This week we discuss a machinima form we've not really talked about before - anime. Whilst its one of Ricky's favourite creative forms, for the rest of us its a little out of our comfort zone! We take a look at two films, both made in Final Fantasy 14 (FFXIV), Frieren: Beyond Journey's End by Wheat Tea (released 2 Feb 2025) and Arcadion by Magitek Productions (released 1 Jan 2025). Check out our discussion and reviews, and do add your comments.

1:24 What is anime machinima?

3:44 Studio Ghibli: “An insult to life itself”

4:20 About FFXIV for machinima

7:14 Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

10:18 Arcadion

15:14 The untold story of anime and machinima

17:15 Origins of a humble person becoming a world saviour: LOTR

28:06 Convergence mod for Elden Ring (v 2.2)

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

In this week's episode, we discuss the month's news items we've found most interesting and relevant to making machinima, including more great projects to be inspired by, genAIs we've spotted, Steam's rip off, inZOI's challenge to Sims and the phenomenon known as the 'Minecraft Movie'. Check out our discussion and do add comments on our YT or blog posts.

1:18 Projects: a zombie film in GTA5, Trillo’s Cuco, NeuralViz’ Tigg Talk – an alternative perspective on tariffs

3:33 The speed of a creative and production process – efficiencies and pivoting to topical content a la South Park!

6:25 Anomidae’s game explainer, Platinum WoW’s documentary about early days of World of Warcraft, GTA6 mAIchinima

9:00 GenAI updates: Sesame, ElevenLabs Actor Mode, Runway’s gen 4, ChatGPT’s image generator, Studio Ghibli’s backlash, DSO physical generator, Recammaster tool, Phil’s examples of how the tools can be used, volumetric capture, vtubing WarpTuber, Animes and Facerig,

26:28 Reallusion and Apple Arts Studio’s Animation Shopee

28:00 Steam’s share of revenue and algorithmic bias

29:41 Nintendo’s Switch 2

31:09 Mocap studio at a comicon – who were they?

32:45 John Robertson’s show The Dark Room

35:40 InZOI release – more photorealistic than the Sims, and an intriguing looking engine – what will happen to Sims now?

45:30 The Minecraft movie – a renewed interest in machinima (or not!) and the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Credits -
Speakers: Damien Valentine, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week is another pick from the Archives, a short by Thuyen Nguyen aka @evaneon and @collectivenounfilmworksdev4297 . The film was released in 2007 - it is a love letter to games and gamers at a time when seemingly the whole world was filled with haters. Catch up with our comments and reflections and do add your own below.

1:13 About the Archive - How They Got Game, a Stanford University project

3:30 The Most Powerful Person in the World by Thuyen Nguyen

7:17 I am omnipotent!

9:12 The historical context – and the ‘hot coffee mod’

12:50 Games are just not that bad

13:20 An Unfair War, impacts and influences and the role of machinima

21:30 Why do a ‘personal essay’ style of machinima?

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Damien Valentine
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

Alongside S5 E176 Red Faction Guerilla: Optimism Bias (Apr 2025), Tracy spoke to Andrew about his machinima series, his creative practice and the problems he encountered when attempting to distribute the work. They also discuss his upcoming works and aspirations for his future career. Check out the interview (also on YouTube).

Credits -
Speakers: Andrew Knight, Tracy Harwood
Editor: Phil Rice

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. Tracy also grabbed an interview with Andrew which you can check out in our season specials, released alongside this ep.

1:17 Introduction to the film and its original inspiration – not surprisingly RoosterTeeth’s #RVB

9:35 Everything is funnier in an Australia accent!

10:15 Puppeteering vs keyframe

11:15 Phil’s broken record: writing is outstanding!

12:50 A masterful scene

13:50 Editing the frame – the skill required is evident

15:00 The biggest shock is the view count

15:35 The difference between imitation and inspiration

17:22 Xcom games are more enjoyable than you think!

18:50 Distribution problems - Nordic Games Developer dropped the ball

22:38 Next steps, lessons learned and our reflections on the process of promoting good work

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

It's lovely to hear a fellow machinima fan discuss their passion for the creative works that have inspired them. This week's ep is a documentary by one such person, Angelikatosh, who reminisces about the 'golden age' of classic World of Warcraft films. We highlight a few films from our own and possibly slightly older archives that she's not managed to cover too.

1:19 Introduction to this week’s pick – a documentary about the ‘golden age’ of WOW machinima

4:55 What Ben’s tome says!

8:00 Why has WOW machinima dried up?

10:07 What the hell is Activision playing at with this community? Reminiscing about some of the earliest greats in WOW

15:54 MMOPRG vs mods vs community

24:40 Check out the Machiniplex remastered archive of WOW machinimas

26:16 Looking forward to the next ep by Angelikatosh!

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

One of the most extraordinary picks we've made, probably ever, on the show! This week, we review an emergent absurdist talk show, focussing on the life of the Glurons - a post-human race of critters set in a future world, but most creatively uses generative AI tools. Its outstanding quality is, however, the writing. Check out our review and pick up the links mentioned on our show notes blog post on the Completely Machinima website (link below).

1:27 A first for a machinima show: Unanswered Oddities by Neural Viz, episode 7 is part of a creative AI series, a talking heads show about a future race of hoomankind called The Glurons – introducing the show

8:50 The quality of the writing is outstanding, the workflow and creative pipeline discussed

16:36 How were the characters appearing to be from the same race created using genAI?

21:23 What the hell, Phil? Checkov!

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This is our regular monthly news update on things relevant to the world of machinima.

1:19 Projects: Isoterica’s latest release, DisUtopia; Hamilton in Animal Crossing by GK Animations; EvilDrPorkChop’s No Man’s Sky cinematic

4:28 Phil’s Chuck Norris vs 50K Cavemen – a true scientific experiment

11:20 ElevenLabs vs a cast – choices and rationale

15:30 The Remarkable Life of Ibelin – shortlisted for the Oscars (sadly, didn’t win) >>> but Flow, made in Blender did WIN!!! Congratulations to the creative team

20:00 John Gaeta’s Escape.ai platform

21:30 At All Costs, car chase physics sim/game

22:51 Second Life’s AI character design launched

23:08 Project Odyssey season 2 award winners

25:30 UK’s Govt consultation on genAIs and copyright processes

28:27 BBC Radiophonic sound effects released – subscription vs licensing

37:00 Valve releases source code for mod tools

36:45 Dune Awakening release date announced – worms and thumpers and all!

39:20 Tetris, a game release inspired movie – on Apple

41:37 Liberty City being ported by GTA5 – a fab mod of GTA4

47:06 John Martin, Reallusion, AI generated characters usiung Kling AI

54:15 Nvidia Omniverse launcher – implications for creators

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats