So I heard a bit ago that faceposer should be working again. That’s a good sign.
Almost 100% finished with a live action, mini-informercial/funny short video that makes fun of community college called “The Delta Difference”. Definitely will post that when the finished product is up and ready.
Remember Clockwork? NefariousGuy has finished a sequel to his film noir/gangster film about a hitman trying to “get out of the life”, and debuted it just the other day. It’s called Clockwise. And it’s damn good. You won’t see anything like this around – a really serious business, well made, unique Garrysmod machinima that has an incredible technical job and great sound design. Gets a little ‘Sin City’ like with the cinematics too. You’ll see me in a bit of a larger voice role this time than the first video as “Lt. Mayfield”. Second, (or should this have been first) we have another incredibly well made machinima by Phil “Overman” Rice called First! and I have a small, but important voice role as the dude with the purple mohawk. Yeah. The video is a machinima satire (created with Moviestorm) of the internet culture’s desire to be “first”. Watch these and tell me what you think!
And if faceposer really does work for me (which is still a stretch), that means I can finally finish that Team Fortress 2 machinima I started working on a month ago…
I guess it’s a good time to be under the weather again. With Garrysmod Machinima Tricks Episode 1 out as of last week, a project that was completed due to an update breaking the source SDK under the orange box engine, it seems we’ll need to scramble for some fixes. A Team Fortress 2 machinima which I was hoping to crank out in time for my first video comeback in a while, can’t be worked on until I fix this (unless I go with the ever so lazy shortcut approach of not lipsyncing characters and dialogue). On top of that, I’ve been sick on and off the past two weeks. Probably doesn’t help that I’m stressed the hell out too.
However, you may have noticed on the Machinima.com youtube page that I guest starred in a “Director’s Spotlight” video, a weekly video magazine the guys from Machinima.com put out to show the uploads from all of the directors in the current week. I got to do the voiceovers for the entire thing in an impromptu matter, so check it out, I’m pretty fond of the joke at the very end:
Since I couldn’t progress any more on the TF2 short project due to an update delaying things, I went ahead and finished this first outing in a potential GMOD tutorial mini-series for machinimakers and players.
It’s rather specific – about greenscreening airplanes/spaceships for use in your machinimas so they don’t look so two-dimensional in movement, but this isn’t meant to just stop there. Sure, it’s only a 3 minute video, but the idea is to have our viewers think up their own ideas too and be inspired. There’s a heck of a lot one can do with green screening, and that’s pretty much what I want to stress here. See if you can come up with your own other clever uses for other things. This little machinima tutorial series will likely be continued due to the positive feedback it’s already getting. The links referenced in the tutorial video can be found on garrysmod.org, for some reason the machinima guys haven’t put those in the description yet.
Keep your eyes open for the June 6th Machinima.com Director’s Spotlight – they asked me to provide the voiceovers for this episode of their weekly video magazine.
Not even two years since it was released and Counter-Strike For Kids has just passed the ten million viewcount mark today in the afternoon. It’s been consistently getting views since it got uploaded to the Machinima youtube channel and is the #1 most viewed video (that isn’t the trailer for Avatar) out of their entire 9000+ video set on the regular channel. Last November I put out a “CS For Kids: Extras” video that served as an addendum to the original release with commentary, behind the scenes look, and a little introduction.
I just want to say how happy I am to be responsible for making a video that went up on youtube and machinima.com that was an instant viral success enjoyed obviously by so many people. Everyone else who helped I hope feels the same way, and thank you all – cast, crew, and of course, our awesome audience. Going to go put the birthday cake at Billy’s house now.
We should be seeing a new short video this week. Team Fortress 2 and other source game updates broke the Source SDK faceposer, so that put the TF2 video on halt. So, in the meantime, I got to work on a GMOD mini-tutorial video that you will see up on the web in a few days maximum.
Sup. I’ve been ill the past four days but the TF2 movie is still making a little progress. Shouldn’t take too long to finish it completely, just waiting on voiceovers from people before I can make some more serious headway.
To hold everyone over for the time being, here’s a compilation of some good footage from some not-so-good cameras shot last year (beginning of June, ‘09) when a bunch of us went to Columbus, Ohio, uploaded on JsXanatos. Good times.
