Podcast Episodes

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 41 Films (July 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 14, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Tracy, Damien and Phil discuss another great selection of recently released films from creators using a diverse range of engines.  Firstly, two films inspired by the recent release of Top Gun Maverick: a British take on the story followed by a trailer of the movie remade in a serious flight sim – to which Tracy asks ‘why?’ and Phil responds with his best Rocky impression.  Then films made in Mech, Star Citizen and Unreal Engine 5 – meantime, the team are expecting good news in the near future (Ricky’s escape from Elden Ring).



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

1:21 If Top Gun Was a British Film Part 2, by Squire (released 31 March 2022)

6:49 DCS World Movie | Top Gun: Maverick Intro by Phenom (released 16 June 2022)

If Top Gun was a British Film Part 2 (Square)

13:05 Discussion: Why recreate scenes from big budget films, such as Top Gun Maverick?

20:00 Hired Steel: A Mech Machinima – Episode Two, by TMC (released 25 February 2022) and the review of Episode One in Completely Machinima S1 Ep 16 Films (August 2021)

Hired Steel: A Mech Machinima Ep 2 (TMC)

27:40 Star Citizen – News – RED LINE Episode 2 (Elite Expeditionary), by EE Studios (released 13 April 2022)

35:57 Unreal Engine 5 Concept Short Film by JSFilmz (released 17 June 2022)

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 40 News (July 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 7, 2022 Leave a reply

Despite being encouraged to create an episode of just 15 minutes duration by one of our followers, the team have this month extended their coverage – hear Tracy, Damien and Phil discuss vtubing, Ricky’s Duke Henry the Red character in the game Evil Dead, the FTC’s proposed updates to social media guidelines, Unreal’s review of the Matrix Awakens Experience, John Gaeta’s latest exploits, metaquette, Reallusion’s iClone 8 and CC4 and a number of other exciting developments relevant to the world of real-time filmmaking and machinima.  Thankfully, you can use the timestamps to jump to the bits your most interested in!



YouTube Version of This Episode

Time stamps, links and show notes

1:34 Feedback from our followers: 3DChick, Al Scotch, Spentaneous, Mike Clements, Circu Virtu, Notagamer3d

8:14 Vtubing and Face Rig app (Steam), VTuber Studio – real time puppeteering using faceware

17:41 Interactive video on Vimeo, branching narrative storylines

20:23 Ukranian films of the recent war, showcased at Milan Machinima Film Festival website

24:17 Evil Dead and the character Duke Henry the Red played by Ricky Grove and IP generally, Ricky Grove on IMDb

Ricky vs Ricky

39:29 FTC updating ‘disclosures 101 for social media infuencers’ guide’ discussion, the relationship between brands, platforms and influencers and see also [Company] Rulez! (Phil Rice aka zsOverman & Evan Ryan aka Krad Productions).  Here is PC Gamers’ comments and proposals to update the guidelines

54:55 Competition updates: Nvidia Omniverse Machinima promo video ‘Top Goose’ | A NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima Short #MadeInMachinima, released 9 June 2022, and Unreal competition.  Here is Ben Tuttle’s The Amazing Comet (Unreal Engine/iClone) (4413 Media), released 9 June 2022.  And here’s a link to William Faucher’s YouTube channel.

screencap Ben Tuttle’s The Amazing Comet

58:03 Making of Unreal’s Matrix Awakens Experience, Behind the Scenes on The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, released 6 June 2022, and Tracy’s interview with John Gaeta, VFX, The Matrix films, released 17 February 2022.  Living Cities is a new metaverse mirror world, website link and Visual Effects Giant John Gaeta joins Inworld AI as Chief Creative Officer, 1 June 2022 and Inworld AI teaser video, released 28 April 2022

screencap Behind the Scene of Matrix Awakens Experience

1:00:16 Pooky Amsterdam’s blog on metaverse etiquette, called Metaquette website link

1:00:39 Reallusion’s iClone 8 character animation processes including Character Creator 4 Launch by Reallusion (released 26 May 2022) and iClone 8 Demo Video by Reallusion (released 26 May 2022)

1:13:08 Mesh to MetaHuman in Unreal Engine by Unreal Engine, released 9 June 2022

1:13:33 Meta’s new model allows creating photoreal avatars with an iPhone, 80.lv, 14 June 2022 and full research publication

1:14:02 Mocap with the MoCats: Livestreaming with Multiple Actors (Faceware & Movella/Xsens) by Faceware, released 7 June 2022

1:14:29 Love, Death & Robots, Jibaro character creation Love, Death + Robots | Inside the Animation: Jibaro, Netflix, released 9 June 2022 and Art Dump: stunning projects made for Love, Death + Robots, 80.LV website link

1:16:48 Jonathon Nimmons WriteSeen.com, launched June 2022, website connecting creative writers with industry professionals (upload written content, attach a video pitch, audio clips, video clips and a link to a prototype if required)

