Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Hero Animation

The Army has posted a video demonstrating the actions of Sergeant 1st Class Paul Ray Smith who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Iraq. Smith, who died defended his troops, is the only soldier (so far) awarded the MOH since Somalia in 1993 (there are others under consideration).

This video is interesting because it puts the reports and witness accounts into a video game. Why a video game? The game is used to generate the animation while voice acting is added to create a computer generated movie. This process (and the genre that uses it) is called "machinima" (machine + cinema/animation), which is popular on the internet with foul mouthed, I-live-with-my-mom but work-out-of-the-basement animation studios (Yes I'm talking about Rooster Teeth).

In this case the animation creates a fairly accurate portrayal of what happened the day that SFC Smith gave his life. It's certainly not the full story, but the video might inspire some to learn more here.

Here's my original post about SFC Smith's Medal of Honor from last April.

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