Much of the breathtaking visuals of Invisible on Disney+ owe much to the incredible work of El Ranchito. Among their outstanding achievements is a stunningly lifelike dragon, which perfectly blends realism and artistry. Their visual effects elevate the magical and mysterious world of the show, immersing viewers in a seamless blend of fantasy and reality.El Ranchitos commitment to creating high-quality visual effects is evident, and Invisible is a must-see for anyone interested in cutting-edge VFX and engaging storytelling.The post Invisible: VFX Breakdown by El Ranchito appeared first on Vfxexpress.

The CEO of AI music platform Suno has claimed its not really enjoyable to make music now. As you can imagine, actual musicians have some thoughts.During a podcast interview with 20VC with Harry Stebbings posted to YouTube earlier this month, Mikey Shulman explained that he and the other founders of Suno, the AI-based generative music platform, sought to make music creation accessible to the many, rather than easier for the few.Its not really enjoyable to make music now, the tech entrepreneur says in a clip that has since racked up 4.2 million views on X. It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of practice, you have to get really good at an instrument or really good at a piece of production software. I think the majority of people dont enjoy the majority of time they spend making music.Its not really enjoyable to make music now it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of practice, you have to get really good at an instrument or really good at a piece of production software. I think the majority of people dont enjoy the majority of time they spend making pic.twitter.com/zkv73Bhmi9 Mike Patti (@mpatti) January 11, 2025 Here, the interviewer attempts to compare the creative process to running: While it might not be enjoyable at first, once the necessary muscles are built up, people often fall in love with it. Shulman counters that most people stop running before this can happen. Rather than pouring time and effort into practicing and honing their craft, generative AI platforms like Suno allow anyone to produce full songs from just a few prompts, bypassing the traditional barriers for entry entirely.AIs role in music has been subject to much scrutiny in recent months, with ongoing ethical debates about copyright and the originality of AI-generated music. Hes everyone who supports AI in a nutshell, wrote one unimpressed X user in response to the clip. Theyre the type who have always been envious of those with commitment and talent and love that now they dont need to waste time perfecting and nourishing a craft. They miss the whole point and just want a I win button in life.Shulman addressed the backlash in a separate X post. Watching myself on video always makes me cringe, but doubly so when Ive expressed an idea badly, he wrote. He then clarifies that, as a musician himself, his intention wasnt to undermine the creative process or the importance of practice. Instead, he aimed to appeal to those who may miss out on the joy of making music because they drop out before reaching a level where they can truly enjoy it or struggle to keep up with regular practice.It makes me feel insane that the idea underpinning every pitch for AI is that we all hate everything we do, wrote another X user. We dont just hate our jobs, but we hate our hobbies, we hate talking to other people, we hate expending any kind of effort. Its so nasty.As the age-old adage goes: Nothing worth having comes easy.

