Looking Glass has announced its holographic displays now support iOS via Unity integration. The update allows creators to power and run real-time applications and 3D media using only an iPhone or iPad.The latest generation of iPhones and iPads can now power 3D multiview displays, such as the Looking Glass 6" Go and Looking Glass 16". The development supports Unity-built applications that benefit from 3D visualization, enabling seamless integration into applications built for the Apple ecosystem.We are at an exciting crossroads where mobile technology meets 3D display, said Rob Kodadek, COO of Looking Glass. With iOS support, creators and app developers now have a new way to bring media and interactive applications to life and share them in 3D, with a drastic reduction in gear.Several Looking Glass iOS projects are currently in development, including a Looking Glass holographic video player and an external avatar project from the company Gugenka.Looking Glasss holographic video player will allow iPhone 15 or newer users to transform their cinematic videos into holographic media that can be displayed in 3D on the new Looking Glass Go and Looking Glass 16 display. Videos can then be shared with others. A beta version of this application as well as the updated Unity plugin with iOS development capabilities will be released in January 2025.Gugenkas HoloModels is the first third-party app to integrate with Looking Glass displays, starting with the 6" Looking Glass Go. iOS users can now connect their devices to bring their 3D avatars to life on an external Looking Glass display.Looking Glass will showcase all current and soon-to-be-released products and applications at CES 2025.Check out the holographic display showcase:Source: Looking Glass Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

In a series of videos, the London based production studios directing duo Jonny & Will stage a dinner party for brand ambassadors Kelvin Harrison Jr, Maya Hawke, KARINA, Louis Partridge and some special guests.

Under a groundbreaking new partnership between Los Angeles Television Academy and New Yorks National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), qualifications for membership in their shared peer groups (Childrens Animation, Childrens Live Action, Daytime, and Documentary) will now be identical, granting automatic enrollment to both organizations, according to Variety. The qualifications cover both incoming and preexisting members for both academies.The move is part of NATAS initiative to recruit national members for the first time after a new board of directors appointment this year. The organizations new peer groups are created to mirror the Emmy categories Childrens Animation, Childrens Live Action, Daytime, and Documentary.We share a common goal of ensuring that the Emmy remains our industrys gold standard, said NATAS executive committee chairperson Terry OReilly. While our respective academies recognize different genres of work, we believe that bringing our memberships together in this way will allow us to better recognize the breadth of television professionals working today, and to open doors to even more emerging artists who seek to join their peers and predecessors in the art of compelling storytelling.The Television Academys Board of Governors enthusiastically embraced the creation of dual/national membership, commented TV Academy chair Cris Abrego. This shift enhances the membership experience for Television Academy members whose work is recognized in the NATAS administered Daytime Emmys and Childrens and Family Emmys, and unifies members from both academies who are committed to advancing excellence in documentary programming and promoting the technical and scientific evolution of our field.Although both academies have harbored a rivalry over award jurisdiction spanning nearly 50 years, they have recently begun to heal the rift as they realign Emmy ceremony award categories.Pre-registration for the newly minted peer groups opens this month, with NATAS national membership set to launch in 2025. Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Autodesk Universitys annual Autodesk Design & Make Platform conference in San Diego boasted plenty of new tech and software updates for animators, modelers and other digital artists and technologists to get excited about. From the buildings we live in to the products we use and the movies that inspire us, Autodesk has always been at the forefront of infrastructure and creativity for entertainment as well as the economy.While the conference hosted in-person and virtual panel sessions focused on preserving history with VR, the future of manufacturing and the frontier of film, TV and design, their Media & Entertainment Industry Keynote invited head of characters for Mikros Animations Mutant Mayhem Gespard Roch, Wonder Studio co-founder Nikola Todorovic, Digital Fish CEO Dan Herman, and others to discuss new creative solutions to animation work pipelines and how AI can be a valuable asset to a production, rather than an unwanted threat.Leona Frank, director of Media & Entertainment marketing at Autodesk, opened the hour-long panel with how story, more than any technology, is pivotal in making sure any project is successful. In her words, Storytelling is the uniquely human aspect that each of us brings to our work. It will never be replaced by any technology. But we use technology to help us release the stories from our imagination into the world. Productions like Inside Out 2 and Shgun are raising the bar. It's quality over quantity. It's visual effects that let the story take center stage. Today, we'll share with you how Autodesk is meeting the moment. We're lowering the barriers to good storytelling. For modelers, the storytellers behind the scenes responsible for defining each narrative and making them memorable, Autodesk has rolled out significant performance updates in 3ds Max.The Boolean Modifier, which combines objects into a single mesh, is now 50 percent faster, and the expansive Array Modifier, which lets you create arrays using multiple distribution methods, is now 200% faster.So, no matter if you're crafting the busy streets of the cyberpunk city or the desert landscape of your next big racing game, you can achieve more in less time, says Frank. And our efficiency updates arent just for modelers. For all the motion graphics or visualization artists out there, we've added support for SVG files in 3ds Max. This means no more manual, time consuming conversion of vector graphics. Now, if you're importing designs, like a logo or 2D illustrations, they'll be ready for use in your scene the second they're loaded, freeing you up on valuable time.Autodesk also continues to invest in open standards like OpenUSD by integrating them across their tools so you can collaborate and manage productions more easily. Universal Scene Description (commonly referred to as OpenUSD), is the most robust open-source software for data interchange within 3D scenes. This highly collaborative system can contain many different asset sources and is becoming the standard for 3D visual media production, architecture, design, manufacturing (US site) and other industries. With the latest update, users can now use USD cameras in the 3ds Max viewport box, select and edit prints in the USD Explorer and manage USD data with new controllers. One of the features of 3ds Max that makes it so popular with creatives is the flexible plugin architecture that allows users to create their own customizations and share them with the rest of the community. One example Frank referenced is tyFlows tyDiffusion, which brings Stable Diffusion right inside 3ds Max so different moods and artistic styles can be explored and then applied directly to 3D objects. It can be used to generate AI images and animations using a variety of ControlNets, LoRAs, prompt styles and other techniques, right in the viewport.Eloi Andaluz Fulla, a professional VFX artist, has been a beta tester for this tech and recently shared his experiences using not only tyFlow, but also the new 3ds Max update, Max 2025.3. The update includes bug fixes and the introduction to OpenPBR, the new material standard developed between Autodesk and Adobe, that will, in Fullas opinion, help compatibility between all Autodesk and Adobe software, making it easier to move materials around looking exactly the same.For animators using Maya, Frank announced Autodesks redesigned Dope Sheet in Maya, complementing the Graph Editor by letting animators make large scale timing adjustments to scenes. The hope is this, in turn, makes refining those moments faster and more intuitive. And Position Mode lets users post characters in just a few clicks while Channel Sets brings customizable color palettes and visual indicators to help you organize animation changes more easily.We know that animation is all in the details and that subtle change in a character's expression, like a slight eyebrow raise, can convey 1,000 words, says Frank. So, we are introducing powerful features to help elevate your craft and save time along the way. And yes, its dope. Another time saving improvement is Maya's advanced Motion Trails, which now support moving cameras and include new draw styles to visualize things, like velocity, in a scene. These Motion Trails are also now up to 100 times faster.The French studio Mikros Animation, known for the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and Paw Patrol film series, is using Autodesk Maya across their character pipeline, especially in character modeling, grooming and rigging.It's a software that is simple to use and very customizable, shares Mikros Animations Gespar Roch. It actually allows us to have that creativity in our films and with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, we were easily able to create set animation to create those lines, to create hand drawn lines, and then lines that were projected in the CG space. Maya allowed us to really go beyond what we've done before, to actually create diverse projects and unleash our creativity through all the different creative styles that we have in our studio.For productions with teams spread across various time zones, that's where Autodesks production management tools come in. With efficient collaboration at the center of its inspiration, Flow Production Tracking is designed to help dispersed teams effectively track projects and optimize resources. And Flow Generative Scheduling, powered by Autodesk AI and connected with Flow Production Tracking, teams can automate the creation of different scheduling scenarios and explore how they impact production.It lets you make critical decisions in minutes, notes Frank. Where Flow Production Tracking connects production and creative teams in post, Flow Capture bridges the gap between production and post production, helping teams review footage seconds after capture and allowing them to get feedback from stakeholders during production.This year, we reimagined Flow Captures user experience, putting your media assets right where you need them, says Frank. It is now much simpler to find, access and review media all from one central place, and we'll be taking things a step further by building integrations to streamline the editing process. Editors will find a Flow Capture panel directly in Avid, making importing dailies faster. No more dealing with servers or hard drives slowing you down. With a simple drag and drop, you'll be able to bring footage into Avid and easily pull cuts and timelines back into Flow Capture. This is something many of you have been asking for, so we are so excited to be bringing it to you soon.Earlier this year, Autodesk acquired PIX, a leading collaboration and asset sharing service, and the partnership has already garnered a first integration with Flow Capture.At its heart, Flow is a data model, one that can represent all of your data and in a consistent way so that can be shared throughout the entire production process, from onset to editorial to post, and all between applications, whether they are Autodesks or from third parties, says Maurice Patel, VP of M&E Strategy at Autodesk. On top of that data model is an asset management system, one that keeps track of your data, no matter where it is or who is using it. Now, as productions get bigger and more complex, it becomes harder for one part of the production to know what the other part is doing.Connecting different teams and artists from around the world is becoming a more mainstream part of production. Enter Animating in Context, a new Flow capability coming to Maya. Today, when animating in Maya, you can only see the shot you're working on, says Patel. Wouldn't it be great if you could actually see what was happening before and after the shot you were working on and had more context? By connecting data from Avid to Maya using Flow, with Flow Production Tracking as the go-between, Maya users will see a timeline with the shots occurring before and after the one they are working on. With this context, you can better fine tune your animation and keep it in sync with the surrounding shots. This will help avoid continuity errors in the scene. By helping artists better understand the editor's creative intent, we make it easier for them to deliver higher quality content.Providing more context isnt just important for animators, its also vital for live-action filmmakers and VFX artists. Digital Fish, an innovative technology company focused on digital media and building immersive content for companies like Pixar, Disney, LEGP and NASA, is working on bringing previsualization and vision OS on top of the Flow graph right into the hands of the director.With a laser scanner in their hands, GPS, spatial video and an augmented reality lens, we wanted to see what we could do with the device in your hand and the power of the cloud, says Digital Fishs Herman. What they ended up with was On Site, a service for streamlined VFX production that connects AR capable mobile devices with Flow, enabling live-action virtual production in the field with minimal infrastructure. Filmmakers can simulate what a scene will look like and make adjustments as they film.It offers to all content creators the high end VFX simulation and compute capabilities previously available only to the larger studios, says Herman, who says it took five months to develop the tech, now ready to use. Patel adds, There's so much to be excited about, whether it's connecting workflows or teams or building new capabilities. Flow will enhance your pipeline, making production more efficient and more collaborative. Our goal is to make your life just a little bit, if not a lot easier by empowering you as storytellers.Another technology that will do just that is AI.Wonder Dynamics (an Autodesk company) just recently announced the beta launch of Wonder Animation, which is powered by Video to 3D Scene technology that enables artists to shoot a scene with any camera, in any location, and turn the sequence into an animated scene with CG characters in a 3D environment with fully editable elements (animation, character, environment, lighting, and camera tracking data) in their preferred software, such as Maya, Blender or Unreal.Wonder Animation, now available to all Wonder Studio users, aims to bring artists closer to producing fully animated films, while enabling the artist to retain full creative control unlike other generative AI tools that rely on automated outputs.See the demo here: https://youtu.be/xad1ajxln28Its been five months since we joined Autodesk, and the time spent has only reinforced that the foundational Wonder Dynamics vision aligns perfectly with Autodesk's longstanding commitment to advancing the Media & Entertainment industry through innovation, says Wonder Dynamics co-founder Todorovic. Together, we believe in using artificial intelligence (AI) more intentionally to enhance creativity and efficiency, so artists can spend more time on the creative aspects of storytelling. Rachael Appleton, Sr. Director for M&E Business Strategy at Autodesk, adds, The team is about to release a beta showcasing new underlying technology that will show how new models like motion prediction enable entirely new workflows in Wonder Studio. So, stay tuned for more announcements after AU. Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.

