unreal engine

S4 E115 Machinima News Omnibus (Feb 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 8, 2024 Leave a reply

This week, we spend some time talking about new tools, emergent topics, AI and copyright (again), with some interesting links for you below. Check out the episode here –



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

New tool releases

iClone’s ‘clumsy moves’ pack, available at $70, can be downloaded here

Crowd simulation tools, including Reallusion’s sim bundle for CC4 and social groups for iClone 8, link here and a nice video here –

and Kenneth MacLean’s MegaHumans plugin WIP. No link for the latter, but here’s a neat show and tell video –

A free new VR mod by Praydog for Unreal Engine – here’s an overview about it –

Mickey and AI discussion

Disney’s Mickey in a horror game called Infestation Origins that will be released later this year –

and an interesting AI generated short that seems to confirm Mickey’s transmogrification into a horror character –

Princeton’s Public Domain Project released an annual report – check it out here for 2024.

Improving the quality of your machinima films with AI, check out Pryda Parx suggestions here –

and you can also check out the restored machinimas Phil did for the Machiniplex channel here, and here’s the trailer for the body of work too –

Google’s VideoPoet that turns prompts into animations without the interim stage of an image and a separate tool like Runway to animate it.  Here’s a neat example of its capabilities, focussing on a travelling raccoon –

Mods and Cockers!

The Convergence mod for Elden Ring (and many others), v 1.4 – a nice overview here –

and here’s a link to the mod for download

A case of corporate bullying? Check out the situation this Minecrafter is facing and if you’re a legal expert, do please get in touch with him to help out!

S4 E109 Teaching an AI: Backflip (Dec 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 28, 2023 Leave a reply

Backflip is a docu-style film, made over a period of three years where Nikita Diakur presents his progress using AI to teach a character to backflip. The character is the 3D scanned artist and the learning process applied is based on a technique he read in an academic paper. To say its chaos is an understatatement, and something anyone in research could probably have told him when attempting to replicate a finding in a publication (which of course is why LLMs using text alone will never be ‘intelligent’). It is also everything one would expect from a character rig with the physics of a double-jointed arachnid… but it sure is hugely entertaining to watch, and brilliantly edited together. Backflip is a must watch for anyone using AIs for animation, not least because it serves as a reminder of just how tough this all was pre-mid 2023!

We also begin the episode with some news updates: Half Life 2 @ 25 years, GTA6 trailer, Elden Ring DLCs and Baad Viibes (John MacInnes).



YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/-iE2YKKQX9s

Show Notes & Links

Half Life 25th anniversay documentary and update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ3HzvFEto&t

The GTA6 official advert –

John MacInnes talking about Baad Viibes at the Unreal Fest, October 2023 –

Backflip – film by Nikita Diakur, released 27 September 2023 –

S4 E107 Epic Battles: Northern Wars | Oryctes (Dec 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 14, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s film picks are of epic battle scenes: one made in Warhammer and the other Unreal Engine. There are similarities and contrasts between these two works, respectively created by a gamer, Game Thumb, and a CG production team, Glow Productions – and that also includes the opinions of the CM crew reviewing the works! What’s your view, please do add you comments on our YT review or ep blog post. The ep begins with an update on Ricky’s take on the SAG AFTRA deal for his Army of Darkness characterisations.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Northern Wars – Total War Warhammer 2 Cinematic Battle Machinima, by Gamethumb, and was released on 10 August 2019

video set to music by Danheim

Oryctes by Glow Productions, released 25 October 2023

S4 E103 Longest Walkable Distances (in a game) | UE: The Alchemist’s Confession (Nov 2023

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 16, 2023 Leave a reply

This week we present a critique of two very contrasting machinima productions – one took literally months to make and the other just a few days. In our first pick, the creator has asked: just how big are the maps in games these days? Well, vast actually – and quite frankly it blows our minds to think that so much effort has gone into answering the question. The film is called Longest Walkable Distances in a Video Game, by How Big is the Map. Our second film is a review of a creative experiment in Unreal Engine, called The Alchemist’s Confession by Cory Williams – it was inspired by a found marketplace asset and is experimental in a number of ways, not least in the five days it took to make it. Ricky highlights the weakness in the writing albeit the film is technically masterfully produced and acted, using mocap and LinkedIn (yep, you heard that correctly!). We also start this episode with some links we hope you enjoy and a discussion about the voice characterisation of G Man in the Half Life series.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Longest Walkable Distances in a Video Game / Maps Size Comparison by How Big is the Map, released 2 Sept 2023

An Alchemist’s Confession by Cory Williams, released 27 September

and he’s also created a how to, Behind the Scenes

Fractal Pi video mentioned by Tracy, by Chirag Dudat –

All G Man’s speeches, by No Click –

S4 E100 SPECIAL: Machinima Reflections

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes October 25, 2023 Leave a reply

Celebrating our 100th episode on the CM podcast/YouTube show, we reflect on how far machinima has come and some of the recent trends we’ve observed in our film reviews.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

We list here a selection of the film review episodes we mention in our discussion during this episode.

Neo Stormwind by Duren Productions –

The MODDED Wacky West by BedBananas –

The Ghost by JP Ferre –

After War by RG Studios –

Patient Zero by The Parry God –

Secret Moon by Orencloud –

Interloper by Anomidae –

917 by Krad Productions –