So I was sitting down over the weekend whilst sick in bed, trying to come up with ways to make money with our up and coming DoQ office (you know, aside from whoring out music videos), when I saw this thread @ mprem.

So I starting adding one and one... between me and my roommates we've got plenty of know-how putting computers together, and there seems to be a segment of the Machinima population that isn't as skilled in the area of newegging a rig as we are.(Admittedly it's almost more fun for me building a new machine as it is using them to make movies, so there is that.) So my question aloud here today is, does anyone think a Machinima-Machine would be a useful or viable offering? I'm thinking a three tiered line of machines custom built just for Machinima.

A humble machine designed for editing from consoles.

A macho machine designed for editing from Fraps.

and

A machine that will rock your granny's socks off from three states away, and priced accordingly.

Would anybody even consider something like this? I know we're a growing community and all, but I wonder if there would be any takers. It'd obviously be off the shelf parts, the only real service being that we pick out the best parts and slap it together for a price only we would believe to be fair. I won't go into specs right now, it's just one of those idle thoughts I wanted to toss out there while waiting on my meds to wear off, and the bank to tell me no.

Have you ever woken up one morning, looked at your personal little project and say to your self, "Damn, I'm going in the wrong direction!" That's what happened to me over the week, after playing a few games into the wee hours while I was supposed to be resting up for work. I've now been totally influenced by the art design of Zelda DS that I want ever so badly to tackle a similar style myself. I woke up still in a hazzy dream where tiny little low-poly ninjas were beating up a band of tiny little low-poly pirates on the high...err... low seas! It was crazy awesome! So I got to thinking about how hard it would be to Machinima something up in this style without an engine that caters to such low specs, and although I still don't have any clue as to how, I still want to give it a try anyway. Like that one time...

I'd like to take this opportunity to announce, on the sly, that we have a new member on the DoQ team! Lord Barricus (Barry Craig) has taken up his mighty pen, and is currently writing a show currently known as, "For Science!" The first draft of the initial script had us weak in the knees; we're suckers for that science type stuff. It has a real retro vibe, and prominently features the classic American holiday avian table center piece in a variety of, fun, plot-twisting ways. The idea is to keep it short and sweet, releasing episodes once or twice a month until the conclusion. More info as it becomes available, I expect we'll be pushing this one a little harder than previous DoQ works.

For a hard drive crash!

Playing some TF2, looking forward to a little Machinima Talk, and wham-o a nasty little BSoD came and wouldn't let up. So I said to windows, "Well, I've got a little ubuntu for your ass!" Everything was going fine until I went to partition my disk for the Linux install when it was interrupted, trashing my drive. So I farted around in Linux for a while, after a low-level format, when I realized that I couldn't see my raid0 array. Sonofa... wouldn't you know that of all the software/bios raid sets in the world mine (ULi) is one of the few not supported without hacking skills well beyond my level. So here I am in windows x64 again after a brief but awesome trip to ubuntu, which I found to be simply incredible.

When I eventually upgrade my machine for the office, I'm re-building my current rig with ubuntu and keeping it up as a media server/web browser while my workstation does its rendering/compiling/100% usage type stuff. I was very impressed with how it was put together and so user friendly, and I've only *looked* at a few other linux clients. Aside from the nifty bouncy window moves and double desktops, I'd say my favorite feature was the apt-get GUI. Scroll through a big list of free software, find something that looks great and it loads it all up automagically no sweat. I also got in a few rounds of TF2 under WINE and although it was clearly not 100%, that it worked at all impresses me to no end. Seems to me a few more years of die hard WINE dev and nobody will need windows anymore... Also, the ubuntu install disk doubles as what they call a live cd, meaning the install disk loads into the OS without installing files to your HDD, so you can do a little test drive before you take the plunge. It's also handy for pushing files around if your windows install goes all blue...

List of the lost is limited this time, all my important files are backed up to my raid or laptop. Woot!

For now I'm sticking with the windows, too many vender's have me cornered with years of experience using their windows only programs (Adobe and Autodesk are the big guns, but the lack of games isn't helping), and I must not tempt fate with my raid before I can safely displace all the data elsewhere.

*Pinkies out*

The Machinima Festival Europe 07 has just wrapped up, and as is customary I offer my heartfelt congratulations to everyone brave enough to enter their work for such public scrutiny. Some walked away with awards, but I think everyone earned a big round of applause. For your hard work in keeping the fine people of the world a little more, entertained, I thank you all.



Sadly I learned of the MFE 07 too late to afford passage, but I fully intend on remedying this oversight long before the next call for entries. So I also give my thanks to all those who posted pictures and feeds of the event. Although I was a bit occupied over the weekend, I intend to peruse the archives methodically during the course of this work week.




Now back to work you cretins!

Hello World.

That’s the expected phrase when starting something new right? It’s no secret that Mike and I are cohorts in the filmmaking biz, but what you may not have known is that we haven’t even lived in the same town for years, the short tag-team gig in NY at SummerTech last year, not withstanding. There was that time in the middle of ’04 where we split a college dorm, and then that apartment sized hotel room in Ottawa for a week; crazy days to be sure. Well, after much talking BS, years of struggle, and harsh questions directed towards the sky, we have taken the plunge: Dead on Que Productions is finally opening up her first office! A genuine central location, just for DoQ, dedicated to the sole purpose of making visual stories come to life. Things are rocky to start, right now there’s three of us jammed into a small two-room apartment, regular daytime employment is rampant, and the search for a suitable wood-framed host is well underway. So far everything seems to be falling into place as if so destined, I like to attribute ‘keen eyes for a good deal,’ but others see our blessings from a higher order, such as the mighty Thor; Norse god of thunder, and rock’n roll.

The idea is to take a 4+ bedroom house and retrofit one of the larger areas into “The Office.” To be installed: computer stations, a render farm, a projector + screen, whiteboards, particleboards, sci-fi movie posters, mahogany gun rack loaded with nurf ordnance, bokken mounts, artist furniture, sound booth (closet with XLR cables and foam padding along the walls), a small green-screen, and much more. Naturally we’ll be installing a fresh Circular Table of Duem®.

As this project progresses I’ll update the blog with pictures and horror stories, perhaps one day we’ll look back at these humble beginnings, and erase them to safe face. Office or not, we’ve still got three MAJOR projects lined up in the queue to tackle. Can’t let a little thing like no legroom and bare coffers keep us from what matters most, right?