After graduating, finding the time, money and assistance to produce and create a film seems far harder to come by. At university I had a whole host of fellow filmmakers around me, any one of which would be up for doing any little project that came along. I still know all those filmmakers of course, but they are now spread all over the country and bringing them together is infinitely more expensive and harder to arrange. On top of that, at university I had access all the kit I needed via our fantastic Media Centre Staff, we had lights, tripods, cameras, jibs, steadicams, everything we needed to make a film. Sadly, since I'm not a student there anymore, I have to make do with my limited amount of personal kit and whatever I can beg borrow and steal from friends and contacts.
 Basically, my point is its now harder and much more expensive to satisfy my creativity and do what I love, Filmmaking.

Now, if your reading this, I assume you know a little about Minecraft. For those of you who don't though, Minecraft started life as a small indie game from sweden but over the last few years its popularity has exploded and has now sold over 33 million copies on various platforms. It has one of the biggest and most active cult follows i have ever seen. The game itself is very very simple, you are one character in a 3D world made up of blocks made to resemble the real world (i like to think of this a bit like lego). You can break these blocks and obtain them, then use those blocks to craft items or to place else where in the world in order to build structures etc.
Its good fun, and addictive, very addictive.

So, I'm writing this blog because I think I have found a way to keep myself busy creatively during my downtime. Through lots of youtube tutorials etc. I have managed to take minecraft worlds and creations and put them into Cinema 4D (a 3D animation software), add characters, lights, cameras etc. to create a scene. People have been making short films based around minecraft for ages, but only the top ones are actually fully animating them in 3D, most are recording in game footage. 

To be honest, I sat down to learn to animate in Cinema 4D purely out of curiosity. At first it was a bit infuriating, but the minute I rendered out some of my hard work and it actually looked decent I was won over. It really is satisfying seeing it all come together. And as a fan of Minecraft, it was perhaps even more fun that actually playing the game itself as I got to bring it to life myself, put some of my own creativity into the already existing world.

Its amazing how my skills from real filmmaking transferred across so directly into the 3D space. I was lighting in the same way as I am used to lighting night exteriors, adding smoke along the foor for atmosphere as i have done in short films, choosing focal lengths and camera positions (and if I wanted to wait for longer render times, depth of field). Its like short filmmaking, but you are doing every role, even the acting, and its all on your computer while you sit in your living room. Its time consuming, and fiddly as hell, but a lit of fun.

The little test animation I managed to create is tiny. Its over before it really begins and theres so many things wrong with it. But this could be the start of something interesting. I already have a few ideas going around in my head of projects I could do using this. It would be time consuming, but at least I wouldn't have the expenses of a real film.

Watch the test here:

SO, what do you guys think?

Would you like to see more than a 13 second clip? How about a 2 minute short film?

Let me know in the comments and I might put more time into making one.