BlenderNation and Blender Artists are Leaving X/Twitter By Bart on November 20, 2024 BlenderNation I have decided to stop posting to the X/Twitter accounts for BlenderNation and Blender Artists.Two reasons have led me to this conclusion: First and foremost, X has become a fascist and anti-democratic instrument. Continuing to post there makes me a supporter of their policies and an accomplice in their goals.X also recently announced that all content will be used to train their new AI - with no way to opt out. Since I share a lot of artwork from the Blender community on my sites and social media, this would mean I'd be sharing YOUR work with their AI, and I don't want to do that.With a combined 220k followers this is going to hurt. But after spending a lot of time looking at how this would impact my websites I realized that I was just looking for a reason to look away and comply with the fascism for traffic.I cant morally justify staying on X anymore, so I'm making what I believe is the right call. To prevent others from squatting and abusing the accounts, I will not delete the accounts. I'm also looking into how to delete the massive amount of posts on them, but this may take some time.AlternativesFortunately, we have are alternatives! We also have accounts on Mastodon and Bluesky. Personally, I think that Mastodon/the Fediverse most closely aligns with our values of freedom, open source and open data. Find us on @blendernation + @blenderartists.Bluesky is growing quickly too, but there are some concerns about their investors - we'll see how that plays out. You can find us there on @blendernation.com and @blenderartists.org.Finally, we have a newsletter! Sign up to get a daily overview of our latest posts.Support BlenderNationThank you for reading this. As I mentioned above, this is going to have an impact on the finances that help keep this site running. If BlenderNation is close to your heart, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon!

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Since election day in the US, usage of the Bluesky app is more than 500% higher in the US and over 350% higher in the UK.Bluesky, the social networking service originally created as a spin-off from Twitter, is seeing the most sustained growth since it emerged from an extended invite-only beta test period. The growth is linked to users either leaving X or investing more time in exploring a promising alternative.As Techdirt editor and Bluesky board member Mike Masnick noted in a post, this burst of new users is shaping up to be different than any the service has seen previously. Before he joined the board, Masnick is the author of the paper credited with inspiring the creation of Bluesky, Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech.Key takeawaysOn Nov. 6, the day after the US presidential election, both website traffic and app usage spiked for Bluesky in the US as it became the destination of choice for journalists and opinion leaders (as well as followers of those people) who decided to either stop using X or begin using it less.In the days since the election (through Friday, November 15), usage of the Bluesky app is up 519% compared to the first 10 months of the year. The UK echoed the trend, with Bluesky usage up 352% compared with the first 10 months of the year.Blueskys audience is still much smaller than that for Threads, let alone X but could catch up with Threads if it keeps growing at this rate. As of Nov. 15, the US daily active user count for X was more than 10 times that of Bluesky, and Threads is more than 1.5 times bigger than Bluesky. Prior to the election, Threads had over 5 times more daily active users, so Bluesky has narrowed the gap considerably.Based on worldwide estimates for Android, Bluesky usage since election day is up more than 360% from where it was in the first half of the year.Accelerating daily growth in the US and UKThe growth of Bluesky has been fueled by a rush of users either deactivating their accounts on X (see our blog post) or committing to use it less while exploring alternatives. Threads, the Meta Platforms alternative, is significantly bigger and also seeing strong growth, but the explosion of use of Bluesky in the US is more sudden and dramatic. The political dimension of the change is that X owner Elon Musk made himself an outspoken advocate for the candidacy of Donald Trump, although some users may be switching for various reasons such as changes in Xs algorithms and policies.Bluesky and its user and developer communities have been actively encouraging the transition with mechanisms such as Starter Packs of recommended users to follow (searchable via blueskydirectory.com) and a Chrome extension that helps automatically map the accounts a user follows on X to their new home on Bluesky.Heres the dramatic uptick of daily active users of the app in the US and for the UK.In both the US and the UK, visits to the Bluesky website surged ahead of those for the Threads website, reflecting strong interest from potential new users.A different pattern worldwideWorldwide, the pattern looks different, particularly as measured by app daily active users (for Android, in this case), reflecting a huge