Adrift

S4 E104 Starfield: Let’s Talk Machinima & The Mantis Teaser (Nov 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 22, 2023 Leave a reply

Damien’s picks this week take a look at two of the first Stafield machinimas by @TheKShow and @Mod81Gameworld respectively. The first is a ‘tell and show’ with a neat cinematic demo invoking Starship Troopers, and the second is a slightly more original lore-based teaser for an upcoming series called The Mantis. We begin this episode with an update on Star Citizen’s new spin off game, Squadron 42, which is now ‘feature complete’ and their launch of a new contest which can be entered on TikTok, leading Tracy to speculate on their strategic response to the release of Starfield! Ricky highlight’s a recent important update to Second Life’s render system which has important implications for machinima creators.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Our film picks this week –

Starfield: The feature nobody talks about, by The K Show, released 15 Sept 2023

and the second film,

The Mantis Teaser, by Mod81 Gameworld, released 25 Sept 2023

Inside Star Citizen: Inside CitizenCon, overview released 9 Nov 2023 –

and Squadron 42 now ‘feature complete’, with a video update here –

and here’s a link to the machinima contest for TikTok entrants

Examples of Second Life’s PBR (physical based render) system –

S3 E48 Film Review: ‘The Eye: Calenthek’ by Aaron Sims (Oct 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes October 12, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, we review Tracy’s pick for the month: ‘The Eye: Calanthek’ by Aaron Sims, made in Unreal Engine 5 using Metahuman tech, as an early exemplar of the capabilities of the engine (released 2021).



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

We discuss the eyes, the monster, the surprise and camera shots.

Time stamps

1:06 Tracy introduces ‘The Eye: Calanthek‘ by Aaron Sims, released 4 November 2021

5:56 What makes it so realistic? The eyes!

11:02 Things that break the storytelling

15:02 Does knowing the craft of filmmaking restrict creative approaches to filmmaking?

Links

Aaron Sims interview with Allan McKay, Ep 364, Filmmaking in Unreal and another with Ian Failes on Befores&Afters

Aaron Sims YouTube channel, with ‘behind the scenes’ reviews where you can leave questions for him to answer