Stolen Life

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 –

S5 E155 Beyond the Dust (Nov 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 6, 2024 Leave a reply

This week’s ep we dedicate to a 3D animation by a French student collective made in their final year of studies, streamed through  @TheRookiesCo  channel. It is not technically machinima as its made using traditional animation tools but nonetheless we absolutely loved it – and its a recommendation by one of our channel’s regular followers @3dchick. The film is a post-apocaylptic robot tale, inspired by Zaha Hadid’s architectonic style.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Beyond the Dust by Alexia AMELINE, Marin BENITEZ, Lucien BIGEY, Marine DUPUY, Benjamin HACK, Matteo MICHEL, Salomé QUILLIEN, Juliette VIGNOLLET at ESMA Toulouse, France with an original score by Gregory ALLISON https://www.therookies.co/entries/27421 

Film was released on 17 Sept 2024 and is a graduation short film made during their final year –

Check out Phil’s remastered collection of Peter Rasmussen’s work here, especially Stolen Life, feature-length machinima –

and if you want to find out more about the ground-breaking work Peter did, there is a chapter dedicated to his work in the Pioneers in Machinima book by Tracy and Ben Grussi.