And Now For Something Completely Machinima: Recent Episodes
Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine, and Phil Rice
Machinima, real-time filmmaking, virtual production and VR. Four veteran machinimators share news, new films & filmmakers, and discuss the past, present and future of machinima.
A truly terrifying short for some, Horror is more like an absurd dream for others. The film is made by Yang Hyunjun, released 4 June 2023. Its creator showcases some incredible scene detail, especially at the beginning of the film, but thereafter, loses a little of the pathos and credibility in the storytelling.
Key points -
6:00 Tracy picks a horror film.
11:52 Situating yourself with the character, facial animation and narrative.
15:34 Men are the easiest people in the world to make fun of (according to Phil).
21:30 Paranoia and psychosis – what was the intent of the filmmaker?
26:44 Challenge of communicating cultural differences between East and West.
Credits -
Speakers: Tracy Harwood, Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice
Producer: Tracy Harwood
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: intro: Doctor Dreamchip, outro: Arps Solina, Otis McDonald
This week's review is of a No Man's Sky machinima called Origins, produced by Evil Dr.Porkchop. Its a beautiful cinematic travelogue showcasing the vast expansiveness that is No Man's Sky - a game in which you will almost never have the same experience twice. Of course, Ricky wanted more drama and story but Phil nails it, reflecting on what might be possible if you could use No Man Sky's environments with Eve Online's space battles and Star Citizen's avatars! Yeah... but that's not this film!
Key points -
7:38 Music by Confidential MX, Rebirth Overtone
16:29 A love letter to Star Trek
18:36 Question about No Man's Sky machinima making - can anyone help?
Credits -
Speakers: Tracy Harwood, Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice
Producer: Tracy Harwood
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Intro: Doctor Dreamchip & Outro: Arps Solina
This week we feature two films by Chinese artist collective studio, @Motzify Mohua. These two shorts, The Crown and Hunt, are made in Unreal Engine and show extraordinary qualities in very different ways: The Crown is a fairytale made originally for World Children's Day and illustrates traditional cultural references with gorgeous imagery; Hunt is a cyberpunk anti-hero teaser. Our main 'complaint' is that we need more detail from the artists!
3:23 Unreal Engine is one of the best tools for making machinima.
8:14 The crown and the sword.
12:03 The mystique of the film - a hybridised 2D/3D animation style
16:36 What struck Tracy about the first film.
19:55 Cthulhu, the ultimate evil.
27:53 What is style and why is it important?
31:58 Hidden politics.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Tracy Harwood
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Intro: Doctor Dreamchip & Outro: Arps Solina
A performance by a camera ham, shutterbug or just a plain histrionic narcissist? This week's review discusses an older machinima that has highly contemporary themes in it: carry-on-regardless, daydreaming, whatever, so long as the virtual camera is rolling. The film is called Daydream (2009) set to the titular song by Lovin' Spoonful, created by @Mystfit and made in @Valve 's Half Life 2. Needless to say, we loved the humor but what makes this machinima interesting is that it was a scripted production created by running a path sequencer inside the game, harking back to the early days of how machinimas were made but so is reminiscent of how contemporary tools such as iClone and Unreal now work.
This week we also begin with @RickyGrove talking about ultra-wide monitors, using it to play Elden Ring (a mod required) and the #SAGAFTRA strike; and, @zsOverman gives an overview of his remastering project of the Machiniplex collection and his homage to the great Hugh Hancock, founder the #machinima movement, the upcoming showcase of Bloodspell and also his own response to some of the hoopla that Hugh created at the time of its release in 2006!
1:38 Gigabyte and ultra-wide monitors
4:16 The actor and writer strike, significance and implications
10:43 Black Mirror, Futurama and the internet - prescient episodes
15:38 The Machiniplex Collection at https://bit.ly/Machiniplex
20:32 Hugh Hancock’s Bloodspell, John Lennon and the Overcast - releases and background
24:48 This week's pick: Daydream, the Lovin’ Spoonful soundtrack and Mystfit
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Tracy Harwood
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Intro: Doctor Dreamchip & Outro: Arps Solina
This week's film review focusses on a story made with building blocks and without voice acting... and yet, what a spectacular story! The game world is Minecraft of course, and the story is based on Telltale Games' episodic release called Story Mode. Made by @SquaredMediaAnimations, we discuss the production values emcompassed within the film, why we think adding voice acting would have enhanced the film and a number of other things we nit-picked but conclude that its really no wonder Squared Media are one of the top machinima producers in Minecraft.
0:38 Background and intro to the film
10:27 It takes a great amount of skill to tell a story without any character but is it just cliches and no depth?
12:03 The advantages of not putting dialogue in a specific language is that everyone is on the same playing field.
14:10 It’s a trope sandwich.
16:32 Soundscape and sound.
19:54 The problem of doing a silent film and the need for characters with expressiveness: the limitation of the medium.
21:48 Adding credits to the credits.
Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arp Solinas
In this ep, Phil introduces the Machiniplex [Remastered] Collection, a curated selection of machinimas from the early years. Machiniplex was a site created to host classic machinimas at the point that Machinima [dot] com began to assert its energies over the community as a corporate entity. The site was a community endeavour, with both Ricky and Phil playing a pivitol role in managing the project to preserve the original content the community had contributed to the early original Machinima website... until such time as it ran its course. Phil and Ricky reminisce about the origins of Machiniplex and its contributors.
To celebrate the release of the curated collection, which you can find over on Phil's Vimeo channel (links in the show notes), the Completely Machinima crew have each selected a film they recall with particular fondness and discuss its significance. Phil has remastered each of the films using AI, not always a perfect process, so we also discuss his approach and techniques in bringing the original works up to 4K standard.
We encourage machinima fans everywhere to check out these films, not only were they brilliant in their day but in terms of storytelling, remain some of our favourite creative works against which we often draw comparisons when reviewing latest films.
0:10 Intro and background to the Machiniplex site
6:06 Blahbalicious by Wendigo and Avatar, 1997
10:01 BOT by Digital Yoke, 2005?
18:09 Edge of Remorse by Riot Films, 2006
26:56 The Snow Witch by Britannica Dreams, 2006
Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Anno domini beats
A love letter to Cyberpunk 2077? In this week's episode, the CM crew discuss a cinematic music video that perfectly captures a uniquely human feeling of people watching... and reflects on the phenomenal creativity of procedurally generated character content in the Cyberpunk world. The film is called Don't Fall Down by Puttefnask and the song it accompanies is Pray by Haelos - it is perhaps a more fitting video than the original.
6:10 The first person perspective in Cyberpunk
11:01 Wowed by the variety of the NPC characters and procedurally generated art
13:00 Black Mirror is today's Twilight Zone
15:24 This movie is a feeling
18:05 A love letter to the world of the game
Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arps Solina
This week's review is of 12 minutes of the wackiest of Wacky Wests we could ever imagine! BedBananas has used a a whole host of mods, created by Weds_Garbageday, to devise this truly surrealist Red Dead American Dream machinima. Seeing is believing - and its probably one of the best machinimas of all time!
8:16 Surrealist machinima at its very best.
11:30 Buster Keaton and the Wild Wild West
14:29 The violence to the central character makes him empathetic.
19:42 How the voices and dialogue were created.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Coast by Anno Domini Beats
Nope, its not 'just a game', its one of the most visually stunning Gothic story open worlds ever created (according to Ricky)! In this ep, we discuss GraysonFlows' tribute to the world of Elden Ring, set to Max Richter's November composition, which highlights the beauty of the game from the exhausting open sequence to the final prize, creatures, battles and voice acting.
0:12 Intro.
2:00 Hacking major games for free.
5:06 Tribute to the best game of the year.
8:11 Elden Ring Machinima.
10:42 The beauty and depth of the three sections.
13:36 The mythology of christianity and religion.
16:17 The tarnished are in between people.
18:09 One piece of advice for anyone wanting to play Elden Ring.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina, Otis McDonald
This week, we discuss some of the best flight sim machinima we’ve ever seen, thanks to Damien’s picks. We couldn’t decide which was better, so we discuss two films: The Ghost and The Right Stuff by J P Ferre, made in DCS. The first is a horror story and the other a story of one of the most influential pioneers of modern space flight today: Chuck Yeager. It is an outstanding retelling of one particularly testing flight, and is a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes!
1:00 The Ghost intro.
3:02 Pilot’s involvement in the action.
4:37 The role of editing to establish continuity.
7:32 Reality vs fantasy in a high-end flight sim.
13:12 The Right Stuff intro.
15:23 A near perfect machinima.
22:45 Pioneers of spaceflight: a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes.
26:00 The sound of the plane taking off.
30:42 The soundtrack for the film.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina
This week, Phil has selected a short that will make all those H&S and Half Lifers smile equally... HEV Suit by @Zapper770 ... because we all need more head crabs in our lives. The film is an example of great comedy timing.
Credits -
Speakers: @RickyGrove @zsOverman @tgharwood @DarthAngelus
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arp Solina
This week’s film review looks at a work by Ally Kustera. The work artfully conveys a sense of feminism without the politics through snippets of video game character cutscenes from Lara Croft to Ellie (The Last of Us) and others in between.
1:00 Kitbash for Blender of the Back Rooms by Daniel Grove.
1:30 Machinima by Ally Kustera.
13:35 Feminism in the video game world.
16:17 A celebration of women without any of the baggage.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arps Solina
Still Here... a chilling dystopian tale of a world devasted by climate crisis and wealth inequality. This week's review is of a film by Guido Ekker, featured on the Film Shortage Channel (YouTube), and is one of the few shorts we've seen that attempts to make a point beyond pure entertainment. We identify some of the stereotypical tropes used and discuss the creative potential of machinima and virtual production for this kind of political messaging - all with our usual critical bonhomie.
3:49 Film’s story: a call to action for the planet.
7:33 Climate change is a big problem.
10:41 Visuals and acting.
17:00 Running away from polemics.
22:24 The future of activist content creation.
24:42 This is not a simple issue.
26:37 The Orville and Star Trek
28:19 Political themes in science fiction.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina
In this bonus episode, Tracy talks to the curators of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov.
1:31 How did you get interested in machine?
10:28 Dedicating one of the screenings to solomon.
19:49 The interplay between analogue and digital.
26:36 What was the response from the audience?
36:01 Machinima techniques and tools.
41:47 What are your takeaways?
50:15 Next steps for the future of machinima and Oberhausen as important legacy.
58:23 Copyright issues.
1:00:00 The constant struggle between filmmakers and capitalists.
Credits -
Speakers: Tracy Harwood, Vladimir Nadein, Dmitry Frolov
Producer: Tracy Harwood
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Anno Domini Beats
Following on from Tracy's visit to the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, which took place between 26 April and 1 May, Ricky leads a discussion with Tracy on the thoughts about film selection at the event, different distribution strategies, topics discussed at the panel, and the future of avant-garde machinima films and filmmaking for festivals generally.
You can also follow this episode with Tracy's interview with Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov, curators of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, on our channel released alongside this epsiode.
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Arp Solina
Show notes and links on our website here
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine (MIA zsOverman)
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Tattoo by CreateStudio (licensed)
Time stamps -
1:13 The Remnants
22:26 So Palpatine Needs Padme Dead...[LEGO Edition]
Enjoy, and as ever, feedback and suggestions welcome!
Our website has all the links and notes here
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine,Tracy Harwood, Phil Rice
Editor/Producer: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au CC 00
Show Notes & Links on our website at www.completelymachinima.com/
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood (MIA Phil Rice, courtesy of Hurricane Ian)
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au CC 00
Show Notes & Links on our website at www.completelymachinima.com/
Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood (MIA Phil Rice, courtesy of Hurricane Ian)
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au CC 00
Little White Poney Inn by Olibith
It Lives Within the Sea by Squadron Orange (dir. Dominic Edwards)
Links and notes on our website here
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: sclolex__a-bad-day-at-the-crypt / freesound.org
Links to the film on our website, https://completelymachinima.com/2022/10/19/s3-e49-film-review-most-precious-gift-by-shangyu-wang-oct-2022/
Credits
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: evanjones4__sleepnomore1 - Freesound.org. License CC 0
We discuss the eyes, the monster, the surprise and and camera shots.
1:06 Tracy introduces ‘The eye: Calanthek’ by Aaron Sims
5:56 What makes it so realistic? The eyes!
11:02 Things that break the storytelling
15:02 Does knowing the craft of filmmaking restrict creative approaches to filmmaking?
Show notes and links on our website for this episode, www.completelymachinima.com/
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: evanjones4__sleepnomore1 - Freesound.org. License CC 0
0:47 Ricky highlights some of the news items we’re released in a series of blogs this month, being released on Mondays, starting with out Tech Update on 3 Oct, then Projects Update on 10 Oct, Fests & Contests Update on 17 Oct and finally a Report on Creative AI Generators on 24 Oct. You can find these on https://CompletelyMachinima.com/Blog
2:19 Feedback on previous episodes
6:51 How I learned Unity without following tutorials (Developing 1) by Mark Brown on his Game Maker’s Toolkit channel, released 28 September 2021 – discussion, learning by rote vs learning concepts, different learning styles and role of prototyping in machinima and virtual production.
Q: What are your favourite tutorials on machinima making?
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: evanjones4__sleepnomore1, freesound.org, Creative Commons License 0
Sound Effect: newagesoup__queens-sting, freesound.org, Creative Commons License 0
Facing the Wolf, by Iain Douglas and Mark Coverdale, released 2021
1:35 Interview with Matteo Bittanti, Milan Machinima Film Festival
5:00 Ricky poses an interesting question: is machinima an animation style or a form of art that ideas can dominate, as opposed to feelings?
27:56 Discussion: for idea films, do you have to have more information than the film provides to appreciate the work? What is the role of ambiguity in filmmaking? How much time should audience invest in understanding a film?
Show notes and links on our website at https://completelymachinima.com/2022/09/15/cm-s2-ep46-film-review-facing-the-wolf/
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Editor/Producer: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au
0:10 Ricky introduces our new episode format – feedback welcome on the plans!
0:59 The Cloud Racer by Impossible Objects (UE5), released 15 August 2022
21:16 The Lord Inquisitor – Prologue, by Warpgazer Animations (released 28 August 2016)
39:15 Person2184 (UT2004 machinima), by Friedrich Kirschner released 4 April 2008
59:09 Prazinburk Ridge by Yes, Commissioner? aka Martin Bell, Unreal Engine 4 (released 27 June 2022)
Links and show notes on our website:
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au
0:10 Ricky introduces our new episode format – feedback welcome on the plans!
0:59 The Cloud Racer by Impossible Objects (UE5), released 15 August 2022
21:16 The Lord Inquisitor – Prologue, by Warpgazer Animations (released 28 August 2016)
39:15 Person2184 (UT2004 machinima), by Friedrich Kirschner released 4 April 2008
59:09 Prazinburk Ridge by Yes, Commissioner? aka Martin Bell, Unreal Engine 4 (released 27 June 2022)
Links and show notes on our website:
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au
Show Notes and Links
0:27 Nvidia Omniverse Machinima Contest #madeinmachinima results, entries showreel, announcement of winners at SIGGRAPH and links to winners (via 80.lv) Simon Lavit and runners up Nicklas Lotz and Ted Saguindel
2:54 Tracy’s interview with John MacInnes on his latest Unreal Challenge contest: Mood Scene – the contest begins 1 Sept
5:44 Unreal Engine’s Better Light Than Never contest results sizzle reel and 80.lv article about winners
6:19 Jackson Wang’s Cruel video, using Unreal in his virtual production process
7:01 Also using Unreal in a music video, Sagans on Coherence using Katherine Crowson’s software Disco Fusion
7:28 Pavel Oliva’s desert kit mod
7:48 Game Art Experiments’ tutorial on turning AI generated images from MidJourney into 3D format
8:32 Turning in3D Avatars into Reallusion’s Character Creator 4 avatars with just a quick scan using your mobile phone!
9:36 Trailer for an upcoming fan film by Unreal Cinema, made in Unreal Engine 5: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Kotor: Episode 1 – The Spire, premiered 5 August 2022
11:31 Dreamworks announces that its Moonray platform will become open source
16:22 19-20 September, remember the Nvidia GTC event is always worth following!
17:50 Film Music.io website update
23:00 Nvidia Omniverse Audio2Face update 2022.1 – using emotions
28:19 Adobe’s Premiere Pro guide for filmmakers
32:04 Lynch-land in Second Life – for all those lovers of David Lynch films
33:09 Update: changing our news episodes format – what do you think to our plans?
Credits
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au
Show Notes and Links
0:27 Nvidia Omniverse Machinima Contest #madeinmachinima results, entries showreel, announcement of winners at SIGGRAPH and links to winners (via 80.lv) Simon Lavit and runners up Nicklas Lotz and Ted Saguindel
2:54 Tracy’s interview with John MacInnes on his latest Unreal Challenge contest: Mood Scene – the contest begins 1 Sept
5:44 Unreal Engine’s Better Light Than Never contest results sizzle reel and 80.lv article about winners
6:19 Jackson Wang’s Cruel video, using Unreal in his virtual production process
7:01 Also using Unreal in a music video, Sagans on Coherence using Katherine Crowson’s software Disco Fusion
7:28 Pavel Oliva’s desert kit mod
7:48 Game Art Experiments’ tutorial on turning AI generated images from MidJourney into 3D format
8:32 Turning in3D Avatars into Reallusion’s Character Creator 4 avatars with just a quick scan using your mobile phone!
9:36 Trailer for an upcoming fan film by Unreal Cinema, made in Unreal Engine 5: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Kotor: Episode 1 – The Spire, premiered 5 August 2022
11:31 Dreamworks announces that its Moonray platform will become open source
16:22 19-20 September, remember the Nvidia GTC event is always worth following!
17:50 Film Music.io website update
23:00 Nvidia Omniverse Audio2Face update 2022.1 – using emotions
28:19 Adobe’s Premiere Pro guide for filmmakers
32:04 Lynch-land in Second Life – for all those lovers of David Lynch films
33:09 Update: changing our news episodes format – what do you think to our plans?
Credits
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley - www.scottbuckley.com.au
0:45 Unreal 1 Released – 22 May 1998
2:22 Unframed Productions formed, with James Hammer-Morton and Hugh MacDonald, and created Resident Evil themed content
3:13 Unreal Tournament 1 – 23 May 1999 and Reactor4’s Real Time Movie Studio mod
4:16 Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 which included the first edition of Matinee and further information round 12:00
5:04 Star Fury produces Sucker in 2003
5:58 2003, Epic Games launches the Make Something Unreal Contest with notable films awarded runners up by Friedrich Kirschner (The Tournament) and Unframed Productions’ Lucky Man, EG_Intro from Hongman Leung and The Showdown by Accelerated Pictures.
7:25 2004, Epic’s Make Something Unreal Contest winner was Friedrich Kirschner’s The Journey
8:18 Creators Testing concepts for Blade Runner, Lord of the Things and others
11:12 Spielberg uses Unreal Tournament 1 for pre-viz for Artificial Intelligence with ILM
14:06 First version of Epic’s Unreal Engine released in October 2003 for education and non-commercial projects
15:02 Computer website, HomeLAN, interviewed Friedrich Kirschner about his 2004 winning film The Journey and Steve Polge at Epic Games about why the film was selected – interesting comments!
Full show notes and links at https://completelymachinima.com/2022/08/18/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-unreal-engine/
17:36 Victory’s tutorials on Unreal Tournament 2004
Time Stamps
0:57 The Folklore of Phasmophobia | Modern Mythology, by The Digital Dream Club (released 9 January 2021)
9:51 NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima Path Tracing Test, by JSFilmz (21 June 2022)
17:33 Tiny Elden Ring | Tilt Shift, by Flurdeh (11 April 2022)
27:27 What a typical project Zomboid Run looks like, by Pathoze (26 Jan 2022)
31:45 Discussion: using live action with machinima footage in films, what are the challenges?
