And Now For Something Completely Machinima

This week's #machinima short is ridiculous, yep Ridiculous Ties - a meme response to Eltorro64Rus' review of favorite and least favorite words used by the Scientist in Half Life, created by Finzlow.  And did we say its ridiculous?!  We love the well-crafted humor in this, in-jokes with some of the best timing and inspired editing we've seen for quite some time. Although its strictly not machinima, it is definitely from a machinima stable, so it counts for us at least.  Our review -1:01 Intro to the film, models and the stylistic choices Finzlow has made, Marx Bros comedy 5:27 Old Man Murray8:06 What’s the process for creating this?9:57 HL2 vs HL111:40 Subversion, remix and moxie14:34 Timing is everything17:17 What’s the best line? “I never thought I would see a highly training professional, let alone create one”18:34 Italian slapstick: lazzi26:09 Ricky’s complaint28:37 @ILLRobinson – what do you think about this film?!Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

Whilst January's news begins with more of the same ole genAIs doing their thang, because they can, there's now evidence of more concerted effort to control the efforts of creators... because the corporates and policymakers can at least try to do that, right?  Well, maybe, but all this has achieved in the past is even more creative energy invested in jumping through the hoops, clambering over the walls and crashing through the hedges - so Happy New Year, we're looking forward to seeing what the amazing machinima creative communities of all engine persuasions around the World can achieve in 2025!  Plus, we discuss iClone's new update, a couple of interesting creative projects celebrating content creators in their own ways, as well as interesting milestones.1:15 SORA-not SORA6:51 Runway’s Act One7:39 Face Depth Frame Mancer9:00 Riot Games dishing the riot act11:06 Fortnite’s achievements12:53 Why was Andy Serkis not playing the horse?14:00 JT Music’s Halo tribute14:42 Bullet Time Agent17:14 Reallusion’s iClone update18:51 After Astartes: this is what happened to Syama PedersenCredits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

Kicking off 2025 with a review of a classic and iconic #machinima by one of the pioneers of the movement, Paul Marino aka ILLRobinson. I'm Still Seeing Breen, made in HL2, holds a special place in our memories from those early years - not only was it a perfect 'protest piece' as the feature machinima demonstrating its potential for a 2005 Sundance Film Festival panel discussion (alongside RoosterTeeth's RVB) but was further developed for MTV2's Season 2 premiere of its Video Mods TV show later that same year. In this episode, we go over the back story, discuss how this was made and its impact on machinima in general.1:14 Introduction to film and the Valve 20th anniversary edition of Source Filmmaker updates5:31 Back story to its release: the snub, the support from Valve, the successes and the features (Ottawa Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, MTV2 and Tony Shiff, et al)16:45 The genius of selecting a music video for making machinima! 18:05 Creating the head animation in Source, editing and scene selection23:00 Communicating and community in the early days26:30 Why the Gman and why a close-up?31:00 A watershed moment, a turning point, but the end/beginning of the next phase too35:00 An inspiration38:53 A big mistake41:54 How the games companies robbed the machinima community44:00 A question for PaulCredits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

What a fantastic short to end 2024 on... this week is yet another great creative work by GibbsonTV, released in April.  The film is based on the award-winning Roblox-inspired game Lethal Company by Zeekerss.  It's not actually machinima, being made in Blender, but in the spirit of being inspired by the game and with a original tale, it has all the right heritage for our show.  Check out our comments and add your own - and see you on the other side of the New Year for more creative tidbits.1:04 Introduction to the film, the game and the rules of storytelling8:16 Inspired by Alien10:36 The tools and the craft in storytelling, at times reminiscent of RVB15:15 Voice acting and AI, and a little disappointment16:53 Finding a way to be a creative long-term18:28 Realtime vs 3D animation – the benefit of thinking like a machinimator19:35 Anachronisms… 21:50 Sound advice?24:26 Mocap and Damien’s approach to filmmaking27:32 A demo reel strategy and drawing from the experiences of the early days in machinima Credits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer/Editor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

