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Wednesday, 29 June 2016

An animation is the illusion of movement created by displaying a series of still pictures in rapid succession. The possibility in the world of animation is limitless as anything can be brought to life and be infused with personality, clay, sketches, objects, computer meshes, and. From the cartoon series, to TV commercials, classy narrative works and models, to experimental, digitally composited, visual effects driven art films, Animation is a powerful medium for ideas.

Monday, 25 April 2016

Cel animation, where the animators used to draw every frame by hand, is dead long back & we are practicing only digital animation now. There are 2 types of digital animation - 2d animation & 3d animation. 2d animation means creating movements using characters & backgrounds in a two-dimensional artistic space. 3d animation means the creation of moving pictures in a three-dimensional digital environment, which is done by sequencing consecutive images, or "frames", that simulate motion by each image showing the next in a steady progression of steps, filmed by a virtual "camera" and then output to video by a rendering engine.

There are many institutes that offer Animation training in Chennai, but Web D School has marched ahead of all of them to become the No.1 institute, by offering the best quality training coupled with numerous value additions.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

his short film opens the YL male voice choir’s ”Journey” concerts and doubles as their introduction film in their online communication.

YL has a long history of work with many legendary Finnish composers – most notably Jean Sibelius – but today they’re also interpreters of more contemporary choir music. The challenge we faced was capturing this scale and history in a 2 minute short. Our solution was to turn it into a poetic piece that pays tribute to classic Finnish poster design and the golden age of Finnish art.

Director — Ville Salervo / Designer — Ville Salervo / Compositor — Kristian Lindén

2D Animator — Emmiina Jokinen / Production Assistant — Sanna Lindroos
Producer — Misha Lagerstedt / Music — Anton Valle / Sound Design — Silencio

Client — Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat

In straightforward terms, VFX is the procedure by which symbolism is made and/or controlled outside the connection of a real to life shot to make situations which look practical, however would be perilous, costly, unrealistic, or just difficult to catch on film. Visual impacts are for the most part executed in the after generation stage with the utilization of different instruments and advancements, for example, visual computerization, demonstrating, liveliness and so on, while embellishments, for example, blasts and auto pursues are incompletely executed amid the taping process itself.

Monday, 22 February 2016

The #Jungle #Book, due in theaters April 15, is directed by Favreau from a script written by Justin Marks (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li). The stereoscopic #3D feature, which will also be available in IMAX, is being produced by Brigham Taylor, who also produced Disney’s Tomorrowland. Working alongside cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Noah), MPC is the lead visual effects studio, with Christopher Glass and Alex McDowell (Watchmen) serving as production designers.

The film’s voice cast includes Bill Murray as the voice of Baloo the Bear, Christopher Walken as King Louie, Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Lupita Nyong’o as Raksha, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, and newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli.

Disney has a slew of live-action remakes of classic animation properties on its development and production slate, including The Sword in the Stone, Mulan, Winnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, the Tim Burton-directed Dumbo, and the “Bald Mountain” sequence in Fantasia, and the proven box office success of live-action films such as last year’s Cinderella and 2014’s Maleficent mean that audiences can expect similar projects to continue into the unforeseen future. Also in development at Disney is a Maleficent sequel, a new Peter Pan spinoff, Tink, starring Reese Witherspoon as Tinker Bell, and a live-action Prince Charming movie. Oh, and let’s not forget Alice in Wonderland. That live-action remake, also from director Tim Burton, has a sequel as well, Alice Through the Looking Glass, which arrives in theaters on May 27.

Rather than the usual clips and animatics, the presentation at the El Capitan Theater included a sneak preview of the entire film, for which anticipation has been growing since the first bits of footage were screened at the D23 Expo back in August 2015. The theater itself is one of the venues at which fans will be able to see The Jungle Book movie in Dolby Vision, a brand-new laser projection system designed in part to combat the dimming effect of 3D.

“The picture is really bright,” Favreau said of the format during the event. “Once you see it, it’s hard to look at a regular projection system ever again, especially in 3D… For this film, it was interesting to see this level of contrast and dynamic range. We’re dealing with, essentially, a computer-generated image that has a lot of information and latitude.”

“We’re creating a full, photo-real world that we can recognize as real,” Legato added. “We’ve all seen pictures of animals. We see how they move. We see how they walk and talk and we can tell if it’s artificial or not.”

Despite the lush environments and realistic looking animals that populate the film, none of The Jungle Book was shot on location. Shot in a big empty building in downtown Los Angeles, everything on the screen -- with the exception of actor Sethi, who plays Mowgli -- is computer generated and animated.

