• HPE and NVIDIA Debut AI Factory Stack to Power Next Industrial Shift

    To speed up AI adoption across industries, HPE and NVIDIA today launched new AI factory offerings at HPE Discover in Las Vegas.
    The new lineup includes everything from modular AI factory infrastructure and HPE’s AI-ready RTX PRO Servers, to the next generation of HPE’s turnkey AI platform, HPE Private Cloud AI. The goal: give enterprises a framework to build and scale generative, agentic and industrial AI.
    The NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio is now among the broadest in the market.
    The portfolio combines NVIDIA Blackwell accelerated computing, NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet and NVIDIA BlueField-3 networking technologies, NVIDIA AI Enterprise software and HPE’s full portfolio of servers, storage, services and software. This now includes HPE OpsRamp Software, a validated observability solution for the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory, and HPE Morpheus Enterprise Software for orchestration. The result is a pre-integrated, modular infrastructure stack to help teams get AI into production faster.
    This includes the next-generation HPE Private Cloud AI, co-engineered with NVIDIA and validated as part of the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory framework. This full-stack, turnkey AI factory solution will offer HPE ProLiant Compute DL380a Gen12 servers with the new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs.
    These new NVIDIA RTX PRO Servers from HPE provide a universal data center platform for a wide range of enterprise AI and industrial AI use cases, and are now available to order from HPE. HPE Private Cloud AI includes the latest NVIDIA AI Blueprints, including the NVIDIA AI-Q Blueprint for AI agent creation and workflows.
    HPE also announced a new NVIDIA HGX B300 system, the HPE Compute XD690, built with NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs. It’s the latest entry in the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE lineup and is expected to ship in October.
    In Japan, KDDI is working with HPE to build NVIDIA AI infrastructure to accelerate global adoption.
    The HPE-built KDDI system will be based on the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 platform, built on the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell architecture, at the KDDI Osaka Sakai Data Center.
    To accelerate AI for financial services, HPE will co-test agentic AI workflows built on Accenture’s AI Refinery with NVIDIA, running on HPE Private Cloud AI. Initial use cases include sourcing, procurement and risk analysis.
    HPE said it’s adding 26 new partners to its “Unleash AI” ecosystem to support more NVIDIA AI use cases. The company now offers more than 70 packaged AI workloads, from fraud detection and video analytics to sovereign AI and cybersecurity.
    Security and governance were a focus, too. HPE Private Cloud AI supports air-gapped management, multi-tenancy and post-quantum cryptography. HPE’s try-before-you-buy program lets customers test the system in Equinix data centers before purchase. HPE also introduced new programs, including AI Acceleration Workshops with NVIDIA, to help scale AI deployments.

    Watch the keynote: HPE CEO Antonio Neri announced the news from the Las Vegas Sphere on Tuesday at 9 a.m. PT. Register for the livestream and watch the replay.
    Explore more: Learn how NVIDIA and HPE build AI factories for every industry. Visit the partner page.
    #hpe #nvidia #debut #factory #stack
    HPE and NVIDIA Debut AI Factory Stack to Power Next Industrial Shift
    To speed up AI adoption across industries, HPE and NVIDIA today launched new AI factory offerings at HPE Discover in Las Vegas. The new lineup includes everything from modular AI factory infrastructure and HPE’s AI-ready RTX PRO Servers, to the next generation of HPE’s turnkey AI platform, HPE Private Cloud AI. The goal: give enterprises a framework to build and scale generative, agentic and industrial AI. The NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio is now among the broadest in the market. The portfolio combines NVIDIA Blackwell accelerated computing, NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet and NVIDIA BlueField-3 networking technologies, NVIDIA AI Enterprise software and HPE’s full portfolio of servers, storage, services and software. This now includes HPE OpsRamp Software, a validated observability solution for the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory, and HPE Morpheus Enterprise Software for orchestration. The result is a pre-integrated, modular infrastructure stack to help teams get AI into production faster. This includes the next-generation HPE Private Cloud AI, co-engineered with NVIDIA and validated as part of the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory framework. This full-stack, turnkey AI factory solution will offer HPE ProLiant Compute DL380a Gen12 servers with the new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs. These new NVIDIA RTX PRO Servers from HPE provide a universal data center platform for a wide range of enterprise AI and industrial AI use cases, and are now available to order from HPE. HPE Private Cloud AI includes the latest NVIDIA AI Blueprints, including the NVIDIA AI-Q Blueprint for AI agent creation and workflows. HPE also announced a new NVIDIA HGX B300 system, the HPE Compute XD690, built with NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs. It’s the latest entry in the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE lineup and is expected to ship in October. In Japan, KDDI is working with HPE to build NVIDIA AI infrastructure to accelerate global adoption. The HPE-built KDDI system will be based on the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 platform, built on the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell architecture, at the KDDI Osaka Sakai Data Center. To accelerate AI for financial services, HPE will co-test agentic AI workflows built on Accenture’s AI Refinery with NVIDIA, running on HPE Private Cloud AI. Initial use cases include sourcing, procurement and risk analysis. HPE said it’s adding 26 new partners to its “Unleash AI” ecosystem to support more NVIDIA AI use cases. The company now offers more than 70 packaged AI workloads, from fraud detection and video analytics to sovereign AI and cybersecurity. Security and governance were a focus, too. HPE Private Cloud AI supports air-gapped management, multi-tenancy and post-quantum cryptography. HPE’s try-before-you-buy program lets customers test the system in Equinix data centers before purchase. HPE also introduced new programs, including AI Acceleration Workshops with NVIDIA, to help scale AI deployments. Watch the keynote: HPE CEO Antonio Neri announced the news from the Las Vegas Sphere on Tuesday at 9 a.m. PT. Register for the livestream and watch the replay. Explore more: Learn how NVIDIA and HPE build AI factories for every industry. Visit the partner page. #hpe #nvidia #debut #factory #stack
    BLOGS.NVIDIA.COM
    HPE and NVIDIA Debut AI Factory Stack to Power Next Industrial Shift
    To speed up AI adoption across industries, HPE and NVIDIA today launched new AI factory offerings at HPE Discover in Las Vegas. The new lineup includes everything from modular AI factory infrastructure and HPE’s AI-ready RTX PRO Servers (HPE ProLiant Compute DL380a Gen12), to the next generation of HPE’s turnkey AI platform, HPE Private Cloud AI. The goal: give enterprises a framework to build and scale generative, agentic and industrial AI. The NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio is now among the broadest in the market. The portfolio combines NVIDIA Blackwell accelerated computing, NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet and NVIDIA BlueField-3 networking technologies, NVIDIA AI Enterprise software and HPE’s full portfolio of servers, storage, services and software. This now includes HPE OpsRamp Software, a validated observability solution for the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory, and HPE Morpheus Enterprise Software for orchestration. The result is a pre-integrated, modular infrastructure stack to help teams get AI into production faster. This includes the next-generation HPE Private Cloud AI, co-engineered with NVIDIA and validated as part of the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory framework. This full-stack, turnkey AI factory solution will offer HPE ProLiant Compute DL380a Gen12 servers with the new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs. These new NVIDIA RTX PRO Servers from HPE provide a universal data center platform for a wide range of enterprise AI and industrial AI use cases, and are now available to order from HPE. HPE Private Cloud AI includes the latest NVIDIA AI Blueprints, including the NVIDIA AI-Q Blueprint for AI agent creation and workflows. HPE also announced a new NVIDIA HGX B300 system, the HPE Compute XD690, built with NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs. It’s the latest entry in the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE lineup and is expected to ship in October. In Japan, KDDI is working with HPE to build NVIDIA AI infrastructure to accelerate global adoption. The HPE-built KDDI system will be based on the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 platform, built on the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell architecture, at the KDDI Osaka Sakai Data Center. To accelerate AI for financial services, HPE will co-test agentic AI workflows built on Accenture’s AI Refinery with NVIDIA, running on HPE Private Cloud AI. Initial use cases include sourcing, procurement and risk analysis. HPE said it’s adding 26 new partners to its “Unleash AI” ecosystem to support more NVIDIA AI use cases. The company now offers more than 70 packaged AI workloads, from fraud detection and video analytics to sovereign AI and cybersecurity. Security and governance were a focus, too. HPE Private Cloud AI supports air-gapped management, multi-tenancy and post-quantum cryptography. HPE’s try-before-you-buy program lets customers test the system in Equinix data centers before purchase. HPE also introduced new programs, including AI Acceleration Workshops with NVIDIA, to help scale AI deployments. Watch the keynote: HPE CEO Antonio Neri announced the news from the Las Vegas Sphere on Tuesday at 9 a.m. PT. Register for the livestream and watch the replay. Explore more: Learn how NVIDIA and HPE build AI factories for every industry. Visit the partner page.
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  • BOUNCING FROM RUBBER DUCKIES AND FLYING SHEEP TO CLONES FOR THE BOYS SEASON 4

    By TREVOR HOGG
    Images courtesy of Prime Video.