For show notes and links, see https://completelymachinima.com/2022/08/11/cm-s2ep43-films-aug-2022/
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: tosha73 Distortion Guitar Power Chord
snapper4298 Intro/Outro
freesound.org
Time Stamps
0:57 The Folklore of Phasmophobia | Modern Mythology, by The Digital Dream Club (released 9 January 2021)
9:51 NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima Path Tracing Test, by JSFilmz (21 June 2022)
17:33 Tiny Elden Ring | Tilt Shift, by Flurdeh (11 April 2022)
27:27 What a typical project Zomboid Run looks like, by Pathoze (26 Jan 2022)
31:45 Discussion: using live action with machinima footage in films, what are the challenges?
For show notes and links, see https://completelymachinima.com/2022/08/11/cm-s2ep43-films-aug-2022/
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: tosha73 Distortion Guitar Power Chord
snapper4298 Intro/Outro
freesound.org
John MacInnes talks to Tracy about his new real-time movie contest just launched - a competition with a very interesting difference, using Unreal Engine 5. Its all about mis-en-scene... "the skill, the challenge, is to actually reproduce a tone or a feeling and affect the audience... there's something really challenging and valuable in that exercise in itself..."
Show notes and links at https://completelymachinima.com/2022/08/08/real-time-movie-challenge-mood-scenes-announcement/
In this episode, Ricky, Tracy and Damien discuss some of the more interesting machinima and real-time things they’ve trawled the internet for during the last month. Tracy gives her take on the GTA Online performance of Hamlet by Sam Crane, some interesting uses of Unreal Engine, tech tools and a fun way to simulate gravity. Damien brings Godot to the table and highlights some worrisome news about Unity, before waxing lyrical on Star Trek’s Strange New World’s use of Unreal. Ricky finds an interesting Unreal Engine Field Guide and discusses the latest updates to Nightmare Puppeteer.
1:30 Feedback and comments from Mike Clements, 3D Chick, EE Studios, JSFilmz, TMC, Lord Krit and Chris Newell
4:04 The Snow Witch, by Britannica Productions, reviewed on CM podcast Season 1, Episode 18
16:20 Sam Crane’s GTA Online performance of Hamlet, an interesting audience experience (live 4 July 2022)
22:41 Digital replica of co-op live music venue strikes the right chord, Unreal Engine, 23 June 2022
23:22 Christopher Nolan: How to make a good no-budget film | Christopher Nolan on Following, by Cinedome, published 28 June 2022
23:51 50 Greatest Fictional deaths, Slate.com, by Dan Kois, 20 July 2022
24:31 AI dubbing service by Papercup
25:00 Markerless hand tracking in DeepMotion Animate 3D
25:50 Rotate you monitor to simulate gravity in Unreal Engine 5 using Android orientation data, by Ayoub Attache, 12 July 2022
27:14 Godot 4 engine can now make movies – explainer, by Gamefromscratch, released 29 June 2022
29:08 Behind the scenes of Netflix’s ‘In Valuted Halls Entombed’ | Spotlight | Unreal Engine, by Unreal Engine, released 27 June 2022
32:29 Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds – a better use of Unreal than Mando?! Review in American Cinematographer, by Noah Kadner, 23 June 2022
42:04 Should we be concerned? Unity is merging with a company who made a malware installer, by Jody Macgregor, 16 July 2022
43:48 Unreal Engine Field Guide, free download book
44:57 Updates to Nightmare Puppeteer, available on Steam
Further details on the podcast website, https://completelymachinima.com/2022/08/04/cm-s2ep42-news-august-2022/
Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Where We Wanna Go by Patrick Patrikios
Sount Effect: SoftBounceShowReel2 by Malcolmboye
June Episode of Completely Machinima podcast https://completelymachinima.com/2022/06/08/completely-machinima-s2-ep-39-films-june-2022/) – go to time stamp 18:57 for discussion of How to Fly
5:40 Backgrounds (released 19 February 2013), collaboration with John Blandy, father
7:08 Franz Fanon series, Finding Fanon 2 (Grand Theft Auto, released 11 September 2015), collaboration with Larry Achiampong
14:12 Reflecting on the cultural forces represented by games, meaning in games, cultural capital and the importance of shared memories through games
23:15 Telling alternative stories in ways such as to deal with the social anxieties intertwined in them eg., Henrietta Lacks and John Edmonson
25:06 Discussing How to Fly (released 22 April 2020) and How to Live (released 21 May 2020), pandemic project – and why the cormorant?
32:14 Discussing Androids Dream and the use of a voice trained AI to create a meditative effect
35:13 Discussing Henrietta Lacks and the film A Lament for Power (released 20 July 2020), also being shown at WORLDBUILDING at the Julia Stoschek Foundation between June 2022 and December 2023
38:49 Reflecting on different types of creative practice, objectivity, collaboration, space, happy accidents and found objects
55:53 Reflecting on future practice using machinima
Credits:
Speakers: David Blandy, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Freesound.org Intro/Outro by Snapper4298
Show Notes and Time Stamps
1:21 If Top Gun Was a British Film Part 2, by Square (released 31 March 2022)
6:49 DCS World Movie | Top Gun: Maverick Intro by Phenom (released 16 June 2022)
13:05 Discussion: Why recreate scenes from big budget films, such as Top Gun Maverick?
20:00 Hired Steel: A Mech Machinima – Episode Two, by TMC (released 25 February 2022) and the review of Episode One in Completely Machinima S1 Ep 16 Films (August 2021)
27:40 Star Citizen – News – RED LINE Episode 2 (Elite Expeditionary), by EE Studios (released 13 April 2022)
35:57 Unreal Engine 5 Concept Short Film by JSFilmz (released 17 June 2022)
See also: https://completelymachinima.com/2022/07/14/cm-s2-ep41-films-july-2022/
Despite being encouraged to create an episode of just 15 minutes duration by one of our followers, the team have this month extended their coverage – hear Tracy, Damien and Phil discuss vtubing, Ricky’s Duke Henry the Red character in the game Evil Dead, the FTC’s proposed updates to social media guidelines, Unreal’s review of the Matrix Awakens Experience, John Gaeta’s latest exploits, metaquette, Reallusion’s iClone 8 and CC4 and a number of other exciting developments relevant to the world of real-time filmmaking and machinima. Thankfully, you can use the timestamps to jump to the bits your most interested in!
Timestamps -
1:34 Feedback from our followers: 3DChick, Al Scotch, Spentaneous, Mike Clements, Circu Virtu, Notagamer3d
8:14 Vtubing and Face Rig app (Steam), VTuber Studio – real time puppeteering using faceware
17:41 Interactive video on Vimeo, branching narrative storylines
20:23 Ukranian films of the recent war, showcased at Milan Machinima Film Festival website
24:17 Evil Dead and the character Duke Henry the Red played by Ricky Grove and IP generally, Ricky Grove on IMDb
39:29 FTC updating ‘disclosures 101 for social media infuencers’ guide’ discussion, the relationship between brands, platforms and influencers and see also [Company] Rulez! (Phil Rice aka zsOverman & Evan Ryan aka Krad Productions)
54:55 Competition updates: Nvidia Omniverse Machinima promo video ‘Top Goose’ and Unreal competition, Ben Tuttle’s The Amazing Comet and William Faucher’s YouTube channel.
58:03 Making of Unreal’s Matrix Awakens Experience, Behind the Scenes on The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, released 6 June 2022, and Tracy’s interview with John Gaeta, VFX, The Matrix films, released 17 February 2022. Living Cities is a new metaverse mirror world and Inworld AI
1:00:16 Pooky Amsterdam’s blog on metaverse etiquette, called Metaquette
1:00:39 Reallusion’s iClone 8 character animation processes including Character Creator 4 launch
1:13:08 Mesh to MetaHuman in Unreal Engine by Unreal Engine, released 9 June 2022
1:13:33 Meta’s new model allows creating photoreal avatars with an iPhone, 80.lv, 14 June 2022 and full research publication
1:14:02 Mocap with the MoCats: Livestreaming with Multiple Actors (Faceware & Movella/Xsens) by Faceware
1:14:29 Love, Death & Robots, Jibaro character creation Love, Death + Robots | Inside the Animation: Jibaro, Netflix, released 9 June 2022 and Art Dump
1:16:48 Jonathon Nimmons WriteSeen.com, launched June 2022, website connecting creative writers with industry professionals (upload written content, attach a video pitch, audio clips, video clips and a link to a prototype if required)
1:19:08 A word of thanks to our sponsors
Credits -
Speakers: Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au
0:47 May 1999, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Macintosh presentation reveal for Halo
1:57 2000, Halo promo for NVIDIA Geforce2 GTS
3:16 15 November 2001 Halo for Xbox released
3:40 First machinima for Halo, released 6 June 2002, Warthog Jump by Randall Glass
5:04 Red vs Blue premieres, 1 April 2003, by Rooster Teeth Productions
7:04 Halo released for PC on 30 September 2003
7:31 Fire Team Charlie starts up in 2003
7:56 Halo PC Custom Edition released on 6 May 2004 and a recently made Halo PC Custom Edition Fan Documentary by Subpixel, released 17 April 2020
8:57 On 6 June 2004, the seed of Sponsors Vs Freeloaders is planted –
· First Episode
· Flame War Saga
12:09 HaloTV.net was launched on 10 July 2004 – this channel (pre-YouTube) offered 24/7 Halo machinima primarily of clan matches with commentary plus had a dedicated Red Vs Blue channel
13:10 The Matrix (Halo Remix) by Halo1007 released (Halo Footage – Matrix Voice-Overs, released on 5 September 2004
14:01 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Dave Anderson, released 13 October 2004
14:55 Halo 2 released 9 November 2004 and Burnie Burns reports from Camp Bungie on the secret machinima test they doing in the game
16:26 The Codex series ran for 21 Episodes with an average run time 3-5 minutes and it’s prequel The Heretic, by Edgeworks Entertainment, released in 2005
17:39 This Spartan Life by Damien Lacedaemon aka Chris Burke premiered in May 2005
19:07 iGod... Holy Halo series by Fuzion Church, Crossroads Baptist Church and Chi-Ro Ministries, a Halo-based machinima to promote a Christian weekend retreat and to promote Christian principles in general – the episodes are covered on Halo.Bungie’s fan website (see Purple and Pink Mirrored), released 12 April 2005
20:55 First green screening machinima by AmandaJ3162, merging Sims 2 and Halo in You’re Fired, released 10 July 2005
24:41 Company Rulz by Z-Studios and Krad Productions, a Microsoft game usage rules explainer, released in 2007
Tracy talks to John MacInnes, winner of the OSCARS' Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting in 2011, screenwriter for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (released 2014), winner of 2 Epic Unreal Megagrants for his virtual David Bowie project, founder of awarding-winning studio MacInnes Studios, and director of the 2021 Real Time Shorts Challenge.