Emails and videos ofburned buildings in Los Angelesnext to those left standing have been flying back and forth among architects, builders and fire safety specialists around the world.For many homeowners, like Enrique Balcazar, the sometimes scattershot nature of the carnage can seem like random chance. Balcazar, a real estate agent, posted video that showed little more than chimneys remaining of most homes on his block after fire leapt through his Altadena neighborhood. Balcazar stood on his neighbors destroyed classic Mustang to douse his smoldering roof, but his home was otherwise fine.Its an older house and it still has the old wood sidings, Balcazar said. To me theres nothing explainable in logical or scientific reason of why my house would not have burned.Many experts say luck does play a part. After all, wind can shift 180 degrees in a split second, pushing fire away from your house and towards a neighbors. But they also say there aremany ways that homes can be made less vulnerableto fire.Because there are, say, 50 ways a fire can burn your house, said Greg Faulkner of Faulkner Architects in California, who has focused on less combustible home exteriors for more than a decade. If you eliminate half of those, or three-quarters of them, thats not luck, thats increasing your odds.People in fire country generally know that trees, landscaping and wood fences near homes can be a fire risk. Architects and contractors are going beyond that, using newer materials and techniques in roofing, walls and windows to keep buildings standing. The measures do add cost to the homesaround 3% to 6%, Faulkner said, or as much as 10% for the most robust protection.Many of these experts no longer use wood siding. Where it is used, or still allowed, it needs to have a fire-resistant barrier underneath, often made of gypsum, the same material used to make drywall. That way if the wood catches fire, it takes longer for the heat to reach inside the homeBut even with that, youre still putting a combustible material on the building, said Richard Schuh, with Nielsen : Schuh Architects. So that would be something we would avoid. Use of fire-resistant materials is critical.Stucco, a cement material, is a common exterior for Southern California houses and its fire-resistant. Reviewing AP photographs showing buildings still standing, Arnold Tarling, who has four decades experience in fire protection and building inspection in Britain, said houses with stucco walls appeared to survive the Los Angeles fires better. Yet if more of them had had a layer of gypsum beneath the stucco, it would have given more protection from the heat, he said.Windows are a huge factor in whether a home burns down, because so much heat is transmitted through them. Double-pane windows significantly slow heat coming from the burning building next door.The outside layer protects the inside layer until it fails, said Schuh. Codes in many places require one of the two panes to be tempered, which is much more resistant to heat than conventional glass, he said.Tarlingnoted one intact Malibu beachfront home, surrounded by gutted builds. He speculated that the fact that no windows faced a neighbor helped protect it because radiated heat couldnt penetrate as easily.In his buildings, Faulkner builds in fire shutters that can slide closed and cover the windows.Then theres the roofa convenient landing pad for fire embers.Simpler roof lines can allow red-hot embers to slide off. Spanish Mission, for example, is an iconic Los Angeles stylepart of what says Hollywood in movies about the city, for example, as well as a reminder of its Mexican and Spanish history. That style doesnt always have simple roof linesthe knee walls that are common on Mission-style roofs create corners.The embers could, just like snow, gather in that corner, Faulkner said.Many roofs in the U.S. are covered in asphalt. Areas that are designated as wildfire-prone in Californiaan ever-growing areaare required to use roofing that delays the transfer of heat to the inside of the building, called one-hour or Class A.Still, asphalt is a petroleum product. Some building professionals prefer metal, which doesnt burn. Metal has its own downside, though: It conducts heat. Putting a layer of gypsum under a metal roof is becoming a common practice in some areas.Maybe as important as which material is used on a roof is whether the roof offers fire a way to get in. Here, as in so many tradeoffs, one effort to do good conflicts with another: Contractors have been more careful over the years to make sure moisture doesnt build up in attics by making sure air circulates, using those vents that are visible on many roofs or under eaves.But in a powerful fire, Schuh says, if youre on the side where the wind is putting pressure against the house, its also blowing the flames into the house like a blow torch, and fire gets in through the vents.On the other side of the house, it can create a vacuum, several experts said, sucking fire in.But you cant easily just eliminate roof ventilation because it will cause moisture problems, said Cesar Martin Gomez, an architect at the University of Navarra, Spain, whos worked for 25 years in building services.Faulkner said in some buildings hes eliminating the need for ventilation in the roof structure by sealing the spaces. Schuh is using a cover on roof vents that can actually respond to fire with a mesh that closes.Martin Gomez noted that in some parts of Australia, new homes are required to have water tanks. If each home has the ability to protect itself, fire wont be able to spread as much, he said.And some homes in the U.S. are now built with sprinkler systems for the outside of the house, not just the inside. It sprays water with a soapy solution to make it flow over the surface of the building, Schuh said.Youre adding one more layer of protection to your building, and thats more of a priority now than ever because your insurance company may or not be around for you, he said.The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Ed Davey and Ingrid Lobet, Associated Press

