Hi everyone,

The Monad is a paranoid vision of our future in the face of The Network.

Any comments/critiques welcome!


UPDATE:

Some people have been unable to view the downloadable avi: VLC should play it. Or download and install the Divx codec. Its not xvid, as I'd previously stated.

Alternatively, there are a few places people have uploaded the film for streaming. Some of them are:

Gametrailers
MODDB
DailyMotion



The Monad
format: divx AVI
runtime:12 minutes
platform: HL2

Email: lorka.pcgf@gmail.com

Site: Polygon Fiction

EPICNESS IN ALL DEGREES. YOU ROCK MATE.

Haha, cheers man. Appreciated :)

Too epic for words, make more!

Hey dude if your up to it, I'd like to make a film with you. Hope you don't mind. Add me on steam if you feel like it. (steam ID is the same as Facepunch nick). You've got the kind of mind I like. ;)

Actually Mags, the plan for next year is to get a team together and make a feature length. I'm not on Steam much, but my email's above if you're interested.

Next yeah. Damn, that's a little while from here. But Hey, you don't get Quality out of nothing. Sure but, don't you have like X-fire or Messenger? Anything like that? Anyways I'll right you an E-mail to blab about this crap.

Best Gmod Machinima ever

EVER


PERIOD, OVER AND DONE

I'm...I'm a bit unsure of what to say now. In the obvious sense of the word, I'm amazingly impressed. Maybe I should take this from the top...

As some people know, I recently started creating tutorials for using Face Poser and posted them on Facepunch. That was because I love drama; I love emotions, and until now the entire machinima world has been devoid of it. As hi-res and pixel-pushing as our games have been, we've never even scratched the surface of art. But the tool has been there for about 3 years, and no one's truly used it. Sure, we saw Tom "Barney" Cruise demand the truth, and we heard the fabulous singing voice of the G-man. But that was still, as amazing as it was, toying around; simple experiments.

I wanted people to take machinima to what it could be; a real art form, something that I assure you no one has come close to. Many people may remember situations where they asked me "How to get Face Poser scenes into gmod"...to which I always gave my answer only after preaching to them how important it is to make their own level, and learn every trick of the trade. I wanted to show people this because silly Garry's Mod videos weren't what I wanted when I made those tutorials. What I wanted...

...was exactly what I have just watched.

This is exactly what I've been looking for. If I were ever to show someone how powerful tools like Face Poser are, this would be it. It's not only succeeded in getting the emotions right and adding appropriate gestures, but settling for no less than perfection in terms of writing and voice acting. Everything comes together just the way I would have wanted it, and I felt that even I could identify strongly with the main character.

Anyone who's known me on the forums for any length of time knows that as much praise as I give, I'll always criticize the video, and offer pointers for improvement. I've had heavy criticisms for every big Source movie that I've ever seen; Slapdash, Zompocalypse, and even the one that I helped with, War of the Servers. Honestly, for this video...I can't. You've excelled at everything I could think of, and this film is far better than I honestly think that I could ever do. Congratulations.

Now, if only I could overcome my sloth and aspire to make something as great as this...

brilliant goddamn work.

Amazing, simply amazing. But what happens to him?! Does he kill himself? Or does she kill him? Because she at first said "arranged" but re-worded the sentence. I wanted to see his big powerful dramatic message. :(

That was really good. I enjoyed watching it, best Half life 2 machinema by far.

Amazing work.

Now let's go nuke the Blizzard offices before it's too late.

Brilliant. It reminded me of something you'd see on the BBC, or those videos you would watch at school that shows problems in some things that young people do. Up until now I hadn't had the chance to see what Face Poser was fully capable of (other than what we see in Valve's games) but you've done everything brilliantly in this and it's made me want to get into Face Poser myself.

for today. I throw in my hat ...

just for today though. hot damn.

Yeah that was awesome.

Somehow it touches the reality in such way, that it cannot be compared or explained. Its dark, chaotic and sinister world reflects the current status of internet and its massgaming so perfectly... That... It's just beautiful.

Fantastic.

Cheers everyone! I can't believe the film's getting such a good reception.

The_Maker, yes, he does kill himself. There's a brief shot near the start where you see his corpse on the grassy roof he takes her to on their date, but that bit's kinda dark and it's not really portrayed that elegently.

