The Witcher 3 is arguably one of the best fantasy RPGs released in the last 15 years. This title features a vast world full of dangerous creatures, a broad range of different silver and steel swords for players to take advantage of, and a compelling narrative that is both captivating and immersive.

Nintendo is a legendary video game company that needs no introduction. Their first-party offerings are known for prioritizing gameplay over everything else, with their biggest releases featuring stories that feel more like a loose excuse to justify the many set pieces that players enjoy in their journey.

In 2016, Pokmon Go was the biggest video game on the planet, breaking software download records and sending local news into hysterics. Nine years and many less popular games later, developer Niantic Inc. is preparing to sell its games division to Saudia Arabia-owned Scopely Inc., according to a report by Bloomberg. How much does one of the most popular video games in history cost? The report claims the price tag for the division is an eye-watering $3.5 billion. Niantic has been contacted for comment.Pokemon Gos sale would be the latest twist in the tale of one of gamings most unlikely CEOs.In 2001, John Hanke co-founded a mapping technology company called Keyhole that would later be acquired by Google and be foundational in the development of Google Earth and Google Maps. In 2010, Hanke, riding rarified success, chose to lead a team inside Google that would envision the future of augmented reality gaming.The team launched Ingress, the first major global augmented reality game, in 2013 and within two years had amassed seven million players. But Ingress would be remembered less as a game than a proof of concept. In 2015, Hanke spun out the Google group into an independent company called Niantic. A year later the studio launched Pokmon Go in collaboration with (and significant funding from) Google, Nintendo, and The Pokemon Company.By the end of 2016, Pokmon Go had been downloaded by more than 500 million players.In the years following Pokmon Gos success, Hanke spoke at numerous conferences about the bigger potential for augmented reality to connect the real world with the artificial one. He imagined ways augmented reality could place players into shared virtual worlds while they occupied a physical one, all with the support of Niantics tools. In 2020, Covid-19 hit, and millions of players sheltered in place. As the pandemic became an endemic, Niantic began to cancel titles. In 2023, the company laid off 230 employees, roughly 25% of its workforce. Hanke emphasized, alongside the deep cuts, the companys need to focus on Pokmon Go and he acknowledged that the AR market was developing more slowly than anticipated.Now, it appears Hanke and what team members remain at Niantic could return to what inspired them long before video games: mapping. The data collected by all the Niantic apps has been used to create large geospatial models in an effort to achieve spatial intelligence. Last November, Niantics Eric Brachmann and Victor Adrian Prisacariu published an update on the project: At Niantic, we are pioneering the concept of a Large Geospatial Model that will use large-scale machine learning to understand a scene and connect it to millions of other scenes globally.Because its 2025 and the answer is always AI.

After five long years, Apple TV has made it to Android phones and tablets, bringing a polished and Apple-like interface to every Android device out there. You can finally binge-watch Severance on your Samsung smartphone (as you very much should), and if you're like me, you might actually prefer it there than on iPhone.The Apple TV app for Android, it turns out, is a stripped down version of the TV app from iPhone and iPad, not including content from partner streaming services or the ability to buy or rent movies. But it's this stripped down approach that actually makes the Android app better than the iPhone counterpart, at least in my opinion. In the language of Dieter Rams, "good design is as little design as possible". When you open the Apple TV app on Android, the Apple TV+ tab is the default option, showing your Apple TV+ queue and top TV shows and movies right up top. The only other content option is Apple's MLS sports streaming add-on, which gets its own distinct tab, too.On the iPhone and iPad, meanwhile, the TV app is actually much bigger than just Apple TV+. It carries subscription add-ons for different services like Disney+, Prime Video, Starz, Hulu, Peacock, and more. Plus, you can also use the app to rent or buy movies. This means that when you open the Apple TV app, you might be greeted by a banner for a new movie you've been wanting to see, thinking it's been added to Apple TV+ for free. However, clicking in will greet you with a big buy button, instead.Because Apple TV's interface is incredibly simple and there's no sections dividing up services (save for Apple's own), that can get confusing fast. Credit: Khamosh Pathak Compare that to Android, where the Apple TV app still carries the same design language, same polished interface, and the same minimal media player, but just feels better to use because there are no distractions and no hoops to jump through.On the iPhone or iPad app, I've come to dread the extra step of navigating to the dedicated Apple TV+ tab before I look for streaming content. On Android, that's already the default. Android also has a dedicated Downloads tab, while on the iOS and iPadOS app, you first have to switch to the Library tab to see your Downloads. Everything takes an extra step on the iPhone app.I sincerely hope that Apple is inspired by this feedback and works on making the iPhone app simpler, but given the nature of the product and all the things that the app does, it might be better to make the Apple TV+ app a separate entity by itself, kind of like the Apple TV app on Android.The Apple TV app on Android comes with a one-week free trial for Apple TV+, and then it's the same $9.99/month subscription as elsewhere. While the app is quite feature-rich, it does lack the Cast feature, so you can't just stream content to a TV via your Android smartphone. Aside from that, though, everything I need is here, including my watch list, offline downloads and picture-in-picture.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.During his Presidential campaign, new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised an eight-year halt on infectious disease research, presumably because our chances of encountering any sort of infectious disease will be nearly zero once the fluoride is gone from our water supply. As we celebrate the disease-free world of the very near future, let's take a look back at movies that explore worlds in which viruses and diseases (or related metaphors) run rampant.These movies vary wildly in their tones and styles, but there are some recurring themes: Science and scientists (however flawed) are almost always a source of hope, while the efficacy of politicians and bureaucracy in harnessing technology to provide assistance is mixed, reflecting our deep ambivalence about the power and willingness of government to help us in times of crisis. Some of these movies suggest that we're largely on our own in times of viral crisis, but only where medicine is absent. Others, ones with less of a sense of the inevitable, turn on the development of vaccines or related cures. In the movies, at least, it seems that medical science is where hope lies.Outbreak (1995) Blending virology with disaster-movie swagger, Wolfgang Petersen's medical thriller might not be the most rigid in its adherence to science, Outbreak finds an all-star cast fighting to stop an epidemic of Motaba, a fictional Ebola-esque disease that mutates after having been smuggled into the country via an infected capuchin monkey from the jungle of Zaire. It's very '90s, I suppose, that the terror would come from the heart of Africa, while efforts by to prevent the virus from killing everyone in a small California town are complicated by factions in the U.S. military who want to keep it a secret, potentially to use as a weapon. Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Donald Sutherland, and Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the film's scientists and co-conspirators. You can rent Outbreak from Prime Video. Outbreak (1995) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) It's tempting to say that a smallpox epidemic runs rampant in the margins of this decent, if middling, noirbut the outbreak story is, ultimately, what elevates this 1950 crime drama. Based around a very real 1947 smallpox epidemic in NYC, the title's inadvertent killer is Sheila Bennett (Evelyn Keyes), a diamond smuggler on the run who's unaware that she's spreading disease in the wake of evading the authorities (the real patient zero was a traveling rug merchant, not a jewel-smuggling femme fatale). In real life, and as depicted in the movie, a massive vaccination campaign saw civic authorities, pharmaceutical companies, and the military team up to provide vaccines alongside thousands of volunteers. 600,000 New Yorkers got shots in just the first week, and the outbreak ultimately saw only two smallpox fatalities. The movie, rather, turns on the hunt for Sheila in the hope that she'll do the right thing and provide the contact tracing necessary to ensure that those most directly affected get their shots. You can stream The Killer That Stalked New York on Prime Video and Pluto TV. The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video 12 Monkeys (1996) A group of scientists approach James Cole (Bruce Willis), a prisoner in the (rapidly approaching) year 2035 with a mission: They're going to send him back in time to 1996, the year a deadly plague began wiping out most of humanity, in the hope that he can gather a sample of the original virus to help them develop a cure. Not the wildest medical idea we've heard lately! Unfortunately, Cole gets sent back too early and finds his mission jeopardized when he winds up in a mental institution. The movie's themes are around the general stickiness of our choices, and the ways in which the ball of fate, once started rolling, is very, very hard to stop. You can rent 12 Monkeys from Prime Video. 12 Monkeys (1996) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Masque of the Red Death (1964) One of the very best, and almost certainly most psychedelic, of Roger Corman's collaborations with Vincent Price, this Poe adaptation is a sumptuous descent into hell. Price plays Prince Prospero, a sadistic nobleman in Medieval Italy. When a local woman dies of the mysterious titular plague, Prospero orders the village burned and invites the wealthy nobility to his castle. With the desperate, now homeless villagers baying at the gates, the local gentry party their way through the end of the world, oblivious to the suffering they've causedat least until a procession of the world's illnesses finds them all drunk and unprepared. A happy ending, you might say. You can stream Masque of the Red Death on Pluto TV or rent it from Prime Video. The Masque of the Red Death (1964) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Contagion (2011) The relative accuracy of Steven Soderbergh's drama is as fascinating as it is frustrating: The idea of a bat-evolved respiratory virus with a death toll in the millions that leads to mass quarantines as well as social distancing, while also providing plenty of material for conspiracy theoristswell, it suggests that there were things we might have been better prepared for. While hitting a few of the same disaster-movie beats as Outbreak, this one is, on the whole, more subdued and, apparently, far more scientifically accurate. You can rent Contagion from Prime Video. Contagion (2011) Learn More Learn More The Andromeda Strain (1971) The always-reliable director Robert Wise adapts Michael Crichton's novel about a microorganism from Earth's upper atmosphere that causes nearly instantaneous blood clotting. Which is bad. The paranoid responses are worse. It works much like other Crichton stories: A somewhat outlandish premise played absolutely straight (think Jurassic Park), such that you almost start to freak out about it happening. You can rent The Andromeda Strain from Prime Video. The Andromeda Strain (1971) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Last Man on Earth (1964) The first of three major adaptations of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, Matheson himself worked on this one, though wasn't terribly happy with the results. The film's comparatively low budget, though, sets it apart from later, more action-heavy takes (The Omega Man and I Am Legend, specifically)this one is comparatively more contemplative as a result. Vincent Price is Dr. Robert Morgan, the only person in the world (to his knowledge) not infected by a plague that has left everyone else into, well, vampires. An encounter with a mysterious woman leads Dr. Morgan to believe that the contagion might be treatable, but can't ever be cured (it might help if there were more than one human scientist left alive, but you work with what you've got, I suppose). You can stream The Last Man on Earth on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Prime Video. The Last Man on Earth (1964) Learn More Learn More Philadelphia (1993) There are better films about the darkest days of the first HIV/AIDS crisis, but few had more of a cultural impact than this mainstream, all-star legal drama. It was the first time that Hollywood had approached the topic in any meaningful way, and one of the very first times that queer characters were portrayed positivelyit's also a reasonably good depiction of the legal challenges and consequences that come with an unhindered pandemic. Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a successful senior associate at a major corporate law firm in the title city who starts displaying lesions (Kaposi's sarcoma, specifically) related to the AIDS diagnosis that he'd been concealing. When he's fired with very little reason given, he hires Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), one of the few lawyers who will take his wrongful termination suit. It's based, loosely, on the real-life case of Geoffrey Bowers, whose case was settled eight years after his death. You can rent Philadelphia from Prime Video. Philadelphia (1993) Learn More Learn More Isle of the Dead (1945) An unsung classic from producer Val Lewton and director Mark Robson, Isle of the Dead's plot belies its lurid title with the story of a Greek general (Boris Karloff) trying to maintain a quarantine on an isolated island. Taking a break to visit his wife's tomb during the Balkan Wars of 1912, Gen. Nikolas Pherides arrives with an American