For a few years now, gamers have been turning video games they love to play into movies that are usually bad, giving rise to an animation genre called machinima ("ma-SHEE-na-muh").

The art form involves retooling an existing video game, through the use of a sort of a poor man's Pixar animation. It recently became more than just a way for vid-idiots to kill time in their basements when corporate sponsors started looking to get in on the machinima action.

No, seriously.

The movie "Game:On," a sterling example of the genre, took top prize at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival, put on by the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, N.Y. (www.festival.machinima.org). And it's all about Volvos.

Writer/director Ethan Vogt won a $30,000 grant to create the film for the Swedish car maker. The concept: an average dopey guy gets sucked into a "Grand Theft Auto"-style world with his Volvo V50 wagon.

Granted, it's not the hippest car around, but the Swedes were footing the bill. It's part of Volvo's ongoing flirtation with cool. Next up: an Xbox game featuring the boxy, super-safe cars. No lie.

"Game:On" (www.gameonproject.com) doesn't do for Volvo what "Bullit" did for the Ford Mustang, but it is a hearty "huzzah!" for what can be done with budget computer graphics.

Most machinima is dominated by horrible voice acting and worse plots. In 2000, when the genre was established, most of these films existed on Web sites that catered to the hard-core fan.

But in "Game:On," the 3-D characters' lips are in sync with voices, and the characters express subtle emotions through movement. Take it from a dude who has dabbled in computer animation, it's hard to do.

Vogt and his crew created models of the cars and the characters using Unreal 3 engine (www.unrealtechnology.com), which is made by Raleigh-based Epic Games. The Unreal technology allows even neophytes to create their own 3-D worlds.

For their efforts, Vogt and Furnace Media, his production company, won the festival's best picture award, called the "Mackie."

Like a passel of great ideas, including Hold 'em Poker and ZZ Top, machinima started in Texas.

The machinima hit "Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles" (www.redvsblue.com) started with some Lone Star filmmakers playing "Halo" on their Xbox. A dude pretended to talk with his characters, and the genre was born.

Now, Rooster Teeth Productions, the company that created "Red vs. Blue," has three machinma titles. The company has formed a partnership with Sierra Entertainment and Electronic Arts to use their games to make new movies and rake in sales of T-shirts and DVDs.

As for Vogt's next project, he wants to create films starring his tough-guy car-thief character as a used-car salesman.

At least he won't have to research the Blue Book value for a Volvo.

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