Nowadays we have some pretty outstanding 3D engines available. And we have a lot of 3D games that use them. Why not take the idea further and make 3D movies?
Of course, we have professional, 3D rendered 'cartoon replacements' and all that. But these wouldn't be the most efficient thing to stream over the net, let alone download.
So it seems like a niche that's yet undiscovered to have dynamically rendered, client-side 3D movies. You'd download a set of files such as textures, meshes, and a game engine. Launching the executable, it'd just 'run'. You'd be able to pause it for as long as you like, and even maybe make a 'savegame' to return to the point you were at.
Essentially one very long cutscene.-- Snuffkin, May 20 2005 Machinima http://www.machinima.comAnimation using game engines [nineteenthly, May 20 2005] The graphics rendered in cartoon-like movies are quite beyond the capabilities of your home PC. That being said, it may be a good idea to market a lower-quality version as a download. This opens up all kinds of options, such as letting people choose what the main character should look like.-- Worldgineer, May 20 2005 //quite beyond...//
Not for long, [World], if the press shots of the Playstation3 ae anything to go by...-- moomintroll, May 20 2005 You might be surprised how close they can get to a Pixar look, though. Pixar's renderman doesn't do ray-tracing for example and some of the new RT engines do. No, you won't end up with the lovingly rendered detail and, especially, lighting of Pixar's work but every day we inch closer.-- bristolz, May 20 2005 This is baked. It's called machinima.-- nineteenthly, May 20 2005 I'm quite aware the average home PC can't render to Pixar standards, but that doesn't mean it can't be cool, too. :) Take the Homeworld2 cutscenes, for instance..
Machinima looks interesting, but it has one thing vitally different; my concept would not have people watching 'videos' as such, they'd be watching it rendered by their own PC.-- Snuffkin, May 20 2005 random, halfbakery