Who doesn't love a good olde Western? This week we delve into a great short by avidredeadenjoyer, released 21 Sept 2024, called The Loss. It has been made in the only engine a Western machinima can be, RDR2. We all especially liked one particular shot, which really goes to the heart of why machinima has added so much to movie-making. This week, we also talk about a second pick, a Frontier: Elite 2 short by The Mystic Mushroom accompanied by the Blue Danube: The second best space sim ever made... Enjoy!

1:15 The Western vibe

4:00 The tropes, the story and the cinematography

5:15 Mid shots vs close-ups

7:25 The sentiment portrayed

11:22 The beginning, middle and end!

13:06 Music and foley

13:30 Steam trains: down memory lane for Tracy

16:02 An outstanding shot – tell us more @avidredeadenjoyer!

21:40 Mixing with Chopin maybe not the best choice?

24:50 The second best space sim ever made…

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

A packed ep this month, key tools, what's happening roundup and some fascinating projects - links to everything on the Show Notes page of our website.

1:29 BBC Sound Archive

2:30 Auto painter AI for Blender

2:56 Google image/film search AI

5:00 Tribute to David Graham

6:05 Mouse: PI For Hire!

7:05 Azeroth politicised? Surely not!

10:13 Pigeon Bringer of Doom and Destroyer of Humanity, by Solofilms

10:50 The Flower that Never Dies, by NewGates Entertainment

11:21 Terminator and Cyberpunk 2077, by eli_handle_b.wav

12:27 Warhammer, JT Music

13:03 Ian Hubert’s Dynamo Dream Part 2 is finally out

14:13 Star Citizen Con updates SC1.0

18:31 Squadron 42 gameplay reveal update

23:09 Hubnet machinima, Overclock and EE Studios

26:15 Luminaria still open!

27:00 GTA Hamlet documentary, Sam Crane

28:40 Reallusion 3D character contest results – stunning work!

31:30 Movies Tycoon out of early access

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

This week's ep we dedicate to a 3D animation by a French student collective made in their final year of studies, streamed through @TheRookiesCo channel. It is not technically #machinima as its made using traditional #animation tools but nonetheless we absolutely loved it - and its a recommendation by one of our channel's regular followers @3dchick. The film is a post-apocaylptic robot tale, inspired by Zaha Hadid's architectonic style.

2:00 Ricky's intro
8:25 Benevolence vs malificence? A moral tale for bots!
13:46 How to achieve personality in machines? This is an example reminiscent from the early days of machinima and the work of Peter Rasmussen
16:21 Cultural references in this film were not film-based but engineering based - is this a reflection of contemporary times and the emergent use of 3D animation tools?
18:45 A clever use of missing information to set the scene

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

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

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

This week, we review a machinima that has taken its inspiration and cue from the original movie Forbidden Planet, released in 1956. This is the animated and stylized sequel we've all been waiting for, set immediately after the events reported in the film. It has been written and directed by Biggs Trek, aka Philip Browne, whose creative talent shines through in this.

1:19 Intro to the film
6:00 Takes us back to the original film, in a very good way!
14:52 A couple of quibbles?
19:53 Color grading
23:00 Clay face
27:00 Eye movement

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

News update: interjecting our normal weekly service for a short special - Damien discusses the latest Kitbash contest. Links in the show notes.

Credits -
Speaker/Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Animo Domini Beats

We have another packed news update ep this week, check out the show notes for links to our discussion points -
1:14 iClone 8 update discussion, and Phil picks the discussion up again at 34:38 on broken grass

6:30 Baldur’s Gate 3 modding tools release discussion

8:20 Starfield expansion pack discussion

10:00 Documentary machinima: focus on TF2

10:45 Hollywood is broken: enter machinima? (Andreasson Horowitz seem to have had their eyes and ears closed for a few years!)

12:27 Game Sprout’s article about gameplay becoming performance

12:50 Denuvo’s release of Unbotify and discussion

25:00 YouTube app update discussion

27:30 Nice projects to take a look at, genAI and Metropius, an example of a deiselpunk world-based story with numerous creative treatments – worth taking a look at for its interesting monetisation strategy

32:00 Kane Pixel’s Backrooms, more ‘found footage’ fun!

37:36 Sketchfab and Epic’s Unreal Marketplace merge into FAB

45:15 YouTube AI disclosure rules – how are we complicit in a new citizen science project? We extend the discussion reflecting on the algorithm detection processes and what impact this may have on AI generated music and AI cloned voices.

1:06:50 Biggs Trek’s Forbidden Planet: Children of Krell (which we review in our ep next week) magazine article

1:07:47 Shameless plug: Phil and Damien’s channel livestreams, respectively on Sunday and Monday

Credits
Speakers: Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Phil Rice

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

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