2:53 Official trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFu5qXMuaJU
13:25 Game engines as storytelling tools
23:36 Making realistic humans in game engines, David Bowie and the Epic Megagrant project and Grace the first digital popstar
31:29 Real Time Filmmakers Facebook group and the Real Time Shorts Challenge, including the winners
42:00 One good movie? The blessing and the curse of original thinking!
50:34 Professional vs indie filmmaking
54:00 Demand for long form vs short form films and the future of machinima
Credits:
Speakers: John MacInnes, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: freesound.org / Intro/Outro by snapper4298
This month, Damien leads the discussion on another fabulous film selection by the Completely Machinima podcast team... Phil's Stalker fan film by Sodaz is dark and disturbing; Tracy's music vid picks are light and airy; Ricky's is far from bland and Damien's is a moving affair too! The team also discuss approaches to promoting a film once it’s been made, thanks to a question raised by show follower, Mike Clements.
Time Stamps:
0:34 STALKER Fan film – Contract by Sodaz, released 8 December 2021
6:53 Married to Your Melody by Imanbek and Salem Ilese (Unreal Engine 5, Matrix Awakens City), released 21 April 2022
10:19 Lion’s Feet by I Break Strings, video by Tom Jantol (iClone 4), released 13 May 2022
14:33 MOVING OUT || Somewhere in Space || A No Man’s Sky Cinematic Series by Geeks Actively Making Entertainment, released 5 June 2021
18:57 How to Fly by David Blandy (GTA5), released 22 April 2020
34:36 Discussion: what do you do with your machinima film once it’s made? Question by Mike Clements
Credits:
Speakers: Damien Valentine, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au
Show notes and links
0:35 Feedback from our listeners, thanks Ben Tuttle, 3DChick, Mike Clements, CD and Pooky Amsterdam
6:40 Getting started with Nvidia Omniverse Machinima, ostensibly for the Make Something with Nvidia Machinima contest but also really useful to just learn about the toolset
9:17 Using machinima techniques for the new Batman film
11:29 Damien compares the fan-made Star Trek Pike to the release of Star Trek Strange New Worlds
13:34 Release of iClone 8 and Character Creator 4 discussion
21:48 Milan Machinima Film Festival update and using OpenAI to generate scripts for machinima
24:12 Fair use and transformative use and the case of Star Citizens’ updated machinima and fan film content rules and guidelines and its relationship to Squardron 42 (maybe?)
34:10 No excuses: Nvidia Omniverse Machinima competition closes 27 June 2022 – and here’s the link to Ricky’s interview with Dane Johnston as the Machinima app was being launched last year
36:09 Reallusion’s Pitch and Produce competitive support programme
37:14 Showreel of 100 3D renders of ‘infinite journeys’ and the weekly CG challenge by Clinton Jones aka Pwnisher (paid subscription on Patreon channel)
38:40 2nd Annual Film Festival for Fantasy Faire in Second Life, organized by Saffia Widdeshins and Chantal Harvey. Congratulations to winners – links are HERE and Pryda Parx epic fly through the Fantasy Faire sim is HERE
41:19 Especially for Ricky: Elden Ring’s new VR mod by Luke Ross (Patreon channel)
47:30 Facial motion capture in Roblox coming and using BHaptics for immersive storytelling
48:43 Review of best software for video editing via Shopify website
49:06 FSFilmz Cyberpunk short tutorial
49:36 Pooky Amsterdam’s new project stage play, Mambo Motel update and website HERE, the world’s first Metaverse Musical!
0:48 VIDEO GAME Maps Size Comparison | 2021 by MrRanker (Blender, Adobe After Effects & Premiere Pro) released 19 Sept 2020
19:05 Blu x @Teflon Sega meta-saga!! Ep4 by Xanadu (Unreal 4.27) released 9 Mar 2022
32:26 Star Trek Pike – Fan Made Opening | Made in Star Trek Online by ZEFilms Productions released 1 July 2019 and the possibilities for using machinima as a pre-market concept testing tool
41:36 It just a virtual kiss by Juan Poyuan (World of Warcraft) released 19 Nov 2021
53:00 Discussion: What is experimental machinima and why do it?
Website:
Credits:
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Til I Hear'em Say (Instrumental) - NEFFEX
News for May 2022.
Time stamps, show notes and links -
2.35 Nvidia Omniverse Machinima contest, assets and prizes
4.18 Nvidia’s GTC conference recordings – worth the watch!
6.23 How are RTX cards coping with heat in laptops?
6.34 Nvidia Omniverse Create and Machinima apps
10.17 Reallusion’s ActorCore library now available for Nvidia Omniverse
12.51 Concert Creator AI creator for music and Damien’s animation of Kara Remembers (Battlestar Galactica) test
16.16 Art AI Festival in Leicester, creative application of AI including a YouTube channel of presentations
19.49 Mad God by Phil Tippett, film now completed and available on Shudder TV (subscription-based horror streaming channel)
22.43 Real Time Shorts Challenge competition (John MacInnes) overview
25.29 Milan Machinima Film Festival overview and Critics’ Choice Award, We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On (Shakespear’s Tempest performance) by Sam Crane (GTA Online) and current project to perform Hamlet in GTA Online
28.57 Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times by Draxtor Dupres, comparison of life in the metaverses, Second Life and Animal Crossing, during the pandemic
34.47 Matrix Awakens Experience City Sample available for PC
39.52 Unreal 5 update is great for machinima creators (Kim Libreri’s keynote and The Matrix Awakens: creating a world tech talk)
42.10 GTA 6 rumours!
43.20 Unity realtime cinematic, Enemies and Unity for machinima
46.23 Don’t forget to read! Phil’s recommendation: Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, acquired from Ricky’s Paperback Show and book store
The blog post for this episode can be found here: https://completelymachinima.com/2022/05/05/completely-machinima-s2-ep36-news/
In this episode of our Machinima history series, Ben reviews notable films from the archives created with Quake III, a version of id Software's Quake series that did not favour machinima.
Time stamps
1.11 Quad God by Tritin Films (Quake III), parts 1-4
· Part 1
· Part 2
· Part 3
· Part 4
5.52 In the Waiting Line by Zero 7 in collaboration with Fountainhead Entertainment (Quake III)
7.55 Anna by Fountainhead Entertainment’s Anna Kang (Quake III)
Show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/04/28/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-quake-iii/
Show Notes and Links:
Completely Machinima S2 Ep 35 Films & Discussion (April 2022)
Alien: The Message, a fan film by direx1974
Reallusion’s iClone 7
Alien Isolation game
Casting Call Club
The Tavern, upcoming series by Rene Jacob
Completely Machinima blog here - https://completelymachinima.com/?p=1230
Speakers:
Rene Jacob (aka direx1974)
Ricky Grove
Credits:
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: The Shining in Dubai by Unicorn Heads
Show notes
2.23 The Sniper by Warlord (iClone 4), released 29 August 2009
14:47 Alien: The Message by direx1974/Rene Jacob (iClone 7), released 27 January 2022
17:25 Ricky begins the discussion on ‘what is a fan film?’
25:42 Continued discussion of ‘fan films’ and ‘fan culture’
34:20 Heroes of Bronze ‘Journeys’ by Martin Klekner (iClone 7), teaser released 4 March 2021
Interview with Martin Klekner on Reallusion’s blog (14 April 2021)
37:00 iClone vs Blender vs Omniverse discussion
44:48 Ben Tuttle’s short course for animators
53:42 Where is the iClone community and why aren’t there more creative projects to see?
Completely Machinima blog post, show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/04/14/completely-machinima-s2-ep-35-films-discussion/
Time Stamps:
1.06 Reallusion’s iClone 8 overview (and some very old memories of iClone 2!)
8.24 Star Trek Picard assets from video games
10.39 Nvidia Omniverse tutorials by JSFilmz
13.40 Unreal 5 Preview and tutorials
14.48 Half Life Field Intensity released by Russian-Ukrainian modders, Hazard Team
15.49 Nvidia GeForce RTX3080 available on subscription
16.35 Graphics market update (see Phil and Ricky’s builds from last year)
17.50 Dead Space series remake scheduled for 2023 by EA Motive
18.50 Elden Ring by FromSoftware and machinima (photo) mod by Otis_inf and tutorials
24.36 The Grannies in Red Dead Redemption Online, reminiscent of Phil’s machinima Making Machinima Movies in Red Dead Redemption 2, Kotaku.com article about The Grannies, Somerset House showcase
Completely Machinima blog post, show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/04/07/completely-machinima-s2-ep-34-news-discussion/
Completely Machinima blog post, show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/03/17/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-quake-ii/
Time Stamps
0:36 Hardly Workin’ by The ILL Clan, released 22 August 2000
1:57 Eschaton: Nightfall by Strange Company, released 1 Sept 1999
4:27 Late Nite With Toxy and Essobie, Ep 1, released 24 August 1998
6:50 Rebel Versus Thug by Ken “3D Filmmaker” Thain, released 10 May 2006
8:10 Rick Jones 2 by Bryan “CrustaR” Henderson, released 25 Nov 1999
9:35 Father Frags Best by Phil Rice (ZS Overman), released 1999
13:09 Circus Life Part 1 & Part 2 by Andre “Donovan” Luis, released August 1998
17:20 Common Sense Cooking With Carl The Cook, realtime performance by The ILL Clan at Florida Film Festival 16 March 2003
This month, Ricky, Phil, Tracy and Damien discuss machinima and real-time productions made in Second Life including documentaries illustrating life on the ‘grid’, events and experiences such as an art collector’s paradise, a potted history of the environment, a sci-fi convention, extraordinary examples of films that show the unique qualities of the Second Life creative community, a tutorial and a new cyberpunk drama series. The co-hosts also discuss their perspectives on the importance of Second Life as a creative platform for machinima.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
life, film, machinima, called, created, bit, people, documentary, game, chantal, world, sim, talking, abstract, aesthetic, iclone, experience, damien, characters, virtual
SPEAKERS
Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood, Ricky Grove, Phil Rice
TIME STAMPS:
1.17 Plask.ai, free webcam-based motion capture tool
2.45 Second Life discussion
-
where does the inspiration come from for creating SL machinima films?