You're right, it's wierd that she'd say 'arranged', although I'm afraid there's absolutely nothing to that line. To be honest I was unsure how she'd word it, I guess that came through.

Does anyone have any criticisms?

I'll start us off with some.

Firstly the encoding is shit, it's way overbright compared to the 30GB pure but I'm a noob with codecs and I'm still trying to find a way to keep the contrast at 100mb.

I didn't really believe in their relationship. I wanted there to be some intimacy between Callie and Stephan 'cause I thought that'd be a first for a machinima, (am I wrong here?) but it wasn't really there. They suffer a bit from being talking signposts, just getting across the themes in unrealistic monologues. That's something I need to work on.

And scene 3, where they're on the bench? It's one long boring shot. Should really have fixed that...

Ah, been reading up on our Leibniz, have we?

(For those who don't know, Gottfried Leibniz was a natural philosopher and contemporary of Isaac Newton, who independantly discovered the Calculus. His book "Monadology" discusses the principle of Monads, which his theory states make up everything in the universe.)

(I have far too much time on my hands.)

Dude, your work is so amazingly good for Facepunch standards. Expect a lot of praise and little criticism!

And please oh please, MAKE MORE!

Can anyone put this on Youtube?

Anyone got a mirror? only getting around 100 KB/s

(I'll upload to rapidshare as soon as I'm done downloading.)

wow this is epic.
just epic
just wow

also could someone please convert this to ipod format that way i can take the epicness with me

no, download it.

That was brilliant! I don't know any other words to describe it.
One thing I must ask is how you made your music--was it with a real guitar, or was it on a computer?
Make more!

This seems epic, mind if I put it on youtube?

Thank you for resume support.

Dammit, rapidshare went offline as I was uploading... :(

Put it on Stag.. ..too bad Stage6 is gone.

What did you use to record, like what tool / stools?

This was so worth the Garry's Mod front page article. I am so surprised this has not received a ton of reviews yet.

This was excellent, and it gave such a strong message. And the tone, a dark city night with streetlights glowing, made it even more perfect. My hat goes off to you.

How long did this take you to produce?

Man that was awesome, it actually made me reflect upon how much time I personally spend on these forums. It really is like an addiction.

I love this video, you must tell us how you did it, all of it. Your skills are what we need to revive the Gmod community.

Offtop: MAN Alyx is much sexier with a British accent.

Ontopic: 10/10 from me man, keep up the excellent work. I'd say this has topped all of the Litfuse films, and War of the Servers. Pure perfection.

Well done. Very, very well done. <3

Hello! I've downloaded this and it says it's an xvid file..and it wont play on windows media player. I've downloaded the xvid codec but I don't know how to convert the video into xvid form since it downloads into windows media player form and plays only the audio! Help!

*Face*

Download the DivX Media Player. www.divx.com

The only improvement I could ask for is subtitles. Little hard to understand them, but that was very well done.

It definitely does speak the truth that a lot of us try to ignore.

Amazing story that is true to many of us.

That was truly fantastic.
It felt like a real film short
The subject of the story was also very adequate to the medium used for this.
Camera work is great
You really have a good eye for photography and timing.
I applaud you.

as many above have said, absolutely fantastic. crazy visuals and that's an unbelievable feat you did with taking photos you took and implementing them so well for the movie.

now what I'd love to see you do with these stunning visuals is something action-based! just my 2 cents.

Amazing writing ... check.
Wonderful voiceacting ... check.
Stunning composition ... check.
Breathtaking visuals ... check.

Uh, I'm running out of adjectives.


But as Katana said before ... I really can't think of any criticism for this. You've just set the benchmark my friend, and now we're all playing catchup.

I'm more than impressed with this video. Bravo.

Haven't seen it yet, but currently downloading. If it made the front page, then I better damn see it.

EDIT: Seen it and loved it, awesome work man!

The video is well done. But the whole " virtual depression" stuff is pretty cheesy.

Great work! The light design, that's where is at. The pauses, the fade to black, the rhythm. Great, Great Great, keep it up!

I can learn stuff from you.

Edit:

Is it okay with you if i upload it to youtube?

