together the animations for walking (mixing two gaits and the speed customised), using a prop (with each individual activity customised), gesturing (customised), facial expression and improvisation (yes, also customised), talking (you get the idea now?), looking at something (possibly a moving object), breathing, and blinking. Each of those is a separate mathematical transform that has to be applied to the skeleton, and then checked to make sure it's anatomically possible. Blending them all together involves taking all the different transformations and working out how they all go together. So one activity may tell the character to put her hand behind her head (improvised scratch), another tells her to lift it straight up (dance gesture), and a third tells her to swing it by her side (walk) - you try doing all three at once and see how far you get. It's no wonder our Moviestorm characters get confused.

Here's an example movie made in Moviestorm 1.1.5.

Yeuch, huh? All he's doing there is walking, playing the trumpet, and sitting down (and breathing and blinking and improvising). The existing animation blending just can't cope. His feet go through the floor, his right arm goes through his torso, his left arm pops - oh, it's just horrible.

And here's the same again using Mark's new blended animation code. You really, really don't want an explanation of the complexity of the mathematics that go into this. Even Dave runs away screaming when Mark starts explaining things like this. (Actually, even if you do want an explanation, we're not going to tell you. This is really hairy stuff, and we ain't giving it away.)

It's not quite perfect yet, that's true, but it's much, much better. The bad news is that you won't get to see this till 1.1.7, and we don't yet have a release date for that. It'll be a couple of months at least. Sorry.