We’ve finally began production on a new Team Fortress 2 machinima that will probably be about 3-4 minutes in length. It felt good to record and edit some footage again. Expect to see some actual changes around the website and such to make it useful again. I keep posting a bunch of random stuff on the Facebook, but it’s time to get interest back into jsclan.com again. I’ll be trying to make more posts on here from now on, but I’ll probably keep the site posts just for updates on new videos, release dates, releases, and noteworthy happenings.
I really don’t know what to say. Just sorta failing at life on this end. Things will look up eventually, and there are a handful of things on the backburner right now. Expect another ‘extras’ type-ish video soon and probably an outing from both DOD:S and TF2. Three new videos for sure within the next few months. It’s a battle of the will.
If you’re that anxious for anything, I do occasionally post some goofy finds and creations from other JS members on our Xanatos facebook page. If you like our kind of stuff and if you’re interested in my warped findings, become a fan:
What’s up everybody. It’s almost Holiday season and I’m going to be taking another hiatus for a short time as I’m moving out for a college semester starting in a week-ish. Don’t think I’ll have internet there for starters and it’s going to be occupying a vast majority of my time these next couple of weeks, and then after that it’ll be Christmas and New Years, so it’s a safe bet to say we won’t have anything in the works until after January.
We do have a couple of gems straight from Stev’s Youtube Channel though. I got a lot of silly flack for uploading two videos I made for my media production class with Jack and I on my personal channel, and since Stev and I appear in this one, we wanted to put it on his channel. Check it out:
And since we won’t probably be making anything video wise for a month (our last was the CS For Kids Extras video if you haven’t seen that one yet), I thought it would be cool for me to make little “for fun” blog-type posts.
Here are what I would say now are the top three machinimas that inspired me into the machinima making scene – all vastly different from each other. Only two different games though, as the majority of what I played back in the day was Counter-Strike and Battlefield, so naturally, my favorite pieces are from those engines. These videos have seemingly been forgotten as of late, too, as they are relics from the 2003-2005 period. Keep in mind that the links that follow are reuploads from another source – you can find higher quality direct download links probably by doing a little searching.
A clan in a competitive environment from CS1.6 back in 2005 makes it’s way up the ladder to only pull pranks and do outrageous maneuvers on opposing clans in actual league matches for reactionary purposes. The video essentially is highlights from the season in a music-video/replay like format, and is edited with special effects and music for extreme effect. Not technically a machinima, as the majority of footage in this video is from actual CAL-M CS1.6 league matches (the fact that this joke-clan made its way up the ladder just to pull stuff like this makes it even funnier and more real), but it’s just too damn well choreographed on the maker’s part for it not to be mentioned here. A hilarious outing, incredibly well edited and made, and just too damn interesting. Another CS1.6 video very much worth mentioning that goes hand in hand with this is one entitled MONSTROUS: Counter-Strike Gone Bad. If you’ve seen Pubmasters, but haven’t seen this, do so now. You’ll probably find it even funnier.
Back when the “Requiem for a Dream” music wasn’t so cliche, and back when seeing an effectively shot and edited piece from the Battlefield engine was a rarity (it still is, even with Battlefield 2’s replay features and onward). Very well put together action video about a U.S. group defending a small town from an impeding German force set to Clint Mansell’s music. It’s a bit long and a little too overdramatic with the music, however it goes without saying that it’s very effective. How the director was able to choreograph beginning-to-end action sequences is really impressive, and something that isn’t easy to pull off in an engine like Battlefield 1942 with virtual actors. Seriously. How many headaches did it give ‘em. I got horrible ones just doing half-assed, two day efforts on Source Mod Todd videos. BF’s engine would be a pain in the ass to make a video like this for. Mu’s hard work paid off for him though, as this video eventually got a spot on television.