influx of Brazilian users during the period when access to X was banned in that country. That increase was more than twice as big as the recent post-election surge (see detail below).Worldwide, Bluesky didnt quite surpass Threads in website daily visits in the days since the election, but it came close.Boom and bust in Brazil leaves X with much higher usage, albeit down from the peakWhen using X was not an option for users in Brazil, many of them picked Bluesky over Threads as the substitute that was closest to the experience they were used to. After the government lifted its ban on X, usage dropped dramatically as X users returned to that platform. However, usage of Bluesky for the most recent week, at 1.4 million daily active users on Android, was still about 17 times higher than it was earlier this year.A strong trend, at least for nowAt the moment, Bluesky is enjoying a virtuous cycle of rapidly increasing usage driving press coverage, which in turn drives more users to sign up and begin experimenting with Bluesky. The Washington Post headline Liberals are fleeing X again this time for Bluesky explains part of this phenomenon. Political leanings arent the only reason to switch, however. Bluesky offers features some users find appealing, such as a decreased emphasis on algorithmically driven newsfeeds in favor of more personally created feeds of accounts to follow and also shared lists of accounts worth blocking.We will be watching to see if the strong upward trend for Bluesky that has persisted since the election proves lasting for the weeks and months to come.The Similarweb Press Office can pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to this post.MethodologyDisclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.by David F. Carr David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, hes also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies". Related Topics: Social Media NewsThis post is subject to Similarweb legal notices and disclaimers.

MetacrossPokemon Go developer Niantic is using player data to train AI that could power map-roaming robotsAccording to a Niantic blog posts, Pokemon Go players have been helping train machine learning models for a while.Image credit: The Pokemon Company/Niantic Labs News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 20, 2024 A blog post on the Niantic website has gained the attention of numerous Pokemon Go fans and tech-savvy folks alike due to the company's lengthy description of its work training up a machine learning powered geospacial model through its apps. That means you, yes you, might have played a part in building it up.The blog post in question, titled "Building a Large Geospatial Model to Achieve Spatial Intelligence" states that through Niantic's Visual Positioning System, it has gathered a lot of data and put its geospacial model through a lot of training (thanks, 404 Media).To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "As part of Niantics Visual Positioning System (VPS), we have trained more than 50 million neural networks, with more than 150 trillion parameters, enabling operation in over a million locations. In our vision for a Large Geospatial Model (LGM), each of these local networks would contribute to a global large model, implementing a shared understanding of geographic locations, and comprehending places yet to be fully scanned."Okay, so there are probably a few big questions here. First, what's this geospacial model actually do? Well, in simple terms, it'll help computers percieve and navigate real-world environments. What this actually means for tech, as laid out in the aforementioned blog post, is that stuff like AR glasses, robots, and autonomous systems will be better able to walk across the street without struggling to identify the lamppost they're walking towards.https://bsky.app/profile/josephcox.bsky.social/post/3lbcr7erh2c2rSecond question, what's this Visual Positioning System? Well, Pokemon Go players might know it through the lens of the game's AR mapping tool. These have ben part of field research tasks for a bit, and have the player scan parts of the world for in-game rewards. The VPS, as explained in another Niantic blog post, is a bit of tech that better maps AR content to the real world. So, again in simple terms, the way the game maps a poke stop to a local museum, rather than the pub toilets.Niantic states it's now got over 10 million locations scanned by its users across its many games, even providing a heat map to show the majority of this data has been gathered in Japan, the Coastal US, and Central Europe. AI and machine learning models have gotten a well-deserved bad wrap for their use in bunch of useless shite. But, if you're on board with AI development, this does point to real technological improvements as far as AR goes. One just hopes you've not been using Pokemon Go to scan your entire house for Niantic, lest a real life Metacross breaks down your bathroom door like in The Shining.What do you think about all this? Personally speaking, I'm largely against AI tech on an environmental level, at least until we've got a good solution to the energy crisis, but maybe you feel differently! Let us know below.

