The creative industries film, VFX, animation, games, advertising are a thrilling rollercoaster. One minute youre soaring high, riding the wave of a successful project or a booming market. The next, youre plummeting into the unknown, facing unexpected client changes, budget cuts, or industry-wide disruptions.The Fundamental Challenge: Navigating Constant ChangeCreative businesses (and their projects) rarely progress according to a single linear plan. When a key client pushes their timeline, when a critical team member becomes unavailable, or when scope expands mid-project, the ripple effects cascade across your entire operation.Unfortunately, most project planning tools do not address the key hypotheticals that drive your business decisions every day. They force you to either maintain multiple separate plans or make changes that overwrite your original assumptions, leaving you without a clear picture of alternatives or their implications. What creative businesses need isnt just project planning its the ability to model multiple scenarios as conditions inevitably change.What is Scenario Planning?Scenario planning is about creating what-if scenarios to explore different possible futures. Its about testing ideas, analyzing potential outcomes, and making informed decisions based on data, not guesswork.The Old Way: Spreadsheets and StressFor decades, creative studios have relied on spreadsheets for their planning. These trusty tools, while familiar, are often a source of stress and inaccuracy. Data entry errors, outdated information, and complex formulas that break under pressure its a recipe for sleepless nights and risky decisions based on hunches rather than actual data.The New Way: Scenario Planning with ProjectalNow imagine a world where you could confidently navigate the ups and downs, predict potential pitfalls, and seize new opportunities with clarity. Thats the power of scenario planning, and Projectal is a tool that makes that a reality for creative businesses.Why is Scenario Planning Crucial for Creative Businesses?Visibility:Get a real-time, accurate picture of your studios current state projects, departments, budgets, and staff.Agility:Respond quickly to client changes, market fluctuations, and unexpected challenges.Confidence:Make informed decisions with data-driven insights, reducing stress and anxiety.Collaboration:Bring your team together to contribute to strategic planning and build consensus.Innovation:Explore new markets, test new business models, and stay ahead of the competition.Change is the only constant in VFX production, making scenario planning essential for success,saysImke Fehrmann, Global Head of Production at RISE Visual Effects Studios.Projects evolve rapidly based on client needs and creative direction, so we must be nimble and prepared with adaptable scenarios that can be implemented quickly. Projectals new scenario planning features will be a game-changer in ensuring we efficiently manage resources and schedules in our upcoming VFX projects.How Projectal Solves the Scenario Planning PuzzleProjectal isnt just another project and resource management tool; its a strategic planning platform designed specifically for the complexities of creative businesses. Heres how it empowers you:Sandboxes:Create private workspaces for scenarios that test different ideas without affecting your live data.Comprehensive Data:Model scenarios with all your critical data companies, locations, staff, projects, budgets, schedules, and more.Real-time Insights:See the impact of your decisions instantly, with dynamic reports and visualizations.Collaboration Tools:Share scenarios with your team, gather feedback, and make collaborative decisions.Time Machine:Capture a moment in time, allowing you to compare scenarios and track changes.Tax Rebates:Model the impact of tax rebates on your projects and budgets.Grow Your Business:Easily model new departments, locations, or business models.With extensive experience at leading creative companies such as DNEG, Technicolor, and R/GA,Daniel Jurow, Founder & CEO of Sevoir Groupregularly advises his clients to add scenario planning into their management workflow.By continuously assessing multiple what ifs you will be more aware of the lurking risks as well as the smart opportunities that are lying beyond sight of your teams everyday reporting,he explains.Projectal provides creative businesses with the embedded tools needed to make informed capacity, scheduling, and pricing decisions and stay ahead of the curve. Its a significant improvement over current methods.Real-World Scenarios in Film, VFX, Animation, Games and AdvertisingManaging Client Change Orders:Quickly assess the impact of changes on schedules and budgets, enabling informed negotiations with clients.Bidding