Holy crap :O

You deserve to be the legal owner of:

Kev: Sure, as long as you provide links to www.polygonfiction.com and my name.

You've got a website up and you didn't even tell us!? For shame!

I agree with Xanatos, you should make an action machinima. Judging by "The Monad" you can make some incredible stuff! Awesome work, keep it up!

That's amazing, and true for many people (including myself).

How DID you do it though, how long did it take to make something this great?

The only things you can do to improve it:
Make more
or
Make it worse (there's such a thing as being too epic)

That was amazing, I'm looking forward to more by you!

God picture and gooD PHOTOGRAF!!!!! ;)

Even though a wee bit cheesy, it was amazingly well made.

Holy fuck..

It's, it's, incredible..


I think i can finally peacefully die now. :uhoh:

That was great.

You know how to work the engine.

I also liked the script.

:)

You should definitely join Lit Fuse Films.

No. lit fuse needs competition. the more cometition, the better quality the movies will become. Also, i reckon that if he joined lit fuse, he would have to work for them, and probably work on projects for them. let him do his own thing.

Edit:

NO! almost all garrysmod movies made are action, zombies, comedy, and comedic music videos. i never expected that a garrysmod drama video could be made this well. if drama can be made this well, the it should be made this well!

cool it's not downloading for me just opens windows medea player and stops there

Fantastic movie! Although the story lost me in a few places, the cinematography and virtual performances were some of the best I've ever seen in a machinima in any engine. Good acting too. Looking forward to seeing more work from you! Great job!

Wow, i'm absolutely stunned. And that doesn't happen too often.
One of the best Gmod videos ever made.

Holy Shit...

This is possibly the best movie i have ever seen on any site. ever!

Not only was that the greatest animation and posing I have ever seen in a Garry's Mod video, but your message also had tremendous power. Ha, it's ironic that this film is a machinima considering the message.

That's what makes it so epic. :D

Some of us poor South Africans still have Bandwidth Limits/ Cap.
And I only have 5gig a Month.. 100MB is a bit much..

Oh... my... dear... god... I must say this is one of the GREATEST machinimas I have ever seen! I really enjoyed it and the deep impact of the message was the whipped topping ontop of the scrumptious cake. Amazing work and I cannot wait for more from you in the future.

Cheers

Mingey

So he killed himself to make a point?

Truely a great story.

Hmm, the "OHMIGOSH wow this is amazing holy crap" thing isn't working for me. Probably because the movie was mirrored and upside down, so I flipped my laptop upside down but couldn't read the text. That and I guess I'm just another mindless usual GMod Drone that just roams around youtube looking for pointless, dumb, yet somehow amusing videos to watch and laugh at until 10:00pm when I go to bed and does pointless, random things in GMod that are sometimes amusing somehow. As well as occasionally going on random sandbox servers. Oh well. And you know, it's kind of weird. You can see you put a LOT of effort into this movie, and yet in your comments responding to us, it seems like you thought people would pass over it like it was a brick wall, which is obviously not, it's a movie.

It sent so many chills down my spine bravo good stuff man. Also i think any emos on face punch might go do something stupid after watching this

This just, oh dear. This is a very artistic and brilliant film. Judging from my perspective, this film looks like it has a budget of an actual national film. I say you've made an incredible achievement. Good luck with any future projects you have going. Also thanks for releasing it on FacePunch first. (Gives us all bragging rights).

dude... holy...holy fucking...HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

Well, the last time i saw something this amazing...well...you know what i mean.
This is by far the most amazing thing i have ever seen done in Garry's Mod, and ive played ever since G mod v1.

I have done many many videos of amazing proportions, but this my friend take all of the ones i have made and smashed them into a godlike video of epic standards, and the videos i have made go up to 3 hours.

if you would like i can literally get you cash off this! it might take awhile but if you'd like i would be happy to do what needs to be done for a small fee.

now if you don't mind id like to switch to a critic for a moment.
in a !CRITICS! scale from 1 to 10 as a critic i give it a 6 (on the average Joe scale from 1 to 10 i give it an 11). the bad things i saw in this were the following.


1.the texture of the face and hair was one texture...couldn't you of at least made it look like they had hair instead of a colored texture...

2.i saw a couple of scenes where the characters fingers would collide with their

This was great. The visual build works, and as I think 1 guy already said: What really sets this apart is the lighting (its climactic build over time).

Things that could be improved (since i think you want critique):
-The story/script could use work. What I mean is that your character is constantly lecturing me when I would rather the movie unfold in such a way that I 'get it.' Your script tells me rather than shows me in a big way, and the mouthpiece/protagonist is too naive to earn the dramatic treatment he gets.

-You could dig a little deeper with the face posing. I see you working the eye gaze but I want more.

dude... holy...holy fucking...HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

Well, the last time i saw something this amazing...well...you know what i mean.
This is by far the most amazing thing i have ever seen done in Garry's Mod, and ive played ever since G mod v1.

I have done many many videos of amazing proportions, but this my friend take all of the ones i have made and smashed them into a godlike video of epic standards, and the videos i have made go up to 3 hours.

if you would like i can literally get you cash off this! it might take awhile but if you'd like i would be happy to do what needs to be done for a small fee.

now if you don't mind id like to switch to a critic for a moment.
in a !CRITICS! scale from 1 to 10 as a critic i give it a 6 (on the average Joe scale from 1 to 10 i give it an 11). the bad things i saw in this were the following.


1.the texture of the face and hair was one texture...couldn't you of at least made it look like they had hair instead of a colored texture...

2.i saw a couple of scenes where the characters fingers would collide with their

Loved it.
Though the scene where he is shown dead at the beginning is pretty hard to see... I didn't understand what was going on in the scene when I first saw it, but then I read in this thread what it was, then went back and got it.
Other than that I totally agree with Katana314, this is better than the 1 to 2 minute videos that are just based on simple comedy.
This is art.
Judging by the replies, it seems as though the toughest critic is always the artist themself, which is good.
I simply loved it, the quality, the message, the accents, everything.

I had to add that the 2nd time I watched it I cried after watching it.
Dunno why, but I thought I should add the fact in here, and I didn't want to double post.

dude... holy...holy fucking...HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

Well, the last time i saw something this amazing...well...you know what i mean.
This is by far the most amazing thing i have ever seen done in Garry's Mod, and ive played ever since G mod v1.

I have done many many videos of amazing proportions, but this my friend take all of the ones i have made and smashed them into a godlike video of epic standards, and the videos i have made go up to 3 hours.

if you would like i can literally get you cash off this! it might take awhile but if you'd like i would be happy to do what needs to be done for a small fee.

now if you don't mind id like to switch to a critic for a moment.
in a !CRITICS! scale from 1 to 10 as a critic i give it a 6 (on the average Joe scale from 1 to 10 i give it an 11). the bad things i saw in this were the following.

Edit:

1.the characters hair and face were all 1 texture...couldn't you have at least made them have hair that actually looks like they have hair and not a texture...

2.i saw a couple scenes where the characters fingers would collide into their other
body parts.

3.i couldn't understand what they were saying half the time. maybe in your next project you should get some American voice actors instead of British/Irish.

other than that good job.

i give you luck in the future

P.S. maybe i could help you with your next project.

Edit:

sorry i have no idea why it posted twice

Edit:

But yes good luck!

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But yes good luck!

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*sigh* something is wrong with my comp

Edit:

*sigh* something is wrong with my comp

Edit:

just ignore it

Edit:

just ignore it

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STOP COPYING ME!!!!!

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STOP COPYING ME!!!!!

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AH!!!!!!!!!

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AH!!!!!!!!!

Edit:

I AM JUST GOING TO REPORT THIS SORRY FOR TAKING UP AN ENTIRE PAGE WITH THIS BULLSHIT!!!!!

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I AM JUST GOING TO REPORT THIS SORRY FOR TAKING UP AN ENTIRE PAGE WITH THIS BULLSHIT!!!!!

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later champion!

Edit:

later champion!

It had strong messages about society and kids and computer games

Very very very very very very good! I really need to learn how to control a camera like that :D

Great work! i watched it twice :)
Will probably watch it again today :D

Awesome camera work and voice acting.

I don't get the story one bit.
I do however agknowledge that it is an amazing piece of faceposering and such. awesome mate, you'll give WOTS a run for it's money.