Neverending Nights

Featured User on RvB? Me?

Frick. Here’s where you’re supposed to have this really cool journal entry that’s full of funny and witty remarks that really makes people keep coming back. But man… What to say what to say?

Well. Okay – look at my previous journals. Some good stuff there. Some Lego Wars… some avatars for Neverending Nights…

Wait! Ah ha!

Neverending Nights! Let’s talk about Neverending Nights! Neverending Nights is a Machinima series created by Adam and myself using the Neverwinter Nights game engine! Neverending Nights has been lucky enough to be featured in PC GAMER UK (that info is on our site)… We were Interviewed by Jay of Bioware on Bioware.com, and mentioned again later when Jay mentioned us while interviewing Hugh of Machinima.com.

So I welcome you to all swing by Neverending Nights, download the videos, join our forum, and jump into the madness with us over there as well!

Well Tom and I have heard nothing yet from Bioware about putting their hard work on a DVD and us keeping the profits. But that hasen’t stopped us from starting production on the season one DVD. Tonight I was working on an opening for the DVD, you know something to put before the title menu. Something…groan…flashy, that would give the DVD something extra.

Well I came up with this BAD ASS video to open and I showed it to Tom and instead of saying how great it was or how much (Obviously) hard work went in to it. He shoots me down like the man and sayz that we gunna get sued if we put that on the DVD!

So I ask him why does he think that?

Because the music that you have during the opening was not written by you. It was written by The Blue Man Group.

What? you really think they will mind?

So since we cant sell it I will post it here and you can download it for free! The opening to the season one DVD that will never see a DVD.

I really need to get that PayPal link back up.

Yes, you do, you lazy bum. – Tawmis

Neverending Nights: Episode 16 – Dessert City…? It’s a trend that keeps on happening. Each episode seems to get a little longer than the last. This time we’re looking at 10 minutes of pure NeN madness! However, this one will cost you 49.5 megs on your hard drive! But this one is well worth it’s time and size! Not only do we have our two star studded would be heroes, Peter the Ranger and Grayson the Fighter – but this episode also has Guard Vern and Guard Douglas of the City of Ator! And not only does it have that – it even has Conner the Kid and Lady Lorraine! And if that wasn’t enough talent to be crammed into one episode – guess whose back? That’s right! Another update on Pawl the Dorf… and who does he run into? Well, if I said anything, that might ruin the surprise! But you’re saying right now, “I downloaded the episode and didn’t see Pawl the Dorf! I demand a refund!” I guess you didn’t give us credit for being a little sneaky…

So go on. Download it. You know you want to. And when you finish. Show it to your friends. Your family. You know you want to do that too. And when you do that, rent one of those cool airplanes that do the writing in the air, and tell everyone in your city to download it and watch it. (Disclaimer: We’re not responsible for injury if you do not possess a pilot’s license to be flying one of those things)!

The PSP version of this episode will be released in a few days. Speaking of the PSP versions of the episodes, please note that if you go to our video page, the URL for the PSP episodes HAS CHANGED. So if you were directly linking them from somewhere (which we do not mind at all!), please note the new URL and make the changes. All the new PSP episodes will be hosted on the new site on Adam’s domain.

The thread for all of this madness can be found on our site, over here.

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.