ASIFA-Hollywoodhas just released nominations for its52st Annual Annie Awardsrecognizing the years best in the field of animation. This year, the ceremony is scheduled to be held live, in-person on Saturday, February 8, 2025 at UCLAs Royce Hall.The Wild Robot leads all feature nominees with 10 nominations, followed byInside Out 2 and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowlwith seven eachand That Christmaswith six.Arcane leads all TV/episodic nominees with seven.This year, there are 6 nominees in each of the two best feature film category:Inside Out 2 (Pixar Animation Studios), Kung Fu Panda 4 (DreamWorks Animation), That Christmas (Locksmith Animation for Netflix), The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation), Ultraman: Rising (Netflix presents in association with Tsuburaya Productions), and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Aardman and Netflix) lead the pack as nominees for Best Animated FeatureBest Animated Feature-Independent, spotlighting features with a much smaller distribution footprint than major studio releases, includeChicken for Linda! (Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, Palosanto Films, France 3 Cinma, Distributed by GKIDS), Flow (Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well Studio), Kensukes Kingdom (Paramount Pictures), Look Back (Studio Durian Distributed by GKIDS), Mars Express (Everybody on Deck, Je Suis Bien Content Distributed by GKIDS), and Memoir of a Snail (Snails Pace Films / Arenamedia).The Annie Awards cover 36 categories and include Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Feature-Independent, Special Productions, Sponsored Films, Short Subjects, Student Films and Outstanding Individual Achievements, as well as the honorary Juried Awards. Juried Awards will be presented during the ceremony, honoring achievement and exceptional contributions to animation. The Winsor McCay Award in recognition of lifetime or career contributions are being presented to three recipients: Aaron Blaise, Eunice Macaulay, and Normand Roger, The June Foray Award for significant and benevolent or charitable impact will be awarded to Women in Animation.The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement affecting the animation industry will be presented to Alberto Menache. The Special Achievement Award recognizing unique and outstanding achievement not recognized within the existing award category structure will be presented to Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walts Animated Films.ASIFA-Hollywood is the worlds first and foremost professional organization dedicated to promoting the Art of Animation and celebrating the people who create it. Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, the largest chapter of the international organization ASIFA, supports a range of animation activities and preservation efforts through its membership. Current initiatives include the Animation Archive, Animation Aid Foundation, animated film preservation, animation open source support, special events, classes and screenings.Created in 1972 by veteran voice talent June Foray, the Annie Awards have grown in scope and stature for the past four decades. For information regarding the Annie Awards, please visithttps://annieawards.org/.The full list of nominations in all categories is shown below:Best FeatureInside Out 2 - Pixar Animation StudiosKung Fu Panda 4 - DreamWorks AnimationThat Christmas - Locksmith Animation for NetflixThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks AnimationUltraman: Rising - Netflix Presents in association with Tsuburaya ProductionsWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Aardman and NetflixBest Feature-IndependentChicken for Linda! - Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, Palosanto Films, France 3 Cinma, Distributed by GKIDSFlow - Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Dream Well StudioKensukes Kingdom - Paramount PicturesLook Back - Studio Durian Distributed by GKIDSMars Express - Everybody on Deck, Je Suis Bien Content Distributed by GKIDSMemoir of a Snail - Snails Pace Films / ArenamediaBest Special ProductionA Bear Named Wojtek - The Illuminated Film Company and FilmografMogs Christmas - Lupus FilmsOrion and the Dark - DreamWorks AnimationTabby McTat - Magic Light PicturesYuck! - Ikki Films & Iliade et FilmsBest Short SubjectBeautiful Men - Animal Tank, Miyu Productions & Ka-Ching CartoonsIn the Shadow of the Cypress - Barfak Animation StudioRuthless Blade - IDEOMOTOR Culture Media Co., Ltd.The Swineherd - Fleng Entertainment and Tumblehead ProductionsWander to Wonder - Circe Films, Kaap Holland Film, Les Productions de Milou, Beast Animation, Blink Industries & PictanovoBest Sponsoredfeelslikeimfallinginlove - BlinkinkFuzzy Feelings - Passion Pictures Hungry ManMoonlit Bamboo Forest - Passion Paris Production, HoYoFairNatlan Impressions Trailer, Blaze to Natlan - BUCKWelcome to the City of Love - Nexus StudiosBest TV/Media - PreschoolDisney Jr.s Ariel, Episode: Crystal Cavern Caper - Wild Canary, Disney Branded TelevisionGabbys Dollhouse, Episode: Pandys Bad Day - DreamWorks AnimationJessicas Big Little World, Episode: Jessicas Picnic - Cartoon Network StudiosThe Tiny Chef Show, Episode: Tiny Chefs Spooky Stump Spectacular - Imagine Entertainment, Tiny Chef Productions and Nickelodeon ProductionsWonder Pets: In the City, Episode: Save Tate? - A Nickelodeon Production in association with AppleBest TV/Media - ChildrenGremlins: The Wild Batch, Episode: Never Use Double Negatives - Warner Bros. AnimationJurassic World: Chaos Theory, Episode: Batten Down the Hatches - DreamWorks AnimationMarvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Episode: The Molecular Level - Flying Bark Productions, Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded TelevisionPrimos, Episode: Summer of Tater Luna - Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded TelevisionWondLa, Episode: Ruins - Skydance Animation in association with AppleBest TV/Media - MatureBobs Burgers, Episode: They Slug Horses, Dont They? - 20th Television AnimationSolar Opposites, Episode: The What If?! Device - 20th Television AnimationSouth Park, Episode: The End of Obesity - MTV Entertainment StudiosThe Great North, Episode: Aunt Misbehavin Adventure - 20th Television AnimationThe Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, Episode: The Land of Sex and Death - Amazon MGM Studios, Titmouse StudiosBest TV/Media - Limited SeriesDream Productions, Episode: A Night to Remember - Pixar Animation StudiosIwj, Episode: Tola - Walt Disney Animation StudiosLego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, Episode: Part Three - Lucasfilm Ltd.Moon Girls Lab, Episode: Moon Girl Saves the Moon - Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded TelevisionMy Adventures with Superman, Episode: Pierce the Heavens, Superman! - Warner Bros. AnimationBest Student FilmAdis - Student Director: Jos Prats; Student Producer: Bernardo Angeletti; School: National Film and Television SchoolEl Ombligo de la Luna olaj - Student Directors: Sara Antnio, Julia Grupiska, Bokang Koatja, Tian Westraad, Ezequiel Garibay; School: GobelinsPear Garden - Student Director/Producer: Shadab Shayegan; School: Filmakademie Baden-Wrttemberg GmbH, AnimationsinstitutPolliwog - Student Director: Julia Skala; Student Producer: Max Pollmann; School: Filmakademie Baden-Wrttemberg GmbH, AnimationsinstitutTurmspringer - Student Director: Oscar Bittner; Student Producer: Andra Berila; School: Filmakademie Baden-Wrttemberg GmbH, AnimationsinstitutBest FX - TV/MediaArcane, Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails - Production Company: A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix, FX Production Company: Fortiche Studio - Guillaume Degroote, Aurlien Ressencourt, Adam Bachiri, Guillaume Zaouche, Jrme DuprDream Productions, Episode: A Night to Remember - Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios, FX Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios - Gary Bruins, Jongwon Pak, Arturo Aguilar, Alan Browning, Alen LaiSecret Level, Episode: Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear - Production Company: Amazon MGM Studios, Blur Studio Inc., FX Production Company: Blur Studio Inc. - Josh Schwartz, Joe Coleman, Michael Huang, Guilherme Casagrandi, Raul RodriguesSecret Level, Episode: Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen's Cradle - Production Company: Amazon MGM Studios, Blur Studio Inc., FX Production Company: Blur Studio Inc. - Arthur Loiseau, Tom OBready, Esteban Genre, Alexandre Lerouge, Guillaume GrelierSecret Level, Episode: Crossfire: Good Conflict - Production Company: Amazon MGM Studios, Blur Studio Inc., FX Production Company: Blur Studio Inc. - Kamil Murzyn, Rafa Rumiski, Jarosaw Armata, Micha led, Micha FirekBest FX - FeatureKung Fu Panda 4 - Production Company: DreamWorks Animation, - FX Production Company: DreamWorks Animation - Zachary Glynn, Alex Timchenko, Kiem Ching Ong, Yorie Kaela Kumalasari, Jinguang HuangMoana 2 - Production Company: Walt Disney Animation Studios - FX Production Company: Walt Disney Animation Studios - Santiago Robles, Marc Bryant, Deborah Carlson, Jake Rice, Ian J. CoonyThe Wild Robot - Production Company: DreamWorks Animation - FX Production Company: DreamWorks Animation - Derek Cheung, Michael Losure, David Chow, Nyoung Kim, Steve AvoujageliUltraman: Rising - Production Company: Netflix Animation - FX Production Company: Industrial Light & Magic - Goncalo Cabaca, Vishal Patel, Zheng Yong Oh, Nicholas Yoon Joo Kuang, Pei- Zhi HuangWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Production Company: Aardman and Netflix - FX Production Company: Aardman Production - Howard Jones, Rich Spence, Deborah Jane Price, Jon Biggins, Kirstie DeaneBest Character Animation - TV/MediaArcane, Episodes: Killing Is A Cycle, Heavy Is the Crown, Finally Got the Name Right, The Message Hidden Within the Pattern, The Dirt Under Your Nails, Pretend Like Its the First Time, Blisters and Bedrock - A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix - Tom GouillDream Productions, Episodes: The Dream Team, Out of Body, Romance! - Pixar Animation Studios - Travis HathawayIn the Know, Episodes: Yogurt Week, Thinksgiving - Peacock Original in association with Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, Bandera, ShadowMachine - Jeff RileyStar Trek: Lower Decks, Episodes: Various - CBSs Eye Animation Productions, Titmouse; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment - Raymond DunsterThe Patrick Star Show, Episode: Something Stupid This Way Comes - Screen Novelties / Nickelodeon Animation Studios - Colin LepperBest Character Animation - FeatureInside Out 2 - Pixar Animation Studios - Aviv ManoKung Fu Panda 4 - DreamWorks Animation - Patrick GuisianoMoana 2 - Walt Disney Animation Studios - Brian ScottThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Fabio LigniniWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Aardman and Netflix - Carmen Bromfield MasonBest Character Animation - Live ActionBetter Man - Production Company: Footloose Productions, VicScreen, Partizan, Facing East Entertainment, Rocket Science, Lost Bandits - FX Production Company: Wt FX - Shaun Freeman, Luisma Lavin Peredo, Carlos Lin, Seoungseok Charlie Kim, Kaori MiyazawaGladiator II - Production Company: Paramount - FX Production Company: Framestore LTD - Kyle Dunlevy, Philipp Winterstein, Gil Daniel, Michael Elder, Julien BagoryGodzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Production Company: Legendary Entertainment - FX Production Company: Wt FX - Ludovic Chailloleau, Jonathan Paquin, Craig Penn, Florian Fernandez, Marco BarbatiHouse of the Dragon Season 2 - Production Company: Warner Bros - FX Production Company: Wt FX - Jason Snyman, Manjoe Chan, Chloe McLean, Cedric Enriquez Canlas, Vincent LeeKingdom of the Planet of the Apes - Production Company: 20th Century Studios - FX Production Company: Wt FX - Christian Kickenweitz, Aidan Martin, Allison Orr, Radiya Alam, Howard SlyBest Character Animation - Video Game#BLUD - Exit 73 Games, LLC. - Chris Burns, Bob FoxAsgard's Wrath 2 - Sanzaru Games - Sanzaru Games Animation TeamDiesel Legacy - Maximum Entertainment - Maximum EntertainmentNeva - Nomada Studio - Nomada Studio Animation TeamSenua's Saga: Hellblade II - Ninja Theory - Ninja TheoryBest Character Design - TV/MediaDream Productions, Episode: A Night to Remember - Pixar Animation Studios - Grant AlexanderJentry Chau vs. the Underworld, Episode: Pilot - A Netflix Series - Kal AthannassovMarvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Episode: The Molecular Level - Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy Productions - Jose LopezTales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Episode: Bishop Makes Her Move! - Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Point / Grey Pictures - Rustam HasanovX-Men '97, Episode: Mutant Liberation Begins - Marvel Studios - Amelia VidalBest Character Design - FeatureInside Out 2 - Pixar Animation Studios - Deanna MarsiglieseScarygirl - Highly Spirited and Like A Photon Creative - Nathan JureviciusSpellbound - Netflix Presents / Skydance Animation Presents a Skydance Animation Film - Guillermo RamreThat Christmas - Locksmith Animation for Netflix - Uwe HeidschtterThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Genevieve TsaiBest Direction - TV/MediaArcane, Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails - A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix - Arnaud Delord, Pascal Charrue, Bart MaunouryBig City Greens the Movie: Spacecation, Television Movie - Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded Television - Anna OBrianBob's Burgers, Episode: They Slug Horses, Don't They? - 20th Television Animation - Bernard DerrimanTabby McTat, Television Movie - Magic Light Pictures - Jac Hamman, Sarah ScrimgeourTales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Episode: The Pearl - Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Point / Grey Pictures - Alan Wan, Colin HeckBest Direction - FeatureChicken for Linda! - Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, Palosanto Films, France 3 Cinma / Distributed by GKIDS - Chiara Malta, Sbastien LaudenbachFlow - Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio - Gints ZilbalodisThat Christmas - Locksmith Animation for Netflix - Simon OttoThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Chris SandersWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Aardman and Netflix - Nick Park, Merlin CrossinghamBest Music - TV/MediaArcane, Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails - A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix - Ryan Jillian Santiago, Alexander Seaver, Simon WilcoxBig City Greens the Movie: Spacecation, Television Movie - Disney Television Animation, Disney Branded Television - Joachim HorsleyHazbin Hotel, Episode: Masquerade - Amazon MGM Studios, A24, Bento Box Entertainment - Sam Haft, Andrew UnderbergJentry Chau vs. the Underworld, Episode: Lock-In - A Netflix Series - Brian H. KimWondLa, Episode: Captive - Skydance Animation in association with Apple - Joy NgiawBest Music - FeatureKensuke's Kingdom - Lupus Films - Stuart HancockPiece by Piece - i am OTHER, TREMOLO in association with The LEGO Group, Pure Imagination Studios and Tongal - Pharrell Williams, Michael AndrewsThat Christmas - Locksmith Animation for Netflix - John Powell, Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaidThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Kris BowersWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Aardman and Netflix - Lorne Balfe, Julian NottBest Production Design - TV/MediaArcane, Episode: The Dirt Under Your Nails - A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix - Arnaud-Loris Baudry, Julien Georgel, Faustine Dumontier, Charlotte ONeilDream Productions, Episode: The Dream Team - Pixar Animation Studios - Bert Berry, Josh HoltsclawOrion and the Dark, Special Production - DreamWorks Animation - Timothy Lamb, Christine BianSilly Sundays, Episode: Stringy Soup - Cartoon Saloon - Fran Bravo, Rosa Ballester CaboWondLa, Episode: Bargain - Skydance Animation in association with Apple - Andy HarknessBest Production Design - FeatureInside Out 2 - Pixar Animation Studios - Jason Deamer, Josh West, Keiko Murayama, Bill Zahn, Laura MeyerThat Christmas - Locksmith Animation for Netflix - Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn, Mike RedmanThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Raymond Zibach, Ritchie SaciliocUltraman: Rising - Netflix Presents in association with Tsuburaya Productions - The Ultraman: Rising Production Design TeamWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Aardman and Netflix - Matt Perry, Darren Dubicki, Richard Edmunds, Matt Sanders, Gavin LinesBest Storyboarding - TV/MediaArcane, Episode: Killing is a Cycle - A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix - Josphine MeisInvincible Fight Girl, Episode: The Way of The World - Cartoon Network Studios - Gladyfaith Abcede, Miki Brewster, Kaela Lash, Sheldon VellaJurassic World: Chaos Theory, Episode: That Night - DreamWorks Animation - Aevery HuensSnoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin, Short Film - WildBrain Studios in association with Apple - David LuxTales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Episode: The Pearl - Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Point / Grey Pictures - Laura Gille, Sebrina Gao, Kevin Molina-OrtizBest Storyboarding - FeatureDespicable Me 4 - Illumination - Habib LouatiMoana 2 - Walt Disney Animation Studios - Ryan GreenSaving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie - Nickelodeon Animation - Piero PilusoSpellbound - Netflix Presents / Skydance Animation Presents a Skydance Animation Film - Alex Relloso Horna, Carlos Zapater OlivaThat Christmas - Locksmith Animation for Netflix - Ashley Boddy, Lorenzo Fresta, Helen SchroederBest Voice Acting - TV/MediaBob's Burgers, Episode: The Right Tough Stuff - 20th Television Animation - John Roberts (Character: Linda Belcher)Bob's Burgers, Episode: They Slug Horses, Don't They? - 20th Television Animation - Kristen Schaal (Character: Louise Belcher)Dream Productions, Episode: Out of Body - Pixar Animation Studios - Paula Pell (Character: Paula)Hazbin Hotel, Episode: Dad Beat Dad - Amazon MGM Studios, A24, Bento Box Entertainment - Jeremy Jordan (Character: Lucifer)Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Episode: Splinter and April Fight a Goldfish - Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Point / Grey Pictures - Ayo Edebiri (Character: April O'Neil)Best Voice Acting - FeatureChicken for Linda! - Dolce Vita Films, Miyu Productions, Palosanto Films, France 3 Cinma / Distributed by GKIDS - Mline Leclerc (Character: Linda)Inside Out 2 - Pixar Animation Studios - Maya Hawke (Character: Anxiety)The Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Lupita Nyong'o (Character: Roz)The Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Kit Connor (Character: Brightbill)Transformers One - Paramount Animation - Brian Tyree Henry (Character: D-16 / Megatron)Best Writing - TV/MediaCraig of the Creek, Episode: Whose Dimension Is It Anyway? - Cartoon Network Studios - Harron Atkins, Lorraine DeGraffenreidt, Pearl Low, Richie PopeJessica's Big Little World, Episode: Jessica's Picnic - Cartoon Network Studios - Austin Faber, Gabriel Franklin, Shawne Gibbs, Shawnelle Gibbs, Ashleigh HairstonOrion and the Dark, Special Production - DreamWorks Animation - Charlie KaufmanThe Simpsons, Episode: Bart's Birthday - A Gracie Films Production in Association with 20th Television Animation - Jessica ConradYuck!, Special Production - Ikki Films & Iliade et Films - Loc EspucheBest Writing - FeatureFlow - Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio - Gints Zilbalodis, Matss KaaInside Out 2 - Pixar Animation Studios - Meg LeFauve, Dave HolsteinKensuke's Kingdom - Paramount Pictures - Frank Cottrell-BoyceMemoir of a Snail - Snails Pace Films / Arenamedia - Adam ElliotBest Editorial - TV/MediaArcane, Episode: Pretend Like It's the First Time - A Riot Games and Fortiche Production for Netflix - Nazim Meslem, Gilad Carmel, Roberto FernandezCreature Commandos, Episode: Cheers to the Tin Man - Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios / - Annie De BrockJurassic World: Chaos Theory, Episode: Batten Down the Hatches - DreamWorks Animation - Ben Choo, Rich Liverance, Eric Hendricks, Anna Adams, Ian HurleyMarvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Episode: The Molecular Level - Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy Productions - Sandra Powers, Phil Lomboy, Ryan Burkhard, Neil Wilson III, Gabriel GelbrechtTales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Episode: The Pearl - Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Point / Grey Pictures - Caleb YoderBest Editorial - FeatureInside Out 2 - Pixar Animation Studios - Maurissa Horwitz, David Suther, Fiona Toth, Jonathan VargoMoana 2 - Walt Disney Animation Studios - Jeremy Milton, Michael Louis HillThe Wild Robot - DreamWorks Animation - Mary Blee, Collin Erker, Orlando Duenas, Lucie Lyon, Brian ParkerUltraman: Rising - Netflix Presents in association with Tsuburaya Productions - Bret Marnell, ACE, William Max Steinberg, Nik Siefke, Ryan Sommer, Kaye SpeareWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Aardman and Netflix - Dan HemberySource: ASIFA-Hollywood Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Narratively sandwiched between two renowned movies by Ridley Scott and James Cameron sits Alien: Romulus, a hybrid of the claustrophobic horror of Alien and the wild action of Aliens directed by Fede lvarez. The story revolves around a crew on an intergalactic hauler attempting to steal equipment from a derelict, orbiting space station and in the process, encounters a malevolent endoparasitoid extraterrestrial lifeform. Boarding the seventh instalment [not including the two crossovers with Predator] of the franchise that made the xenomorph an iconic cinematic creature is VFX Supervisor Eric Barba, who previously supervised the visual effects work on Tron: Legacy and Terminator: Dark Fate.It was a fun two years, notes Barba. Ive been fortunate that the movies Ive been able to work on have been flashbacks to my youth with Tron, Terminator and now Alien. When I first saw Alien, it literally scared the shit out of me! I had nightmares. Those creatures that Ridley Scott created are so iconic. Then Jim hit it out of the park with Aliens. Its such a fun movie. I love David Fincher having worked with him so much. Alien 3 is probably my third favorite, and then they fall off and become forgettable. Although I loved the way Prometheus looked. Fede lvarez wanted to go back to its roots and make it feel like this was set at the same time. I called it going back to the analog future.Enjoy the final Red Band trailer:Blocking was done in previs by NVIZ and two inhouse artists. They would block out sequences of basic action and Fede would give notes, Barba says. But it wasnt a shot-by-shot thing, which would be a traditional previs, because Fede likes to lens everything himself and tell the story the way he wants to. We would hand those scene files back to him in the 3ds Max format and then Fede would hand us back shots that he liked. It gives the film a singular perspective as far as the storytelling because it is his hand behind not just the live-action but all the shots that we had to do in CG as well.The film took advantage of miniatures, animatronics, stop-motion animation, and digital effects. According to Barba, It comes down to Fedes love for filmmaking and wanting to shoot, and work with the actors as much as humanly possible. That was the mantra. Weve all heard that from other directors and when they get in the cutting room things change. But because Fede believed that and had this group of young actors we did try to shoot as much as possible. Then you get into zero-G where you have multiple facehuggers running along the floors and lots of xenomorphs. It becomes almost impossible to do with practicals, so we need our CG versions. We approached it from that way. What is going to work with the actors, what is going to give us the best bang for the buck and that scary, Alien feeling that we all love from those first two films. The length on screen of any CG shot is critical to believability. If you use more than what were used to you give the gag away, notes Barba. When you think about Alien, Ridley used a guy in a suit for his xenomorph. Those shots are so quick. Some are half a second, but it scares the bejesus out of you because your mind connects the dots. Fede felt strongly about keeping our shots quick so that the audience doesnt see a guy in a suit or an animatronic or a CG version.Adding to the scariness is that the xenomorph is a creature of the shadows because of its black colorization. You cant see it in the dark, observes Barba. You dont know what is going on back there. Galo Olivares, our DP, did an amazing job giving us this palette and imagery to work from. From day one of shooting, what came up on our monitors looked beautiful and felt scary and dark like that Alien world. Were always matching the CG to the live drool. Were always taking notes on the way things are lit, looking at how Galo did things. Our onset team shot tons of HDRIs and set photography so that our visual effects partners could help. HDRIs were captured for the chestbursters, facehuggers and xenomorphs. HDRIs were taken from those positions so we get the same quality of light captured, Barba explains. When the CG teams put the characters back, theyre able to sample that actual lighting and get the same color tone and dynamic range. Then its trying to match. The dynamic range is what makes it work when highlights get bright and get the blacks falling into nothing because Galo liked to let it go that way. Noting it was difficult achieving the proper interaction, Barba adds, Artistically getting CG and compositing artists to match the look of what Galo did took a long time. It took versions, trials and errors, and less is more. We tend to over light things in CG because we make all these wonderful things and people want to see what theyve done. Appearing both in Alien and Alien: Romulus is a generic android science officer produced by nefarious corporate conglomerate Weyland-Yutani. We had to take some license because this isnt actually Ash from Alien, who was destroyed in the explosion of Nostromo, says Barba. This is maybe from the same assembly line or a model that came after that has a likeness of Ash, but obviously its a different robot. Rook has gone through his own unfortunate series of events, including being burnt in half and hit with him. Its a slightly different personality. Rook is meant to remind us that these androids are out there. We used the likeness of Ian Holm but of course hes no longer with us. We had another actor give us the performance that Fede wanted for Rook. That immediately led to a different personality and look because even when we retarget someones performance to a different likeness - this is the problem with the recreation of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - it changes the likeness. Even though it starts off as one character, the second character doesnt move the way you expect it to because we all have different facial movements and timings.Machine learning streamlined the process in cinematically resurrecting Ian Holm. Having done The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [for which Barba won an Oscar] where everything was horse and buggy, notes Barba, everything had to be done by hand. If you fast forward to the way Rook was done it is leaning on a machine. Its not perfect. The tools are being written and worked on as we speak, and every day are getting better. Its so much faster, better results, and certainly more affordable for shows with modest budgets. The team at Metaphysic.AI did a great job in adding new tools. For example, we had a head camera performance that had to drive a machine learning solve as well as redirect the eyeline and make other adjustments from our live-action. So, it was a blend. Deepfake stops here. We had to take it much further and they did a great job helping us do that.One major action sequence that brought multiple departments together unfolded in an elevator shaft. Humans perceive an elevator shaft as being vertical, remarks Barba. We built a five-story elevator that was put on its side because we had rails to bring the actors back and forth. In order for the audience to believe it was zero-G, we had to look at our camera and always use different angles to help sell it. There was also a two-story vertical set that we cut in-between. We added CG bits of atmospherics and things flying like nuts and bolts to help sell the zero-G. Then just as Jim did in Aliens with Sigourney Weaver, Cailee Spaeny was constantly bombarded with wind so that her hair didnt necessarily go in one direction.At times the live-action actors are taken over by digital doubles. Cloth moves in a certain way in reality and maybe it doesnt move exactly like that in our CG simulations, states Barba. The same with hair. Those little things can be telltale. Weve got a few shots in this film where we go from live-action Cailee to CG Cailee and CG xenomorph back to the live-action Cailee. We even had a shot where the arms of David Jonsson had to be taken off, put CG arms on him, adjusted his body a tiny bit and gave him a pulse rifle to finesse what we shot in live-action to get things to line up. Its tricky. Fede made some of the executives at the visual effects companies a little nervous with trying to get those details as we asked for maybe more versions than they were comfortable with. But they were all happy with the end result. Sometimes pushing it along the way is what we do. In addition to CG, miniatures were part of the creative equation for the exterior Corbelan IV spaceship shots and the probe that opens the film. Fede wanted us to build miniatures to shoot all of the space shots, reveals Barba. That became a shot design and a budgetary problem. We agreed that we should still build them, and it was my push to build them because model builders bring an artistry that is different than a CG artist will bring to the table. The way they finish things, the paint, and details, its an art all its own. Part of us wanting to go back to the analog future meant we needed some of that hand artistry brought to our models. We had amazing designs and then Ian Hunters team built us two amazing miniatures. We scanned the Corbelan IV and the probe, then ILM built them. There are two shots in the movie where we actually did shoot the Corbelan IV in front of an LED screen but the rest of them are CG. The miniature gave the CG artists another level to hit that helped to sell those shots.Much of the film takes place aboard the derelict Renaissance Space Station, owned by Weyland-Yutani Corporation, that is on a collision course with the planetary rings of LV-410. When Fede and I first started talking about this, I had some ideas about what we should do and he had some thoughts, but nothing was completely thought out, Barba reveals. There wasnt much of the rings in the concept art because we see rings and it can be simplistic, like what we are used to seeing from Saturn. But I came across this BBC special called How Saturn Got Its Rings and it was fascinating because there is CG showing how this happened with some closeup shots. This woman was doing the narration explaining a lot of things. It gets to the point where I was blown away by some of the imagery that came back from the Cassini-Huygens probe of Saturns rings. It was spectacular. That was our creative inspiration for our rings. In total, 1,400 visual effects shots were created over a period of 10 months. Initially, because ILM is one of our sister companies at 20th Century Studios and Disney, they were brought in to be our lead vendor, states Barba. As time went on and the shot count grows, which it always does, we brought in Wt FX to support our third act. Then we had a number of others like Image Engine, Fin Design + Effects, Wylie Co., Metaphysic.AI, and Atomic Arts to assist us as we needed to split the work up in order to hit our timeframe. It doesnt always go to plan because there is this thing called the almighty rebate which tends to drive some of our financial decisions to help us meet our budgets and get the shots that the studio and director want. But in this case I did want to keep all our xenomorph and facehugger work at the same companies because it becomes a performance issue. Once a team understands how a xenomorph moves and the director is happy with it, which he was specific about things and picky, you dont want to then pass it off to another team or different company because you have to go through all of that again.Having said that, he continues, we did end up having to do that with Wt FX helping us out because of timing issues. Its casting and trying to get the right people. We brought in Andy Jones, who is an amazing animation director, to assist us with our xenomorph work at ILM. We kept all the offspring work with Wt FX for those reasons. However, there were shared shots. The Corbelan IV was shared between Wt FX and ILM.Alien: Romulus offers a different spin on the franchise that will generate a new audience. What Fede brought was building that world of Alien again but adding his own twists and turns with the zero-G moments contributing some new thrills to our action, remarks Barba. We all want to know what happened after the xenomorph gets pushed out of the airlock in Alien. Now we actually know, and there is so much more backstory to Weyland-Yutanis nefarious plans. Also, we introduce a whole new young cast. As anticipated, the zero-G sequences proved to be one of the biggest challenges. Thats because trying to shoot in harnesses and rigs in sets that allow you to do so means we have to roll this wall out but allow for this much stunt rigging and the performances must always be adjusted if something is not quite right. Every actor reacts differently to the harnesses. Planning those sequences I originally felt would be the hardest. Rook underwent a last-minute alteration, which became a big challenge because of time and money. According to Barba, Its a big endeavor having been down that road. I didnt want to go down it again and have a lack of time and resources because you need time. Its about being able to flesh it all out, look at it, put it together in the sequence, look at it again, make adjustments, and fine tune. Its not something you finalize shot by shot and hope it all works out in the end. Its much more challenging.Tippett Studio was responsible for the stop-motion animation such as a rat being crushed and regenerated. The Tippett team was amazing. I was so thrilled when they sent us their version, Barba says. We had conversations where Fede would tell what he wanted. However, Fede was also like, You know what youre doing. Have fun and show us what youre thinking. I wish that we had done more of those shots in the film because editorially we had more to work with. But the way it was cut works for the film., However, they did some fun stuff. Barba concludes, We had great teams that put their heads down and knew what they needed to do and worked hard to get it there. Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer.