on New Projects:Model different staffing and budget scenarios to create competitive and profitable bids.Outsourcing Work:Evaluate the cost-effectiveness and scheduling impact of outsourcing specific tasks.Downsizing:Plan for necessary reductions while minimizing disruption and maintaining project momentum.Opening a New Office:Compare potential locations, analyze staffing needs, and evaluate financial implications.Mergers & Acquisitions:Model the combined entity to assess synergies and identify potential challenges.Performance Reviews:Analyze the impact of salary increases on budgets and project costs.Entering New Markets:Explore new opportunities by modeling different business models and market strategies.Financial Planning:Analyze project profitability to optimize financial outcomes and ensure long-term business sustainability.Paul Schumann, CEO at JanusKS, the developers of Projectal, added Scenario planning is crucial for ensuring the smooth and resilient operation of a creative business. Projectal enables management to anticipate challenges, create contingency plans through what-if modeling, and make data-driven decisions, replacing guesswork and spreadsheets. Projectal is the ideal tool for riding the rollercoaster ride at creative businesses.About RISE | Visual Effects StudiosRISE | Visual Effects Studios was founded in 2007 by Sven Pannicke, Robert Pinnow, Markus Degen and Florian Gellinger in Berlin. The plan was to focus with a small, hand-picked team on German TV and feature film effects but that plan failed. Today, over 260 artists call the award-winning company their creative home in Stuttgart, London, Munich, Cologne and Berlin, making it one of the biggest VFX studios in Europe. RISE has become partner in crime for directors like Tom Tykwer, Lisa Joy, Mike Flanagan, Matthew Vaughn, Guy Ritchie, Gore Verbinski, studios like Marvel (Eternals, Loki, WandaVision, Captain Marvel, ), Warner Bros. (Fantastic Beasts 3, Reminiscence, ), Netflix (Midnight Mass, Stranger Things), Sony Pictures (Uncharted), Studio Canal (Gunpowder Milkshake) and also produces more and more animated features (Richard the Stork, Dragon Rider). Its sister production company RISE PICTURES develops its own original content and co-produces films (Stowaway) and series for an international audience. RISE acts as collaborator for episodic series as well as television and feature film, from early concept to mastering, concept art and previs, every day on set, during effects production and animation, as an advisor for the Digital Intermediate process. Our supervisors are reliable, creative partners for directors, production designers and directors of photography alike from the first to the final step of the way.https://www.risefx.comAbout Sevoir GroupSevoir Group is a management consultancy built specifically for creative businesses, with deep roots in VFX, animation, advertising, design, and creative technology. The firms mission is to help studios, agencies and technology innovators achieve operational strength and sustained profitability without compromising what makes them special. Sevoir Group has decades of combined experience leading through industry disruption, technological shifts, and growth challenges, and combines state-of-the-art insights and methods with practical implementations suited to the unique dynamics of visual storytelling businesses.https://www.sevoirgroup.comAbout ProjectalProjectal is the leading project management and workflow platform for creative businesses. Leveraging AI and machine learning, Projectal streamlines departments, locations, staff, and projects, eliminating the need for spreadsheets, off-the-shelf tools, and manual steps.Projectal enhances how studios bid, budget, plan, schedule, track, and report on projects, ensuring the entire team works from the same real-time data. Scenario planning features allow in-depth what-if analysis to help deliver projects on time and within budget.Projectal is used by top creative businesses worldwide, including advertising agencies, animation companies, event and entertainment firms, game developers, sound studios, VFX studios, and virtual production teams. Projectal integrates seamlessly with tools like Shotgrid, ftrack, Kitsu, HR tools, and finance tools. Comprehensive developer APIs and documentation are available to connect and extend Projectal, fitting perfectly into any studios workflow.https://projectal.comBrought to you by Projectal:This article is part of the befores & afters VFX Insight series. If youd like to promote your VFX/animation/CG tech or service, you can find out more about the VFX Insight series here.The post Riding the Rollercoaster: How Scenario Planning Keeps Creative Businesses on Track appeared first on befores & afters.

