Machinima Champion & iClone Fan

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, your team and your current work.

I have always been interested in story-telling since as far back as I can remember. In grade school I loved telling campfire tales, and that progressed into short movies when I got my first video camera. I pursued this passion in college and graduated with a creative writing bachelor's degree. However, I always preferred the audio-visual mediums as the most effective means of conveying a tale. When I learned of machinima computer animation software I jumped at the opportunity to bring my visions to the screen.

I entered my first machinima film into the Warrington Film Festival in 2006, and it was selected as one of the twelve films to be screened for the event (from 3,033 entries). That encouraged me to continue telling my tales via this medium. Since then I have had my films screened in various film festivals and competitions, including the Hollywood Theater, Paris, Amsterdam, and Geneva.

Currently I am working on three film projects; all of them are based on original story ideas (although one is roughly inspired by a short story by H. P. Lovecraft).

Q: You've been working on Machinima and also promo videos for the Harb40 Passion Competition. Tell us a bit about that.

For years I have worked with an older animation program, and became so comfortable with it that I hesitated moving on to more powerful and versatile software. Then I came across a film competition hosted by Harb40, which offered amazing software prizes such as iClone 5 pro, Sony Vegas editing and sound programs, MovieStorm, Hitman Films, and other drool-worthy awards. The contest doesn't even require an entry fee, so I jumped at the opportunity to try my luck in the contest. I was lucky enough to win the grand prizes in both 2009 and 2011, and second place in 2013. With this good fortune I was able to amass a collection of the best machinima software out there.

In gratitude to Harb40 for hosting and organizing this annual contest event, I crafted a few promotional videos for his competition using iClone Pro, MovieStorm, CrazyTalk Animator Pro, and even live action. They also provided a good opportunity for me to try out all these new programs and gear up for crafting full films.

Q: When and how did you discover iClone? What's advantage?

I was awarded iClone 5 Pro as one of my prizes for winning the Passion Competition (film category), along with 15,000 DA points to purchase additional content from the online marketplace. As I worked with this new software I realized the limitless potential of this powerful program With this, I could truly film anything I could imagine. One of the drawbacks of many other animation programs is the limited inventory of animations available. With iClone, I realized I could film any motion I wished. I even purchased a Kinect camera with Reallusion's Motion Capture software and now am able to make my own animations simply by capturing myself performing them on the Kinect camera. I also loved the capability to path inanimate objects to make them move or fly (great for flying vehicles or flying debris), as well as the ability to animate non-human creatures. This truly opens up a world of possibilities for my future film projects.

Q: Tell us about your upcoming iClone movie.

For the latest Passion Competition I not only submitted a few film entries, but I also tried my hand at writing for the short story category. So I thought it only appropriate that I turned this written story into a short movie (semi-short, actually, since I estimate it to be around 30 minutes long). The film revolves around a serial killer, his latest victim, and a police detective who's always one step behind him. The title of the movie is "Fated", and it's slated for a 2014 release. I am very grateful for all the support and assistance I have received from the iClone community in helping me learn this new program and utilize many of its features (a shout out to Bezzer, BenTuttle, Warlord, and AnimaTechnica).