-
how has SL improved over the years for content creators?
22.24 Portrait of a Virtual Art Collector: Joseph K by Preben Wolff, film made by Glasz DeCuir, released 16 November 2018 (original film made in September 2015)
33.29 Pryda Parx’s Future Shock documentary series, discussed as part of Second Life’s Movies Made in Second Life series, released 2 March 2020
36.15 Draxter Depres’s social channels
36.56 Half Life 2 Apartments UNIGINE Real-Time demo REMAKE by Ostap Gordon, released 25 February 2021
38.12 Scifi Convention, video advert released by SL4Live-TV on 21 May 2020, convention website and date for 2022 event ‘Brave New Future’ 18-29 May.
46.41 Push by Lainy Voom (TraceChops), released 11 July 2009
55.30 Soul Chambers by Chantel Harvey, released 1 February 2022 (film made in 2011)
1.06.47 The History of Second Life 1999-2021 by Bollycoco, released 12 February 2021
1.16.15 Digital Rain 2021 by Mac’n Tease Tomato, released 13 January 2022 and series website
1.24.40 Honorable mention: Tree of Life of Avatar by Tizzy Canucci, released 2 July 2021
Announcements
Second Life website, free download
Machinima Mondays meetup group, run by Chantal Harvey (join support group on Facebook)
Completely Machinima premieres weekly on Thursdays on our YouTube channel
Completely Machinima blog post, show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/03/10/completely-machinima-s2-ep33-films/
Next month: Reallusion’s iClone
Speakers:
Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood, Ricky Grove
Time stamps:
1:56 Nvidia Omniverse, Omniverse Code and Meet the Creators (Omnivores)
· Jae Solina Filmz – Nvidia blog post
4:11 KGB in Minecraft – yes really!
3:00 Backlot – not a lot
6:44 Best games for M1 Mac by Tyler Stalman
9:10 Music and sound studio set up for machinima: Everything I use as a full-time content creator by Malinda
10:54 Nvidia AI conference, GTC 2022
13:00 Implications of games convergence into Microsoft ownership for machinima
· BBC News article, 18 Jan 2022
15:08 Philip Rosedale & Wagner James Au on the future of Second Life and the Metaverse, podcast
17:43 Edan Mackenzie’s A Fond Farewell composition celebrating the achievements of TMUnderground which has finally gone offline
21:30 Discussion: Second Life for machinima
Completely Machinima blog post, show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/03/03/completely-machinima-s2-ep-32-news-discussion/
Credits:
Producer/editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina - Mylar Melodies
Ben reviews classic Quake 1 films from the machinima archives –
0.48 Diary of a Camper by The Rangers, released 26 October 1996
2.00 Torn Apart series by The Rangers, first released 6 November 1996
2.28 Apartment Huntin’ by The ILL Clan, released 17 May 1998
3.23 Escheton: Darkness Twilight by Strange Company, released 20 January 1998 (by Walking Wounded)
4.30 Blahbalicious by Avatar & Wendigo, released 9 December 1997
5.40 Devil’s Covenant by Clan Phantasm, released 2 August 1998
6.59 Operation Bayshield by Clan Undead, released 24 January 1997
8.02 Zerstorer by Nihilism Unlimited, released 27 September 1997
9.06 Seal of Nehahra by Nehahra Team, released 6 August 2000
9.46 Scourge Done Slick by Quake Done Quick Team, released 25 July 1998
The Completely Machinima blog post including show notes and links is here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/02/24/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-quake-i/
Completely Machinima blog post to show notes and links - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/02/17/completely-machinima-interview-with-john-gaeta/
Time Stamps -
3.32 Backstory to Matrix Awakens Experience
10.01 Game vs Experience
12.00 World building The Matrix
18.11 Why PS5 and Xbox X/S?
21.36 Bullet time – again!
26.04 Awakens as a time capsule – remaking the virtual Neo
29.03 Multi-modal storytelling is the future
33.06 Storytelling and AI
37.00 Real time vs cinema – a cross-over moment
39.39 Scalable metaverses, AR and AI – reflecting on Disney’s recent announcements
49.27 The space between bones and spaceship in 2001: A Space Odyssey – vis Paul Marino’s 2004 Art of Machinima book
52.10 The role of Nvidia’s Omniverse platform
54.46 NFTs and open markets
1.03.00 Advice to machinima and real-time creators: passion and knowledge!
1.08.00: Red or Blue?
Ricky, Tracy, Phil and Damien present a mixed bag of machinima delights made in GTA5, Matrix Awakens Experience, Knights of the Old Republic and using Reallusion’s Character Creator, Unreal 5 and, surprisingly, Real Life! The episode poses an important question to listeners: what do YOU think about adaptations using film audio? Get in touch and let the team know!
SHOW NOTES (see CompletelyMachinima.com/blog for links)
1:17 Shino and the Witch | Animal Crossing Short Film by Evil Imp, released 24 Dec 2021
10:32 GTA5 vs The Matrix Awakens (RAGE vs Unreal Engine 5) by ENXGMA, released 16 Dec 2021
16:31 Malak: An Old Republic Story | Star Wars Short Film by Unreal Cinema, released 24 Dec 2021
23:28 First Day – A Star Wars short film made with Unreal Engine 5 by AFK – The Webseries, released 16 Dec 2021
33:24 Realistic Environments | RealityCapture + Unreal Engine 4 (Dimension Studio) by Capturing Reality, released 19 May 2020
45:39 Terminator 2 (GTA 5 film) 2022 part 1 by Kramers Media, released 13 Jan 2022
57:51 Ricky’s question to audience: What do you think about adaptations using film audio soundtracks?
58:22 Red Dead Redemption 2 Supercut by Viva La Dirt League, released 6 Mar 2020
Link to blog post here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/02/10/completely-machinima-ep-54-february-2022-films/
Credits:
Producer/Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Octopussy by Juanitos. Creative Commons. Freemusicarchive.org
Time stamps:
1:10 Nvidia’s special address at CES, points relevant for machinima creators eg., Omniverse, AI
12:55 RDR2 images in the news!
13:40 Austin Film Festival
14:24 Adobe Project Shasta for audio recording
14:56 Kerbal Space Programme 2 impending launch
16:25 Machinima growth observations
17:28 VR growth observations
19:46 NFTs observations
23:57 Philip Rosedale and the future of Second Life for creators
40:30 Halo Xbox 360 multiplayer servers close – the end of the story for RoosterTeeth’s RVB series?
42:50 Ben Grussi’s history of machinima episodes of the Completely Machinima podcast
44:34 Matthew Loris/Zeke: what are the differences between machinima and animation discussion
1:00:48 Rockstar’s lawsuit against a modding group
1:02:21 Minecraft’s astonishing video reach
1:03:43 Pandora’s 3d Films: adapting prose to visual media formats preliminary comments
Completely Machinima blog post and show notes - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/02/03/completely-machinima-s2-ep30-news-discussion/
Full Show notes with links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2022/01/27/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-january/
You can read the full show notes with links on our completelymachinima.com site. We also have a video version of this podcast on our Completely Machinima YouTube channel.
You can view the complete show notes with links on our completelymachinima.com website page. We also have a video version of this podcast which you can view on our Completely Machinima YouTube page.
Full show notes are available at completelymachinima.com. You can also check out our video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel. Email us with questions or comments: talk@completelymachinima.com
Show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/12/23/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-december/
The hosts have fun with the Christmas theme in this episode – Tracy starts with a suicide machinima, Ricky gets all Russian, Damien takes us on a very long journey to galaxies far too far away and then trolls us with caroling Jawas and Phil drops an orange into the sock. Happy Christmas everyone.
Show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/12/16/completely-machinima-s1-ep27-films/
Credit: music from freesound.org: mini-christmas-song by Milton
Completely Machinima 11.1 December 2021 – Machinima News
This week the hosts discuss updates from the GTC event by Nvidia, with focus on Omniverse and Reallusion’s iClone 8 and Character Creator 4, the Book of Boba Fett trailer, Dune, A Sound Effect podcast, understanding NFTs (well, who does?), Nightmare Puppeteer, Blender 3.0, a natural successor to Garry’s Mod called SNBox, Promethian AI (creative process for VR) and our upcoming LIVE event on 9 December, celebrating our year in machinima.
Show notes and linkes - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/12/02/completely-machinima-s1-ep26-news/
Credit: Music from freesound.org: magic-christmas by Lena Orsa
Show notes and links - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/11/25/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-november/
Phil, Damien, Tracy, and Ricky discuss machinima picks from a wide variety of genres and engines. Machinima is such a diverse field right now, isn't it? Marvelous.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/11/11/completely-machinima-s1-ep25-films/
In this episode we discuss the latest news and tutorials all across the machinima-related universe.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/11/04/completely-machinima-s1-ep24-news/
Our resident Machinima historian covers the month of October in Machinima history. Full links and notes are available at https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/30/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-october/
Music: Salt Lake Swerve by Maarten Schellekens
link: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/maarten-schellekens/electronic-works/salt-lake-swerve
The music has not been altered from the original.
This month of Halloween, Ricky, Phil, Tracy and Damien discuss horror machinima – and is the genre of horror dead in machinima? The team also reflect on feedback from last month’s discussion on long vs short-form machinima. Finally, the team discuss the thought process for choosing a creative platform for making a new machinima. As ever, feedback on our discussion topics is very welcome!
