Using realtime animation techniques, New York animation studio the ILL Clan created 12 short animated vignettes introducing the award categories for Spike TV’s first annual Video Game Awards Show, which is scheduled to air Dec. 4.
By modifying off-the-shelf computer game technology, the ILL Clan produces 3D animation, known as machinima, in a fraction of the time it would take using typical computer animation techniques. Animators control puppet-like animated characters in realtime and record them using a virtual camera. The company also sped up the process by using 3D assets created by game designers and players from around the world.
The vignettes were created using Fountainhead Entertainment’s Machinimation toolset based on Id Software’s Quake 3 game engine. Each of the roughly 10-second animations can currently be viewed on Spike TV’s VGA 2003 website, at spiketv.com.
The ILL Clan demonstrated their brand of machinima at the 2003 Florida Film Festival with a live cartoon titled Common Sense Cooking, which recently won best virtual performance at the 2nd annual Machinima Film Festival in New York City. Since then the group has developed Larry & Lenny on the Campaign Trail, a show in which two unemployed Lumberjacks join the race for president in the hopes of landing a cushy, do-nothing job. Upcoming episodes of the show can be viewed on the ILL Clan’s website at http://www.illclan.com and a schedule of live performances in New York City is currently in the works.
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