Not an actual comparison but a review of two shorts: The Internet is for Porn by Evilhoof & Flayed, originally released way back in 2005 and The Marstons Celebrate Christmas, But Things Get Out of Hand, by Paradise385 released 22 Dec 2023.  Lots of lampoonery in both our reviews, but we especially hope you enjoy watching them. Happy Christmas from the crew here at Completely Machinima.1:45 The Internet is for Porn - porn, pawn or pwn?!26:35 The Marstons Celebrate Christmas - a flaw fest, perfect for a glass in hand viewing, right after Miracle on 34th39:50 Ricky's bonus update... HL2Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien ValentineProducer/Editor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

Our monthly news update this month covers more genAI matters, game-related items and WoWness in the form of a 2 hour + stunning orchestral performance celebrating 20 years of musical history. Check out the news and our discussion, and do leave comments too! 1:35 Pioneers in Machinima, published by Vernon Press, is becoming part of the genAI ecosystem + a plea to keep us up to date 13:05 AI filmmaking studio launched aka #mAIchinima 14:29 Silent Hill Remake 2 mod by Praydog 15:30 Philip Rosedale back at Second Life, yay! 21:25 Remarkable Life of Ibelin – a remarkable story 22:50 20 years of WoW, orchestral extravaganza 26:18 Steam Launcher update w/ machinima tools 29:30 Dragon Age Veilguard release 31:30 Half Life 2 20th anniversary RTX remix 37:40 The corollary of the unfinished game… 44:24 Mr Musk’s Diablo 4 record Credits - Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine Producer/Editor: Phil Rice Music: Animo Domini Beats

A Source Filmmaker short by Dominzki, this is another of his well-crafted stories told in 3 parts, called Mission. This episode we focus on the third part Exodus and discuss its merits in detail. We conclude that if there was ever a machinima that should be made in a film studio, this would be it.  Check out our comments.1:17 Tracy's introduction to the film11:47 Complexity and dialogue13:51 Scifi and the clone, and the director's clever device of using a disrupted world to portray the ethical considerations of cloning15:31 Clay-like characters and the portrayal of emotion17:09 The soundtrack and its role18:53 Making this IRL, maybe Kim Kardashian could play the lead?19:23 The Mobius strip is the masterful component24:48 The art and craft is evident Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy HarwoodProducer/Editor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

This week's film review is a Star Citizen cinematic machinima by Virtuality Media called Dangerous Love, beautifully made and with a well chosen music accompaniment. Its a tale that has a tragic twist for its lead character. The layers of emotion and depth to the storytelling are inspirational. Check out our review and do add your own comments.1:12 Introducing the film and the creator6:50 The music choice7:50 The shots, life and death14:50 This film is an inspiration16:29 A story driven music video17:25 Editing is weak Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer/Editor: Damien ValentineMusic: Animo Domini Beats

Who doesn't love a good olde Western? This week we delve into a great short by avidredeadenjoyer, released 21 Sept 2024, called The Loss. It has been made in the only engine a Western machinima can be, RDR2. We all especially liked one particular shot, which really goes to the heart of why machinima has added so much to movie-making. This week, we also talk about a second pick, a Frontier: Elite 2 short by The Mystic Mushroom accompanied by the Blue Danube: The second best space sim ever made... Enjoy!1:15 The Western vibe4:00 The tropes, the story and the cinematography5:15 Mid shots vs close-ups7:25 The sentiment portrayed11:22 The beginning, middle and end!13:06 Music and foley13:30 Steam trains: down memory lane for Tracy16:02 An outstanding shot – tell us more @avidredeadenjoyer!21:40 Mixing with Chopin maybe not the best choice?24:50 The second best space sim ever made…Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer/Editor: Damien ValentineMusic: Animo Domini Beats

A packed ep this month, key tools, what's happening roundup and some fascinating projects - links to everything on the Show Notes page of our website.1:29 BBC Sound Archive2:30 Auto painter AI for Blender2:56 Google image/film search AI5:00 Tribute to David Graham6:05 Mouse: PI For Hire!7:05 Azeroth politicised? Surely not!10:13 Pigeon Bringer of Doom and Destroyer of Humanity, by Solofilms10:50 The Flower that Never Dies, by NewGates Entertainment11:21 Terminator and Cyberpunk 2077, by eli_handle_b.wav 12:27 Warhammer, JT Music 13:03 Ian Hubert’s Dynamo Dream Part 2 is finally out 14:13 Star Citizen Con updates SC1.018:31 Squadron 42 gameplay reveal update23:09 Hubnet machinima, Overclock and EE Studios26:15 Luminaria still open!27:00 GTA Hamlet documentary, Sam Crane28:40 Reallusion 3D character contest results – stunning work!31:30 Movies Tycoon out of early accessCredits -Speakers: Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer/Editor: Damien ValentineMusic: Animo Domini Beats