As part of the Trump administrations continued efforts to attack renewable energy and bolster the fossil fuel industry, officials are considering using emergency powers to bring retired coal plants back online and prevent others from shutting down. But doing so would raise electricity prices for Americans, come with disastrous environmental impacts for the world, and only benefit coal companies.While at CERAWeek, an energy conference by S&P Global, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgim told Bloomberg Television about the potential coal resurgence. Under the national energy emergency, which President Trump has declared, weve got to keep every coal plant open, he said. And if there had been units at a coal plant that have been shut down, we need to bring those back.Coals dominance has been declining in the U.S. for years. It currently supplies just 16% of the countrys power, down from just over 51% in 2000. And since 2000, about 780 U.S. coal-fired units across the country have come offline; more than 120 coal plants are expected to shutter here within the next five years.Bringing those coal plants back is an incredibly dumb idea, says Peter Gleick, a climate scientist with a background in energy systems and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Its dangerous. Its expensive. Its impractical.The logistics alone of bringing retired coal plants online would be difficult. Its not like turning on and off a lightbulb, he says. Many plants have been entirely decommissioned, and some have even been repurposed into renewable energy and storage projects. Bringing back the equipment to allow them to burn coalor updating outdated infrastructurewould be expensive and time consuming. In the last five years, most of the U.S. coal plants that closed were, on average, 50 years old; globally, coal plants have retired at an average age of 37 years, says Christine Shearer, an analyst at Global Energy Monitor.Those coal plants were also retired for economic reasons; its more expensive, Gleick says, for a utility company to run a coal plant than to build renewables or operate natural gas plants. A 2019 analysis found that about three-quarters of U.S. coal plants would save money by switching to wind or solar. A 2023 analysis upped that figure to 99% of coal plants. That means utilities likely wouldnt want retired coal plants to come back online. Any attempt to do this will raise electricity prices for everyone, he adds.Coal producers themselves would profit from more coal, of course, and some utility companies have actually delayed coal plant retirements because of concerns around grid stabilitybut the cost of keeping those zombie coal plants open ends up falling on consumers. One Maryland coal plant set to close in 2025 will now be kept open until 2029, a move that could cost residents up to $250 million per year through higher energy bills. Then theres the environmental and health impacts. Burning coal is linked to air pollution that contains toxins and heavy metals, and can cause asthma, brain damage, heart problems, cancer, and even premature death. Bringing back retired coal plants would have a direct environmental and health impact on the local communities around such plants. When four Kentucky coal plants were either retired or retrofitted with emissions controls, one study found, local asthma-related hospitalizations plummeted.Coal plants have also primarily been located in low-income communities, as well as communities of color. But bringing back coal would do more than just damage people in the U.S. The environmental costs would be borne by the entire globe. Coal is by far the worst offender at releasing damaging, polluting greenhouse gasses, Gleick says. Environmental experts say the world needs to completely phase out coal power by 2040 in order to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals.Some places have already completely retired their coal power plants. In September 2024, the United Kingdomthe first country to build a coal power plantbecame the first major economy to completely stop using coal to make electricity when its last coal power plant shut down. Even India and China, which both still burn immense amounts of coal, are trying to transition away from that energy source, because of both the economic and environmental costs.For us to go in the other direction is just lunacy, Gleick says. Its not coal specifically that Americans want, he notes; its energy broadly, and there are far more cheaper, faster ways to produce energylike through solar and wind. If we are in an energy emergency then we should roll back the recent pauses on wind and solar permitting, not try to bring back old coal plants already a decade past their lifetime,on the backs of Americanratepayers, Shearer says. Solar specifically is the cheapest source of electricity, the International Energy Agency says, and also the fastest energy source to deploy. (Besides finding new sources of energy, we could also work to increase how energy efficient our systems and tools are, Gleick says, which is even less expensive to do.)No country that has reduced its dependence on coal would voluntarily go back to that energy source, Gleick adds. The only people who want more coal to be burned are fossil fuel company executives. No one else wants this, he says. Bringing coal back to the U.S. is not making America great again.

