Chantal Harvey

Projects Update 2 (August 2023)

Tracy Harwood Blog August 28, 2023 Leave a reply

What do AI, 48 hours and Second Life have in common? Not a lot, beyond some stunningly creative pieces that we found for you this week!

AI films are now beginning to come through and we have two very interesting ones for you to take a look at. The first is created/prompted by Matt Mayle (our feature image for this post) and has been made using Elevenlabs (voice), Runwayml’s GEN2 (animation) and ChatGPT4 (text concept) and is described an ‘AI assisted short’, called The Mass (released 26 April) –

The second is called The Frost, by Waymark Creative Labs (released 5 June). This has a distinct aesthetic to it, encapsulates a curious message, and overall reflects the state of AI animation at this stage, but its nonetheless a gripping piece. Its been created with DALLE-2 and D-ID –

Our next pick was made in 48 hours (well, with a bit of tweaking on top) and has been made in Unreal Engine, called Dude Where’s My Ship by Megasteakman. To be frank, the speed of its creation does show in the final quality of film, but its nonetheless an interesting development, especially given that I was a regular judge on the 48 Hour Filmmaking Contest a few years ago. The machinima version of that contest was managed and supported by Chantal Harvey for several years and its astonishing to think that this is the next generation of that process –

Finally, this week, a film made in Second Life, which lends itself to flash production, based on content from a plethera of creators on whom its content relies. The film is called The Doll Maker (released 27 May) and has been made by FeorieFrimon using various models and Paragon Dance Animations movements to a Beats Antique music composition called Flip –

Tech Update 2 (Mar 2023)

Tracy Harwood Blog March 13, 2023 Leave a reply

We’ve seen a number of tech developments in recent weeks that we’ll share in this post. Everything from free tools, great content packs, wrinkles for those of a certain age of course, mocap for newbies, nuisance scores, heads up on a lightweight headset, and more!

Lights, Camera, Action

A member of Chantal Harvey’s popular Machinima Mondays‘ Facebook Group posted a video recommendation by Kevin Stratvert of five free screen recording tools that all machinima and virtual production folks should have in their applications folder. He usefully goes through the process of using each of them in his tutorial here –

We highlight just a few of the exciting things we’ve seen in the last few weeks for Unreal Engine. A show and tell tutorial on making ragdoll puppets, reported in 80.lv, featuring 3D artist and animator Peter Javidpour, gives a great breakdown of the process, including how to rig the virtual camera. The process using Blueprints was used in his recent short release, My Breakfast with Barf, link here –

Also using Blueprints, Machina-Infinitum.com released a content pack for making procedural fractals. They look really beautiful – and perfect for that next cyberpunk-cum-inceptionist film. The pack isn’t free at $99, but it looks like a good investment, available on the Unreal store here. Here’s a link to their YouTube channel and tutorials for using the assets –

And also not free (£170.70), another excellent content pack. This one contains realistic building assets from what looks like the Whitechapel area of London, called a British City Pack, by Polyspherestudio.com. Here’s an overview on their YouTube channel –

Reallusion released a much awaited update to its Character Creator, introducing a dynamic wrinkle system. The plasticity of facial animations using CC4 is something we’ve often found ourselves commenting on in our film reviews, and this is a very interesting development. Check out the overview here –

Plask’s mocap app has been upgraded. This is an app we’ve mentioned before, which allows you to record, edit and animate projects in your browser. For pros, there’s a monthly fee, but for newbies, its freemium model looks like a great way to get started in mocap. Here’s an overview of it from their YouTube channel, which also contains tutorials of how to integrate the content with platforms like Blender, Unreal Engine and others –

With interoperability at its heart, ReadyPlayerMe is going from strength to strength. Its recent blog post sets out its ambition, and this highlights what great potential its avatars have to be cross-platform virtual storytellers, although as yet we’ve not seen much of that emerging.

For sound design tips, you can do no better than take a look at REAPER. Anne-Sophie Mongeau has written a great two-part article on Asoundeffect.com, which is definitely worth checking out, and whilst you’re there, you can check out the massive curated collection of sound effects on the website too.