    For those seeking an alternative to the MCU, Prime Video has two offerings of the live-action and animated variety that take the superhero genre into R-rated territory where the hands of the god-like figures get dirty, bloodied and severed. “The Boys is about the intersection of celebrity and politics using superheroes,” states Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor on The Boys. “Sometimes I see the news and I don’t even know we can write to catch up to it! But we try. Invincible is an intense look at an alternate DC Universe that has more grit to the superhero side of it all. On one hand, I was jealous watching Season 1 of Invincible because in animation you can do things that you can’t do in real life on a budget.” Season 4 does not tone down the blood, gore and body count. Fleet notes, “The writers almost have this dialogue with us. Sometimes, they’ll write in the script, ‘And Fleet will come up with a cool visual effect for how to kill this person.’ Or, ‘Chhiu, our fight coordinator, will make an awesome fight.’ It is a frequent topic of conversation. We’re constantly trying to be inventive and create new ways to kill people!”

    When Splintersplits in two, the cloning effect was inspired by cellular mitosis.

    “The writers almost have this dialogue with us. Sometimes, they’ll write in the script, ‘And Fleet will come up with a cool visual effect for how to kill this person.’ Or, ‘Chhiu, our fight coordinator, will make an awesome fight.’ It is a frequent topic of conversation. We’re constantly trying to be inventive and create new ways to kill people!”
    —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor

    A total of 1,600 visual effects shots were created for the eight episodes by ILM, Pixomondo, MPC Toronto, Spin VFX, DNEG, Untold Studios, Luma Pictures and Rocket Science VFX. Previs was a critical part of the process. “We have John Griffith, who owns a small company called CNCPT out of Texas, and he does wonderful Unreal Engine level previs,” Fleet remarks. “On set, we have a cartoon of what is going to be done, and you’ll be amazed, specifically for action and heavy visual effects stuff, how close those shots are to the previs when we finish.” Founding Director of Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, Victoria Neuman, literally gets ripped in half by two tendrils coming out of Compound V-enhanced Billy Butcher, the leader of superhero resistance group The Boys. “The word that we like to use on this show is ‘grounded,’ and I like to say ‘grounded’ with an asterisk in this day and age because we’re grounded until we get to killing people in the craziest ways. In this case, having someone floating in the air and being ripped in half by two tendrils was all CG.”

    Multiple plates were shot to enable Simon Pegg to phase through the actor laying in a hospital bed.

    Testing can get rather elaborate. “For that end scene with Butcher’s tendrils, the room was two stories, and we were able to put the camera up high along with a bunch of blood cannons,” Fleet recalls. “When the body rips in half and explodes, there is a practical component. We rained down a bunch of real blood and guts right in front of Huey. It’s a known joke that we like to douse Jack Quaid with blood as much as possible! In this case, the special effects team led by Hudson Kenny needed to test it the day before, and I said, “I’ll be the guinea pig for the test.’ They covered the whole place with plastic like it was a Dexter kill room because you don’t want to destroy the set. I’m standing there in a white hazmat suit with goggles on, covered from head to toe in plastic and waiting as they’re tweaking all of these things. It sounds like World War II going on. They’re on walkie talkies to each other, and then all of a sudden, it’s ‘Five, four, three, two, one…’  And I get exploded with blood. I wanted to see what it was like, and it’s intense.”

    “On set, we have a cartoon of what is going to be done, and you’ll be amazed, specifically for action and heavy visual effects stuff, how close those shots are to the previs when we finish.”
    —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor

    The Deep has a love affair with an octopus called Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton. “It’s implied bestiality!” Fleet laughs. “I would call it more of a romance. What was fun from my perspective is that I knew what the look was going to be, so then it’s about putting in the details and the animation. One of the instincts that you always have when you’re making a sea creature that talks to a humanyou tend to want to give it human gestures and eyebrows. Erik Kripkesaid, ‘No. We have to find things that an octopus could do that conveys the same emotion.’ That’s when ideas came in, such as putting a little The Deep toy inside the water tank. When Ambrosius is trying to have an intimate moment or connect with him, she can wrap a tentacle around that. My favorite experience doing Ambrosius was when The Deep is reading poetry to her on a bed. CG creatures touching humans is one of the more complicated things to do and make look real. Ambrosius’ tentacles reach for his arm, and it becomes an intimate moment. More than touching the skin, displacing the bedsheet as Ambrosius moved ended up becoming a lot of CG, and we had to go back and forth a few times to get that looking right; that turned out to be tricky.”

    A building is replaced by a massive crowd attending a rally being held by Homelander.

    In a twisted form of sexual foreplay, Sister Sage has The Deep perform a transorbital lobotomy on her. “Thank you, Amazon for selling lobotomy tools as novelty items!” Fleet chuckles. “We filmed it with a lobotomy tool on set. There is a lot of safety involved in doing something like that. Obviously, you don’t want to put any performer in any situation where they come close to putting anything real near their eye. We created this half lobotomy tool and did this complicated split screen with the lobotomy tool on a teeter totter. The Deep wasin one shot and Sister Sage reacted in the other shot. To marry the two ended up being a lot of CG work. Then there are these close-ups which are full CG. I always keep a dummy head that is painted gray that I use all of the time for reference. In macrophotography I filmed this lobotomy tool going right into the eye area. I did that because the tool is chrome, so it’s reflective and has ridges. It has an interesting reflective property. I was able to see how and what part of the human eye reflects onto the tool. A lot of that shot became about realistic reflections and lighting on the tool. Then heavy CG for displacing the eye and pushing the lobotomy tool into it. That was one of the more complicated sequences that we had to achieve.”

    In order to create an intimate moment between Ambrosius and The Deep, a toy version of the superhero was placed inside of the water tank that she could wrap a tentacle around.

    “The word that we like to use on this show is ‘grounded,’ and I like to say ‘grounded’ with an asterisk in this day and age because we’re grounded until we get to killing people in the craziest ways. In this case, having someone floating in the air and being ripped in half by two tendrils was all CG.”
    —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor

    Sheep and chickens embark on a violent rampage courtesy of Compound V with the latter piercing the chest of a bodyguard belonging to Victoria Neuman. “Weirdly, that was one of our more traditional shots,’ Fleet states. “What is fun about that one is I asked for real chickens as reference. The chicken flying through his chest is real. It’s our chicken wrangler in green suit gently tossing a chicken. We blended two real plates together with some CG in the middle.” A connection was made with a sci-fi classic. “The sheep kill this bull, and we shot it is in this narrow corridor of fencing. When they run, I always equated it as the Trench Run in Star Wars and looked at the sheep as TIE fighters or X-wings coming at them.” The scene was one of the scarier moments for the visual effects team. Fleet explains, “When I read the script, I thought this could be the moment where we jump the shark. For the shots where the sheep are still and scream to the camera, Untold Studios did a bunch of R&D and came up with baboon teeth. I tried to keep anything real as much as possible, but, obviously, when sheep are flying, they have to be CG. I call it the Battlestar Galactica theory, where I like to shake the camera, overshoot shots and make it sloppy when they’re in the air so you can add motion blur. Comedy also helps sell visual effects.”

    The sheep injected with Compound V develop the ability to fly and were shot in an imperfect manner to help ground the scenes.

    Once injected with Compound V, Hugh Campbell Sr.develops the ability to phase through objects, including human beings. “We called it the Bro-nut because his name in the script is Wall Street Bro,” Fleet notes. “That was a complicated motion control shot, repeating the move over and over again. We had to shoot multiple plates of Simon Pegg and the guy in the bed. Special effects and prosthetics created a dummy guy with a hole in his chest with practical blood dripping down. It was meshing it together and getting the timing right in post. On top of that, there was the CG blood immediately around Simon Pegg.” The phasing effect had to avoid appearing as a dissolve. “I had this idea of doing high-frequency vibration on the X axis loosely based on how The Flash vibrates through walls. You want everything to have a loose motivation that then helps trigger the visuals. We tried not to overcomplicate that because, ultimately, you want something like that to be quick. If you spend too much time on phasing, it can look cheesy. In our case, it was a lot of false walls. Simon Pegg is running into a greenscreen hole which we plug in with a wall or coming out of one. I went off the actor’s action, and we added a light opacity mix with some X-axis shake.”

    Providing a different twist to the fights was the replacement of spurting blood with photoreal rubber duckies during a drug-induced hallucination.

    Homelanderbreaks a mirror which emphasizes his multiple personality disorder. “The original plan was that special effects was going to pre-break a mirror, and we were going to shoot Anthony Starr moving his head doing all of the performances in the different parts of the mirror,” Fleet reveals. “This was all based on a photo that my ex-brother-in-law sent me. He was walking down a street in Glendale, California, came across a broken mirror that someone had thrown out, and took a photo of himself where he had five heads in the mirror. We get there on the day, and I’m realizing that this is really complicated. Anthony has to do these five different performances, and we have to deal with infinite mirrors. At the last minute, I said, ‘We have to do this on a clean mirror.’ We did it on a clear mirror and gave Anthony different eyelines. The mirror break was all done in post, and we were able to cheat his head slightly and art-direct where the break crosses his chin. Editorial was able to do split screens for the timing of the dialogue.”