Hes finally here! After all the rumors, conjecture, peeks, teases and furtive glances, we finally get to see the new man of steel, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and superpup Krypto! Hitting theaters next summer.

The immersive event aims to bring the magic of the holidays to life with 5DX experiences, such as cutting-edge projection visuals, sound, and special effects.

The leading visualization studios work involved animating and editing a number of sequences, including a boat crash and shark chase, for the StudioCanal film about a group of friends who meet up for a wedding in theCaribbean and become stranded at sea after their boat sinks.

Going from winning an Oscar for Tenet to working on Venom: The Last Dance, DNEGVFX Supervisor David Lee has certainly seen his share of varied visual effects, everything from invisible VFX to CGI spectacles. For his work on Venom: The Last Dance, Marvel and Sony Pictures final instalment in their Symbiote trilogy starring Tom Hardy and directed by Kelly Marcel, Lee oversaw DNEGs delivery of 500 shots across 11 sequences.The DNEG VFX teams work included creating new characters like the Venom Horse, Xenophage, and green Symbiote as well as familiar ones such as Venom and Wraith Venom. They also handled a dance sequence with Mrs. Chen, a high-altitude battle on top of an airplane, skydiving and a split face conversation between the host and parasite. Its sometimes nice to be matching reality so closely because you have such good references and are trying to make the highest level of output that you can, states Lee. But something like Venom has a subjective look for a lot of these characters, especially the ones were doing in the latest film. I enjoy both types of work.Central to the success of the Venom franchise has been convincing the audience that there is an alien inhabiting the body of a human (Tom Hardy) that now and then forcefully emerges in a physical form. With a lot of these types of effects youre always trying to create so many points of interest that youre not giving the eye long enough to necessarily linger on any one component, remarks Lee. For us, it was looking at how would this really come out of the body. At first you might have some idea of a seepage coming through the skin, so that provides a base layer. The skin itself starts to turn black, showing a bit of subsurface oil running underneath. Then you might get a layer coming on top of it that starts to build and build. Its about increasing the complexity of these layers, so it feels organic. Another key to the franchises success has been the Abbott and Costello-type interplay between Hardy and the Symbiote that adds humor to the proceedings. It is a testament to Tom Hardy and his performances in terms of how he makes it work and voices Venom and has these dialogues, essentially, between himself. There are always multiple versions that we can try to use and make it work. Its an interesting challenge to get that eyeline working on some of these shots because sometimes you dont want it to be quite where Tom might be looking. Adding additional complexity to the work was that not all scenes take place at night. That brought with it a particular set of challenges in terms of how you get something that has only been seen in these dark moody environments working in the full daylight, states Lee. You dont want it to be a black hole in the shot. So, its a fine balance. We would end up taking some creative license with the lighting. Normally if you were out in the desert, youve got one source light, which is the sun. Thats going to give you a defined reflection. But Venom doesnt work like that. Because he is only black then literally Venom is just reflection. We were having to cheat a lot of these little point lights all around him while still trying to allow the environment to motivate that lighting, so it doesnt look like its popping out of the scene. But that then gives us these nice defining reflections that shape him. We would do subtle things like increasing the level of bounce coming off the ground. We would give compositing a whole lot of these lighting passes and that would be where the balancing started. Once we got that look it would be fed back to lighting again so they could adjust it on their end and then everything else begins coming through more out of the box. But there was still a lot of comp work to balance that.Fluid simulations are an essential aspect of Venom Wraith. Wraith is a head with essentially these oily liquid tendrils that seep all of the way over, Lee explains. And even where it joins the head, you have this paint dripping effect that comes down over the top of his face. We altered the tendrils a little bit from previous shows because the technology has changed. But once you get that setup, as long as you have a rigorous base to work on, they flowed through quite seamlessly. Apart from his facial performance, which is driven by the animation, what we do is attach a rudimentary pipe to the head that then drives where the effects tendrils would go. Its almost like a broad transformation tool that then drives the effects work on top of that. Venom is a show that relies heavily on effects. If you saw an early version of Wraith that had a pipe coming out attached to Toms back, your first instinct is to say, Is that how it is? Because that looks terrible. It's making sure that were taking everyone along for the ride so that they understand that these early versions are not necessarily indicative of the final look, but are the place where we want to get direction in terms of does Wraiths neck bend with a softer curve or does it want to be tighter coming over the shoulder because thats where the tendril is going to be coming in.Motion capture was utilized when Venom dances with Mrs. Chen. We had a dancer and choreographer who designed that sequence with Kelly Marcel, remarks Lee. We always looked at Venom as Arnold Schwarzenegger; hes a big man, powerful, a lot of muscle mass, and moves slightly differently. How does that work? Luckily YouTube is a fountain of different people dancing so we referenced that heavily. That meant when the dancer gave us the motion capture data, we would then have to take that and see how we needed to move that into Venoms character. Did we need to slow some things down? There's a stylistic element in terms of trying to get a certain look and feel. Big dancers are still quite light on their feet. Its not necessarily a lumbering giant type of thing. Thats where our expectations laid when we first started looking into it. But we eventually got lighter and lighter, and more fluid throughout the whole sequence. It worked quite nicely with what Kelly was going for. Thats a comical part of the film. Arm extensions aided in getting the proper interaction between the extremely tall and tiny dance partners. These extensions allowed Mrs. Chen to place her hands on his forearm accurately, says Lee. We could keep as much of her performance as we possibly could. For eyelines, which went up another foot or so, we had the same thing. Our dancer had an eyeline helmet on as well, so Mrs. Chen was always looking at and touching the right places. For the first time in the trilogy, Venom takes over a creature rather than a human. In this case, its a horse. Initially, we dialed into Venom, which involved taking all the textured look and put that onto the horse, Lee shares. We thought no matter what body was being taken over by Venom, the process itself is still the same, as well as the movement. You would always finish with the head. But also, visually, its a nice thing to finish with. The horse was shot further away with wider shots, but there was also a lot of motion because its supposed to be running so fast. We actually started to dial down that tight oily spec look that we had on Venom because it looked overly streaky and visually unappealing, almost being confused with noise. We started looking at Arabian horses, which are black and have this beautiful sheen that defines the muscularity and shape. In fact, theyre so black that when theyre backlit they are almost like silhouettes against the environment. We essentially gave Venom Horse a more horsey look.In one sequence, Venom Horse gallops off a cliff. Thats a great homage to the first Venom when Tom Hardy sends his tendrils down to grab the motorcycle. This is the reverse, with the horse shooting up the tendrils. That shot was heavily prevised before we started shooting it. It gave us a great base to work from. Actually, when you look at the previs compared to the finished film, that sequence is coherent compared to where we started. We did shoot elements of Tom to get a facial performance and projected that onto where it was required, such as the shot where hes coming towards the camera. Not all the fights occur on land. In another sequence, as Venom tangles with the Xenophage on top of a flying passenger airplane. The Xenophage went through a lot of versions in terms of how it looked, explains Lee. There is a lot of lizardy homage and an insect-like feel to it. How it moved was a fun challenge for the animation team, which spent a lot of time playing around with different movement styles. By the time we finished the film, there was a lot more of the staccato insect movement. It was difficult to rig because the way the Xenophage was designed meant that there had to be a range of motion that was unnatural for a creature of that construction. The tail splits into three tails. How does that work when its not split? Eventually, we came upon the idea that it's essentially three triangles that can fit in, almost like a Trivial Pursuit board. It forms a whole from the parts. Once we got things like that working, it started to make a lot more sense. That helps with animation as well because they understand the restrictions that you would have with these kinds of creatures.The Xenophage emoted through its tail and head movement. According to Lee, We didnt dive into these deep humanistic emotions. They were more centered within a broader animalistic style. One signature physical trait is the rotating teeth. We would have our build department construct the external teeth, which were rigid. Our effects team would populate the interior of the mouth with these rotating teeth that pop out through these little gummy slits. Its almost like a conveyor belt and then they come back down again. Environments were crucial in driving the action. On top of the plane, we definitely wanted to drive home the speed and drama, says Lee. For Venom, we did additional cloth simulations to push the sense of him being liquid at his core. His entire body, head and skin start to get this flutter like a dog hanging out a window of a fast-moving car. We leaned into things like that; poses and animation were important to make sure that whenever the hand was coming up to take a new pose it was having to fight against this horizontal wind that was coming through. The Xenophage was easier to a point because its digging into the metal so its trying to claw its way up.Generally, every single shot features a CG plane. When the camera goes through the cabin, comes out the window and sees Tom having his Tom Cruise moment, that was a real plane [in the studio], Lee notes. We ended up replacing all of the exterior. Skydiving was hard to properly achieve. Tom was shot in the studio on wires, Lee continues. We would keep his face and arms, and then replace the rest of him. The key with that is getting the speed and intensity of the fabric, which is why we ended up replacing the majority of Tom. We had a lot of fans going when we were shooting, but it just didnt have the terminal velocity that is so fast, with the high frequency flicker to the cloth. Kelly Marcel and Production Visual Effects Supervisor John Moffatts mantra was. Try to capture everything in camera. John Moffatt and I are a big fan of trying to shoot everything at least for reference so you know what it should look like at that time of day in that place, remarks Lee. With the horse sequences, for example, they were all shot on drones following a motorcycle to try to get the speed and pace. But by and large we replaced the entire environment with a CG build to give us more control over the camera. The airplane and skydiving sequences are all CG environment replacements as well when the horse starts running and the beginning of the river battle where the water had to be replaced to give it a sense of rapids that werent there on location. Venom is also running through the forest and causing this wake of broken and falling trees. That was all replaced as well. By the end, the only part that was left was the shoreline.Noting how enjoyable the varied scope of the VFX work was for him and his team, Lee concludes, It was fun for me to work on this kind of film because if youve got an idea about how something can be more exciting or might help the narrative, then everyone is open to those types of ideas which is fantastic. Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer.

The Yard VFX has hired CG supervisors Eve Chauvet and Bertrand Cabrol. Both newcomers to the company boast expertise and extensive international experience at leading studios, most notably in Canada.With over 20 years in the industry, Chauvet has built a career working in Amsterdam, London, Vancouver, and Montreal. She honed her expertise as a 2D and 3D artist, and environment/CG supervisor at MPC, Framestore, and DNEG. Cabrol brings a decade of experience, primarily in Montreal, where he progressed from an FX and environment artist to supervisor at Framestore and DNEG."I am thrilled to join The Yard team in Montpellier," said Chauvet. "Returning to Montpellier, where I studied, and having the opportunity to work on both international and French projects is an incredible chance. I feel fortunate to reconnect with our French craftsmanship and, alongside Bertrand, bring a touch of our experience from some of the world's leading studios.""Having joined The Yard a few months ago, I am delighted to see that my initial experiences with the organization have met my expectations and align perfectly with the ambitions and challenges Ive set for my career," said Cabrol. "With the right people, the necessary support, and the vision driven by the management team, I see even the most ambitious projects becoming achievable.Among other major films, both contributed to Disney's live-action remake of Dumbo. Cabrols other credits include Blade Runner 2049, Deadpool 2, Watchmen, and The Mandalorian. Meanwhile, Chauvet has worked on Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, For All Mankind, Alien Covenant, Ghost in the Shell, Last Night in Soho, and Fantastic Beasts.We are delighted to welcome Eve and Bertrand to The Yard, says Laurens Ehrmann, founder and Senior VFX Supervisor. Their arrival marks a new chapter for The Yard, enabling us to continue developing our studio structure with senior talent in both Paris and Montpellier. I am sure their experience will benefit both our team and future clients.Source: The Yard VFX Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Mike Flanagan is penning the script while the hunt for a director is underway; plot details have not been revealed for the film which features the shapeshifting Batman villain last seen in Maxs animated Harley Quinn series.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just released shortlists in 10 categories for the 97th Academy Awards: Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound, and Visual Effects.Nominations voting begins Wednesday, January 8, 2025, and concludes Sunday, January 12, 2025.Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Friday, January 17, 2024.The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC, streamed live on Hulu, and air live in more than 200 territories worldwide.All 10 shortlists are shown below:DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM15 films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. 169 films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:The Bibi FilesBlack Box DiariesDahomeyDaughtersEnoFridaHollywoodgateNo Other LandPorcelain WarQueendomThe Remarkable Life of IbelinSoundtrack to a Coup dEtatSugarcaneUnionWill & HarperDOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM15 films will advance in the Documentary Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. 104 films qualified in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:Chasing RooDeath by NumbersEternal FatherI Am Ready, WardenIncidentInstruments of a Beating HeartKeeperMakaylas Voice: A Letter to the WorldOnce upon a Time in UkraineThe Only Girl in the OrchestraPlanetwalkerThe QuiltersSeat 31: Zooey ZephyrA Swim LessonUntil Hes BackINTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM15 films will advance to the next round of voting in the International Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. Films from 85 countries and regions were eligible in the category.Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:Brazil, Im Still HereCanada, Universal LanguageCzech Republic, WavesDenmark, The Girl with the NeedleFrance, Emilia PrezGermany, The Seed of the Sacred FigIceland, TouchIreland, KneecapItaly, VermiglioLatvia, FlowNorway, ArmandPalestine, From Ground ZeroSenegal, DahomeyThailand, How to Make Millions before Grandma DiesUnited Kingdom, SantoshMAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING10 films will advance in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for the 97th Academy Awards. All members of the Academys Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:The ApprenticeBeetlejuice BeetlejuiceA Different ManDune: Part TwoEmilia PrezMariaNosferatuThe SubstanceWaltzing with BrandoWickedMUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)20 scores will advance in the Original Score category for the 97th Academy Awards. 145 scores were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.The scores, listed in alphabetical order by film title, are:Alien: RomulusBabygirlBeetlejuice BeetlejuiceBlink TwiceBlitzThe BrutalistChallengersConclaveEmilia PrezThe Fire InsideGladiator IIHorizon: An American Saga Chapter 1Inside Out 2NosferatuThe Room Next DoorSing SingThe Six Triple EightWickedThe Wild RobotYoung Woman and the SeaMUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)15 songs will advance in the Original Song category for the 97th Academy Awards. 89 songs were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:Forbidden Road from Better ManWinter Coat from BlitzCompress/Repress from ChallengersNever Too Late from Elton John: Never Too LateEl Mal from Emilia PrezMi Camino from Emilia PrezSick In The Head from KneecapBeyond from Moana 2Tell Me Its You from Mufasa: The Lion KingPiece By Piece from Piece by PieceLike A Bird from Sing SingThe Journey from The Six Triple EightOut Of Oklahoma from TwistersKiss The Sky from The Wild RobotHarper And Will Go West from Will & HarperANIMATED SHORT FILM15 films will advance in the Animated Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. 88 films qualified in the category. Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.In the nominations round, Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:Au Revoir Mon MondeA Bear Named WojtekBeautiful MenBottle GeorgeA Crab in the PoolIn the Shadow of the CypressMagic CandiesMaybe ElephantsMeOrigamiPercebesThe 21Wander to WonderThe Wild-Tempered ClavierYuck!LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM15 films will advance in the Live Action Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. 180 films qualified in the category. Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:AnujaClodaghThe CompatriotCrustDovecoteEdge of SpaceThe Ice Cream ManIm Not a RobotThe Last RangerA LienThe Man Who Could Not Remain SilentThe MasterpieceAn Orange from JaffaParis 70Room TakenSOUND10 films will advance in the Sound category for the 97th Academy Awards. All eligible members of the Sound Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. Academy members will be invited to view excerpts from each of the shortlisted films beginning Thursday, January 9, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay area, followed by London, Los Angeles and New York on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:Alien: RomulusBlitzA Complete UnknownDeadpool & WolverineDune: Part TwoEmilia PrezGladiator IIJoker: Folie DeuxWickedThe Wild RobotVISUAL EFFECTS10 films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 97th Academy Awards. The Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:Alien: RomulusBetter ManCivil WarDeadpool & WolverineDune: Part TwoGladiator IIKingdom of the Planet of the ApesMufasa: The Lion KingTwistersWickedNominations voting begins on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, and concludes on Sunday, January 12, 2025.Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Friday, January 17, 2025.The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC, streamed live on Hulu and airs live in more than 200 territories worldwide.Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

