Raise your hand if you think you’re ruining the planet! No hands? Interesting…We didn’t think so either until we played a scary little flash-based game called Consumer Consequences by American Public Media (of whom we are rapidly becoming big fans.)

After choosing a silly avatar – you are asked a series of questions about your lifestyle - which is, admittedly, way more fun than it sounds. You then watch in increasing horror as you realize just what a blight on the planet you actually are. Okay, maybe ‘we’ are – but don’t be smug until you play the game.

While the literal accuracy of the game could be called into question (not by us of course) – it really isn’t the point. Playing the game shows that the planet can’t sustain the average American. There are a number of hidden pitfalls on the route to being green and a number of ways we can all improve. APM has just found a fun way to serve them up to the general public.

Go on – play it…we double dog dare you! And let us know how big YOUR footprint is!

Ever had the burning desire to balance the federal budget?

For both of you that said yes– you’re in luck! American Public Media has created a flash-based browser game that gives you the opportunity to raise taxes on the wealthy, play with widgets and generally prove that you are way smarter than the government (as if you didn’t know that already.)

Here’s a comprehensive review of the game.

Kudos to APM for putting the ‘tainment’ in edutainment – a prickly portmanteau.  And kudos again for giving us the opportunity to use the word ‘portmanteau.’

Would love for this to be required playing for the government.

Never at a loss for words, when we were invited to give a talk on the introduction and history of Machinima for Machinima Week on Orange Island we replied with a resounding YES . (Kerria was directing a shoot, so Paul was sent in to represent.)

It was encouraging to see so many machinimists hell-bent on pushing the medium forward. And that so many different platforms were being discussed – not just SL (even though the event was held in world.)

So, if you are interested in Machinima (or just like being around people who discuss things, regardless of the topic) take TP over to Orange Island and check it out.

Here’s a link to a few pics from the 2008 Virtual Worlds Conference and party that followed at ESC. Thanks to Royi Akavia and Jeff Schnetiker for the limo.

There’s no doubt that T. Sibley Verbeck has the winning quote from the Virtual World Conference 2008. “I have a soft hippy cowboy exterior, but the interior of a cold blooded capitalist.” We may be slightly misquoting. We’re not sure, we were laughing too hard. Awesome!!

Our episode aired last night! And while it’s one small step for television – it is yet another giant leap for machinima – as it continues to move forward – bringing high-speed, affordable quality animation to the world. There’s the corridor of kills behind Carmine Giovinazzo and Eddie Cahil.

Heading to the Virtual Worlds Conference today. Hope to see you there.

Tomorrow, at 10, CBS will air the long awaited conclusion to Down the Rabbit Hole and wrap up the story of everybody’s favorite cyberceleb turned killer, Venus.

If you saw last week’s teaser for tomorrow’s episode, then aside from hearing an interesting cover of “Back in the New York Groove” you saw a few machinima shots in the trailer (including the one above.) But, while we can’t really give away any plot points, we can say – there’s more than you saw in the promo.

What’s different about this time though, is that we have some awesome behind the scenes pics we’ll be posting and linking to (courtesy of Damien Fate) explaining how we did some of the shots and showing what went into making them.

You don’t have to understand or even like Bjork to understand that she’s on an entirely other plane of cool. Wanderlust, the Icelandic singer’s exciting new 3D video, premiered today on yahoo.com.  The video was directed by Encyclopedia Pictura and is comprised of a mixture of puppetry, live action, scale models and CGI.

This link is to Bjork’s site which has a 2D version of her video as well as a sweet video of the ‘making of’ Wanderlust.

The video has seven foot yaks, CGI water, a river god and a Bjork alter-ego that emerges from her backpack. Visually, it’s a bit unlike anything we’ve seen before, though the bellowing yaks in the beginning do bring to mind the Skexes from “The Dark Crystal.”

Machinima can’t compete (yet) with 3D animation. However, with Maya, the advances in Windlight and the enormous pool of talent that exists in the virtual world – there’s some pretty amazing stuff on the horizon. Yours for a fraction of the cost and time.

We’re all agreed. The flycam is the greatest thing ever in the world for SL Machinimists. It allows for smooth “impossible” shots or shots that would cost thousands of dollars to get in the real world. But we’ll blaspheme for a moment and remind you - watch out for falling in love with your favorite toy. And never rely on one technique.

SL has plenty of machinima tools and techniques outside of the flycam which aren’t only really simple, but provide for some kick-ass camera work. What you want to do is think about what the variables in your shot are and what tool will best help you get it.

If you haven’t already used it, we def recommend springing for the Filming Path Studios FP HUD. It was like 1500 $L when we picked it up. (Sounds like a lot, but when you think that 1500 $L is like 5 bucks, you get over it real fast.) There have been countless times that we knew the exact path the cam needed to take, but the avatar puppeteer missed the mark. And of course, the one time the avatar hits the mark, there’s no guarantee that your dolly shot or pan followed the right path. The FP HUD gives you the flexibility to set up a shot – then run it over and over again until it’s exactly the way you want it. You can even bracket the shot if you use Windlight or the Release Client. (And yes…it would not be TRUE bracketing, but much of machinima is approximating virtually what happens in the real world.) We got the shot of the Beowulf avatar (above) this way.

Another tip. Too many camera operators automatically disable the camera constraints thinking this will give them the most freedom when filming. Not necessarily so. In SL, try this: Leave your camera constraints on. Alt on your subject far off in the distance, then have them fly past your cam position. (Do not have the flycam engaged at this point.). You’ll see that they approach your POV, the cam automatically pans with them and continues to follow them into the distance. If you add some blur in post, you can turn this shot into a killer swish pan. We used this technique when we shot the Blue Furry chase scene for CSI:NY.

And please, don’t be afraid of being straighforward. You can make so much of an action sequence by simply adding a handheld POV shot. Just go into mouselook and shake your mouse while moving forward and you’ve got it.

These are just a few things you can try. Don’t use one of them in your films, try them all. Experiment with your settings. Do something wrong. Sometimes it’s that one mistake that leads to the best camera work.

Shocking but not surprising is the first thing that comes to mind when reading about the new website ‘Miss Bimbo.’

The website was created by Nicholas Jacquart in France where it has over a reported million players. The website is aimed at girls nine to sixteen and was designed to be what Jacquart claims is “harmless fun.”

The goal of the Miss Bimbo game is to look after a female character in a virtual world – which includes dressing, feeding, keeping her thin (using diet pills), choosing sexy lingerie, keeping her attractive (with cosmetic surgery.) The game agenda also includes finding a rich boyfriend and catching boys with her lips in a nightclub.

Jacquart was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: “It is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world.”

He added: “The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to have them, just reflecting real life.”

This game would be amusing if it were aimed at adults as a grotesque parody of real life – however, aimed at young girls – it’s just grotesque.