    “For the shots where the sheep are still and scream to the camera, Untold Studios did a bunch of R&D and came up with baboon teeth. I tried to keep anything real as much as possible, but, obviously, when sheep are flying, they have to be CG. I call it the Battlestar Galactica theory, where I like to shake the camera, overshoot shots and make it sloppy when they’re in the air so you can add motion blur. Comedy also helps sell visual effects.”
    —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor

    Initially, the plan was to use a practical mirror, but creating a digital version proved to be the more effective solution.

    A different spin on the bloodbath occurs during a fight when a drugged Frenchiehallucinates as Kimiko Miyashirogoes on a killing spree. “We went back and forth with a lot of different concepts for what this hallucination would be,” Fleet remarks. “When we filmed it, we landed on Frenchie having a synesthesia moment where he’s seeing a lot of abstract colors flying in the air. We started getting into that in post and it wasn’t working. We went back to the rubber duckies, which goes back to the story of him in the bathtub. What’s in the bathtub? Rubber duckies, bubbles and water. There was a lot of physics and logic required to figure out how these rubber duckies could float out of someone’s neck. We decided on bubbles when Kimiko hits people’s heads. At one point, we had water when she got shot, but it wasn’t working, so we killed it. We probably did about 100 different versions. We got really detailed with our rubber duckie modeling because we didn’t want it to look cartoony. That took a long time.”

    Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton, gets a lot more screentime in Season 4.

