Breakdown & ShowreelsGladiator II: VFX Breakdown by ILMBy Vincent Frei - 13/01/2025 Gladiator II delivers unparalleled action, thanks to ILMs really cool visual effects. From warships laying siege to a fortress to the grandeur of the Colosseum and the epic finale between two armies, every moment is a visual feast. Dive into the legend now!WANT TO KNOW MORE?ILM: Dedicated page about Gladiator II on ILM website.Mark Bakowski: Heres my interview of Production VFX Supervisor Mark Bakowski. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2024

Hookah Restaurant | Ilya IvanovLocated in Belgrade, Serbia, the Hookah Restaurant by Freya Architects integrates symbolism with functional design. Completed in 2024, this 200-square-meter project transforms the process of wood burning into a spatial experience. Through the interplay of dark hues, fiery accents, and sculptural forms, the design explores a narrative where wood transforms into glowing embers.Hookah Restaurant Technical InformationArchitects1-4: Freya ArchitectsLocation: Belgrade, SerbiaArea: 200 m2 | 2,150 Sq. Ft.Completion Year: 2024Photographs: Ilya IvanovIn this hookah bar and restaurant project every detail reflects the transformation of wood into coals. Dark hues, reminiscent of smoldering embers, dominate the interior, creating a cozy and inviting atmosphere. Bright orange accents, symbolizing the fiery passion of the burning wood, add a touch of vibrancy. Freya ArchitectsHookah Restaurant PhotographsBar | Ilya IvanovEntrance Detail | Ilya IvanovBar Detail | Ilya IvanovWood Details | Ilya IvanovRestroom | Ilya IvanovSink Detail | Ilya IvanovRestroom Details | Ilya IvanovSpatial Organization and Material PaletteThe design centers on the lifecycle of wood. The architects used this concept to craft a symbolic and functional interior. The dark tones represent smoldering coals, while bright orange accents evoke the fiery nature of burning wood. These elements, combined with the forms of custom lighting and material selections, create a warm and dynamic atmosphere.The spatial organization of the Hookah Restaurant reflects a balance of functionality and storytelling. The layout revolves around a bar, serving as a physical and conceptual centerpiece. This bar, shaped like a massive, petrified tree stump, acts as a hub connecting various functional areas. Behind the bar, a passage leads to the kitchen and technical zones.Natural wooden tables line the windows opposite the bar, offering seating arrangements encouraging social interaction. The dining hall features a movable screen adorned with suspended fragments of burnt wood, creating seating zones that can adapt to different group sizes. This partition system enhances intimacy while preserving visual connectivity.The material palette deepens the narrative. Burnt wooden panels on the walls evoke the tactile quality of charred wood, while the natural wooden tables emphasize craftsmanship. Bright orange accents and wire lamps, designed to mimic wisps of smoke, punctuate the space and add layers of warmth. This integration of materials fosters a cohesive environment.Hookah Restaurant Architectural HighlightsThe Hookah Restaurant explores the theme of woods transformation into fire and embers. The petrified tree stump bar is not merely functional but also a sculptural centerpiece anchoring the space. Its organic form contrasts with the linearity of the surrounding seating arrangements.The movable screens in the dining hall are made of suspended fragments of burnt wood, redefining the spatial experience by offering flexibility and artistic expression. They allow for distinct seating zones while maintaining the fluidity of the overall layout.Lighting plays a role in enhancing the ambiance. The custom wire lamps suspended above the bar and the main table emulate the ephemeral quality of smoke, reinforcing the thematic narrative. This lighting, combined with the materials, enhances the sensory experience for guests.Functionality integrates with aesthetics throughout the design. The bar area accommodates both hookah preparation and mixology, ensuring operational efficiency. The guest bathroom, positioned within the central block, features a window overlooking the bar, adding an unexpected connectivity layer.Hookah Restaurant PlansFloor Plan | Freya ArchitectsHookah Restaurant Image GalleryAbout Freya ArchitectsCredits and Additional NotesChief Architect: Kristina Koivistoinen-KhatlamadzhiianLeading Architect: Paulina KorobovaArchitect: Katarina DragojlovicClient: Hookah Restaurant