Attempts Were Made"There was always going to be live action" - As the Minecraft movie gets a new trailer, its director and producer try to defend its controversial look"A lot of the people who will see it were not born when the first contracts and the first discussions were had."Image credit: Warner Bros/ Mojang News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 As A Minecraft Movie gets a new uncanny valley as heck trailer, its director and producer attempt to defend how it looks.Warner Bros. released a new Minecraft Movie trailer yesterday, giving a much more comprehensive look at the upcoming video game adaptation, complete with a duck roasted by lava, that classic chill music, and skeletons trying to kill you with bows and arrows. It's certainly a better trailer than the first one, but obviously it can't change that slightly terrifying and controversial look that mixes live action and CGI. The first trailer quickly proved divisive amongst fans, and alongside the release of this latest trailer for Warner Bros., IGN put out a new interview with director Jared Hess and producer/ Minecraft senior director of original content Torfi Frans Olafsson where they attempted to defend the decision to use live action.Watch on YouTube"I mean, look, we knew this game represents so many different things to so many different people," Hess said, talking of that partial negative reaction to the first trailer (which wasn't as passionate as that first trailer for the original Sonic movie, a situation Hess wanted to avoid at all costs). "We knew that whatever we led out with, there was going to be strong opinions across the spectrum of what people were expecting, what they wanted it to be. Everybody brings their own special personal connection to the game. So we were ready for everything."To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Olafsson took the time to specifically respond to the live action criticism, saying, "I mean, that was one of the things [fans were saying in response to the trailer]: Why is it live action? Why isn't it animated? I think a lot of people were expecting that, and just the fact that there was live action and directly real-life characters and physical sets, didn't feel right with them, because in their imagination, they've been playing it for a very long time."And they've kind of projected and seen a bunch of content obviously that's been made both by us, the community, we've made a story mode. We made animated content before, and there's a lot of it out there. But that was also one of the reasons why the filmmakers wanted to go with live action rather than animate it, rather than do something that's been done before."The producer goes on to note that the movie has been in development for a "very, very long time", and by that he means at least 10 years. "A lot of the people who will see it were not born when the first contracts and the first discussions were had, and there was always going to be live action."I'm not sure how strong a defence that actually is, just because there was always going to be live action doesn't mean there should have been. Olafsson and Hess do also talk about how strong the team is that has worked on the film, and at the very least the effects themselves don't look bad. They just look strange with the human cast being green screened amongst them. Either way, we'll find out how it actually is when it finally releases April 4, next year.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube785kRemember back in September when Warner Bros. revealed the first trailer for the Minecraft Movie and everyone lost their minds because it didn't look great? Well, the second full-length trailer is now here and it looks... better? We guess.Prepare yourselves, folks, it looks like the live-action adaptation will feature some Steve lore. The trailer kicks off with a peek at Steve's backstory "As a child, I yearned for the mines", heh showing us how Jack Black's protagonist got to the blocky world in the first place. At least, it kinda explains it. There's only so much realism you can pour into a product like Minecraft at the end of the day.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube785kWatch on YouTube The script still sounds cheesy as hell, the green screen is more than a little distracting, and we're still not quite sure what Jason Momoa is doing here. But hey, at least this one uses the OG music.'A Minecraft Movie' (yep, that's the title they're going with) will land in North American cinemas on 4th April 2025, with an international release starting 2nd April 2025. Blocked"Please send this back to the crafting table"The goal is to authentically capture "the spirit of Minecraft"What do you make of this new Minecraft Movie trailer? Will you be heading to cinemas to check it out next year? Let us know in the comments.[source youtube.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesThe First Review For Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Is InFamitsu rates itRound Up: The Reviews Are In For Dragon Quest III HD-2D RemakeThe Scores of SalvationDonkey Kong Country Returns HD - Best Pre-Order Deals And Cheapest PricesIncluding the new Adventure BundleSonic 3 Director Teases Another Character Reveal At The End Of The MovieBut who will it be?