For those exploring immersive experiences, we found another great article on Asoundeffect.com, this one discussed the impact of ‘nuisance scores‘ on the listener – we certainly have some experience of that in films we see too.

And for those seeking an alternative to the wearying headsets for virtual reality immersive experiences, Bigscreenvr.com‘s new system looks very impressive. Its just 127 grams and with a great resolution – most headsets weigh in around 450-650 grams, which is roughly a bag of sugar for those home chefs in the know – so surely will be much more usable than the current techs. It just released an overview of the new set and shipping begins in Q3 2023, and I’m more than tempted to get my order in early on this one…

You’re Welcome!

Finally this week, the Second Life endowment for the arts process is changing. For years, Second Life has been a massive advocate for its community of content creators, and the changes which give creators more time to develop their builds is another example of its fantastic support (notwithstanding the truly err colourful gif on its announcement page, our feature image this week). Here’s a link to its grant page.

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 38 News (June 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 2, 2022 2 Comments

In this episode, Damien, Ricky and Tracy discuss the release of Reallusion’s iClone 8 and Character Creator 4, the use of OpenAI for generating machinima scripts, legalese and Star Citizen’s users rules update, latest contests and challenges for machinima creators, technical notes and project updates, including Pooky Amsterdam’s announcement of her latest project, the world’s first Metaverse musical



YouTube Version of this Episode

minus the copyright problems!

Show Notes and Links

0:35 Feedback from our listeners, thanks Ben Tuttle, 3DChick, Mike Clements, CD and Pooky Amsterdam

6:40 Getting started with Nvidia Omniverse Machinima, ostensibly for the Make Something with Nvidia Machinima contest but also really useful to just learn about the toolset

9:17 Using machinima techniques for the new Batman film

Virtual production set up on Batman

11:29 Damien compares the fan-made Star Trek Pike to the release of Star Trek Strange New Worlds

13:34 Release of iClone 8 and Character Creator 4 discussion

21:48 Milan Machinima Film Festival update and using OpenAI to generate scripts for machinima

24:12 Fair use and transformative use and the case of Star Citizens’ updated machinima and fan film content rules and guidelines and its relationship to Squardron 42 (maybe?)

34:10 No excuses: Nvidia Omniverse Machinima competition closes 27 June 2022 – and here’s the link to Ricky’s interview with Dane Johnston as the Machinima app was being launched last year

36:09 Reallusion’s Pitch and Produce competitive support programme

37:14 Showreel of 100 3D renders of ‘infinite journeys’ and the weekly CG challenge by Clinton Jones aka Pwnisher (paid subscription on Patreon channel)

38:40 2nd Annual Film Festival for Fantasy Faire in Second Life, organized by Saffia Widdeshins and Chantal Harvey.  Congratulations to winners – links are HERE and Pryda Parx epic fly through the Fantasy Faire sim is HERE

Award (Wafflie) winner at 2nd Annual Film Festival for Fantasy Faire

41:19 Especially for Ricky: Elden Ring’s new VR mod by Luke Ross (Patreon channel)

VR mod for Elden Ring by Luke Ross

47:30 Facial motion capture in Roblox coming and using BHaptics for immersive storytelling

48:43 Review of best software for video editing via Shopify website

49:06 FSFilmz Cyberpunk short tutorial

49:36 Pooky Amsterdam’s new project stage play, Mambo Motel update and website HERE, the world’s first Metaverse Musical!

screencap Pooky Amsterdam’s metaverse musical, Mambo Motel

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 33 Films (March 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes March 10, 2022 Leave a reply

This month, Ricky, Phil, Tracy and Damien discuss machinima and real-time productions made in Second Life including documentaries illustrating life on the ‘grid’, events and experiences such as an art collector’s paradise, a potted history of the environment, a sci-fi convention, extraordinary examples of films that show the unique qualities of the Second Life creative community, a tutorial and a new cyberpunk drama series.  The co-hosts also discuss their perspectives on the importance of Second Life as a creative platform for machinima.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

1.17 Plask.ai, free webcam-based motion capture tool

2.45 Second Life discussion

  • where does the inspiration come from for creating SL machinima films?
  • how has SL improved over the years for content creators?

