And Now For Something Completely Machinima

This week, we cover three outstanding music videos, demonstrating different genres of music and different game engines - a re-imagined Simon and Garfunkel classic, a pop-tacular and a rap. We discuss the perfect match between the lyrics, the game and the images our three selected creators have demonstrated in these shorts. We suggest comparing and contrasting, but really we just mean enjoy them all for what they are.

1:41 H...

This week, we discuss one of the most outstanding presentations of space science, by  @EpicSpaceman , called I put 4M Suns in a Blackhole. Made in Blender, we discuss the creative workflow adopted, from zero to hero - and why the  @BlenderOfficial Foundation should take note. We make a few suggestions for enhancing the work even more and discuss the primary audiences for this type of conrtent. Quite simply, the narrative s...

A packed review this month, with some sad :( better :| and happy news :)

1:42 Demise of Rooster Teeth and yet RVB will outlive the corporate brand!  We reminisce about the early days of machinima and the influence Rooster Teeth had on the emerging creator community

26:30 Drax Files: World Makers comes to a close

33:37 Awards! Sam Crane’s continuing success with GTA5 Hamlet at SXSW and UE5’s use in War is Over, the Oscar winni...

The Dog Days is an unusual machinima that combines the glitchiness of AI generated content composited with a Second Life avatar. Whilst not realtime, the performative aspect of this work is evident and we reflect on the fit of the current state of generative AI with the Fluxus art movement. We discuss what The Dog Days means, metaphorically and literally, and how we interpret this film concluding it is not a happy outcome ...

In this ep, we discuss two machinima films dealing with thematically similar issues, albeit presented with different treatments: Vigilante is made in GTA5 and tells the shocking story of how the lead character became cyberpunk.  The second is a futuristic yet somehow more traditional gender-based story made in UE5.  It is presented as a proof of concept for a proprietary tool made by its creator, who is none other than the...

This week, we take a look at a spectacular particle show in a machinima that has been documented and edited by Tutsy NaVaRaThNA in Second Life.  The show is called Flowers of Evil and was created by Lalie Sorbet and Chrix as an interactive installation inspired by the most scandalous literary works of Charles Baudelaire, with the support of a Second Life Endowment for the Arts.  Tutsy's documentary is accompanied by an hyp...

This week’s podcast episode is our curated news omnibus for this month.  We cover lots, and enjoy reflecting on the significance of the stories we highlight for the world of machinima and virtual production.  Links and show notes on our website, as usual – skip to our highlights about each item with our timestamps here –

1:23 Learn UE5 in less than 60 minutes – and yes, it seems you really can! Its an excellent tutorial

6:5...

In all our years of involvement with machinima (and that's over 75 years between us), feature length has been something we've rarely found watchable... but with this week's pick, we were proven wrong, mostly! Emesis Blue, made in Source Filmmaker using the Team Fortress 2 characterisations by Fortress Films, is an incredibly well-made if very complex story that was crafted over many years.    

1:30 Overview of the plot, twi...

100 Ways to Die in Starfield is wonderful stuff - whether you are 15 or 50! For all those who have distant memories of seeing classic slapstick comedy featuring Charlie #chaplin in B&W, well now you can see a contemporary interpretation in the incredible #starfield universe - and enjoy it with the grandkids!  @mans1ay3r has a rich stream of work to his name - others in the 'ways to die' series include #rdr2 and #starwa...

This week we compare and contrast, in a way extending that ongoing debate about whose IP is the daddy... but the ep is about much more than that too. We discuss  @solofilmmaking4857 's use of #chatgpt to generate a film's story, using the plots of 60 of his portfolio works on Batman, mixing styles and genres along the way. We don't see it as wholly successful and we discuss why. We contrast that with an unusual hobbyist te...

This week's review is of a self-contained excerpt from a larger film, called Escape Game by  @CrisUberman . This part of the film is the final chapter of the story, Danser Encore, voiced by  @lionelmazari1990 with a song by  @hksaltimbank . We delve into the inspiration for the themes in the film, which draws on the philosophy of Empedocles and Rosset, although we perhaps lower the tone a little with reference to Oscar Wil...

This week, we spend some time talking about new tools, emergent topics, AI and copyright (again), with some interesting links for you on our show notes -

2:45 New tools for machinima makers, including iClone 8 crowd sim, Kenneth MacLean’s MegaHumans WIP and Praydog’s VR mod

8:07 SAG AFTRA update on voice acting using AIs, Replica Studios

15:32 Mickey and friends, steamboating ahead without the Mothership and Princeton’s annua...

Made with Sims 4 characters although animated in Blender to great effect, this is a short short at under one minute long by  @tricoufamily . It is also all about the title, and interesting to reflect on how we have all seen similar things in the film but interpreted them differently. We conclude this is masterfully done, but check out how we get to that! 

1:05 The painting 
4:38 Are they or aren't they together? (and aga...

This week we discuss two very different films, both reflecting a bygone era of classic entertainment.  Firstly, an interpretation of the 1954 Japanese classic Godzilla, made in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Its unusual for a couple of reasons: its been made on a handheld Nintendo Switch in a game not really known for its creative application, and its been released only on X (Twitter). Its timing is perfect to capitalize on ...

We take a look at one of the best machinima series we've ever seen this week... from the annals of history. The Fixer series was a crime drama created by Todd Stallkamp (aka Burnt Coffee Productions aka TodNYC28) made in Sims 2 and originally released in 2006. Todd was part of the first brain drain from the world of machinima, and shortly after the release of this series was snapped up by EA Games as a content creator wher...

Phil catches up with a long-time machinima creator Ben Tuttle, aka 4413 Media.  Ben admits he cut his teeth on The Movies in the late 2000s, and then discusses Shockbreak, one of his latest productions.  They get into the detail of how the film was created and generally Ben’s creative workflow using iClone, Character Creator, Unreal Engine and a heap of other tools integrated into the production process.  They also discuss...

This week, we discuss the critical turn we witnessed in 2023 towards machinima among creative industries professionals. We highlight why it is high time there is a major rethink on the role of indie creatives and fan fiction in general. We also review a beautiful cinematic made in GTA5, and also reflect on some of the challenges with a particular camera technique. 

Discussion points - 
2:23 Hardly Working by Austrian col...

Kicking off 2024 with machinima from a slightly different perspective: this week, Ricky introduces us to the #letsplay/#tutorial/#epicguideline/#showNtell genre in his favorite game of all time: Elden Ring.  Its the first time we've heard just how much time he's spent in game and we won't draw attention to it just in case his partner is following us... but from the machinimas he shared with us, he's by no means alone.  We ...

Backflip is a docu-style film, made over a period of three years where Nikita Diakur presents his progress using AI to teach a character to backflip.  The character is the 3D scanned artist and the learning process applied is based on a technique he read in an academic paper. To say its chaos is an understatatement, and something anyone in research could probably have told him when attempting to replicate a finding in a pu...