This is our regular monthly news update on things relevant to the world of machinima.

1:19 Projects: Isoterica’s latest release, DisUtopia; Hamilton in Animal Crossing by GK Animations; EvilDrPorkChop’s No Man’s Sky cinematic

4:28 Phil’s Chuck Norris vs 50K Cavemen – a true scientific experiment

11:20 ElevenLabs vs a cast – choices and rationale

15:30 The Remarkable Life of Ibelin – shortlisted for the Oscars (sadly, didn’t win) >>> but Flow, made in Blender did WIN!!! Congratulations to the creative team

20:00 John Gaeta’s Escape.ai platform

21:30 At All Costs, car chase physics sim/game

22:51 Second Life’s AI character design launched

23:08 Project Odyssey season 2 award winners

25:30 UK’s Govt consultation on genAIs and copyright processes

28:27 BBC Radiophonic sound effects released – subscription vs licensing

37:00 Valve releases source code for mod tools

36:45 Dune Awakening release date announced – worms and thumpers and all!

39:20 Tetris, a game release inspired movie – on Apple

41:37 Liberty City being ported by GTA5 – a fab mod of GTA4

47:06 John Martin, Reallusion, AI generated characters usiung Kling AI

54:15 Nvidia Omniverse launcher – implications for creators

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week we review a 'golden age' machinima, starring none other than Ricky Grove playing 'Bogart', and Ingrid Moon playing err, 'Ingrid', with Phil having created the score and Ricky having produced the sound design. Its a short by German-American creator, Andre Pesch, called The Days After, made in GTA San Andreas. Its a story that pre-2020 probably we'd have all said, simply, yep that was great, without any real appreciation for what is actually being portrayed in this 2006 film. However, there's a sense in which this now brings back memories of lockdowns and isolation, and the fear of an unknown viral menace devastating our lives. It perfectly illustrates the narrow grip many had on reality, as Ricky observes in this "... war, crime, patriotism - you can name those things but you can never fix them."

0:44 Introduction – a nepotistic choice!

7:05 Phil’s role in the production, how to deal with copyrighted music

8:53 Score design, a development process

9:23 Anti-commercial storytelling

10:54 Lest we forget – the quality of the writing is outstanding

13:00 Embodying the storytelling process in the creative practice

16:00 Using the game to develop a novel stylised aesthetic

21:04 T40X virus and its resonance on humanity

31:44 Ambiguity rocks – take a pause to watch the film HERE!

32:14 Discussion: the ending vs an ending

37:38 Science fiction’s conceit

39:41 Achievements

40:28 A sequel?

45:00 Andre Pesch, where is he now?

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

Film link on the YouTube channel

A once in a lifetime event in Elite Dangerous? Yup, that's what fascinated us all too. This week we review a series of machinimas that approach the destruction of a Thargoid ship attacking planet Earth in different ways - a strange and unusual phenomenon in a game world that we reflect on, only possible in open world sims.

1:30 Elite Dangerous: an historic event – Thargoids heading for Earth

3:30 The ship’s problems, community action, the countdown and the consequences – a once in a lifetime event in the game

5:30 Recording the event: a documentary; first person reflection; let’s play

9:12 Why only a one-time event? Phil looks forward to the montage

12:00 The sense of camaraderie in the game vs the paparazzi

13:22 The concept is philosophically interesting but the filmic qualities are variable – context is everything

17:53 Salvaging the remains?

18:52 Open worlds are truly fascinating!

21:06 A model for NASA?

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

A packed news episode, with Tracy's analysis of the AI art copyright ruling decision and a discussion with Damien about his hit fan series, Heir to the Empire - the Star Wars story that everyone always wanted to see made. Do comment on the discussion (on the YouTube channel or the Blog post). The links are available in the show notes.

0:45 Tracy is the first woman on Mars!!!

2:38 RunwayML’s third annual film festival – call for submissions now open

4:20 Second Life evolves [again]

7:00 Bloomsbury’s video series: Richard Williams’ Animation Series

7:30 Projects: Gladiator II

10:00 The Freeman Chronicles – a Half Life real life film!

11:30 For Phil: a Tom Cook Elite Dangerous; for Damien: a Mandalorian cinematic made in Unreal; for Ricky, a Godot 4.3 cinematic

12:40 The US AI art copyright ruling – what do you think?

21:22 50 series release of NVIDIA’s graphics cards

23:19 An HL3 teaser?

24:10 Hollywood Animal – The Movies as a business

26:05 The TMU Tribute Show to Ken White

26:55 Astartes 2, Warhammer official film

28:40 Sims 1 and 2 re-released

31:33 Rooster Teeth is back?!

32:55 Tracy asks Damien about his Heir to the Empire hit fan series and what comes next

Credits -
Speakers: Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This ep, we take a walk down memory lane to the first major peak of #machinima with a documentary produced by @ProducerStuartBrown , released in 2003. The film is a fly on the wall documentary of the creative practice of the legendary Hugh Hancock (founder of #Machinima.com) and his @strangecompany

0:39 Introduction to the film; shock and awe: Hugh’s bravado, character, energy and enthusiasm shines through
3:09 Foundations of Machinima.com, the Strange Company, the ILL Clan and others – the first peak of machinima
6:54 Stuart Brown’s YouTube channel
7:50 Minority report: “This may be the future of filmmaking” (2003)!
8:14 Positioning machinima as previs, preproduction, and the role of remote directing
10:40 Technical challenges to filmmaking back in 2003
13:58 What happened next to Machinima.com
15:35 Fond memories
19:32 Boom and bust: the poison of the profit motive?
22:40 The hard ask of the @roosterteethanimation #rvb model
23:41 Money as a means to an end
25:52 The team and the decisions
27:29 Frank Dellario’s humour! @ILLClan @frankdellario7401
29:05 Remembering Peter Rasmussen

Show notes & links: includes Tracy's notes and an interview with Hugh - see links below

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week's pick is nostalgic for a time before machinima... its a rare look back at the demoscene era that informed and influenced the evolution of machinima all those years ago. The film selection is called We Are Demo, made in 2016 by Fairlight, Noice, Offence, and it was originally shared on X by the Commodore Computer Museum. Check out our review and thoughts, and do add your comments on our YouTube channel.

• Phil introduces the film We Are Demo, which was made in 2016 using technology from the 1980s and 1990s
• The film is a tribute to the demoscene, and the Commodore 64
• Phil explains the demoscene and its requirement for both technical and artistic skills.
• We discuss the historical context of the demo scene and a few anecdotes from some early experiences
• The demoscene was a way for creators to self-promote and showcase their skills, often incorporating their team logos into the demos
• Phil examines the use of the SID chip, which limited music to three notes of polyphony, explaining how composers overcame some key limitations
• We Are Demo adheres to the musical limitations, using the SID chip to create the music
• Is it all about nostalgia and creativity involved in creating music and visuals within these technical constraints?
• We discuss the visual and musical style of the film, and how it is faithful to the era of the demoscene
• What’s the role of an emulator these days, a discussion inspired by the film.
• Ricky recalls the SIGGRAPH conferences and the demoscene meetings
• We reminisce about the unique community and artistic spirit of the demoscene, which is similar to the early days of machinima.
• What are your thoughts about this pick – add some comments in the discussion below about whether the demo scene is something only older generations will appreciate.

Credits:
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine
Editor/Producer: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week's pick is a machinima run through of the female V character in Cyberpunk 2077, by Charles Liu, edited to a Johnny Cash classic, Hurt. Sound design in this is everything, and we especially like how the fade is used to emphasise the game footage vs the words of the song at different points in the film. Check out our views -

1:14 Intro to film, music video, a perfect complement to I’m Still Seeing Breen (S5 E163)?

3:37 Music storytelling vs film storytelling – interplay and aesthetic choice

6:10 Phil’s perspective: over saturation?

10:15 Masterful editing

16:06 Sets the scene for Cyberpunk 2, let’s hope they address the narrow narrative arc of potential offshoot stories possible in the world for machinimators to hone their skills on?

22:05 Relationships with NPCs in game matter

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Tracy Harwood
Music: Animo Domini Beats

The Little Limpet is an Elite Dangerous animation by CMDR Nickweb85, released in July 2024. It has shades of Disney X David Attenborough X Busby Barkley. You could say it has something for everyone then... well, assuming you enjoy a good space opera/ballet (which of course we do). Check out our comments -

0:44 Intro to film, Elite Dangerous, Pixar-like, composited game footage using Blender

4:17 Story, Tom Cook’s music and anthropomorphic animations

6:45 Experimental work, testing emotional representations

7:59 Ep 1 vs Ep 2, a Busby Barkley space ballet

10:16 Criticism: why split the episodes where they have been?

13:37 The importance of machinima telling the stories about the side kick in an MMO

16:19 Tom Cook’s dedication to making music for ED machinimas, IP and music performance

Credits -
Speakers: Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats