You founded your firm in 1988. How has the industry changed?When I first started, we didnt have social media. You didnt have Pinterest; you didnt even have a computer. You had to train with somebody. Design is like an opera set: When the curtain lifts, [all the pieces] have to be there and be perfect, and thats a skill that you learn working for somebody else. You see the pitfalls, and you understand how to organize your business. So Im an advocate of that.What is the one piece of business advice you have for someone starting today?You need to understand how to run a business. Before you get that first client, consider: Do you really know how to organize the job? Do you know how to do estimates, how to price things? Whether you mentor with somebody or listen to courses, you need to have all of that in place.We often get questions from early-career designers in our business sessions asking how long it will take to get out of the red.Its challenging because youre managing deposits and timelines and paying your vendors. Even today, Im a salaried employee. I tell people all the time: The money in the bank of the company is not yours until the job is finished and all the bills are paid. If at the end of the year weve had a good year, we can pay ourselves a bonus.Williamss portfolio spans design aesthetics, while consistently being balanced, collected, and unfussy.Photo: Deborah Panes c/o Create AcademyYou have the Create Academy series, seven books, the home linewhats your next dream assignment for Bunny Williams Inc.?I always have so many things! I would love to see Bonny Williams Home develop into something that is bigger than it is now. I would love to see some retail stores, places where people can come in and get the feeling of design, not just a commercial brands point of view. Were working hard, in meetings now, about how we can have broader reach.This interview has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.APPLY NOWGrow your business with the AD PRO DirectoryArrow

Proton, the company behind the eponymous email provider Proton Mail, has won itself a loyal fanbase of dissidents, investigative journalists, and others skeptical of the prying eyes of government or Big Tech. Headquartered in Switzerland, the service describes itself as a neutral and safe haven for your personal data, committed to defending your freedom.So it came as a surprise last month when Proton CEO Andy Yen praised the Republican Party in a post on X, declaring that 10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned. When the tweet went viral, Protons official Reddit account posted a now-deleted comment stating that Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses. Most Read Within hours, Proton deleted its response acrosssocial media accounts, stating that the post which started with the words Here is our official response was in fact removed because it was not actually an official statement. The reply went on to say: Our policy is that official accounts cannot be used to express personal political opinions. If it happens by mistake, we correct it as soon as we notice it.A screenshot of Protons now-deleted official response to CEO Andy Yens post in support of the Republican Party.Screenshot: RedditYen further claimed that the post had been an internal miscommunication, later also writing that Proton is politically neutral.He followed it up with a longer statement explaining that while we may share facts and analysis, our policy going forward will be to share no opinions of a political nature. The line between facts, analysis, and opinions can be blurry at times, but we will seek to better clarify this over time through your feedback and input. Yen didnt specifically address whether the deleted post had constituted opinion or analysis.In response to a request for comment, Proton reiterated the claim that it is a politically neutral organization, then went on to state that regardless of ones views about the wider Republication platform, if you agree that action is needed on antitrust then the appointment of Gail Slater is a positive thing, referring to President Donald Trumps choice to head the Justice Departments antitrust division. Proton further stated that Big Tech CEOs are tripping over themselves to kiss the ring precisely because Trump represents an unprecedented challenge to their monopolistic dominance.When Governments Ask for DataYen has repeatedly described Proton as being a privacy-first company, and its homepage touts that With Proton, your data belongs to you, not tech companies, governments, or hackers. However, Proton has in the past revealed user information to authorities. For instance, Proton previously handed over an IP address at the request of French authorities made via Europol to Swiss police. Yen wrote a Twitter post at the time, stating, Proton must comply with Swiss law. As soon as a crime is committed, privacy protections can be suspended and were required by Swiss law to answer requests from Swiss authorities.Protons information for law enforcement page states that it requires a copy of a police report or court order, albeit either a foreign or domestic one. For its part, Proton told The Intercept that Proton does not comply with US subpoenas, it doesnt matter if its Biden or Trump in power.Andy Yen, co-founder of Proton Mail. Photo: Stuart Cahill/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty ImagesWhile Proton states that it cannot read any of your messages or hand them over to third parties, the same doesnt apply to email subjects; sender or recipient names and email addresses; the time a message was sent; or other information in the header section of email messages. Proton explicitly states that if served with a valid Swiss court order, we do have the ability to turn over the subjects of your messages.Under Trumps previous term, the Department of Justice sought to clandestinely obtain non-content communications records, including phone and email records, of reporters at a variety of news outlets such as CNN and the New York Times. While the subject of an email is considered content, non-content records include metadata such as the date and time a message was sent, as well as the sender and recipient of an email. Were independent of corporate interests and powered by members. Join us. Become a member Join Our Newsletter Thank You For Joining! Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept? Become a member By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.The prior behavior of a Trump-led DOJ, coupled with the praise and efforts by tech CEOs to curry favor with the Trump camp, has raised the question of how amenable the industry will be to data requests from the incoming administration. Its a particularly important question for the types of users who have flocked to Proton the kind fearful of exposing sensitive sources or persecuted individuals to state surveillance. (The Intercept uses Proton Mail as its email provider.)Platforms inherently occupy a position of trust because we want them to have users backs when the government comes knocking for data, said Andrew Crocker, the Electronic Frontier Foundations surveillance litigation director, which has published an annual Who Has Your Back? reports, which analyzed companies acquiescence to government requests for user data.Its reasonable to worry that tech companies backbone for protecting users in this way might soften when they get too politically involved with any one administration, Crocker said.

An Alien Idea"That was a real hard-fought victory" - Steven Spielberg on what it took to prevent sci-fi classic E.T. getting a sequelDefinitely not a missed opportunity with this one.Image credit: Ambilin Entertainment/ Universal News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Jan. 28, 2025 There almost could have been an E.T. sequel, but luckily its director Steven Spielberg fought hard to make sure that didn't happen.I think we all know that it's pretty rare that sequels justify themselves. It happens on occasion, sure, on even rarer occasions they end up better than the first one! But, for the most part, it's better to just leave films at one and done to save us all the heartbreak. E.T. is one such film that I could never imagine getting a sequel, but as it turns out at one point in time the powers that be wanted one. "That was a real hard-fought victory because I didnt have any rights," Spielberg said in reference to preventing an E.T. sequel while speaking as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY event. (via The Hollywood Reporter).To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Before E.T., I had some rights, but I didnt have a lot of rights. I kind of didnt have what we call the freeze, where you can stop the studio from making a sequel because you control the freeze on sequels, remakes and other ancillary uses of the IP. I didnt have that. I got it after E.T. because of its success. The director continued to explain that he "just did not want to make a sequel."I flirted with it for a little bit - just a little bit to see if I [could] think of a story - and the only thing I could think about was a book that was written by called The Green Planet, which was all going to take place at E.T.s home. We were all going to be able to go to E.T.s home and see how E.T. lived. But it was better as a novel than I think it would have been as a film.The world would probably be a desolate wasteland by now if we had gotten a sequel, so let's be thankful Spielberg won out on this particular point. Besides, I'm sure it earned more than enough money given that it was once the highest-grossing film of all time.

Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8 stress test is now underway, and it's a good thing it is, because it's helping Larian do a proper Penguins Of Madagascar 'You didn't see anything' regarding its accidental brief early deployment of the update on PS5 last night.As the studio revealed last year, Patch 8 is the final major update for BG3, bringing a heap of things like crossplay, a photo mode, and 12 new subclasses - with the latter including the likes of a College of Glamour bard, bladesinging wizards, and drunken master monks - to the game.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Registration for this stress testing of it opened up in December last year. You should now know if you're in or not, and be able to hop in and try some crossplay if you were.If you're on PC or PS5, you should have an email from Larian with your game code and details on how to access the stress test, while those who registered through the Xbox Insider Programme should now have access to the application they'll need through the Xbox Insider Hub. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.The studio's put together a nice video on how to get started With cross-play for those taking part on the test, with it reccomending that a console player hosts the cross-play lobby if you're wanting to play with someone on PC, and that modded lobbies for PC players are hosted by a PC person who's got less than 100 mods installed, with that load order only containing mods with the 'Available on Mac and Console' tag.So, there you go. If you're a PS5 player who downloaded Patch 8 when it accidentally went live on the platform yesterday due to what Larian says was due to a mix-up with its partners in some regions in relation to the stress test kicking off, you'll need to return to the Patch 7 version by totally uninstalling and reinstalling BG3.If you stick with what you've updated to, you'll be in for a world of inconveniences when it comes to new saves becoming unusable, mods potentially playing up, and even possibly some performance issues. Trust me, it likely ain't worth it just to be able boast about being an early adopter.Don't pout, there's plenty to do while you wait for patch 8 to properly drop if you've had to revert or missed out on the test. For example you can read this interview we did the other day with some of the modders behind an ambitious BG3 custom campaign that's aiming to release a playable demo later this year.

Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeWelcome to the latest instalment in our nostalgia-inducing column, Memory Pak, where we deep-dive into some of the most memorable moments in gaming good and bad.Today, to mark the 25th anniversary of Resident Evil 2's N64 launch in Japan, Ollie reflects on a curious short comic book story that, against all logic, made him sympathise with a Tyrant...I feel rather fortunate that my time at primary and high school was mostly made up of happy memories. I distinctly remember days in which I would sit on the playground steps with my friends, swapping Pokmon cards, linking up our Game Boy Colors, and discussing the impending launch of the GameCube and how excited we were to play the likes of Luigis Mansion and Super Monkey Ball.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kWatch on YouTube Throughout those years, although my circle of friends could certainly be described as 'the nerds' or 'the outcasts', I was never the sole target for school bullies. In fact, I was probably one of the most average individuals in my year; the perfect student to be enrolled at Danganronpas Hopes Peak Academy, you might say. We were mostly targeted as a group, so wed have stones hurled at us on the playground (though from a long enough distance that the bullies could make an argument that any potential injury would have been accidental) and be subtly pushed into the walls of the schools corridors.I got by, though. It was thankfully never egregious enough to completely derail my enjoyment of school; something that, unfortunately, isnt the case for many youngsters these days. The friendship I had with my peers always outweighed any potential hardships endured, and Ill forever be thankful for their consistent presence.Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeDespite this, when I picked up the final issue of the Official Resident Evil Comic Book in Spring 1999, I felt an immediate sense of empathy for the main character of a short story called ... And The Last Shall Be First.Written by Kris Oprisko and pencilled by Lee Bermejo, it told the tale of a high school student called Dexter Whitlam, a flourishing academic whose sublime intellect was nurtured at the prestigious Pine Grove Academy. What should have been the most formative time of his life, however, is derailed on a daily basis by three vicious bullies: Kelly Thornedike, Wade Boddington III, and Todd Umbenhauer.Now, in hindsight, I think its safe to say that Dexter is (spoilers!) actually the main villain of the piece. They say that success is the best form of revenge, and Dexter does indeed fantasise of a future in which the bullies, having exhausted their families wealth, come crawling to his feet as a revered scientist.Yet Dexters instinctual reaction to his daily abuse is to swear physical violence against his tormentors, even exclaiming Im gonna kill them! in front of his friend, Ruthie. As you might expect in a story based on Resident Evil, he eventually follows through on his threat with aplomb.Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeFollowing another day of wedgies and broken spectacles, Dexter sneaks to a nearby warehouse where he witnesses scientific equipment being unloaded from a lorry. After making his way into the building, he stumbles upon a large water tank containing a variation of the Tyrant from the Spencer Mansion incident. Rather than leg it back out in fear, however, he notices a vial of the G-Virus and decides to take it for himself. You see where this is going?Yep, he injects himself with it, immediately mutating into a monstrous Tyrant with giant claws and a perpetual grinning mouth dripping with foam.He proceeds to track down the school bullies, first impaling Boddington III from behind before disembowling Umbenhauer and hurling him headfirst into a vending machine. When he locates Thornedike, Dexters friend Ruthie attempts to appeal to the humanity within Dexter. Yet none remains.Killing Thornedike, Dexter turns on Ruthie, but before he can strike, a pair of Umbrella agents electrocute him from afar, rendering him unconscious.Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeSome time later, Dexter awakens in a hospital bed, having returned to his human form. The Umbrella agents explain that they have learned of his intellect and, impressed with his transformation and subsequent rampage, offer him a place at the company, completely unfettered by ethical restrictions. Dexter, though seemingly bandaged from head to toe, recreates the Tyrants monstrous grin as the story ends.I feel quite embarrassed now that I felt such empathy toward such a horrendous character when I first read this story in 1999. Yet at the time, having gone through my own experiences of bullying alongside my close friends (with more to come in subsequent years), gazing at the panels as Dexter enacts his revenge was oddly cathartic, and I rooted for him. I was always raised to not deal with conflicts through violence, and for all my 35 years, Ive stuck to this rule through and through. Yet Id be lying if I said that Thornedike, Boddington III, and Umbenbauers grisly fates didnt elicit a small sense of satisfaction.Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeI still have those exact Resident Evil comics from when I was a kid (apart from the elusive and exceedingly expensive Issue 1), and I partially credit them, alongside R.L. Stine's original Goosebumps run, with nurturing my ongoing passion for all things horror. I probably wouldn't be quite so obsessed with Resident Evil if it weren't for Oprisko's story of revenge, so despite its dark themes, I am forever thankful for it. Switch 2 release when?"2005... I'll never forget it"Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesMultiple Resident Evil Titles Might Be Getting A Next-Generation RefreshSwitch 2 release when?Feature: Biggest Nintendo Gaming Anniversaries Of 202557 games with big birthdays this year

Image: EAThe first two Sims games are still exceedingly well-regarded these days, but sadly, actually gaining access to them in a legitimate way isn't particularly easy. The first was a disc-only jobby, and the second has long-since been removed from digital platforms.Thankfully, with a new report from Kotaku (thanks, Push Square) accompanying an intriguing tease from EA itself, it looks like The Sims and The Sims 2 will be re-released on PC very soon. The catch? Well, according to Kotaku's sources, it seems as though a console release is still "unclear" at the time of writing.Of course, we're thrilled that these games will once again be easily accessible for PC users (presuming the reports are correct, of course), but we'd also love to see them on the Switch.Better yet, let's hold off until the Switch 2 and make use of the console's heavily-rumoured mouse functionality in its Joy-Con controllers. That would no doubt make the games an absolute joy to play.Whatever happens, we'll keep an eye on the news over the coming days and will let you know if these games are indeed confirmed for the Switch or Switch 2. Ready for action?Flexing that backward compatibilityWould you like to see the first two Sims games on the Switch or Switch 2? Let us know with a comment down below.[source kotaku.com, via pushsquare.com]Share:01 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesEA Sports FC 25 Partially Blamed For EA's Lowered Financial Forecast"the franchise experienced a slowdown"

Waymo robotaxis have become a common sight on Los Angeles surface streets. Now, those driverless vehicles are heading to the citys network of freeways. The Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle technology company said Tuesday it will begin testing its fleet of robotaxis on the Los Angeles freeway system, including Interstates 10, 110, 405, and the 90. These robotaxis will not have a human safety operator behind the wheel. Waymo will follow the same testing-to-commercial service path as it has done in other areas. The company will first invite employees to access driverless vehicles on LA freeways and will eventually open it up to the public. Image credits: WaymoUnlocking freeways is key to Waymos business success, particularly in sprawling cities of Phoenix and Los Angeles, where it operates today. Customers may be more likely to opt for a Waymo over another ride-hailing service or taxi if the robotaxi can take the shortest possible route which is oftentimes accessed via freeway. For instance, Waymo said that taking a trip from Santa Monica Pier to the Broad can be 50% faster by taking Interstate 10.Waymo has had a presence in Los Angeles since 2019, periodically coming in to map neighborhoods, including downtown, Miracle Mile, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Westwood, and West Hollywood. In 2022, thecompany announcedLos Angeles would be one of its next commercial markets, following Phoenix and San Francisco.Waymo received approval in March 2024 from the the California Public Utilities Commission to operate a commercial robotaxi service in Los Angeles as well expanded territory in the Bay Area that included the San Francisco Peninsula and San Francisco freeways.

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech!This week were looking at the story behind the sale of Divvy Homes, Ramps new product, some notable fundraising deals, and more!To get a roundup of TechCrunchs biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.The big storyImage Credits:Divvy Homes / CEO and co-founder Adena HefetsLast week, real estate fintech Divvy Homes announced that it was selling to Brookfield Properties for a total consideration of about $1 billion. At its height in 2021, the rent-to-own startup was valued at over $2 billion. On the surface, the outcome didnt seem terrible, given the number of proptech companies that have shut down (most recently, EasyKnock) altogether in recent years. However, digging deeper, we realized that the deal wasnt really so rosy for many shareholders. Because Divvy had taken out so much debt, including a $735 million debt financing in October of 2021, most of that $1 billion was going toward paying that back as well as funding transaction costs and liquidation preference to preferred shareholders. CEO and co-founder Adena Hefets stated in a letter to stakeholders viewed by TechCrunch that common shareholders nor holders of the Series FF preferred stock would not receive any consideration. Ouch. No doubt Divvy was hurt by interest rates surging in 2022, but it had other problems too. There were a variety of complaints alleging that the company was not maintaining its properties and/or was evicting people while also charging higher-than-market rate rents. Was it a fire sale or not? Guess that depends on who you ask. But even Hefets herself admitted she was not proud of the financial outcome.Dollars and centsImage Credits:JarDespite the recent turbulence in the space, some proptechs are still getting cash. Founded by a Better.com alum, Foyer a platform that helps consumers save for down payments, essentially acting as a 401(k) for homeownership announced a $6.2 million seed round led by Alpaca VC and Hometeam Ventures.Indian fintech Jar has turned cash-flow positive, an executive at the Tiger Global-backed startup confirmed on January 22. The 3-year-old startup, which offers savings and investment services to consumers, achieved the milestone while still growing by more than 10 times last year, according to an investor note seen by TechCrunchs Manish Singh.On January 22, Ramp announced a new treasury product that would give its customers a way to earn more on operating cash. I talked to CEO and co-founder Eric Glyman to get all the details. When I asked him if it was accurate to say Ramp was encroaching on digital bank territory with the new product, he acknowledged that was a fair assessment.After pivoting from crypto to payroll, Rollfi is being acquired by Priority Tech Ventures, a unit of the publicly traded payments and banking tech provider Priority Technology Holdings, for an undisclosed amount.Vertice, a London-based startup that operates an AI-powered SaaS spend platform, raised $50 million at a reported $500 million valuation. Ingrid Owen gives us the scoop.Visa has joined African fintech Moniepoint as a new investor. Sources close to the deal told Tage Kene-Okafor that the fintech which announced a $110 million investment last October received over $10 million from Visa.Austin-based Method, a platform that powers debt and debt-repayment features in fintech applications for companies such as SoFi, raised a $41.5 million Series B round led by Emergence Capital.What else were writingImage Credits:David Paul Morris / Bloomberg / Getty ImagesFintech giant Stripe is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported on January 21 by Business Insider, but still plans to hire in 2025.Indonesias antitrust agency KPPU fined GoogleTheres an interesting connection betweenMistral, the French AI startup with a $6 billionvaluation, andAlan, a health insurance unicorn. Romain Dillet gives us the details.More startups shut down in 2024 than the year prior, according to multiple sources, and thats not really a surprise considering the insane number of companies that were funded in 2020 and 2021. It appears were not nearly done, and 2025 could be another brutal year of startups shutting down. Read my deep dive, which includes data from Carta and AngelList.Payroll platform Deel denies charges that it enabled money laundering, blames competitor for lawsuitHSBC shuts payments app Zing a year after launchAndreessen Horowitz closes UK office, pivots back to US crypto marketClutch secures $65M Series B funding to propel credit unions into the fintech eraThanks for reading! Until next week follow me on X @bayareawriter for breaking fintech news, posts about coffee, and more.

Chaos has just announced the launch of V-Ray 7 for Maya and V-Ray 7 for Houdini, with new features that accelerate everything from fast 3D environment creation to production shading, so artists can render anything to feature-film standards.V-Ray 7 continues our commitment to providing visual effects artists with the latest creative possibilities and productivity enhancements, said Phillip Miller, Vice President Product, Solutions for Artists at Chaos. This new release enables filmed locations to be included as CG environments in minutes while speeding general production throughout many important areas.V-Ray 7 introduces native support for ray-traced Gaussian Splats, allowing artists to place CG scenes within highly detailed virtual environments created from captured video, which can then be reflected and accept shadows.A new firefly removal algorithm automatically detects and finishes unresolved pixels, known as fireflies, during bucket rendering, greatly reducing the time needed to produce final images. The Open Image Denoiser has also been updated for further image enhancement. Using a new prefilter pass, artists can see improved detail retention during denoiser for sharper, cleaner images without extra work. V-Ray GPU includes numerous