This week we celebrate Star Wars with a fabulous short portraying the infamous AT-AT death walkers as ‘nature-creatures’ in their natural habitat – this is a beautifully observed work, made in Unreal Engine by Jeremy Cummins. Cummins is an experienced character creator, now working for Tippett Studio, with an impressive list of credits including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Spider-Man and Avengers, among others. We discuss the transition pros are making in the development of an Unreal pipeline and the impact this has on the creative machinima community. #maythe4thbewithyou
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
Star Wars AT-AT Walkers in Unreal Engine by Jeremy Cummins, released 9 April 2024, link here –
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 –
Congratulations to @ElectroLeagueX and @WetaFXofficial on winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short with "WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko". This is a first for an animated short created in Unreal Engine 5, we couldn't be more proud! https://t.co/bH3yrA23Jf
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 –
In this ep, we discuss two machinima films dealing with thematically similar issues, albeit presented with different treatments: Vigilante is made in GTA5 and tells the shocking story of how the lead character became cyberpunk. The second is a futuristic yet somehow more traditional gender-based story made in UE5. It is presented as a proof of concept for a proprietary tool made by its creator, who is none other than the VFX Oscar-winner Tim Webber in his directorial debut.
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
GTAV – Vigilante | Episode 1 | Cyberpunk Machinima by Weedens, released 25 March 2023
FLITE | Hyper Realistic CGI Sci Fi Short Using Unreal Engine, released 1 Dec 2023
An interesting video featuring Tim Webber, talking about his approach to visual effects
This week’s podcast episode is our curated news omnibus for this month. We cover lots, and enjoy reflecting on the significance of the stories we highlight for the world of machinima and virtual production.
btw, the international internet pipes failed and microwaves fried our apps during this recording session, video corrupted and monsters ran loose among us, so enjoy the voice data we’ve managed to resurrect and video clips we’ve added – we’ll be back next week in full glory!
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
Fan communities under pressure?
Valve’s Steam policy and recent take downs for Team Fortress 2 and Portal fan projects – article on Games Radar here
Half Life 3 aka Entropy Zero (and 2) projects – Fandom.com overview here and video –
New Moviemaking Toolsets
Blockbuster Inc, Prologue version now on Steam here
Demo by Orbital Potato here –
Replikant now in free beta on the Unreal Marketplace.
Replikant has a Youtube channel with plenty of tutorials on it already, and there’s a great demo of it which gives you a sense of the animation quality it produces –
And for those wanting a quick and dirty tutorial on UE5, check this out –
Steamboatin’ Along!
Minecraft Steamboat Willie which is a fun take on it, made by Red and Blue –
Fewture Studios’ trailer for The Return of Steamboat Willie, made in Unreal Engine –
Screams
The origins and impact of the Wilhelm Scream – BBC shorts here
This week we compare and contrast, in a way extending that ongoing debate about whose IP is the daddy… but the ep is about much more than that too. We discuss @solofilmmaking4857 ‘s use of #chatgpt to generate a film’s story, using the plots of 60 of his portfolio works on Batman, mixing styles and genres along the way. We don’t see it as wholly successful and we discuss why. We contrast that with an unusual hobbyist technique to create ‘analogue machinima’, inspired by Spiderman toy figurines digitised and animated by @MakeItMoveMedia. In the end, our conclusion is that its all Marvellous!
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes and Links
Vengence: Batman Fan Made Cinematic | Unreal Engine 5.3 | DLSS 3.5 by Solo Filmmaking
‘Making of’ film, link –
Spider-Man Action Figure Animations Episodes 1-8 by Make It Move Media
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