Photo courtesy of Bohlin Cywinski JacksonWhile Cornwall, Connecticut is known for its 19th century architecture, there are some amazing Mid-Century Modern houses hidden away on forested lots there. This is the Eric and Anne Bohlin House (aka Forest House) designed by architect Peter Bohlin of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for his parents as a summer retreat. The residence was completed in 1975 and sited between dense evergreens and bright deciduous woodland in a sparsely developed part of town. Camouflaged among the trees, the green-stained exterior hovers above a boulder-strewn landscape, resting on concrete piers, with large windows to take advantage of the glorious forest views. This is a great example of high-quality, site-specific house designs, which are becoming a rarity in recent years.

The Bee Pioneer Band listens to everything you say - and offers feedback. Should I be worried?

If cybercriminals are already this good with ChatGPT, what will they be capable of two years from now?

In context: Call of Duty fans have been up in arms over the franchise's skill-based matchmaking system for years now. The multiplayer matchmaking tries to group players of similar skills together for more balanced matches, but many skilled players have raged that it forces them into brutally tough "sweatfests" matches. The complaint here is that Activision has kept everyone's actual skill rating hidden behind a curtain. Players have been left guessing where they rank compared to others based only on anecdotal experience. But now, a YouTube expos has let the cat out of the bag on how to access your real skill score.Prominent CoD creator TheXclusiveAce showed a sneaky method to request your detailed matchmaking data from Activision, including your all-important skill rating for every single match going back years.You can request this data through Activision's privacy and data protection page, likely established to comply with strict European data privacy rules.Once you get the info (it takes a day or two to arrive), it's an absolute goldmine of numbers. Activision retains gameplay data going way back to COD: Vanguard, which was released in 2021.It's excruciatingly detailed too, breaking down your details on every multiplayer match, including your map, mode, bullets fired, accuracy, operator skins, execution moves, damage stats, and more. But most crucially, it reveals your behind-the-scenes skill stat that determined which lobbies you were matched into. // Related StoriesFor TheXclusiveAce, his skill rating for the recent Black Ops 6 hovered around 400 for most of his time with the game. But it fluctuated quite a bit too, occasionally spiking up or plummeting based on his recent performances. The raw numbers could finally lift the veil on how SBMM works under the hood.TheXclusiveAce thinks the ratings are influenced by the overall skill level of the lobby you're in. If the matchmaking system expects you to perform at a certain level compared to that lobby's rating and you fall short of that bar, your rating could still dip even after a solid game. But if you exceed the expected performance, your rating receives a slight bump.Last year, Activision tried to explain SBMM in vague terms, saying it's a "fluid measurement" of your overall kills, deaths, wins, modes played, and recent matches across all multiplayer experiences. But seeing the actual numbers finally brings some transparency to how it likely operates.Now that the data is out, the Call of Duty community is going wild analyzing and comparing everyone's unveiled ratings. The top comment under Ace's video says that "trash talkers are about to become data scientists." That may sound like an exaggeration, but it's not difficult to imagine players obsessively tracking their stats and comparing them with others.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsWhy Underwater is a Cthulhu-sized disasterUnderwater is hard to watch (literally)Despite its various flaws, Underwater has lots of promise as wellCthulhu is the highlight of the movieIs Underwater still worth watching?Five years ago in January 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic started to make its first headlines, a different kind of disaster arrived in movie theaters: Underwater. The movie starred Kristen Stewart, and based on the trailers, it looked to pay homage to older sci-fi horror classics. Yet Underwater turned out to be a super clunky, visually murky, and ill-paced film about a deep-sea mining station at the bottom of the Mariana Trench that inadvertently wakes up a giant deep-sea monster.In theory, Underwater should have been enjoyable. Even if it added nothing to the genre and was just a poor homage to Alien, Cloverfield, and The Abyss,it should have been at least derivative fun. But it wasnt, and audiences stayed away from the big-budget film. So what went wrong, and is Underwater worth watching five years later now that its available to stream at home?Recommended VideosUnderwater | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOXLike many terrible films, Underwaters problems started long before it hit theaters. Trust me, it wont take an eagle-eyed viewer to notice that something about Underwaters editing is off, as if half the movie were simply deleted. For starters, the film begins with the action already in progress. It starts with a catastrophic quake that begins to flood the underwater station. This isnt necessarily a problem, since lots of stories do the jump into the action and explain the backstory as you go thing. The problem is that Underwater doesnt even bother to do that.RelatedTheres very little backstory to any of the characters (and therefore little reason to care about them), and there are lots of scenes that feel