3DMM/V3DMM: A GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS! MAKING MOVIES

[Eukos]

GUIDE FOR MAKING MOVIES
Following these rules will most likely get your movie accepted within the community instead of forgotten in the cold



Hello everyone,
3D Movie Maker is a wonderful tool. You can turn your ideas into movies with ease and share them worldwide over the Internet with all your friends (that's me) and maybe receive critical acclaim for that movie file of yours.

Let's begin, shall we?
To make your movie not suck, it needs to have a - so called

Plot

A plot is the story that your movie is about.
Example:
"Tom is a student, he loves to break things. So he goes and breaks something and ends up getting chased by the cops. In the end he gets caught and learns that breaking things is a bad thing thanks to therapy."
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a plot.
If you have an idea of a plot, write it down.
Seriously, write it down.
You think you could make a movie straight forward in the beginning, but that causes loads of plot holes, with most stories resulting in the movie making
no sense
So, what story do you want to tell?
Well anything you want to. Really.
But seriously, think of a plot.
Making movies of characters dancing around, walking around and doing random stuff with no purpose is boring.
You might find it funny because your head is visualizing it for you in a funny way, but no one else will like it.
Your movie will suck, big time.
You will look back at it and be disappointed, thinking you could have used your precious time to learn knitting or something.
Keep in mind that all things happening need to make sense.
They don't have to be realistic.

The plot doesn't need to be all that complex for starters.
A basic, brilliant idea can do wonders. Even crazy short stories or movies that tell a story though motion or sound only can be interesting.
If you want to write the next Citizen Kane, then go ahead.
If you want to write the next Fantasia, go ahead.
Be at least original, don't use brand characters.
Why? Because you have no control over them. You can't make Batman become a Barber for no reason. 3dmm luckily has generic characters that you can use and customize using the Costume Changer or utilizing 7gen.
Now we are slowly stepping into the next Topic of Discussion:

Animation

Default scenery, meaning the standard backgrounds with pre-defined angles are terrible. They have been frequently used in the past 18 years and have grown old. Don't use them. Make your own 2D backgrounds if you wish, but you should rather make 3 Dimensional sets using props that are available in 3D Movie Maker. You can also use 3D Text to make Guns, Tanks and whatever you can imagine!



This is a shot from Ben Rice his movie, Dylan's Forgotten Fate.
A perfect example of custom sets using props like the sphere, cylinder and even text (which is being used for the hills in the background).
Since you can give props custom textures using the Costume Changer you can do pretty much everything you want at this point. I suggest at one point you need to check out the Tutorials section in this forum to create your own textures.

Animation consists also of motion, obviously.
Motion is something that needs a lot of attention while making a movie.
If the characters or objects move in a jerky way, that's bad.
If a camera never moves in your movie, that's boring.
How do you make the camera move?
You can't make the camera move, but you can create the illusion of it moving by animating the set and characters frame by frame. This might sound pretty time consuming, but its really not. There are a lot of tricks on how to get it done really fast - but this guide won't tell you that, this is something you have to discover yourself.

Note: You aren't limited to the animations that actors offer you. You can combine a set of frames and make them do something entirely different. For example you can use pieces of someones Karate animation to actually make him fire weapons of all kind.

Sound

Your movie should have music.
It accompanies the audience and helps them express the mood of your movie, have some punk or rock for violent or comedic sequences, or orchestral for epics, choirs for massive battles against an unknown force.
Whatever you think fits the mood.
Do not use MIDI nowadays. Don't use the default music tunes under any circumstances. They are not wanted.
You can convert your songs from MP3 to Wave using various tools, check the "GET 3DMM AND ITS EXPANSIONS" thread for some hints.

Voices and sound effects are important for telling what's going on. The default voices are useless. The sounds have some value but I suggest you use sounds from freesound websites around the web or take ones from videogames! If you need voices for your movie, start a thread in the 3DMM Chat section, in which you write a basic description of what your movie is about, who the characters are and what the characters need to sound like.
If someone is willing to do the voice work, send them their lines from the script you have done! Don't have a script? Re-read the first segment about the plot again. You need a script to succeed.

Misc Tips

Watch other 3dmm movies of the genre that you plan on doing. Don't use random examples, but more successful ones so you can see what people expect nowadays. Read the reviews too to go deeper into the art of movies being criticized.
Let other people Test-View your movie to get feedback before showing it to everyone else, also to make sure your movie plays properly on everyone their computers!
Don't forget to browse the forum for more tips and techniques. I have barely talked about what is possible in 3dmm. What I did is enough to get you going making proper movies, though.

Go watch Redux, The Handsome Man in Australia for inspiration of how custom scenery is done properly.


Last thing, is to have fun!
Seriously, if making movies that are a bit challenging isn't fun to you at all, just leave it.
No one wants to see stuff that can be done in 15 minutes with no creativity or thought whatsoever.

This article was powered by
Common Sense

and was suggested by Adelitas aka Red Scorpion

[Adelitas]

This needs stickied, and somehow new folk joining should be directed to it before commenting, can that be done? Good job Eukos, nice and clear!

[Eukos]

It would be amazing if everyone would stick to this formula, yeah.
I hope people appreciate what I am trying to express with this...

[Holmstrom]

okay sorry dude but there's like nothing substantial here

[Eukos]

This is made for people coming in thinking that they can make movies with Nickelodeon characters walking around doing shit that no one cares about.
All I do is tell them about the minimal standard here :/

[Ben Rice]

it feels weird to wonder if the name 'dylan' being used in my 3dmm stuff was ever partly to blame in 'dylan' being my suggested name for my sisters baby, which she chose by the way.

nice work with this thread MARKO, great job man

[Samurai Clinton]

The type of explanation I would give to beginners would involve encouraging them to use screen-capture, and post-production on advanced video editing suites such as Sony Vegas.

[Old Rivers]

that is terrible advice.

[Adelitas]

Originally Posted by Samurai Clinton

The type of explanation I would give to beginners would involve encouraging them to use screen-capture, and post-production on advanced video editing suites such as Sony Vegas.

This is why no one likes your movies

[Dustin Guest]

Actually, that's not awful advice, considering the source. It DOES allow you higher sound quality, as 3dmm's compression is fucking awful.

But yeah, in general, if Clinton has an idea, it's best to view it as a guide of what NOT to do. Got an idea? Make it. Don't post about it saying SOMEONE should do it. It's your idea, you're probably the only one interested in it, so YOU do it.

[Adelitas]

Clinton doesn't mean sound though, he means to record his 3dmm movie of several actors doing the basic 'dance' action then edit it with shit loads of mind numbing colours and awful dance music.

So newcomers, don't try to make movies like Clinton, they are bad.

[Dustin Guest]

Yeah, like I said, if you see Samurai Clinton suggest it...it's going to suck. Don't do it.

[Phil Williamson]

I...guess I don't really see the point of this? Why did you write a new 3dmm Manifesto? you obviously mean well, but...no one's making movies. Do you really think all these newbies are thinking "well, I could script out a fascinating character drama or I could make a clip of Stimpy getting killed...guess I'll go with #2 since both seem equally good!" People just aren't willing to invest time into a 3dmm movie in 2013. The only possible result I can see from this, assuming any newbies even read it, is taking us from "only crap movies" to "no movies at all." I mean, it's clearly well-meant and high-effort, but...I don't think this is very helpful, especially with its "this is what you must do" rather than "here are some tips" tone

[Adelitas]

See, that's the thing, people are making movies and people are willing to invest time in them in 2013, just not the 'veterans' whom outnumber the few who do still use 3dmm. As of right now I know three big movies are being made by myself, Marko Polo and Dustin guest. There are plenty of movies being released by newbies still and I think if they raised the bar (even just a little bit) they could easily influence others (guests etc who don't post too) to upload movies and get the 3D Movie Making area of this forum back on it's feet.

Just my opinion though. But I do think 3dmm itself still has a lot left in store, people just need to see some new stuff, some new movies, some decent looking mods - something to give them a little more incentive to create something they want people to enjoy and know people will look forward to seeing more of. When Omnus and Marko's Star Wars movie are released - I'm 100% sure that people will be more inclined to make something just as awesome.

[Eukos]

Originally Posted by Phil Williamson

I...guess I don't really see the point of this? Why did you write a new 3dmm Manifesto? you obviously mean well, but...no one's making movies. Do you really think all these newbies are thinking "well, I could script out a fascinating character drama or I could make a clip of Stimpy getting killed...guess I'll go with #2 since both seem equally good!" People just aren't willing to invest time into a 3dmm movie in 2013. The only possible result I can see from this, assuming any newbies even read it, is taking us from "only crap movies" to "no movies at all." I mean, it's clearly well-meant and high-effort, but...I don't think this is very helpful, especially with its "this is what you must do" rather than "here are some tips" tone

I want to make clear that no one here cares about people using 3dmm for their YouTube poop videos. No one gives a damn about 3dmm because everyone's lazy and isn't even trying anymore (talking about newcomers). I would like to give them limits and a bit of an encouragement to do this stuff the way its meant to be and always has been in this community.

[Ben Rice]

I reckon there should be a mention of having testviewers. prevent your movie from being shit by having a second opinion, don't be afraid to ask someone on the board for advice

[Compcat]

I partially agree with Phil, but am also a little inspired by this.