When it comes to visual effects there is no bigger playground than Middle-earth, populated with fantastical lands and creatures from the mind of iconic author J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning to again lead the digital charge to lift the veil on Sauron and his nefarious plan to Elven forge a collection of rings for world domination is Jason Smith, who received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the first season of Prime VideosThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Interestingly, the visual effects shot count for the eight-episode sophomore outing remained the same, which was between 6,000 and 8,000. The complexity is up a little bit at least on the creature side of things, says Smith, senior visual effects supervisor. Unfortunately, we were unable to bring back Wt FX, but had ILM focused in London and Singapore this time, DNEG and Rodeo FX. Those were the big three out of the dozen.A common creative problem on both seasons was depicting proper size and scale when the various races interacted with one another. I will tell you that scale is one of those things about this show that I love the most, states Smith. Im a puzzle guy. Scale is one of those things that everyone assumes is a solved thing, and it is in some ways, but in practice there are about 12 different solutions that are opposed to each other. Your selection of the right one determines the success or failure in ways that are astounding. Learning all of those and putting them into practice on location without motion-control has been a blast. I still do scale academy for the crew and in general, it was like a SWAT team that would go to the unit doing that type of work. They would prep and publish documents because you have to get everybody onboard with all the complexities. People dont understand right off the bat that it goes all the way down to whos playing it back and what the cameraman is following. Elements and lessons from Season 1 were leveraged wherever possible. When we started Season 1, it was like, who knows what Khazad-dm looks like at its peak, or Nmenor? notes Smith. If you expand it to all of those creative questions, Season 2 felt like we had some cache and momentum already. The number of VFX vendors essentially remained the same for the second season. According to the VFX supervisor, We had a lot of shared shots. The pipeline around succeeding and delivering the show is astounding. The team here was doing some incredible stuff with ShotGrid and all the related tools. We took what was working on Season 1 and ran with it. But there were improvements along the whole way. The number of vendors is one thing. However, with the pure number of shots that have to be in front of me all the time, the numbers catch-up with you fast. The production crew is probably bigger than people would expect because when youre tracking this amount of work and number of shots, its massive. You cant put one minute per day on every shot without going into the water. Being brought from the page to screen for the first time in the series were the Barrow-wights, which are undead creatures animated by evil spirits. Im a monster fan, so to be part of deciding what they look like on film was a dream project, Smith shares. I was fortunate enough to work with prosthetics designer Barrie Gower, and hes a maestro, a great collaborator, and loves finding the balance between practical and digital effects that work. We went back to Tolkiens writings where he wrote them with a certain mood. They dont show up and start a karate fight. The Barrow-wights slowly trick you and take you underground and have this song that they sing. The lyrics are creepy and beautiful. Also, we wanted to emphasize the fact that the Barrow-wights arent in control. The scariest thing about the Barrow-wights curse is that they could have been good people, but this evil person is pulling them out of their graves and making them do things. It came down to, Do their feet touch the ground? We landed on, no because we wanted to take away their agency. The Barrow-wights are not walking around. Theyre being pulled around. Practical performers had to be digitally augmented to achieve the desired skeletal aesthetic for the Barrow-wights. We searched out and hired performers who were capable of body manipulation such as mimes and breakdancers who able to make it look like that their body was being made to do something but not motivated by them, remarks Smith. We wanted them to feel like marionettes. We practiced with stunts pulling them out of the grave by the hips with a fork rig. As the Barrow-wights are coming up bones are cracking into place and theyre not even conscious yet. A lot of the ones that are coming out are still a pile of bones and something really bad is making it all happen. Backstories are essential when creating creatures and environments. A portion of that is private to me and not canon while what is written in the script is the real stuff, explains Smith. I find that I have to have those backstories. I need to know where these things are coming from, even the troll. The showrunners did a beautiful job of giving him an attitude, but we expanded upon that and wrote a whole backstory in our minds about who he was. It was the same for the Barrow-wights. I love the idea that the Barrow-wights are pulling you underground and hungry to trap you forever but are also aware that they shouldnt be doing this. Brought from the big to the small screen is a younger version of Shelob. Shelob is the child of a First Age spider and has Maiar status, says Smith. Thats a great example where its a spider that doesnt have a personality. They bite. We decided that she has a personality and is a jerk. When Shelob is in that fight, she is playing with Isildur. There is part that probably nobody noticed where she goes away, and a skull gets tossed out to freak him out. A lot of the stuff Shelob does she is having fun playing with her food. Thats where I find joy. Where are those little character moments that I can latch onto and say, Its not just a big spider attacking a person. There is something more to it. I had a pet trachelas called Fluffy and she would crawl up to the base of the neck. I didnt like it. I would want to peel her off and she would get mad. Trachelas have little cat claws at the ends of their legs and can hold onto you. It didnt work out between me and Fluffy for many reasons, but that moment stuck in my head. There is a moment in that fight where Shelob uses the sticky ability at the end of her leg to turn things around. Its a moment that I like that is based on Fluffy! Also, appearing is a younger Balrog, famously denied passage by Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. When I saw the original film, that moment knocked me back into my chair, recalls Smith. It was so incredibly well done, especially for the time. But forget about the time. What they pulled off in creating that character was amazing. To have an option to do something that rhymes with that is a lot of fun. However, with modern technology, its incredible what they can do now. ILM setup multiple simulations of flame, different types of smoke, and even falling ash. The smoke would billow up and you would see these vertical streamers of trailing ash. It was all done with fluid simulations and makes for an incredible opportunity because you can shadow the whole scene with that smoke. Tolkien described it specifically and poetically. He was seldomly literal when laying these things out. Tolkien wanted us to get a feeling. He wanted to play it forward with music in our brains without necessarily locking things down and making them not scary anymore. Tolkien would say it was a creature of shadow and flame. Was it made of shadow and flame? Or is it like shadow and flame? He doesnt say. There is a lot debate these days about whether parts of this creature should be real or smoke. We leaned into that and on purpose went poetic in the same way. Noting that FX-driven FX creatures are difficult to produce, Smith ads, How do you make those things drivable or a gesture or silhouette? ILM did a great job. The simulation setup was incredible. Ents get some screen time in Season 2. When you lay this season out its nuts! Smith notes. How many amazing touchstones have we had a chance to look at? Ive been thinking about Ents ever since I joined this project six years ago. Ive been taking photographs of every tree that I pass that is interesting or has a face. I had hundreds of pictures. This was the season that it came to fruition and not just a little bit. We had this old oak, Snaggleroot. Explaining how some wood is more suitable than others for Ents, Smith continues, Have you ever noticed that some trees look soft in the way that they grow? Theyll form almost organic-looking fat rolls. Other trees are rigid, vertical and linear. These old oaks that they have here in the UK are the former. If you try to move them, theyre rock hard. Then we had a beautiful Entwife, Winterbloom, which was a real honor. Entwives had never been on the screen before, so we had an opportunity to do so. Shes a cherry blossom tree. It was important that Entwives were feminine but remained purely a tree. That was part of the motivation of picking something with these beautiful blossoms on the top, he adds. Her face is a tree that I found nearby that is little bit Maggie Smith and stern as if she was going to tell Harry Potter that he was going to get demerits. It was a nice facial expression, and we designed on top of that all the nuances that make her face. We were so lucky with the voices [Ed Broadbent and Olivia Williams]. Central to the plot is the Elven forge with which Sauron crafts the rings of power. I will tell you that set was incredible, and we didnt have to do much, Smith reveals. We had to help when they were melting metal and when they were right in the middle of forging. Sometimes when the fire was super hot or someone is walking out of the fire, we had to help with those moments as well. Returning environments such as Nmenor were given an upgrade. The Eregion Siege where the real battle takes place was the big one because we did see it in Season 1 but not at the same level, says Smith. We saw glimpses of it. Now we were in situation where the fulcrum of the emotional arc of the season is taking place here. The tragedy of the Second Age. All of a sudden you have a crew of hundreds of people working in the same city asking you how much damage there is in Scene 427B. In the end, there were seven damage levels. The dwarves had built this wall around the city between seasons, and we wanted to get that put in there, states Smith. The next thing we got going was a heat map where you could go to any part of the plot in this document we put together and say, I want to go halfway through Episode 206. You could see with the heat map the areas of the city that were partially, middle, and fully destroyed. That heat map would change as you dragged the slider through the plot of the show. Special effects helped to guide the visual effects work. Our crew on the special effects side is great and are doing everything they can, but the scale of that battle was such that we were out of the corners of the frame quickly and too often, Smith states. We had to start leaning into the visual effects, though even then, every frame was chalk full of what special effects could give us. There is a big oner where we go through a lot of smoke and fires everywhere, and we added about two thirds to that. But the third that they gave us was critical because it tells us how bright fire is in that light. The troll from Season 1 is an entirely separate asset from the one that appears in Season 2. Tolkien talked about how trolls are strong, mean and dumb, observes Smith. What we did on the first season was to make one that was hungry but still strong, mean and quite dumb. It wasnt going to have a conversation with you, and I dont actually think it had lips. But we found a way to make it roar! Then on this season we wanted to push all those nobs another way. What does a troll look or act like when its a bit smarter than the average troll? But still quite strong and maybe because of being smarter, hes even meaner than most of them know how to be. Ron Perlmans physical qualities came to mind as well as Mike Ehrmantraut [Jonathan Banks] from Breaking Bad as a personality for the character. Jonathan Banks plays things in a certain way that he seems to be over but if you cross him, you better not think hes not paying attention. That became a handhold for us and all the animators. I love that character so much! Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer.