In summer 2022, when artificial intelligence-based text-to-image generation tools hit the mainstream, architects were cautiously excited. The ease of generating real-ish images of design concepts and buildings with just a few simple sentences was irresistible, and many architects began experimenting with ways of letting AI quickly do some of the sketching and ideating theyd gotten used to spending hours or days laboring over. Its almost like youre speaking a building into existence, one architect said.But now, with AI maturing and getting integrated into tools and industries far and wide, a surprisingly low number of architects are actually using AI in their work.Architects are slow to adopt AIOnly 6% of architects report regularly using AI for their jobs, and only 8% of architecture firms have implemented AI solutions, according to a new report from the American Institute of Architects. Based on a survey of 541 members of the architecture profession, the report shows an industry-wide shyness around AI adoption, with many unsure what AI can do for them, and a large percentage39%downright uninterested in finding out.Some architects are making AI a part of the way they practice, though, and the report shows strong interest in using AI more, particularly among architects younger than 50. The report finds that while only 8% of firms are actively using AI on a day-to-day basis, 20% are currently working on implementing AI solutions. More than half of architects have at least experimented with AI tools, and three-quarters are optimistic about AI automating some tasks.The reality is that there are a lot of industries that are still figuring this out, says Evelyn Lee, president of the AIA. I do think that architects, when it comes to new technology implementation, we do tend to lag a little bit.But theres big opportunityLee, who has a tech background, says architects can do more with AI than just generate quick imagery. Other use cases include marketing, project management, and construction document creation.According to the report, image-based content production is still the main way architecture firms use AI, but Lee suggests that the tech may be more useful for the operational side of the business, where it could resolve simple tasks, like eliminating the need for manual time sheets, as well as more labor-intensive jobs, like maintaining and updating building material libraries.Theres a really big opportunity there for AI to illuminate the library and the wealth of materials available right now, she says. So much of what we learn about new materials is from the individual manufacturers rep showing up and saying Here is the latest ceiling tile.That could help architects improve the way their projects are designed, lower their costs, and even reduce their environmental footprint by finding new sustainable materials to integrate into their projects.AI tools could speed up product deliveryThe biggest opportunity ultimately is on the product delivery side, Lee says. As AI begins to be more fully integrated into the software that architects use to design their projects, it can speed up the process of turning design concepts into detailed plans and eventually into the construction documents used to get projects built.That could open the door for smaller architecture firms to be more competitive. There are more than 19,000 architecture firms in the U.S., and almost three-quarters of them have fewer than 10 employees, according to another recent AIA report. The software will allow them to do more, quicker, better, Lee says. Thats a huge opportunity for AI to be leveraged to democratize the design delivery process.

The growing number of air purifier designs in the market points to a trend where homeowners are starting to be more conscious of the quality of the air they breathe indoors. No longer as safe or as clean as presumed, these appliances try to offer some peace of mind but sometimes at the cost of sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of your room. Some are thankfully becoming more discreet and aesthetic, but theyre often still large and meant to stand along walls or in corners.Depending on their actual range, these air purifiers might be too far away from where you spend most of your time every day: at your desk. To remedy this, ASUS is introducing three computer monitors that use ionizers to keep the air around you free of allergens, dust, and harmful particles, allowing you to work and play in peace, knowing that youre breathing clean air all the time.Designer:https://press.asus.com/news/press-releases/asus-vu-air-ionizer-monitors/ ASUSThere is still some debate on its effectiveness, but air-ionizing technology is one of the go-to solutions for cleaning the surrounding air. In a nutshell, it ionizes or electrically charges air particles which then attach to and neutralize particulate matter that are considered to be dangerous to peoples health. An advantage of this design over regular air purifiers is that they usually dont require the use of filters, so you have nothing to clean or replace in the process.The ASUS line of VU Air Ionizer Monitors uses this principle and technology to design a monitor that is just as slim and stylish as any other computer monitor in the market. Unlike those, however, it has the special ability of being able to reduce around 90% of airborne dust in just three hours, at least according to ASUS promises. The best part is that it can do all these even while youre working or playing on your desk, so you dont have to change your workflow or your lifestyle to enjoy clean, breathable air.The monitors come in 23.8-inch, 27-inch, and 32-inch models, the last one being a curved widescreen. On paper, theyre actually pretty decent for everyday tasks but might fall short of what creators and gamers need. The 100Hz refresh rate, for example, still hits above the usual 60Hz but is still below ideal 120Hz or 144Hz. Theres no HDR support either, either, so the color gamut is a little narrow for professional graphics and video work. Nonetheless, in most home offices or maybe even small businesses, the health benefits of such monitors outweigh their technical limitations, allowing users to live healthier lives during the time they spend on their desks.The post ASUS air ionizing monitors promise clean and healthy air while you work first appeared on Yanko Design.

