Machinima is a CG animation technique that uses real-time, 3D gaming engines for its imagery source as opposed to traditional CG software like Maya. The technique has been around for a while, though for the most part, Machinima has remained on the fringes of animation and pop culture. That may be changing however with the release of a recent film that could be classified as the first breakout Machinima hit. The film is MALE RESTROOM ETIQUETTE directed by Overman, and it uses the SIMS 2 game engine for its graphics. The 10-minute film starts off as a mock-instructional film but winds up documenting the world’s toilet apocalypse.

The film has been blowing up online since its release on September 14 with hundreds of blogs linking to it. It was featured on YouTube’s front page last weekend - the first for a Machinima film? - and has received over 1 million views on YouTube in the past three days, and over 1.5 million views total. If anything, this film should go a long way towards proving that Machinima is a technique capable of resonating with mainstream audiences as long as the storytelling and filmmaking are on a par with other forms of animated filmmaking. We’ll keep on top of further developments about this film.

UPDATE: Alessandro Cima, director of the Machinima film DRACULA’S GUEST, points out this WIRED article from last January that highlights a couple of progressive Machinima films, including his own. He also writes:

I think with a software tool completely focused on Machinima filmmaking and separated out from any sort of a game environment, Machinima will indeed be a powerful medium. For now, it’s still a bit too difficult to make games flexible enough to tell real stories. I had to pull my footage out of the ‘Movies’ game and render my own soundtrack in order to get around the game’s limitations. But very soon some enterprising company will give us a complete, powerful Machinima-making application.

Watch MALE RESTROOM ETIQUETTE BELOW:

Gallery 1988 on Melrose and LaBrea is opening another theme show on Saturday, based around the Cheshire Cat from Disney’s Alice In Wonderland. For one week only, amazing art and vinyl toys will be on display celebrating the surreal feline created and animated by Ward Kimball in the classic 1951 animated film. Opening reception begins at 7pm. If it’s anything like past openings there, it’ll be quite a crowd.

The LA TIMES published a piece today by Josh Friedman with this mind-bogglingly ignorant sentence about animation:

[OPEN SEASON], based on the humor of cartoonist Steve Moore, introduces a technique dubbed “squash and stretch” that allows the cartoon characters to change shape during action sequences.

I hear the animators working on HAPPY FEET have also come up with an exciting new technique. They call it a “walk cycle.” What will they think of next?

UPDATE #1: Paul Naas writes the following:

I saw the item out of this morning’s L.A. Times about squash and stretch, and dropped a quick email to the author, Josh Friedman. To my surprise, he responded quickly, saying:

“Sorry about that. I’m working up a correction for Tuesday’s paper.”

Quite a difference from the response a few months back from Mick LaSalle and his ridiculous comments about facial animation. I’m looking forward to seeing if the correction actually appears.

UPDATE #2: Story artist Jenny Lerew comments about the LA TIMES piece on her blog Blackwing Diaries.

UPDATE #3: The LA TIMES indeed ran a correction in Tuesday’s paper. It reads:

An article in Monday’s Business section reporting the weekend box-office results incorrectly described as new the “squash and stretch” technique used in the film “Open Season.” The method, which enables the cartoon characters to change shape during action sequences, has been used before.

Sony Pictures Animation’s first CG feature OPEN SEASON opened in the #1 slot last weekend albeit with a weak $23 million (estimated) from 3,833 theaters. Box Office Mojo points out that this opening only seems good when compared to the weak box office of other recent CG films like EVERYONE’S HERO and THE ANT BULLY. It also notes that DreamWorks’s SHARK TALE opened on this same weekend in 2004 with $47.6 million. After this year’s glut of derivative, concept-deprived, gutless CG animated films, it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing many more of those $40+million openings, save for the occasional quality pic. Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment prez Yair Landau attempted to put a positive spin on the OPEN SEASON debut: “This is our first time out and we don’t have a track record or an existing brand that parents can look to. So we’re very pleased to open Open Season comparable to the level of The Polar Express or Monster House that had the [Robert] Zemeckis and [Steven] Spielberg names attached to them.”

It’s hard to imagine that there’s many Sony execs who are actually pleased with this opening. The amount of money they spent on OPEN SEASON clearly indicated that Sony thought it was capable of playing ball with CG’s big boys (Pixar, DreamWorks and Blue Sky) and instead they’ve turned out a big budget film that will end up grossing in the neighborhood of a mid-range feature like JIMMY NEUTRON or BARNYARD. I’d be particularly worried if I were Sony since their next CG feature is yet another ‘talking animal’ pic - SURF’S UP - and judging by the film’s recently released TRAILER, not a particularly good one at that. It’s a real shame that a studio filled with as much talent as Sony doesn’t have the vision to allow its artists to work with quality ideas. They’ll be paying for it at the box office, as evidenced this past weekend.

So, you say you’ve read Taylor Jessen’s amazing piece about the production of TWICE UPON A TIME (1983) in ANIMATION BLAST #9 and now you want to watch this rare film. You’re in luck. Somebody has posted TWICE UPON A TIME in its entirety on YouTube. The choppy compressed video hardly does the visuals justice, but it’ll have to do until Warner Bros. releases the film onto dvd someday. A YouTube playlist with all the segments is below.

The must-see LA art show of the fall season has been anounced. “3 Trees and 3 Flowers” opens November 4 at the Gallery Nucleus (30 West Main Street, Alhambra, CA 91801). This is the second edition of the successful show that took place last year called “3 Trees Make A Forest.” The “3 Trees” are Japanese ilustrator Tadahiro Uesugi and Pixar story artists Ronnie del Carmen and Enrico Casarosa. They are joined this time by three female Japanese illustrators: Yoko Tanji, Icco Sasai, and Wakako Katayama. More details about the show can be found at the Nucleus website or Enrico’s blog. Enrico has also announced that Gingko Press is publishing a book of art from their first show, which should be released by November. The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.

Guess who has their own MySpace now?

http://www.myspace.com/tomoreb

Poor guy has no friends though. Probably because he died in 1987. Become Tom Oreb’s friend on MySpace so he can send you some of his amazing artwork from the beyond.