    When Splintersplits in two was achieved heavily in CG. “Erik threw out the words ‘cellular mitosis’ early on as something he wanted to use,” Fleet states. “We shot Rob Benedict on a greenscreen doing all of the different performances for the clones that pop out. It was a crazy amount of CG work with Houdini and particle and skin effects. We previs’d the sequence so we had specific actions. One clone comes out to the right and the other pulls backwards.” What tends to go unnoticed by many is Splinter’s clones setting up for a press conference being held by Firecracker. “It’s funny how no one brings up the 22-hour motion control shot that we had to do with Splinter on the stage, which was the most complicated shot!” Fleet observes. “We have this sweeping long shot that brings you into the room and follows Splinter as he carries a container to the stage and hands it off to a clone, and then you reveal five more of them interweaving each other and interacting with all of these objects. It’s like a minute-long dance. First off, you have to choreograph it. We previs’d it, but then you need to get people to do it. We hired dancers and put different colored armbands on them. The camera is like another performer, and a metronome is going, which enables you to find a pace. That took about eight hours of rehearsal. Then Rob has to watch each one of their performances and mimic it to the beat. When he is handing off a box of cables, it’s to a double who is going to have to be erased and be him on the other side. They have to be almost perfect in their timing and lineup in order to take it over in visual effects and make it work.”
    #bouncing #rubber #duckies #flying #sheep
    BOUNCING FROM RUBBER DUCKIES AND FLYING SHEEP TO CLONES FOR THE BOYS SEASON 4
    By TREVOR HOGG Images courtesy of Prime Video. For those seeking an alternative to the MCU, Prime Video has two offerings of the live-action and animated variety that take the superhero genre into R-rated territory where the hands of the god-like figures get dirty, bloodied and severed. “The Boys is about the intersection of celebrity and politics using superheroes,” states Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor on The Boys. “Sometimes I see the news and I don’t even know we can write to catch up to it! But we try. Invincible is an intense look at an alternate DC Universe that has more grit to the superhero side of it all. On one hand, I was jealous watching Season 1 of Invincible because in animation you can do things that you can’t do in real life on a budget.” Season 4 does not tone down the blood, gore and body count. Fleet notes, “The writers almost have this dialogue with us. Sometimes, they’ll write in the script, ‘And Fleet will come up with a cool visual effect for how to kill this person.’ Or, ‘Chhiu, our fight coordinator, will make an awesome fight.’ It is a frequent topic of conversation. We’re constantly trying to be inventive and create new ways to kill people!” When Splintersplits in two, the cloning effect was inspired by cellular mitosis. “The writers almost have this dialogue with us. Sometimes, they’ll write in the script, ‘And Fleet will come up with a cool visual effect for how to kill this person.’ Or, ‘Chhiu, our fight coordinator, will make an awesome fight.’ It is a frequent topic of conversation. We’re constantly trying to be inventive and create new ways to kill people!” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor A total of 1,600 visual effects shots were created for the eight episodes by ILM, Pixomondo, MPC Toronto, Spin VFX, DNEG, Untold Studios, Luma Pictures and Rocket Science VFX. Previs was a critical part of the process. “We have John Griffith, who owns a small company called CNCPT out of Texas, and he does wonderful Unreal Engine level previs,” Fleet remarks. “On set, we have a cartoon of what is going to be done, and you’ll be amazed, specifically for action and heavy visual effects stuff, how close those shots are to the previs when we finish.” Founding Director of Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, Victoria Neuman, literally gets ripped in half by two tendrils coming out of Compound V-enhanced Billy Butcher, the leader of superhero resistance group The Boys. “The word that we like to use on this show is ‘grounded,’ and I like to say ‘grounded’ with an asterisk in this day and age because we’re grounded until we get to killing people in the craziest ways. In this case, having someone floating in the air and being ripped in half by two tendrils was all CG.” Multiple plates were shot to enable Simon Pegg to phase through the actor laying in a hospital bed. Testing can get rather elaborate. “For that end scene with Butcher’s tendrils, the room was two stories, and we were able to put the camera up high along with a bunch of blood cannons,” Fleet recalls. “When the body rips in half and explodes, there is a practical component. We rained down a bunch of real blood and guts right in front of Huey. It’s a known joke that we like to douse Jack Quaid with blood as much as possible! In this case, the special effects team led by Hudson Kenny needed to test it the day before, and I said, “I’ll be the guinea pig for the test.’ They covered the whole place with plastic like it was a Dexter kill room because you don’t want to destroy the set. I’m standing there in a white hazmat suit with goggles on, covered from head to toe in plastic and waiting as they’re tweaking all of these things. It sounds like World War II going on. They’re on walkie talkies to each other, and then all of a sudden, it’s ‘Five, four, three, two, one…’  And I get exploded with blood. I wanted to see what it was like, and it’s intense.” “On set, we have a cartoon of what is going to be done, and you’ll be amazed, specifically for action and heavy visual effects stuff, how close those shots are to the previs when we finish.” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor The Deep has a love affair with an octopus called Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton. “It’s implied bestiality!” Fleet laughs. “I would call it more of a romance. What was fun from my perspective is that I knew what the look was going to be, so then it’s about putting in the details and the animation. One of the instincts that you always have when you’re making a sea creature that talks to a humanyou tend to want to give it human gestures and eyebrows. Erik Kripkesaid, ‘No. We have to find things that an octopus could do that conveys the same emotion.’ That’s when ideas came in, such as putting a little The Deep toy inside the water tank. When Ambrosius is trying to have an intimate moment or connect with him, she can wrap a tentacle around that. My favorite experience doing Ambrosius was when The Deep is reading poetry to her on a bed. CG creatures touching humans is one of the more complicated things to do and make look real. Ambrosius’ tentacles reach for his arm, and it becomes an intimate moment. More than touching the skin, displacing the bedsheet as Ambrosius moved ended up becoming a lot of CG, and we had to go back and forth a few times to get that looking right; that turned out to be tricky.” A building is replaced by a massive crowd attending a rally being held by Homelander. In a twisted form of sexual foreplay, Sister Sage has The Deep perform a transorbital lobotomy on her. “Thank you, Amazon for selling lobotomy tools as novelty items!” Fleet chuckles. “We filmed it with a lobotomy tool on set. There is a lot of safety involved in doing something like that. Obviously, you don’t want to put any performer in any situation where they come close to putting anything real near their eye. We created this half lobotomy tool and did this complicated split screen with the lobotomy tool on a teeter totter. The Deep wasin one shot and Sister Sage reacted in the other shot. To marry the two ended up being a lot of CG work. Then there are these close-ups which are full CG. I always keep a dummy head that is painted gray that I use all of the time for reference. In macrophotography I filmed this lobotomy tool going right into the eye area. I did that because the tool is chrome, so it’s reflective and has ridges. It has an interesting reflective property. I was able to see how and what part of the human eye reflects onto the tool. A lot of that shot became about realistic reflections and lighting on the tool. Then heavy CG for displacing the eye and pushing the lobotomy tool into it. That was one of the more complicated sequences that we had to achieve.” In order to create an intimate moment between Ambrosius and The Deep, a toy version of the superhero was placed inside of the water tank that she could wrap a tentacle around. “The word that we like to use on this show is ‘grounded,’ and I like to say ‘grounded’ with an asterisk in this day and age because we’re grounded until we get to killing people in the craziest ways. In this case, having someone floating in the air and being ripped in half by two tendrils was all CG.” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor Sheep and chickens embark on a violent rampage courtesy of Compound V with the latter piercing the chest of a bodyguard belonging to Victoria Neuman. “Weirdly, that was one of our more traditional shots,’ Fleet states. “What is fun about that one is I asked for real chickens as reference. The chicken flying through his chest is real. It’s our chicken wrangler in green suit gently tossing a chicken. We blended two real plates together with some CG in the middle.” A connection was made with a sci-fi classic. “The sheep kill this bull, and we shot it is in this narrow corridor of fencing. When they run, I always equated it as the Trench Run in Star Wars and looked at the sheep as TIE fighters or X-wings coming at them.” The scene was one of the scarier moments for the visual effects team. Fleet explains, “When I read the script, I thought this could be the moment where we jump the shark. For the shots where the sheep are still and scream to the camera, Untold Studios did a bunch of R&D and came up with baboon teeth. I tried to keep anything real as much as possible, but, obviously, when sheep are flying, they have to be CG. I call it the Battlestar Galactica theory, where I like to shake the camera, overshoot shots and make it sloppy when they’re in the air so you can add motion blur. Comedy also helps sell visual effects.” The sheep injected with Compound V develop the ability to fly and were shot in an imperfect manner to help ground the scenes. Once injected with Compound V, Hugh Campbell Sr.develops the ability to phase through objects, including human beings. “We called it the Bro-nut because his name in the script is Wall Street Bro,” Fleet notes. “That was a complicated motion control shot, repeating the move over and over again. We had to shoot multiple plates of Simon Pegg and the guy in the bed. Special effects and prosthetics created a dummy guy with a hole in his chest with practical blood dripping down. It was meshing it together and getting the timing right in post. On top of that, there was the CG blood immediately around Simon Pegg.” The phasing effect had to avoid appearing as a dissolve. “I had this idea of doing high-frequency vibration on the X axis loosely based on how The Flash vibrates through walls. You want everything to have a loose motivation that then helps trigger the visuals. We tried not to overcomplicate that because, ultimately, you want something like that to be quick. If you spend too much time on phasing, it can look cheesy. In our case, it was a lot of false walls. Simon Pegg is running into a greenscreen hole which we plug in with a wall or coming out of one. I went off the actor’s action, and we added a light opacity mix with some X-axis shake.” Providing a different twist to the fights was the replacement of spurting blood with photoreal rubber duckies during a drug-induced hallucination. Homelanderbreaks a mirror which emphasizes his multiple personality disorder. “The original plan was that special effects was going to pre-break a mirror, and we were going to shoot Anthony Starr moving his head doing all of the performances in the different parts of the mirror,” Fleet reveals. “This was all based on a photo that my ex-brother-in-law sent me. He was walking down a street in Glendale, California, came across a broken mirror that someone had thrown out, and took a photo of himself where he had five heads in the mirror. We get there on the day, and I’m realizing that this is really complicated. Anthony has to do these five different performances, and we have to deal with infinite mirrors. At the last minute, I said, ‘We have to do this on a clean mirror.’ We did it on a clear mirror and gave Anthony different eyelines. The mirror break was all done in post, and we were able to cheat his head slightly and art-direct where the break crosses his chin. Editorial was able to do split screens for the timing of the dialogue.” “For the shots where the sheep are still and scream to the camera, Untold Studios did a bunch of R&D and came up with baboon teeth. I tried to keep anything real as much as possible, but, obviously, when sheep are flying, they have to be CG. I call it the Battlestar Galactica theory, where I like to shake the camera, overshoot shots and make it sloppy when they’re in the air so you can add motion blur. Comedy also helps sell visual effects.” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor Initially, the plan was to use a practical mirror, but creating a digital version proved to be the more effective solution. A different spin on the bloodbath occurs during a fight when a drugged Frenchiehallucinates as Kimiko Miyashirogoes on a killing spree. “We went back and forth with a lot of different concepts for what this hallucination would be,” Fleet remarks. “When we filmed it, we landed on Frenchie having a synesthesia moment where he’s seeing a lot of abstract colors flying in the air. We started getting into that in post and it wasn’t working. We went back to the rubber duckies, which goes back to the story of him in the bathtub. What’s in the bathtub? Rubber duckies, bubbles and water. There was a lot of physics and logic required to figure out how these rubber duckies could float out of someone’s neck. We decided on bubbles when Kimiko hits people’s heads. At one point, we had water when she got shot, but it wasn’t working, so we killed it. We probably did about 100 different versions. We got really detailed with our rubber duckie modeling because we didn’t want it to look cartoony. That took a long time.” Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton, gets a lot more screentime in Season 4. When Splintersplits in two was achieved heavily in CG. “Erik threw out the words ‘cellular mitosis’ early on as something he wanted to use,” Fleet states. “We shot Rob Benedict on a greenscreen doing all of the different performances for the clones that pop out. It was a crazy amount of CG work with Houdini and particle and skin effects. We previs’d the sequence so we had specific actions. One clone comes out to the right and the other pulls backwards.” What tends to go unnoticed by many is Splinter’s clones setting up for a press conference being held by Firecracker. “It’s funny how no one brings up the 22-hour motion control shot that we had to do with Splinter on the stage, which was the most complicated shot!” Fleet observes. “We have this sweeping long shot that brings you into the room and follows Splinter as he carries a container to the stage and hands it off to a clone, and then you reveal five more of them interweaving each other and interacting with all of these objects. It’s like a minute-long dance. First off, you have to choreograph it. We previs’d it, but then you need to get people to do it. We hired dancers and put different colored armbands on them. The camera is like another performer, and a metronome is going, which enables you to find a pace. That took about eight hours of rehearsal. Then Rob has to watch each one of their performances and mimic it to the beat. When he is handing off a box of cables, it’s to a double who is going to have to be erased and be him on the other side. They have to be almost perfect in their timing and lineup in order to take it over in visual effects and make it work.” #bouncing #rubber #duckies #flying #sheep
