Just lately there seems to be a increase in decent Sims 2 machinima, so much so, that I seem to be spending less time working on our film and instead watching or reviewing new films. I’m also noticing many Sims 2 filmmakers breaking away from the traditional weepy or romance movies, to the action and fantasy genre.

Gunmod’s lighting hack and Enayla’s skins seem to popping up everywhere and they are both totally fabulous and I wouldn’t be without them. they really add a great deal to the look of a film. I’m such a fan of Enayla’s skins, that I’ve installed the defaults too, along with some default custom eyes, and they’ve overwritten the Maxis ones and so all the NPC’s now look wonderful, with a little plastic surgery anyway.

It’s good news for Sims 2 Machinima, that Matt Kelland, author of the book, ‘Machinima’, just one of his many achievements, has joined the Machinima Live podcast as co-host, giving the show some needed street cred. Matt often reviews Sims and The Movies machinima, which makes a pleasant change to hear positive comments and reviews about these engines in a community full of Sims 2 enginists. It’s lucky for us, to now have two podcasts to tune in to, Overman’s shows are always professional, entertaining and educational.

http://www.machinimalive.com/cms/ 

http://theovercast.com/2006/04/30/overcast-004/

Over at Machinima Premiere, The Online Machinima Film Festival website, has officially opened and the nominations has begun for the judges. So, if you think you’re up for the job, you’ll need to be a member first of The OMFF and follow the instructions on the site. I think it’s going to be very exciting watching it unfold over the course of the next year.

http://www.mprem.com/e107/news.php

http://www.mprem.com/omf/news.php

Also over at mprem, gToon (Ricky Grove) has written a very comprehensive and thorough review of the newest machinima tool from Reallusion, iClone. Along with his friend, Skip Keller, they’ve created an entertaining little sketch showing the possibilities and what they’ve learnt during the course of writing the review. I gave iClone a trial some weeks ago and had enormous fun with it, I especially liked the preset cameras and pans. Sadly, I can’t justify the expense of more software, though I would love to play around with it and the companion lip-synching software, Crazy Talk sometime in the future.

Check out the review and film here:

http://www.mprem.com/e107/content.php?review.224

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