Monthly Archives: September 2022

S2 Ep 46: Film Review – Facing the Wolf

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes September 15, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, we focus our discussion on Facing the Wolf, a series of films by Iain Douglas and Mark Coverdale, submitted to the Milan Machinima Film Festival 2022.  The film presents a series of provocative ideas which provoke Ricky, Phil, Tracy and Damien to have a deep discussion on the role of information, ambiguity and audience investment.  What are your thoughts on the film series?



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Facing the Wolf, by Iain Douglas and Mark Coverdale, released 2021

Poem, Coverdale – https://www.artschoolmodpoet.com/facing-the-wolf-poems

A trilogy of poetic machinima –

Facing the Wolf: i, Douglas and Coverdale, released 16 July 2021

Facing the Wolf I

Facing the Wolf: ii, Douglas and Coverdale, released 16 July 2021

Facing the Wolf II

Facing the Wolf: iii, Douglas and Coverdale, released 16 July 2021

Facing the Wolf III

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?

Useful lnks

Luis Bunuel’s An Andalusian Dog (1929)

An Andalusian Dog

Bertolt Brecht’s alienation effect

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 45 Films (September 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes September 8, 2022 1 Comment

In this episode, Ricky, Tracy, Phil and Damien review some of the best short movies we’ve seen made using machinima and virtual production techniques yet! Not all are hot off the press, but certainly films like The Lord Inquisitor – Prologue allude to why Unreal Engine has become such a key tool for creators today, as beautifully exemplified in extraordinary films we review this week, The Cloud Racer and Prazinburk Ridge. Person2184, made in Unreal Tournament 2004, was an altogether different approach to experiencing real-time content – originally intended to be experienced in-game and is an early example of the promise of what VR may yet become in future. 



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

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 and Short of the Week, curated review by Jason Sondhi, released 10 August 2022

The Cloud Racer

21:16 The Lord Inquisitor – Prologue, by Warpgazer Animations (released 28 August 2016). See also this promotional video released in 2013, when it had already been in production for 2 years!

The Lord Inquisitor – Prologue

39:15 Person2184 (UT2004 machinima), by Friedrich Kirschner released 4 April 2008 (and the version we’re linking to uploaded by mdvhimself on 17 August 2022) and hear more about The Journey in our Unreal history episode by Ben Grussi, recently released. Addendum: Friedrich has confirmed the work was released in 2005 and premiered at the Machinima Film Festival that year.

person2184

This image is from the Machinima Europe Festival 2007, showing Friedrich Kirschner front left (striped jumper) among other machinima luminaries including Hugh Hancock (mid back), Paul Marino (right front), Alex Chan (next to Friedrich) and Tracy (centre front).

Friedrich Kirschner at Machinima Festival Europe 2007

59:09 Prazinburk Ridge by Yes, Commissioner? aka Martin Bell, Unreal Engine 4 (released 27 June 2022) and Steven Bell’s book about the life of the character portrayed in the film, Dougie Clark, https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/man-all-talents

Prazinburk Ridge

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 44 News (September 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes September 1, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Ricky, Tracy, Phil and Damien review latest machinima and virtual production news items: contest updates, amazing new music videos made using Unreal Engine 5, how to turn MidJourney creations into 3D objects ready for animation, bringing in3D avatars from your phone into Reallusion’s Character Creator 4, Dreamwork’s Moonray becoming open source, Nvidia Omniverse 2022.1 update, Adobe Premiere Pro’s filmmakers guide, Lynchland in Second Life and more! 



YouTube Version of this Episode

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

Jackson Wang’s Cruel

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

Kotor: Episode 1 – The Spire

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?