Podcast Episodes

S5 E182 Machinima News Omnibus (May 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes May 14, 2025 Leave a reply

Our monthly roundup of all things we enjoy about this crazy world of machinima.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Projects

AFK’s Season 3 Star Wars Parody ‘supercut’, created in UE5 –

Second Life’s Fantasy Faire, Pryda Parx Studio’s run through covers 18 regions in total – as ever, great work by everyone being showcased –

and here is the Fantasy Faire Second Life YouTube channel for videos submitted to the Film Festival Machinima Competition, hosted by Chantal Harvey

The GTA6 new trailer release… check out Brian in the first few seconds!

Mans1ay3r’s Skyrim short, called Beware the Daughter of the Troll – a Bard’s Tale, a really stunning song, beautifully produced –

and ToCoSo’s song called If We All Haul Together, celebrating the community is Elite Dangerous –

Drunk Physicist’s Mission on a Tiny Planet – available on Instagram here

genAI updates

AI Animation Contest winners hosted by Curious Refuge, supported by Promise Studios and Luma AI – the show reel is worth a run through –

Films made with AI will be eligible for the Oscars, although decision-making will of course consider its role and that of human creators – article here

Flawless’ Watch the Skies AI dubbing technology is a Swedish scifi that’s now acceptable to those who can’t speak the language – impressive stuff –

Runway’s Gen-4 is also worth taking a look at, producing multiple styles for a single character –

Sora AI‘s Red Dead Redemption 2 1970s style Western Movie –

Phil’s AI copyright discussion link for Suno AI

Tools & Resources

Reallusion’s CC5 teaser

and Solomon Jagwe‘s thoughts –

A new Star Wars game afoot?

How to create smart hair

April Phil

Minecraft Speedrunner vs 3 Hunters –

and don’t forget to check out Phil’s latest machinima series, Ralph & Chuck

S5 E181 Skyrim: True Nords (May 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes May 7, 2025 Leave a reply

This week’s machinima is made in Skyrim, and whilst its a little older, it shows off beautifully the quality of the game, characters and lip sync capability. The film, by Wanderersofthedas was released in 2015, and was made using lines drawn only from the game’s NPCs. It makes for an oddly familial campfire conversation, notwithstanding the numerous references to in game lore. Do you and add your comments on our channels, as usual.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

True Nords – Skyrim Machinima by Wanderersofthedas, released 7 Sept 2015

S5 E180 Gmod: Fragile Harmony (May 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 30, 2025 Leave a reply

This week’s ep focusses on the 2024 Crowbar Productions Machinima Mayhem contest winner: Fragile Harmony, made in Garry’s Mod by Logan and released on 9 Sept 2024. Logan sent this in for us to take a look at, and we’re sure glad he did. Yes there are a few things we could be critical about, but storytelling isn’t one of them. Check out our review and leave your comments in the usual way.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Fragile Harmony | Gmod short film | 2024 Crowbar Productions’ Machinima Mayhem – 1st Place Winner by Logan, released 9 Sept 2024

S5 E179 Anime Machinima (Apr 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 23, 2025 Leave a reply

This week we discuss a machinima form we’ve not really talked about before – anime. Whilst its one of Ricky’s favourite creative forms, for the rest of us its a little out of our comfort zone! We take a look at two films, both made in Final Fantasy 14 (FFXIV), Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End by  @WheatTee  (released 2 Feb 2025) and Arcadion by  @magitek_productions  (released 1 Jan 2025). Check out our discussion and reviews, and do add your comments.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End by Wheat Tea, released 2 Feb 2025

Arcadion | FFXIV Machinima by Magitek Productions, released 1 Jan 2025

Kitarō Kōsaka, a contributor to Studio Ghibli, has produced promotionals for FFXIV and is well known for works that push the boundaries of the anime by integrating digital technologies –

Rooster Teeth’s RWBY, episode one here –

Elden Ring mod v2.2 link how to here, includes download link –

S5 E178 Machinima News Omnibus (Apr 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 16, 2025 Leave a reply

This week is yet another packed episode of updates and things we think you’ll find relevant to creating great machinima content, including more great projects to be inspired by, genAIs we’ve spotted, Steam’s rip off, inZOI’s challenge to Sims and the phenomenon known as the ‘Minecraft Movie’. Check out our discussion and do add comments.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Projects

A GTA5 Zombie Movie, called Survive by Gabrian Films –

Cuco – A Love Letter to LA by Paul Trillo, created in 2D and AI –

Neural Viz released episode 485: Pog Corto of Tigg Talk – all about tariffs –

Anomidae on making a game, an explainer –

Another WoW documentary, thanks to Ben Grussi for sending this over to us –

A GTA6 mAIchinima, made with Cursor and Claude Sonnet 3.7, released on X, link here.

genAI updates

A conversational AI voice synthesiser by Sesame.com worth looking at.

ElevenLabs launched its Actor Mode, here’s the show & tell video –

Runway released Gen 4 which enables you to precisely generate consistent characters, locations and objects across scenes –

chatGPTs 4.o image generator launched and immediately took backlash from a Studio Ghibli meme – here’s the post that seemed to start it all off. Link here.

A method for aligning 3D generators with simulation feedback for physical soundness – generates 3D assets that are stable under gravity and faithful to the conditioning images, meaning they don’t fall over so easily, and can also be used for 3D print models. Link here.

A recamming tool called Recammaster, which takes a video file as input and then generates a breadth of different perspectives on it.  Link to Github here.

An AI assisted VTubing tool, called AIWarper/WarpTuber, which allows you to animate portraits or character images by mapping your facial expressions and movements to them in real-time. It supports both static images and video animations, making it perfect for virtual avatars, content creation, and streaming. Link here. YouTube tutorial here –

And in Other News

How Steam works – a review of the algorithmic problems that Steam perpetuates –

Apple Arts Studios, nothing to do with Apple Inc. has launched Animation Shopee – an intriguing competitor to Reallusion’s character animations. Link here.

Nintendo Switch 2 launched, link here.

John Robertson’s gamer show called The Dark Room, link here and promo here –

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5060 Ti releases on 15 Apr, link here.

InZOI game, a competitor for Sims(?), out now on Steam. Link here and trailer here –

The Minecraft Movie, trailer here –

and article questioning its success in The Guardian here!