Thanks to the popularity of retro products like record players, instant cameras have also been experiencing a renaissance. There are now quite a few designs from different camera makers, but Polaroid is still the brand whose name became synonymous with this type of camera. As if to prove that its still in the game, the company just announced its latest pair of instant cameras that put the emphasis back on the simple joys of taking photos and immediately sharing them with others.The 3rd-gen Polaroid Now and Now+ instant cameras offer modern conveniences like improved performance, a new two-lens autofocus system, and USB-C charging. At the same time, however, it mostly manages to keep the design just as simple as the iconic instant camera, avoiding the temptations of overloading the product with digital conveniences common in its peers. What you get is a camera thats not only simple to use but better immerses you in the fleeting moment, making every press of the shutter count.Designer:https://press.polaroid.com/246847-introducing-polaroid-now-now-generation-3 PolaroidThere is a certain charm to the ephemeral nature of instant cameras. Unlike film cameras that have negatives you can reprint over and over again, the original instant camera concept produces one and only one print for every photo you take, making each a rare and valuable item. Part of that character has been erased on modern instant cameras which are pretty much like portable photo printers. You can, after all, just print photos taken by your smartphone without taking a single shot from the camera itself.The new Polaroid Now and Now+ Generation 3 manages to preserve the old-school experience without compromising on the image quality that todays discerning users demand. Upgrades to the imaging hardware allow these cameras to take even sharper photos, especially with a new twin-lens autofocus system that chooses the right lens for your shot. It pulls all these off without having to resort to complicated apps or internal storage, which makes each photo taken a timeless and one-of-a-kind object.The Polaroid Now+ Generation 3 does add smartphone connectivity, but not for apps or adding stickers and filters. It simply lets you remotely control the camera or set modes that tweak the camera settings, some of which are only available from the app. You still wont see a preview of the shot on your phone, and the only way to get a digital copy of the photo is to scan it after printing. As for filters, you also do that the manual way with special colored glasses you can mount on the lens.The third-gen Polaroid Now cameras also preserve the iconic design of their ancestors, with photos coming out of the bottom rather than the top-printing designs of modern instant cameras. Yes, that design is a little chunky and clearly retro, but it also makes it look more fun to use, almost like an old Fisher Price or View-Master toy. It helps make each moment and each photo taken more special, putting the focus on the experience rather than the printed product only.The post Polaroid Now Generation 3 Instant Cameras Prove that the Classics Never Die first appeared on Yanko Design.

All the files, resources and videos to accompany issue 251 of ImagineFX magazine.

See whats inside the new edition of ImagineFX on sale now!

From video game developers to a nuclear power plant, companies across China are adopting DeepSeeks AI models to boost stock prices and flaunt their national pride.

With his magnificent underwater images, Gerardo del Villar wants to rehabilitate the reputation of the ocean's great predators, inspire conservation, and encourage responsible ecotourism.