reporter at exactly the wrong time: Deaths attributed by some locals to supernatural forces are diagnosed by a local doctor as the first stirrings of an outbreak of septicemic plague. He's battling not only local superstition and defiance of modern(-ish) science, but also attempts by less credulous locals to escape the island, and thus expose the mainland to the otherwise contained plague. Fortunately, we modern types are incapable of such unscientific silliness. You can rent Isle of the Dead from Prime Video. Isle of the Dead (1945) Learn More Learn More Arrowsmith (1931) Ronald Colman stars as Dr Martin Arrowsmith in this pre-Code John Ford film that, while occasionally veering into melodrama, takes its science relatively seriously, at least in the abstract. When he meets the love of his life, Leora (Helen Hayes), the young medical student gives up scientific research for a more lucrative practice. An outbreak of a bubonic plague in the West Indies, though, sees him reunited with an old mentor to explore the efficacy of a new antibiotic serum that Arrowsmith helped to develop. Is it more important to get the serum into the hands (or, rather, veins) of as many dying people as possible? Or to pursue a study with more scientific rigor that could lead to greater benefits in the long run? You can stream Arrowsmith on Tubi and Prime Video. Arrowsmith (1931) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Rec (2007) This superior found-footage horror film from Spain sees reporter ngela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) and her camera operator on a seemingly sleepy assignment covering the night shift of one of Barcelona's local fire stations. Zombie hell breaks loose, though, when a call about an old woman trapped in her apartment finds them all trapped inside a quarantined building in which people are becoming infected, one by one, by a mysterious pathogen. There are clever nods to contact tracing and some fun twists on actual science (maybe don't do science experiments and definitely don't do demon stuff in your residential penthouse thx), but the vibe here is largely howling terror and also paranoia: They've all been locked in by the authorities, and it's unclear if anyone from outside is helping or just waiting for them to die. In the wake of COVID, it feels a bit like the pandemic squeezed into a single building. The American remake (Quarantine), in which it's the CDC that's locked everyone in, is also decent. You can stream Rec on Tubi or rent it from Prime Video. Rec (2007) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Normal Heart (2014) Larry Kramer adapted his own, largely autobiographical, play for this NYC-set drama depicting the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in the city between 1981 and 1984. Mark Ruffalo plays Ned Weeks, Kramer's alter ego, who helps a sick friend during a Fire Island birthday party only to return to New York and discover that several dozen gay men have been diagnosed with a "rare cancer." The film conveys the raw immediacy of those early days, as well as the medical and public relations battles that were fought to draw attention to an illness that politicians and mainstream media sources couldn't have given a shit about. Even after decades of social and medical advances, queerphobia remains prevalent and HIV/AIDS-related funding is on the chopping block, so the rage of these characters feels depressingly immediate. You can stream The Normal Heart on Max or rent it from Prime Video. The Normal Heart (2014) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max Containment (2015) In an outdated council flat in Weston, artist Mark (Lee Ross) wakes to discover that he's been sealed into his apartment with no means of escape. The electricity's out, and the only information comes via the intercompresumably offered up by the people in Hazmat suits patrolling the exterior of the building. The scenario goes a bit Lord of the Flies, but more disturbing is the sense that, in a disaster, the scariest thing might well be a lack of solid, reliable information. You can stream Containment on Prime Video and Tubi. Containment (2015) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video It Comes at Night (2017) A family hides in their house while a plague ravages the planet in this very slow-burn psychological thriller that finds the group gradually succumbing to paranoia and terror as they cling to increasingly ad hoc methods of preventing infection. Ultimately, the enemies here are isolation and paranoia, a reminder that the worst impacts of disaster and trauma are often the hurts we inflict upon ourselves and our loved ones. You can rent It Comes at Night from Prime Video. It Comes at Night (2017) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) Science is, as in real life, usually a source of hope in outbreak moviesbut not always. Here, a well-intentioned scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer's accidentally creates a race of super-intelligent apes and puts them on a course to conquer the planet (on second thought, maybe the message here is: Stop animal testing). Spreading like an infection, the poor humans are rather quickly back-footed by the new threat. The apes, lead by Andy Serkis' chimp Caesar, can't really do much worse as rulers of the Earth, so I hail our simian overlords. Feels hopeful. You can stream Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Max or rent it from Prime Video. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max The Seventh Seal (1957)Unsurprisingly, perhaps, there's no science to the rescue in Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece. With lush and generous detail, we're transported to a Medieval village during the height of the Black Death, following returned knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) as he confronts the personification of Death (Bengt Ekerot) in a chess game for his life. The characters respond to Death's rapaciousness in various, and very human ways: Block is contemplative but defiant, his squire is practical and grounded, flagellates whip themselves as penance, a woman is nearly burned at the stake as a witch, while a young couple awaits the birth of a childholding on to hope amid the misery. Bleak and beautiful in equal measure, Bergman's movie explores a sick world in which neither God nor science are coming to help, but maybe, if we're lucky, we have people to walk through it with us. You can stream The Seventh Seal on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. The Seventh Seal (1957) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max

xAI releases Grok mobile app for iOS.

Dance, robot, dance

The BAFTA for Special Visual Effects was awarded to Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Gerd Nefzer and Rhys Salcombe for Dune: Part Two.Check out all the coverage of Dune: Part Two at befores & afters here.issue #23 Dune: Part TwoThe post Dune: Part Two wins BAFTA for Special Visual Effects appeared first on befores & afters.

Wt FX visual effects supervisor Luke Millar and motion capture performer Jonno Davies discuss bringing Robbie Williams to life.Wt FX is well-known for its close collaborations on projects with motion capture performersthink Andy Serkis, Toby Kebbell and a long line of other actors who don motion capture suits and HMCs for a role, with the VFX team translating that performance into a CG creature.Its a task Wt FX carried out once again for Michael Graceys Better Man, this time taking the original on-set performance of actor Jonno Davies through to an ape version of Robbie Williams.Here, visual effects supervisor Luke Millar and Jonno Davies tell befores & afters what that partnership was like, the toughest scenes from on-set and in post, and how they crafted the more intimate sequences in the movie.b&a: Luke, certainly Weta FX has such a vast experience in performance capture, but what kinds of conversations did you have early on about the best way on set to bring Robbie to life as a digital ape?Luke Millar: Before we started shooting principal photography, I arranged to sit down with Michael Gracey and all of the films department heads to provide an overview on what would be involved in the VFX process and how it might influence everyone elses job. Wt FX has very robust systems that we can setup pretty much anywhere and capture performance data on set, on location even during live concerts! However, most of the other departments on this film had never worked with it before. From hair and makeup applying dots to Jonnos face each day to costumes providing proxy mesh clothing that Jonno could interact with but that we could still capture through. We dont work in isolation and so having the collaboration of all involved really helped with bringing Robbie to life! b&a: Jonno, how did you actually come on board Better Man? And, what was your first memory of seeing what you had done on set be translated to a digital Robbie ape, even if something very early?Jonno Davies: Kate Mulvany, who plays my Mum in the film, recommended me to Michael. Wed worked together on the Amazon series Hunters a few years back, no actual scenes together but just got on really well. Production were struggling to find their Rob and she showed them my Instagram which had some videos from when I played Alexander DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange on stage in New York. It was a vastly different interpretation to the Kubrick film, sort of physical theatre meets Gladitorial peacocking, which thankfully piqued Michaels interest. From there, MG pitched the film and showed me some pre-vis including Feel, Let Me Entertain You and My Way, and even from those basic renderings I knew that he and Wt FX were onto something special. I then auditioned over zoom with him and co-writer Simon Gleeson over the next few days, basically