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S6 E237 Machinima News Omnibus (Aug 2026)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes August 5, 2026 Leave a reply

This week, the discussion centres on several significant developments across the machinima community, from community news and preservation of machinima history to new creative tools and the future of filmmaking platforms. The strongest recurring theme is how classic machinima practices are re-emerging through contemporary game engines and software, suggesting a renewed interest in machinima as a creative medium.

The episode opens with a tribute to Mike Joyce, longtime collaborator of Kate Fosk and member of the Moviestorm-era machinima community. The hosts reflect on his generosity, his contribution to Machinima Expo productions, and the supportive nature of earlier online machinima communities.

We discuss a PC Gamer feature covering a GTA V filmmaker who is livestreaming their production process.

Halo Campaign Evolved and the Return of “Machinima Mode” – we examine Microsoft’s remake of the original Halo, noting the inclusion of an officially branded Machinima Mode. The conversation broadens into a discussion of machinima history. Tracy observes that the remake is more than nostalgia—it is introducing machinima to third- and fourth-generation creators, demonstrating how enduring the medium has become.

Ricky argues that Red vs. Blue legitimised machinima as entertainment, while Damien explains how watching the series inspired his own filmmaking career. The discussion concludes with an invitation for creators to use Halo creatively rather than simply reproducing Red vs. Blue.

Tiny Bookshop – a lighter discussion follows around the success of Tiny Bookshop.

State of Unreal 2026 – Phil highlights a technical demonstration from Unreal Engine featuring highly detailed urban environments. The conversation highlights how production values in virtual filmmaking continue to approach traditional film set design. Video here –

Reallusion AI Studio and Free iClone Personal Edition – we discusses Reallusion’s biggest software announcement. Tracy suggests that Reallusion may be moving toward an Unreal-style ecosystem, where the software becomes a gateway to a scalable marketplace rather than the primary revenue source. We agree that making professional animation software freely available could significantly expand the machinima community. Launch video here –

Phil introduces the free personal version of Massive, the crowd simulation software used in The Lord of the Rings. The segment ends humorously with Ricky imagining an absurd “massive household” comedy requiring crowd simulation simply to go shopping. Demo and links here –

The major themes across the Episode are summarized as –

  • Remembering and celebrating machinima pioneers.

  • Evidence that machinima continues to influence commercial game development.

  • Lowering technical barriers for new creators.

  • Free creative software and accessible production pipelines.

  • Preservation of machinima history while encouraging new generations.

  • The continuing importance of storytelling over technology.

Audio Only Version of this Episode



YouTube Version of this Episode

https://youtu.be/FJtClXl3yfI

S5 E176 Red Faction Guerilla: Optimism Bias

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 2, 2025 Leave a reply

A viewer nominated series, this week’s ep is another great example of brilliant writing. Optimism Bias was directed by  @AndrewGoodKnight  and originally released in 2013 having been showcased at the Melbourne International Animation Festival  @melbourneinternationalanim3991  – its Australian comedy, deeply rooted in game lore, at its very best.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Optimism Bias by Andrew Knight of Recycled Media was released originally as a 20 minutes film for the Melbourne International Animation Festival in 2014, but later re-released as a series in 2015 on their youtube channel – episode 1 is here but do take the time to watch the whole series –

Interview with Andrew Knight

You can also check out the interview Tracy did with Andrew, released at the same time as our review. Audio version only of Tracy’s interview with Andrew –



YouTube version –

Courtesy (and copyright) of Andrew, here are a selection of shots from the making of Optimism Bias and the early days of machinima in Melbourne.

