How to make a machinima

Here's an article about creating a Zoo Tycoon 2 Machinima.

So, you want to make a machinima?

You will need:

1. Zoo Tycoon 2 Ultimate Collection for PC (If you want to be able to download most mods, more on mods later)
2. Recording software. Don't use Camstudio, it's good for flash games, not good for...anything else. You can use Fraps, make sure to get the full one as the free one stops after 30 seconds (luckily the trial lasts forever and it shouldn't take up too much space if you have a good computer). OBS Studio could also be a helpful recording tool
3. A movie editing software. Windows movie maker may be a good start for beginners, but we would recommend Sony Vegas Pro 14. It is worth it as you will have very high quality videos. It can be complicated but thankfully there are thousands of tutorials online. You should use soft shadow for subtitles and have a black outline around the letters so they are easier to see.
4. Winrar. You will need this if you want to download mods as most packs are in a winrar file
5. A Youtube channel. This is the most obvious one but probably the easiest. You make a google account and login to Youtube, you go to creator studio and click "create channel" and you can upload videos freely from there.

#### But the most important thing is a story

* Character: Who and what is your character? How do they talk and react to things? What gender are they? You should write all these attributes down or type them up so they have a straight forward personality. Good characters can be strong, but should also have vulnerabilities. No-one wants to see a 1 part machinima where everything is solved in a second;
* Story: you need a good story. Not everyone has creativity, and even those that do can get writers block. You should also write all these down or type them up. Google docs is an excellent way to organize everything from the amount of stories, to characters and even timelines if you want to get really creative;
* Conflict: With every machinima, there is conflict. What obstacles must this character overcome? Don't make everything too easy for the character, but also don't make things too crazy;
* Less is more: don't fill your machinimas with 50 creatures for craziness. Only have a handful of creatures or whatever that you will use in your story, don't put too much down. If you are doing a horror you don't want to show the monster or antagonist from the beginning, but to keep people guessing until later;
* Parts: Almost all machinimators do parts, making it easier to tell the stories as you can write the plot for each individual part as if it's a tv series. For Bat Wolf's story, Shadows, people had to wait until Part 6 to barely see the main monster!
* Sound effects: The best place to get sound effects is Freesound, or if you want to take a more specific but longer route try Youtube. Don't try soundbible as it hasn't got the best selection. You don't want to much silence as it could get boring, but sometimes that works. Freesound has everything from dinosaur roars to footsteps to teleportation sound effects;
* Music: The most popular music to use for machinimas has been Halo as it was very popular at the time of machinimas (2007-2008 a lot of Halo music was used). As amazing as the soundtrack is you want to have variety, try Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Half Life, Call of Duty 2, Universe at War music, or any game from the early-mid 00's (Particularly sci-fi ones). If it's calm have calm music or unusual, but if a big battle ensues you better "Finish the Fight";

NOTE: please keep in mind that these sounds do not belong to you and your videos can be monetized by the owners of the musics, or even blocked, even if that's rare. Always give credit in your description or the credits. Both is better, just to be safe.

* Zoo Tycoon 2 Sounds: There also a bunch of sounds in the Zoo Tycoon 2 folder. These are great for ambiance if your character is walking through a forest or diving into water. There is even an alarm sound, but if you want something more serious try a tornado siren at Freesound.

## Mods

This is optional but highly recommended. How do you download them? You click the link and wait for it to download. You open the Zoo Tycoon 2 folder located in most cases in **C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2** and drag your download to it. You then load up the game and you should have the download! Some downloads will require other downloads so make sure to check when downloading.

Various means to get mods:

* Zoo Tycoon Download Library (indexes links for a large part of available contents)
* Some forums as Gaia or The Zoo Tycoon 2 Round Table (aka TRT)
* Some modding-related websites or social medias as Nexus or Twitter or YouTube
* Some private websites such as Zeta Designs or Hugo7's Temp ZT2 Page
* Some public or private archives for mods which aren't still available from their original creators.

If there are white boxes with no name but you can place it, it's most likely fine just the creator forgot or didn't want to make the icon.

If there is nothing there, don't place it as it can crash your game. If your map is corrupted you wont be able to save, the out of bounds of the zoo is black squares or your saves have white squares where the picture should be. It's usually all 3 but this is rare as most mods are compatible.

### Recording

Now that you have your plotline, you need to record. Use the freeform mode to build maps for the areas where your story will take place. If you don't want the outside to be seen use the terrain tool to create cliffs where the walls should be. If you're using Fraps the files will be located in Computer/LocalFiles/Fraps/Movies. Put them into seperate folders and name them [Your Story Name] Part [Number] - Or Season [number] Episode [number]

Make sure to have a title and credits at the start and end of each part too!

If you want inspiration here are some channels you can check out, just **DON'T COPY THEM** as you want to be original.

Click on one of these links to access their YouTube channels :

Stalker2k7

Jesusranchjohn

NitroTech

Jurassic Seven

Hugo7

Dilophoraptor

Bat Wolf

## Upload

Now you can upload your video to Youtube, you can post it on other social media too to get more people to watch it!