Theres plenty to gawk at in Netflixs animated feature Ultraman: Rising, from explosive inner-city battles to adorable baby kaiju Emis cheeky smile and her explosive poops.But another mesmerizing feature in Emmy Award-winning director Shannon Tindles latest animated achievement up for Annie Awards consideration with voting this week is Ken Satos hair. As if the heartthrob character needed yet another feature for viewers to drool over.VFX supervisor Hayden Jones sure thought so.One of the things we knew we didn't want was a full hair simulation, where every strand is there, he says. It would break the effect of the stylization.The animation design on the film, produced by Netflix Animation, Tsuburaya Productions and Industrial Light & Magic, falls somewhere between comic and cartoon, hand-drawn 2D and 3D graphics. The film centered around main character Ken Sato whos trying to live up to his fathers legacy as Ultraman while balancing his celebrity status and sudden promotion to adoptive kaiju father is full of highly emotive characters with defined 2D face lines and superhero fight sequences with plenty of hand-drawn effects layered onto more traditionally rigged 3DCG animation.So, it makes sense that, when it came to the characters hair, fluffy and soft textures werent going to cut it. We had these solid surfaces, and we got them to move correctly, so they felt right, shares Jones. But, still, the look was really elusive. Shannon brought forward quite a lot of great Japanese actor references where they all had these beautiful hairstyles that were quite slicked over, and they had these highlights that ran down the parting. We were like, That's it. Thats what weve got to create.Just because the hair had to fit into this manga-adjacent animation, didnt mean it couldnt stand out, as Jones puts it, with some hot highlights.It was an interesting challenge, but the look dev team worked with the composite team and we just all pulled together, says Jones. We were really pleased by the end. I would love to have hair that is that beautiful.As stylized as it is, Ultraman, a property that created in 1966 by Eiji Tsuburaya, also has deep roots in Japans history and Jones felt it was important to connect their feature films style with not only something visually delicious, but something authentically Japanese. And the line work on both the characters and background settings was a massive part of that push. When you start investigating how manga and anime have informed each other over many, many years, you start projecting it into, Where can we take it? Where can we push that technique next? says Jones. And you always want to know where historically it's been, so that you can start innovating from a set point. With line work, it's very specific. Sometimes there's hard outlines, smaller, thinner lines to define smaller structures. Getting that balance right, when you pay attention to it, instantly looks like you've brought a manga or an anime to life. If you get it slightly wrong, it starts looking more like an American comic. We really wanted to make sure we were being as culturally authentic as we possibly could, so we put a lot of care into all the really small details like that.The contact shots that launch sequences from 3D to quick 2D frames when Ultraman gets hit or hits back was another detail pulled from fight sequences in many anime series that Jones wanted to incorporate into Tindles film.We started out working with the lighting and compositing teams to see if this kind of transition was something we could do automatically, notes Jones. And, actually, you cant do it automatically because its so dependent on performance. Sometimes its two frames, sometimes its three, sometimes its even four. It depends on how you want to adjust the contrast. Sometimes we invert the whole image. It really has to play to the action and the story beat.But even though each scene had to be art directed, Jones says the transitions, while tedious, were extremely enjoyable.Because youre trying to shock the viewer with this visual stimulus that connects the punch or whatever is happening, he says. It was great fun. Another small detail that gathered inspiration from classic Japanese anime like Akira and Cowboy Bebop, which Jones became known for on the team, were the lens flares used in film. Of course, pulling from 2D references and then translating that lens flare tradition into 3D, like most things with Ultraman, required balance.Its a big part of the story and was just as true for all of us working on the films style, says Jones. We were looking at the TohoScope lenses developed in the 50s by Toho Studios and how they deal with lens flare. They have these beautiful anamorphic lens flares. Thats the real world. And then we were looking at Akira on the other side where you have these hand drawn, super stylized lens flares. We thought, How do we merge these two worlds together?Jones and his team created a toolset with massive geometric shapes that moved in a way that reflected aspects of both TohoScope and Akiras lens flares. Jones was even given the production team title, Emperor of the Lens Flare.Every lens flare was art directed by me and it was an absolute joy to direct every single one of them, says Jones, I pride myself on my lens flare. Theres a shot where Ken's approaching the camera on the motorbike and the lens flare does the full Akira where it just radiates out. I love that shot.He adds, There's a kind of DNA of anime and manga that runs vividly through the whole film. It is a love letter from all of us at ILM to the thousands and thousands of talented artists who have been creating these films for years. Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has announced its nominees for the 3rd Annual Childrens & Family Emmy Awards. The awards ceremonies are scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on March 15, 2025. Now in its third year, this standalone competition spotlights the pinnacle of creativity and innovation in childrens entertainment.This years nominations are particularly meaningful as much of the work being honored was delayed due to last years strikes, said Rachel Schwartz, Head of the Childrens & Family Emmy Awards. It is a privilege to have been named Head of a competition that is not only honoring exceptional talent but is also shaping the way children and their families interact with the world. Congratulations to all.Two winners and an Honorable Mention in the Juried category, Public Service Initiative, were also announced. Winners in the Juried Individual Achievement in Animation categories will be announced in early 2025. The Lifetime Achievement honoree and ceremony host and presenters will be announced in early 2025.Here are highlights of the Childrens and Family Emmy Awards Nominees in animation and visual effects; the complete list can be seen here.Preschool SeriesBlues Clues & You! NickelodeonDonkey Hodie - PBS KidsLovely Little Farm - Apple TV+Sesame Street - MAXFiction SpecialMonster High 2 NickelodeonThe Naughty Nine - Disney ChannelThe Slumber Party - Disney ChannelThe Velveteen Rabbit - Apple TV+Worlds Best - Disney+Preschool Animated SeriesFrog and Toad - Apple TV+Interrupting Chicken - Apple TV+Rosies Rules - PBS KidsStoryBots: Answer Time - NetflixThe Tiny Chef Show - NickelodeonChildrens or Young Teen Animated SeriesCURSES! - Apple TV+Hilda - NetflixIwj - Disney+Kiff - Disney ChannelMarvels Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - Disney+Summer Camp Island - Cartoon NetworkAnimated Special Merry Little Batman - Prime VideoOrion and the Dark NetflixPeter and the Wolf MaxSnoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie - Apple TV+The Tigers Apprentice - Paramount+Tiny Chefs Marvelous Mish Mesh Special - NickelodeonShort Form Animated ProgramHow Not to Draw - Disney ChannelI Am Groot - Disney+Once Upon a Studio - Disney+Take Care with Peanuts - Snoopy - Official ChannelThe Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse: Steamboat Silly - Disney+Interactive MediaCousin Hodie Playdate - Donkey Hodie - PBS KidsCyberchase: Cyber Sound Quest - PBS KidsDaniel Tigers Neighborhood - PBS KidsMolly of Denali - PBS KidsStus Super Stunts! - PBS KidsVoice Performer in a Preschool ProgramBobby Moynihan as Bobby Boots: Pupstruction - Disney JuniorCree Summer as Lizard & DeeDee: Spirit Rangers NetflixFred Tatasciore as Bang, BlimBlam the Barbarian, King Hydrogen,Alabama Smith & The Lone Drifter: StoryBots: Answer Time NetflixKari Wahlgren as Granny Caterina, Ms. Poochytail & Magda: Superkitties - Disney JuniorVoice Performer in a Childrens or Young Teen ProgramBen Feldman as Tylor Tuskmon: Monsters at Work - Disney+Bob Bergen as Porky Pig: Looney Tunes Cartoons MaxEric Bauza as Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny: Teen Titans Go! - Cartoon NetworkPaul Walter Hauser as Dark: Orion and the Dark - NetflixWilliam Shatner as Keldor: Masters of the Universe: Revolution - NetflixYounger Voice Performer in a Preschool, Childrens, or Young Teen ProgramArianna McDonald as Marcie: Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie - Apple TV+Jacob Tremblay as Orion: Orion in the Dark - NetflixLucia Cunningham as Jessica Williams: Jessicas Big Little World - Cartoon NetworkSimisola Gbadamosi as Tola Martins: Iwj - Disney+Terrence Little Gardenhigh as Pat: Fright Krewe - Hulu I PeacockWriting for a Preschool Animated SeriesJessicas Big Little World: Glow Toy - Cartoon NetworkXavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: I am Grandmaster Flash - PBS KidsMolly of Denali: Not a Mascot - PBS KidsStoryBots: Answer Time: Taxes NetflixStoryBots: Answer Time: Tornado - NetflixWriting for a Childrens or Young Teen Animated SeriesMy Dad the Bounty Hunter: Abducted NetflixMarvels Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Dancing With Myself - Disney+Craig of the Creek: Heart of the Forest - Cartoon NetworkHaileys On It!: I Wanna Dance With My Buddy Disney ChannelDirecting for a Preschool Animated SeriesStoryBots: Answer Time: "Fractions" NetflixGhee Happy: "Ganga" - Ghee Happy StudioStoryBots: Answer Time: Glass NetflixXavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: I am Grandmaster Flash - PBS KidsSpirit Rangers: Xutash Harvest - NetflixDirecting for an Animated SeriesIwj: Kole - Disney+Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire: Moremi - Disney+Hilda: The Fairy Isle NetflixMonsters at Work: Descent Into Fear - Disney+Marvels Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Molecular Level - Disney+Voice Directing for an Animated SeriesDaniel Tigers Neighborhood - PBS KidsMarvels Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - Disney+Monsters at Work - Disney+Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - Disney+Young Love - HBO | MaxMusic Direction and Composition for an Animated ProgramFrog and Toad - Apple TV+Gremlins: Secrets of The Mogwai MaxLooney Tunes Cartoons MaxOrion and the Dark NetflixStar Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - Disney+Original Song for a Preschool ProgramStoryBots: Answer Time: Find the Area NetflixBaby Sharks Big Movie!: Keep Swimming Through NickelodeonAlices Wonderland Bakery: Let Your Wish Carry You Away - Disney JuniorSesame Street: Thats Why We Love Nature MaxStoryBots: Answer Time: The Tornado Song - NetflixOriginal Song for a Childrens or Young Teen ProgramHaileys On It!: Kiss Your Friend - Disney ChannelOne Piece: My Sails are Set - NetflixFraggle Rock: Back to the Rock: Radishes vs. Strawberries Apple TV+High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: Speak Out Disney+Kiff: Things - Disney ChannelShow OpenThe Fairly OddParents: A New Wish - NickelodeonHilda - NetflixPercy Jackson and the Olympians - Disney+Peter and the Wolf - MaxThe Spiderwick Chronicles -Roku ChannelEditing for a Preschool Animated ProgramFrog and Toad - Apple TV+Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - Disney+StoryBots: Answer Time NetflixStoryBots: Super Silly Stories with Bo NetflixThe Tiny Chef Show - NickelodeonEditing for an Animated ProgramHilda NetflixMarvels Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - Disney+Merry Little Batman - Prime VideoOrion and the Dark - NetflixSnoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin - Apple TV+The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse: Steamboat Silly - Disney+Sound Mixing and Sound Editing for a Preschool Animated ProgramBaby Sharks Big Movie! - Paramount+Santiago of the Seas - NICK Jr.Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - Disney+The Winter Blues - Apple TV+Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum - PBS KidsSound Mixing and Sound Editing for an Animated ProgramI Am Groot - Disney+Jurassic World: Chaos Theory - NetflixMech Cadets - NetflixMonsters at Work - Disney+Orion and the Dark - NetflixTransformers: EarthSpark - NickelodeonVisual Effects for a Live-Action ProgramFraggle Rock: Back to the Rock - Apple TV+Goosebumps - Disney+The Naughty Nine - Disney ChannelOne Piece NetflixPercy Jackson and the Olympians - Disney+The Spiderwick Chronicles - Roku ChannelCasting for an Animated ProgramGremlins: Secrets of The Mogwai - MaxJurassic World: Chaos Theory NetflixMonsters at Work - Disney+Orion and the Dark -NetflixRock Paper Scissors - NickelodeonSpirit Rangers -NetflixSupa Team 4 NetflixSource: Source: The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.

John Cena also stars in the live-action film from Skydance, Apple Original Films, and Mattel Films, inspired by Mattels real-world die-cast toy vehicle line, invented in 1953 by Jack Odell.

Hosts Frankey Smith & Tyler Coates, with comic correspondent Coy Jandreau, break down the latest on all things DC and DC Studios in the unscripted video podcast series.

Recent turmoil in the halls of entertainment studios and platform providersinvolved in creating and distributing entertainment content, from cinemas to small screens and everything in between, means 2025, like 2024, will see companies within Media & Entertainment (M&E) aggressively lookingforways to stay competitive, cut costs, and deliver experiences that meet the needs and expectations of increasingly sophisticated audiences and consumers.In discussion with Rob Hoffman, Senior Worldwide Manager for Media & Entertainment Vertical, Lenovo, at this past Octobers VIEW Conference in Turin, as well as at early Decembers SIGGRAPH Asia conference in Tokyo, his take on the future growth of entertainment content creation is quite optimistic.There is an insatiable appetite for fresh, new entertainment experiences spanning film, television, and OTT content, as well as game development, live and interactive experiences - sporting events, art installations, etc. - and more, he notes. With consumer demand continuing to grow, artists and studios are carrying the burden to deliver a larger quantity of higher fidelity entertainment experiences. Working alongside partners such as AMD, growth in our business can be tied to the infrastructure requirements, such as greater compute capabilities, to deliver the larger quantity of higher fidelity content.According to Hoffman, part of his role, and the companys, is not just to supply equipment and related services, but to support clients with their critical production pipelines and workflow system integration they rely on to stay competitive and deliver the best, highest quality content. We work closely with our client studios and integrate them into the development process - from a clean sheet design and technology integration to prerelease testing and deployment within their production pipelines, he says. In addition, ISV partners are also part of this program, and we collaborate with them directly on prerelease testing, qualifications and performance tuning. As for products, we prioritize partnering with the best solution providers to effortlessly tackle even the most complex visual workflows, he continues. ThinkStation P8 enables power-users to create revolutionary products, better, smarter and faster than ever before with the professional power of AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series processors. Partnering with solution providers dedicated to smarter innovation allows everyone to make the needs of our power-users a top priority.No current discussion of M&E can avoid running head first into the growing and often contentious use of AI; some describe AI as the defining tech of our era, while others are not so charitable. And while its easy to see how technology companies - already some of the largest businesses in the world - are quite bullish on AI, more and more, companies within M&E are calling for and embracing Ethical AI that respects, and adheres, to well-defined ethical guidelines regarding fundamental values, including such things as individual rights, privacy, non-discrimination, and non-manipulation.Hoffman notes that its of growing importance that companies commit to Ethical AI and support efforts to increase compliance. There have been a lot of discussions and concern about AI replacing artists and the IP in which models are trained on. The industry as a whole, including artists, studios and those that create the tools and hardware used within production, has been working to understand the impacts of AI and push for policies on its ethical use. I envision AI as being an assistant to the artist and freeing the artist from the more technical and mundane tasks of production so they can focus more on the art itself. AIs core advantage lies in providing seamless and intuitive user experiences. This means your device becomes more intuitive over time, anticipating artist needs and adapting to their style of working.Hegoes on to explain that Lenovo is exploring all aspects of AI and how it relates to the technology found within the companys workstations, as well as how those workstations are being deployed where AI is being leveraged. We are working with those within the industry to better understand what artist and studio requirements will be, along with how software solutions will be integrating AI and the requirements of it on the hardware its running on so we can account for these requirements and bring solutions to market to address them.Remarking on the increased reliance on, and technological support for, cloud computing, including pay-as-you-go rendering, Hoffman says, The impacts [on Lenovo] are minimal as, for years, studios have had dedicated render farms and utilized workstations as supplemental compute when they were sitting idle. How studios are leveraging cloud is evolving, as there is a reverse cloud migration under way with many studios to reduce costs and have more control over their hardware infrastructure and IP.Additionally, he concludes, creative studios often deal with sensitive content and proprietary intellectual property. By keeping data on-premises, they maintain greater control over security protocols and reduce the risks associated with data breaches or unauthorized access in cloud environments. Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Nominations for the 52nd Annual Saturn Awards were announced last week, recognizing programming, performances and special effects in genre entertainment within the Film and Television categories. Since 1972, The Saturn Awards have been presented each year by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.The Saturn Awards ceremony will return on February 2, 2025 at The Hilton Universal City Hotel, and will stream live on Electric Entertainments ElectricNOW platform and The Roku Channel for free. This years show is dedicated to the memory of acclaimed producer Jon Landau, most well-known for producing blockbuster films such as Avatar and Titanic. Bradley Marcus and Kevin Marcus produce the Saturn Awards, with Robert Holguin serving as executive producer.This year, Warner Brothers (including Legendary) holds the top spot in the Film category, amassing 35 nominations for movies such as Dune: Part Two, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Wonka. Disney (including Marvel/Fox/Pixar) boasts 28 nominations for Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus, Kingdom Of the Planet of The Apes, and Inside Out 2. Amazon/MGM+ dominates the Television categories with 17 nominations, including five for the Bethesda video game franchise adaptation, Fallout. Satirical superhero series The Boys received three nominations, while the nightmarish From scared up four nominations, including Best Horror Television Series.Disney/Lucasfilm/Marvel and Max accrued 11 nominations each. From Marvel/Disney+, the WandaVision spin-off Agatha All Along conjured up four nominations. Lucasfilm/Disney+s newest addition to the Star Wars saga, Ahsoka, is up for Best Science Fiction Television Series and Best Actress on Television (Rosario Dawson). Marvels Loki boasts nominations for Best Superhero Television Series and Best Guest Star on Television (Ke Huy Quan).Netflixs Cobra Kai waxes on with two nominations, while Mike Flanagans The Fall of The House of Usher received three nominations.Maxs Batman spin-off The Penguin, which explores the characters rise in Gotham Citys underworld, acquired four nominations. George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condals prequel to Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, swooped up three top nominations.Godzilla The King of the Monsters is represented on both film and TV with Toho Internationals Godzilla: Minus One, crushing four nominations. Apple TV+s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters received noms for Best Adventure Television Series, Best Supporting TV Actress (Anna Sawai) and for the first time father & son Kurt Russell & Wyatt Russell are nominated jointly for Best Television Actor for portraying the same role at different ages.This year also sees the introduction of a new category, Best Genre Comedy Television Series, to highlight more offbeat, quirky and darkly humorous series such as Chucky, Ghosts, and What We Do in the Shadows.The complete list of Saturn Award nominees can be found here. Special Awards and ceremony Host will be announced in the coming weeks.Source: The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

