5 ms·

Valve hands over its own movie-making tools to gamers

96 points by yitchelle 14y ago

pgrote 14y ago
The site: http://sourcefilmmaker.com/ http://sourcefilmmaker.com/ Wiki discussing the how tos: http://sourcefilmmaker.wikia.com/wiki/Source_Filmmaker_Wiki http://sourcefilmmaker.wikia.com/wiki/Source_Filmmaker_Wiki
charliebrown 14y ago
meet THE pyro, not "a pyro".
zacharypinter 14y ago
This is the sort of thing I was thinking of when reading the Kill Hollywood RFS (http://ycombinator.com/rfs9.html http://ycombinator.com/rfs9.html). Who says you need a huge budget to bring a great science fiction story to life? Who says you have to dumb down the story to recoup that budget through a wider audience? Once you can make movies, complete with special effects, on a home computer with a small team and a small budget, the variety and depth of content is bound to explode. I can't wait to watch all the interesting new stories that emerge from this type of technology.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  Shameless plug, not only I perfectly agree. But I've been working on exactly that in the last few months :) I can't think of a better "take the moral highroad" solution to the problems created by the MAFIAA and IP in general than to simply create our own content, independent of their little bubble of crap. And the awesome news is that there's a lot of room for improvement in current content creation tools. There's just so much we can do to reduce cost and time to produce multimedia content. We have so many technology that are barely being touched by current tools. Because they're stuck in their incumbent sluggish giant position. And that's where startups come into play! We have no ties to old incumbent technologies. We're free to innovate and completely re-imagine how content is created. Look at what wordpress made for publishing websites. Today any random non tech person can say "hey, I just had an idea, let me make a website about it". Imagine if you could say the same for movies "hey, I just had an idea, let me just make a full AAA movie about it really quick". The Valve filmmaker is incredibly in the right direction. But it's not even at 1% of where we can go. Do you want to kill Hollywood? Then build awesome tools that allows anyone to build their own content!
  - EwanG 14y ago
    The one tool that I've been looking for the last few years has been a decent text-to-voice tool. I did do one series using some of the tools out there as of a couple years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oZ6TxrkrqE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oZ6TxrkrqE as one example), but the results were less than wonderful.
    - anigbrowl 14y ago
      Use actors. It's cheaper and simpler to record the dialog first and then animate it. You don't need famous actors, there are lots of good actors who'll work for cheap.
      - EwanG 14y ago
        A few problems there. First of all, cheap for a single actor may be fine. Once you actually have four or five characters, even cheap starts costing. Then you have the issue with cost of re-recording when you find that a scene that needs fixing either for a script change, or when you go to animate and find there was background noise in a take or a line was flubbed. Even when the acting is free (one of my first games which I gave away), the "cost" in time and effort compared to what a program could provide is still expensive.
        ekianjo 14y ago
        Agree. That's a major issue to making movies on your own. It would be so much better to have efficient text-to-voice tools. Plus, getting a "free" actor often means it's less than ideal, too. Being able to control the voice the way you want is clearly where we need to go.
        anigbrowl 14y ago
