Neverending Nights

If you’re wondering where Episode 16 is – trust me, it’s not far behind! I just finished the audio last night. And spent all night exporting the footage. So if I am left alone tonight, I should be able to finish it tonight or tomorrow. It’s a pretty long episode – running just over 8 minutes (or was it 9 minutes?) Anyway, our episodes seem to keep getting a little longer than the last.

I would have had it done this weekend, but it was a pretty insane weekend. I’ve been house hunting with my wife and mother-in-law! And after a fiasco over a house on Friday, that went on into Saturday – I was already drained. Fortunately, Amiee’s mother does this for a living. So it’s great having her in our corner. It may have worked out for the best, because we found a house, a bit out of the way and up on a little mountain, but it’s a house I am in love with, and we’re putting in an offer sometime today. (So wish me luck!)

And while I am talking about mother-in-laws, ya know your typical horror story, about how mother-in-laws are evil? Well, this is clearly not the case. She is ready to support Adam and I with NeN anyway she can – especially if we attain permission from Bioware to release a DVD! And when I mentioned I’d love to move the studio from Adam’s garage, to inside the house – she was all for it. She didn’t shoot me down or anything. So I thought that was really cool. Of course, she loves Adam to death, so it’s really no surprise that she’d be supportive of what we’re doing!

Anyway, just wanted to give you a tiny update.

Neverending Nights and Bioware Mention!
Interesting! Neverending Nights lands in another Bioware Weds! But… through a different means!

Here’s the link. (Nice find, Chessrook)

Neverwinter Nights Machinima Tutorial

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk

The new industry of Machinima has been on the rise for years with its own celebrities, award shows, and a multitude of fans. A great thing about this sort of animation is that virtually anyone can get started without extensive training or resources. To help the fledgling directors out there, Hugh Hancock, benevolent overlord at www.machinima.com, developed a quick tutorial on using our beloved Neverwinter Nights to make movie magic.

Where can I read your Neverwinter Nights Machinima Tutorial?
http://www.machinima.com/article.php?article=438

Is there a website where I can take a look at more of your work?
Hugh: Yes – in addition to running www.machinima.com, the main Machinima website, we can also be found at the production company site, www.strangecompany.org. We’ve produced 16 films in all so far. You can’t find them all on the website, but you can find quite a number of them.

What is your experience in creating Machinima projects? How did you get started?
Hugh: We were the first professional Machinima production company in the world, having been making Machinima for 8 years now, 7 years full-time. We’ve worked to produce Machinima for Electronic Arts, the BBC, and BAFTA, amongst others. We have spoken at the GDC and the Annecy International Animation Festival, are on the board of the Machinima Film Festival in New York, and have had our work shown on four continents and praised by critics like Roger Ebert.

We got started through some journalism work on Quake I was doing back in 1997. I started working with some guys to make a film, I ended up taking the project over, and it all went from there, and boy, did it go! I’d never have imagined then that I’d be where I am, doing what I am, now.

You have crafted a tutorial for helping people create a Machinima project with Neverwinter Nights. Can you expand on why you did that?
Hugh: It all grew out of our current project, BloodSpell, which will be a feature film using Neverwinter Nights. We’ve been working on it with a crew of between 5 and 15 people for 1 year and 10 months now, and are hoping to start releasing it in the next few months.

We’re describing BloodSpell as a combination of Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and the Sex Pistols. It will be a full feature-length animated film (running around 82 minutes) of approximately the same scale, in terms of number and scale of sets, characters, and action sequences as the first Lord of the Rings (although about 50 minutes shorter). We’ve got over 7,000 new assets, 22 new sets, and new technology allowing us to do lip-synching in the NWN engine. We’re very excited about it.

Anyway, we’ve developed a good bit of knowledge from doing that, and we were asked to write a tutorial on making movies for PC Format magazine, which we chose to do using NWN. That article fell through, so we decided to publish it on Machinima.com.

We’ve learned a lot about Machinima production in NWN since then, I must say, so we’ll probably do another tutorial at some point soon.

What do you think of the Neverending Nights guys?
Hugh: They’re great. We first profiled them on Machinima.com about a year ago, I think. The way they work around their limitations is great – almost exactly the opposite approach to the one we’re taking, but that’s why they’ve been able to produce so much more quickly. And I found some of their episodes, the “lost in the woods” one in particular, accidentally-breathe-coffee level funny.

I must confess, I’ve not had time to see their most recent episodes, but I intend to catch up with them as soon as possible.

I’ve also been very impressed with another NWN Machinima series, Consanguinity, a Buffy fan-fiction with low production values but an increasingly great storyline.

What can Machinima fans expect in the future from your site?
Hugh: Well, BloodSpell, for one! We’re intending to run it in 18 5-minute episodes (approximately), and we’re hoping to have the first ones released in time for the Machinima film festival. We’re also currently working on getting translations ready so that when it goes out, it does so in English with Spanish, German, and Chinese subtitles.

We’ll also be releasing a lot of other material around that, probably including D20 material on the BloodSpell world (it’s not based formally in the AD&D universe), some of the ton of custom content we’ve made, and a bunch of additional tutorials. We’re really hoping that the NWN crowd and the Machinima crowd will go wild over it.

And, of course, Machinima.com will keep providing the most complete coverage of Machinima on the Web.

Something new for your PSP!
Neverending Nights for your PSP! – that’s right! Episodes of the humorous adventures of Grayson the Fighter and Peter the Ranger have been available for the PC! And then, with the help from the folks of Machinima.com, they made a Quicktime Streaming Version (available from their site!) for those MAC users, and now we’ve branched into something new! Always trying to stay with the times, Neverending Nights is now available for your PSP! XBOX… We’re looking at you next! You just wait!

Neverending Nights – Episode 13…
Neverending Nights – Episode 13: In And Out (A Heroes’ Tale) – What do you get when you have one Ranger who can’t find his way around a tree – a warrior who charges into battle backwards – and a dwarf who is claustrophobic? You get another fun filled episode of Neverending Nights! But this one has a surprise! Peter talks to some fish, while someone talks to Grayson, and Pawl the Dorf talks to himself! And better yet… one must ask themselves… if Peter and Grayson DID find their way out – would that be a good or a bad thing? That’s right folks – this episode answers that very question! So what are you waiting for!? 7:01 of pure NEN goodness awaits your click of a download, weighing in at a mere 17.9 Megs! Download it now and live the thrill! (And of course… leave feedback!)

Stu-Stu-Studio FNBH!
Alas, the studio is finally built! Adam put in some hard work and wrapped up the final skeleton of Studio FNBH and he managed to snap some pictures of it in its final stages. We’re going to paint it tomorrow and Adam’s going to finish it off (more egg crate and cover up some additional spots to make it as sound proof as possible).

Anyway, here’s Adam on his side of the studio, headset on and mic dangling, ready for some line reading!

Now here’s Adam on my side!

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(Though that picture is odd, since it’s catching my reflection in the window taking the picture)! Of course, there couldn’t be a picture of Adam without him ‘cheesing it up’ for the camera.

Here’s a close up of the ‘egg crates’ we’re (what do you mean ‘we?’ Don’t you mean ‘me’ as in Adam?) using to sound proof the studio. This is the main outside wall, with a rough ghetto fabulous ‘logo’ on it. Here’s the same wall tagged with one of our stickers on it. Here’s the inside, on my side – grand mastah audio! It’s the analog/digital converter and over here is my mic, sound monitor, and headset!

Yeah, that’s me cheesing it up for the camera this time. And an ‘artistic’ shot of me

ready to read some lines!