“We had a motion-capture volume, we had actors playing the parts, we had suits, we had sets that were lined up with what the digital set looked like. And then we captured it,” Favreau said. “First we had an animatic version, as you would on an animated film, then a motion-capture version that we edited, and then finally we took that and shot the kid as though he were an element.”

The film’s realism can be credited to MPC, which most recently provided visual effects for Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Kenneth Branagh’s re-envisioning of Cinderella and James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Weta Digital, known for its Oscar-winning work on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies as well as the last two Planet of the Apes movies. MPC handled the bulk of the film’s effects, with Weta -- which has a trove of experience animating realistic-looking fantastical characters such as The Hobbit’s Smaug -- stepping in to handle a sequence set around King Louie.

“The idea of going out to the jungle and shooting this just felt like it wouldn’t have the magic the ’67 film had,” Favreau said. “There was a dreamlike quality to it. There was a surreal quality to it. It was a high-water mark for character animation, because of the character and the emotion and the music. And that’s what I remember about it, and so I wanted to make sure we preserved that.”

One of Favreau’s objectives for The Jungle Book was to put a live-action sensibility into a computer-generated world. To blur the lines between what is practical and what is computer-generated, two different sets were used: one that was used for filming, and the other that was being built for the next shot. This meant that individual sets were constantly being built and then broken down when they weren’t being used or had already served their purpose.

“Some people seek out an experience that they’ve never seen before,” Favreau said, “and I’m proud to have the film that will introduce this technology in much the same way I was introduced with Avatar to that tech. It’s the marriage of story and technology that always makes for an interesting presentation.”

For the story itself, Favreau looked at both Rudyard Kipling‘s 1894 book of stories and Disney’s 1967 big screen take. “I think, though, that, as far as story structure, the ’67 actually had a lot to offer, so we tried to stick with it as much as we could,” Favreau said. “What I really tried to do, though, was focus on the images that I remembered from it before going back to look at it again. That was a trick that I learned on Iron Man. It’s not necessarily what’s in the material that’s so important, it’s what you remember. I find that everybody has a collective memory that’s very similar. There were images that I remember very clearly that I listed off and those were the top priority. Then, as you go back and we started to break story together, you start to figure out that Walt and his team came up with a lot of the same conclusions and a lot of the same story points. There’s a lot of familiarity there.”

One of the main challenges was finding precisely the right way for the new Jungle Book movie to depict its talking animals. Favreau and Legato looked at every previous example they could find (even Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Dog with a Blog) to determine exactly what worked and what didn’t. “There are certain animals that talk well,” Favreau explained. “A snake is harder to talk. You want it to have phonemes, the mouth movements that are required to make the sound. We always erred on the side of subtlety.”

While Walt Disney used an orangutan for King Louie in the animated film, Favreau’s version tries to stay true to the animal’s habitats and native environments. This means that King Louie (voice of Christopher Walken) won’t be an orangutan in the new movie. But Favreau did manage to find a loophole that would allow him to bring the likeness of King Louie to life while staying true to the animal’s habitat. Instead of an orangutan, the film uses a now-extinct descendant of the orangutan called the Gigantopithecus, which were native to the area.

Although the Jungle Book movie’s animals were always intended to look as photoreal as possible, some of the features of the actors playing them were actually incorporated into the character designs. There’s not so much of Scarlett Johansson in the python, Ka, but you might find that Baloo’s eyebrows bear a subtle resemblance to those of Bill Murray.

“For King Louie, we really wanted him to have blue eyes and the look and the way [Christopher Walken]’s face is rigged,” Favreau said. “We did some motion capture work and key framing and video reference… We tried to make it informant enough that you could see the soul of the actor, but not enough to take you out of the reality of the movie.

“You have to breathe life into this thing,” Favreau concluded. “Otherwise, it’s just an exercise in technology and that’s not entertainment. You need to have a beating heart in there and that’s what your cast gives you.”

Source link: awn.com

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

#Animators and top #toons from around the world will head south this week, as the fifth Cape Town International #Animation Festival (CTIAF) kicks off on Thursday in South Africa.

Formerly known as Kunjanimation, the fest is the country’s biggest animation showcase, with this year’s expanded focus underscoring director Dianne Makings’ hopes that the festival will become a regular fixture on the global animation circuit, and ultimately “act as the gateway to the continent.”