    WWW.VFXVOICE.COM
    BOUNCING FROM RUBBER DUCKIES AND FLYING SHEEP TO CLONES FOR THE BOYS SEASON 4
    By TREVOR HOGG Images courtesy of Prime Video. For those seeking an alternative to the MCU, Prime Video has two offerings of the live-action and animated variety that take the superhero genre into R-rated territory where the hands of the god-like figures get dirty, bloodied and severed. “The Boys is about the intersection of celebrity and politics using superheroes,” states Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor on The Boys. “Sometimes I see the news and I don’t even know we can write to catch up to it! But we try. Invincible is an intense look at an alternate DC Universe that has more grit to the superhero side of it all. On one hand, I was jealous watching Season 1 of Invincible because in animation you can do things that you can’t do in real life on a budget.” Season 4 does not tone down the blood, gore and body count. Fleet notes, “The writers almost have this dialogue with us. Sometimes, they’ll write in the script, ‘And Fleet will come up with a cool visual effect for how to kill this person.’ Or, ‘Chhiu, our fight coordinator, will make an awesome fight.’ It is a frequent topic of conversation. We’re constantly trying to be inventive and create new ways to kill people!” When Splinter (Rob Benedict) splits in two, the cloning effect was inspired by cellular mitosis. “The writers almost have this dialogue with us. Sometimes, they’ll write in the script, ‘And Fleet will come up with a cool visual effect for how to kill this person.’ Or, ‘Chhiu, our fight coordinator, will make an awesome fight.’ It is a frequent topic of conversation. We’re constantly trying to be inventive and create new ways to kill people!” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor A total of 1,600 visual effects shots were created for the eight episodes by ILM, Pixomondo, MPC Toronto, Spin VFX, DNEG, Untold Studios, Luma Pictures and Rocket Science VFX. Previs was a critical part of the process. “We have John Griffith [Previs Director], who owns a small company called CNCPT out of Texas, and he does wonderful Unreal Engine level previs,” Fleet remarks. “On set, we have a cartoon of what is going to be done, and you’ll be amazed, specifically for action and heavy visual effects stuff, how close those shots are to the previs when we finish.” Founding Director of Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, Victoria Neuman, literally gets ripped in half by two tendrils coming out of Compound V-enhanced Billy Butcher, the leader of superhero resistance group The Boys. “The word that we like to use on this show is ‘grounded,’ and I like to say ‘grounded’ with an asterisk in this day and age because we’re grounded until we get to killing people in the craziest ways. In this case, having someone floating in the air and being ripped in half by two tendrils was all CG.” Multiple plates were shot to enable Simon Pegg to phase through the actor laying in a hospital bed. Testing can get rather elaborate. “For that end scene with Butcher’s tendrils, the room was two stories, and we were able to put the camera up high along with a bunch of blood cannons,” Fleet recalls. “When the body rips in half and explodes, there is a practical component. We rained down a bunch of real blood and guts right in front of Huey. It’s a known joke that we like to douse Jack Quaid with blood as much as possible! In this case, the special effects team led by Hudson Kenny needed to test it the day before, and I said, “I’ll be the guinea pig for the test.’ They covered the whole place with plastic like it was a Dexter kill room because you don’t want to destroy the set. I’m standing there in a white hazmat suit with goggles on, covered from head to toe in plastic and waiting as they’re tweaking all of these things. It sounds like World War II going on. They’re on walkie talkies to each other, and then all of a sudden, it’s ‘Five, four, three, two, one…’  And I get exploded with blood. I wanted to see what it was like, and it’s intense.” “On set, we have a cartoon of what is going to be done, and you’ll be amazed, specifically for action and heavy visual effects stuff, how close those shots are to the previs when we finish.” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor The Deep has a love affair with an octopus called Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton. “It’s implied bestiality!” Fleet laughs. “I would call it more of a romance. What was fun from my perspective is that I knew what the look was going to be [from Season 3], so then it’s about putting in the details and the animation. One of the instincts that you always have when you’re making a sea creature that talks to a human [is] you tend to want to give it human gestures and eyebrows. Erik Kripke [Creator, Executive Producer, Showrunner, Director, Writer] said, ‘No. We have to find things that an octopus could do that conveys the same emotion.’ That’s when ideas came in, such as putting a little The Deep toy inside the water tank. When Ambrosius is trying to have an intimate moment or connect with him, she can wrap a tentacle around that. My favorite experience doing Ambrosius was when The Deep is reading poetry to her on a bed. CG creatures touching humans is one of the more complicated things to do and make look real. Ambrosius’ tentacles reach for his arm, and it becomes an intimate moment. More than touching the skin, displacing the bedsheet as Ambrosius moved ended up becoming a lot of CG, and we had to go back and forth a few times to get that looking right; that turned out to be tricky.” A building is replaced by a massive crowd attending a rally being held by Homelander. In a twisted form of sexual foreplay, Sister Sage has The Deep perform a transorbital lobotomy on her. “Thank you, Amazon for selling lobotomy tools as novelty items!” Fleet chuckles. “We filmed it with a lobotomy tool on set. There is a lot of safety involved in doing something like that. Obviously, you don’t want to put any performer in any situation where they come close to putting anything real near their eye. We created this half lobotomy tool and did this complicated split screen with the lobotomy tool on a teeter totter. The Deep was [acting in a certain way] in one shot and Sister Sage reacted in the other shot. To marry the two ended up being a lot of CG work. Then there are these close-ups which are full CG. I always keep a dummy head that is painted gray that I use all of the time for reference. In macrophotography I filmed this lobotomy tool going right into the eye area. I did that because the tool is chrome, so it’s reflective and has ridges. It has an interesting reflective property. I was able to see how and what part of the human eye reflects onto the tool. A lot of that shot became about realistic reflections and lighting on the tool. Then heavy CG for displacing the eye and pushing the lobotomy tool into it. That was one of the more complicated sequences that we had to achieve.” In order to create an intimate moment between Ambrosius and The Deep, a toy version of the superhero was placed inside of the water tank that she could wrap a tentacle around. “The word that we like to use on this show is ‘grounded,’ and I like to say ‘grounded’ with an asterisk in this day and age because we’re grounded until we get to killing people in the craziest ways. In this case, having someone floating in the air and being ripped in half by two tendrils was all CG.” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor Sheep and chickens embark on a violent rampage courtesy of Compound V with the latter piercing the chest of a bodyguard belonging to Victoria Neuman. “Weirdly, that was one of our more traditional shots,’ Fleet states. “What is fun about that one is I asked for real chickens as reference. The chicken flying through his chest is real. It’s our chicken wrangler in green suit gently tossing a chicken. We blended two real plates together with some CG in the middle.” A connection was made with a sci-fi classic. “The sheep kill this bull, and we shot it is in this narrow corridor of fencing. When they run, I always equated it as the Trench Run in Star Wars and looked at the sheep as TIE fighters or X-wings coming at them.” The scene was one of the scarier moments for the visual effects team. Fleet explains, “When I read the script, I thought this could be the moment where we jump the shark. For the shots where the sheep are still and scream to the camera, Untold Studios did a bunch of R&D and came up with baboon teeth. I tried to keep anything real as much as possible, but, obviously, when sheep are flying, they have to be CG. I call it the Battlestar Galactica theory, where I like to shake the camera, overshoot shots and make it sloppy when they’re in the air so you can add motion blur. Comedy also helps sell visual effects.” The sheep injected with Compound V develop the ability to fly and were shot in an imperfect manner to help ground the scenes. Once injected with Compound V, Hugh Campbell Sr. (Simon Pegg) develops the ability to phase through objects, including human beings. “We called it the Bro-nut because his name in the script is Wall Street Bro,” Fleet notes. “That was a complicated motion control shot, repeating the move over and over again. We had to shoot multiple plates of Simon Pegg and the guy in the bed. Special effects and prosthetics created a dummy guy with a hole in his chest with practical blood dripping down. It was meshing it together and getting the timing right in post. On top of that, there was the CG blood immediately around Simon Pegg.” The phasing effect had to avoid appearing as a dissolve. “I had this idea of doing high-frequency vibration on the X axis loosely based on how The Flash vibrates through walls. You want everything to have a loose motivation that then helps trigger the visuals. We tried not to overcomplicate that because, ultimately, you want something like that to be quick. If you spend too much time on phasing, it can look cheesy. In our case, it was a lot of false walls. Simon Pegg is running into a greenscreen hole which we plug in with a wall or coming out of one. I went off the actor’s action, and we added a light opacity mix with some X-axis shake.” Providing a different twist to the fights was the replacement of spurting blood with photoreal rubber duckies during a drug-induced hallucination. Homelander (Anthony Starr) breaks a mirror which emphasizes his multiple personality disorder. “The original plan was that special effects was going to pre-break a mirror, and we were going to shoot Anthony Starr moving his head doing all of the performances in the different parts of the mirror,” Fleet reveals. “This was all based on a photo that my ex-brother-in-law sent me. He was walking down a street in Glendale, California, came across a broken mirror that someone had thrown out, and took a photo of himself where he had five heads in the mirror. We get there on the day, and I’m realizing that this is really complicated. Anthony has to do these five different performances, and we have to deal with infinite mirrors. At the last minute, I said, ‘We have to do this on a clean mirror.’ We did it on a clear mirror and gave Anthony different eyelines. The mirror break was all done in post, and we were able to cheat his head slightly and art-direct where the break crosses his chin. Editorial was able to do split screens for the timing of the dialogue.” “For the shots where the sheep are still and scream to the camera, Untold Studios did a bunch of R&D and came up with baboon teeth. I tried to keep anything real as much as possible, but, obviously, when sheep are flying, they have to be CG. I call it the Battlestar Galactica theory, where I like to shake the camera, overshoot shots and make it sloppy when they’re in the air so you can add motion blur. Comedy also helps sell visual effects.” —Stephan Fleet, VFX Supervisor Initially, the plan was to use a practical mirror, but creating a digital version proved to be the more effective solution. A different spin on the bloodbath occurs during a fight when a drugged Frenchie (Tomer Capone) hallucinates as Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara) goes on a killing spree. “We went back and forth with a lot of different concepts for what this hallucination would be,” Fleet remarks. “When we filmed it, we landed on Frenchie having a synesthesia moment where he’s seeing a lot of abstract colors flying in the air. We started getting into that in post and it wasn’t working. We went back to the rubber duckies, which goes back to the story of him in the bathtub. What’s in the bathtub? Rubber duckies, bubbles and water. There was a lot of physics and logic required to figure out how these rubber duckies could float out of someone’s neck. We decided on bubbles when Kimiko hits people’s heads. At one point, we had water when she got shot, but it wasn’t working, so we killed it. We probably did about 100 different versions. We got really detailed with our rubber duckie modeling because we didn’t want it to look cartoony. That took a long time.” Ambrosius, voiced by Tilda Swinton, gets a lot more screentime in Season 4. When Splinter (Rob Benedict) splits in two was achieved heavily in CG. “Erik threw out the words ‘cellular mitosis’ early on as something he wanted to use,” Fleet states. “We shot Rob Benedict on a greenscreen doing all of the different performances for the clones that pop out. It was a crazy amount of CG work with Houdini and particle and skin effects. We previs’d the sequence so we had specific actions. One clone comes out to the right and the other pulls backwards.” What tends to go unnoticed by many is Splinter’s clones setting up for a press conference being held by Firecracker (Valorie Curry). “It’s funny how no one brings up the 22-hour motion control shot that we had to do with Splinter on the stage, which was the most complicated shot!” Fleet observes. “We have this sweeping long shot that brings you into the room and follows Splinter as he carries a container to the stage and hands it off to a clone, and then you reveal five more of them interweaving each other and interacting with all of these objects. It’s like a minute-long dance. First off, you have to choreograph it. We previs’d it, but then you need to get people to do it. We hired dancers and put different colored armbands on them. The camera is like another performer, and a metronome is going, which enables you to find a pace. That took about eight hours of rehearsal. Then Rob has to watch each one of their performances and mimic it to the beat. When he is handing off a box of cables, it’s to a double who is going to have to be erased and be him on the other side. They have to be almost perfect in their timing and lineup in order to take it over in visual effects and make it work.”
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  • In a world where every word can be defined, I find myself lost in the silence of unspoken feelings. A markup language can structure a document, but what about the structure of our hearts? They remain chaotic, tangled in emotions that yearn for expression yet fall silent. The weight of solitude presses down like an anchor, pulling me deeper into an abyss of longing. I search for meaning in the simplest phrases, but all I find is an echo of my own despair. Each day feels like a blank page, waiting for someone to write my story, yet I remain unseen, unheard.

