James "Titanic" Cameron (that's the closest I get to a Valentine's inspired romantic allusion) continues to push the boundary between computer game technologies and film with his 2009 film Avatar. Machinima maker Paul Marino draws our attention to the technology behind the film, which is set to start "virtual photography" this April.
Does this production fit into the Machinima definition? Who knows? But its sounding pretty close.
Indeed. According to the NYT (reg. req'd),
The most important innovation thus far has been a camera, designed by Mr. Cameron and his computer experts, that allows the director to observe the performances of the actors-as-aliens, in the film's virtual environment, as it happens.
"It's like a big, powerful game engine," he explained. "If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale. It's pretty exciting."
Cameron gets it. He's on the board of directors for the virtual world developers Multiverse for goodness sake!
