• by Pooky Amsterdam , December 1, 2010

People look for the moving image when they come to your website, and video is a mark of professionalism as well as customer integration. Differentiating oneself in the marketplace is crucial. One new platform for great-looking animated video is in game engine graphics including virtual worlds.

We have always projected ourselves onto an "other, " Thus is the nature of play, worship, love, and advertising as we identify the doll, the idol, our romantic interest or product with our aspirational selves. Avatars represent another form of this self, and avatar is now part of our lexicon and expression, from the hit movie of the same name to how we portray ourselves in icon form.  From MadMenYourself for your Facebook page to "World of Warcraft," owning an alternate image is now part of our 21^st century toolbox. 

For filmmakers this represents an opportunity. And use of these alternates in a virtual reality setting opens up the possibility of using real-time animation, which can be highly targeted, high concept and extremely cost-effective.

The term "artificial reality," coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since the1970s, but the origin of the term can be traced back to the French playwright, poet, actor and director Antonin Artaud. In his seminal book "The Theatre and Its Double" (1938), Artaud described theater as "la réalite virtuelle," a virtual reality "in which characters, objects, and images take on the phantasmagoric force of alchemy's visionary internal dramas." This dramatic interpretation clearly sets the stage for virtual entertainment. 

If we can give our avatars an internal life, and show them reacting in ways that mirror human drama and comedy, we have an acting force that is effective for story telling.

Real-time animation using game-type engines is sometimes called machinima. This can deliver spectacular sets, characters and locations for a fraction of the cost and time of CGI, which is the usual alternative. What can be produced virtually can put tremendous savings right back to you.

Games and multi-user virtual environments engines can be used for animation for a show, series, song or short. Licensing is an important issue when using a game engine commercially, For IP rights to creators, two engines, iClone and MovieStorm, offer a variety of assets, props and backgrounds for commercial use. They are not multi user virtual world environments and have nowhere near the diversity, variety and characterization for avatar development that exists in Second Life.   Second Life also offers IP rights to content creators, making commercial video content possible using this platform. World of Warcraft owned by Blizzard Entertainment does not, but may negotiate commercial use on a case by case basis.

Some recent developments in this new genre are:

• Hugh Hancock's * Strange Company will be releasing  "Death Knight  Love Story" with the voices of Brian Blessed and Joanna Lumley using World of Warcraft
• "Life 2.0", a documentary on Second Life was up for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and will be seen on the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2011
• "R U There," a film partially shot in Second Life, was at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Real-time animation has a depth to it using game engines that allow for a cartoon-like effect with a minimum of cost for delivery.

If you want a Time Machine flying through a futuristic city, with attacking robots and more,

Here is an example of what can be accomplished with this type of engine: Time Travelers is a sponsored web series which just had its release.The cost of this video was around $1,500  a minute.

To compare.: the cost of  "Lego Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brick" movie at 5 minutes was $500,000

We now snack on video morsels, instead of sitting down to a whole 4 or 5 course nightly program meal. To grab that attention and feed your audience what it needs, in a format it understands, with likeable characters that reflect your brand, is the goal. Real time animation is fresh and because it is so inexpensive, allows you the freedom to try something new digitally.

*Hugh Hancock is co-credited with originating the term machinima and with founding machinima.com,  one of the top YouTube destinations for pure entertainment.