This week we take a look at another stunning Team Fortress 2 short called Assault on 2Fort by JP Stevens aka Lolripk, a recommendation made to us by Dominzki (whose own TF2 short we reviewed in E135). What a great choice this is: we loved this film, a classic RED vs BLU tale but with a layer of emotion that is as beautifully portrayed as it is unexpected in SFM. These characters have real depth to them and we note how that’s been achieved, even though the focal character doesn’t even speak. Did we mention the fight choreography too? We reflect on the game lore, the significance of the community in the creative process, and how this story is told from an unusal perspective. We also reflect on why machinima series almost never complete… but we certainly hope Lolripk doesn’t follow the pattern!
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
Assault on 2Fort by Lolripk, released 9 July 2022 –
A Star Citizen extravaganza: this week, we discuss a brilliant re-creation of Erik Wernquist’s epic short, Wanderers, released by one of its creators Mr Hasgaha. Whilst this is a faithful scene-by-scene depiction of the original, its actually so much more than that too. We comment once again on the incredible qualities of the game, and how the fact it is an open world reflects the original inspiration for Wernquist’s film: the artwork of Chesley Bonestell, whose paintings were partly the reason that NASA exists today. The machinima also pays homage to Carl Sagan in the only way it can, to his words in the iconic book Pale Blue Dot. If you have only particles of space nerd in you, we think you’ll absolutely love this week’s film, certainly we all do.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
We Were Wanderers by Mr Hasgaha, released 21 May 2024
Wanderers – a short film by Erik Wernquist (official version), by Erik Wernquist – digital artist
This week’s selection is a stunning cinematic imaginary by Unknown Dino, focussing on the next version of Half Life (soon to be released… er, well, possibly in the next 10 years or so?). There is a lot of craft in this film, called HL: Overworld and made in Blender, which has taken its inspiration both from the HL Reddit community and the HL2 Artbook ‘Raising The Bar’. We also talk about the positioning of the new world portrayed as being the next obvious logical step in the story arc for Half Life – HL1 being a portal through which aliens jump to Earth, HL2 being a kind of survival against the odds, Alyx being the prequel, and HL3 being the fight back taken to those hateful Combine… yeah, we wish!
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
E142 Half Life: OVERWORLD by Unknown Dino, released 27 May 2024 –
Another packed episode of news items we found for machinima creators everywhere. We take a look at some games news including several that have released music albums recently and discuss why we think that is. We go through some of the latest AI matters, including Vimeo’s new AI content guidelines. We found one of the best Unreal master classes we ever seen, more like a work of art than a ‘how to’, but since its by the amazing Luis Andrade, we’d expect nothing less. We also found some partciularly juicy tidbits we think you’ll enjoy.
YouTube Version of This Episode
https://youtu.be/iQgqKU3O1eM
Show Notes & Links
Games, games, games…
PLEASE, if anyone has any great WoW machinima, share them with us!!! We are desperate to celebrate WoW achieving 20 years, but we just can’t find anything worth sharing…
Game destruction and consumer rights… what are the unintended consequences of Accursed Farms and others attempts to clear up this mess on machinima creators? See video discussion here –
Suno’s creator contest results, and the winner is… Maybe!
Congratulations to all 500 winners of Vol. 1 of the #SummerofSuno challenge, where we awarded a total of $100,000 from the $1 million prize pool we’ll be giving away this year!
Luis Andrade’s stunning ‘how to‘ video for the Firefly music video, a work of art as well as a tutorial –
Andy Davis released 5 sets of dynamic lenses now available on the Unreal Marketplace. No blueprints, only lens objects that apply to any CineCamera. When pulled from focusMin to INF, they distort dynamically. Sourced from VFX assets to work interactively within game engine, link here. This is an example of what they do, Vimeo link here
Tidbits
Lip sync tutorial for ComfUI –
Making the case for alternative content creator distribution channels, comments by Harmony Korine here
Video game actors are officially on strike (SAG AFTRA)… but those working on GTA6 are not permitted to, link here
Tracy Harwood and Ben Grussi’s Machinima Book, On Sale Now!
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