    #Loneliness #Heartbreak #EmotionalPain #UnspokenWords #Silence
    In a world where every word can be defined, I find myself lost in the silence of unspoken feelings. A markup language can structure a document, but what about the structure of our hearts? They remain chaotic, tangled in emotions that yearn for expression yet fall silent. The weight of solitude presses down like an anchor, pulling me deeper into an abyss of longing. I search for meaning in the simplest phrases, but all I find is an echo of my own despair. Each day feels like a blank page, waiting for someone to write my story, yet I remain unseen, unheard. #Loneliness #Heartbreak #EmotionalPain #UnspokenWords #Silence
    WWW.SEMRUSH.COM
    What Is a Markup Language? [+ 7 Examples]
    A markup language is a system for defining the structure, presentation, or purpose of text within a document.
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  • In the silence of my thoughts, I feel the weight of my own isolation. Each day, I strive to create something meaningful, yet the words escape me, leaving only shadows of my intentions. I long to connect, to share stories that resonate, but the world feels so distant, so unyielding.

    As I navigate the empty pages, I wonder if anyone truly cares to read what I have to say. The essence of writing, once a refuge, now seems like a cruel reminder of my solitude. Can anyone hear my silent cries for connection?

    Yet, I hold on to the hope that one day, my words will find a heart that understands...

    #Loneliness #Heartbreak #WritingJourney #Isolation #EmotionalExpression
    In the silence of my thoughts, I feel the weight of my own isolation. Each day, I strive to create something meaningful, yet the words escape me, leaving only shadows of my intentions. I long to connect, to share stories that resonate, but the world feels so distant, so unyielding. As I navigate the empty pages, I wonder if anyone truly cares to read what I have to say. The essence of writing, once a refuge, now seems like a cruel reminder of my solitude. Can anyone hear my silent cries for connection? Yet, I hold on to the hope that one day, my words will find a heart that understands... #Loneliness #Heartbreak #WritingJourney #Isolation #EmotionalExpression
    WWW.SEMRUSH.COM
    How to Write an Article Audiences Want to Read (7 Steps)
    Master article writing with this step-by-step guide for beginners. Learn how to write articles that get results.
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  • competitor analysis, website traffic, traffic comparison, SEO strategies, digital marketing, engagement metrics, user demographics, website analytics, 2025 trends

    In the cutthroat world of digital marketing, knowing your competitors’ website traffic is akin to knowing the secret ingredient of a rival chef’s famous dish. In 2025, analyzing and comparing competitor website traffic has evolved into an art form. Forget the days of simply glancing at their homepages; today, we dissect, delve, and de...
    competitor analysis, website traffic, traffic comparison, SEO strategies, digital marketing, engagement metrics, user demographics, website analytics, 2025 trends In the cutthroat world of digital marketing, knowing your competitors’ website traffic is akin to knowing the secret ingredient of a rival chef’s famous dish. In 2025, analyzing and comparing competitor website traffic has evolved into an art form. Forget the days of simply glancing at their homepages; today, we dissect, delve, and de...
    # How to Analyze & Compare Competitor Website Traffic in 2025
    competitor analysis, website traffic, traffic comparison, SEO strategies, digital marketing, engagement metrics, user demographics, website analytics, 2025 trends In the cutthroat world of digital marketing, knowing your competitors’ website traffic is akin to knowing the secret ingredient of a rival chef’s famous dish. In 2025, analyzing and comparing competitor website traffic has evolved...
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  • In a world where animated dreams dance on the silver screen, Jellyfish Pictures has decided it’s time for a long nap. Yes, you read that right! The studio known for masterpieces like "How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming" has hit the pause button on its activities, but don’t worry, it’s only temporary—because who doesn’t love a good power nap when the going gets tough?

    Now, one might wonder: what does it mean to “suspend” your work? Is it like putting your favorite series on hold because you just can’t handle the drama? Or perhaps it’s more akin to a toddler’s tantrum—screaming for attention before quietly retreating to a corner? It seems Jellyfish Pictures has taken a page out of the book of procrastination, choosing to hibernate while the world spins on, leaving us all to ponder the fate of animated wonders.

    Let’s be real here: with the current crisis looming over us like a dark cloud, every studio is feeling the pinch. But to "temporarily" suspend activities? That’s a bold move, friend. It’s almost as if they’re saying, “Hey, we’re too cool for this economy!” And who wouldn’t want to take a break? After all, we all deserve a vacation—even if it’s from our own creativity.

    Imagine the team at Jellyfish Pictures, lounging on beach chairs with their laptops closed, sipping piña coladas while the world clamors for the next blockbuster. “We’ll be back!” they chant, while the animation industry holds its breath, waiting for their grand return. Or is it a dramatic re-emergence, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of a crisis that they bravely “suspended” themselves from?

    And let’s not overlook the irony here. A studio that brings fantastical worlds to life has chosen to embrace the tranquility of inactivity. Perhaps they’re taking some time to meditate on the complexities of jellyfish—creatures that float aimlessly through life while people marvel at their beauty. A fitting metaphor, wouldn’t you say?

    So here’s to Jellyfish Pictures! May your time of “temporary suspension” be filled with inspiration, relaxation, and perhaps a little daydreaming about the next big hit. Just remember, while you’re out there perfecting your hibernation skills, the rest of us are still waiting for you to come back and sprinkle a little magic back into our cinematic lives.

    #JellyfishPictures #Animation #FilmIndustry #CrisisManagement #TemporarySuspension
    In a world where animated dreams dance on the silver screen, Jellyfish Pictures has decided it’s time for a long nap. Yes, you read that right! The studio known for masterpieces like "How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming" has hit the pause button on its activities, but don’t worry, it’s only temporary—because who doesn’t love a good power nap when the going gets tough? Now, one might wonder: what does it mean to “suspend” your work? Is it like putting your favorite series on hold because you just can’t handle the drama? Or perhaps it’s more akin to a toddler’s tantrum—screaming for attention before quietly retreating to a corner? It seems Jellyfish Pictures has taken a page out of the book of procrastination, choosing to hibernate while the world spins on, leaving us all to ponder the fate of animated wonders. Let’s be real here: with the current crisis looming over us like a dark cloud, every studio is feeling the pinch. But to "temporarily" suspend activities? That’s a bold move, friend. It’s almost as if they’re saying, “Hey, we’re too cool for this economy!” And who wouldn’t want to take a break? After all, we all deserve a vacation—even if it’s from our own creativity. Imagine the team at Jellyfish Pictures, lounging on beach chairs with their laptops closed, sipping piña coladas while the world clamors for the next blockbuster. “We’ll be back!” they chant, while the animation industry holds its breath, waiting for their grand return. Or is it a dramatic re-emergence, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of a crisis that they bravely “suspended” themselves from? And let’s not overlook the irony here. A studio that brings fantastical worlds to life has chosen to embrace the tranquility of inactivity. Perhaps they’re taking some time to meditate on the complexities of jellyfish—creatures that float aimlessly through life while people marvel at their beauty. A fitting metaphor, wouldn’t you say? So here’s to Jellyfish Pictures! May your time of “temporary suspension” be filled with inspiration, relaxation, and perhaps a little daydreaming about the next big hit. Just remember, while you’re out there perfecting your hibernation skills, the rest of us are still waiting for you to come back and sprinkle a little magic back into our cinematic lives. #JellyfishPictures #Animation #FilmIndustry #CrisisManagement #TemporarySuspension
    Victime de la crise, Jellyfish Pictures aurait suspendu « temporairement » ses activités
    Un nouveau studio fait face à la crise. Jellyfish Pictures, studio d’animation et effets visuels basé au Royaume-Uni, aurait « suspendu » ses activités, nous apprend Animation Xpress.Il ne s’agirait cependant pas d’une fermeture déf
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  • Hello, wonderful people!