Two more houses by modernist architect Richard Neutra and a house by local architect Eric Owen Moss have been confirmed destroyed due to the deadly wildfires sweeping through Greater Los Angeles.Neutra's Hees and Kesler houses have been destroyed by the Pacific Palisades Fire, the worst of the ongoing series of wildfires that have devastated communities in Los Angeles over the last two weeks.Both single-family homes were built by Neutra in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in the 1950s and are considered paradigmatic examples of West Coast mid-century architecture.Above: the Kesler House was destroyed by wildfire. Photo via CAL FIRE Damage Inspection (DINS) database. Top photo: fires have ravaged Los Angeles. Photo by Kelvin ChengAlso confirmed lost in the blaze was LA architect Eric Owen Moss's 708 House, a 1980s extension of a 1940s case study house.An early project for Moss, who has since created large-scale structures in the city, 708 House was constructed for the architect's family at the time and is an example of deconstructivist architecture.The Corpus Christi Church by local firm AC Martin in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood was also destroyed by the fire.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Save Iconic Architecture (@saveiconicarchitecture)Richard Neutra's Kesler House was built in the 1950sBetween the Pacific Palisades Fire and the other major fire, the Eaton Fire which mostly affected the town of Altadena in northeastern LA nearly 15,000 structures have been destroyed, and at least 27 people have died.Tens of thousands of people are still under evacuation orders as the extent of the damage becomes clear. As of Tuesday morning, the two major fires in the region were both more than 50 per cent contained.Read: LA architects form aid groups to make rebuilding "as streamlined as possible"Last week, Dezeen rounded up several other significant projects lost to the fire, including the Benedict and Nancy Freedman House by Neutra and the Robert Bridges House in Pacific Palisades.In Altadena, Harwell H Harris's 1930s Pauline Lowe Residence and Gregory Ain's Park Planned Homes were destroyed by the fire.Altadena also lost multiple iconic early 20th-century Craftsmen and Spanish Revival-style homes, including Scripps Hall by C W Buchanan.Local preservationist group the Los Angeles Conservancy has been tracking and confirming the destruction through its website.Several high-profile projects, such as the Eames House and adjacent Eames-designed case study houses, the Getty Villa, Charles Moore's Burns House and Craig Ellwood's Hunt House have all been declared safe as of Tuesday.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Save Iconic Architecture (@saveiconicarchitecture)Eric Owen Moss' 708 House was also lost to the fireSince the fires began, architecture professionals have been responding to the disaster.Architect Cameron Sinclair, who lost his home in the fire, wrote an article for Dezeen detailing the next steps for people who now face the long road of rebuilding their homes.Locals have also banded together to share contacts and resources for displaced people and people looking to repair or rebuild their homes, with many offering pro-bono services.The fires have also prompted a "rethink" of how development has been carried out in the fire-prone areas surrounding Los Angeles.The post More Richard Neutra houses confirmed lost as toll of LA fires becomes clear appeared first on Dezeen.

Construction of a giant celestial solar farm is underway in China, with a scale comparable to creating a "Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth".The solar farm, which would be launched into space using heavy-lift rockets, is expected to stretch one kilometre in width and continuously harvest renewable energy for Earth.It would be positioned in geostationary orbit, meaning it has an orbital time equivalent to the Earth's rotational period and always remains at the same point above the Earth's surface.When revealing plans for the structure, Chinese aerospace engineer Long Lehao referred to it as "another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth", South China Morning Post reported.The 2,335-metre-long Three Gorges Dam, which crosses the Yangtze River in central China, is the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world.Read: NASA space mission to demonstrate "very high velocity" solar-sail technology"We are working on this project now," said Long."It is as significant as moving the Three Gorges Dam to a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometres above the Earth. This is an incredible project to look forward to."Solar panels are engineered to harness the sun's energy to generate electricity by turning light energy into usable power a process known as the photovoltaic effect.Unlike terrestrial arrays, space-based photovoltaics can provide continuous power as they are unaffected by seasons or daylight, allowing constant harvesting of energy from the sun.They are also estimated to be 10 times more efficient at energy collection than photovoltaic panels on Earth.Read: Bilgin Architects shrouds solar farm hub with mirrored steel in TurkeyAccording to Global Construction Review, work started on the space solar power station in Chongqing in 2019. It is expected that a reusable heavy-lift rocket, named the Long March-9, will be required to launch the solar farm into orbit.Once in place, this one-kilometre-wide solar array is expected to harvest as much energy in a year as the total quantity of oil that can be extracted from the Earth, reported Sustainability Magazine. The energy is planned to be transmitted to ground using microwaves.Other landmark solar projects recently featured on Dezeen include Australia's "first building" to be powered on-site by a solar facade system and Bilgin Architects' creation of one of Europe's largest solar farms.In 2022, we ran Solar Revolution, an editorial series that explored how humans can fully harness the power of the sun.The main photo of the International Space Station solar array is by NASA via Wikimedia Commons.The post China to launch one-kilometre-wide solar farm into space appeared first on Dezeen.

