In all our years of involvement with machinima (over 75 years between us!), feature length has been something we’ve rarely found watchable… but with this week’s pick, we were proven wrong, mostly! Emesis Blue, made in Source Filmmaker using the Team Fortress 2 characterisations by Fortress Films, is an incredibly well-made if very complex story that was crafted over many years.
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
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
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 –
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 –
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!
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