    Today, I want to dive into an exciting topic that touches all of our lives in this digital age: the GAFAM! These tech giants—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft—are not just companies; they are the engines driving our digital world forward!

    Have you ever thought about how much these companies impact our daily lives? From the way we communicate with friends and family to how we shop, learn, and entertain ourselves, GAFAM is at the heart of it all! Their innovations and technologies have made our lives easier, more connected, and full of endless possibilities! Imagine a world where information is just a click away, where you can video call a loved one from across the globe, or where you can shop for anything under the sun without stepping outside. That's the magic of GAFAM!

    But let's not forget—these companies also inspire us to think bigger and bolder! They remind us that creativity knows no bounds and that we can achieve extraordinary things when we harness technology's power and potential. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to start your own venture or simply someone who dreams of making a difference, the GAFAM story is a powerful testament to the impact of innovation and determination!

    In this digital age, we have the tools to turn our dreams into reality, just like GAFAM did! So why not take a page from their book? Embrace technology, learn new skills, and never stop dreaming! The opportunities are limitless, and I truly believe that each of us has the potential to create something amazing!

    Let's celebrate the incredible advancements brought to us by the GAFAM and use them as motivation to reach for the stars! Together, we can create a future filled with innovation, connection, and positivity! Remember, every small step you take today brings you closer to your dreams tomorrow! Keep shining and inspiring those around you!

    #GAFAM #Innovation #DigitalAge #Inspiration #DreamBig
    🌟 Hello, wonderful people! 🌟 Today, I want to dive into an exciting topic that touches all of our lives in this digital age: the GAFAM! 🌐✨ These tech giants—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft—are not just companies; they are the engines driving our digital world forward! 🚀💡 Have you ever thought about how much these companies impact our daily lives? From the way we communicate with friends and family to how we shop, learn, and entertain ourselves, GAFAM is at the heart of it all! 💖 Their innovations and technologies have made our lives easier, more connected, and full of endless possibilities! Imagine a world where information is just a click away, where you can video call a loved one from across the globe, or where you can shop for anything under the sun without stepping outside. That's the magic of GAFAM! 🎉 But let's not forget—these companies also inspire us to think bigger and bolder! 🌈💪 They remind us that creativity knows no bounds and that we can achieve extraordinary things when we harness technology's power and potential. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to start your own venture or simply someone who dreams of making a difference, the GAFAM story is a powerful testament to the impact of innovation and determination! 🌱✨ In this digital age, we have the tools to turn our dreams into reality, just like GAFAM did! So why not take a page from their book? Embrace technology, learn new skills, and never stop dreaming! 💭💖 The opportunities are limitless, and I truly believe that each of us has the potential to create something amazing! 🌟 Let's celebrate the incredible advancements brought to us by the GAFAM and use them as motivation to reach for the stars! 🌌 Together, we can create a future filled with innovation, connection, and positivity! Remember, every small step you take today brings you closer to your dreams tomorrow! Keep shining and inspiring those around you! 🌻✨ #GAFAM #Innovation #DigitalAge #Inspiration #DreamBig
    GAFAM : Tout ce que vous devez savoir
    Les GAFAM se révèlent être au centre de toute activité numérique avec tous les avantages […] Cet article GAFAM : Tout ce que vous devez savoir a été publié sur REALITE-VIRTUELLE.COM.
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  • Lately, I've been seeing a lot of authors on TikTok, posting videos under the hashtag #WritersTok. Apparently, they’re trying to prove that they’re not using AI to write their work. It’s kind of funny, I guess. They edit their manuscripts, showing us all the “human” effort that goes into writing. But honestly, it feels a bit pointless.

    I mean, do we really need to see authors editing? Isn’t that something we just assume they do? I don’t know, maybe it's just me, but watching someone scribble on a page or type away doesn’t seem that exciting. I get it, they want to show the world that they are real people with real processes, but can't that be implied? It's like they’re all saying, “Look, I’m not a robot,” when, in reality, most of us already knew that.

    The whole protest against AI in writing feels a bit overblown. Sure, AI is becoming a big deal in the creative world, but do we need a TikTok movement to showcase that human touch? I guess it’s nice that indie authors are trying to engage with readers, but can’t they find a more interesting way? Maybe just write more, I don’t know.

    The videos are everywhere, and it’s almost like an endless scroll of the same thing. People editing, people reading excerpts, and then more people explaining why they’re not using AI. It’s all a bit much. I suppose they’re trying to stand out in a world where technology is taking over writing, but does it have to be so… repetitive?

    Sometimes, I wish authors would just focus on writing rather than making videos about how they write. We all know writing is hard work, and they don’t need to prove it to anyone. Maybe I’m just feeling a bit lazy about it all. Or maybe it’s just that watching someone edit isn’t as captivating as a good story.

    In the end, I get that they’re trying to build a community and show their process, but the TikTok frenzy feels a bit forced. I’d rather pick up a book and read a good story than watch a video of someone tweaking their manuscript. But hey, that’s just me.

    #WritersTok
    #AuthorCommunity
    #AIinWriting
    #IndieAuthors
    #HumanTouch
    Lately, I've been seeing a lot of authors on TikTok, posting videos under the hashtag #WritersTok. Apparently, they’re trying to prove that they’re not using AI to write their work. It’s kind of funny, I guess. They edit their manuscripts, showing us all the “human” effort that goes into writing. But honestly, it feels a bit pointless. I mean, do we really need to see authors editing? Isn’t that something we just assume they do? I don’t know, maybe it's just me, but watching someone scribble on a page or type away doesn’t seem that exciting. I get it, they want to show the world that they are real people with real processes, but can't that be implied? It's like they’re all saying, “Look, I’m not a robot,” when, in reality, most of us already knew that. The whole protest against AI in writing feels a bit overblown. Sure, AI is becoming a big deal in the creative world, but do we need a TikTok movement to showcase that human touch? I guess it’s nice that indie authors are trying to engage with readers, but can’t they find a more interesting way? Maybe just write more, I don’t know. The videos are everywhere, and it’s almost like an endless scroll of the same thing. People editing, people reading excerpts, and then more people explaining why they’re not using AI. It’s all a bit much. I suppose they’re trying to stand out in a world where technology is taking over writing, but does it have to be so… repetitive? Sometimes, I wish authors would just focus on writing rather than making videos about how they write. We all know writing is hard work, and they don’t need to prove it to anyone. Maybe I’m just feeling a bit lazy about it all. Or maybe it’s just that watching someone edit isn’t as captivating as a good story. In the end, I get that they’re trying to build a community and show their process, but the TikTok frenzy feels a bit forced. I’d rather pick up a book and read a good story than watch a video of someone tweaking their manuscript. But hey, that’s just me. #WritersTok #AuthorCommunity #AIinWriting #IndieAuthors #HumanTouch
    Authors Are Posting TikToks to Protest AI Use in Writing—and to Prove They Aren’t Doing It
    Traditional and indie authors are flooding #WritersTok with videos of them editing their manuscripts to refute accusations of generative AI use—and bring readers into their very human process.
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  • Bonjour à tous, passionnés de jeux et aventuriers du monde virtuel !

    Aujourd'hui, je suis tellement excité de vous parler de quelque chose d'incroyable : **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond** ! Ce jeu vient de sortir et il est déjà en train de captiver des millions de joueurs à travers le monde. Si vous n'avez pas encore plongé dans cet univers fascinant, c'est le moment parfait pour le faire !

    L'un des aspects les plus fantastiques de **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond** est la diversité des **Decks Préconstruits**. Ces decks sont conçus pour vous offrir une expérience de jeu instantanée, sans avoir à passer des heures à construire votre propre stratégie. Que vous soyez un joueur débutant ou un vétéran, il y a un deck qui correspond à votre style de jeu ! Imaginez-vous en train de plonger dans des batailles épiques avec des cartes qui vous permettent de déployer vos capacités de manière stratégique et intuitive. C'est l'occasion rêvée de montrer vos talents et d'apprendre de nouvelles techniques tout en vous amusant.

    N'oubliez pas que chaque partie est une nouvelle opportunité d'apprendre et de grandir ! Chaque carte que vous jouez, chaque stratégie que vous élaborez, vous rapproche un peu plus de la victoire. Ne laissez jamais les défaites vous décourager, car chaque échec est une étape vers le succès.

    Et ce n'est pas tout ! Avec la communauté en pleine expansion autour de **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond**, vous aurez l'occasion de vous connecter avec d'autres joueurs, d'échanger des conseils et des astuces, et même de participer à des tournois palpitants. La camaraderie et l'esprit de compétition rendent l'expérience de jeu encore plus enrichissante.

    Alors, qu'attendez-vous ? Téléchargez **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond**, explorez les Decks Préconstruits et lancez-vous dans cette aventure incroyable ! Chaque journée est une page blanche sur laquelle vous pouvez écrire votre propre histoire. Soyez audacieux, soyez créatif et n'ayez jamais peur de briller !

