The Little Limpet is an Elite Dangerous animation by CMDR Nickweb85, released in July 2024. It has shades of Disney X David Attenborough X Busby Barkley. You could say it has something for everyone then... well, assuming you enjoy a good space opera/ballet (which of course we do). Check out our comments -

0:44 Intro to film, Elite Dangerous, Pixar-like, composited game footage using Blender

4:17 Story, Tom Cook’s music and anthropomorphic animations

6:45 Experimental work, testing emotional representations

7:59 Ep 1 vs Ep 2, a Busby Barkley space ballet

10:16 Criticism: why split the episodes where they have been?

13:37 The importance of machinima telling the stories about the side kick in an MMO

16:19 Tom Cook’s dedication to making music for ED machinimas, IP and music performance

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

This week's #machinima short is ridiculous, yep Ridiculous Ties - a meme response to Eltorro64Rus' review of favorite and least favorite words used by the Scientist in Half Life, created by Finzlow. And did we say its ridiculous?! We love the well-crafted humor in this, in-jokes with some of the best timing and inspired editing we've seen for quite some time. Although its strictly not machinima, it is definitely from a machinima stable, so it counts for us at least. Our review -

1:01 Intro to the film, models and the stylistic choices Finzlow has made, Marx Bros comedy

5:27 Old Man Murray

8:06 What’s the process for creating this?

9:57 HL2 vs HL1

11:40 Subversion, remix and moxie

14:34 Timing is everything

17:17 What’s the best line? “I never thought I would see a highly training professional, let alone create one”

18:34 Italian slapstick: lazzi

26:09 Ricky’s complaint

28:37 @ILLRobinson – what do you think about this film?!

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

Whilst January's news begins with more of the same ole genAIs doing their thang, because they can, there's now evidence of more concerted effort to control the efforts of creators... because the corporates and policymakers can at least try to do that, right? Well, maybe, but all this has achieved in the past is even more creative energy invested in jumping through the hoops, clambering over the walls and crashing through the hedges - so Happy New Year, we're looking forward to seeing what the amazing machinima creative communities of all engine persuasions around the World can achieve in 2025! Plus, we discuss iClone's new update, a couple of interesting creative projects celebrating content creators in their own ways, as well as interesting milestones.

1:15 SORA-not SORA

6:51 Runway’s Act One

7:39 Face Depth Frame Mancer

9:00 Riot Games dishing the riot act

11:06 Fortnite’s achievements

12:53 Why was Andy Serkis not playing the horse?

14:00 JT Music’s Halo tribute

14:42 Bullet Time Agent

17:14 Reallusion’s iClone update

18:51 After Astartes: this is what happened to Syama Pedersen

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

Kicking off 2025 with a review of a classic and iconic #machinima by one of the pioneers of the movement, Paul Marino aka ILLRobinson. I'm Still Seeing Breen, made in HL2, holds a special place in our memories from those early years - not only was it a perfect 'protest piece' as the feature machinima demonstrating its potential for a 2005 Sundance Film Festival panel discussion (alongside RoosterTeeth's RVB) but was further developed for MTV2's Season 2 premiere of its Video Mods TV show later that same year. In this episode, we go over the back story, discuss how this was made and its impact on machinima in general.

1:14 Introduction to film and the Valve 20th anniversary edition of Source Filmmaker updates
5:31 Back story to its release: the snub, the support from Valve, the successes and the features (Ottawa Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, MTV2 and Tony Shiff, et al)
16:45 The genius of selecting a music video for making machinima!
18:05 Creating the head animation in Source, editing and scene selection
23:00 Communicating and community in the early days
26:30 Why the Gman and why a close-up?
31:00 A watershed moment, a turning point, but the end/beginning of the next phase too
35:00 An inspiration
38:53 A big mistake
41:54 How the games companies robbed the machinima community
44:00 A question for Paul

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

What a fantastic short to end 2024 on... this week is yet another great creative work by GibbsonTV, released in April. The film is based on the award-winning Roblox-inspired game Lethal Company by Zeekerss. It's not actually machinima, being made in Blender, but in the spirit of being inspired by the game and with a original tale, it has all the right heritage for our show. Check out our comments and add your own - and see you on the other side of the New Year for more creative tidbits.

1:04 Introduction to the film, the game and the rules of storytelling

8:16 Inspired by Alien

10:36 The tools and the craft in storytelling, at times reminiscent of RVB

15:15 Voice acting and AI, and a little disappointment

16:53 Finding a way to be a creative long-term

18:28 Realtime vs 3D animation – the benefit of thinking like a machinimator

19:35 Anachronisms…

21:50 Sound advice?

24:26 Mocap and Damien’s approach to filmmaking

27:32 A demo reel strategy and drawing from the experiences of the early days in machinima

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

Not an actual comparison but a review of two shorts: The Internet is for Porn by Evilhoof & Flayed, originally released way back in 2005 and The Marstons Celebrate Christmas, But Things Get Out of Hand, by Paradise385 released 22 Dec 2023. Lots of lampoonery in both our reviews, but we especially hope you enjoy watching them. Happy Christmas from the crew here at Completely Machinima.

1:45 The Internet is for Porn - porn, pawn or pwn?!
26:35 The Marstons Celebrate Christmas - a flaw fest, perfect for a glass in hand viewing, right after Miracle on 34th
39:50 Ricky's bonus update... HL2

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

Our monthly news update this month covers more genAI matters, game-related items and WoWness in the form of a 2 hour + stunning orchestral performance celebrating 20 years of musical history. Check out the news and our discussion, and do leave comments too!

1:35 Pioneers in Machinima, published by Vernon Press, is becoming part of the genAI ecosystem + a plea to keep us up to date
13:05 AI filmmaking studio launched aka #mAIchinima
14:29 Silent Hill Remake 2 mod by Praydog
15:30 Philip Rosedale back at Second Life, yay!
21:25 Remarkable Life of Ibelin – a remarkable story
22:50 20 years of WoW, orchestral extravaganza
26:18 Steam Launcher update w/ machinima tools
29:30 Dragon Age Veilguard release
31:30 Half Life 2 20th anniversary RTX remix
37:40 The corollary of the unfinished game…
44:24 Mr Musk’s Diablo 4 record

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

A Source Filmmaker short by Dominzki, this is another of his well-crafted stories told in 3 parts, called Mission. This episode we focus on the third part Exodus and discuss its merits in detail. We conclude that if there was ever a machinima that should be made in a film studio, this would be it. Check out our comments.

1:17 Tracy's introduction to the film
11:47 Complexity and dialogue
13:51 Scifi and the clone, and the director's clever device of using a disrupted world to portray the ethical considerations of cloning
15:31 Clay-like characters and the portrayal of emotion
17:09 The soundtrack and its role
18:53 Making this IRL, maybe Kim Kardashian could play the lead?
19:23 The Mobius strip is the masterful component
24:48 The art and craft is evident

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