Machinima launches two brand-new animated series, “Action Faction” and “Space Adventure Legend Quest.”

Bitfilm launches a worldwide film competition in Bangalore, which will be the first ever to use Bitcoins for online voting and prizes.

Machinima and iam8bit announce the first ever Machinima Interactive Film Festival, a nine day online and offline exhibit.

iPi Soft spotlights the best of what this growing animation art form, which uses video game technology to create 3D animated films in real time, has to offer at this week’s 2012 Machinima Expo.

Microsoft and 343 Industries announce the series premiere of the highly anticipated live-action digital series, “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn,” launching October 5.

Project 48 Machinima is looking for filmmakers from around the world to make a 3-5 minute short film from scratch -- write, shoot and edit in only 48 hours.

Machinima and Lionsgate have partnered to renew Machinima’s original zombie apocalypse comedy series “Bite Me.”

The 4th annual 2011 Machinima Expo (MachinExpo) will take place on the weekend of the 19th and 20th November 2011 in the virtual world of Second Life™ (www.secondlife.com) and live on the web (www.machinima-expo.com). The Festival celebrates the art of Machinima, which is 3D animation created in real-time. The MachinExpo will feature screenings, panel discussions, interviews and opportunities to meet and learn from machinima filmmakers all over the world.

191 machinima films were submitted to this year’s Expo. Four films will be selected by a handpicked jury, One film will win the Grand prize and 3 will win Jury prizes. The prizes will be announced during the weekend events. A selection of the other submitted films will be screened during the expo as well as the week running up (and the week after) to the event. All films will stream 24/7 at the Expo web portal (www.machinima-expo.com).

There is no cost to attend the Expo either within Second Life or to watch via the live steam web portal. If you’ve never been to Second Life before, we recommend you download the free software and try it out before you attend.

The weekend event is being sponsored by Muvizu (www.muvizu.com), Reallusion (www.reallusion.com) and the machinima filmmaker Anim8tor Cathy (www.undisclosedstudio.com). They all have made generous donations to help provide with the running costs and prizes at this year’s Machinima Expo.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the MachinExpo is collaborating with the New Media Film Festiva (www.newmediafilmfestival.com), a real-life festival taking place in Los Angeles in May 2012, the Expo’s films selected by the screening jury will be also screened at the New Media Film Festival.

For more information see http://blog.machinima-expo.com/ and http://www.newmediafilmfestival.com/

The 4th annual 2011 Machinima Expo (MachinExpo) will take place on the weekend of the 19th and 20th November 2011 in the virtual world of Second Life (www.secondlife.com) and live on the web (www.machinima-expo.com).

What began six years ago as simply a “creative outlet” for rising filmmaker/animator Ian Chisholm, Clear Skies III, the third film in the machinima series about the space adventures of the crew aboard the battleship Clear Skies, has steadily built a huge online audience thanks to its memorable storyline and characters, and creative use of the iPi Soft’s Desktop Motion Capture system, which played an integral role in bringing Chisholm’s vision to life.