This, in my opinion, is the grand-daddy of all grand-daddies. A clan made up of “noobs” wants to hang out with the “best of the best”, so by baiting them with a false pretense, they don’t exactly get what they hoped for.. Released right around the time that CS: Source debuted (even includes a scene that’s funny now just to see the old original Phoenix model), this has production quality unheard of for a CS1.6 video. Clan Wars is full of hilarious scenes and is simply worth watching solely for how well it was made. Even features an original soundtrack that’s superb. I miss directors like TFG. He really knew his shit and filmed in a setting that people like I can compare to. It takes mad balls to try and film something that isn’t a Source-SDK choreographed effort (which also takes mad balls), but rather, one that designs very clever sets, deals with in-game actors, and effectively uses the game engine to his advantage all the while pulling off shots that make you go, “how the fuck did he do that?” (especially at an extensive, entirely custom animated fight sequence near the end). For something like that to yield an amazing outcome is awesome to see. Be sure to check out TFG’s other work too – he made a few other excellent machinimas in Counter-Strike and even a couple documentaries. Back in the 2004 era, machinima had some prime fucking directors that were all in their twenties and early thirties. This elite machinima-making crowd eventually all moved on with their industry jobs. Then Youtube came along, and now it’s mainly just a bunch of kids.
In this video, there’s an introduction from the cast members, the original video with commentary by STEV and Xanatos, behind the scenes of the Extreme Gore segment, and some extra footage that wasn’t included in the original cut.
Now, we could’ve talked on and on about the production of this video for hours, and we didn’t get through shit in this video, quite honestly. I guess for the sake of comedy, and the fact that we are limited in what we can all fit in during eight minutes of video. So now, to add to that, I present to you, a lengthy writeup with some trivia regarding CS For Kids and its production!:
A WRITEUP ON CS FOR KIDS – BACKSTORY & TRIVIA:
The idea behind Counter-Strike For Kids was inspired by none other than a Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job sketch. Particularly, the Lazy Horse Mattress scene with Will Forte.
What I originally was going to do was make a Source Mod Todd type video in which he pitches the kid-friendly mod for Counter Strike, and randomly throughout his commercial, there are very abrupt, quick, shocking cuts of extreme gore segments in CS:S perhaps done by an outside source as Todd reacts in frustration to what’s being inserted – basically, what you see in the extreme gore segment now, but randomly placed throughout the video. Personally, I think what the video is now was the better choice as it suits the mainstream more. What do you think, what would you have liked to see more?
But the real frontrunner of the format in which CS For Kids is in now was coined by MrSentual, who wrote a number of the lines in the “Extreme Gore” segment and had the idea for “calling within the next fifteen minutes, throwing in…” The rest is history.
After I pitched the idea to STEV, that’s when (as mentioned in the video) we went and got some food at Wendy’s, which isn’t the nicest place in our area as it seems to be run behind the counter by an ex-con lineup. He wrote down the lines for the first segment in which he voices, the whole “Tired of having your kids…” bit. The recording of the eight year old kid saying “weel gun” was actually from a YTMND I had found ages ago, originally saved by someone I knew during my old CS days in CAL. We incorporated it around Stev’s bit.
So now we had a beginning and an end. Now for the middle. Thinking about it a bit too much, and looking for ideas on a format, having the concept of what essentially is a list of bulleted items came to me after watching the T’IRD sketch from Tim and Eric Awesome Show (you could say I’m a fan of Tim and Eric Awesome Show). And then I was able to write the middle portion, including all the jokes like the poorly made cut-ins like “<BIRTHDAY PARTY> has been planned.” and “GOING TO PUT THE <BIRTHDAY CAKE> AT <BILLY’S HOUSE>”.
Back to the beginning of the video, the first thing that was edited was the flash transition between the Counter-Strike screenshot and the photoshopped screenshot that made them all clowns holding nerf guns and pookeyballs. All the skins that you see after that were found on FPSBanana.com (MrSentual made the skin for Stev’s character, the nerf guns, etc). No, CS For Kids is not a real mod. We just skinned the shit out of Counter-Strike Source, in both segments.
Yes, the puppy exploded. It’s a HE Grenade replacement. Kid friendly. Now, onto the actual interesting stuff.
The giant pistol pulled out during that final battle sequence in the “FOR KIDS” segment was completely an accident. I downloaded it particularly for the Extreme Gore segment, and didn’t mean to expose it in that last shot of the Kids segment, but I later thought it was pretty funny that amidst all the kid friendly weapons to pull out the most insane fucking pistol and kept the shot in the final cut.