improvements in V-Ray 7 for Maya and Houdini, including far faster time to first pixel, made possible by new optimizations for scattering, texture-heavy scenes, data uploads and geometry compilations. New Caustics support enables realistic surface reflections and refractions in both production and interactive rendering, while out-of-core textures help artists add incredible detail to their texture-heavy scenes, without sacrificing shading quality.V-Ray GPU also has an enhanced algorithm for more efficient caching of bitmaps between animation frames, further speeding up the animation rendering process sometimes by up to 50%. Finally, V-Ray GPU can now run up to 3x faster on MacBooks with its new Metal support.V-Ray 7 for Maya Features:OpenPBR Support Using V-Rays new OpenPBR Material mode, which matches an emerging shading standard developed by Autodesk and Adobe, artists will have to make fewer manual adjustments when switching between compatible renderers and applications.New Layering Scheme Artists can now easily create effects like neon lights, dusty lacquered wood, peach fuzz and more without Blend materials, using a new OpenPBR-compliant layering scheme.Enhanced Sheen Layer Creating velvet, satin, silk and dusty woods with convincing realism is now much easier using the updated Sheen Layers soft reflections while in the V-Ray Material OpenPBR mode.Extended USD support V-Ray 7 for Maya now supports the latest official version of MayaUSD 0.30.0, enabling the latest support for custom pipelines.V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB) Upgrades The VFB has been expanded to help users do more in one place. New custom-shaped render regions enable artists to render one, or many parts of their frame with custom-drawn shapes. A vignette layer post effect is now included that can also be customized by shape. The VFB also gains new color-correction presets that help users quickly explore different looks as they refine their design.V-Ray Luminaires The ever-expanding Chaos Cosmos asset library now brings more speed and accuracy to lighting fixtures, accurately distributing their light and properly illuminating the fixtures. Most of the light fixtures within Chaos Cosmos are now Luminaires in V-Ray 7, making it easier to populate scenes with realistic lighting while also rendering final results more quickly. V-Ray 7 for Houdini Features:New Volume Shader Preview Artists can now begin using the new V-Ray Volume Shader, a much requested feature that creates/renders volumetrics like clouds, smoke and fluids up to 6x faster than before. In this initial implementation, users can build shading graphs to craft complex shaders and customize their effects. Light select support is provided for creative control over volumetrics when compositing. Additional volume rendering capabilities will be announced in the coming months.Extended MaterialX Support Artists can now create and render most MaterialX procedural textures, including noises, patterns and various randomization options.Easier Toon Shading Stylized, non-photorealistic renders can now be created with minimal effort using the redesigned toon shading workflow in V-Ray for Solaris. With easier setups, artists can spend more time being creative.Chaos Cosmos in Solaris V-Ray for Solaris now offers access to the Chaos Cosmos library, helping artists populate their environments with thousands of render-ready 3D assets for rapid world building.Copernicus Support V-Ray for Solaris now supports Copernicus, a powerful procedural texturing tool, providing greater flexibility while working with V-Ray.Yeti Cache Support Third-party plugin support extends to the Yeti 3D hair and fur system. Artists can now render Yeti cache files in Solaris with the new V-Ray Yeti node, enabling seamless integrations of their grooming work from other DCCs like Maya.Pricing and AvailabilityV-Ray 7 for Maya and V-Ray 7 for Houdini are available now for Windows, MacOS and Linux. All V-Ray subscription plans include all supported host applications, which include Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Revit, Rhino, SketchUp and Blender. Pricing can be found on the Chaos website.Source: Chaos Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

InterviewsMufasa The Lion King: Adam Valdez (Production VFX Supervisor) & Audrey Ferrara (VFX Supervisor) MPCBy Vincent Frei - 28/01/2025 Adam Valdez first walked us through the visual magic made by MPC on The Jungle Book in 2016. After continuing his journey with The Lion King, he has stayed in the Pride Lands to unveil the story behind Mufasa: The Lion King.Starting her career in 2005 with Mikros Image (now MPC), Audrey Ferrara gained experience at various studios, including BUF, before becoming part of the MPC team in 2011. Her impressive portfolio includes work on Avatar, Prometheus, The Jungle Book, and The Lion King.How was the collaboration with the Director Barry Jenkins?Adam Valdez (AV): Barry is a great all-around person and creative spirit to work with. He has a great compass to follow, and is always open to what the film is trying to become in its own way, while holding onto what its about for him and ultimately, the audience. This was a four-year journey starting at the end of the pandemic, so we went through a lot together.How did you organize the work with your VFX Producer?AV: Barry St. John and I have made a few films together now, and so we have a lot of common language and understanding of process. We talked a lot at the start about how to get out of the films way and keep everything as supportive and adaptable as we could. These are big shows with many forces at play, including technical challenges, and the desire by all to make sure were giving the film anything it needs. So, we spend a lot of time each week looking at progress, process, and whats happening at all levels. Barry is a great partner in this, keeping his ear to the ground, so that I can daydream a bit