Who We Are

This machinima was very true, heart-felt, and beautiful.
The effects and music were beautiful too, and the voicing had no issues.

Cinematography was great. Are you the one that made this?

 

Damn

that was pretty good

 

I was actually quite surprised when I saw this, possibly one of the better things I have seen posted here that was created by one of our members, so congrats. It was a breath of fresh air for me, since any suggestions I could (and will) share will be tiny ways to improve without starting over.

First off, definitely need to set this to 16:9 aspect ratio. This immediately takes anything of this sort and makes it appear professional. Before capturing, if you go onto the Dashboard on your Xbox and then go to My Xbox > System Preferences > Display you can change the aspect ratio that is outputted to Widescreen or something of the sort (it might be HD, not sure). Assuming the xbox goes directly to the capture card (splitting the connection between TV and cap card) then the capture card should record in 16:9. If it does not, and it appears squished, then go into you project settings and adjust it for NTSC Widescreen (or whatever is offered that has the same effect).

The rain was nice, but it was an overlay that remained constant for the most part. The shots and angles would change, but the perspective of the rain remained the same. Now, if you are unable to change the perspective of the rain, then try cutting it up. For example, in Shot B, do not have the rain start off at the same point that the rain in Shot A stopped. Remove a couple of frames, or take it from a completely differently part of the clip. This is difficult to explain, but hopefully you understand.

The large Rain drops that were falling were great, loved it, however as the camera zoomed forward, the rain drops should have moved forward as well and past the camera, yet remained static. Simply keyframe the raindrop layer to expand in size until the rain drops have "passed" the camera. Then cut the clip there and delete the remainder. Now do this for multiple layers of rain, at varying distances. It can be timely, but in the end you have a much more believable effect.

Other than that, I really have nothing more to say. Just issues I had with the rain, and make it widescreen (though you don't have to bother fixing this up, it is still good. Just use the knowledge for future projects). I do have to point out how I enjoyed the transitions you used between "flashback" shots. Not the flashing, but the quick pan effect with heavy motion blurring in the direction of the next shot. Quite effective.

 

This was amazingly good. The only things I didn't like were:

- The rain. I know it was supposed to symbolise a depressing scene, but the way the rain didn't splash on the stream (I know you can't help this), and the way the slow-mo rain looked like bubbles kinda ruined the effect. But you did pull it off pretty well other than that, especially the sound effects for the rain.
- When he was carrying the flag in the flashback. Training session?

 

holy crap that was the best voice acting i have ever heard in a machinima! all the other ones are little twelve year olds trying to get a deep voice out.

anyways the machinima was also moving and very well done. btw its true your life does pass before your eyes before you die. infact almost happened to me. nearly died of hypothermia