Although it's not likely that Master Chief or Mario will be accepting any Academy Awards soon, Machinima is a rising art within the game-playing community.
"Machinima is animated filmmaking using video game technology," said Paul Marino, the executive director of the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. "We use the virtual environment of the game as the set to a film and the characters as the actors. We then record within the game like you would a live-action film shoot."
Marino is also the author of "The Art of Machinima," as well as a Machinima producer and director.
Machinima gained momentum as an art form about 10 years ago with the release of the PC game Quake, Marino said.
As the technology involved in video game engines has increased through the years, so has the ability to make more compelling Machinima pieces from the games, Marino said.
Now, he said he believes game graphics are at a point where Machinima art can rival computer animation.
"The visual sophistication of game graphics are starting put Machinima along side a traditionally crafted computer animated film," Marino said. "While the works still don't posses the professional finesse that a film by, say, Pixar creates, one only needs to reflect on how far the visuals for games have advanced in the last ten years."
He said while Machinima is growing as an art form, it is, at its core, entertainment.
"Machinima is most popular for its entertainment value within a certain niche," Marino said. "While there's a small segment of audience who appreciate Machinima's contributions to our artistic landscape, the majority of the audience wants a compelling story with a [favorite] game as the foundation."
This was evidenced last week on the season premiere of "South Park" when more than half of the episode was Machinima, using World of Warcraft as the engine.
Machinima also accounts for a number of downloads on the Internet and Web sites like YouTube.com.
One of the more prominent downloaded Machinima series is "Red vs. Blue," a series that uses the game Halo as the engine.
Marino said, "Certain works transcend beyond the usual audience and resonate at a much more general audience level. Rooster Teeth's 'Red vs. Blue' series is a good example of this."
Matt Hullum works every week to create new videos in the "Red vs. Blue" series for Rooster Teeth Production.
Each episode lasts about four or five minutes but takes about a week to create, Hullum said.
He said he had no idea why "Red vs. Blue" has become such a popular series of Machinima, but attributes the popularity of Machinima to familiarity.
"People generally seem to like new stuff, as long as it is familiar," Hullum said. "Machinima is a new way to appreciate video games and narratives, movies, at the same time."
Ball State University sophomore Lee Bradford said she thinks "Red vs. Blue" is popular because it focuses on humor.
"Where most Web series go wrong is when they find a good plotline to follow," Bradford said. "They drop the humor and focus on plot. Rooster Teeth kept the humor."
She said the "quotability" of the series allows her feel a comradery with others who watch the same Machinima series online.
"I like to make a point of using quotes from the show whenever I get the chance," Bradford said. "It's sort of a code: If you can catch the reference, you're one of us."
Marino said Machinima catches on quickly because of the humor, but also because it has the ability to bring game players closer to their favorite games.
"I believe Machinima is popular because it's an extremely accessible medium that taps into an existing set of interests," Marino said. "[It] takes a person from playing their favorite video game to creating entertainment about it."
He said the growth in popularity of Machinima would help open the medium to more artists in the future.
"I believe Machinima will profoundly affect how animated films are developed in the not-too-distant future," Marino said. "The bar of entry to the reactions of such works will be significantly lower and allow nearly anyone with a story to tell to explore how, in fact, to tell it."
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