This week's ep we dedicate to a 3D animation by a French student collective made in their final year of studies, streamed through @TheRookiesCo channel. It is not technically #machinima as its made using traditional #animation tools but nonetheless we absolutely loved it - and its a recommendation by one of our channel's regular followers @3dchick. The film is a post-apocaylptic robot tale, inspired by Zaha Hadid's architectonic style. 2:00 Ricky's intro8:25 Benevolence vs malificence? A moral tale for bots! 13:46 How to achieve personality in machines? This is an example reminiscent from the early days of machinima and the work of Peter Rasmussen 16:21 Cultural references in this film were not film-based but engineering based - is this a reflection of contemporary times and the emergent use of 3D animation tools? 18:45 A clever use of missing information to set the scene Credits - Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood (Phil Rice MIA) Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine Music: Animo Domini Beats

In this ep, we discuss The Nomad | Cyberpunk 2077, a Lifepath cinematic by Zero-Sum Story, and Ian Hubert's Lazy Tutorials, which are not for the feinthearted yet somehow full of the very best machinima advice, such as "... just drag it to a place where you don't think it looks stupid" and "... imagine doing all this and actually putting in some effort - its something to think about" - yep, it sure is.  Enjoy the discussions.Credits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

This week, we review a machinima that has taken its inspiration and cue from the original movie Forbidden Planet, released in 1956. This is the animated and stylized sequel we've all been waiting for, set immediately after the events reported in the film.  It has been written and directed by Biggs Trek, aka Philip Browne, whose creative talent shines through in this.  1:19 Intro to the film 6:00 Takes us back to the original film, in a very good way! 14:52 A couple of quibbles? 19:53 Color grading 23:00 Clay face 27:00 Eye movementCredits Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Ricky GroveEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

News update: interjecting our normal weekly service for a short special - Damien discusses the latest Kitbash contest. Links in the show notes.Credits -Speaker/Producer/Editor: Damien ValentineMusic: Animo Domini Beats

We have another packed news update ep this week, check out the show notes for links to our discussion points -1:14 iClone 8 update discussion, and Phil picks the discussion up again at 34:38 on broken grass6:30 Baldur’s Gate 3 modding tools release discussion8:20 Starfield expansion pack discussion10:00 Documentary machinima: focus on TF210:45 Hollywood is broken: enter machinima? (Andreasson Horowitz seem to have had their eyes and ears closed for a few years!)12:27 Game Sprout’s article about gameplay becoming performance 12:50 Denuvo’s release of Unbotify and discussion25:00 YouTube app update discussion27:30 Nice projects to take a look at, genAI and Metropius, an example of a deiselpunk world-based story with numerous creative treatments – worth taking a look at for its interesting monetisation strategy32:00 Kane Pixel’s Backrooms, more ‘found footage’ fun!37:36 Sketchfab and Epic’s Unreal Marketplace merge into FAB45:15 YouTube AI disclosure rules – how are we complicit in a new citizen science project? We extend the discussion reflecting on the algorithm detection processes and what impact this may have on AI generated music and AI cloned voices.1:06:50 Biggs Trek’s Forbidden Planet: Children of Krell (which we review in our ep next week) magazine article1:07:47 Shameless plug: Phil and Damien’s channel livestreams, respectively on Sunday and MondayCreditsSpeakers: Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil Rice

This week, we take a deep dive into a film from one of the original machinima creator studios, Dead on Cue. This comprised the duo Mike Holochwost and Brian Mayberry. The film, Fake Science, had a couple more iterations, including one that allowed it to be played in the game itself, which was Half Life.  It was released some 3 years before YouTube, and is another great example of how games could be used to produce artworks. Its wide recognition led to careers in games dev and production for both Mike and Brian, the former working on RoosterTeeth's RWBY series and the latter on cinematics for games like the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic and Defiance. Brian is still active in the games dev industry and is working on his first game, called Gone Camping.  Check out the discussion and memories we share.Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Ricky GroveEditor: Damien ValentineMusic: Animo Domini Beats