Australian artist/designer Elliat Rich has a very different take on cabinet doors. This is her Weaver Cabinet: The shelves are solid oak, and the "doors" are UV-stable nylon fringe. An earlier iteration of Rich's design was ceiling-suspended.The Weaver Cabinet is in production by Australian brand DesignByThem.

Tragically, Los Angeles resident Brandon Sanders found his home had burned to the ground in the Eaton fire. There was one good piece of news: His Tacoma had been parked far enough away from the burning structure that only the front of the vehicle was scorched. To his surprise, when he tried to start it "it fired right up," he writes. "Everything works, even the headlights and blinkers!" Social media being social media, there are now posts going around claiming that Tacomas are fireproof. It should be obvious to the sane, but Sanders' experience with the truck was very good luck. In this other photo, here we see a house that was unscathed by the fire: Note the unlucky SUV on the neighboring property that burned. Beneath it, you can see that aluminum has melted beneath the vehicle and flowed down the driveway. Aluminum melts at 1,221 Fahrenheit (660 Celsius). The Tacoma was not exposed to that temperature, or it would look like this SUV. The unburned house, by the way, was designed by architect Greg Chasen. "Some of the design choices we made here helped," he writes. "But we were also very lucky."If you're interested in what design decisions can harden a house against fire, in this comprehensive videowhich has gone viralhomebuilder Matt Risinger analyzes two unburnt L.A. homes. One is the Chasen-designed house, and the other belongs to Tom Hanks:

When it comes to stationery, Japan is probably the first country that comes to mind when it comes to popularity and availability (and innovation too!). But Korea is also a pretty underrated country when it comes to this market but were slowly seeing some products and creators making a name for themselves. As someone who loves both Korean culture and stationery, this project appeals to me on so many levels. Designer: UOS IDSeoul My Soul is a project for a stationery merchandise collection that takes its inspiration from different famous landmarks in the South Korean capital. The designs give these iconic and easily recognizable places a modern touch while at the same time making it practical and useful since after all, stationeries are meant to be used. The four places showcased in the collection are Dongdaemun, Jongno, Hangang, and Yongsan. Anyone who has visited Seoul or has watched K-dramas probably know which landmarks are highlighted just looking at these places.The N Seoul Tower, which offers a panoramic view of the city, is one of the most visited places in the Yongsan district and this TONTI pencil sharpener pays tribute to it. It is not just an actual tool that sharpens your pencil but it is also a desk accessory that serves as a miniature version of this landmark. TADA meanwhile brings a piece of the Han River to your desk through this Hanriver Bridge Tape Dispenser. It pays tribute to the connection that this bridge brings to the city and its people, the same way that a tape can connect one item to another. One of the things you need to experience when you visit the Jongno district is to catch the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Gyeongbokgung Palace. You get to see a cultural and ceremonial performance by the guards in red. ISUSI is a more humorous take on this as its a toothpick dispenser that holds several pieces when you remove the hat and you can stick one into the guards hand. Technically its not stationery and more of a kitchen/dining accessory but still its cute. Lastly, DIPY is inspired by the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a modern architecture landmark designed by the iconic Zaha Hadid in Seoul. This one is a pen holder that plays with the organic curves and structure of the building. It not only holds your pens but can also hold notes and magnets. If ever I run across these items, Id probably get them for my desk, even the toothpick holder, just for kicks. The post Seoul My Soul stationery collection pays tribute to iconic city landmarks first appeared on Yanko Design.

A survey of video game developers released Tuesday indicates that a growing number of them fear artificial intelligence will have a negative impact on the industry as a whole.

Non-native grasses and eucalyptus trees brought to California centuries ago for agriculture and landscaping have reshaped the states fire dynamics.