Version Differences

1. Demo
2. Academic
3. Professional

The Demo version is an approachable, easy-to-use, introductory software package for Machinima filmmaking. The Demo version can be acquired free with purchase of Paul Marino's book, "Machinima Artistry". For non-commercial use only.

The Academic version is a more advanced software application featuring an advanced user interface providing the filmmaker with explicit control of the Machinima project. For non-commercial use only.

The Professional version includes the latest and most powerful tools for Machinima filmmaking and is licensed for commercial use.

The Professional version contains all the features provided in the Academic version, and the Academic version contains all the features provided in the Demo version. The following is a comprehensive breakdown of the features available in the different versions of Machinimation 1:

DEMO VERSION

1. Simple user interface: The demo interface provides an easy introduction to using Machinimation and the amount of features you can control with it is tuned down in order to increase its ease-of-use.

2.Camera track: This track allows you to create a virtual camera that you can use to view your scene. You can control the position, orientation, and zoom of the virtual camera.

3.Light track: This track allows you to create a dynamic light within your scene and control its position, color, and brightness. You can use this to accentuate parts of player models or the environment.

4. Effect track: This track allows you to create text and image overlays. You can control the source text or image, the color, and the position of these overlays. This can be used to create titling, to simulate a fade-in or fade-out, or even to simulate a film-grain effect.

5. Recording track: This track allows you to record player actions that occur within your scene. You will use this to capture the movement and action of your actors.

6. Render to AVI: Once your scene is completed you can render it out directly to an .AVI file using any of the audio codecs installed on your system. You can then play the .AVI file directly in Windows.

7. Tutorials: Several basic in-game tutorials show how to use the Demo interface.

8. Quake3 model/level support: Since Machinimation is based off of Quake III: Arena, it can natively load any of the models and environments that can be used within Quake III: Arena so anyone that has the game can then load its models and environments.

ACADEMIC VERSION

1. Advanced interface: The most notable difference between the Demo and Academic version is the interface changes. The Advanced Interface gives you more direct control over the data in your scene.

2. Timeline: This allows you to quickly navigate through the components in your scene and also easily see the relationship between each component.

3. Track & keyframe editors: These editors provide you access to all the properties for tracks and keyframes. You can use these to fine-tune all aspects of your scene.

4. Prop track: This track type allows you to add arbitrary models or sprites into your scene and control them over time. You can animate them, attach them together, and move them through the environment.

5. Event track: This track type allows you to trigger console commands or trigger a sound to play at a specific frame.

6. Prefabs: Prefabs allow you to save out sections of a track and later import them into another track at any location.

7. Additional render features:

- Save frames as TGA
- Render multiple scenes into one file or one TGA sequence
- Custom resolution control (up to the limit of your video card)

PROFESSIONAL VERISON

1. Undo/Redo: Machinimation Pro allows you to undo and redo previous actions. The number of undoes is configurable.

2. Scriptable weapon system: This system allows you to easily create custom weapons by defining various properties that dictate weapon behavior and visuals.

3. Scriptable particle system: The particle system can be used to create special effects such as rain, sparks, falling leaves, and much more. Particle systems are defined through a text file that specifies its movement and visual properties.

4. Scriptable FX system: The FX system acts as a central controller between all of the visual systems in Machinimation, and can therefore be used to combine models, sprites, particle systems, lens flares, dynamic lights, and so on in flexible ways in order to achieve the effect you desire. FX are defined through a simple language and stored in text files.

5. Scriptable animation system: This system provides an easy way to name sequences of animations contained in models and then use those within FX scripts and your scene.

6. FX track: This track allows you to place an FX into your scene. You can control the position, orientation, scaling, and color modulation of the FX.

7. Emitter track: This track allows you to place a specific Particle Emitter into your scene. You can control the position and orientation of the emitter.

8. Audio track: This track allows you to add an audio file into your scene and control many aspects of it: Volume, panning, frequency, and pitch. Audio tracks can also be used to drive the lip-synching animation for a player model.

9. "Focus on Object" support: Cameras, FX, Emitters, and Props can be set to derive their orientation based on the relative location of another track rather than the keyframed values.

10. Real-time voice chat: When in Machinimation you now have the option to talk to other participants connected to the same server.

11. Real-time lip-synching: When a player is properly setup for lip-synching support their mouth animations will be synchronized with voice input coming from the microphone.

12. Enhanced recording track:

- Interpolation: Recordings can now be used with frame blending or interlacing without the need for them having been recorded at higher frame rates.
- "Live Camera" support: A camera from the viewpoint of the director can be automatically recorded now. You can configure the sample rate that is used to create this camera.
- Save and load speed has been increased by 60-70%

13. Advanced rendering options:

- Serialized rendering: Allows you to batch render all the cameras from a single scene into individual AVI files or TGA sequences.
- Custom render output folder: Allows you to customize where output should be rendered to.
- Arbitrary render resolution: You are no longer limited to the render resolutions supported by your video card, but can instead supply an arbitrary frame size to render at (limited only by the resources on your machine).
- Depth-of-field sampling (an in-game preview of the effect is available as well)
- Motion blurring
- Optional anamorphic frame output

Screenshots