And Now For Something Completely Machinima

🎬 Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound – Footsteps 

In episode 5 of our Maker Series, Ricky Grove explores the often-overlooked power of footstep sound design — and how something as simple as a single step can define mood, build tension, and reveal character. 

👣 What You’ll Learn: 
How footstep sounds convey location, emotion, and suspense in film. 
Why footsteps in the Spanish horror series 30 Coins masterfully foreshad...

🎃 Halloween Special | Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sounds: MONSTERS! 👹

This Halloween, step into the dark side of Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sounds — where we explore the terrifying art of monster sound design! 🧟‍♂️

What do monsters really sound like? From the primal screeches that haunted early humans to the eerie, unearthly noises that send chills down modern audiences’ spines — this episode reveals how sound designer...

🕯️ Maker Series: Phil’s Music Notes – [Horror] Intervals 👻 

🎃 A pre-Halloween special exploring the dark side of sound. 

At its core, music is a game of intervals — the spaces between notes that define every melody, every emotion. Even without musical training, we instinctively recognize the cheerful sound of a major chord or the melancholy of a minor. But some intervals go far beyond sad or happy… some are unnerving, uns...

How do you make virtual worlds sound real? 🎧

In this episode of Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound, Ricky Grove reveals the secrets of sound frequency—the subtle audio magic that transforms machinima and 3D game-engine films into unforgettable experiences. Perfect for filmmakers, animators, and sound lovers alike.

🎬 Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound –  Ambient Sound in Machinima

Discover how sound transforms storytell...

How do you make virtual worlds sound real? 🎧

In this episode of Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound, Ricky Grove reveals the secrets of ambient sound—the subtle audio magic that transforms machinima and 3D game-engine films into unforgettable experiences. Perfect for filmmakers, animators, and sound lovers alike.

🎬 Ricky’s Wonderful World of Sound – Episode: Ambient Sound in Machinima

Discover how sound transforms sto...

This week, we continue our discussion, reflecting on Season 5 and our predictions for 2026.... yep, sure is a lot going on in the world of #machinima! Do add your own thoughts into the comments (on our show notes).

1:01 Our predictions for 2026
1:10 Tracy’s thoughts!
4:26 A quick interjection on the Minecraft short we reviewed
6:47 Damien’s views and perspective on tools being used
7:38 Ricky’s prediction on...

In this first part of our 200th episode of Completely Machinima Podcast, Ricky highlights ⁨@NeuralViz⁩ AI-driven films as a significant advancement, while Phil praised the fast-paced, subtle social commentary. We discuss legal developments affecting AI use, such as Warner Brothers suing Midjourney. The success of Blender's "Flow" at the Oscars is noted, emphasizing the growing capabilities of open-source tools. The convers...

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...