22.24 Portrait of a Virtual Art Collector: Joseph K by Preben Wolff, film made by Glasz DeCuir, released 16 November 2018 (original film made in September 2015)

screencap: Portrait of a Virtual Art Collector: Joseph K

33.29 Pryda Parx’s Future Shock documentary series, discussed as part of Second Life’s Movies Made in Second Life series, released 2 March 2020

36.15 Draxter Depres’s social channels

36.56 Half Life 2 Apartments UNIGINE Real-Time demo REMAKE by Ostap Gordon, released 25 February 2021

screencap: Half Life 2 Apartments UNIGINE Real-Time demo REMAKE

38.12 Scifi Convention, video advert released by SL4Live-TV on 21 May 2020, convention website and date for 2022 event ‘Brave New Future’ 18-29 May.

46.41 Push by Lainy Voom (TraceChops), released 11 July 2009

screencap: Push

55.30 Soul Chambers by Chantel Harvey, released 1 February 2022 (film made in 2011)

1.06.47 The History of Second Life 1999-2021 by Bollycoco, released 12 February 2021

1.16.15 Digital Rain 2021 by Mac’n Tease Tomato, released 13 January 2022 and series website

1.24.40 Honorable mention: Tree of Life of Avatar by Tizzy Canucci, released 2 July 2021

Announcements

Second Life website, free download

Machinima Mondays meetup group, run by Chantal Harvey (join support group on Facebook)

Completely Machinima premieres weekly on Thursdays on our YouTube channel

Next month: Reallusion’s iClone

Completely Machinima Interview: Hypatia Pickens (aka Sarah Higley)

Ricky Grove Podcast Episodes September 23, 2021 Leave a reply



Show note links

For our classics theme episode of machinima, Tracy spoke to Sarah Higley about her Second Life-based machinima work that draws inspiration from old and middle English texts written as early at the 10th Century.  Whilst they didn’t get around to discussing this on the recording, Sarah is also well known for having written the script for Star Trek: Next Generation’s episode 21 (Season 3) ‘Hollow Pursuits’, which aired in April 1990 (under the pen name of Sally Caves). Sarah is particularly noted for the character, ensign Reginald Barclay (portrayed by Dwight Schultz) who uses the Holodeck to imagine how his life should be.  Sarah recalled to Tracy this was her first imaginings of her experiences of Second Life, evidenced through her creative machinima works discussed in  this interview.

Films

Design, 2012 https://vimeo.com/47538361

KAPHD, 2011 https://vimeo.com/user4518792

The Lover’s Confession: Three Tales by John Gower, 2014 https://vimeo.com/98521054

Wulf and Eadwacer, 2012 https://vimeo.com/user4518792

Cloud, 2013 https://vimeo.com/user4518792

Yeah…, 2012 https://vimeo.com/user4518792

Finding the Experimental in Machinima, 2013 https://vimeo.com/78406362 

Stolen Child, 2012 https://vimeo.com/46507689

Publications about machinima

‘For it Acordeth Noght to Kinde’: Remediating Gower’s Confessio Amantis in Machinima’, 2016 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.679.8142&rep=rep1&type=pdf 

Chapter 6: Dangerous Sim Crossings: Framing the Second Life Art Machinima, in Understanding Machinima (Jenna Ng) https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/understanding-machinima-9781441140524/

Other notable links –

Peter Greenaway speaks at 48HourFilmProject Machinima, 2010 (Chantal Harvey) https://vimeo.com/15253336

Push, 2010 (Lainy Voom) https://vimeo.com/5543976

Cirque du Machinima, 2006 (Tom Jantol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE540j9U830

Dear Fairy, 2011 (Tom Jantol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX3hJIjWRkA&t=155s