workshopping ideas and thankfully the role ended up being mine!Cut to about a year later when I first saw a digital ape standing in my place and I was blown away. It was actually quite an emotional moment. I think part of me always worried that Id just be used as a reference and my performance would get lost in the wonderment of it all, but seeing myself in that chimp my expressions, ad-libs etc, and then combining that with such artistry from Wt, it was very special.b&a: Luke, what was the Weta FX footprint for capturing Jonno on set? In terms of cameras, mocap gear, other measurements/survey etc?Luke Millar: VFX had, by some margin, the largest department on set! We had a VFX team of 6 for capturing LIDAR, set reference, wrangler notes and HDRIs. Five witness camera operators, three Pas, and then a team of eight purely to manage the mocap work. I would shoot GoPro videos from tech scouts and then brief the team on the scenes so that they could rig sets/locations the day before to ensure we had full coverage of the space. The system has a 3mx3m scaling volume and then around 4-5 carts that we would have to come everywhere with us! Its funny because all we are doing is collecting data at that point. By the time shooting wrapped, everyone was celebrating finishing the show and we were only just starting!b&a: Jonno, what was your prep process like for this? Can you break down how you got into a Robbie mindset in terms of consulting reference and then actual conversations with Robbie and Michael?Jonno Davies: I was brought on really last minute, I think I landed in Melbourne about 8 days before we started shooting, so you can imagine that week was crazy: from rehearsals to choreography, as well as tech prep with Wt FX like facial scans etc.Theres an acting technique I use for a lot of my work called Laban, its a brilliant way to explore how a persons character influences how they move and vice-versa, so I started from there and then added Robs idiosyncrasies.I think I kept YouTube afloat during that time, just cramming in as many of Robs performances and interviews as I could, studying how his voice (his accent and pitch really shifted between 15-30), his physicality and energy changed over time. But it was really important for me to see what hes like when the cameras arent rolling, and luckily Rob was really giving with his time and allowed me to see that difference between Robert the human and Robbie the popstar. b&a: Can you both talk about the Regent Street Rock DJ sequence? The energy in that sequence is just amazingwhat was that experience like with such a long rehearsal time, and also limited time each night for the shoot? Jonno Davies: Absolutely wild. What I loved about Rock DJ was that it was one of the rare musical numbers where Robbie isnt plagued by his demons, so I was allowed to really enjoy myself and properly soak in the spectacle of what we were collectively trying to achieve.As you say, there was a limited time each night, plus its not like we could just add another day at the end of the shoot if we didnt have everything we needed. Thats why rehearsals were so extensive, the muscle-memory needed to be second nature by the time we reached set, and thats not just for main cast and dancers, it includes the camera department too, they had their own choreo to stick to.That sort of militant prep really instilled a confidence in us though and allowed us to let rip on for every take.Luke Millar: So much prep went into Rock DJ! We previsd, techvisd, shootvisd, re-techvisd and then rehearsed. By the time we were on that street, I have never felt more ready but you never know what will happen. We wanted as few wipes as possible and never an obvious extra walking closely past camera, so that required many takes to get things as tight as possible. The tricky thing was we had to shoot it in order as we need to join onto the the previous nights work. The downside to a oner is, if we didnt manage to nail one piece then none of it would work! Having an onset editor was essential as we could capture takes live and cut them over the previs to ensure that our timing and camera work was spot on. That said, we still had to use pieces from 36 plates to stitch the whole thing together! If anyone is contemplating trying to shoot a musical number with 5 synchronized mobility scooters, DONT! They are the most temperamental things ever!b&a: The concert and dance moments are incredible, but I also love more intimate scenes, such as Robbies time with Nan. Can you both discuss how making these types of moment differed from the much larger ones?Jonno Davies: Yeah, these moments are so important, theyre what make the ape feel innately human. Plus its those sort of cherished relationships that people can relate to. We had a lot more stillness in these type of scenes and when you pair that with the fact theres no microphone or grand performance to hide behind, it suddenly becomes very