Gorgeous machinima video for surreal Creative Commons story

Wagner James Au sez, "Taking a CC-licensed reading of a strange Sherwoood Anderson short story, UK artist Lainy Voom has created a dazzlingly weird Second Life-based machinima from it. (Boing Boing featured Lainy's equally great Tale from Midnight City last year.) Interestingly, most of the surreal images (giant eyeballs etc.) were shot 'live' without post-production. Music's from Magnatune while the movie itself is CC-licensed, making it a great showcase for Creative Commons."

I'm not a big fan of surrealist fiction, but the incredibly visuals in this make it the most beautiful machinima I've seen to date. Link (Thanks, James!)

[#1 posted by Jeff , January 16, 2008 4:32 AM]

Very nice look. The "traveling around the world-road" reminds me of what Wil MaCarthy described in several of his books: Planetes (small, man made, high mass balls).

[#2 posted by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock , January 16, 2008 5:00 AM]

Superb work. Thanks for the link.

[#3 posted by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock , January 16, 2008 5:01 AM]

Superb work. This really shows off the strengths of Second Life for Machinima - minimal animation or walking, no talking, lots of gorgeous costumes and sets. The character models, particularly the woman, are just lovely.

[#4 posted by License Farm , January 16, 2008 7:45 AM]

Ah, but I love good machinima; it transcends being just vidcaps of dudes screwing around in videogames (which have their place, don't get me wrong) and really aspires to actual cinema. I agree with Hugh: the woman is really nicely realized, especially her hair. "The white man" looks suspiciously like David Bowie.

Seems as though the machinima field has been relatively quiet in the past couple years, "Bloodspell" aside; maybe the latest generation of systems is proving either technically or financially burdensome? Maybe I'll get some answers at the next Machinima Festival.