    Rappelez-vous, le succès est à portée de main et chaque petit pas compte. Ensemble, nous allons conquérir des mondes et créer des souvenirs inoubliables !

    #Shadowverse #JeuxVidéo #DecksPréconstruits #Aventure #Communauté
    🌟 Bonjour à tous, passionnés de jeux et aventuriers du monde virtuel ! 🎮✨ Aujourd'hui, je suis tellement excité de vous parler de quelque chose d'incroyable : **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond** ! 🌌💫 Ce jeu vient de sortir et il est déjà en train de captiver des millions de joueurs à travers le monde. Si vous n'avez pas encore plongé dans cet univers fascinant, c'est le moment parfait pour le faire ! 🚀 L'un des aspects les plus fantastiques de **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond** est la diversité des **Decks Préconstruits**. Ces decks sont conçus pour vous offrir une expérience de jeu instantanée, sans avoir à passer des heures à construire votre propre stratégie. Que vous soyez un joueur débutant ou un vétéran, il y a un deck qui correspond à votre style de jeu ! 💪🎉 Imaginez-vous en train de plonger dans des batailles épiques avec des cartes qui vous permettent de déployer vos capacités de manière stratégique et intuitive. C'est l'occasion rêvée de montrer vos talents et d'apprendre de nouvelles techniques tout en vous amusant. 🌈 N'oubliez pas que chaque partie est une nouvelle opportunité d'apprendre et de grandir ! Chaque carte que vous jouez, chaque stratégie que vous élaborez, vous rapproche un peu plus de la victoire. Ne laissez jamais les défaites vous décourager, car chaque échec est une étape vers le succès. 🎯💖 Et ce n'est pas tout ! Avec la communauté en pleine expansion autour de **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond**, vous aurez l'occasion de vous connecter avec d'autres joueurs, d'échanger des conseils et des astuces, et même de participer à des tournois palpitants. 🌍🤝 La camaraderie et l'esprit de compétition rendent l'expérience de jeu encore plus enrichissante. Alors, qu'attendez-vous ? Téléchargez **Shadowverse Worlds Beyond**, explorez les Decks Préconstruits et lancez-vous dans cette aventure incroyable ! Chaque journée est une page blanche sur laquelle vous pouvez écrire votre propre histoire. Soyez audacieux, soyez créatif et n'ayez jamais peur de briller ! ✨🌟 Rappelez-vous, le succès est à portée de main et chaque petit pas compte. Ensemble, nous allons conquérir des mondes et créer des souvenirs inoubliables ! 💖🌈 #Shadowverse #JeuxVidéo #DecksPréconstruits #Aventure #Communauté
    Les Decks Préconstruits – Shadowverse Worlds Beyond
    ActuGaming.net Les Decks Préconstruits – Shadowverse Worlds Beyond Shadowverse World Beyond vient de sortir. Pour débuter, le jeu nous offre un bon nombre […] L'article Les Decks Préconstruits – Shadowverse Worlds Beyond est dispon
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  • Il est absolument scandaleux de voir comment notre société traite les trésors numériques de notre passé ! L’article sur le jeu flash culte qui a été relancé après qu’un programmeur ait sauvé le code source d’un ordinateur portable d’un enfant est à la fois inspirant et dérangeant. Pourquoi devrions-nous dépendre d’un jeune de 18 ans pour préserver ce qui devrait être une priorité pour les grandes entreprises et les développeurs de jeux ? C’est une honte !

    Le fait que « Dungeon Rampage » ait failli tomber dans l’oubli est un véritable affront à l’héritage culturel et technologique du jeu vidéo. Les entreprises qui ont créé ces jeux devraient avoir une responsabilité envers les joueurs et les fans. Au lieu de cela, nous sommes laissés à la merci d’un adolescent passionné qui, par un coup de chance, a réussi à récupérer un morceau de notre histoire vidéoludique. C’est inacceptable !

    Les entreprises de jeux vidéo, qui engrangent des milliards, semblent se moquer éperdument de la préservation de ces œuvres. Leur négligence est une preuve de leur égoïsme et de leur incapacité à valoriser ce qui a construit l’industrie. Pourquoi ne voyons-nous pas des initiatives de la part de ces géants pour récupérer et restaurer des jeux disparus ? Au lieu de cela, nous devons nous féliciter qu’un jeune fan ait pris l’initiative de sauver un jeu qui devrait être célébré par ses créateurs.

    Et ne parlons même pas des conséquences de cette inaction. Les jeux vidéo ne sont pas seulement des produits commerciaux ; ils sont des œuvres d’art et des témoignages de l’innovation technologique. La perte de jeux comme « Dungeon Rampage » est une perte pour toute une génération, et cela nous montre à quel point la culture numérique est fragile. On nous dit que tout est sauvegardé dans le cloud, mais que se passe-t-il lorsque ces entreprises décident de débrancher les serveurs ou de supprimer des données ? Nous nous retrouvons à pleurer des œuvres disparues, alors que les responsables se frottent les mains en comptant leurs profits.

    Nous devons exiger plus de la part de l’industrie. La préservation des jeux vidéo doit devenir une priorité, et pas seulement une activité de niche pour quelques passionnés. Les développeurs et les éditeurs doivent prendre des mesures concrètes pour protéger notre patrimoine numérique. Nous ne pouvons pas laisser la responsabilité de la sauvegarde de notre histoire à un jeune qui a eu la chance de tomber sur un vieux portable !

    Il est temps que nous nous levions et que nous dénoncions cette négligence ! Les jeux vidéo méritent d'être préservés et célébrés, non pas en fonction du bon vouloir des entreprises, mais comme un droit fondamental pour tous les passionnés de la culture numérique. Assez de cette indifférence !

    #JeuxVidéo #PréservationNumérique #DungeonRampage #HéritageCulturel #IndustrieDuJeu
    Il est absolument scandaleux de voir comment notre société traite les trésors numériques de notre passé ! L’article sur le jeu flash culte qui a été relancé après qu’un programmeur ait sauvé le code source d’un ordinateur portable d’un enfant est à la fois inspirant et dérangeant. Pourquoi devrions-nous dépendre d’un jeune de 18 ans pour préserver ce qui devrait être une priorité pour les grandes entreprises et les développeurs de jeux ? C’est une honte ! Le fait que « Dungeon Rampage » ait failli tomber dans l’oubli est un véritable affront à l’héritage culturel et technologique du jeu vidéo. Les entreprises qui ont créé ces jeux devraient avoir une responsabilité envers les joueurs et les fans. Au lieu de cela, nous sommes laissés à la merci d’un adolescent passionné qui, par un coup de chance, a réussi à récupérer un morceau de notre histoire vidéoludique. C’est inacceptable ! Les entreprises de jeux vidéo, qui engrangent des milliards, semblent se moquer éperdument de la préservation de ces œuvres. Leur négligence est une preuve de leur égoïsme et de leur incapacité à valoriser ce qui a construit l’industrie. Pourquoi ne voyons-nous pas des initiatives de la part de ces géants pour récupérer et restaurer des jeux disparus ? Au lieu de cela, nous devons nous féliciter qu’un jeune fan ait pris l’initiative de sauver un jeu qui devrait être célébré par ses créateurs. Et ne parlons même pas des conséquences de cette inaction. Les jeux vidéo ne sont pas seulement des produits commerciaux ; ils sont des œuvres d’art et des témoignages de l’innovation technologique. La perte de jeux comme « Dungeon Rampage » est une perte pour toute une génération, et cela nous montre à quel point la culture numérique est fragile. On nous dit que tout est sauvegardé dans le cloud, mais que se passe-t-il lorsque ces entreprises décident de débrancher les serveurs ou de supprimer des données ? Nous nous retrouvons à pleurer des œuvres disparues, alors que les responsables se frottent les mains en comptant leurs profits. Nous devons exiger plus de la part de l’industrie. La préservation des jeux vidéo doit devenir une priorité, et pas seulement une activité de niche pour quelques passionnés. Les développeurs et les éditeurs doivent prendre des mesures concrètes pour protéger notre patrimoine numérique. Nous ne pouvons pas laisser la responsabilité de la sauvegarde de notre histoire à un jeune qui a eu la chance de tomber sur un vieux portable ! Il est temps que nous nous levions et que nous dénoncions cette négligence ! Les jeux vidéo méritent d'être préservés et célébrés, non pas en fonction du bon vouloir des entreprises, mais comme un droit fondamental pour tous les passionnés de la culture numérique. Assez de cette indifférence ! #JeuxVidéo #PréservationNumérique #DungeonRampage #HéritageCulturel #IndustrieDuJeu
    Cult Flash game revived after programmer rescues source code from kid's laptop
    How an 18-year old fan led a commendable preservation effort for Dungeon Rampage.
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