Barfly appeared in the flight sim moviemaking community out of
nowhere. He released his first film made with IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of
Dover just a year ago and instantly became one of the most successful
filmmakers. Over the past year, Barfly's four films in a Battle of
Britain series have attracted over a million views, an amazing
achievement for this niche hobby. He is now a member of the flightsimmachinima.com
panel helping to search out and select all the very best flight sim
movies. Where did Barfly come from, and what is next for this very
talented animator and filmmaker? This interview looks at Barfly's
transition from machinima (films made with games) to 3D animation with
the release of his latest film, Hawker Tempest Mk V 2nd TAF.
Hawker Tempest Mk.V - 2nd Tactical Air Force from Barfly on Vimeo.
Russell - Barfly, thanks for taking the time to talk. It is our great
pleasure to have been able to showcase your films over the last year
and we would very much like to hear what inspired you to start making
films with Cliffs of Dover?
Barfly - Thanks Russell, it is an honour to discuss this hobby here. I
have always been a big fan of the IL-2 series since the first flight
sim game in the series was released many years ago, and I have also
always been interested in aviation and military history. The latest in
the series, IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover, is more than just a flight
combat simulation game, but also a great interactive opportunity to
explore the history of the Battle of Britain. I had previously been
inspired to make a few short machinima films with IL-2, and with the
release of the improved Cliffs of Dover version I knew in advance that I
would produce some Battle of Britain machinima films.
Russell - How did you learn to make such amazing films?
Barfly - I’ve made machinima films using the first version of the
IL-2 series, but I was a total beginner and my films were novice stuff,
which I made for my own personal enjoyment. Only after several years did
I have the courage to publicly release a movie, Battle of Britain v2.0,
in 2009. My inspiration was the 1969 cinema classic, Battle of Britain.
The popularity of my machinima movie surprised me, but the IL-2 1946
version in the series and the brilliant community modifications all
contributed to the final product. Of course, over those years I was
learning new tricks and techniques. One must have a passion for this
hobby, because it is not easy to make good WW2 flying combat machinima
movies. You need good software tools and a sufficiently powerful PC
configuration, and also some skill in video editing and use of other
special effects software so that the final package is rather glamorous
and a more interesting amateur work.
Russell - You have also included some shots of pilots created in the
3D animation program, Poser Pro. Why did you decide to do this and how
difficult was it?
Barfly - Shortly before the Cliffs of Dover sim was released, I had
learned a little about the basics of Poser Pro animation software, and I
thought it would be natural to experiment using animated pilot and
crewmember characters in a Cliffs of Dover machinima movie. In my
opinion, this kind of simple animation is not difficult to learn, it
just requires patience, time, and an artistic eye. However, when we are
talking about a lot more animation, more demanding animation, that of
course requires much more time and also many tests and experiments.
Russell - Most of your films are focused on combat and action. Have
you considered making a film with a narrative story, and possibly with
actors as well?
Barfly - I also have frequently wondered about these aspects and
possibilities, but practically speaking the making of such a movie would
require a good film team; that is, a cooperative project with other
skilled amateur enthusiasts. For example, there are many tasks to be
completed, such as character development, dialogue, and voice acting,
which in my case would be a problem to implement even in a short movie
because my knowledge of English is not very good.
Russell - Looking now at your latest film, Hawker Tempest Mk V 2nd
TAF, this is a stunning piece of work, beautifully filmed and edited
with amazing models and animations. Of course, it is not made with a
flight sim but 3D animation tools. Why have you progressed from flight
sims to this?
Barfly - After my Cliffs of Dover Battle of Britain machinima
projects, I decided to try to make some kind of fully animated short
film and this became a lengthy educational endeavour for me, being my
first full Poser Pro animation project. Of course, such an animation
film would also need a lot of 3D modelling tools and other software
before even a short animation film project could begin.
The flight sim game engine is excellent for beginners because many of
the basics usually already exist, for example, 3D models and
environments, visual effects, physics and flight modelling. I wanted to
learn how to have even more control over animation techniques, as I like
the new challenges of this hobby niche.
