Mark Palmer

Mark Palmer, aka The Winglet, is an award-winning machinima creator from Australia. He has a long history of creativity with videogames, from building houses in The Sims (2000) to maps in Unreal Tournament (1999) and levels in Little Big Planet (2008), until he finally landed on Source Filmmaker – Valve’s animation tool for Team Fortress 2 (2007). For him, using videogames as a canvas to create his movies has been very beneficial for his artistic career, since they come with a built-in audience which facilitates easier and wider exposure to his work. Moreover, multiplayer games such as Team Fortress 2 also have extended lifespans, retaining audiences’ interest for longer time:

Making Team Fortress videos is especially great, because the unique writing and characters from the game form the backbone of my videos. The characters are so fun and rich - there are limitless stories you could create about them. The animation tool I use, Source Filmmaker, is built for Team Fortress and includes all the characters, maps, and props pre-packaged, not to mention an absurd amount of in-game dialogue that can be adapted to fit into any story.

Mark Palmer

Machinima maker

Although there are obvious limitations in using assets from a single game – as artists are restricted to a specific world and a certain set of characters – Mark also finds it hard to create entirely original work with Team Fortress 2, since audiences have already learned to associate characters from the game with a specific tone, genre, and set of rules. Similarly, making machinimas with videogames also imposes certain visual limitations, particularly using technology from 2007.

Source Filmmaker is the all-in-one animation software for Team Fortress 2 which gives machinima artists a user-friendly and efficient tool to create their work. In addition, Mark often uses 3D modelling software like Blender or Maya to make custom props for his videos, and collaborates with other artists to carry out larger projects.

Credit line

Team Fortress 2 and Source Filmmaker used with permission of Valve Corp. © 2007-2021 Valve Corp.

3D animation is a big world and no one can master every part of it. I’ve got a whole host of artist friends who help me out in larger projects in areas in which I struggle. And in return, I join their projects when they need help. The Saxxy Awards, Valve’s annual competition for Team Fortress machinimas, has always drawn lots of artists together to create some fantastic work. Timeless Thief (2016) was a winning entry to which I contributed, in collaboration with 8 other artists. In Mind Games (2018), I even got a chance to work with one of the actual voice actors for a character in the game!

Mark Palmer

Machinima maker

However, he has considered transitioning to more traditional animation software to create entirely original work in the future in order to branch out.

Many of Mark’s works are short comedy or action sketches, but he confesses that his favourite stories are the long episodic ones because they give him the chance to unearth a bigger picture account. His creative process is very dynamic, starting with a simple concept or a single joke. He does not spend much time planning things out as he prefers to start animating as soon as possible. While he works on animating the scenes, he tries out new ideas which often cause the whole process and the videos to be longer than anticipated. Mark spent two years working on The Red, the Blu, and the Ugly (2021), the last instalment of a series he started in 2013, in which he experiments with a motion capture suit to incorporate real world acting into the video. This is his most complex and ambitious work to date, since he connects multiple previous videos into one overall story, setting everything up for a big finale.