Monthly Archives: February 2024

S4 E118 Slapstick: 100 Ways to Die in Starfield (Feb 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 29, 2024 Leave a reply

100 Ways to Die in Starfield is wonderful stuff – whether you are 15 or 50! For all those who have distant memories of seeing classic slapstick comedy featuring Charlie Chaplin in B&W, well now you can see a contemporary interpretation in the incredible Starfield universe – and enjoy it with the grandkids! @mans1ay3r has a rich stream of work to his name – others in the ‘ways to die’ series include RDR2 and Star Wars. Importantly, given the game environment in which this has been made has been less well received than expected, the success of this short exemplifies the role #machinima plays for publishers in keeping it at the forefront of players’ imaginations. Great job all around!



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Film, by Mans1ay3r, released 23 December 2023 –

What is slapstick comedy? History, examples and advice – check out this link

Starfield updates mentioned in our discussion are here

S4 E117 DC vs Marvel + Unreal Engine vs Action Man + AI (Feb 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 22, 2024 Leave a reply

This week we compare and contrast, in a way extending that ongoing debate about whose IP is the daddy… but the ep is about much more than that too. We discuss  @solofilmmaking4857 ‘s use of #chatgpt to generate a film’s story, using the plots of 60 of his portfolio works on Batman, mixing styles and genres along the way. We don’t see it as wholly successful and we discuss why. We contrast that with an unusual hobbyist technique to create ‘analogue machinima’, inspired by Spiderman toy figurines digitised and animated by  @MakeItMoveMedia. In the end, our conclusion is that its all Marvellous!



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes and Links

Vengence: Batman Fan Made Cinematic | Unreal Engine 5.3 | DLSS 3.5 by Solo Filmmaking

‘Making of’ film, link –

Spider-Man Action Figure Animations Episodes 1-8 by Make It Move Media

Interview in Reallusion’s digital magazine here

S4 E116 GTA5: Danser Encore | Escape Game (Feb 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 14, 2024 1 Comment

This week’s review is of a self-contained excerpt from a larger film, called Escape Game by  @CrisUberman. This part of the film is the final chapter of the story, Danser Encore, voiced by  @lionelmazari1990 with a song by  @hksaltimbank. We delve into the inspiration for the themes in the film, which draws on the philosophy of Empedocles and Rosset, although we perhaps lower the tone a little with reference to Oscar Wilde! 



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Excerpt of full film, Danser Encore by Cris Uberman –

Full film, released 28 Nov 2023, featuring Louis Fouche –

Artist website and blog link here

I’m Still Seeing Breen by Paul Marino, originally released in 2004

Journey into the Metaverse by Tutsy NAvArAthnA, released 2011

S4 E115 Machinima News Omnibus (Feb 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 8, 2024 Leave a reply

This week, we spend some time talking about new tools, emergent topics, AI and copyright (again), with some interesting links for you below. Check out the episode here –



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

New tool releases

iClone’s ‘clumsy moves’ pack, available at $70, can be downloaded here

Crowd simulation tools, including Reallusion’s sim bundle for CC4 and social groups for iClone 8, link here and a nice video here –

and Kenneth MacLean’s MegaHumans plugin WIP. No link for the latter, but here’s a neat show and tell video –

A free new VR mod by Praydog for Unreal Engine – here’s an overview about it –

Mickey and AI discussion

Disney’s Mickey in a horror game called Infestation Origins that will be released later this year –

and an interesting AI generated short that seems to confirm Mickey’s transmogrification into a horror character –

Princeton’s Public Domain Project released an annual report – check it out here for 2024.

Improving the quality of your machinima films with AI, check out Pryda Parx suggestions here –

and you can also check out the restored machinimas Phil did for the Machiniplex channel here, and here’s the trailer for the body of work too –

Google’s VideoPoet that turns prompts into animations without the interim stage of an image and a separate tool like Runway to animate it.  Here’s a neat example of its capabilities, focussing on a travelling raccoon –

Mods and Cockers!

The Convergence mod for Elden Ring (and many others), v 1.4 – a nice overview here –

and here’s a link to the mod for download

A case of corporate bullying? Check out the situation this Minecrafter is facing and if you’re a legal expert, do please get in touch with him to help out!

S4 E114 Sims 4: After the Robbery Goes Wrong (Feb 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 1, 2024 Leave a reply

Made with Sims 4 characters although animated in Blender to great effect, this is a short short at under one minute long by @tricoufamily. It is also all about the title, and interesting to reflect on how we have all seen similar things in the film but interpreted them differently. We conclude this is masterfully done, but check out how we get to that!



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

After the Robbery Goes Wrong | A Sims 4 Machinima Mini, by Zombietrait, released  12 Oct 2022

Joker scene on subway (on Flashback FM’s channel) here