Russell - It certainly looks a lot better than Cliffs of Dover, which
is saying a lot as the graphics and models in the game are actually
some of the best yet and far superior to the predecessor that I and many
at flightsimmachinima.com used to make films in, IL-2. How much extra
effort does it take to move up from a game engine to Poser Pro?
Barfly – It was not easy or fast to step up from the use of a game
engine to full scale 3D animation. A few years ago, I believed it would
be impossible for me to do even a short animated film, which would
require me to master 3D animation software and special effects
techniques all of which I believed would be too difficult for me. I felt
that for a beginner, it would take years to progress from the basics to
the use of semi-professional tools and video techniques.
Russell - How important do you think it is to get every last
historical detail correct in this kind of demo movie, or indeed in any
kind of film, even the Hollywood blockbusters?
Barfly - I've always been very much interested in aviation and
military history. Mainly I am interested in WW2 aviation history, and
for that reason alone I try to include in my short films some historical
aspects. However, I also sometimes like to use some short slightly
Hollywood-style action sequences; that is, some scenes are not always
100% realistic or historically accurate, and I do not intend them to be
so. But in spite of everything, I think, of course, that important
historical issues should not be ignored. In other words, I do not make
entirely fictitious films. On the other hand, maybe in the future I will
make a short totally historical documentary film. Big budget Hollywood
style war movies have also sometimes been a source of inspiration, for
example the classic 1969 British movie, Battle of Britain. In these
actual movies one can see the kind of professional visual techniques
which are used, I mean the camera and editing style. Also by watching
the big budget cinema movies, one can see what kind of technological
trends are in progress, so I watch movies from a slightly different
perspective than others in the normal movie audience.
Russell - What methods of distribution to you prefer and why?
Barfly - I like Vimeo the best for publishing. In my view, the Vimeo
community is a better choice for amateur filmmakers though Youtube has a
much wider audience. Either way, it is sometimes problematic to provide
a good internet version which runs smoothly in the Flash player because
there are issues with format conversions. My final render is usually
Sony Vegas AVC but in some cases this requires other conversion
programs. The final web video bitrate is the biggest problem and can be
made worse if the viewer's Flash player is out of date. General bitrate
recommendation is a minimum of 5Mbps for 720p and 8Mbps for 1080p though
usually 720p version is the better HD choice for the Web.
Russell - This has been a fascinating interview. Before wrapping up
I'm sure some enthusiasts would be very interested to know what your
hardware and software set up is?
Barfly - My PC Rig is this: Asus P7P55D Deluxe, Intel Core i7 870
(2.93Ghz @ 4Ghz, water cooled system), Gigabyte GTX 570 OC GDDR5 1280MB,
RAM 8Gt DDR3 1600Mhz, Windows 7 64-bit. In the end credits of each of
my Cliffs of Dover movies and my latest Hawker Tempest movie I have
included a long list of all the software tools used.
Russell - So, Barfly, what's next? I'm sure you gained a lot of
experience and learned many lessons in your journey from flight sim
movies to 3D animation. Where does that take you in the next year and
longer term?
Barfly - Presently I am building a new PC configuration and will soon
be using it to test motion capture techniques using the Microsoft
Kinect motion sensor system with Poser Pro. I hope that this will
facilitate and speed up my human-figure animation. Of course time will
tell what movie project I might start after that testing. Meanwhile,
Tinus le Roux (Biltongbru) and I have an ongoing cooperative experiment
exploring the merging of film clips of real human actors with my
animation environments. We have had many very interesting sessions
exchanging filmmaking techniques and skills. Maybe in the future you can
expect some form of cooperative project by Biltongbru & Barfly,
perhaps a WW2 air combat dramatic movie or documentary.
I have also often wanted to make a short Rise of Flight machinima film,
because I like this WW1 combat flight sim for its historical accuracy,
good graphics, beautiful airplane models, and pilot and gunner
animations which I think are quite successful. So maybe in the future
there can be a RoF machinima movie including some of my animated
environments and characters.
Russell - Thanks again. For those who want to check out previous films and keep up to date, you can see all Barfly's work at https://vimeo.com/user6706488
Barfly - Many thanks also to you, to Wiley for helping with the
translation and to the others on the Flight Sim Movies website team, and
also to all fans of flight sim games, aviation, and amateur film
making. It was a great opportunity and honour to answer these
questions.
