Baron Soosdon has been threatening to make a plotline machinima for quite some time, so it's good to see that he followed through with it! Kake Buk Island: Episode 1 - "You Damn Beach" is about an orc, Thok, that wakes up on a strange island. While exploring the island, he befriends two girls, Noki and Jiki, that need his help rescuing their pig from the sinister gnome, Sergei Gnum. All is not as it seems on Kake Buk Island, but I guess we'll have to wait for Episode 2 to find out!
KBI: YDB has an incredible line-up of special guests, including Drewbie, Olibith, and Baron himself, but I'm not sure what was up with some of the dialogue. Nevertheless, the cross-blend of World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament 2004 made for a surreal set for Baron to weave his magic. As always, if you enjoyed the machinima, download the high quality version!
If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
Bitfilm, a festival that takes place in Hamburg, Germany, announced the shortlist today for their sixth annual event. Among the nominees are a whopping three from World of Warcraft. Despite WoW machinima only being a formidable contender in the last two years, Olibith took home the top prize last year with I'm Only Sleeping!
Baron Soosdon never ceases to amaze me. Since he took on the job at Machinima.com, he's been steadily producing stellar machinimas that really raise the bar for the rest of the WoW machinimators. While there's still no plot to speak of (or is there?), Rage & Rapture is about as visually stunning as you can get!
Baron is infamous for teaser shots of his upcoming projects on his blog, and thisone is noexception. Set to a drum and bass track of the same name, by Quadrant and Cease, the movements are fast-paced and intense. It really makes you wonder how he does all of this with just Sony Vegas 6 and Particle Illusion!
If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
We all started from somewhere. Baron Soosdon was kind enough to show us his humble beginnings. While Baron's first effort, Twill for the Kill!, was better than most, it isn't even one tenth as good as his current movies. He admitted to us that he had a vague idea of what chroma keying was, but didn't know how to properly use it in a machinima. We hope that this encourages you to keep trying, even if your freshman project isn't the best!
Now that Baron Soosdon has landed a comfy job as Community Manager at Machinima.com, he has time to make lots of movies -- or trailers, at least! His next project is a cross-game video, Kake Buk Island, using World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament 2004. There is an extensive list of guest voice actors tied to the project, including Drewbie (Insert cameo joke here!), Olibith, Tuesday Smith, and Vilaeryn. Since this movie seems to have a plot, yet he doesn't describe it to us, let's make one up for him!
(The sinister Baron Soosdon felt that Vimeo was the best quality stream, so he made me change it from the Veoh stream. Now it has a funky looking aspect ratio! However, he does not blame me for destroying his non-existant PR campaign, so it's okay.)
The year is 1985. Gnomeregan merges with Aperture Science, which causes a chain reaction, altering history forever. In 1987, they decide to install GLaDOS on a mechanistrider, which leads to a killing spree in 1989. In the distant future, only MechaMurlocs exist, except for one determined little gnome.
If you can believe it, Baron Soosdon completed this movie in one day! He was apparently inspired by an infectious tune that was mentioned in #machinima on Quakenet IRC. For more information about This Device Has Been Modified, check out his blog, but be sure to download the high quality version.
I chose some lighter fare for today while you get your patch 2.4 fix on. Garritt Windspire, of Windspire Entertainment, made the cutest music video in World of Warcraft. Being a short one myself (but not that short!), I find gnomes absolutely adorable. Baby It's Cold Outside is no Baron Soosdon production, but for what it is, it works well.
While I liked the video, there were some obvious flaws with it. The aspect ratio seems wonky, and the page turns are pretty cheesy. However, I thought that the surprise in the middle broke the music video up nicely. What's your favorite WoWmusic video?
Machinimaker Baron Soosdon (you've seenhisworkhere multiple times before) has been hired as a community manager over at Machinima.com. His first order of business as a CM seems to be to create some exclusive movies, "a series of some sort for starters." He'll also apparently be handling other WoW-related machinima content, and he asks for ideas about contests as well, so we can probably look for those, too.
Seems like the perfect place for him to be, and it's terrific to see that such a talented "machiminauteur" is going to be getting paid to do what he's good at.
It looks like Fishface went a little filter-happy this weekend. He created Streamline, a short music video based on the Pendulum song by the same name. As Baron Soosdon said on the video page, it would be a lot better if the cuts were in sync with the music. In addition, the L70ETC band didn't really fit in with the type of music that he used.
Otherwise, I found it to be enjoyable. There's not much of a plot to go on, so just sit back and enjoy the billions of color filters that he applied. If you liked Streamline, check out the high resolution version!
From the WoW machinimator that brought you 300 Moonkins comes Voyage, a mixed-media adventure. Voodooray blended music, machinima, and clips from both music videos and real movies to create an alternate reality. In fact, it's so convincing that he had to post what he did to it for us to believe him!
He included scenes from 300, Underworld, and two different music videos. In some of them, he even digitally removed the real actors! Look out for cameos by Salma Hayek, Baron Soosdon's Nikita, and a crazy looking bird.
Machinimators have quickly learned that if they want special 3D animations or sets done, Pinkhair is the man for the job. Previously known for his WarcraftmoviesChristmas Spirit Contest entry that narrowly missed being in the top three, he has helped artists such as BaronSoosdon and Ian Beckman in his spare time.
In honor of Olibith receiving double platinum on WCM for "I'm only sleeping", Pinkhair finished a timelapse of the saucy filmmaker using Lightwave. He has stated that if there is interest in learning how to do it, he may post a tutorial. If you would like to see a tutorial, join #machinima on Quakenet IRC and let him know!
You can tell that bawavax tried his best, which is more than I can say for some first efforts. Aside from going a little effect happy in certain spots, I really enjoyed his use of Particle Illusion in various elements. Hopefully he'll refine his technique and come out with something even better soon!
(As the pic above states, that was one of the safest pics I could link. The management has asked me to make clear that this music video is very Not Safe For Work (NSFW). It contains language, pixel nudity, and Olibith, who warrants a NSFW tag on his own ...)
Baron Soosdon has been teasinghisblogreaders for over a week with pictures of his latest music video, Rock Rockin' Tha Spot. RRTS is a visually stunning masterpiece that will have you dancing in your chair, but it leans more towards the MTV crowd with it's content. However, it's totally worth watching, if for no reason other than the copious amounts of cows!
This week's round up of WoW-related posts on our sister site Massively spans the range from NSFW to Tauren Chefs. You can click on the links below or subscribe to a special WoW-only Massively feed.
WoW Europe spotlights noted machinima artists Machinimist extraordinaire Baron Soosdon is interviewed by WoW Euorpe. Hear what he has to say about his art. Also, Olibith has his own interview exploring how he approaches his popular work.
World of Warcraft Europe is now accepting entries for its annual Valentine's card contest. European players are invited to create a card using screenshots and/or original art showing their love of WoW. Twenty winners (five per language) will receive a Gurky key. The key can be redeemed in-game for a summonable baby pet murloc.
Looking through last year's winners, I'm very impressed with the original art as well as how creatively players were able to modify screenshots. Hopefully this year we will see even more experimental entries. I'd love to see a few done in the visual style of Baron Soosdon (a nonsenscial but stunningly beautiful Valentine's) or Among Fables and Men.
Unfortunately, for you pet completists, the reward Gurky is only available through contests. If you're not a player on the EU servers, you'll still be lacking this prized non-combat pet. Hopefully, the US WoW servers will be offering a similar contest in the future.
The WoW Valentine's seasonal event, Love is in the Air, begins February 10 and goes through February 15.
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