live action

Projects Update 1 (May 2023)

Tracy Harwood Blog May 22, 2023 Leave a reply

This week we share with you a couple of notable RTs (of the UnTwitter kind) and a Dynamo Dream or two. Enjoy!

Who can believe it but Rooster Teeth is now 20 years old. Its come a very long way from its RVB days, not all of it good, but its still rolling. Indeed, RT is now also in the same stable as the final remains of Machinima.com (RIP). Ben Grussi and I dedicated a chapter to the RT story in our book Pioneers in Machinima (2021) and one thing we noted was its resilience to change over the years, so here’s wishing them all the best for the next turn on their roundabout too –

Another long-time favorite on our podcast is the RT Music (formerly RT Machinima) team. This month, I’d like to share their Elden Ring Rap with you (released 12 Mar 2022). Its definitely worth watching the video, not only are these guys great at writing some toe-tappers but they also do a pretty good job of showing off their machinima skills too –

Finally this week, Ian Hubert has released two episodes of his Dynamo Dream live action/VFX series (our feature image for this post). We covered the first episode of this stunning series on the podcast back in August 2021 (audio only) but what’s quite incredible about the release of Eps 2 and 3 in such quick succession is frankly the speed at which he’s been able to release them… and of course they’re very good if ever so slightly absurdist.

A Single Point in Space – Dynamo Dream, Ep 2 (released 23 Mar 2023) –

A Pete Episode – Dynamo Dream, Ep 3 (released 6 Apr 2023) –

Next week, we have some more selections to share with you too but if you find something you’d like us to do a full review of on the podcast, do share it.

Projects Update 2 (Mar 2023)

Tracy Harwood Blog March 27, 2023 Leave a reply

The second of our March projects updates, this week we have a selection of work made using AI and live action.

Do The Evolution by Ricardo Villavicencio

We kick this week’s projects off with one of the first to be released by Runway Studios, whom we discussed in our Tech Update 1 on AI generators earlier this month. Released on 2 March 2023, this film is described as a posthumanist concept and whilst it starts with what seems like an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, it certainly ends with a slightly different narrative, vaguely reminiscent of Planet of the Apes. Its surreal for sure, and what’s interesting is that its been created with AI – although its not exactly clear whether that actually extends to the story’s plot too. Check it out here, and note it is the second of a trilogy from this creator although they are not all on the channel –

The film is also our featured image for this week’s blog post.

HALO – A Hero’s Journey by Raw Mind Pictures

We loved this! Its not actually a machinima production at all but a live action, shot in a quarry and supported by a community of cosplayers. The film was released 19 December 2021 and the channel includes a great ‘making of’ film too – lots of fun for Halo lovers everywhere –

Three days and 50 people, an impressive endeavour, and here’s the making of –

Nitro Warriors: A Stop Motion Animated Film by Vanguard Pictures

Not machinima and not even recent, but we just loved this awesome stop-mo which not surprisingly took 6 months to film, released 26 Aug 2012, such great timing to the soundscape –

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 43 Films (August 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes August 11, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Damien, Ricky and Tracy discuss four very different films.  Damien reviews an interesting explainer on witches in The Folklore of Phasmophobia game, Ricky presents us with another of Jae Solina’s tutorials, this time on path tracing in Omniverse, Tracy selects Tiny Elden Ring – yep, its tiny! And Phil, absent due to sickness, ironically picked a satirical Zombie fest, which mixed Walking Dead ‘live action’ with machinima!  The team then discuss that approach to creating films, highlighting some of the key challenges with some more fab examples of films that have used the techniques well. 



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

0:57 The Folklore of Phasmophobia | Modern Mythology, by The Digital Dream Club (released 9 January 2021)

The Folklore of Phasmophobia

9:51 NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima Path Tracing Test, by JSFilmz (21 June 2022) and a nice little article on the difference between rasterization, ray tracing and path tracing that folks might find interesting, Nvidia says real-time path tracing is on the horizon, but what is it? By Eric Frederiksen, Gamespot.com, 1 May 2022

NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima Path Tracing Test

17:33 Tiny Elden Ring | Tilt Shift, by Flurdeh (11 April 2022) and here’s Flurdeh’s list of filmmaking tools https://github.com/Flurdeh/Youtube-Resources and a post-production tutorial on the tilt shift effect tutorial, How to create Tilt-Shift / Miniature World Time-lapses, by Science Filmmaking Tips (24 Jan 2017)

Tiny Elden Ring

27:27 What a typical project Zomboid Run looks like, by Pathoze (26 Jan 2022)

What a typical project Zomboid Run looks like

31:45 Discussion: using live action with machinima footage in films, what are the challenges?

Examples mentioned –

39:11 Damien’s The Great Bug War on Machinima Expo (8 December 2014)

Damien and Kim Genly

46:12 Ricky’s reference to a 2D/3D combo – Carson Mell’s TARANTULA A-1 : Nightmares (5 August 2012), shot in  Los Angeles

TARANTULA A-1: Nightmares

48:30 Phil Tippett’s stop mo film Mad God, including live action with animation (now available on Shudder TV)

Mad God

51:20 Tutsy Navarathna’s film, A Journey into the Metaverse and an interview we did with him on the podcast in Season 1

A Journey into the Metaverse

Completely Machinima S1 Ep 27 Films (December 2021)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 16, 2021 Leave a reply

The hosts have fun with the Christmas theme in this episode – Tracy starts with a suicide machinima, Ricky gets all Russian, Damien takes us on a very long journey to galaxies far too far away and then trolls us with caroling Jawas and Phil drops an orange into the sock.  Happy Christmas everyone.



Show Notes & Links

The Loneliest Road Short Machinima by King Kaden (Halo), rel 15 October 2021

Novikov 2: Repercussion by GoodGames (Star Citizen), rel 27 February 2021

Star Wars Jedi Academy Re-Edited BEYOND-Christmas Special by EagleStriker (SWJA), rel some time around 2003 – available on Lopop55901’s YouTube channel, posted 26 August 2010

Part Two | Greater Terran Union | Stellaris Invicta by The Templin Institute (Stellaris), rel 25 August 2018

GTA History by Mors Mutual Insurance (mixed media, GTA), rel 31 October 2021

Playing an RPG for the First Time by Joel Haver (live action, rotoscope), rel 20 November 2020