like they were connected to moments that probably happened earlier but were cut. Despite being a feature-length film, Underwater somehow manages to feel completely plotless.20th Century FoxAdding to the madness is the fact that Underwater only has five characters throughout the entire movie. Imagine being in a giant underwater mining and research station the size of a small city and never seeing anyone else there. And remember, the movie starts the very moment all hell breaks loose.Its not like were following some salvage crew exploring a lost mining station. It becomes very clear very quickly that something happened with the movies production because despite looking like a giant blockbuster, Underwater feels insanely hollow.UniversalIm not the only one who noticed Underwaters various problems either. In 2020 Vulture reported: The film was shot in 2017, and reports from the time suggest that it was supposed to be about some underwater scientists, though I have no real idea if thats just poor reporting or evidence of rewrites and/or reshoots. So we know for sure the film sat in development hell for three years before hitting theaters.The Guardian also noticed Underwaters choppy editing and lifeless plot, and wondered if it was to keep the films PG-13 rating. When the crew members inevitably start getting picked off, the publication states, their death scenes, because of the films mass-audience-pleasing PG-13 rating, are largely incoherent. At one point a character has to remind someone, and us, that a death actually did just occur.20th Century FoxOn top of the sloppy editing, theres also the compounding issue that Underwater is visually disorienting. Having a rushed movie is bad enough, but its even worse when its all happening at the bottom of the ocean in scenes so dark and fuzzy you can hardly tell whats going on. In its hilarious one-star review, The Irish Times titled its article Underwater: Nothing to see here literally in this murky appalling mess and thats a great way to sum up the movie. It doesnt just have a murky plot, the entire film is actually, literally murky.In fact, Underwater is so dark and murky that I struggled to find images of the movies creatures for this article. Every time I looked for images online, the clear ones were actually pre-production renderings of the CGI, not stills from the film. And when I paused the movie to get a good screenshot, everything was a grainy blur. I had to run the above image through Canva to brighten it, clarify it, and sharpen its edges just to make sure readers could actually see it (somewhat) clearly.20th Century FoxWhat makes the movie so insufferable is that it was so close to being good. With its 95-minute runtime, Underwater is a very tight film that easily could have added (or simply not cut) another 20 minutes. And just imagine what those 20 minutes could have done! With a some backstory, more suspense, and a better use of its unique setting, Underwater could have been an absolute banger of a horror sci-fi movie.At times, watching it felt almost painful because there were numerous scenes where I could tell that with just a little bit more thought and effort, it could have been really effective. But it wasnt, and instead, every scene just feels like lost potential that could have led to something so much better. But that potential is still there, giving Underwater this odd sense of hope that tricks you into thinking its about to get really good, and that surely just around the next corner the film will find its footing.20th Century FoxThe film does in fact finally find its footing; unfortunately, its not until the last 15 minutes. Mild spoiler alert: At the very end of the movie, Kristin Stewart finally sees the giant 50-story Cthulhu monster rise up from the depths (even though theyre at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench, so lord only knows what depths its rising from since theyre already at the very bottom of the deepest spot in the ocean).In a film full of bleh and meh, the scene where we finally glimpse the giant monster is absolutely everything youd want. Its massive, intimidating, and terrifying. Up until the finale, all audiences see are the smaller, human-sized monsters, which are nowhere near as scary. In fact, Id argue that Underwater isnt scary at all. Because of how rushed everything is and how blatantly CGId the mini-monsters are, theres no sense of suspense or terror until you finally see Cthulhu. Thats the moment where I was like, Ah, so this is what the movie should have been the whole time.UNDERWATER (2020) | Behind the Scenes of Kristen Stewart Thriller MovieIs Underwater worth watching? That really depends on what type of viewer you are. If youre a genre fan like me who thinks we dont get enough monster movies, then yes you should watch Underwater since its now part of monster movie history. Its a sloppy movie, but theres still lots of potential to find enjoyable. Plus, its loaded with nods and homages to other classics like the underwater station that totally brings back flashes of Deep Blue Sea, or their aquanaut suits that look straight out of StarCraft, and of course the endless homages to Alien throughout.But if youre a casual viewer who isnt super into sci-fi horror or monster movies, I recommend you dont waste your time. Underwater certainly isnt a movie that provides a meaningful plot or intriguing characters. Its a movie for people who want to see Cthulhu underwater.If you do choose to watch Underwater, just remember that five years after its release, it hasnt become a cult classic for a reason theres nothing classic about it. But if you love creature features and have nothing else to watch, then what do you have to lose?Underwater is streaming on Hulu.Editors Recommendations

