Anglia Ruskin University hosted four unique 'machinima' workshops as part of this year's Cambridge Film Festival. Based around the theme of 'make a feature film in your lunch hour', two of machinima's big stars showed a group of beginners how to make a 3D movie.

Machinima is a new media form, a mix of real-time animation and digital film making. Originating from the world of computer gaming, in recent years, film-makers and storytellers have been using this technology to create engaging stories in 3D, in real-time. No lengthy rendering that is usually associated with animation, no steep learning curve, nor technical knowledge is required. This is why it is creating such a buzz at the moment.

The event was part of a series of machinima screenings and debates taking place at the Cambridge Film Festival, programmed and curated by Anglia Ruskin University's Saint John Walker, who is the Cambridge Co-ordinator for FDMX (Film and Digital Media Exchange), and Matt Kelland (co-founder of Short Fuze company, makers of Moviestorm, machinima software).

Tutors for the session were Hugh Hancock, one of the originators of the actual term machinima, (Machine + Cinema), and creator of the feature film 'Bloodspell', and Johnnie Ingram, who co-authored the popular 'Machinima for Dummies' with Hugh.

Anglia Ruskin's Games and Visual Effects Department supplied the facilities for the workshop, and have received new software for their students.

Further information can be found on the Cambridge Film Festival website.