As the head of marketing and publicity at Centropolis Entertainment, Jean de Meuron, after watching Roland Emmerich produce and direct blockbusters Midway and Moonfall, decided to follow his own epic vision and write, direct and produce an ambitious short film called Edge of Space. The ambitious 18-minute production captures the moment in 1963 when U.S. Air Force test pilots, flying the X-15, crossed the Krmn line and set in motion the eventual 1969 historic first human lunar landing. The film was an awards winner at the 2024 Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and had a screening hosted by Emmerich vas well. Narratively speaking we were inspired by Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Shepard, and John Glenn, states de Meuron. Were a short film nowhere near the budget of these massive studios and NASA was like, We love that youre passionate about this. NASA provided access to an actual X-15 that could be scanned for the digital recreation.The cockpit was sealed off, which led to some camera trickery, he continues. Onset, I knew we couldnt have Chad Michael Collins step out of the opening canopy. I told Chad, Step on the ladder and step out. [The] Visual effects [team] was able to open the canopy, so it looked like he had disembarked. The discussions as to the idea of documentary versus fiction were numerous. In the cinematic arts, sometimes we cheat to get the desired emotional effect, notes de Meuron. Because that X-15 is maybe 30 feet long, at the height of 100,000 feet, you would never see it from the ground. But we found a way to make it look real with added contrails. Charlie [Charles Joslain, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor on the film, also the COO & Head of Creative at VFX Los Angeles] had a good point. We studied NASA archival footage voraciously. NASA gave us access to original footage. There were planes flying nearby an X-15 so we could study exactly the dissipation of the contrail, how a X-15 would drop or ignite, and then of course, we amplified that sometimes for cinematic value. A lot of the clouds that you see were simulated in Unreal Engine, VFX Supervisor Izzy Traub explains. Anytime either the B-52 bomber or X-15 are flying through a cloud or interacting with any of the environment, we would simulate that separately in Houdini. We used Houdini quite a bit for the interaction. Any of the contrails were done in Houdini. Contrails proved difficult to integrate into the footage. Everybody has looked up at the sky and weve all seen an airplane go 600 miles per hour, notes Joslain. Have fun doing that when its a rocket basically that is going Mach 5 or 6. Nobody knows exactly what that looks like. We had some historical grainy 1960s footage that was somewhat handheld; it was not great so we did a lot of physics work to understand what that contrail would look like, how would it dissipate in the air at this speed, and what would be the distance between the reactor versus the contrail actually forming. A deliberate choice was made to have cinematographer Daryl Hefti shoot the cockpit with long lenses. The field of view narrows with longer lenses, and we wanted to show the contained space where you feel almost claustrophobic, remarks de Meuron. Then when we go into space, I wanted to expand and go wider outside. Also, we changed the sound design. Outside was almost no sound; it was more music. Inside was the sound design. The challenge for Charlie was the interior of the cockpit was contained and shot mostly in closeups or extreme closeups. We were really on the face of Chad. You could see the reflections. A hybrid approach was adopted for the visor reflections. We deliberately made choices onset to be efficient and effective, states de Meuron. I did the whole scene shooting the astronaut with the visor down, then looked over to Charlie and asked, What do you think? He said, Lets shoot one scene with the visor up in case we have an issue. We would do the whole scene one more time with the visor up. Then of course with the brilliance of VFX Los Angeles, if I liked the performance with the visor down but we had a reflection, they were still able to remove the glass, replicate that, paint out and recreate the skin so I could maintain that performance.We have ambitious epic scale shots, de Meuron continues. I thought those were going to be the challenging ones. But the small nuances and the layers were the challenging ones, and that was eye opening. What you perceive is just a visor removal. But there were so many elements because we had different color tones and temperatures. Onset I would cue my gaffer [Orlando Hernandez] because we measured the color temperature. It was warmer in the atmosphere with the setting sun. The higher we went into space I would cue him so he could bake in more blue. The color temperature shifted on Chads face. We were also dealing with that narrative trick where we played with colors that had a warm hue versus a bluer tone. In space, we wanted to feel colder, so we changed the color temperature of the light as we filmed. This was something that Charlie and Izzy were able to blend in seamlessly and work around. The interior of cockpit was recreated by Myra Barrera (Production Designer) working from historical references. The exterior in the desert, that is the real X-15, while the interior was shot at the studio with the same canopy that would open and close, plus the seat, stick, and panel with all of the gauges, states de Meuron, who favored low angle shots. You see Chads chair, little parts of the cockpit and technical stuff. Charlie and I recreated the cockpit of the X-15 as a digital asset, which allowed us to move around his point of view within the cockpit. The outside didnt have to be greenscreen because we recreated it from his point of view as well.The flying Huey helicopter and B-52 bomber were done digitally. No plane actually flew during the making of Edge of Space, reveals de Meuron. For the helicopters, we used drones, and it was deliberate. I had already edited and directed the shot in my head. Charlie and Izzy were part of the pre-production with storyboarding, so we added those 3D assets into the plates. When we were on the ground, we did some camera blocking tricks where we made the helicopter seemingly takeover. The rotating blades werent on the Huey helicopter, so we added them. One of the more complex shots was the landing of the X-15. That plane cant takeoff on its own, explains de Meuron. Its attached to a B-52 bomber and dropped because the wings are short and basically you have skies that slide on the lakebed. Youre dropped, ignite, and by time youre in outer space youve already used all of your fuel so Earth gravitational pull would bring you back and from there you would glide and land with hydraulics. Its a complex, scientifically brilliant machine. For that shot, Charlie and I studied what Edwards Air Force Base looked like in the 1960s. Which hangers were there? We looked at aerial shots of the time. Then you have to have a taxiway, runway, hangers, and people working at the hangers. It was figuring out the scale within the shot. How tall is a hanger in comparison to a person and X-15? What are the distances? It was a mathematical, almost 3D grid or layout where we figured out what would look realistic in terms of the distances covered. What is the B-52 in relation to a hanger in terms of the scope and size. We looked at so many details, from the hanger to different taxiways, and positioned them. We almost drew on the frames and said, Heres this. That is the distance from this in relation to that. Imperfections, such as camera shakes, were incorporated into the imagery. Onset, when we were in the cockpit, I deliberately used a handheld camera, states de Meuron. I would tell Daryl Hefti, Make it a bit shaky. So, you feel that velocity as that piece of metal burst into space. VFX Los Angeles added some additional shake. But then you also dont want to lose information. When we go into space suddenly, we wanted to replicate the weightlessness with the camera. Suddenly the camera blocking becomes steady and smooth. We added small tilts or pans.One dramatic choice was to show an exploding X-15 reflected in a pair of sunglasses worn by the protagonist of the story. From a narrative perspective and emotional point of view, I wanted the audience to see and feel the explosion at the same time our character does, explains de Meuron. Seeing the incident through the reflected sunglasses gives us as the viewer the opportunity to experience the protagonist's pain and shock, as we see his reaction and response to what we simultaneously see. From a technical aspect, this was about finding a balance between what feels authentic versus cinematic. We visually wanted to convey something realistic.In recognition that the space program was built with test pilots willing to sacrifice their lives, CG headstones were added to create a military burial ground on par with Arlington National Cemetery.We had to also add CG bushes in order to cleanup the road because we basically shot the funeral scene behind the diner, Traub reveals. For me, visual effects are an element to uplift and elevate the story, remarks de Meuron. Its an additive element. We shot as many plates as we could and were on location because I love that texture of a real location. Mostly we shot during magic hour because I wanted to have that Terrence Malick look with all available light. Visual effects become a blended photorealistic element where people came up to us and said, Wow. I couldnt tell what were visual effects and what werent.NASA was supportive of the films production. According to de Meuron, No money exchanged hands. This was just to support us up-and-coming filmmakers who are passionate about an era of scientific innovation and human perseverance when as a species, we were united with one common purpose. That was the message. We wanted to be uplifting and inspiring. People have responded and said, We love what youre doing. A big thank you to Roland Emmerich, who has been such a mentor over these years. Roland always loves young people and supports them. Im proud to say that we didnt use him as an executive producer. This was just us because we wanted to make this and show it to him. Roland was so impressed and loved it. Im proud of the outcome. Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer.

Today, Mindy Kaling and Morris Chestnut presented the nominees in each of 27 award categories for the 82nd Annual Golden Globes at a press conference at the Beverly Hilton.The award ceremony will be held on Sunday, January 5, 2025 live on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.Highlights of the nominations are as follows click here for a complete list:Best Motion Picture AnimatedFlow (Sideshow / Janus Films)Inside Out 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)Memoir of a Snail (IFC Films)Moana 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)The Wild Robot (Universal Pictures)Best Motion Picture DramaThe Brutalist (A24)A Complete Unknown (Searchlight Pictures)Conclave (Focus Features)Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros. Pictures)Nickel Boys (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)September 5 (Paramount Pictures)Best Motion Picture - Musical or ComedyAnora (NEON)Challengers (Amazon MGM Studios)Emilia Prez (Netflix)A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)The Substance (MUBI)Wicked (Universal Pictures)Cinematic and Box Office AchievementAlien: Romulus (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. Pictures)Deadpool & Woolverine (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)Gladiator II (Paramount Pictures)Inside Out 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)Twisters (Universal Pictures)Wicked (Universal Pictures)The Wild Robot (Universal Pictures)Best Original Score Motion PicturesVolker Bertelmann (Conclave)Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist)Kris Bowers (The Wild Robot)Clment Ducol, Camille (Emilia Prez)Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (Challengers)Hans Zimmer (Dune: Part Two)Best Television Series - DramaThe Day of the Jackal (PEACOCK)The Diplomat (NETFLIX)Mr. & Mrs. Smith (PRIME VIDEO)Shgun (FX/HULU)Slow Horses (APPLE TV+)Squid Game (NETFLIX)Source: Hollywood Foreign Press Association Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has named acclaimed virtual reality/immersive technology pioneer Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie as the forthcoming recipient of the Georges Mlis Award. The award will be presented at the 23rd Annual VES Awards on February 11, 2025, at The Beverly Hilton hotel.The VES Georges Mlis Award recognizes an individual for pioneering significant and lasting contributions to the art and science of the visual effects industry by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work. Dr. Morie has redefined the possibilities of immersive media, infusing them with profound emotional and educational resonance. Her visionary leadership has shaped pivotal projects across health, space exploration, art, and education, underscoring her as a transformative innovator and thought leader.Dr. Jacki Morie exemplifies enduring impact at the intersection of art, science, and technology, shaping the future of virtual experiences worldwide, said VES Chair Kim Davidson. She has been at the edge of technological advances since the 1980s, and remains dedicated to mentoring the next generation of VR innovators while forging ahead with new paradigms in immersive media. For her contributions to the computer animation and visual effects industries and role as a defining voice of immersive technology, we are honored to award Jacki with the prestigious VES Georges Mlis Award.On being awarded by the VES, Dr. Morie stated, I am honored to receive this recognition, though I did not contribute to this field alone. I am indebted to every person who went before me, who inspired me, who mentored me, encouraged my crazy ideas and challenged me to forge new paths. I will be forever grateful to them and hope to continue to make them proud. And I hope this honor will serve to inspire many more to follow their dreams towards inventing a better future.Dr. Morie helped establish the University of Southern Californias Institute for Creative Technologies that launched in 1999, and was a Senior Scientist there for 14 years, working on projects in virtual reality, virtual worlds, mobile applications and intelligent virtual humans. Prior to that, she initiated comprehensive training programs for the computer animation and special effects industries, including work for Walt Disney Feature Animation and Rhythm and Hues Studios. She also designed animation, computer graphics and immersive media curricula for several academic programs such as Ringling College of Art and Design, the University of Central Florida, Otis College of Art and Design and UCLA Extension.After forming her own company, All These Worlds, LLC in 2011, she produced a pivotal study for NASA called ANSIBLE, designed to mitigate social isolation and sensory deprivation future astronauts would encounter on long duration space missions. She served as Senior Technical Advisor on the XPRIZE ANA Avatar Competition for 2018-2022, advocating for the use of two-way haptics in robot avatars to bring enhanced sensory impact to the operators of such robots.In 2020, Dr. Morie co-edited with Kate McCallum The Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media, a definitive work illuminating the transformative influence of immersive technologies of all forms. Her forthcoming two-volume history of Virtual Reality chronicles the trailblazers who propelled this technological frontier into new realms.She has received several recognitions, including the prestigious AIXR Accenture Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and induction into the inaugural AWE XR Hall of Fame in 2024. She was recognized by the Virtual World Society with the Legacy Nextant Award and honored by ACM SIGGRAPH's Academy in 2024.Previous recipients of the VES Georges Mlis Award include Bob Abel, John Lasseter, Joe Letteri, Phil Tippett, VES, Ed Catmull, VES and Douglas Trumbull, VES.Source: The Visual Effects Society Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Disney has released a behind-the-scenes look at the making of A Disney Holiday Short: The Boy & The Octopus. Director Taika Waititi provides exclusive commentary about his experience creating the short, offering insight into his goals for casting, filming locations, and the emotional connection he wanted audiences to form.I was struck by just how magical and beautiful the story was, said Waititi. Its a simple tale of a boy on holiday and he goes swimming and then meets an unexpected friend in the least expected place. I love the idea of these two characters from completely different worlds who are looking for connection.The film follows the journey of a child who discovers a curious octopus has attached to his head during a seaside vacation. After returning home, the boy forms a true friendship with the octopus by introducing his new companion to his life on land harnessing the power of the Force with his Jedi lightsaber, playing with his Buzz Lightyear action figure, and imagining Santa Claus route around the world with the map on his wall before taking the lovable octopus out into the world to experience the joy of the holidays, hidden under his Mickey Mouse beanie.The short was created in conjunction with global creative agencies adam&eveDDB and Untold Studios, and produced by Hungry Man. The melodic rendition of Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid (1989), which can be heard throughout the short, was recorded live by a 60-piece orchestra and mixed in the Abbey Road recording studio. The songs flexible melody allowed Toby Williams, the music supervisor from Leland, to play with the song in different ways throughout the film to adapt to the range of emotions.A Disney Holiday Short: The Boy & The Octopus is the latest creative collaboration between Waititi and The Walt Disney Company. The acclaimed filmmaker directed Marvel Studios Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Searchlight Pictures Jojo Rabbit (2019) and Next Goal Wins (2023), as well as executive produced Hulus Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows, and the forthcoming limited series, Interior Chinatown.Source: Disney Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

The CG animated film, which follows a busker and his cat, won Best Kids Animation; Warner Bros. Discoverys animated series aimed at solving the greatest mystery in the universe nabbed the Kids: Factual & Entertainment award.

RADiCAL has appointed Adrian Rashad Driscoll to its advisory board. The appointment is timed with the integration of RADiCAL with Tinkercad, Autodesks online 3D design and modeling platform a cornerstone of digital creativity in education, empowering students and teachers to explore 3D design and STEM learning.During his career, Driscoll has aimed to empower young people in underprivileged and under-represented communities across the US. Through his teaching roles with programs like EAST Initiative, Driscoll has introduced XR tools to help students explore education. In 2020, Driscoll co-founded Collimation with record producer Young Guru to support global talent with live XR entertainment experiences.Applying his knowledge and industry connections, Driscoll plans to advocate for RADiCALs mission of democratizing content creation."Creativity doesnt thrive only in affluent areas, commented Driscoll. On the contrary, it often emerges from diverse experiences. Thats why we must make these tools accessible to all creators, regardless of their financial circumstances. I joined the RADiCAL team for this very reason. Imagine if Picasso had been unable to paint simply because he couldnt afford a brush."Tinkercad is Autodesks free 3D modeling app that equips the next generation of creators and engineers with the foundational skills for innovation. This new seamless integration enables students and educators to create custom 3D assets in Tinkercad and bring them directly into RADiCALs platform for enhanced visualization and animation. The software enables students to move from imagination to interaction in ways that were previously limited to professional studios.We're thrilled to welcome Adrian to our advisory board at such a pivotal moment for RADiCAL, said Gavan Gravesen, CEO and Co-founder of RADiCAL. "Adrian's passion for empowering underrepresented communities and his dedication to innovation align perfectly with our mission to democratize content creation. His leadership and advocacy will be invaluable as we expand access to our tools, including through initiatives like our Tinkercad integration and free access for educational institutions. Together, were making it possible for creators everywhereregardless of backgroundto bring their ideas to life.Source: RADiCAL Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Created by Samuel Lewek and his team at the Filmakademie Baden-Wrttemberg, Dancing in Norms reflects the upcoming events Rhythm of Change theme; House of the Dragon Season 2 is first confirmed presentation.

The film franchises third installment will now debut on February 14, 2025, taking advantage of the double Valentines Day / Presidents Day weekend.

