machinima podcast

S3 E74 Film Reviews: iClone Short & Machinima Final (Apr 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 22, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s film selection comprises 2 shorts, both untitled but actually worlds apart in their development. Its not often we get to comment on a first ever machinima project as the framing for a creative idea but our first film is just that, by Sydney Walker and made in an environment we have never seen used for machinima before, Final Fantasy 14. Our second film is a psychological thriller, drawing us in from a the whole world of familiar cinematic language in a way that we struggled with in the Astartes Project. BUT, the title needs work because “iClone shorts” just doesn’t cut it for us… over to Just Art Animation Studios!



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

MachinimaFinal by Sydney Walker, released 10 Feb 2023 –

iClone Short by Just Art Animation, released 25 Feb 2023 –

and BennyDee/Benjamin Dazhi YouTube channel here –

S3 E72 Film Review: Astartes Project (April 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 5, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s review is of Syama Pedersen’s stunning Warhammer 40K masterpiece called Astartes Project. The film was first released two years ago and has been recommended to us by Orencloud. It is currently hosted on TheChach’s channel – we explain why.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Link to the film on TheChach’s YouTube channel here –

and link to Syama Pedersen’s channel here.

Here’s a link to Astartes Project on the Warhammer community site.

This is an excellent explainer of Warhammer and the lore of the game by Thall, released on 3 Feb 2023, that is worth watching too –

Or you can go to the Rumble 40K Lore Master videos here.

S3 E71 Film Review: Heroes of Bronze: The Memory (March 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes March 30, 2023 Leave a reply

After we first talked about this project last April 2022, we were thrilled to see what a stunning job @MartinKlekner has made in the 21 Jan 2023 release of the first episode of Heroes of Bronze. We were not disappointed: the film and work stands up to AAA Assassin’s Creed Odyssey studio work, but with amazing detail of historical artefacts and storytelling, which is even evident in the way clothes move on characters. Damien couldn’t put our views better when he says this work inspires him to want to do better with iClone. We’re definitely looking forward to the next release – bring it on! 



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Heroes of Bronze: The Memory by Martin Klekner, released 21 January 2023 –

Martin Klekner’s project website here

Our April 2022 ep, discussing the film at 34:20 https://completelymachinima.com/2022/04/14/completely-machinima-s2-ep-35-films-discussion/

Compare with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey launch trailer, by Playstation, released 26 Sept 2018 –

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 –