1:19:08 A word of thanks to our sponsors

Completely Machinima History with Ben Grussi: Halo Machinima

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 23, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Ben reviews notable releases from the first days of Halo, including Steve Jobs reveal, the promotion of Nvidia’s GeForce2 GTS, Randall Glass’ classic Warthog Jump, the legendary Red Vs Blue release and others. See show notes and links on the CM website.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

0:47 May 1999, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Macintosh presentation reveal for Halo

Steve Jobs reveals Halo game, 1999

1:57 2000, Halo promo for NVIDIA Geforce2 GTS 

3:16 15 November 2001 Halo for Xbox released

3:40 First machinima for Halo, released 6 June 2002, Warthog Jump by Randall Glass 

5:04 Red vs Blue premieres, 1 April 2003, by Rooster Teeth Productions

7:04 Halo released for PC on 30 September 2003

7:31 Fire Team Charlie starts up in 2003

7:56 Halo PC Custom Edition released on 6 May 2004 and a recently made Halo PC Custom Edition Fan Documentary by Subpixel, released 17 April 2020

8:57 On 6 June 2004, the seed of Sponsors Vs Freeloaders is planted –

12:09 HaloTV.net was launched on 10 July 2004 – this channel (pre-YouTube) offered 24/7 Halo machinima primarily of clan matches with commentary plus had a dedicated Red Vs Blue channel

13:10 The Matrix (Halo Remix) by Halo1007 released (Halo Footage – Matrix Voice-Overs, released on 5 September 2004

Matrix (Remix)

14:01 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Dave Anderson, released 13 October 2004

14:55 Halo 2 released 9 November 2004 and Burnie Burns reports from Camp Bungie on the secret machinima test they doing in the game

16:26 The Codex series ran for 21 Episodes with an average run time 3-5 minutes and it’s prequel The Heretic, by Edgeworks Entertainment, released in 2005

17:39 This Spartan Life by Damien Lacedaemon aka Chris Burke premiered in May 2005

This Spartan Life

19:07 iGod… Holy Halo series by Fuzion Church, Crossroads Baptist Church and Chi-Ro Ministries, a Halo-based machinima to promote a Christian weekend retreat and to promote Christian principles in general – the episodes are covered on Halo.Bungie’s fan website (see Purple and Pink Mirrored), released 12 April 2005

20:55 First green screening machinima by AmandaJ3162, merging Sims 2 and Halo in You’re Fired, released 10 July 2005

You’re Fired

24:41 Company Rulz by Z-Studios and Krad Productions, a Microsoft game usage rules explainer, released in 2007 

Completely Machinima Interview: John MacInnes, screenwriter

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 16, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Tracy talks to John MacInnes about game engines as storytelling tools, professional and indie filmmaking, the demand for long form versus short form films, the future of machinima and creativity in filmmaking.

John MacInnes was winner of the OSCARS’ Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting in 2011, screenwriter for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (released 2014), winner of 2 Epic Unreal Megagrants for his virtual David Bowie project, founder of awarding-winning studio MacInnes Studios, and director of the 2021 Real Time Shorts Challenge.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Links and Show Notes

John’s website https://www.macinnesstudios.com/

John on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_MacInnes_(writer)

About the Nicholl Fellowships, OSCARS™ – John MacInnes awarded Nicholl in 2011

John MacInnes at the OSCARS

Official trailer for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFu5qXMuaJU

Real Time Filmmakers Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1228815937315194

Winner of the Real Time Shorts Challenge 2021: Nemosyne by Kevin Stewart & Luc Delamare  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2bCJ6U367o&t

Time Stamps

13:25 Game engines as storytelling tools

23:36 Making realistic humans in game engines, David Bowie and the Epic Megagrant project and Grace the first digital popstar

31:29 Real Time Filmmakers Facebook group and the Real Time Shorts Challenge, including the winners

42:00 One good movie? The blessing and the curse of original thinking!

50:34 Professional vs indie filmmaking

54:00 Demand for long form vs short form films and the future of machinima

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 39 Films (June 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 8, 2022 2 Comments

This month, Damien leads the discussion on another fabulous film selection by the Completely Machinima podcast team… Phil’s Stalker fan film by Sodaz is dark and disturbing; Tracy’s music vid picks are light and airy; Ricky’s is far from bland and Damien’s is a moving affair too! The team also discuss approaches to promoting a film once it’s been made, thanks to a question raised by show follower, Mike Clements.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

STALKER Fan film – Contract by Sodaz, released 8 December 2021

Married to Your Melody by Imanbek and Salem Ilese (Unreal Engine 5, Matrix Awakens City), released 21 April 2022 and artist website

Lion’s Feet by I Break Strings, video by Tom Jantol (iClone 4), released 13 May 2022 and WiL’s artist website

screencap Lion’s Feet video by Tom Jantol

MOVING OUT || Somewhere in Space || A No Man’s Sky Cinematic Series by Geeks Actively Making Entertainment, released 5 June 2021

How to Fly by David Blandy (GTA5), released 22 April 2020

screencap How to Fly

Portfolio of David Blandy on Vimeo, and a rather insightful film, Backgrounds, released 19 February 2013

Discussion: what do you do with your machinima film once it’s made? Question by Mike Clements