Show notes and links here - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/28/completely-machinima-s1-ep23-discussion/
Music credit: Dark Organ by ShortRecord from freesound.org
Ricky has been writing a series of articles on working with Nightmare Puppeteer, a game whose function is to allow you to create machinima movies. This is for renderositymagazine.com. As part of the series, he interviewed the developer and filmmaker, M dot Strange (a name he doesn't like, so we came up with Animan Puncture). We spoke with him about the game and his new film, M doll, which was originally supposed to premiere in an interactive version on Steam on October 29, 2021. But just after this interview took place, Steam removed the game, and M dot is, well, steamed about it! I'm sure he'll come up with a new distributor, but the date will probably be moved back.
You can find detailed links and info at our website here https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/26/cm-interview-m-dot-strange-on-nightmare-puppeteer/. There's also a video version of this interview on Ricky's Youtube channel.
Tracy catches up with Half Peeps to discuss the making of Half Life Alyx The Movie, Episode One, featured in our October 2021 Films review episode.
Show notes and links - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/23/cm-interview-half-peeps/
Show notes and links - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/21/completely-machinima-s1-ep22-films/
Show notes and links - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/14/completely-machinima-s1-ep21-news/
Links and show notes - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/10/07/completely-machinima-s1-ep20-phil-rices-film-obit/
Ben Grussi, the official historian for Machinima, shares his record of what happened in September Machinima history.
Full notes for the podcast are available at - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/09/30/cm-in-history-with-ben-grussi-sept/
Links and show notes - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/09/23/cm-interview-hypatia-pickens-aka-sarah-higley/
Links and show notes - https://completelymachinima.com/2021/09/16/completely-machinima-s1-ep19-discussion/
This week we discuss our machinima film picks. Unfortunately, Phil isn't with us this month but he'll be back in October. Check the completely machinima website for full breakdown of all the films we've chosen plus links to each film.
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/09/09/completely-machinima-s1-ep18-films/
Tracy, Ricky, and Damien are back (Phil is still out) with fun coverage of recent machinima and machinima-related news. From the Reallusion Lip-Sync contest to a bizarre indie game called "Heal Hitler", the three of us share news that is inspired and often quite weird.
Episode show notes and links here: https://completelymachinima.com/2021/09/02/completely-machinima-s1-ep17-news/
This month Ben presents a bumper overview of machinima notables from the archives, including Quake releases, films, appearances, media coverage and the very first Machinima Film Festival that took place at Quakcon.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/08/21/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-august/
In this episode, Ricky, Tracy and Damien discuss a selection of films with the AI known as Phil, whilst the real Phil is off on holiday in sunny New York with his real family. The selection this month covers the full scale of quality with some raw and experimental machinima work and some incredibly polished machinima, with much in between. Games the machinima works draw on includes RDR2, GTA5, Little Nightmares 2, Xcom, Mech Warrior, Skyrim, Max Payne and Roblox with a bit of Blender thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/08/12/completely-machinima-s1-ep16-films/
In this episode, Ricky, Tracy and Damien are joined by an AI of Phil, who is surprisingly agreeable. The hosts mark the passing of machinima stalwart, Ken White, creator of TMOA and TMUnderground community radio sites. Then the team discuss iClone 7’s lip sync contest, Whanowa’s Grand Theft Auto tutorials, updates to Nightmare Puppeteer, puppeteering in Adobe’s Character Animator, the rise of adult animation, making a cinematic with Unreal Engine 5 and Blender and performing Hamlet in Grant Theft Auto, Star Wars and Xcom among other games, and being your own architect of hell, with Hell Architect.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/08/05/completely-machinima-s1-ep15-news/
Ricky talks to John Martin II, VP of Reallusion, about the development of iClone as a machinima tool in the early 2000s and its recent integration with Nvidia’s Omniverse platform, Character Creator, the original inspiration for iClone, and future plans for iClone 8 teased for release later in 2021.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/07/29/cm-interview-john-martin-ii/
Ben Grussi, the And Now For Something Completely Machinima podcast’s resident historian talks to Tracy about some of the notable events that took place in July during the early years of machinima, including the release of A Few Good G-Men by Randall Glass, the Artery Machinima production, Speilberg’s use of Unreal’s Matinee tool on his film, A.I., machinima showcased at the Lincoln Centre in New York for the first time, a Matrix parody training video released by Strange Company and the first green screen machinima production.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/07/27/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-july/
Tracy, Ricky, Damien and Phil discuss key issues for making machinima in metaverse and open world games with themes including collaboration, why people left machinima for let's plays and meme-making, the role of memory making, and the future of machinima.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/07/15/completely-machinima-s1-ep14-discussion/
Tracy, Ricky, Damien and Phil review a diverse set of short films made in various metaverse and open world games including World of Warcraft, Elite Dangerous, Minecraft and Second Life.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/07/08/completely-machinima-s1-ep13-films/
Tracy, Ricky, Damien and Phil discuss metaverse and open world games, an episode inspired by Captain Grim's short machinima called Did Classic WOW Live Up to Expectations? released on 15 May 2021.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/07/01/completely-machinima-s1-ep12-news/
The Completely Machinima podcast for July 2021 is all about the metaverse and where machinima fits into this widening online world. Tracy Harwood is our producer and director for this series.
This short teaser gives you an idea of the ideas and fun we shared while recording the podcast. Note that the Completely Machinima Podcast comes out every Thursday of the week.
Our first podcast in the July series starts on July 1, 2021.
More info at our website: completelymachinima.com
Ricky, Phil, Tracy and Damien discuss engine-independent collaboration tools, as well as methods and concerns for earning revenue with machinima on today's Internet.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/06/24/completely-machinima-s1-ep11-discussion/
Ben Grussi, machinima's historian, tells us about significant events in machinima's timeline that occurred during the month of June.
Full notes available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/06/19/cm-history-with-ben-grussi-june/
Tracy Harwood conducts a fascinating interview of veteran machinima / Anymation filmmaker, Tom Jantol.
Full notes available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/06/17/cm-interview-tom-jantol/
Tracy, Ricky, Damien and Phil review a super-diverse set of short films made in Unreal Engine, Animal Crossing, Flight Simulator X, GTA V, and Garry's Mod.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/06/10/completely-machinima-s1-ep10-films/
In this episode we discuss some new releases by some machinima veterans, NVIDIA's Machinima Omniverse tool, a new sandbox game reliant on the world of NFTs, the recent FantaSci Short Film Festival, and making machinima in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Full notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/06/03/completely-machinima-s1-ep9-news/
Ashley Ruhl has been designing memorable cinematic moments in games for over 10 years. She's a designer, writer, and director of story content for games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, Tales From the Borderlands, Remnant: From the Ashes, Darksiders 3, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Defiance. I strive to tell a compelling interactive narrative that empowers the player to be the author of their own story.
Summary: Our Completely Machinima producer, Damien Valentine (a massive Star Wars fan and machinima filmmaker) spoke with Ashley about her background and beginning work as a cinematic designer and on her growth as an artist at Bioware in particular.
Music for this episode is frankum__electronic-music-track-x1 from Freesound.org
LINKS
- STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC
https://www.swtor.com/
- TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS
https://store.steampowered.com/app/330830/Tales_from_the_Borderlands/
- BIOWARE
https://www.bioware.com/
- TELLTALE GAMES
https://telltale.com/
- ASHLEY RUHL'S WEBSITE
Ashley Ruhl | Narrative Designer Portfolio
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines). This month (May 2021) we are splitting our podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (May 6), Machinima Films (May 13), Machinima Discussion (May 20) along with several interviews which we will publish separately throughout the month.
This episode was produced by Damien Valentinewho is joined by hostsRicky Grove, Phil Rice, andTracy Harwood.
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Summary: Two questions for the group - one, why has science fiction been such a popular genre for machinima, and two, what are some of the game platforms that are available for scifi machinima creation. Also, Ricky shares a list of great scifi machinima.
See the chapter markers for timestamps (above)
LINKS
- STAR CITIZEN
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/
- SPACE ENGINE
http://spaceengine.org/
- STAR WARS: JEDI ACADEMY
https://store.steampowered.com/app/6020/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Knight__Jedi_Academy/
- STAR WARS: JEDI ACADEMY MODS
https://jkhub.org/
- STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR
https://store.steampowered.com/app/32470/STAR_WARS_Empire_at_War__Gold_Pack/
- STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR STEAM WORKSHOP
https://steamcommunity.com/app/32470/workshop/jk
- PETER RASMUSSEN's FILMS
https://vimeo.com/nanoflix
- LUMIERE BROS COLORIZED SNOWBALL FIGHT
https://www.openculture.com/2020/10/snowball-fight-the-1896-film-by-lumiere-brothers-gets-restored-in-captivating-color.html
- BLOODSPELL MYHERITAGE SCREENCAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfJjb6jzZIA&t=1236s
- MALE RESTROOM ETIQUETTE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw
Mark Meer is a Canadian actor, writer and improvisor, based in Edmonton, Alberta. He is known for his role in the Mass Effect trilogy, in which he stars as the voice of the male version of the player character, Commander Shepard. His voice is featured in a number of other games from BioWare Corp., notably the Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age series. Meer stars as the voice of the player character William Mackenzie in The Long Dark from Hinterland Studio, which also features his Mass Effect counterpart, Jennifer Hale.
Music for this episode is Andromeda Soundtrack by lena_orsa from Freesound.org
Links
- MARK MEER AT IMDB
Mark Meer - IMDb
- MASS EFFECT LEGENDARY EDITION
https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition
- THE LONG DARK
https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/
- STITCH OF FATE PODCAST
https://podbynight.libsyn.com/
- DUNGEONS & DRAGONS BLACK DICE SOCIETY
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/events/black-dice-society
- CAMEO
https://www.cameo.com/markmeer
- BIOWARE
https://www.bioware.com/
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines). This month (May 2021) we are splitting our podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (May 6), Machinima Films (May 13), Machinima Discussion (May 20) along with several interviews which we will publish separately throughout the month.
