This week we celebrate Star Wars with a fabulous short portraying the infamous AT-AT death walkers as ‘nature-creatures’ in their natural habitat – this is a beautifully observed work, made in Unreal Engine by Jeremy Cummins. Cummins is an experienced character creator, now working for Tippett Studio, with an impressive list of credits including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Spider-Man and Avengers, among others. We discuss the transition pros are making in the development of an Unreal pipeline and the impact this has on the creative machinima community. #maythe4thbewithyou
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
Star Wars AT-AT Walkers in Unreal Engine by Jeremy Cummins, released 9 April 2024, link here –
This week, we cover three outstanding music videos, demonstrating different genres of music and different game engines – a re-imagined Simon and Garfunkel classic, a pop-tacular and a rap. We discuss the perfect match between the lyrics, the game and the images our three selected creators have demonstrated in these shorts. We suggest comparing and contrasting, but really we just mean enjoy them all for what they are.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Portal – the Sound of Science by Harry101UK, released 29 May 2020
Who I Am | Portal Minecraft Animated Music Video [Song by CG5] by Cubical, released 6 May 2020 –
HELLDIVERS 2 RAP by JT Music – To Liberty and Beyond, released 9 March 2024
and here is the link to Harry1010UK’s Meet the Cores 1 mentioned –
Another ending, Draxtor Dupres’ Second Life series supported by Linden Labs, Drax Files: World Makers. Here’s his final report and here’s a link to a livestream he did to celebrate the achievements of the show –
Accolades
Sam Crane’s Hamlet in GTA5 won a Jury prize for best documentary at SXSW 2024, link to news coverage here, and the distribution deal awarded here.
Electro League and Weta’s War is Over has become the first UE5 film to win an Oscar, Best Animated Short –
Congratulations to @ElectroLeagueX and @WetaFXofficial on winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short with "WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko". This is a first for an animated short created in Unreal Engine 5, we couldn't be more proud! https://t.co/bH3yrA23Jf
ConvAI has announced a partnership with Unity for NPCs, and also teamed up with Second Life. Here’s a link to Wagner James Au’s New World Notes blog – and here’s a couple of useful links –
Stability AI has introduced a 3D video generator, information here
RunwayML has partnered with Musixmatch to generate video to lyrics, link to information here
and it has also announced a new lipsync feature for generative audio, currently on early access to its creators programme members
Hume has a demo of a voice-to-voice generator, described as an Empathic Voice Interface – link to sign-up for early access here
and if you need a little overview of how all things generative AI are developing, here’s a nice video summary by Henrik Kniberg –
Inspiration
To celebrate the phenomenal success of Gozilla Minus One at the 2024 Oscars, Nelson Escobar, the VFX creator of the Godzilla model, has released it as a free download for Blender. Link here –
The Dog Days is an unusual machinima that combines the glitchiness of AI generated content composited with a Second Life avatar. Whilst not realtime, the performative aspect of this work is evident and we reflect on the fit of the current state of generative AI with the Fluxus art movement. We discuss what The Dog Days means, metaphorically and literally, and how we interpret this film concluding it is not a happy outcome for the focal character. The Dog Days evokes memories of a long-ago childhood spent with a much loved pet but the non-sense words and images are of something far more sinister, contextualized by the current general media coverage of wars in Eastern Europe, Middle East and elsewhere. We also discuss our interpretations of the fragility represented in the avatar, including the role of generative AI in becoming cyborg.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
TheDog Days by Fau Ferdinandand Elle Thorkveld, released 17 Feb 2024
In this ep, we discuss two machinima films dealing with thematically similar issues, albeit presented with different treatments: Vigilante is made in GTA5 and tells the shocking story of how the lead character became cyberpunk. The second is a futuristic yet somehow more traditional gender-based story made in UE5. It is presented as a proof of concept for a proprietary tool made by its creator, who is none other than the VFX Oscar-winner Tim Webber in his directorial debut.
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
GTAV – Vigilante | Episode 1 | Cyberpunk Machinima by Weedens, released 25 March 2023
FLITE | Hyper Realistic CGI Sci Fi Short Using Unreal Engine, released 1 Dec 2023
An interesting video featuring Tim Webber, talking about his approach to visual effects
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