Recommendations
Hey there Gumbeaux,
I've made some Machinimas myself in the past few years with WoW. I've always used Macs but there are so other things I'd recommend looking into as well if you're interested in making a decent machinima.
I guess I have a lot to say so I'll split them up into a few areas. Keep in mind I may veer off topic – as in regards to you're specific question about editing software and a mic. Anyway here it goes.
If you have a decent PC available to you or run bootcamp, I'd consider using a few programs in collaboration with WoW to record. It's simple – download WoW like you normally would but for PC then go and download this Machinima tool at (
WoW Machinima Tool). Also download fraps. Keep in mind that your hardware has to be decent (a low end gaming PC or anything newer than an 2010 iMac can handle it) to keep the frame-rate bearable. WoW is NOT graphics intensive but fraps will eat your CPU. Once you have WoW downloaded and patched then launch the game and log in like you normally would. Minimize the game and launch the WMT (WoW Machinima Tool for future reference). This tool you have to play around with for awhile to get used to it but essentially it affects the client–side view options which is indispensable if you want to get some truly amazing effects in you Machinima movie. Fraps it then send the files to your Mac and use Handbrake (found at:
HandBrake) to convert the files into a recognizable format for common Mac video–editing programs.
If you do not have access to a decent PC or run bootcamp and think you Mac can handle it then I'd recommend a combination of the add–on called Camera Plus which you can download at curse.com and record from an application called Screenflow (found at:
Screencasting Software - ScreenFlow Overview - Telestream). The in–game recorder is pitiful to be honest, intervention from a REAL recorder is necessary in my opinion, but if you don't have the money then use it. IF you use the in game recorder you will need to convert the file format to be able to edit with video editing software (in most cases). Screenflow allows easy customization of formats and quality. The quality is so nice it literally looks 100% like the real thing, so I recommend using it.
In regards to the actual video editing I'd highly recommend using Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere for fabricating a timeline and either Apple Motion or Adobe After Effects (which I recommend) for special effects and individual clip editing. For audio editing software I personally find Adobe Audition and Sound Studio Pro to be the best ones; however, I'm not as familiar with audio so there may be better options out there.
Sorry, have no clue about a mic. I personally use a rock band one
Some other good programs to have are:
MPEG Streamclip (found at:
Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac OS X) for converting files if need be. It recognized an outstanding number of formats for being a free application.
MPQ Extractor is another good free program to extract the source files from WoW .mpq files (Blizzards ways of hiding the game files). I use this to extract the sound files which I use everywhere in my Machinimas. This includes spells, character sounds, music, ambient sounds, etc... (everything you hear in the game)
If you have any questions let me know =) and have fun.