If you've been wanting more Pokmon avatars for your Switch, the Switch Online 'Missions and Rewards' program is now offering new and returning icons.As highlighted by Serebii.net, you can now get icons based on Pokmon Scarlet and Violet's DLC offerings. The first wave is now underway and will be followed by multiple other icons featuring trainers and various Pokmon from the newest entries.Here's a look at what's up for grabs (including a Shiny Rayquaza):NSO Icon Alerts on social media has provided a closer look at the first wave of offerings based on The Teal Mask. The avatars are 10 Platinum Points each and borders & backgrounds will set you back 5 Platinum Points each.In some related news, a new distribution event is also available for Scarlet and Violet. And in some other Pokmon news this week, Scarlet and Violet have also surpassed the sales of Pokmon Red and Green in Japan. You can learn more about this in our previous coverage on Nintendo Life: Finally overtaking Red and GreenGet 'em while they're hotSubscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube785kWatch on YouTube Will you be grabbing any of these new icons? Let us know in the comments.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesMario & Luigi's Future In Doubt As A Potential Sony Acquisition EmergesMust... consolidate...New Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Update Leaves The Switch BehindLa-li-lu-le-lower resolutionReview: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch) - Square Doesn't Drop The Ball, Just Some FramesThe wait is finally overThe First Review For Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Is InFamitsu rates it

The U.K. government is not ruling out further beefing up existing online safety rules by adding an Australian-style ban on social media for under 16s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has said. Back in the summer the government warned it may toughen laws for tech platforms in the wake of riots that were perceived to have been fuelled by online disinformation following a knife attack which killed three young girls. Since then its emerged that some of the people prosecuted for rioting were minors amping up concerns about social medias influence on impressionable, developing minds. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today program on Wednesday Kyle was asked whether the government would ban social media for under 16s. He responded by saying everything is on the table with me.Kyle was being interviewed as the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) set out its priorities for enforcement of the Online Safety Act (OSA) which parliament passed last year. The OSA targets a grab-bag of online harms, from cyberbullying and hate speech, to intimate image abuse, scam ads and animal cruelty, with U.K. legislators saying they want to make the country the safest place to go online in the world. Although the strongest driver has been a child safeguarding impetus, with lawmakers responding to concerns that kids are accessing harmful and inappropriate content. DSITs Statement of Strategic Priorities continues this theme, by putting child safety at the top of the list. Strategic Priorities for online safetyHere are DSITs five priorities for the OSA in full: 1. Safety by design:Embed safety by design to deliver safe online experiences for all users but especially children, tackle violence against women and girls, and work towards ensuring that there are no safe havens for illegal content and activity, including fraud, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and illegal disinformation.2. Transparency and accountability:Ensure industry transparency and accountability from platforms to deliver online safety outcomes, promoting increased trust and expanding the evidence-base to provide safer experiences for users.3. Agile regulation:Deliver an agile approach to regulation, ensuring the framework is robust in monitoring and tackling emerging harms such as AI generated content.4. Inclusivity and resilience:Create an inclusive, informed and vibrant digital world which is resilient to potential harms, including disinformation.5. Technology and innovation:Foster the innovation of online safety technologies to improve the safety of users and drive growth.The mention of illegal disinformation is interesting since the last government removed clauses in the bill that had focused on this area over freedom of speech concerns. But in the wake of the summer riots the government said it would review OSA powers and could seek to strengthen them in light of social media use during the disorder.It is essential that we learn from these events and hold platforms to account for their part in securing the UK online information environment and safeguarding the UK from future crises, the government wrote. In Wednesdays full draft statement, it also had this to say on online mis/disinformation:A particular area of focus for the government is the vast amount of misinformation and disinformation that can be encountered by users online. Platforms should have robust policies and tools in place to minimise this content where it relates to their duties under the Act.Countering misinformation and disinformation is challenging for services, given the need to preserve legitimate debate and free speech online. However, the growing presence of disinformation poses a unique threat to our democratic processes and to societal cohesion in the UK and must be robustly countered. Services should also remain live to emerging information threats, with the flexibility to quickly and robustly respond, and minimise the damaging effects on users, particularly vulnerable groups.DSITs intervention will steer how Ofcom enforces the law by requiring it to report back on the governments priorities.For over a year, Ofcom, the regulator tasked with overseeing Internet platforms and services compliance with the OSA, has been preparing to implement the OSA by consulting and producing detailed