        when you go to animate and find there was background noise in a take or a line was flubbed Speaking as a sound guy with 10 years experience, this doesn't happen when you treat me like an equal member of the team instead of trying to do it on the cheap. the "cost" in time and effort compared to what a program could provide is still expensive. Compared to what a technology-that-doesn't-exist could provide, everything is expensive.
- rhinosix 14y ago
  It's going to be a bright future for creators and audiences when the physical and political barriers to entry come down. I’m imagining a digital version of the entire Hollywood/ gaming worlds: online planning and development, digital movie/ game locations, acted in, tested, filmed all at the same time. Then films/ games can be distributed, and artists, developers, screenwriters, etc. can receive a passive income when a product containing their work is sold. In the beginning we're going to see some amateur work, like the beginnings of the physical film and game industries. But as it starts to mature we'll have new specialists in direction, acting, writing and world design. Think about what can do with elements of massively multiplayer online collaboration, LEAP, home motion/ model capture (Kinect 2.0).
lmm 14y ago
Does it work? I clicked the link, filled in the survey, and don't seem to have an invite.
- philo23 14y ago
  You have to first be accepted into their beta. Next time you open Steam once they accept you, you'll see a message in the deals popup that comes up from time to time.
- Bjartr 14y ago
  Sign puts you on a list to get an invite eventually.
Buzaga 14y ago
anyone else thinks they'll be building a market around this too? buying/selling models, scenarios, props... seems like another jackpot for Valve
- rjsamson 14y ago
  That's definitely where I see this going. A market like that can make Valve a ton of money, but also help support a new generation of indie film makers.
- easp 14y ago
  Yeah, I expect so, but I think the real payoff for Valve will be facilitating monetization of the finished films.
  - SwellJoe 14y ago
    Yep, they're a mass-market company, selling millions of units at sub-$50 prices. The bestselling resources will probably sell a few thousand copies, and most will probably only sell hundreds. It may be more cost-effective for them to focus entirely on the mass-market side, where they've proven they're extremely competent (among the best in their industry), and let others figure out the smaller volume stuff. But, maybe a marketplace would be cool/profitable. They have begun to move in that direction for third party game add-ons, though I think they're all free, so far, there's nothing stopping them from adding them to the store.
    - ricree 14y ago
      They already have a lot of experience as a distribution platform. I doubt the majority of Steam games even come close to a million units. While it's not clear that there's enough market to extend that platform to commercialize their movie maker, it's not that far of a stretch from what they're already doing.
- teamonkey 14y ago
  They already do. Tradable clothes, hats, guns are already part of the TF2 economy. You can bet that this has just inflated the prices of items that'll look good in one of these movies.
jhuckestein 14y ago
If I were Valve I'd distribute the films on Steam and take a small, transparent cut. I vaguely recall some movie being delivered via Steam already. It makes a lot of sense and I can't wait to see what comes out of it.
- Groxx 14y ago
  That would be Indie Game: The Movie http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com/ http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com/
thenomad 14y ago
See also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4168283 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4168283 , where Source Filmmaker was also discussed.