Sonos Chief Executive Patrick Spence is stepping down, ending an eight-year stint as its leader as the company recovers from a botched app launch that hurt its brand.

Pouring money into a strategy can be more of a problem than a solution, especially when companies explore new technology.

Richard Lambert is a rsum writer who gets most of his work on Fiverr.He charges about $85 for a basic rsum and has made over $1 million yearly since 2020.His home and vacation property are paid off, but he works every day.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Richard Lambert, owner of Lambert Resume. It has been edited for length and clarity.I grew up in a middle-class family in a small town. When my mom opened a savings account for me at a local bank, I loved watching my savings go up in my passbook. I started asking very practical questions, like how much a front door cost. I was shocked by how expensive things were compared to what was in my savings account. That gave me a sense, even as a kid, that I needed to buckle down and keep my nose to the grindstone.My dad didn't teach me much about finances, but he always taught me to just show up for work. I've certainly done that. I haven't had a day off since 2016.I started writing rsums on the website Fiverr back in 2014, charging about $45 each. Today I charge about $85 for a basic rsum and more for other services like cover letters. As I did more work, the algorithm rewarded me, especially after I acquired more than 25,000 five-star reviews. In 2022, I grossed $1.1 million by writing rsums. Now, as I approach 40, I'm a multimillionaire with two mortgages paid off.I paid off my home, although I could have made more investingEven before I started having seven-figure years, Fiverr was impacting my life. By 2020, I was a millionaire. Although I hate to say it, the pandemic was really good for my business. My net worth has just increased since then, but I still think of myself as a baby millionaire.In 2017, my wife and I were in a near-fatal motorcycle accident. I worried about what would happen to my wife and daughter who is now 6 if I died. Although my wife also works, I feel a strong urge to provide financially for my family. So much falls on mothers when it comes to caregiving, so as a dad, I think, "If I'm not providing financially, what am I doing?"After the accident, my wife and I decided to pay off our home. At the time, mortgage rates were low, and I could have likely made more money investing in the market. One of my wealthy friends kept reminding me about that. But I liked the peace of mind from knowing that if anything happened to me, or this income stream suddenly disappeared, my wife and daughter wouldn't have to move.I made a deal with the devilWork-life balance just doesn't exist for me. I made a deal with the devil: I have a wonderful income, but I have to work every day. I haven't had a day off since 2016, including when I was in the intensive care unit after that motorcycle accident. That's the nature of this business. You need to be responsive to customers.At the same time, I have some flexibility. I don't have set hours, so I can pick my daughter up from school. I'm at every game or school performance she has. But I'm constantly working outside those times.I'm willing to spend on my familyI'm conservative with how I spend my money. A huge chunk goes into retirement accounts. I bought two rental properties but sold them (for a small profit) after the motorcycle accident. I found that being a landlord wasn't really passive income.I drive a 20-year-old Lexus. I bought it because I like its vintage appeal and because it gives me a little dose of fun.I'm willing to spend money on some things, mostly on my family. My wife drives a new Volvo XC-90, and I like knowing she and our daughter are safe in that. Last summer, we bought a small lake house in my hometown. We briefly had a mortgage, but we paid it off within three months.I'm not flashy, but I value real connection with my small circle of friends and family. I love summers at the lake with my daughter, tubing, boating, and spending time together. We have a Jet Ski coming for next summer. Summer at the lake wasn't something I was afforded as a kid, and I'm glad I can give it to her. Already, the memories we've made there are invaluable.