vulnerable and exposed. Thats when Michael and the camera get properly up-close to Rob, and you can really appreciate not just the fragility of whats going on his mind, but also the incredibly nuanced work of what the artists at Wt FX have achieved.Luke Millar: I was always acutely aware of the intimacy and sensitivity behind some of the scenes and so for me, my biggest concern was whether any of our gear would affect those moments. Jonno wore a dual mounted face cam and helmet but if he needed to get close, it would be in the way. Robbie is the only digital character in the shot so we couldnt compromise any other performance in the frame. This meant a lot more work from the animation team to replicate the subtlety and nuance in Jonnos performance, however once it clicks into place everything works. b&a: Jonno, do you have any specific advice youd give Luke about his own motion capture appearances in the film, i.e. things he did well or could even do better ?Jonno Davies: If this all goes tits up, Luke would make an excellent bus driver. I feel like he really committed to the character.b&a: What was the hardest scene for both of you to perform and execute?Jonno Davies: Probably Land of a Thousand Dances, which is the montage sequence that follows Robbies meteoric rise to solo stardom. Theres a specific section where we show a duet that he did with Tom Jones at the Brit Awards and Ashley Wallen (choreographer) wanted us to go like-for-like with the movement. You can tell that Rob was absolutely wired during this performance, so I obviously had to recreate that take after take.I remember this very specific moment during that shoot when the dynamics shifted: I went from this adrenal glee of entertaining our hundreds of extras, feasting off the buzz of the crowd, to suddenly hitting around take 15 and realising that the adrenaline was wearing off, and was running on fumes knowing we have probably another 15 angles to shoot. It brought a sort of fight-or-flight sensation and gave me a greater understanding and respect for what Rob went through back then.Luke Millar: Definitely Shes The One. Close interaction with Robbie is by far the hardest work and the dance in Shes The One is nothing but close interaction! Robbie has longer arms than a human and so all of those contact points have to be reworked to fit. We need accurate 3D representation of Nicole so that when she touches Robbie, his hair and clothing move in sync with the plate and there is no other way to do this but a lot of back and forth between Animation and Simulation.We also had some complex match cuts and transitions which needed massaging together as well as some insanely fluid camera moves that required parts of the boat set removing and then replaced with digital versions in post. It was also our only real bluescreen scene in the film too, so we had to extend the boat, create a digital environment and then blend that into a cyclorama that I shot on the Cte dAzur. Even the neighboring boats have CG dancing New Years partygoers on them! The amount of detail is really incredible.The post Mocap actor and VFX supervisor: the Better Man Q&A appeared first on befores & afters.

Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, has tapped about 30 leading researchers and engineers from competitors such as OpenAI, Meta and Mistral, it said in a blog post on Tuesday.The team roughly two-thirds of which comprises former OpenAI employees includes Barret Zoph, a prominent researcher who left the ChatGPT maker on the same day as Murati in late September. Zoph will serve as the startups technology chief.OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is the startups chief scientist. Schulman left OpenAI for rival Anthropic in August, citing wanting to focus on AI alignment.AI alignment refers to a process of encoding human values into AI models to make them safer and more reliable a key focus for Muratis startup.Murati is among a growing list of former OpenAI executives, who are responsible for the launch of startups such as Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence. She is raising funds from venture capitalists for her new artificial intelligence startup, Reuters had reported in October.While current systems excel at programming and mathematics, were building AI that can adapt to the full spectrum of human expertise and enable a broader spectrum of applications, the startup said.The company plans to enable external research on alignment by sharing code, datasets, and model specifications, it said.After Murati joined OpenAI in June 2018, she frequently appeared alongside CEO Sam Altman as the public face of the ChatGPT maker.Her abrupt resignation had marked another high-profile exit from the company as it undergoes major governance structure changes.Prior to OpenAI, she had worked at augmented reality startup Leap Motion and Tesla.Krystal Hu and Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters