What I Learned This Weekend

At the DC Independent Film Festival:

James Cameron Avatar will have a game component (separate) that players can take part in. Will it be like Enter the Matrix?

CreateSpace is cool. Amazon's Unbox might be a good idea too.

A 3D version of Nosferatu (Orlok the Vampire), utilizing the public domain footage from this and other movies, along with some technology to cleanup the film and add 3D elements and music was sort of interesting.

A demo of the new RED camera was pretty exciting. 4K here we come.

Lots of talk about open source, public domain, creative commons, and free media. Remix and rehash, interactivity, computer games, community building, etc. Only, how to make money (or even a living) when the competition is giving away theirs for free?

Escapist Magazine - Machinima

The Escapist has an absolutely excellent article on machinima (Allen Varney). Not only does it get everything right, it goes far beyond what you find in typical mainstream press (oh wow, you can make movies with videogames!). Discussing The French Democracy (see previous posts #1, #2) the magazine focuses on one key aspect of machinima: the copyright problem that is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Their suggestion is for an open source machinima platform. That really could be a killer app.

Not only was the article accurate but there were a few things that I hadn't seen elsewhere:

• some information on puppetry in other cultures
  
• the discrepancy between film and games themselves as an accepted form of artistic expression
• the larger problem of subversive cinema in reaching mainstream audiences
  
• ILM's Zvix previsualization tool sounds fantastic

I applaud articles like this. Now if only the mainstream media would read it.

Open Source 3D Worlds

Or so the Wiki says (via Chris Hanson). The Croquet Consortium is an open source software foundation that has put together Croquet:

Croquet is a powerful open source software development environment for the creation and large-scale distributed deployment of multi-user virtual 3D applications and metaverses that are (1) persistent (2) deeply collaborative, (3) interconnected and (4) interoperable. The Croquet architecture supports synchronous communication, collaboration, resource sharing and computation among large numbers of users on multiple platforms and multiple devices.

Which is what exactly? The 3D web? A place like Second Life where the world is persistent (as long as the servers stay up)? No, according to the FAQ, it's a software development environment.

This certainly is interesting, and it's supported by the New Media Consortium which will help institutions build a virtual presence. Training, education, conferences? Is this the *.edu to Second Life's *.com built on Croquet (akin to linux)?