The exteme gore segment was made mostly in Garrysmod. The CS shots were zombie skins and I downloaded a blood pack to make things extra gory. ONE THING I DON’T THINK A SINGLE SOUL NOTICED IN THE EXTREME GORE SEGMENT is that the majority of the text is REPLACED via a .txt file edit in the game files. Next time you watch it, try to read what’s on the BUY MENU (my favorite is what is in place of the “machine guns”) and what new text pops up when the person plants/defuses the bomb. The text is probably way too hard to read in the original upload because the quality got dumbed down, but maybe on machinima.com or on this Extras video which has better quality.
All the exploding terrorists and guys who get their heads shot off were shots contrived in Garrysmod. I was happy with doing the voiceovers for this segment, as a number of the lines were improvised on the spot and fit very well.
Now, onto Crackbone’s recording. In all honesty, I should have ended the video right at the end of the Extreme Gore segment, but I had this mentality back then that just having a two minute video is cheating the viewers out of content. So I made a silly choice by adding two sequences – Crackbone’s testimony, and the George Lopez sketch. Completely out of place. The idea for crackbone’s testimony began when I recorded him transmitting in ventrilo yelling in response to a video he was watching of a snapping turtle attacking, ripping apart, and eating live mice. And we adapted the scene around that. Fit fairly well. All that footage I had the misfortune of having to film myself in GMOD, so there were a lot of key binds I had to hit in succession all the while framing a shot and recording at the same time. Total pain in the ass.
Lastly is our controversial George Lopez segment. This should not have been in the movie. A friend of ours made a silly little video in CS1.6 that basically involved his buddy go around a map yelling what you hear in the video. For some reason, we all found it hilarious. So, to fill the gap more, I asked the guy if we could use the audio from his video and he agreed. We reshot the sketch in CS:S. Upon making the first final render of the video, Wolfer had the great idea of putting a cheesy George Lopez head over the head of the CS Guerilla Warfare model’s face for the entire bit and shorten it up some (we originally had the scene run a little longer). I was skeptical at first, but Wolfer was 110% right in his idea making that scene better. Just seeing the Guerilla model would’ve been gimmicky and pointless, so thanks Wolfer for saving that bit. It also helped me think of the liquify face which I’m proud of. The George Lopez scene really shouldn’t be in the video anyway in my opinion, but hot soup! The original upload of CS For Kids from Summer of 2008 is currently far surpassing 7 million views and is the #2 most viewed video on the Machinima.com Youtube Channel (first being Master Chief sucks at Halo 3).
Hi everybody. I suppose it’s senseless to apologize for the lack of productivity. It’s been…what..5 or 6 months since we’ve had a Machinima.com release? Yeah, a lot of junk has been going on with the ideas we’ve tossed around not working, and not to mention real life being a major hinder.
But we’re still here. And we’ve got a new video on the way. It’s going to be a special bonus video about our most popular video, CS For Kids, to get us jumpstarted back into the swing of things. In this one large overall piece, you’ll get an introduction with comments by the cast, a version of CS For Kids with commentary by Stev and Xanatos, a tutorial-like segment showing how the Extreme Gore sequence was built, and some extra footage. All in one video.
It’s fucking crazy that CS For Kids is almost the #1 most viewed video on Machinima.com’s Youtube page. It’s currently the second most seen video on their channel with a viewcount of well over 7-million. How this happened is pure viral chance, and help from partner promotion. I suppose people must like it, too. This is basically why we thought it’d be appropriate to make a sort-of addendum video to the original with everything stated prior. Will keep you updated, I’m hoping this release goes smooth.
Oh hey. The Janus Syndicate, as a group, turns exactly four years old on the 19th (We formed on that day in 2005). Time flies.
Also, to address the fanboys: YES, THE GMAN SQUAD WILL EVENTUALLY CONTINUE. IT’S JUST ON HIATUS RIGHT NOW FOR MANY REASONS (one being that we got a lot of unnecessary flack for Episode 7, I suppose we’ll talk in detail about this incredibly bizarre series at a later date). Episode 7 wasn’t the last. That’s why at the end it said “To be continued”. Source Wars fits this same category but is even lower on the priority level. Source Mod Todd is probably said and done. Just for the record. Ok, see you soon. Leave some interesting comments.
-Xanatos
Oh, and here’s what Gerald did to me this past Halloween:
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