(Please note that the tool we are discussing today is a hack. It is for machinima only. When it is released, using it may result in your account being banned. You've been warned.)

Malu05, of Madx Machinima and Nogg-aholic fame, has created a tool that will change World of Warcraft machinima as we know it. Machinimators have previously been stuck using WoW Model and Map Viewers to emulate footage shot in-world, but few have done it well enough to be convincing. When he releases the tool, which is still in alpha testing, those days will be long gone.

The tool will effectively eliminate hours of handcrafting that was required to make a scene by allowing you to do a variety of things through a program that he created. By pressing a series of buttons, sliders, or entering a series of commands, users will be able to adjust almost every aspect of the camera and settings, including animation and time of day. This will allow machinimators to have much more control over their work, as well as encourage those intimidated by the lack of proper camera function to adapt quickly.

While there is no release date yet, Malu05 is inviting participation of the development process in the AutoIt forum. We're crossing our fingers and hoping that this doesn't get nerfed!

[Thanks, #machinima on Quakenet IRC!]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

Read about some of the exciting features after the jump ...

A lot of readers have been asking lately about the new commenting system, and so here's a short guide to setting yourself up in our comments section here on WoW Insider.

Our new comments section will not only remember all of your personal information, but they'll also let you use an avatar of your choosing, and even reply to and moderate others' comments. First things first, you've got to get set up with a password. To get one, you simply leave a comment as a new user, putting your name and email in the comments form (under "New Users" below). Then, you'll get sent a message to that email address, with a password (usually random letters and numbers) to sign back in. Come back to the site, and now leave another comment with your email, and the new password (under the "Current Users" title in the comments section), and you're good to go.

The next thing you'll want to do is set up your profile, and you can do that by clicking on your name in the comment that you posted.

Update: Hopefully this is working for everybody. Lots of people are asking why we do it this way, and I've got a short answer and a long answer. Short answer is "because this is how Blogsmith does it, and we're run with Blogsmith." Longer answer is that the system was designed, I believe, to be quick and easy-- enter your info as a new user, and you get your password and account set up for you. Enter your info as a "current user," and you never have to click another email again. We are listening to your feedback, so if you have ideas, we're all ears (and of course whatever we come up with has to be implemented by our coders, so thanks for being patient). But for now, this is how it works, and hopefully everyone has their situation figured out. Thanks again for reading!

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran.

Macros used to be a very mysterious thing, involving lots of "if" clauses, "/script" commands, and parenthetical programming language that lots of people don't understand. For some, of course, it's exciting to try and figure it all out, but many people play for a long time before realizing that macros even exist, and then get intimidated by them once they do.

When WoW 2.0 was released, however, so much of that changed. Many of the most complicated scripting functions were disabled, but many simpler functions were put in to help common people get a better sense of how to use them. There are still strange elements in it sometimes, but overall it's much easier for an amateur to understand. I managed to learn the basics and design some of my own shapeshifting macros to replace both my old copy/pasted macros, as well as an addon I had used originally to help make shapeshifting more manageable. I love being able to tailor my macros to my own play style.

So today I'm going to share with you some examples of handy shapeshifting macros to illustrate how to work with your own, and give you some resources to continue using macros if you are interested. For those of you who are expert macro users and just want a list of macros you can copy/paste into your game, have a look at this excellent list. Some of you may already be very familiar with macro construction, but to many of us it is enlightening to discover how to use macros to do several things in one step, activate different abilities in different situations with a single button, or even make existing functions more efficient and useful. You'll get a good sense of how macros can work from these few examples and be ready to go out and find some more that you might like to use, or even design your own. (Non-druids interested in getting started with macros might like this too.)

[Note: Hopefully this will be a valuable resource for new players. If you know any, feel free to send them here. If you already know how to use AddOns, there is probably very little in this post that will interest you.]

You just got WoW, or maybe you've had it for a while. You heard about these neat things called "AddOns" and you want to try them out. How do you do it?