This episode was produced by Damien Valentinewho is joined by hostsRicky Grove, Phil Rice, andTracy Harwood.
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Summary: The hosts share their monthly machinima film favorites. Tracy recommends The Mandalorian Rap by JT Music, Ricky chose citizen logs 0001 by geeks actively making entertainment, and Tracy shared her pick which was a Star Wars video called shadow of the Republic by cinematic captures. There is considerable discussion of the films and their merits (or flaws).
See the chapter markers for time stamps (above)
Links:
- THE MANDALORIAN RAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl_9HwTOxRo
- CITIZEN LOG 0001: SEARCH AND RESCUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neeea7880sw
- SHADOW OF THE REPUBLIC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMbBjKnUoC4
- STAR CITIZEN
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/
- STAR WARS: CLONE WARS
https://www.starwars.com/series/star-wars-the-clone-wars
Dane Johnston is the Director of Omniverse Connect at NVIDIA and a member of the recently released (May 4, 2021) Omniverse Machinima. We spoke with him just before the release and asked him about the Machinima app.
LINKS
- Omniverse Platform for Virtual Collaboration | NVIDIA
- Omniverse Machinima App | NVIDIA
- Overview — Omniverse Machinima documentation (nvidia.com)
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines). This month (May 2021) we are splitting our podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (May 6), Machinima Films (May 13), Machinima Discussion (May 20) along with several interviews which we will publish separately throughout the month.
This episode was produced by Damien Valentine who is joined by hosts Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, and Tracy Harwood. Contact and Feedback for this show:https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Summary: Damien and the gang share Star Wars memories, Ricky sharesiClone 7.9 update includes Acculips, ExPlus, and Advanced MoCap. Tracy talks about the winners announced for the first virtual storytellers challenge. Phil shares a new year-long VR course. In addition, we cover Mass Effect remastered launches this month, Star Trek adopting the same virtual set technology as the Mandalorian and the Milan Film Festival now accepting submissions
Links
-STAR WARS https://www.starwars.com/ -iCLONE ACCULIPS UPDATE https://www.reallusion.com/iclone/lipsync-animation.html -VIRTUAL PRODUCTION FOR STORYTELLERS WINNERS https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/winners-announced-for-first-virtual-production-for-storytellers-challenge?
-FIRST PLACE - untitled short by Ben Coello – https://vimeo.com/511463265 -SECOND PLACE - Birds of a Feather by Emanuele Lomello –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=905GlMN7zRw-THIRD PLACE - Ghost Town by Ryan Paterson - https://vimeo.com/511255904 -UNREAL VIRTUAL PRODUCTION PRIMERhttps://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/onlinelearning-courses/virtual-production-primer -GET ALL $2 TRUEBONES ITEMS FREE! https://gumroad.com/truebones -360° VR Filmmaking Masterclasshttps://completelymachinima.com/2021/04/10/360-vr-filmmaking-masterclass/ -Star Citizen https://robertsspaceindustries.com/ -Planetfall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetfall -MASS EFFECT LEGENDARY EDITIONhttps://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition -STAR TREK USING VIRTUAL SETShttps://intl.startrek.com/videos/how-star-trek-uses-virtual-sets -STAR TREK DISCOVERY SEASON 4 TRAILERhttps://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a36030260/star-trek-discovery-se
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines). This month (May 2021) we are splitting our podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (May 6), Machinima Films (May 13), Machinima Discussion (May 20) along with several interviews which we will publish separately throughout the month.
This episode was produced by Damien Valentine who is joined by hosts Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, and Tracy Harwood. Contact and Feedback for this show:https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Summary: Damien and the gang share Star Wars memories, Ricky sharesiClone 7.9 update includes Acculips, ExPlus, and Advanced MoCap. Tracy talks about the winners announced for the first virtual storytellers challenge. Phil shares a new year-long VR course. In addition, we cover Mass Effect remastered launches this month, Star Trek adopting the same virtual set technology as the Mandalorian and the Milan Film Festival now accepting submissions
Machinima's historian, Ben Grussi, looks back over the past couple of decades and shares some significant machinima-related events which occurred in the month of April.
Links
- Red vs Blue: https://bit.ly/3gMlYpr
- Lenny and Larry on the Campaign Trail https://bit.ly/3vktbkr
- Common Sense Cooking with Carl the Cook https://bit.ly/3xulfPl
- Red vs Blue on the Wall Street Journal https://bit.ly/3sRiR1D
- Paul Marino's Art of Machinima book https://amzn.to/2S72X6L
CM Special April 22, 2021, Show Notes
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a long-form podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies, and virtual reality.
**Summary: Phil Rice and Ricky Grove discuss building a PC specifically for Machinima production and post-production. They start with the GPU and work their way through an entire PC build adding tips and techniques for making a great Machinima workstation PC.
Be sure to visit Completelymachinima.com for a complete list of Phil and Ricky's PC builds and many links. Note that we are running a little behind on the links part, so stay tuned.**
If you want to see the time links click the "chapters" button above. There's also a complete transcript of the episode under the "transcript" button.
CM Episode 3.3 Machinima Discussion Show Notes
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a long-form podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies, and virtual reality. This month (April 2021) we are splitting our 3rd podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (April 1), Machinima Films (April 8), Machinima Discussion (April 15), and a Special “Build a Machinima PC” podcast (April 22).
Episode 3 was produced by Ricky Grovejoined by hosts Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, and Damien Valentine.
Summary: After Ricky's Milan Machinima Festival report he brings up a question that was put to one of the Festival jurors (Henry Lowood - "...has machinima dissolved into the larger culture of streaming and game videos") and then asks the other hosts their opinion. The next topic for discussion is the status and quality of the "Let's Play" machinima in 2021. Phil has particularly good insights. Finally, the gang takes on a contemporary topic that might impact machinima creators in "What the Hell is NFT?". As usual, Tracy has the best insights on this topic.
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Time Stamps:
00:00:38 Damien's newest Episode of his machinima series, "Star Wars: Heir to the Empire" is out
00:02:32 Ricky's Report on the Milan Machinima Festival
00:07:15 Ricky's fav Milan Festival film "Fire Underground"
00:09:50 First discussion question, "..has machinima dissolved into the larger culture of streaming and game videos?"
00:31:14 Second question, "Is Let's Play just game-play, or is it a more significant type of machinima?"
00:50:50 Phil on shooting "Father Frags Best"
00:52:44 Third question, "What the hell is NFT?"
01:06:50 Tracy nails the NFT question
Note: Check the view chapters selection on this page to view the full timing breakdowns.
CM Interview with Slavo Strangeovich
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a long-form podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies and virtual reality. This month (April 2021) we are splitting our podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (April 1), Machinima Films (April 8), Machinima Discussion (April 15), and a Special “Build a Machinima PC” podcast (April 22).
This episode was produced by Ricky Grovejoined by hosts Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, and Damien Valentine.
Summary: Ricky interviews Slavo Strangeovich (formerly known as m dot strange) about his new game “Nightmare Puppeteer”, which is actually a great machinima-creation tool.
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Fully detailed and link-infused notes for this episode are available at:
Address is coming
Slavo Interview
Imagination Rabbit Youtube channel
https://bit.ly/2QJkjpA
Nightmare Puppeteer on Steam-like
Nightmare Puppeteer on Steam (steampowered.com)
Nightmare Puppeteer website
Nightmare Puppeteer
1:31 Sets in Nightmare Puppeteer
3:35 Running Man set
5:35 Slavo corrects Ricky: He outsourced set creation like a good capitalist
6:48 Slavo on “Rando” characters and their use in Nightmare Puppeteer
8:28 Public response to Nightmare Puppeteer
9:28 Ricky can’t read his own handwriting but asks question anyway
10:17 Twitch Integration
12:53 Fast overview on how to create machinima in Nightmare Puppeteer
14:38 How to record video in Nightmare Puppeteer
15:31 Hidden features in Nightmare Puppeteer
17:48 How to bring in custom content
19:45 Ricky’s Strange Opera idea and how to remove singers voice from a recording
21:14 Aida with Caruso and music credits
link to Caruso recording at archive.org (public domain
https://bit.ly/39lvnj4
CM S1 Ep 4 Film Selection Show Notes
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a long-form podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies, and virtual reality. This month (April 2021) we are splitting our podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (April 1), Machinima Films (April 8), Machinima Discussion (April 15), and a Special “Build a Machinima PC” podcast (April 22).
This episode was produced by Ricky Grovejoined by hosts Phil Rice, Tracy Harwoodand Damien Valentine.
Summary: All four podcast hosts present their machinima film picks with Phil going first followed by Ricky then Tracy and closing with Damien’s pick. General discussion of each film follows its presentation. Film discussion leads to a general chat on copyright and youtube. There is also a brisk discussion of the satirical “Let’s Play” machinima genre.
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Machinima Film Selections
- 00:42 Phil’s film pick: “Paws” by acagnoroprod
https://youtu.be/t3GmLQeoCtM
- 9:30 Ricky’s first film pick “Ghost Bois” by Spooktergeist
https://youtu.be/Phx0fdT96DU
Spooktergeist’s Youtube channel
The Spooktergeist - YouTube
- 14:18 Ricky’s second film pick “Justice.exe” by Oddboy_Eman
https://youtu.be/Am_41wM5FQU
Oddboy_Eman’s Youtube channel
Oddboy_Eman – YouTube
- Nightmare Puppeteer Machinima Creation Application
Nightmare Puppeteer on Steam (steampowered.com)
- 19:11 Tracy’s film pick “ SONS OF SKYRIM: PART II (ELDER SCROLLS V SKYRIM MACHINIMA)” by Egrif
https://youtu.be/VYMY8jzSEVE
Egrif’s Youtube channel
Egrif - YouTube
- 22:30 Phil on copyright and fair use
39:32 Damien’s film pick “The Worst City Ever” by Kilian Experience
https://youtu.be/8o1AEzn28j4
Kilian Experience YouTube channel
Kilian Experience – YouTube
- 44:31 Phil on “Let’s Play” machinima and satire
Music Credits
Opening Theme
Composed by Phil Rice from music segments @
Closing Film Music
Midnight Chill by xcreenplay (freesound.org)
On April 8, 2021, the Completely Machinima Podcast publishes its next episode which focuses on our Machinima Film selections for the month. We love machinima and want to share out film discoveries with you.
