Half Life 2

S4 E109 Teaching an AI: Backflip (Dec 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 28, 2023 Leave a reply

Backflip is a docu-style film, made over a period of three years where Nikita Diakur presents his progress using AI to teach a character to backflip. The character is the 3D scanned artist and the learning process applied is based on a technique he read in an academic paper. To say its chaos is an understatatement, and something anyone in research could probably have told him when attempting to replicate a finding in a publication (which of course is why LLMs using text alone will never be ‘intelligent’). It is also everything one would expect from a character rig with the physics of a double-jointed arachnid… but it sure is hugely entertaining to watch, and brilliantly edited together. Backflip is a must watch for anyone using AIs for animation, not least because it serves as a reminder of just how tough this all was pre-mid 2023!

We also begin the episode with some news updates: Half Life 2 @ 25 years, GTA6 trailer, Elden Ring DLCs and Baad Viibes (John MacInnes).



YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/-iE2YKKQX9s

Show Notes & Links

Half Life 25th anniversay documentary and update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto&t

The GTA6 official advert –

John MacInnes talking about Baad Viibes at the Unreal Fest, October 2023 –

Backflip – film by Nikita Diakur, released 27 September 2023 –

S3 E94 Half Life 2: Shelf Life (September 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes September 13, 2023 Leave a reply

This week we discuss one of the best HL2 films from the 2009 era – Shelf Life by Pixel Eyes Productions. The film, which is in two episodes, won a heap of creator awards back in the day and has definitely stood the test of time for us. There are some fun sci-fi and weird tropes integrated into the story, which we discuss, as well as the very well done sound design and original music. We’d love to see these guys pick this project back up, although of course, none of the issues they faced back then will be a problem now – just a whole set of new ones to overcome!



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes and Links

Films

Chapter 1 Shelf Life: You Are What You Remember, by Pixel Eyes Productions, released 6 July 2009

and Chapter 2 Shelf Life: After the Scan

Music video by Pixel Eyes to E V Kain’s Yes No Maybe, made in iClone –

S3 E89 Half Life 2: Daydream (August 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes August 9, 2023 Leave a reply

A performance by a camera ham, shutterbug or just a plain histrionic narcissist? This week’s review discusses an older machinima that has highly contemporary themes in it: carry-on-regardless, daydreaming, whatever, so long as the virtual camera is rolling. The film is called Daydream (2009) set to the titular song by Lovin’ Spoonful, created by Mystfit and made Valve’s Half Life 2. Needless to say, we loved the humor but what makes this machinima interesting is that it was a scripted production created by running a path sequencer inside the game, harking back to the early days of how machinimas were made but so is reminiscent of how contemporary tools such as iClone and Unreal now work.

This week we also begin with Ricky talking about ultra-wide monitors, using it to play Elden Ring (a mod required) and the #SAGAFTRA strike; and, Phil gives an overview of his remastering project of the Machiniplex collection and his homage to the great Hugh Hancock, founder the #machinima movement, the upcoming showcase of Bloodspell and also his own response to some of the hoopla that Hugh created at the time of its release in 2006!



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

Film, Daydream by Mystfit, released 6 January 2009

Gigabyte ultra-wide screen and Elden Ring mod, by Nexus Mods

Machiniplex Collection, remastered by Phil Rice – https://bitly/Machiniplex

Bloodspell trailer for Phil’s showcase channel –

S3 E83 Half Life: HEV Suit (June 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 29, 2023 Leave a reply

This week, Phil has selected a short that will make all those H&S and Half Lifers smile equally… HEV Suit by  @Zapper770 … because we all need more head crabs in our lives. The film is an example of great comedy timing.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

Film, by Zapper770, released 26 April 2021

Paul Marino, director of the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences and author of one of the first books written on how to make machinima, called The Art of Machinima (2009) (actually its pretty outdated in terms of advice, but good for ‘ole’ time’s sake’!

S3 E76 Film Review: After War (May 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes May 4, 2023 Leave a reply

This week, Ricky, Phil and Damien begin with an brief discussion of the roles AI is being used for to restore old machinimas, and in particular the very exciting upcoming release Phil will be doing of old Machiniplex films – more on that in due course!

The film discussion centres on After War by RG Studios and their approach to telling a story without moving a camera in the Half Life 2 world.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

Hitpaw video enhancer AI, subscription information here

Machiniplex, no longer exists as a platform/website, but the link on the archive is here for the moment!

This week’s film by RG Studios, released on 3 March 2023 –