And Now For Something Completely Machinima

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

What is #machinima?! Good question these days, and this week we review a new video essay on tackling just that question... which is always interesting for us pioneers and vets to reflect on in this podcast. In the vid we review, Collin Aull introduces a few thoughts we've not really considered before, plus some comments we've discussed many times over the years, so its worth a listen as well as if you want to spot some of the older machinimas from those very early years in the narrative edit. 1:14 Ricky discusses his latest performance award success 8:49 Shout out for @Mr_Matt_Lee - some of the best build tuts around 11:22 Ricky introduces Collin Aull's video essay: The Game of Video 15:52 Damien's comments 17:27 Phil's comments 24:05 Tracy's comments our conclusions... the biggest problem today is finding good machinima (because we know it exists as evidenced in EVERY episode of this show)! Credits - Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood Producer/Editor: Phil Rice Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week we take a look at another stunning Team Fortress 2 short called Assault on 2Fort by JP Stevens aka Lolripk, a recommendation made to us by Dominzki (whose own TF2 short we reviewed in E135). What a great choice this is: we loved this film, a classic RED vs BLU tale but with a layer of emotion that is as beautifully portrayed as it is unexpected in SFM. These characters have real depth to them and we note how that's been achieved, even though the focal character doesn't even speak. Did we mention the fight choreography too? We reflect on the game lore, the significance of the community in the creative process, and how this story is told from an unusal perspective. We also reflect on why machinima series almost never complete... but we certainly hope Lolripk doesn't follow the pattern!1:44 Introduction to film, its qualities: great choreography and emotional depth to characters11:26 Why this is an unusual red vs blue story15:27 What is the lore in TF2?19:00 Violence portrayed: why it bothered some of us more in this than in E140, and vice versa24:28 Little details, and why they mattered in this35:45 The Source creator community rocksCredits -Speakers: Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood, Phil RiceProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

A Star Citizen extravaganza: this week, we discuss a brilliant re-creation of Erik Wernquist's epic short, Wanderers, released by one of its creators Mr Hasgaha. Whilst this is a faithful scene-by-scene depiction of the original, its actually so much more than that too. We comment once again on the incredible qualities of the game, and how the fact it is an open world reflects the original inspiration for Wernquist's film: the artwork of Chesley Bonestell, whose paintings were partly the reason that NASA exists today. The machinima also pays homage to Carl Sagan in the only way it can, to his words in the iconic book Pale Blue Dot. If you have only particles of space nerd in you, we think you'll absolutely love this week's film, certainly we all do. 2:21 Based on Eric Wernquist's original, We Were Wanderers - film vs game and why cinematic machinimas like this matter for conveying director intent4:45 How to pay homage to Carl Sagan without actually using his voice? Check this film out!15:55 Making machinima in Star Citizen, what are the challenges?Credits - Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine Producer: Damien Valentine Editor: Phil Rice Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week's selection is a stunning cinematic imaginary by Unknown Dino, focussing on the next version of Half Life (soon to be released... er, well, possibly in the next 10 years or so?). There is a lot of craft in this film, called HL: Overworld and made in Blender, which has taken its inspiration both from the HL Reddit community and the HL2 Artbook 'Raising The Bar'. We also talk about the positioning of the new world portrayed as being the next obvious logical step in the story arc for Half Life - HL1 being a portal through which aliens jump to Earth, HL2 being a kind of survival against the odds, Alyx being the prequel, and HL3 being the fight back taken to those hateful Combine... yeah, we wish!1:19 Phil introduces the film and describes his impression of the vision of the HL3 world being articulated9:40 Tracy talks about the inspiration for the film and the role of community but why even bother mentioning generative AI here? 17:55 Damien reflects on why there will never be HL3, which leads us into all sorts of speculative nonsense!Credits -Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

Another packed episode of news items we found for machinima creators everywhere. We take a look at some games news including several that have released music albums recently and discuss why we think that is. We go through some of the latest AI matters, including Vimeo's new AI content guidelines. We found one of the best Unreal master classes we ever seen, more like a work of art than a 'how to', but since its by the amazing Luis Andrade, we'd expect nothing less. We also found some partciularly juicy tidbits we think you'll enjoy.1:24 HELP! Can anyone PLEEASSEEEE find us a WoW machinima to celebrate Blizzard's 20 years with this stunning game??? 2:50 Games releasing music albums - why is that? We discuss why we're expecting a lot more games to follow this trend 18:56 Implications of this for machinima creators 21:50 Dead games and consumer rights and why there is no real legal precident for the latest goings on, plus implications for machinima content 37:01 Generative AIs - again! And Vimeo is on the band wagon... 44:08 Luis Andrade's 'how to' is stunning 45:00 ... now available on UE marketplace 46:00 Another call out for new distribution channels for content creators 50:00 No Man's Sky updates 51:00 Microsoft Flight Sim... just wow, but what are the implications for brand owners' IP and haven't we seen something similar happen elsewhere? Question: are you simulating flying or what you see looking at the ground? 1:06:28 SAG AFTRA on strike, this time in support of game actors... but GTA6 isn't covered? Credits - Speakers: Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood Producer: Damien Valentine Editor: Phil Rice Music: Animo Domini Beats

Crazy, it is certainly that - and more. If you enjoy slasher horror, we think you'll love this - and its definitely not for U18s! The film is by Toaster and is a music video for Code Mistake, a deathcore metal spectacular by CORPSE and Bring Me the Horizon. We examine Toaster's GTA5 machinima, reflect on its anime qualities, and conclude its significantly better than the official music video: Ricky discusses it in the context of Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man, but Phil, Tracy & Damien feel the inspiration is much closer to home.1:29 Ricky’s introduction to the film, how it reminds him of avant-garde machinima and the work of Stan Brakhage – wishing we could go back in a time machine to show the early machinima community!7:11 The official music video uses anime and fantasy horror, vs the machinima video using GTA5 which results in a different type of horror representation13:00 Deathcore, production quality, edits, unleashed chaos – the energy is outstanding. To what extent are we desensitised to the gore in the film?19:56 Strong fit between visuals and the music. The creator’s evident enjoyment in making the film shines through23:26 Reflecting on Manhunt – highly controversial in its day, hyper horrorCredits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy HarwoodProducer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats

This week, we discussion two films:  @neisannnn 'What a Wonderful World', a love letter to Star Citizen, where we focus on its surreal nature, use of backwards music, and ability to capture the game's vast universe. Our second film is 'Plumbob Princess' by  @lReMi07l - one of the all time best machinimas we've seen in Sims 4. We discuss the visual quality and storytelling of machinima videos for The Sims 4 and Star Citizen, highlighting the creative use of animation, music, and language. Check out the films, with links on our website, info below. SCredits - Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood Producer: Damien ValentineEditor: Phil Rice Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week's film is a machinima that deals with pollution in the most overt way it can.  Andy Hughes' Inner Migration juxtaposes Cyberpunk 2077 against some 'found footage' taken from early 40s/60s films and General Motors corporate 'forecast' of the future of technology. We discuss how machinima is an interesting way to explore social commentary and analyze the use of video games as a medium for artistic expression and engaging young people in social responsibility. We also reflect on the potential of media and science fiction to inspire change and address social ills. Our conversation concludes with insights on how viewers can make sense of complex films and draw inspiration from multiple perspectives.Credits -Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien ValentineProducer: Ricky GroveEditor: Phil RiceMusic: Animo Domini Beats