Is it me, or is HBO’s Deadwood the modern Shakespearean vehicle? In spite of being over-peppered with coarse swears, it’s some of the most beautifully written script I’ve ever heard. Of course, having a cast that is second to none helps a great deal, too.

Mitch Featherston recently released a collection of 100 uber-quality seamless textures, entitled “Stone Free.” He released them under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. Texture images of this kind of quality are not given away for free very often, and they can be hugely helpful if you like to paint your own world in just about any 3d environment. Check ‘em out here. Mitch’s blog (here) is a good read, and he’s been at it for quite some time. Speaking of which, I recently came upon a new blog with machinima as its primary theme, and so I’ve added neoRetro’s blog to the reel.

The other night I wrote up my sixth installment of audio “Did You Know?” articles regarding the sound work on BloodSpell. Sometimes I do those over there and forget to mention them here, so in case you’ve missed any so far, here are the first six articles:

1. Episode 1 (”Anatomy of a Crossbow”)
2. Episode 2
3. Episode 3
4. Episode 4
5. Episode 5
6. Episode 6

Some production updates:

• Sound for BloodSpell Episode 7 was completed Sunday, you’ll be able to watch it here on Wednesday.
• Apollo Productions has re-released The Days After, this time with a festival-friendly full musical score by yours truly. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Watch it here. I was quite honored to provide music for a film so beautifully filmed by Andre Pesch and so terrifically acted by Richard Grove and Ingrid Moon. I really think Days is one of the best short films of the year.
• Audio work has begun on The Fixer, Episode 3, which if I’m not mistaken, may also feature a gToon performance.

The other five CDs in the car’s changer are getting a little jealous, as Tool’s 10,000 Days is getting a disproportionate amount of attention lately. 10k took a bit of persistence before I realized I really like it (unlike Lateralus, where the love came effortlessly), but it has really grown on me, even the really experimental tracks. However, the song I’m really hooked on is track 5, “The Pot,” whose buildup is still giving me goosebumps after countless listens. Great music for driving, for sure.

Speaking of tools, here are some great programs / components of any machinimator’s post-production setup… (more…)

What can I say, lately I’m just crazy about The Sims 2, and I confess I haven’t always been. It’s not that anything about the game has really changed recently… rather, I’ve just learned more about it and the world of content and mods surrounding it. As such, if I was out to convince someone of its value as a machinima platform, here are the ten things I would focus on in my sales pitch. (more…)