collision detection: "Ozymandias" poem done as video-game movie!

December 13, 2002

"Ozymandias" poem done as video-game movie!

Have you heard of the "machinima" movement? Basically, it's a bunch of film artists who realized two years ago that video-game 3D engines could be used to create animated films. After all, when you play a 3D game, the engine creates the scene on the fly. It takes some bits of data -- i.e. what the environment looks like, what the characters look like, where they're located and what they're doing -- and renders it as a moving picture. Most of the time, of course, the "action" is composed of gamers blowing the hell outta each other and spraying raw guts around the screen.

But it doesn't have to be. The engine could just as easily be used to script a short animated film. Thus was born "machinima" filmmaking -- an artistic movement that has spawned a web site with hundreds of films. They range from the original pioneering "lumberjack" comedies (the main characters were lumberjacks because the early Quake game-engine rendered an axe as each character's base weapon; you couldn't put it down!), to some really sophisticated Matrix rip-offs.

But here's where it gets really weird. A while back, a British production house called Strange Company did a machinima version of ... Percy Blythe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias." I'm not kidding. It's an animated representation of the, er, action of the poem, such as it is. (You can download it the film here.) Sure, it may be kind of stilted -- the "actor" in the film seems oddly modern, and thus out of place for the poem's vintage, and the desert. But the atmosphere neatly captures the eerie desolation of Shelley's original work. This easily one of the most innovative things I've ever seen done with poetry. And hey: Imagine if someone did this with the first book of Paradise Lost; with all the satanic fires and flying demons, it's a natural for video-game rendering! Or how about Emily Dickinson's nutsoid hallucinations? Or e.e. cummings? The mind boggles. Thankfully, Strange Company's "Ozymandias" has been picked up already and praised by media ranging from the New York Times to Roger Ebert; I'm coming late to the party here.

I think I'm going to email this film to Joe Lieberman -- as well as every other politician or pundit who constantly brays about how video games are turning people into violent, mindless drones.

(Oh, interesting update: here's a "Director's Diary" of the Ozymadias project, written by director Hugh Hancock. He has some very cool meditations on the aesthetic style of machinima, and how it's not just a "poor cousin" of normal CGI animation.)

Posted by Clive Thompson at December 13, 2002 01:20 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt3/mt-tb.cgi/153

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference "Ozymandias" poem done as video-game movie!:

» party poker from party poker
Please check some information in the field of party poker online poker texas hold em [Read More]

Tracked on March 18, 2005 1:59 AM

Comments

Dude. Don't call Emily Dickinson nutsoid.

That is all.

Posted by: Misha at December 14, 2002 2:59 PM

She is so thoroughly nutsoid! I mean
"nutsoid", of course, in the most positive,
life-affirming sense of the word.

Posted by: Clive at December 15, 2002 2:52 PM

As someone who used to closely track the 3D first person shooter community (I wrote a lexicon, recording new terms and old terms in the new context, did interviews with developers, and maintained a who's who), let me point out that the "lumberjack" comedies were not exactly pioneering.

If you look at a minimal list of Quake movies, such as the list on machinima's page, you'll see that there are many movies that predate the ILL Clan's work. The Ranger series and Operation Bayshield were quite a bit earlier.

Posted by: Andrew Wu at December 16, 2002 2:09 PM

Good point; thanks for clarifying that!

Posted by: Clive at December 16, 2002 2:41 PM

good job !

Posted by: portable at January 8, 2004 8:52 AM

Nice site. thx.

Posted by: Online Casino at January 16, 2004 11:53 AM

But some variables are immortal. These variables are declared outside of blocks, outside of functions. Since they don't have a block to exist in they are called global variables (as opposed to local variables), because they exist in all blocks, everywhere, and they never go out of scope. Although powerful, these kinds of variables are generally frowned upon because they encourage bad program design.

Posted by: Godfrey at January 20, 2004 11:23 AM

カリビアンコム caribbeancom

カリビアン caribbean

米国性動画通信 2345 2345.tv 外人海外洋物洋ものポルノ無修正ビデオ

オナニーコム 0721.com 0721

コスチュームシアター costumetheater

DXLIVE DX LIVE ライブチャット

DXライブ DX ライブデラックスライブビデオチャット

EXSHOT EX SHOT動画チャット

EXショット EX ショットアダルトチャット

Girls On Air GirlsOnAir

ガールズオンエアー GOA

一本道一本堂 1本道

HGMO HGMO H:G:M:O

東京真夜中DX TOKYONIGHTS

URAYA URAYAOnlineTV うらやオンライン TV

X-GALLERY XGALLERY Xギャラリー

日本人のおしっこEX JapanesePeeEX Japanese Pee EX

赤外線盗撮の世界 XRAY

Erox EroxJapan Z EroxJapanZ エロックスエロックスジャパンZ

URAMOVIE 裏ムービー

HYPER裏ビデオ通信ハイパー裏ビデオ通信 PINKEYES.COM

出会い PURE21

エロアニメ TV エロアニメTV EroanimeTV Eroanime TV

ネットコミック NETCOMIC

週間ドラムカン文庫ドラムカン

JapaBeauty JapaBeauty.tv ジャパビューティー

eroika eroika.com エロイカ

抜天市場抜き天抜店 nukiten

画像

動画

アイコラ

盗撮

無料

写真集

無修正

覗きのぞきノゾキ

サンプル SAMPLE

壁紙

レイプ

パンチラぱんちら

コスプレ

裏ビデオ

アダルトあだると

ダウンロード DOWNLOAD

AV女優タレントアイドル

巨乳

ブルマぶるま

セーラー服制服ブルセラ

マンコまんこ

セックス SEX

エッチえっち

熟女人妻

オナニーおなにー

女子校生女子高生

エロえろ ero

ヌードヘアヌード nude

99 BB 9BB 99B 99bb 99bb.com GON 裏ビデオ無修正有料会員制

フリーセックスフリーセックスジャパン FreeSexJapan Free Sex Japan

東京キュートガールズ TokyoCuteGirls Tokyo Cute Girls

覗き屋のぞきやのぞき屋 Nozokiaya

直撃ドットコム Chokugeki.com

熟まん熟マン Jyukuman

Jハードコア Jhardcore J hardcore

JPムービーズ JPmovies JP movies

プリティーピンクプリティーピンクジャパン PrettyPinkJapan Pretty Pink Japan

JPチックス JPChicks

ハードポーンハードポーンジャパン HardPornJapan Hard Porn Japan

J-SMUT JSMUT Jスマット

ヌキヌキ学園ぬきぬき学園

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Posted by: julia at January 24, 2004 7:07 PM

Posted by: campporno at December 21, 2004 10:46 AM

Posted by: xxx-tryouts at January 9, 2005 6:04 PM