guidance, such as in areas like age verification technology. Enforcement of the regime is finally expected to start from next Spring when Ofcom will actively take up powers that could lead to fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover for tech firms that fail to meet the laws duty of care. What I want to do is look at the evidence, Kyle also said on kids and social media, pointing to the simultaneous launch of a feasibility study which he said would look at the areas where evidence is lacking.Per DSIT, this study will explore the effects of smartphone and social media use on children, to help bolster research and strengthen the evidence needed to build a safer online world.There are assumptions about the impact [social media] has on children and young people, but there is no firm, peer reviewed evidence, Kyle also told the BBC, suggesting that any U.K. ban on kids use of social media must be evidence-led. During the interview with the BBCs Emma Barnett, Kyle was also pressed on what the government has done to tackle gaps that he had previously suggested the online safety law contained. He responded by flagging a change its enacted that requires platforms to be more proactive about tackling intimate image abuse. Tackling intimate image abuseIn September DSIT announced that it is making sharing intimate images without consent a priority offence under the OSA requiring social media and other in-scope platforms and services to clamp down on the abusive practice or face the risk of big fines. The move effectively bumped up the severity of the intimate image abuse sharing offence within the Online Safety Act, so platforms have to be proactive in removing the content and prevent it from appearing in the first place, DSIT spokesman Glen Mcalpine confirmed. In further remarks to the BBC, Kyle said the change has meant social media companies must use algorithms to prevent intimate images from being uploaded in the first place. They had to proactively demonstrate to our regulator Ofcom that the algorithms would prevent that material going on in the first place. And if an image did appear online they needed to be taken down as fast as reasonably could be expected after being alerted, he said, warning of heavy fines for non-compliance. Its one area where you can see that harm is being prevented, rather than actually getting out into society and then us dealing with it afterwards which is what was happening before, he added. Now, thousands and thousands of women are now protected prevented from having the degradation, the humiliation, and sometimes being pushed towards suicidal thoughts because of that one power that I enacted.

OpenAI envisions teachers using its AI-powered tools to create lesson plans and interactive tutorials for students. But some educators are wary of the technology and its potential to go awry. Today, OpenAI released a free online course designed to help K-12 teachers learn how to bring ChatGPT, the companys AI chatbot platform, into their classrooms. Created in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media, with which OpenAI has an active partnership, the one-hour, nine-module program covers the basics of AI and its pedagogical applications.OpenAI says that its already deployed the course in dozens of schools, including the Agua Fria School District in Arizona, the San Bernardino School District in California, and the charter school system Challenger Schools. Per the companys internal research, 98% of participants said the program offered new ideas or strategies that they could apply to their work.Schools across the country are grappling with new opportunities and challenges as AI reshapes education, Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media, said in a statement. With this course, we are taking a proactive approach to support and educate teachers on the front lines and prepare for this transformation.But some educators dont see the program as helpful and think it could in fact mislead.Image Credits:OpenAILance Warwick, a sports lecturer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is concerned resources like OpenAIs will normalize AI use among educators unaware of the techs ethical implications. While OpenAIs course covers some of ChatGPTs limitations, like that it cant fairly grade students work, Warwick found the modules on privacy and safety to be very limited and contradictory.In the example prompts [OpenAI gives], one tells you to incorporate grades and feedback from past assignments, while another tells you to create a prompt for an activity to teach the Mexican Revolution, Warwick noted. In the next module on safety, it tells you to never input student data, and then talks about the bias inherent in generative AI and the issues with accuracy. Im not sure those are compatible with the use cases.Sin Tres Souhaits, a visual artist and educator at The University of Arizona, says that hes found AI tools to be helpful in writing assignment guides and other supplementary course materials. But he also says hes concerned that OpenAIs program doesnt directly address how the company might exercise control over content teachers create using its services.If educators are creating courses and coursework on a program that gives the company the right to recreate and sell that data, that would destabilize a lot, Tres Souhaits told TechCrunch. Its unclear to me how OpenAI will use, package, or sell whatever is generated by their models.loIn its ToS, OpenAI states that it doesnt sell user data, and that users of its services, including ChatGPT, own the outputs they generate to the extent permitted by applicable law. Without additional assurances, however, Tres Souhaits isnt convinced that OpenAI wont quietly change its policies in the future.Image Credits:OpenAIFor me, AI is like crypto, Tres Souhaits said. Its new, so it offers a lot of possibility but its also so deregulated that I wonder how much I would trust any guarantee.Late last