Another stunning film by Barfly - moving on from Cliffs of Dover to full animation.

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.