LAN party at Andrew’s place –

Creating the frame for the film –

Production challenges! Cooling off the kit –

Voice recording (dodgy looking tash there…) –

On the programme, Melbourne International Animation Festival 2014 –

The early days at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) circa 2004-5 with RoosterTeeth crew members Burnie Burns and Gus Sarola and Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences CEO Paul Marino, and friends –

S4 E124 Machinima News Omnibus (Apr 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 10, 2024 Leave a reply

A packed review this month, with some sad 🙁 better 😐 and happy news 🙂



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Endings

The long-anticipated demise of Rooster Teeth and has been announced – as has the much anticipated final season of Red Vs Blue in this trailer –

If you are a die hard RTer, here’s a link to the Rooster Teeth team response to Warner’s announcement, its ‘Not a Final Goodbye’ –

Tracy and Ben’s Pioneers in Machinima book chapter is here too, Chapter 4: Rooster Teeth Bites.

Here’s the link to the 2007 Special Ep, Going Global, released at the First European Machinima Festival in 2007 (in Leicester, UK) –

Articles, Variety, Deadline and IGN.

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 –

Aye AI AI…

YouTube has updated its T&Cs, a nice article here

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 –

Blockbuster Inc has announced its release date: 6 June 2024. Here’s the official gameplay trailer –

and here’s the link to Prologue on Steam

Finally, here’s the link to the interview with Denis Villeneuve, discussing his approach to making the latest Dune films –

Post Script

We are super excited to see our Podcast make the Top 3 listing of indie filmmaking podcasts on Goodpods in March 2024 – how cool is that?!

S4 E106 The Sims 4: I Abducted My Entire Neighborhood (Dec 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 7, 2023 Leave a reply

We start this week’s episode with a discussion about Reallusion’s new facial mocap system, Accuface (which Phil and Damien have already invested in), move on to a brief contest update (being run by Pink Floyd no less), and then follow this up with our film review. If you liked the Saw series of films, then this is for you – its a particularly sadistic let’s play style machinima made in The Sims 4, called I Abducted My Entire Neighborhood in The Sims 4, by Lets Game It Out… and its also just Phil’s sense of humor too! We contrast our discussion with some older references to classic machinimas, which help us to make our point about just how talented this creator is.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Reallusion’s Accuface release here.

Film, by Lets Game It Out, released 18 January 2020

Comparison films discussed –

OBIT (by Phil Rice / zsOverman, released 2022, RDR2) –

The Snow Witch (by Britannica Dreams, released 2006, Sims 2) –

RVB (Rooster Teeth, episode 1 originally released in 2003) –

Phil’s out takes video from Male Restroom Etiquette (released 2006) –

Projects Update 1 (May 2023)

Tracy Harwood Blog May 22, 2023 Leave a reply

This week we share with you a couple of notable RTs (of the UnTwitter kind) and a Dynamo Dream or two. Enjoy!

Who can believe it but Rooster Teeth is now 20 years old. Its come a very long way from its RVB days, not all of it good, but its still rolling. Indeed, RT is now also in the same stable as the final remains of Machinima.com (RIP). Ben Grussi and I dedicated a chapter to the RT story in our book Pioneers in Machinima (2021) and one thing we noted was its resilience to change over the years, so here’s wishing them all the best for the next turn on their roundabout too –

Another long-time favorite on our podcast is the RT Music (formerly RT Machinima) team. This month, I’d like to share their Elden Ring Rap with you (released 12 Mar 2022). Its definitely worth watching the video, not only are these guys great at writing some toe-tappers but they also do a pretty good job of showing off their machinima skills too –

Finally this week, Ian Hubert has released two episodes of his Dynamo Dream live action/VFX series (our feature image for this post). We covered the first episode of this stunning series on the podcast back in August 2021 (audio only) but what’s quite incredible about the release of Eps 2 and 3 in such quick succession is frankly the speed at which he’s been able to release them… and of course they’re very good if ever so slightly absurdist.

A Single Point in Space – Dynamo Dream, Ep 2 (released 23 Mar 2023) –

A Pete Episode – Dynamo Dream, Ep 3 (released 6 Apr 2023) –

Next week, we have some more selections to share with you too but if you find something you’d like us to do a full review of on the podcast, do share it.

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