Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun video games, film The rendering of computer-generated imagery using low-end (real time) 3D engines such as those found in video games, as opposed to the high-end, complex 3D engines used by professionals.
  • noun video games, film The genre of films created by such techniques.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of machine and cinema

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Examples

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  • “Video-game aficionados have been creating “machinima�? -- an ungainly term mixing “machine�? and “cinema�? and pronounced ma-SHEEN-i-ma -- since the late 90's. “Red vs. Blue�? is the first to break out of the underground, and now corporations like Volvo are hiring machinima artists to make short promotional films, while MTV, Spike TV and the Independent Film Channel are running comedy shorts and music videos produced inside games.�?

    The New York Times, The Xbox Auteurs, by Clive Thompson, August 7, 2005

    February 18, 2009