Interview with Tuna

Tuna recently released the movie Engination. Click here to watch it.



Mats: Hello Tuna, could you please introduce yourself for us?

Tuna: Hey. I am a gamer from Finland. Been playing Counter-Strike: Source competitivly for about 3-4 years untill I made the switch to Team Fortress 2. Made 4 movies in CS:S, which all were frag movies.

Mats: You've gained quite a few fans from your movies over the years, has this somehow affected your new movies?

Tuna: Not really, just has meant that I haven't been too keen on using my real nickname on publics and such to avoid people recognizing etc.

Mats: Your latest movie isn't a a frag movie, what made you make the switch to machinima?

Tuna: A number of factors really. Firstly, I decided not to join a TF2 clan for now so I could better concentrate on my studies, and although I could get plenty of footage from pickups and mercing, I decided to wait untill I actually join a clan. Another reason was that I really wanted to make an Engineer movie, and although they kickass, they aren't particularly used in competitive gaming apart from a few odd occasions. At first I thought I'd make a movie containing a mix of real frag gameplay footage and machinima, but later on realized, you can't really even get movie worthy frag footage as an Engineer so went full machinima.

Mats: What's the theme or plot behind the movie? The official description states that it doesn't really have one?

Tuna: That's true, it really doesn't have one. Apart from the introduction, the viewer really can't expect what the next clip in the movie will bring. The movie is not meant to have a story with it, but just tried to make it as entertaining as possible. I am also new to 3D animation and using different types of 3D programs and 3D tracking, so some of the clips were more of a tests, which just ended up in the movie.

Mats: As we got into the topic of 3D and programs, can you tell us a little how some of the clips have been compiled?

Tuna: A lot of the footage is directly recorded in Team Fortress 2, either in the real location that you see in the clip, or in a green screen map (everything is just green there). On top or under of it there is usually a few additional layers of footage or images. For example the clips in the bond intro you might notice that the ctf_fort is quite a lot different from the original. Some of it was done in Garrys Mod, and the rest edited in After Effects and 3DS Max. As for the custom animations, those were all done in 3DS Max, as well as the 3D tracking footage (like the Heavy in the GTA scene).

Mats: How long did it take for you to make the movie?

Tuna: Roughly 4-5 months give or take, had quite a long break in the beginning, and had quite a drastic change in style afterwards. The past month I've been working on it non-stop, and the very last few days I've been trying to rush it finished due to the fact I had to reformat (which I've done already). As the project files were around 1.4 terabytes in total (for a 7 minute movie), couldn't really start backing them up either, and the risk of losing something on the way was too great, so the finishing result was slightly rushed. There were a few clips I would have wanted to improve on still, as well as do the full credits video (roughly 1 minute longer), but it wasn't really an option.

Mats: That's a lot of disk space, what sort of recording settings did you use to capture the footage?

Tuna: Everything was uncompressed 720p (1280x720) 90fps. Keep in mind many scenes contained several layers of footage. As well as I kept the source files after pre-renders and such.

Mats: Are you planning on making more Team Fortress 2 machinima?

Tuna: Definetly! I had some ideas already while making this one, which I personally feel are a lot better.

Mats: Thanks for your time, we'll be looking forward to your next movie!

Tuna: Thank you.