Machinima

S3 E85 Its Just A Game (July 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 13, 2023 Leave a reply

Nope, its not ‘just a game’, its one of the most visually stunning Gothic story open worlds ever created (according to Ricky)! In this ep, we discuss GraysonFlows’ tribute to the world of Elden Ring, set to Max Richter’s November composition, which highlights the beauty of the game from the exhausting open sequence to the final prize, creatures, battles and voice acting.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

Its Just A Game | Elden Ring ‘The Fallen Leaves Tell a Story…’ by GraysonFlows, released 19 May 2022

Otis_Inf Camera Mod Patreon channel link here

Carbot Animations – Elden Ring cartoon channel link here

S3 E84 DCS: The Ghost | DCS: The Right Stuff (July 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 6, 2023 Leave a reply

This week, we discuss some of the best flight sim machinima we’ve ever seen, thanks to Damien’s picks.  We couldn’t decide which was better, so we discuss two films: The Ghost and The Right Stuff by J P Ferre, made in DCS.  The first is a horror story and the other a story of one of the most influential pioneers of modern space flight today: Chuck Yeager. It is an outstanding retelling of one particularly testing flight, and is a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes! 



YouTube Version of this Film

Show Notes & Links

DCS: The Ghost by J P Ferre, released 6 April 2021 –

DCS: The Right Stuff by J P Ferre, released 10 December 2022 –

Read about Chuck Yeager on the Academy of Achievement’s website here or Wikipedia here

Faith, Hope and Charity, by Wingmen Productions (originally released 2007) – this is a post of the film, unfortunately the original website no longer exists –

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of one of the first books written on how to make machinima, called The Art of Machinima (2009) (actually its pretty outdated in terms of advice, but good for ‘ole’ time’s sake’!

Projects Update 2 (June 2023)

Tracy Harwood Blog June 26, 2023 Leave a reply

Megabuilds and complexity are increasingly themes being promoted by the creative tool developers, and this week’s selection highlights a few projects that demonstrate what’s possible.

Who would have even thought about building our entire universe in Minecraft, let alone actually done it? This video, released 3 October 2022, is how Chris DaCow went about the project, including his preparatory trip/fall from an aircraft (IRL) for inspiration –

Covering similar themes, MelodySheep discusses Water Worlds, released 28 April (our feature image). This is not a megabuild per se but is a good illustration of the future of inter-planetary reviews. The approach is interesting, drawing inspiration from the discoveries of the James Webb Telescope: think a combination of the style of Sagan and Attenborough –

The next film is a descriptor of a 2D game called Rain World, released in 2017. The video creator, Curious Archive, outlines why he believes this game is one of the most sophisticated and complex virtual worlds ever created. The short (22 mins) is called The Most Complex Ecosystem in any Game, released 22 December 2022…. mmm, 22 is a bit of a theme here too. I’m fairly sure Ricky will disagree on this, with his elder Elden Ring hat on, but check it out and do let us have your thoughts –

Finally, this official music video, released on 5 May, shows an expansive world to tell a visually stunning story that compliments the song. The creators unfortunately do not credit the tools that have been used, which look like Unreal Engine and Blender. The song is called Angels by Frank Polucci, lyrics by Marco Genovesi and the video is by Alex Popescu. Its another short that illustrates the diversity of creative skills now being deployed for increasingly complex visualizations –

S3 E82 Machinima by Ally Kustera (June 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 22, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s film review looks at a work by Ally Kustera. The work artfully conveys a sense of feminism without the politics through snippets of video game character cutscenes from Lara Croft to Ellie (The Last of Us) and others in between.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Daniel Grove’s Kitbash for Blender of Back Rooms assets here.

Ally Kustera’s Machinima, released 7 Feb 2023 –