WoW Moviewatch: Depth of Field Wonderland
by Michael Gray 
May 16th 2011 at 12:00PM
The big deal about Malu05's tool is that it allows machinima creators to introduce depth of field to their creations. Depth of field in photography refers to the areas in front of and behind a subject being in varying degrees of focus. By manipulating depth of field, machinimators like Baron Soosdon can create visual excitement and focus in their work.
The Baron's work is always outstanding and beautiful. Depth of Field Wonderland shows off both the Baron's talent for visuals and imagery as well as the power of Malu05's tool.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
RetPallyJil May 16th 2011 12:16PM
That's pretty damn slick. What a handy tool; what a nice video to showcase its abilities.
Ylspeth May 16th 2011 12:18PM
Holy crow, Baron!
That was beautiful! I cannot wait to see what you do next with this new tool.
RetPallyJil May 16th 2011 12:22PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BygL8SKerGc
The whole thing is a setup for the shot at 2:56. I actually gasped a little in awe!
:O Just like that!
RetPallyJil May 16th 2011 12:26PM
Upon reflection, it mght be worth a trip to the CoT to re-do the opening shots of my video lol .. that is, assuming my crappy video card doesn't burst into flame trying to run it.
Gimmlette May 16th 2011 12:55PM
I watched this last night right after he posted it to Facebook. Breathtaking. He's always pushed the boundaries of mach---Wow movie making and this is no exception. He also announced he had stopped playing. We'll see.
The Dewd May 16th 2011 1:08PM
That was.... so beautiful.
Baron Soosdon never ceases to amaze me with his work.
Strawder May 16th 2011 1:12PM
Soosdon is amazing. Always has been, always will be.
Ominous May 16th 2011 1:54PM
It doesn't have to be about anything, to be worthwhile. The visuals were great and, if I got one idea from it, the idea would be "waiting."
It wouldn't surprise me, to see his name in the credits of the upcoming film - when "they" get around to making it.
Marcosius May 16th 2011 2:34PM
Needs more brown and bloom.
(Reminder:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=222 )
Rylka May 16th 2011 2:52PM
While the imagery was nice, and it was good to see the artist experimenting with a new tool, I found myself constantly distracted by the boundaries. Watching the clip at 1080, it was really obvious that the induced blur was sometimes painted on top of the edges of the foreground figures and sometimes not painted closely enough.
I found the outlining of some subjects by a band of sharply detailed background surrounded by blur to be the more distracting and 4th wall breaking of the two errors.
Please understand that I salute the effort and experimentation put forth in this piece, but without technical feedback art cannot grow.
It seems to me that the software's ability to sharply delineate edges was challenged in this clip.
It may be that these problems were really evident to me because I watched the 1080p version at full screen.
I look forward to seeing the artist experiment more in this direction.
baronsoosdon May 16th 2011 3:23PM
The problem lies more in the capture software (Fraps) than in the machinima tool itself.
To get a perfect recording I should get a perfect framerate without any framedrops or slowdowns - easier said than done. I tried many tricks to avoid it with no luck.
WMT gets developed all the time, the latest versions have had the possibility to record stuff into image sequences. Sadly I couldn't use that since I have no gametime and therefore I had to do this in WoW v4.0.6.
Rylka May 16th 2011 3:26PM
That makes sense. Thank you for explaining it to us.
Best of luck to you in using this technique in the future.
I have always enjoyed your work very much. Thank you for sharing your art and your effort with us.
Rylka May 16th 2011 3:26PM
That makes sense. Thank you for explaining it to us.
Best of luck to you in using this technique in the future.
I have always enjoyed your work very much. Thank you for sharing your art and your effort with us.
Rylka May 16th 2011 3:28PM
Comment was intended as a Reply to the above explanation from baronsoosdon.
Mrow May 16th 2011 4:52PM
This is beautiful, but...does using Malu05's machinima tool still result in an account ban? You guys had mentioned that in an article three years ago... http://wow.joystiq.com/2008/06/26/wow-moviewatch-the-tool-that-will-change-wow-machinima-forever/
baronsoosdon May 16th 2011 6:35PM
I've never ever heard even a rumour of anyone getting banned because of it. But it is against the TOS. When I still played WoW, I didn't try my luck.
paintingpixie May 17th 2011 6:37AM
Thanks for the info, baron. Awesome work there. Question, though: Where can I find that Orkidea mix of Time? I've been looking for it everywhere and can't seem to find it.
baronsoosdon May 17th 2011 10:46AM
I got it from his Soundcloud, a free and legal download - http://soundcloud.com/orkidea/time-orkideas-awake-mix
Fletcher May 16th 2011 5:29PM
Very pretty. Looks kinda like a Zac Snyder film.
dannyflorida May 16th 2011 7:37PM
Wow, WoW!