and also focus on what is happening in any given room Im in. Its a great partnership.Adam, having worked on The Jungle Book and The Lion King, what were the biggest creative and technical challenges in bringing Mufasa to life compared to your previous projects?AV: This shows challenges were mostly scope and emotional connection. The film is bigger than some of the others weve done, with more types of worlds to build, and a bigger cast. Then, we needed to push what emotional impact a lions face could do, while making our toolset detail and subtlety. We are actually more naturalistic in our lion models this time, and yet I think we get more range and dexterity from them.Audrey, MPC is one of the leader in digital character creation. How did the team approach the design and animation to ensure Mufasas characters were expressive yet believable?Audrey Ferrara (AF): For Mufasa, MPC wanted to push the bar even higher, so the character LAB team poured all their efforts into sculpting way more details on the model, but also having way more hair in the fur. We also developed a new fur shader that would replicate the properties of hair more physically accurately. The rigging has been also a key component in allowing the animators in exploring the emotions of the characters, and see where they could push further the shapes, or stay subtle in the facial expressions. The animation team spent countless hours in scanning references of real lions, so they would know what felt natural and what was too extreme of a movement.Can you walk us through the pipeline for creating and animating one of the main characters in Mufasa? What are the steps from concept to final render?AF: What was very particular for this movie, is the fact that we are reconnecting with characters that we already know but at a different age. So we had to make sure we would keep what makes Mufasa Mufasa. Taka was very interesting, because we had to convey his physical change and his demeanor throughout the story.Mark Friedberg, the production designer, provided us with the 2D concept art, that we translated in 3D. Animation, driven by Dan Fotheringham, the animation supervisor, would then take the model, and do some performance tests, exploring the movements of young cheerful Taka, to gloomy vengeful Scar.Those tests would be presented to Barry and Disney, making sure we would be on track. Once Barry was happy, the animators would proceed working on the sequences, fine tuning the performances for each sequence of the movie, key-framing each single shot, and thats what was handed over to tech anim, who would simulate muscles and fur.Were there any new challenges in animating animals in more emotionally charged or complex scenes? How did you find the balance between photorealism and storytelling?AF: Its always a balancing act, and a difficult one. But Barry Jenkins is a fantastic director, very tuned in emotions, so he was a great guide for the ton of each scene. The animators were also able to explore the performances by trying versions more subtle or more pronounced, and Barry would tell them if it felt too much or not enough. It was by trying that we would find the balance, some times more emphasizing the photorealism of the animals, and sometimes putting the needs of the storytelling has the priority. Some scenes were a challenge in that regard that we would have to communicate emotions very subtly, and with no words, like when Mufasa and Eshe are coming back from the outsiders attack: a lot was said between Taka and Mufasa, without a word.How did you develop the fur simulation for Mufasa? Did you introduce any innovations compared to what was done for The Lion King?AF: For Mufasa, MPC developed a new fur pipeline called LOMA. It allowed the team to have more fur, better control of the curves of the hair, and more precise simulations. The different weather conditions throughout the movie resulted in new challenges for the techanim team: drenched fur, snow covered fur, close ups of lions fighting with their manes interacting with each other etc.. For example, there is a close up shot of Mufasas ear, and he tells about what he can feel through the wind. Suddenly, the fur simulation is the story of that shot, so we had to make sure the team was able to deliver what Barry was after. LOMA allowed the team to provide better techanim performances.For scenes with multiple animals interacting, how did you ensure the characters felt natural and the physics realistic without overwhelming the viewer?AV: Our show animation supervisor Dan Fotheringham is a master of animal behaviour and bio-mechanics. We work from on-stage human capture for the blocking, but that gets replaced with keyframed animation in post, and at that juncture the anim team will use a range of sources including their own performances and lots of animal reference. It all stems from the voice, what its making you feel as sub-text in the characters emotional moment, and you seek what reinforces that, rather than something broad and cartoony. The physicality of performance shouldnt step on these things, but support them, and this is tricky when they are doing athletic things.From a design perspective, what steps were taken to distinguish characters visually while keeping them within the same photorealistic world?AF: We maintained a family tree, where we could see all the lions, and how they were related to each other. With the support of the art work from art department, we kept a close eye how the models were evolving during the modeling phase, and made sure we could tell who is who. Sometimes, we would notice that 2 lions were very similar looking, so we would work on ways to differentiate them, with details such has eye colours, scars, markings etc.Did you face any creative or technical hurdles in portraying Mufasa as a younger version of the lion we know? How did you strike the right balance of familiarity and freshness?AF: For the lions that were already present in The Lion King, we actually started with the model of their skulls from their adult selves, and de-aged them, so we could keep the same psychical structure of the bones. We also maintained the colour palette used for each one of them: Mufasa is slightly more saturated orange, and Scar is more taupe for example. It was the same process with their eye colours. After gathering all the elements that were particular to them, we then started working on the bodies, adjusting the muscles for the appropriate age, and the length of the mane, to make it adequate for a teenager lion. We would constantly go back to the references of adult Mufasa, to make sure we were going in the right direction.Adam, since The Lion King, how have VFX tools evolved, particularly in terms of character animation and virtual production?AV: It hasnt actually been that long between films! Our main pivot was to use Unreal Engine, which gave us a lot of support from Epic, and increased photographic behaviour for our DP James Laxton to work with. MPC has developed a suite of tools on top of UE, and is using that know-how to bring more UE into life at MPC. Thats what I think is what were going to be seeing: more of the virtual-production mindset and creative flux being brought into the early phases of post. Its time to see some significant changes in how visual effects companies work, and this is a good point of leverage for MPC to differentiate and keep changing the game. Its exciting.Can you share how advances in real-time rendering or virtual production technology impacted your workflow on Mufasa?AV: Realtime is all about enabling rapid choice-making. It provides the feedback we take for granted in the real world. You swing a light, you move the camera, you change the staging, and you get more than a flat-grey proxy of what may some day feel like a movie. Instead, you get something that feels photographic. The depth-of-field, the atmos, the way the lights fall on the subject, all complement the choice youre making about where to work and how to frame up, and how the shot communicates. Then you add in how Unreal can input many devices and interface with a stage-setting, and its just a great combo.Machine learning and AI are becoming increasingly present in VFX workflows. Did these tools play a role in Mufasa, particularly for animation or rendering tasks?AV: We do use some machine-learning tools in the pipeline, but these are drop-in roles at the moment. For example de-noising using Disneys toolset is now well understood and worked well for us. We are obviously seeing ML being used today in a variety of deepfake situations, and in upstream steps like ideation for design. Like everyone else in the world, our industry is actively experimenting and challenging ourselves, but for Mufasa, it wasnt a major player.From both a creative and technological standpoint, where do you see the future of photorealistic VFX storytelling heading after Mufasa?AV: Mufasa is a big movie with insanely high levels of artistry. Companies like Disney and MPC exist to bring such great works into being, but its clear right now that the whole entertainment industry is recalibrating after some years of foundational change. Mufasa is one example of how the VFX industry rises to the challenge of realising anything you can imagine. Every pixel of it, for the entire length of the film. What we need to do as an industry is keep honing the toolsets and how we scale what we do, so that we can continue making such amazing feats of human ingenuity, on budgets that make sense, to keep connecting to audiences who love this stuff.Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of?AV: Its just a beautiful film that also draws you in emotionally. Thats the achievement that all of the visual effects and digital wizardry accomplish. Its why I do it and what Im proud of.Which sequence or shot was the most challenging?AV: The flood when Mufasa is still a cub. Process wise, the staging was quite complex and it took time to support the editorial process while keeping some structure to the work so that we could go fast in post and plus it further. Water behaviour was critical to each cut, so making sure camera, edit, effects and character animation were in lock-step at all times was a lot of work for the MPC teams.Is there something specific that gives you some really short nights?AV: My only real worry is time. When you work on a film for a while, and youve put so much into all aspects of it, on a given scene you realize one day: okay, Ive only got a few weeks left to get this to full potential, because I have to move on and I dont want to impact other scenes. Thats the only major stressor.What is your favorite shot or sequence?AV: For me there are two big moments I love. The first is the stretch between the boys becoming teens and the fight in the grass, and the second is Takas big song as he charges through the snow. They show the range of the film and both combine photography and acting in ways where Im just in the movie.What is your best memory on this show?Sitting in the DI suite, seeing the movie almost like an audience for the first time. You see each shot hundreds of times, but one day all the burn-ins are off, and youre sitting in a room in the dark, and our colorist Alex Bickel has the film and is driving, and you are just watching passages go by And you just start watching it with his new layer of artistry on top and amazingly you can actually start to see it with fresh eyes, and its quite fun.How long have you worked on this show?AF: I started on the show December 2020, and finish delivering it November 2024. So almost 4 years filled with roaring lions!Whats the VFX shots count?AF: We delivered 1476 final shotsWhat is your next project?We are resting! ?A big thanks for your time.WANT TO KNOW MORE?MPC: Dedicated page about Mufasa: The Lion King on MPC website. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025