Be prepared for a passionate and oftentimes funny discussion of our Machinima Film picks for this month. Each film will be linked in the Show notes for the episode which goes live on April 8, 2021.
CM Interview with Scott Tanner Show Notes
Scott Tanner is, along with Chris Stapleton, the creator of Cine Guru, a cut-scene creation tool that is associated with Game Guru. We were all intrigued by this new application which looks quite smart. Tracy spent some time talking about Cine Guru and its future developments.
Links
- Cine Guru on Game Creator Store
https://www.tgcstore.net/product/35318
- Just Cause Top Gear Ep 1 – Top Gear machinima parody made in Just Cause 2
https://www.youtube.com/ sFBi_h282p8
- Game Guru and Game Guru Max
https://www.game-guru.com/
- Perlin noise filter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlin_noise
Games
- Just Cause 2
https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/8190/
- Just Cause 3
https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/225540/
- Empire Earth
https://www.gog.com/game/empire_earth_gold_edition
- Age of Empires
https://www.ageofempires.com/
- FPS Creator
https://www.thegamecreators.com/product/fps-creator-classic-open-source
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies, and virtual reality. This month (April 2021) we are splitting our 3rd podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (April 1), Machinima Films (April 8), Machinima Discussion (April 15), and a Special “Build a Machinima PC” podcast (April 22).
Episode 3 was produced by Ricky Grove joined by hosts Phil Rice, Tracy HarwoodandDamien Valentine.
Summary: Machinima News features updates, recommendations for new games, Phil’s re-cam of the famous Quake 2 match (Thresh vs Billox), Tracy’s publication with Ben Grussi called Pioneers in Machinima, information about Stanford’s machinima archive, comments we have received from our blog posts and a recording from one of our callers.
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Fully detailed and link-infused notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/04/01/season-1-episode-3-1-machinima-news-podcast-show-notes/
Time Stamps & Links
5:20 Microsoft Mesh
- Introducing Microsoft Mesh | Here can be anywhere
6:10 Milan Machinima Festival 2021
- MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL
6:39 Houdini Engine Free for Unity and Unreal
- SideFX
11:22 Start of Recommended New Games
13:09 City of Ghosts Netflix Animated series
- Vid: https://bit.ly/3cutz89
15:12 Cyberpunk 2077 Modding Introduction
- https://bit.ly/38WeDyT
15:58 Phil’s recam of famous Quake 2 match “Thresh vs Billox”
- Thresh vs. Billox
19:20 Tracy Harwood’s new book “Pioneers in Machinima”
Book: Pioneers in Machinima: The Grassroots of Virtual Production [Paperback]
Vid: Sponsors vs Freeloaders
Vid: Rooster Teeth’s Red Vs Blue (Ep1)
Vid: Diary of a Camper
Vid: The French Democracy
Vid: Stolen Life
32:19 Archive.org’s Machinima Collection
Machinima: Free Movies: Free Download, Borrow and Streaming: Internet Archive
34:41 Phil Rice on “Listener Feedback” and the poignant message from Tampon Insertion Gallery, a podcast listener bot.
Note: Music credits are spoken aloud at the end of the podcast
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies, and virtual reality. This month (April 2021) we are splitting our 3rd podcast into four sections which will post once a week: Machinima News (April 1), Machinima Films (April 8), Machinima Discussion (April 15), and a Special “Build a Machinima PC” podcast (April 22).
You can listen to our podcast here at Buzzsprout or through Apple/Google podcasts. Visit our Completely Machinima website for more information
https://www.completelymachinima.com
This podcast trailer was created using background music from the Prelinger Archives film "Out of This World" which is in the public domain.
Out of This World : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Machinima's historian, Ben Grussi, looks back over the past couple decades and shares some significant machinima-related events which occurred in the month of March.
- "Killer Robot" by Peter Rasmussen
- "Anna" by Fountainhead Entertainment
- "Fending Off Alien Robots, but Still Time to Flirt" (NY Times)
- "Inspired animation tools from an uninspired sitcom" (The Boston Globe)
- Wikipedia: Antics3D
- "Eschaton: Darkening Twilight" by Strange Company
Tracy Harwood interviews Ricard Gras, Games Chair at SIGGRAPH Asia 2020
- Video: "Silver Bells and Golden Spurs" by Ricard Gras
- Made in Second Life
- The Machinima Reader by Henry Lowood and Michael Nitsche
- Naughty Dog (The Last of Us 2)
- Epic MegaGrants
- The Unreal Fellowship
- Video: Red vs Blue Introduce New Blood Gulch Fortnite Creative Map
- Machinima Pioneers: Ill Clan
An excerpt of this interview was featured in Completely Machinima, Season 1 Episode 2.
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a monthly, long form podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies and virtual reality.
Episode produced by Phil Rice, joined by hosts Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, and Damien Valentine.
Our second podcast features a discussion of recent news in the machinima and VR sphere, four very diverse short films, a cameo by Baby Yoda, an interview with SIGGRAPH Asia’s Ricard Gras, and much more!
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Fully detailed and link-infused notes for this episode are available at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/03/04/season-1-episode-2/
6m 55s – News
- Red Dead Online PC Connection Troubles
- 1.7 Million New VR Users in 2020
- Rob Weaver on UEBS
- Vid: 11,000 Penguins VS Santa Claus Army
- Sneak peek at MetaHuman Creator
34m 38s – Sponsor: Machinima P1mp – The Fat Cat Conference
38m 01s – Films
Damien’s Pick
- Vid: “The Hamilton Incident” by Vindicator Jones (rel 19 Mar 2017)
Tracy’s Picks
- Vid: “A Tribute to Halo – UE4 (4.26) (Unreal Engine)” by William Faucher (rel 9 Feb 2021)
- Vid: “Baby Outlaw & Star Wars – Grogu, Mandalorian & Gangster Blurrg (Unreal Engine)” by Kite & Lightning (rel 17 Feb 2021)
- Vid: “Cassini Logs (Unreal Engine)” by Alex Popescu and Tim Ben Cole (rel 27 Jan 2021)
- Unreal Engine Short Film Challenge Australia Finalists
Ricky’s Pick
- Vid: “The Ship (Unreal Tournament 2004)” by Mednios(Egils Mednis) (rel 2009)
Phil’s Pick
- Vid: “I Built a 1000 Mile Long Hallway – The Sims 4” by GraystillPlays (rel 24 Aug 2019)
1h 17m 47s – Interview: Ricard Gras
- Ricard Gras, Games Chair at SIGGRAPH Asia 2020
1h 26m 56s – March Machinima History with Ben Grussi
- Vid: “Killer Robot” by Peter Rasmussen
- Vid: “Anna” by Fountainhead Entertainment
- Vid: “Eschaton: Darkening Twilight” by Strange Company
1h 30m 45s – Group Discussion
- Mobile Machinima?
- Why still use games?
Contact and Feedback for this show: https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Music Credits are spoken at the tail end of the podcast audio.
For complete details and links, please see the full liner notes at:
https://completelymachinima.com/2021/03/04/season-1-episode-2/
Completely Machinima episode 2 premieres on the 4th of March, 2021.
Video Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEN570uhesk
We'd love to hear your feedback!
https://completelymachinima.com/#talk
Music Credit:
"Quirky Dog" by Kevin McLeod - https://filmmusic.io/song/4259-quirky-dog - License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Show Notes for Podcast 1
And Now For Something Completely Machinima is a monthly, hour-long podcast devoted to machinima (movies made in game engines), real-time technologies, and virtual reality.
Machinima News
- Ricky shares his discovery of a new Epic/Unreal Engine course for machinima filmmakers: Independent Filmmaking in the Unreal Engine.
- Phil updates us on the NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima feature which was announced in October 2020, but has yet to appear.
- Tracy tells us about the sale of Second Life and Disney's incredible virtual production Tomorrowland: Around the World and the supporting After Movie machinima.
- And finally, Damien shares his research into film festivals around the world that accept machinima films like FantaSci Short Film Festival and the New Media Film Festival
Machinima Films of the Month
- Damien tells us about the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer remade in World of Warcraft called "World of Cyberpunk Trailer"
- Tracy goes retro with her choice of an amazing machinima film "Beast" by Leo Lucien-Bey.
- Phil chooses a very contemporary film, "Sugar" by Evan Ryan shot in the brand-new machinima/animation tool "Nightmare Puppeteer" created by M dot Strange.
- Ricky shares his love of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" trailer by David Vann which was shot in Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2.
Machinima Filmmaker Interview - David Vann
- Ricky contacted the director of the "Town That Dreaded Sundown" trailer (David Vann) by phone and spoke with him about his background as a filmmaker and how he created his film in RDR2. David also spoke about his stop-motion Lego films which are hilarious and satirical.
Machinima Group Discussion
- Ricky posed two questions to his other three hosts 1, What is the difference between the terms "machinima", "real-time animation" and "virtual cinema?" and 2, What is the status of machinima in 2021? Is machinima in decline or are we advancing? The answers ranged through machinima films/filmmakers past and present.
Uncut version of our Machinima News is available here
Machinima veterans Phil Rice and Ricky Grove along with their machinima pals Tracy Harwood and Damien Valentine are creating a brand-new podcast devoted to machinima (the art of making movies with games), real-time technology and a bit of virtual reality. Their premiere episode will start on February 4, 2021, and will feature news, films, interviews, discussion and satiric comedy all focused on machinima and machinima filmmakers
This teaser/trailer will give you and idea of the style of the Completely Machinima podcast - fun, free wheeling with sharp discussion and a heavy dose of satire.
Join Phil, Ricky, Tracy and Damien on the first Thursday of every month for an hour-long show that will entertain and enlighten you!
You can find out more detailed information along with a blog at the completelymachinima.com website. Note that in the coming weeks the Completely Machinima Podcast will be available on major podcast sites like Apple and Google podcasts.