TikTok

S4 E104 Starfield: Let’s Talk Machinima & The Mantis Teaser (Nov 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 22, 2023 Leave a reply

Damien’s picks this week take a look at two of the first Stafield machinimas by @TheKShow and @Mod81Gameworld respectively. The first is a ‘tell and show’ with a neat cinematic demo invoking Starship Troopers, and the second is a slightly more original lore-based teaser for an upcoming series called The Mantis. We begin this episode with an update on Star Citizen’s new spin off game, Squadron 42, which is now ‘feature complete’ and their launch of a new contest which can be entered on TikTok, leading Tracy to speculate on their strategic response to the release of Starfield! Ricky highlight’s a recent important update to Second Life’s render system which has important implications for machinima creators.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Our film picks this week –

Starfield: The feature nobody talks about, by The K Show, released 15 Sept 2023

and the second film,

The Mantis Teaser, by Mod81 Gameworld, released 25 Sept 2023

Inside Star Citizen: Inside CitizenCon, overview released 9 Nov 2023 –

and Squadron 42 now ‘feature complete’, with a video update here –

and here’s a link to the machinima contest for TikTok entrants

Examples of Second Life’s PBR (physical based render) system –

S3 E68 Film Review: TikTok Machinima (Mar 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes March 9, 2023 Leave a reply

This week, Ricky provokes us with a selection of shorts released on TikTok. We discuss the usefulness of the platform for machinima and virtual production creators, as well as pass comment on the three films we take a look at, which unsurprisingly we variously struggle with. Phil’s analogy to fish restaurants of different quality sums it up well for us all.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

A nice way to do some machinimas by AntroksRD, released 27 Dec 2022 –

Make your own FNAF videos with Movieoke! By movieokeapp, released 21 Sept 2022 –

@movieokeapp

Make your own FNAF videos with Movieoke! #fnaf #3danimation #machinima

♬ original sound – movieoke

Here’s a link to the app if you wanted to give it a go yourself.

FNAF on Steam here, £3.99

In the back of my mind by boyfrogsims, released 19 Sept 2022 –

all the best memories are hers – sims 4 machinima by boyfrogsims, released 28 Jan 2021 –

European Commission bans TikTok on staff devices, BBC, 23 Feb 2023

The push to ban TikTok, Wired, 23 Feb 2023

TikTok access from government devices restricted in more than half of US states, CNN Business, 16 Jan 2023

Contests Update: Jan 2023

Tracy Harwood Blog January 30, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s #MondayMotivation gives you a selection of more projects to take a look at, these are from recent contests and challenges that have been taking place across different platforms.

Unreal Short Film Challenge: Australia & NZ

This is an annual contest that provides two weeks of training on Unreal, followed by eight weeks in which to create a film. We reviewed some of the films emanating from last year’s challenge and this contest resulted in some equally stunning films. Here’s the highlights reel –

But do check out the films too. Two we particularly loved are narrated, which is not a method we see used all that often in shorts these days. This one is Revolver and Heckler’s Black Wing –

and this one of a solo dancer is beautifully done, by Adam Walker Film, called vQsv –

This one mixed 3D and 2D, mentored by Spectre Studios, who’s 2020 Roborovski we shared a couple of months ago, is also very well done – Robo Ramen, by UTS Animal Logic Academy –

There are numerous other to check on Unreal’s channel too, link here.

KitBash3D: Mission to Minerva

Another time delimited contest, KitBash3D launched a free asset pack, its Mission to Minerva, and 40 days later, 32,000 entries from 174 countries answered the call to ‘create a new Galaxy’. Films were made using Blender and Unreal for the ‘in-motion’ category, and another category of concept artwork just required stills. What an astonishing feat to go through all those entries and select just a few winners! Here’s the sizzle reel –

In-motion winners compilation –

and here’s the winner, Secret Moon by Orencloud. This is stunning to say the least and we’ll be reviewing this as part of our February podcast film review too –

In the meantime, KitBash3D’s Mission to Minerva world kit is stil available as a free download, you can access it here.

Second Life Showcase

Not a contest as such, but we wanted to share a site that’s produced by a group of SL Video Creators, aimed at inspiring residents to create. Each month, they select the best films and share them on their website – check it out in the link here

SLVideoGroup website screencap

MacInnes Studios Dance Challenge

Following hot on the heels of the outcome of the Mood Scene challenge, John MacInnes launched a TikTok challenge to create an avatar dancer. TikTok is an interesting choice for video sharing for machinima, and its one we’ll be commenting on more over the coming weeks. This contest was won by a virtual Freddie Mercury, created by Jean Campos (feature image) –

Runners up were Pooky Amsterdam, Bruschi Bruschmann, Alex Sura and Sergey Vereschagin.