96 points by yitchelle 14y ago

The site: http://sourcefilmmaker.com/ http://sourcefilmmaker.com/ Wiki discussing the how tos: http://sourcefilmmaker.wikia.com/wiki/Source_Filmmaker_Wiki http://sourcefilmmaker.wikia.com/wiki/Source_Filmmaker_Wiki

charliebrown 14y ago

meet THE pyro, not "a pyro".

zacharypinter 14y ago

This is the sort of thing I was thinking of when reading the Kill Hollywood RFS (http://ycombinator.com/rfs9.html http://ycombinator.com/rfs9.html). Who says you need a huge budget to bring a great science fiction story to life? Who says you have to dumb down the story to recoup that budget through a wider audience? Once you can make movies, complete with special effects, on a home computer with a small team and a small budget, the variety and depth of content is bound to explode. I can't wait to watch all the interesting new stories that emerge from this type of technology.

vibrunazo 14y ago
Shameless plug, not only I perfectly agree. But I've been working on exactly that in the last few months :) I can't think of a better "take the moral highroad" solution to the problems created by the MAFIAA and IP in general than to simply create our own content, independent of their little bubble of crap. And the awesome news is that there's a lot of room for improvement in current content creation tools. There's just so much we can do to reduce cost and time to produce multimedia content. We have so many technology that are barely being touched by current tools. Because they're stuck in their incumbent sluggish giant position. And that's where startups come into play! We have no ties to old incumbent technologies. We're free to innovate and completely re-imagine how content is created. Look at what wordpress made for publishing websites. Today any random non tech person can say "hey, I just had an idea, let me make a website about it". Imagine if you could say the same for movies "hey, I just had an idea, let me just make a full AAA movie about it really quick". The Valve filmmaker is incredibly in the right direction. But it's not even at 1% of where we can go. Do you want to kill Hollywood? Then build awesome tools that allows anyone to build their own content!
- EwanG 14y ago
  The one tool that I've been looking for the last few years has been a decent text-to-voice tool. I did do one series using some of the tools out there as of a couple years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oZ6TxrkrqE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oZ6TxrkrqE as one example), but the results were less than wonderful.
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    Use actors. It's cheaper and simpler to record the dialog first and then animate it. You don't need famous actors, there are lots of good actors who'll work for cheap.
    - EwanG 14y ago
      A few problems there. First of all, cheap for a single actor may be fine. Once you actually have four or five characters, even cheap starts costing. Then you have the issue with cost of re-recording when you find that a scene that needs fixing either for a script change, or when you go to animate and find there was background noise in a take or a line was flubbed. Even when the acting is free (one of my first games which I gave away), the "cost" in time and effort compared to what a program could provide is still expensive.
      - ekianjo 14y ago
        Agree. That's a major issue to making movies on your own. It would be so much better to have efficient text-to-voice tools. Plus, getting a "free" actor often means it's less than ideal, too. Being able to control the voice the way you want is clearly where we need to go.
      - anigbrowl 14y ago
        when you go to animate and find there was background noise in a take or a line was flubbed Speaking as a sound guy with 10 years experience, this doesn't happen when you treat me like an equal member of the team instead of trying to do it on the cheap. the "cost" in time and effort compared to what a program could provide is still expensive. Compared to what a technology-that-doesn't-exist could provide, everything is expensive.
rhinosix 14y ago
It's going to be a bright future for creators and audiences when the physical and political barriers to entry come down. I’m imagining a digital version of the entire Hollywood/ gaming worlds: online planning and development, digital movie/ game locations, acted in, tested, filmed all at the same time. Then films/ games can be distributed, and artists, developers, screenwriters, etc. can receive a passive income when a product containing their work is sold. In the beginning we're going to see some amateur work, like the beginnings of the physical film and game industries. But as it starts to mature we'll have new specialists in direction, acting, writing and world design. Think about what can do with elements of massively multiplayer online collaboration, LEAP, home motion/ model capture (Kinect 2.0).

lmm 14y ago

Does it work? I clicked the link, filled in the survey, and don't seem to have an invite.

philo23 14y ago
You have to first be accepted into their beta. Next time you open Steam once they accept you, you'll see a message in the deals popup that comes up from time to time.
Bjartr 14y ago
Sign puts you on a list to get an invite eventually.

Buzaga 14y ago

anyone else thinks they'll be building a market around this too? buying/selling models, scenarios, props... seems like another jackpot for Valve

rjsamson 14y ago
That's definitely where I see this going. A market like that can make Valve a ton of money, but also help support a new generation of indie film makers.
easp 14y ago
Yeah, I expect so, but I think the real payoff for Valve will be facilitating monetization of the finished films.
- SwellJoe 14y ago
  Yep, they're a mass-market company, selling millions of units at sub-$50 prices. The bestselling resources will probably sell a few thousand copies, and most will probably only sell hundreds. It may be more cost-effective for them to focus entirely on the mass-market side, where they've proven they're extremely competent (among the best in their industry), and let others figure out the smaller volume stuff. But, maybe a marketplace would be cool/profitable. They have begun to move in that direction for third party game add-ons, though I think they're all free, so far, there's nothing stopping them from adding them to the store.
  - ricree 14y ago
    They already have a lot of experience as a distribution platform. I doubt the majority of Steam games even come close to a million units. While it's not clear that there's enough market to extend that platform to commercialize their movie maker, it's not that far of a stretch from what they're already doing.
teamonkey 14y ago
They already do. Tradable clothes, hats, guns are already part of the TF2 economy. You can bet that this has just inflated the prices of items that'll look good in one of these movies.

jhuckestein 14y ago

If I were Valve I'd distribute the films on Steam and take a small, transparent cut. I vaguely recall some movie being delivered via Steam already. It makes a lot of sense and I can't wait to see what comes out of it.

Groxx 14y ago
That would be Indie Game: The Movie http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com/ http://buy.indiegamethemovie.com/

thenomad 14y ago

See also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4168283 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4168283 , where Source Filmmaker was also discussed.