Tricks and Glitches for Machinima Purposes

[daijitsu]

I couldn't find much in the lines of using glitches, tricks, and other such craziness to the full advantages of machinima or just plain screenshots, so here I am, tossing in my two cents. I would like to continue adding tricks and glitches that you guys submit as well to this 'master list', but for now this is pretty much all I've figured out in my research.

If you already know about this, or it's common knowledge, or whatever, don't just flame about it. Think of it this way- I know I never learned a lot of common knowledge (like floating scenery) without digging around for stuff on the internet. Think of the new Forgers, people.

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This trick I will go into in depth about now is what I consider to be a very important one in machinima- Lowering your weapon. After all, if your people are on the same side, it doesn't make much sense for them to be aiming their guns at each other. Explanations of how each weapon handles this trick, and some advanced uses of the trick AND it's glitches will be explained in just a bit!

What you do is simple... kinda. You need to make sure you're in either forge or a custom game (I'd suggest custom, because if you're taking video for a machinima, you don't want spawn points and respawn markers all over the place). Make sure your game is set to be LOCAL, and not Xbox Live or Lan. otherwise, it won't work. (sorry if you need more than 4 people... I suggest only having a few people out of an entire group in a 'closeup' kind of shot if need be.)

As for actually lowering your weapon, You will have to hold down a few buttons... they are: LB, RB, [crouch], A, and Down on the D-Pad.

Usually you end up having to do it in a confusing manner, but I find it easiest this way-
-FIRST- hold down LB and RB with your index fingers.
-SECOND- hold down A with your thumb, and crouch with your other thumb.
-LAST- using your nose or chin, push and hold DOWN on your D-Pad.

after a second or two of holding everything down, you'll notice your gun drop out of view. To other players (and the camera in theater), you are holding it in a relaxed position, as such:



Now, there are a few exceptions to the "Standard" holding position, so I'll explain what weapons work right, which ones don't, and what happens to the others:

-Regular Weapons-
Assault Rifle: OK
Battle Rifle: OK
Shotgun: OK
Sniper Rifle: OK
Needler: OK
Carbine: OK
Beam Rifle: OK

-Dual Wieldables-
(AS SINGLES)
SMG: OK
Spiker: OK
Pistol: OK
Plasma Pistol: OK
Plasma Rifle: OK
Mauler: OK
(DUAL WIELDED)
ALL are glitchy, and explained in advanced uses (with Film!)

-differently held (larger) weapons-
Brute Shot: no change, despite it lowering from your screen in 1st person
Rocket Launcher: points downward, remains on shoulder (normal position when crouching)
Spartan Laser: Same as Rocket Launcher
Fuel Rod Cannon: Same as Rocket Launcher, BUT the top of the gun ends up going through the middle of your head. Best viewed from the side if you're using it.
Energy Sword: remains in it's normal position, though was not tested thouroughly for different looking angles.
Hammer: same as energy sword
Sentinel Beam: Same as Brute Shot

-3rd Person Weapons-
(includes both the Plasma and Machine Gun Turret, Rocket Pod, and Flamethrower)
attempting the code whilst operating one of these items will result in nothing, if not just making you drop it or dismount.

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Basic lowered gun usage:
With the gun lowered, your upper body becomes more rigid and upright, so when you look up and down, your head is pretty much the only thing looking around. Without the lowered gun, your whole body (not to mention your weapon) would tilt to adjust for aiming.

Most Machinimists will use the bobbing up-and-down motion of the head to fake a character talking. It works, despite how funny it looks when they don't have voices yet.

ADVANCED lowered gun usage:
If you remember, there's a glitch with the dual wielded weapons. Long story short, you don't lower them, but your character's arms become stiff, and when you turn, your body and legs stay still (until you turn far enough), but your arms will twist in a circle, like he's pretending to drive a car. there are a ton of little movements you can do, such as having both guns pointed forward, aiming angrily, then (by looking downward) the guns can part away from eachother, like you're unsure of what you're doing. Dramatic, I know.

Try playing with your funky messed up arms. You can come up with some pretty unique poses. Here's a quick screenshot I took using the fact that the body does not turn, the hands alternate, and the head still turns. It kind of looks like he turned to talk to someone, and is resting his arms on the fusion coil and his theigh, doesn't it?



For a quick (and HILARIOUS) video demonstration of the dual glitch, please download my halo film, found just below. It's worth watching the whole thing, it gives you good ideas. I made him (kind of) do the robot about halfway through, and at the end... well... I can't even describe that. as anything other than "silly".
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=16589673

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Another trick involving changing how you hold a weapon, though much more useless, is removing it altogether. What you need is to be in forge, (any network type is fine, I did this on xbox live with a friend). All you need to do is have a monitor try and pick up a weapon from the ground at the same exact time a player picks it up. The player will see the gun on their screen in 1st person, but the player model's left arm will freak out and be stretched in an odd way, either going up behind the player's head, or just cutting through the middle of the body. It could be a funny use for still images, but doing a video may be tricky.

here's a video of it in action: http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=16590709

and some screens, artfully captured:

"Don't shoot, I'm pregnant!"


Ninja Steve says: "Don't play with swords kids! You'll put yer eye out!"

Originally Posted by albyhouse

How to: You must be in forge to do this trick.Must have two poeple in this party over Xbox live. You cannot be the connection for this trick. To fid the ocnnection host...look down, go into forge, and go back to player. If you are still looking down you are the connection host. To spawn the turrestless veichle you have to be in forge at the veichle buying menu. Have the party leader start a new round and when your menu stays up and your screen turns black hit 'A'.



Turretless scorpion. The trick works with, gauss and normal warthogs, wraith, prowler, scorpion,and hornet(unable to shoot). The veichle like ghost, mongoose, banshee, and chopper, is nothing will happen.. :|

It's a good post butI think it might be in the wrong froum, would probably fit better in the Video forum but I'm not sure.

The one "pregnant" screen kind of looks like he's grabbing for the katana ..... kind of.

[daijitsu]

Yeah, I didn't think it would be a videos forum, but more oriented towards forge work and the actual SET UP process. Sure I posted some vids, but they're just to demonstrate the tricks.

also, with the pregnant picture, I noticed when I melee'd with the glitch, he'd smack with his right palm and the arm would come out a bit... (it's about half way through his visor there). I was tempted to call it "Redneck Fighter 2.0", but I don't know if "redneck fighting" is just a local joke around here or not... so I opted for the VG Cats reference :D

[Furious D 18]

I can see how this would be very useful to people who do machinima. Have you been to Halo Union? They are one of our Affiliates dedicated to Machinima.

[daijitsu]

I haven't been very far around the affiliated community yet, but I'm a bit skittish about having ANOTHER forum to go to... I'll look into them, though. Thanks for the tip!

[El Capitaine]

thanks for these. I knew about the lowering your gun, but I hadn't realized removing your weapon alters your player model. I thought it just made your player animate the same, but with no weapon in hand (like in halo 2). thanks!

[corduroyCHUCK]

very nice post! i knew nothing of machinima tricks in halo 3 until i read it. I dont plan on doing machinima, but this will greatly help other aspiring machinimists.

[SsRC Forging Models]

This should be relayed to Machinima.

[bornslayer05]

very nicely done daijitsu, the explanations were real easy to understamd, and the pictures helped to explain what it would look like. This may come in handy one day hmmm.

[szafranko]

wow thats pretty cool good job, i enjoy the dont play with swords one lol XD