Technicolor Group, one of the global leaders in creative technology and visual experiences, has appointed David Conley as the new President of MPC, reporting directly to Andrea Miloro, Chief Business & Strategy Officer, and Caroline Parot, Chief Executive Officer.Conley brings over two decades of experience in the VFX industry. Most recently, he served as the Executive Producer at Wt FX, where he played a pivotal role in delivering groundbreaking visuals for projects such as Avatar: The Way of Water, The Last of Us Series, and War is Over!. His expertise in managing complex, large-scale productions while fostering collaboration between creative and technical teams has earned him a reputation as one of the most respected figures in the industry.He has also held leadership roles at other globally recognized studios, spearheading initiatives to integrate emerging technologies into creative workflows, delivering results that set new benchmarks for quality and innovation. His work has garnered numerous accolades, including Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and Emmys, further highlighting his impact within the industry.Andrea Miloro and Caroline Parot commented, Davids appointment embodies our commitment to delivering world-class visual experiences. Renowned as a visionary creative leader, his passion for pioneering emerging technologies perfectly aligns with our mission to redefine the boundaries of possibility in visual effects. Under Conleys leadership, MPC will look to expand its creative partnerships with filmmakers by combining creative excellence with advanced trends in technology to deliver innovative content. The company noted that This announcement underscores MPCs dedication to remaining at the forefront of the industry and delivering artistry and innovation that captivate audiences worldwide.I am honored to join MPC at such an exciting moment in its journey, Conley shared. The teams talent, passion, and ambitions to push creative boundaries are inspirational, and I look forward to collaborating with Andrea, Caroline, and the entire team to shape the future.The company also noted that, As Technicolor continues to grow its global footprint and technological capabilities, this appointment signals the companys steadfast commitment to innovation and its unwavering dedication to the creative vision of its clients.The Technicolor Group is home to a network of award-winning studios: MPC, The Mill, Mikros Animation and Technicolor Games.Source: Technicolor Group Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Independent publisher The Folio Society presents Marvel Unforgettable Stories, a 280-page hardcover collection of 10 Marvel stories, selected by actor/writer Patton Oswalt and writer Jordan Blum. The selections range from the classic, such as The Amazing Spider-Man #33 from the heart of the Silver Age, to the contemporary Hawkeye #11. Marvel Unforgettable Stories features a new cover and slipcase design by Marvel artist Marcos Martn (Daredevil), an introduction by Oswalt, and 280 pages of adventures featuring Spider-Man, Wolverine, Daredevil, and Captain America.Unlike so many best-of collections, here Patton and Jordan have carefully provided a favorite selection of the comics that have defined their love of Marvel, said James Rose, Head of Editorial at The Folio Society. It's a personal journey through some of Marvel's most unforgettable stories. Housed in a hardback volume featuring artwork by Marvel artist Marcos Martn, the selection also includes one or two surprises.Jordan Blum and Iboth lifelong comics readers and make mine Marvel fanaticshad a hard time picking only 10 stories for this collection, writes Oswalt in the books introduction. I can hear the bleats and rumblings of, But you didnt include... and How could you forget... Lemme save your vocal cords the stress - youre right. Any objections you have to any stories being passed over? Youre right. Theres simply too many to print under one cover. Hey, maybe buy this edition, and get all of your friends to buy one, and theyll let us pick 10 more! Capitalism!Marvel Unforgettable Stories includes:The Amazing Spider-Man #33 "If This Be My Destiny - The Final Chapter" (1966)Daredevil #191 "Roulette" (1983)Uncanny X-Men #205 "Wounded Wolf" (1986)Captain America #367 "Magnetic Repulsion" (1990)X-Factor #87 "X-aminations" (1993)Untold Tales of Spider-Man #20 "Wings of Hatred" (1997)Spider Man's Tangled Web #4 "Severance Package" (2001)The Runaways #1 "Pride and Joy, Chapter One" (2003)Fantastic Four #587 "Three, Part 5: The Last Stand" (2011)Hawkeye #11 "Pizza Is My Business" (2013)Other Folio Society and Marvel collaborations include Marvel: The Golden Age 1939-1949, Marvel: The Silver Age 19601970, Marvel: The Bronze Age 1970-1980, Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, and more.Marvel Unforgettable Stories is now available for purchase, including 100 signed copies.Source: Superfan Promotions Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

The College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University is utilizing Sony Electronics equipment and technology for its new Virtual Production Institute.The institute will employ Sonys BURANO and VENICE 2 digital cinema cameras, and the latest generation VERONA Crystal LED modular display. The VERONA offers high black levels, low reflection, high brightness, wide color gamut, and high refresh rate.With its innovative Crystal LED panels, BURANO and VENICE 2 digital cinema cameras and professional monitors, Sony offers opportunities for students and industry partners to utilize cutting-edge technology, said Tim McLaughlin, Dean of the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. Our partnership with Sony provides the immediate benefit of the top-quality LED panels and cameras for our virtual production volumes, plus the capacity to address the scope of the colleges long-term goals through its range of different tools and technologies for imaging, audio and internet-connected devices.The institute will leverage the latest technology from Sonys virtual production ecosystem and its Virtual Production Tool Set, which allows hardware to work together for improved performance and workflow.Exposing students to our latest technology through Texas A&Ms Virtual Production Institute will ensure future generations in the virtual production industry are trained and proficient in the technologies of tomorrow, added Theresa Alesso, President of Imaging Products and Solutions Americas, Sony Electronics. Our technologies will help the institute stand apart and create new forms of engagement and immersion.The Virtual Production Institute is based on Texas A&Ms main campus in Bryan-College Station with an extension at Texas A&M-Fort Worth. With funding support from the 88th Texas Legislature for faculty, staff and equipment, the institute will reach into workforce training, simulation for first responders, health care, the military, manufacturing, product and architectural design, digital twin environments, and live performances.Students will have access to four virtual production stages composed of large LED walls that display computer-generated imagery to create immersive worlds. Real-time game engines process photorealistic imagery and live-action scenes to create in-camera visual effects.Two of the virtual production stages will be in Fort Worth and two in Bryan-College Station. A temporary wall was recently installed in the Starlab facility at the Texas A&M-RELLIS campus in Bryan for course instruction in the Visualization programs new minor in virtual production.Virtual Production Institutes new tech was recently featured during the Arts in Motion event held on November 22 at the Omni Hotel in Fort Worth. The event closed with a virtual production demonstration on a Sony Crystal LED wall at Red Productions Backlot Studios.I hope people take away that Texas A&M is at the forefront of this technology and at the forefront of collaboration with industry to prepare the workforce of tomorrow, said David Parrish, director of the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M-Fort Worth. We are building on our established relationships with a variety of industries. And we are here to establish and nurture additional relationships, to offer the capability for them to collaborate with us, to research with us, to innovate with us. And to explore what were building and find new ways to put it to good use.Source: Texas A&M Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Laura Gordon and Tim Griffin also join previously announced star Henry Cavill and newcomer Daniel Quinn Toye; franchise follows 5 young pilots that join together to form a mega-robot.

Pixotope Technologies has launched Pixotope Reveal, an AI-powered background segmentation tool which allows broadcasters to integrate real-time graphics into live productions. The software enables integration of 2D and 3D graphics without the traditional requirements of greenscreens, manual rotoscoping, or match moving."Pixotope Reveal represents a significant leap forward in broadcast technology," said Marcus B. Brodersen, CEO of Pixotope. "By harnessing the power of machine learning, we're enabling broadcasters to create more engaging content while significantly streamlining their production workflows. Given the rapid advancement of AI technology, we anticipate that solutions like Reveal will quickly become the primary choice for broadcasters, eventually replacing traditional methods like chroma keying for Virtual Studio production. The pace of development in AI and machine learning is extraordinary, and we're positioned at the forefront of this transformation in broadcast technology."Pixotope Reveal allows presenters to interact with AR graphics in real-time. The software's advanced AI can extract on-screen talent from any background, enabling the seamless placement of graphics both in front of and behind presenters as well as interaction with polling data, weather maps, and financial charts. In sports broadcasting, real-time statistics and analysis can be integrated into the live action, with player stats, team analytics, and game data appearing to exist within the physical space rather than overlaid on screen."The ability to create graphics that truly interact with talent and adapt to the environment is a game-changer for live productions," said Gideon Ferber, Product Director at Pixotope. "Whether it's a news anchor walking through election results or sports commentators breaking down play analysis, Reveal's AI-powered integration creates a more immersive and informative viewing experience."Sports broadcasters and rights holders can also offer sponsorship opportunities with Pixotope Reveal's ability to integrate virtual advertisements into any environment. This capability allows for region-specific sponsor content and enhanced brand integration without disrupting the viewing experience.Key Features and Capabilities:Real-time talent extraction without green screensSupport for multiple simultaneous extractionsUHD resolution at 60fpsComprehensive video I/O support including SDI, SMPTE 2110, NDI, and SRTCloud-ready deployment optionsWorks as a standalone application providing key+fill to any real time graphics systemCan be integrated into existing Pixotope Graphics workflowsPixotope Reveal is available directly from Pixotopes website and through Pixotope's global network of resellers. As part of the launch, Pixotope is offering a special 30% discount for early adopters who purchase before the end of the year. A free 30-day trial is available for qualified broadcasters and production companies.Source: Pixotope Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

The appointment marks a return for the exec, who began her career in the companys Advertising division before holding roles at both DNEG and Method Studios.

The Sony Group CTO will present his talk, Co-Creating Worlds with Game Designers, Animators, and Filmmakers on December 5, 10:00 11:00 a.m. JST; SIGGRAPH Asia will be held in Chiyoda, Tokyo, December 3 - 6.

A superpowered villain - Keanu Reeves Shadow - appears, forcing Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to reunite with an all new, highly unlikely alliance - dare we say the name, Dr. Robotnik!; the animated/live-action feature hits theaters December 20.

The original sci-fi/horror series set in the Alien universe from executive producer Noah Hawley hits Hulu in Summer 2025.

The SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Computer Animation Festival (CAF), Asia's premier computer-generated animation and visual effects event, has announced the winners of this years competition. With entries from around the world showcasing the year's best works, the festival continues to celebrate the creativity, innovation, and technical artistry shaping the future of animation. This year's festival received 361 submissions from 31 countries, reflecting a rich diversity of styles, stories, and techniques. Watch the official CAF Trailer below.From this pool of entries, four exceptional films have been awarded top honors by a panel of judges.The list of award winners is as follows:Best in Show AwardAu 8me Jour (France)Contributors & Directors:Agathe Snchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin, Tho Duhautois from PikturaProducer:Carlos De Carvalho from PikturaDescription: It took 7 days to create the world, it only took one to disrupt its balance. Jury's Special AwardSopa Fria (Portugal)Contributor: Emanuel Oliveira from AGENCIA Portuguese Short Film AgencyDirector:Marta MonteiroProducers:Vanessa Ventura and Nuno Amorim from ANIMAIS AVPL, Claire Beffa and Sidonie Garnier from La Clairire OuestDescription:Sopa Fria explores domestic violence through a deeply layered narrative and visual approach. The film operates on two levels: one portrayed through hand-drawn animations reflecting the protagonist's daily life and perceptions, and another through "found footage" like photographs and symbolic imagery that deepen the narrative's metaphoric meaning. The protagonist's emotionsfear, anger, sadness, and insecurityare conveyed not only through her actions but also by immersing her in evocative visual and auditory worlds.The House is more than a setting; it becomes an active character, symbolizing danger, oppression, and isolation. Its oppressive behavior mirrors the husbands violence, tightening its hold around the protagonist during moments of vulnerability. Yet, in the presence of others, the House "acts normal," masking the reality within its walls, reflecting the silent complicity often associated with abuse. Best Student Project AwardCourage (France)Contributors & Directors:Margot Jacquet, Nathan Baudry, Marion Choudin, Jeanne Desplanques, Lise Delcroix, Salom Cognon from Supinfocom RubikaProducer:Philippe Meis from Supinfocom RubikaDescription:When Anna, an Olympic athlete, finds herself behind in the race, she redoubles her efforts with the aim of winning the competition and never disappoint again. But as she pushes herself beyond her limits, she burns out. She then has to face the wave of judgment that comes with dropping out. Honorable Mention AwardFire (France)Contributor:Laure Goasguen from Miyu DistributionDirectors:Baptiste Fraboul, Lna Gittler, Esther Lamassoure, Julie Le Forban, Florent Sabuco, Valentin Serre from Miyu DistributionProducer:Julien DEPARIS from ENSIDescription: Time seems to stand still as a fire approaches.Enjoy the festival trailer:The SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Computer Animation Festival is curated by the Computer Animation Festival Chair Yoriko Ito, Independent Art Director, Consultant & Educator for Animation, and Computer Animation Festival Producer Hana Shiota, Polygon Pictures. Screenings will take place in the Electronic Theater and Animation Theater at SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 in Tokyo International Forum."As part of the festivities, three prestigious awards will be presented: Best Student Project, Jury Special, and Best in Show, along with an Honorable Mention for a standout work deserving special recognition", said Yoriko Ito, CAF Chair. "This years CAF promises to be a true celebration of innovation and artistic excellence, offering a glimpse into the future of animation. Dont miss this chance to experience the extraordinary creativity that is shaping the industry today."Source: SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Keanu Reeves stars as Shadow the Hedgehog, a mysterious villain that Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails must reunite against with an all new, highly unlikely alliance dare we say the name, Dr. Robotnik!; the animated/live-action feature hits theaters December 20.

Miramaxs recently released feature, Here, directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, portrays multiple families over time, in the special place they inhabit.To help convey the characters at various ages throughout their lives, VFX Supervisor Kevin Baillie enlisted creative studio Metaphysic to digitally augment performances via its proprietary generative AI technology. The process involved a talented team of digital characters artists led by Metaphysics VFX Supervisor, Jo Plaete.Working with forward-thinking filmmakers like Bob Zemeckis and Kevin Baillie was a privilege, said Plaete. Their faith in this novel technology pushed us to new heights and allowed us to deliver on their ambitious vision.Metaphysics proprietary process involves training a neural network model on a reference input with artist refinement of the results until the model is ready for production. Multiple models were trained for each actor to meet the diverse needs of the film; Tom Hanks is portrayed at five different ages, Robin Wright at four ages, and Paul Bettany and Kelly Riley at two ages each. Plaete and his team were able to run the workflow in real-time during the filming, providing a visual reference of what the performers would look like. This allowed Zemeckis to view both the raw camera feed and the digitally augmented feed with the actors younger faces while on-set, with only about a six-frame delay, and provide direction accordingly.Metaphysic also set up a camera and monitor system during the shoot that allowed the actors to rehearse while seeing themselves as their younger selves in real-time. The youth mirror system only had a two-frame delay and provided the actors with feedback that helped them fine-tune their performances to better match their younger selves.While the neural network models used for the real-time outputs generated photoreal results, Metaphysic artists then further enhanced them to hold up to cinematic 4K standards.Source: Metaphysic Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.