Microsoft has ridden its multibillion-dollar investments in generative AI (genAI) to become the worlds second-most valuable company, witha valuation of roughly $3 trillion, depending on the days stock price.This year, it plans toinvest $80 billionon data center costs alone, and that doesnt count how much its spending to build its in-house AI team.At some point, though, Microsoft needs to start getting serious revenue from its genAI investments. Its been almost three years since Microsoft-funded OpenAI released ChatGPT, on which Microsofts Copilot AI line is based, and more than 14 months since Microsoft 365 Copilot made its debut.The time for getting serious is now.Thats easier said than done. Enterprises that use Microsoft 365 have been balking at paying $30 a month per seatfor Copilot in addition to the basic Microsoft 365 fee the $30 add-on can double the price companies pay for the office suite.A research note from Morgan Stanley,reported by Business Insider, gives one example of why theyre reluctant. It details why the CIO of a pharmaceutical company canceled his enterprises use of Microsoft 365 Copilot after only six months. He complained presentations created in PowerPoint by Copilot were like middle school presentations, called Copilots Word features marginally useful at best, and said it wasnt particularly useful for Excel.The price is double the cost of Microsoft 365, he told Morgan Stanley. And we really just do not see the value were getting out of those tools worth double.Microsoft has been at work trying to beef up Copilot so that enterprises and consumers will see real value and be willing to pay for it. Thats all to the good. But the company is doing something else: squeezing its customers to get them to subscribe, but not adding any additional value.Heres how Microsoft is doing it.Disabling useful Microsoft 365 app features to get businesses to buy CopilotIn January, Microsoft quietly killed two very useful features in its Microsoft 365 apps. One is a Word feature called Researcher, which performs powerful, targeted searches of scientific and academic journals, and embeds properly formatted citations directly into documents. The second is Smart Lookup, which lets you easily do highly targeted online searches from within Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; just highlight a phrase or a word, and it does the searching for you.In the past Ive highlighted both features as among the best in Word inComputerworlds Word for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet. But as I was updating the article recently, I couldnt find either feature. So I did a little digging and found out that Microsoft killed them, because the company claims Copilot duplicates those capabilities and theyre no longer needed.Thats not true. First off, if youre a business or educational customer, you have to pay $30 per user per month for Copilot for researching capabilities that used to be baked into Microsoft 365. Beyond that, Copilot is inferior to both Smart Lookup and Researcher. Copilot doesnt confine itself to using the vetted, high-quality journals Researcher uses; instead, it does a garden-variety web search. It also wont embed properly formatted citations into Word. As for Smart Lookup, its more difficult to perform a search with Copilot than with the original tool. With Copilot you cant highlight words or phrases in a document and have a web search automatically done.Theres also a much bigger problem: Copilot still has a tendency to hallucinate, which is a fancy way of saying it makes things up that simply arent true. Researcher and Smart Lookup use vetted, reliable sources and dont hallucinate. Since you cant trust Copilot not to hallucinate, youve got to do extra work checking its facts and even then you might not be able to spot its hallucinations.Forcing customers to buy Copilot when they buy Microsoft 365Microsoft has taken an even more direct way of getting people to buy Microsoft 365 Copilot bundling the genAI tech into the suite and charging an additional fee for it, whether people want Copilot or not. In January, Microsoftbundled Copilot into the consumer version of Microsoft 365 and increased prices by $3 per month or $30 per year. It was the first time Microsoft had increased prices on the consumer line since it introduced the subscription versions of Office 12 years ago.The companyhyped the inclusion of Copilot into the consumer line in a blog post. However, the post neglected to mention that consumers were going to have to pay for it.The move will bring the company significant new revenue. Microsoft said it had 84.4 million subscribers to the consumer version of Microsoft 365 as of the quarter ending in September 2024. That means the move could bring in more than $2.5 billion in additional revenue a year.Microsoft isnt bundling Copilot with the enterprise version and increasing the price of it, at least not yet. But dont be surprised if the company eventually takes that tack.The upshotTreating your customers this way might be good for short-term revenue boost. But in the long term, its not the right way to run a business. Taking away useful features to get people to buy an add-in they dont want and that isnt as good as the old features wont endear Microsoft to its customers. Neither will charging an additional bundling fee for a product they dont want to buy.Far better would be to create a powerful genAI tool that people would be willing to pay extra for. Im hoping thats what Microsoft will eventually do.