And Now For Something Completely Machinima

This is our final film pick for Season 5, and it stimulates quite a discussion. The film is a concept test of tools and techniques, but the story and aesthetic is less inspiring. Check out our thoughts and do add your own comments below.

1:47 Introduction to Reflekt by @derunique
4:00 Anachronistically broken 
10:25 Gelling the story? 
11:54 The aesthetic of Unreal 
13:19 Who is the apocalyptic soldier Unreal ...

This week's film selectiion is a technical masterpiece, made in RDR2. It is both an homage to the game and the film. John Wick's Red Dead Redemption is made by eli_handle_b.wav, and is worth every second of your time watching it! 

1:49 Introduction to film, editing quality, compositing and matching RDR2 to John Wick – technically outstanding!

4:11 How?!!! Skill level is well above average

7:00 This is not just cut scenes

9:13 ...

A DC inspired short made with love and artful skill, this week's pick is also an homage to the creative talent of a young creator now sadly passed. Despite us not necessarily being the target audience - due to certain demographic features - we really enjoyed reviewing this. Check out our comments and do add your own. 

1:32 Introduction to the film: form and creative technique – Smallville comedy vibe X superhero, and a shou...

This week, we discuss a 2013 episode of @Draxtor's interviews series with artists filmed in Second Life series, this episode with Australian artist  @lynettewallworth270. 

1:43 Get involved in the latest Star Citizen contest, links in Show Notes 
3:26 Introduction to the pick 
9:12 Phil describes early traditions of interview shows filmed in virtual worlds, such as Late Night with Toxie (filmed in Quake) and This Spar...

This is not genSLOP... or is it?! This week's discussion focusses on a recent genAI meme, vlogging from the Fall of the Empire as a Stormtrooper tourist.  The series we take a look at is by Galactic Archives, which has garnered a phenomenal number of views in just a couple of weeks.  Its quite different to The Glurons we discussed a couple of months back by NeuralViz, which remains a standout for us.  There are some excell...

We love AFK! This week's ep covers another of AFK's ambitious world building attempts to round out the Star Wars universe... and of course it works. What do you imagine the worst jobs to be for the most hapless Stormtroopers? These totally make sense to us! Check out our comments, our overview of AFK's background and other projects, and what we really think of this short.
 

1:39 Intro to film

3:14 Humor and world building

...

This week's pick is the complete contrast to the Happy Wheels gag-fest, Ep 191: the film is called They Were Once Here by Werlias and it has everything you would expect from a Project Zomboid machinima, plus some things you wouldn't. Its a dark and sad tale, beautifully told, and delivers a real emotional punch. It makes excellent use of Zach Beever's classic composition for the game, and harnesses a bunch of mods to achie...

This week, we cover a lot of things this month, as usual, but start with a tribute to a machinima pioneer who has sadly crossed the bridge into an unknown world - Tutsy NAvArAthnA. We then go through some more fascinating projects that we want to share, more about genAI and machinima, a bunch of new tools and techniques, some wise words from some great artists, latest games and relevant updates. All links on our show notes...

In days of yore, when Machinima ruled the digiwaves, they commissioned stuff like this week's pick... we have a rather more heated discussion than usual about the pros and cons of the choice and the commissioning strategy. Check out our thoughts and let us know what you think. Maybe you were caught up in this mess, we certainly hope not... or at least, we hope the lesson was well learned. Ricky tells it from his experience...

To think this film's creator knew nothing about animation prior to making this short is absolutely astonishing. Of course, as we discuss, many crossed this path as a consequence of the pandemic, but there are few gems we've found like this. The film, Rally, draws heavily on Santiago Menghini's experience as a live action director and producer. What's fascinating, in our analysis, is our evaluation of ambiguity and how its ...

"Courage is not the absence of fear, it is acting in spite of it." Yep, never a truer few words than said in jest. This week, we discuss a cutscene extravanza of Arthur's life story in the game, apparently endorsed by Roger Clark himself. Its a story told in three acts, supported by some great musical choices, even if we don't completely agree on that. What we do agree on is that Charles Liu has done a superb job of select...

This brings back so many memories for us, the 1980s and 90s, Frank Drebin's utter incompetence and Leslie Neilsen's brilliance. Hat Loving Gamer has excelled himself with this interpretation, taking in a bunch of retro games - everything from PacMan to Mario and then adding in a bit of Halo and GTA for good measure. Our selection of this film also has absolutely nothing to do with the launch of NS2 or the announcement of a...

Our latest deep dive into machinima history, and this month we focus on Baron Soosdon, a Finnish creator whose work is legendary among us. The film pick, I'm So Sick, is an excellent example of the type of work he produced during his machinima career (circa 2006-2011) which, shockingly, never actually won an award - it was however runner up at Bitfilm Festival. The film is a WoW fan fiction and a cultural mashup of its era...

Yup, there's nothing to do in Starfield, except this kind of thing! Seriously, we love how this teases a potential mod by the creator, ⁨@StarfieldCinematics⁩, and we reflect on the portrayal of the characters, the juxtaposition of the narrator voices and the pacing in what is essentially just a teaser. One thing we all agree on is just how stunning this game world is. 

1:57 Analysis of Starfield machinima 
8:12 Comments ...

Ever wondered what it might be like to experience GTA as an NPC - or an animal? Well check out our pick this week! An hilarious let's play by @PuttherUncut "I Pretended to be a RAT NPV in GTA RP and Trolled the ENTIRE SERVER | DonDada RP", released 5 June 2022. Shades of Robin Hood in the approach - 

2:37 Putther Uncut's Rat NPC trolling... 
5:10 Details of the rat's actions 
8:24 Damien's reaction and analysis 
11...

In this episode, we discuss an account of an historic battle, which is commemorated annually on the 17th of Ramadan across all Muslim countries: the Battle of Badr 624AD. The film has been created by the Bellum et Historia channel, released on 16 November 2024, and made in Total War Atilla and other games, using various mods. These are, however, a little hazy because the creator has chosen not to reveal the creative proces...

Our monthly roundup of all things we enjoy about this crazy world of machinima.

Key discussion items -
Machinima and virtual production updates
AI-generated content and tools
Video game trailers and announcements
Character creation software developments
AI music generation and legal considerations
Creative video game content creation techniques

0:01:21 - AFK Season Three Star Wars parody discussion ...

This week's machinima is made in Skyrim, and whilst its a little older, it shows off beautifully the quality of the game, characters and lip sync capability.  The film, by Wanderersofthedas was released in 2015, and was made using lines drawn only from the game's NPCs.  It makes for an oddly familial campfire conversation, notwithstanding the numerous references to in game lore.  Do you and add your comments on our channel...