year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)pushedfor governments to regulate the use of AI in education, including implementing age limits for users and guardrails on data protection and user privacy. But little progress has been made on those fronts since and on AI policy in general.Tres Souhaits also takes issue with the fact that OpenAIs program, which OpenAI markets as a guide to AI, generative AI, and ChatGPT, doesnt mention any AI tools besides OpenAIs own. It feels like this reinforces the idea that OpenAI is the AI company, he said. Its a smart idea for OpenAI as a business. But we already have a problem with these tech-opolies companies that have an outsize influence because, as the tech was developed, they put themselves at the center of innovation and made themselves synonymous with the thing itself.Josh Prieur, a classroom teacher-turned-product director at educational games company Prodigy Education, had a more upbeat take on OpenAIs educator outreach. Prieur argues that there are clear upsides for teachers if school systems adopt AI in a thoughtful and responsible way, and he believes that OpenAIs program is transparent about the risks.There remain concerns from teachers around using AI to plagiarize content and dehumanize the learning experience, and also risks around becoming overly reliant on AI, Preiur said. But education is often key to overcoming fears around the adoption of new technology in schools, while also ensuring the right safeguards are in place to ensure students are protected and teachers remain in full control.OpenAI is aggressively going after the education market, which it sees as a key area of growth. Image Credits:OpenAIIn September, OpenAI hired former Coursera chief revenue officer Leah Belsky as its first GM of education, and chargefd her bringing OpenAIs products to more schools. And in the spring, the company launched ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT built foruniversities.According to Allied Market Research, the AI in education market could be worth $88.2 billion within the next decade. But growth is off to a sluggish start, in large part thanks to skeptical pedagogues.In a survey this year by the Pew Research Center, a quarter of public K-12 teachers said that using AI tools in education does more harm than good. A separate poll by the Rand Corporation and the Center on Reinventing Public Education found that just 18% of K-12 educators are using AI in their classrooms. Educational leaders have been similarly reluctant to try AI themselves, or introduce the technology to the educators they oversee. Per educational consulting firm EAB, few district superintendents view addressingAI as a very urgent needthis year particularly in light of pressing issues such as understaffing and chronic absenteeism.Mixed research on AIs educational impact hasnt helped convince the non-believers. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that Turkish high school students with access to ChatGPT did worse on a math test than students who didnt have access. In a separate study, researchers observed that German students using ChatGPT were able to find research materials more easily, but tended to synthesize those materials less skillfully than their non-ChatGPT-using peers.As OpenAI writes in its guide, ChatGPT isnt a substitute for engagement with students. Some educators and schools may never be convinced its a substitute for any step in the teaching process.

Audiences can finally get their first look at How to Train Your Dragon, the live-action reimagining of the first film in the hugely successful animated franchise launched by DreamWorks Animation back in 2010. Like so many productions, it was delayed by last years SAG-AFTRA strike, but is now set to fly into theaters June 13, 2025.The new filmis written, produced and directed by three-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Dean DeBlois, who along with The Wild Robot director Chris Sanders, wrote and directed the original. It is also produced by three-time Oscar nominee Marc Platt (Wicked, La La Land) and Emmy winner Adam Siegel (Drive, 2 Guns).Christian Manz is serving as production VFX supervisor; VFX studios on the film include Framestore and Clear Angle Studios.The film is set on the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup (Mason Thames; The Black Phone, For All Mankind) stands apart. The inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, reprising his voice role from the animated franchise), Hiccup defies centuries of tradition when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the very foundations of Viking society.With the fierce and ambitious Astrid (BAFTA nominee Nico Parker; Dumbo, The Last of Us) and the villages quirky blacksmith Gobber (Nick Frost; Snow White and the Huntsman, Shaun of the Dead) by his side, Hiccup confronts a world torn by fear and misunderstanding.As an ancient threat emerges, endangering both Vikings and dragons, Hiccups friendship with Toothless becomes the key to forging a new future. Together, they must navigate the delicate path toward peace, soaring beyond the boundaries of their worlds and redefining what it means to be a hero and a leader.The film also stars Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), Gabriel Howell (Bodies), Bronwyn James (Wicked), Harry Trevaldwyn (Smothered), Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club), BAFTA nominee Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Murray McArthur (Game of Thrones).Inspired by Cressida Cowells New York Times bestselling book series, DreamWorks Animations How to Train Your Dragon franchise earned four Academy Award nominations and grossed more than $1.6 billion at the global box-office.How To Train Your Dragon is part of the Filmed For IMAX Program, which offers filmmakers IMAX technology to help them deliver high-quality immersive movie experience to audiences around the world.Source: NBC Universal Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.