This week Ricky goes all out Halloween for us. His selection is an old-style machinima (think Chaplin or Keaton) by one of the most prolific Warcraft movie makers from back in the day… actually 2008 for this one. The tale by Olibith has been made in World of Warcraft and has shades of Lovecraft, the grimmest of Grimms’ fairy tales and The Flintstones! We also discuss a bonus Lovecraftian film for all you Halloween buffs, It Lives Within the Sea by Orange Squadron (dir. Dominic Edwards) made in RDR2.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Links and Notes
Little White Poney Inn by Olibith, rel 22 September 2008
Olibith’s Warcraft movies page with tutorials on how to make machinima (from 2010)
Have a look at Olibith’s other work (Vimeo channel here), such as Le Terroriste
After we had recorded this show, we went looking for Olibith on social media and were dismayed to find that he passed away earlier this year. We were all very saddened by this news and of course extend our deepest condolences to his family. We dedicate this episode to his memory.
It Lives Within the Sea by Squadron Orange (Dir. Dominic Edwards), rel 28 Aug 2021
This week, Damien has picked a very interesting Eastern-made alien tale. Its been beautifully shot and rendered using Omniverse, and inspired him to try some of the techniques shown. Ricky is a little more critical of the nostalgic trope. Tracy reflects on the journey of the storytelling, and the nature of what it is to be human that is the heart of the story. Phil brings Solaris into the discussion, as only Phil can. Overall, we reflect on the different styles of animation used and how influential they were. And, finally, how on earth did the producer achieve that tendril effect?!
Its no surprise to hear that Martin Bell’s Prazinburk Ridge has won its first award, Best Animation – and very fitting that it should be at the North of England’s Wigan and Leigh Film Festival, not a stone’s throw away from Huddersfield, where the main character in the story hailed from. Many congratulations, Martin!
You can see us review the film also on our YouTube channel here –
UE: Creep it Real
Possibly a bit late notifying you but a nice little Unreal contest launched earlier this month – Unreal Challenge: Creep It Real! Here’s the link – deadline is 29 October. There are some great prizes for video content created with the assets you use which is LESS THAN 1 MINUTE, so late as we are posting this, there’s still no excuse for not participating! There were 450 entries to their Better Light Than Never contest, held earlier in the year, so we’re looking forward to seeing the sizzle reel from entries to this one in due course.
Unreal Challenge: Creep It Real
MacInnes Studios’ Dance Challenge
Another contest has launched, hosted by John MacInnes aka MacInnes Studios, and its hot on the heals of his Mood Scene contest, the results for which we look forward to seeing soon. The new contest is all about dance moves – check out the details here – start date is 1st October and it runs for 30 days.
MacInnes Studios Dance Challenge – Oct 2022
and if you want to hear John talk more about his use of avatars and ‘the future of digital humans’, here’s a great webinar you can catch up on too, hosted by Faceware (one of the Dance Challenge sponsors).
Open Calls
There are numerous experimental film festivals that are currently calling for entries – check them out on ExpCinema.org – we liked the look of Underneath the Floorboards!
In this episode, we review Tracy’s pick for the month: ‘The Eye: Calanthek’ by Aaron Sims, made in Unreal Engine 5 using Metahuman tech, as an early exemplar of the capabilities of the engine (released 2021).
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
We discuss the eyes, the monster, the surprise and camera shots.
Time stamps
1:06 Tracy introduces ‘The Eye: Calanthek‘ by Aaron Sims, released 4 November 2021
5:56 What makes it so realistic? The eyes!
11:02 Things that break the storytelling
15:02 Does knowing the craft of filmmaking restrict creative approaches to filmmaking?
This week’s Projects Update on machinima, virtual production and content creation:
The Crow
One of the most interesting creative projects we’ve seen so far using MidJourney, a creative AI generator is the The Crow (by Glenn Marshall Neural Art). Here the generator has been used to recreate a version of the ballet performance portrayed in the short film, Painted (by Duncan McDowall and Dorotea Saykaly). Stunning to say the least and we recommend you play it at least once side-by-side against the original performance too for added insight.
We’re so impressed with the potential of AI generators, whether that’s DALL-E, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion or any of the others that are now emerging, that we’re going to dedicate a special episode of the podcast to the subject next month, so watch out for that!
Jim Henson Company
Jim Henson Company is using real-time animation on their new show, Earth to Ned. Characters are created with Unreal (its the AI in the background) but JHC has been so impressed with the workflow and no post production requirement that it is looking to use the virtual production method more. What’s interesting is the level of feedback in the process that guests experience – they are not aware of the puppeteering in the background, just the virtual actor on the screen, performing naturalistically in real-time! We’ve not seen much of this kind of machinima before although actually Hugh Hancock did some very early work on this and of course Rooster Teeth have done live performances using similar techniques. We can certainly expect to see a lot more of it, particularly for interactive theatre, VR and AR.
Half Life 3
Half Life 3 was never going to be like the originals? This article on Tech Radar is interesting: the author (Phil Iwanuik) contends the Half Life franchise remakes would never be like the originals because the extreme attention to the world of HL created so much pressure the Valve team could never live up to it. We’re not sure about that, but it’s an interesting idea.
source: Valve
Dune: Awakening
A very impressive MMO has launched using the Dune world, currently in beta, Dune: Awakening. Here’s the trailer – we’re looking forward to seeing machinima made with this –
Dungeons & Dragons?
What does Dungeons and Dragons, typically a game played around a table, have to do with machinima? There’s been a rise in popularity of web based shows where people play the game and act out scenes. This group (Corridor Crew) is using Unreal Engine 5 for virtual production (not quite The Mandalorian but sort of similar) to put their actors, real-time, into the environments of their adventure. Check it out here –
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