We hooked up with Rooster Teeth, the guys behind the Machinima phenomenon that is Red Vs Blue and numerous other projects, where they showed us the reason why Machinima is embracing the games world and how they are exploiting the existing I.P. to create these short humourous animations.

Rooster Teeth Productions are based in Texas and have had huge success with the Red Vs. Blue series, which is based on the Halo series. Burnie Burns was the man on the scene and he had the following to say on Machinima:

Can you tell us what Machinima is?
Burnie Burns: Using 3d engines we re-purpose them to make an animated film or short using in-game footage from the likes of Halo. We use a level in a videogame as a virtual set for a movie and create a story using the game's characters.

So you must know these game levels like the back of your hand?
Bernie Burns:I know the streets of GrandTheft Auto better than my home town and many gamers are more familiar with the environments in videogames than the places where they live.

What's it like working with the 3D engine?
Bernie Burns:From an animation perspective it's an amazing tool to work with and create these features.

What else is needed to create these short animations?
Bernie Burns: Literally 2 Xboxs, 2 copies of whatever game it may be and enough controllers for every cast member. We use letterboxing in Red Vs Blue to cut out the radar that normally appears on the bottom left of the screen and to hide the scores that appear at the top, giving the animation a movie feel.

What then?
Bernie Burns: We'll first off create a script and then one of the characters will act as the cameraman of the movie. It's a real performance from those people involved.

Is the art of machinima a relatively new concept?
Bernie Burns: No, people have been doing it for years and it probably started with numerous Quake movies in the late 80's.

[advert] What's your favourite Machinima piece?
Bernie Burns: A piece called 'My trip to Liberty City'. You gotta check it out.

How could game developers aid you in improving machinima in the future?
Bernie Burns: We'd like to see a tool that would move a mouth up and down, in Red Vs Blue this isn't a problem. Improving the movement of cameras would also be a great help.

How have you managed to make Red Vs Blue a commercial success?
Bernie Burns: Initially we were slashdotted and it just went wild. It lasted for about 2 weeks and one of our servers melted with so much traffic. Bungie phoned us up said they liked what we were doing and wanted to help. We've now got a great relationship with Bungie, EA and Universal.

How do you view cinema and T.V as an outlet for the product?
Bernie Burns: We're done plenty of stuff on TV which has proved to be a success, Spike TV, MTV and FX being amongst some of them. What we normally do doesn't really translate well to TV, sitting through a 26 minute episode of Red Vs Blue every week may start to get on your nerves after a while.

Do you have to ask Bungie's permission before you go ahead and release an animation?
Bernie Burns: We always wait for the okay from the company before we go ahead with a project

Would you consider machima to be a full career choice?
Bernie Burns: I couldn't imagine doing anything else, it's a career choice for me so it could be for others.

What's your next project?
Bernie Burns: More recently we've been working on a 3 panel still comic which is on the net at the moment. We're also working on a machinima hybrid series which features traditional 2d. We're also working on a sock puppet soap opera and hope to create a longer full series of Panics.

How will Halo 3 impact on your storytelling?
Bernie Burns: We're just waiting to see what Bungie do with it, but we're hopeful we'll be able to continue in the same way.

Where do you see Machinima going in the future with Rooster Teeth?
Bernie Burns:Xbox live distribution will continue and we get plenty of publicity from the iTunes podcast. There's going to be a further reaction from the game's industry regarding this art and we hope that the reaction will be good.

This interview was not conducted face to face but is based on Rooster Teeth's presentation at EIEF. The dialogue is not word for word but as close as I could get whilst typing away like a looney. I wish I could write in shorthand!