In this ep, we reflect on the key trends in #machinima we've observed during Season 4 of the Completely Machinima podcast. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the year too, so do add comments below. During the past year, we have reviewed over 22 hours of content, and presented detailed analysis of over 50 films on this channel. As vets of the original community practices (that's pre YouTube and the M.com/Inc days), one of the great pleasures we take in this podcast is that we get to look at machinima and virtual production across the breadth of genres and engines, by creators from anywhere in the world, and reflect on where its come from, how its evolved and is developing. This year, we have seen amazing quality films made in popular games such as Half-Life, World of Warcraft, Elden Ring, Star Citizen, Warhammer 40K and Team Fortress 2; have had the pleasure of exploring work made in entirely new games, like BeamNG and Deep Rock Galactic; and others made using engines in their base form such as Unreal, iClone and Source. We've also started to see #genAIs become integrated into processes and works. What a year for creatives and creativity! Our main observation is that we have noted a resurgence of interest in machinima as a terms for the creative form, and we feel creators are at long last focussing on creative practices rather than their channel return. Of course its great when these things collide but it was never what machinima was about originally: it was the passion for great storytelling, using novel processes to achieve a desired outcome and to share that with a community of equally passionate others. Other observations are why we are not seeing as many traditional short stories as we used to...We hope you enjoy this ep as much as we have making it. Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine Editor/Producer: Phil Rice Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week we review two films and again attempt to work with a rather impressive AI genie who covers things we just could not... The first film selected is a Deep Rock Galactic music video machinima called We All Lift Together, using the Futuna theme song Warframe, made by Szczebrzeszyniarz Brzeczyszczyczmosszyski (yep, that's why we needed a genie).  The second is a stunning visualisation of Helsreach made in Warhammer 40K by Richard Boylan, using a brilliant reading of Aaron Dembski-Bowden's novel by Jonathan Keeble. Whilst the graphic style presented us with some challenges, which we discuss at length, the quality of this is outstanding.  2:15 We All Lift Together music video discussion 17:47 Helsreach adaptation, made in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, discussion Credits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine, AI genie Editor/Producer: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

In this ep, we discuss a film by Patrick Zeugirdor, which uses the game BeamNG to simulate realistic freeway crashes. The game features advanced physics and modding capabilities, allowing for detailed crash simulations. The film shows various crash scenarios, each with multiple camera perspectives, highlighting the game's recamming feature. We debate the film's educational value, its potential to encourage poor driving behavior, and its popularity due to morbid curiosity - a good combination? Suffice to say, it evokes some strong emotions from us! We also discuss the game's potential for use in narrative storytelling and its realistic portrayal of accidents.2:33 Phil introduces the film 8:33 Ricky’s comments: crash test dummies; machinima as spectacle; is this educational? 14:13 Damien’s comments: it’s not a comedy! and limitations of the game 18:16 Tracy’s comments: from a nice driving vid to a compete horror story to has this just gone too far? 30:13 We discuss the pros and cons of the film and its effects Credits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer/editor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

This week is our monthly news ep. We discuss various developments in the machinima and virtual production community. Tracy mentions the Reallusions 2024 3D Character Contest, highlighting Stefan Dufour's entry. Phil and Tracy discuss the potential of AI in character creation. Damien reports on Activision shutting down a Call of Duty mod and the impact of AI on modding. We also cover the Dragon Age: The Veil Guard game, the Secret Level series on Amazon Prime, and the new game inZOI. Phil introduces Daz AI Studio, a generative AI platform for DAZ Studio, and reflects on the impact of AI on the music industry, sharing the story of composer Sasha transitioning to AI-generated music.1:14 Reallusion’s 3D Character Creator contest3:41 Skibidi Toilet being made into a move with Michael Bay? No way!5:03 Sandbox, the spiritual successor to Garry’s Mod8:42 Celebrating TF2 community – a great fan-made trailer promo9:21 Activision shuts down a key CoD mod – not the best choice, and we discuss how the community is responding to this, free mods and review bombs16:58 Gamescon notes… Dragon Age; Secret Level on Amazon Prime; Inzoy22:34 DAZ Studio has a great AI tool in it25:25 Filmmusic.io update – the real impact of generative AI?Credits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien RiceProducer/editor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats