nightmare puppeteer Archives - Completely Machinima

S6 E223 Hater | Nightmare Puppeteer by -M- (Apr 2026)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 22, 2026 Leave a reply

In this episode of Completely Machinima Reviews, Damien Valentine, Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, and Tracy Harwood discuss Eater, a character vignette of a larger work (Hate Speech). The film is a provocative experimental short by M (formerly M dot Strange), created using Nightmare Puppeteer. The conversation explores machinima, AI-generated voices, Unreal/indie animation tools, absurd humor, avant-garde filmmaking, and the film’s sharp social commentary on junk food, global warming, and corporate culture.

This is a deep dive into one of the most unusual works in experimental digital cinema—touching on ragdoll physics, AI animation workflows, satire in machinima, and the artistic philosophy behind Nightmare Puppeteer, the low-cost indie animation tool that embraces chaos, randomness, and creativity.

Whether you’re into machinima reviews, experimental film analysis, M dot Strange, indie animation software, or digital art and AI storytelling, this episode offers a fascinating discussion on style, meaning, and outsider creativity.

Topics covered in this episode:

Eater film review

M / M dot Strange’s artistic style

Nightmare Puppeteer on Steam

AI voice performance in animation

Satire, absurdism, and social critique

Global warming and food culture in experimental film

Ragdoll physics and improvisational animation

Avant-garde machinima and internet-native storytelling

Audio only version of this episode

Youtube version of this episode

Show notes & links

“Eater” from “HATE SPEECH: THE MOVIE (Coming soon to our Telegram) by (-M-), released 11 October 2023

Download Nightmare Puppeteer on Steam here

If you want to know more about M Dot Strange’s most iconic work, his most well known film is called We Are the Strange, which was shown at Sundance Film Festival in 2007 –

S3 E52 Film Review: Metaverse Music Video by JSFilmz (Nov 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 9, 2022 1 Comment

This week’s pick is a 360 music video – a ‘metaverse’ video – by a creator we’ve been following all year, Jae Solina aka JSFilmz. The film has been created in UE5 and includes some nifty mocap, great dance moves and some interesting lighting effects. Hear what the team have to say about the film and format and let us have your comments too!

YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Metaverse Music Video, released 10 Sept 2022 (note, the video can be viewed as a VR experience or a 360 video) – where is the Batman Easter Egg?!!!

Our discussion on Friedrich Kirschner’s immersive machinima, person2184, in THIS episode

Nightmare Puppeteer allows 360 filmmaking – check out the engine on Steam HERE

Key questions: what new language might be needed for machinima story vs experience creators to get the most out of VR/360 formats?

Credits –

Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood (MIA Phil Rice, courtesy of Hurricane Ian)
Producer/Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au CC 00

Completely Machinima S2 Ep 42 News (August 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes August 3, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Ricky, Tracy and Damien discuss some of the more interesting machinima and real-time things they’ve trawled the internet for during the last month. Tracy gives her take on the GTA Online performance of Hamlet by Sam Crane, some interesting uses of Unreal Engine, tech tools and a fun way to simulate gravity. Damien brings Godot to the table and highlights some worrisome news about Unity, before waxing lyrical on Star Trek’s Strange New World’s use of Unreal. Ricky finds an interesting Unreal Engine Field Guide and discusses the latest updates to Nightmare Puppeteer.

YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

1:30 Feedback and comments from Mike Clements, 3D Chick, EE Studios, JSFilmz, TMC, Lord Krit and Chris Newell

4:04 The Snow Witch, by Britannica Productions, reviewed on CM podcast Season 1, Episode 18

16:20 Sam Crane’s GTA Online performance of Hamlet, an interesting audience experience (live 4 July 2022)

22:41 Digital replica of co-op live music venue strikes the right chord, Unreal Engine, 23 June 2022

23:22 Christopher Nolan: How to make a good no-budget film | Christopher Nolan on Following, by Cinedome, published 28 June 2022

23:51 50 Greatest Fictional deaths, Slate.com, by Dan Kois, 20 July 2022

24:31 AI dubbing service by Papercup

25:00 Markerless hand tracking in DeepMotion Animate 3D

25:50 Rotate you monitor to simulate gravity in Unreal Engine 5 using Android orientation data, by Ayoub Attache, 12 July 2022

27:14 Godot 4 engine can now make movies – explainer, by Gamefromscratch, released 29 June 2022

29:08 Behind the scenes of Netflix’s ‘In Valuted Halls Entombed’ | Spotlight | Unreal Engine, by Unreal Engine, released 27 June 2022

32:29 Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds – a better use of Unreal than Mando?! Review in American Cinematographer, by Noah Kadner, 23 June 2022

42:04 Should we be concerned? Unity is merging with a company who made a malware installer, by Jody Macgregor, 16 July 2022

43:48 Unreal Engine Field Guide, free download book

44:57 Updates to Nightmare Puppeteer, available on Steam

Completely Machinima S1 Ep 26 News (December 2021)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 2, 2021 Leave a reply

This week the hosts discuss updates from the GTC event by Nvidia, with focus on Omniverse and Reallusion’s iClone 8 and Character Creator 4, the Book of Boba Fett trailer, Dune, A Sound Effect podcast, understanding NFTs (well, who does?), Nightmare Puppeteer, Blender 3.0, a natural successor to Garry’s Mod called SNBox, Promethian AI (creative process for VR) and our upcoming LIVE event on 9 December, celebrating our year in machinima.

Show Notes & Links

Book of Boba Fett trailer

Batman trailer

GTA Trilogy Remaster release update here and comparison here

A Sound Effect podcast

Article: Understanding NFTs and blockchain

Linking Reallusion to Omniverse

Nightmare Puppeteer on Steam

S&Box overview

Aidan Kelly’s YouTube channel

Promethian AI overview

ANFSCM Live in Leicester, 9 December 2021 6-7.30 – Eventbrite booking here

Completely Machinima Interview: M dot Strange on Nightmare Puppeteer

Ricky Grove Podcast Episodes October 26, 2021 Leave a reply

Ricky has been writing a series of articles on working with Nightmare Puppeteer, a game whose function is to allow you to create machinima movies. This is for renderositymagazine.com. As part of the series, he interviewed the developer and filmmaker, M dot Strange (a name he doesn’t like, so we came up with Animan Puncture). We spoke with him about the game and his new film, M doll, which was originally supposed to premiere in an interactive version on Steam on October 29, 2021. But just after this interview took place, Steam removed the game, and M dot is, well, steamed about it! I’m sure he’ll come up with a new distributor, but the date will probably be moved back.