The four-day fest will bring together award-winning toons from a host of countries, including France, Brazil, Australia, Ireland and the host nation. Among the programming highlights will be the African premiere of “Stick Man,” which was produced by the U.K.’s Oscar-nominated Magic Light Pictures and animated by South Africa’s Triggerfish Studios. Local bizzers will also get a chance to rub shoulders with animation veterans from around the globe, with a series of workshops led by industry leaders.

For South Africa, the festival reflects the growing stakes for an industry that has put itself on the global animation map in recent years. Triggerfish — the country’s largest studio — has broken domestic box office records with its two feature films, “The Adventures of Zambezia” and “Khumba,” which combined have been distributed in more than 150 territories. Other success stories include Sunrise Productions, which has inked a deal for the fifth and sixth seasons of “Jungle Beat,” an animated series that’s being distributed in more than 120 countries.

“The landscape is shifting from only service work (still a valuable bread and butter component to the industry) to the development of individual IP, and that’s really encouraging for all our members,” says Makings.

Triggerfish is leading the pack. Building on their successful partnership for “Stick Man,” the studio is currently in production with Magic Light Pictures Berlin on two 25-minute holiday specials for the BBC, based on Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake’s classic children’s book “Revolting Rhymes.”

The studio is also working on its next feature film, “Seal Team,” and has four features and four TV series in development, following on the heels of their ambitious Story Lab project, an Africa-wide toon talent search backed by South Africa’s Dept. of Trade and Industry and the Walt Disney Co.

According to animator Daniel Snaddon, the company’s full slate highlights its efforts to develop “a new robust studio pipeline … that will be able to accommodate more large-scale collaborative projects.”

That effort only underscores the broader challenges vexing the industry, according to Wendy Spinks, of Zeropoint Studios.

“One of our core weaknesses is [building the] capacity to engage and produce on an international level and be competitive in pricing, while not losing jobs or talent at the end of every production,” says Spinks, whose studio is currently developing three TV series through co-productions with partners in Canada and Ireland, as well as a short film in development with a French studio.

Spinks is part of an industry-wide effort to create an animation, audiovisual and digital arts cluster geared toward maintaining a “base of three developed and viable series in co-production for global export,” she says.

The goal is to ensure a steady pipeline of projects that allow South African animation to “thrive commercially on an international stage,” by tapping into opportunities with various co-production partners, and across multiple platforms.

In the mean time, industry stakeholders are lobbying for government to do its part, pushing for changes to South Africa’s current incentive scheme that would “make it more applicable, accessible and effectual for animation projects,” according to Nick Cloete, chairperson of industry body Animation SA.

The group is also engaging with private and public broadcasters to devote more of their budgets to locally produced animated content, and lobbying for the government to introduce local-content quotas for animation.

For their part, CTIAF organizers have forged ties with their counterparts at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and at the London International Animation Festival, while a new partnership will be launched next year with Cartoons on the Bay, the Italian toon fest sponsored by RAI.

Those pairings, alongside the growing number of international co-productions inked through South Africa’s nine co-production treaties, only emphasize “the changing landscape of the industry, and how we are no longer an inward-facing industry, but rather a global exporter,” according to Makings.

Source Link : variety.com

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

London-headquartered VFX house Cinesite officially launched its #animation division on Monday with the announcement of a new 54,000 square-foot animation studio in downtown Montréal. With plans to come online over the next 18 months, the new facility -- able to scale up to a total of 750 staff and crew -- will allow the Cinesite visual effects team to effectively double in size, with the entire sixth floor to be made available in 2017 to meet the demand of the company’s steadily increasing feature animation work.

The new digs were made possible with a loan of $2.4 million from Investissement Quebec on behalf of the Government of Quebec to support the creation of infrastructure to allow feature animation production. An additional loan guarantee of $19.6 million towards an overall budget of at least $90 million is also being advanced to the production company to help with the financing of each of the first three animated films on the studio’s slate. Six more films are planned to follow the initial three features, which will see the facility at full capacity with more than 500 new permanent jobs by 2020.

The co-creator of Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me franchise, Pablos’ career includes credits as supervising animator for #Disney titles including Tarzan, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Treasure Planet, just to name a few. Pablos’ work has led him to be nominated twice to the Annie Awards for his character design work on Blue Sky’s Rio and for his character animation on Disney’s Treasure Planet.

Animation Wizard Course

Animation is the process of creating the illusion of motion and shape change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other. There are 2 kinds of animation – 2D animation & 3D animation.

2D animation means creating movements using characters & backgrounds in a two-dimensional artistic space. 3D animation means the creation of moving pictures in a three-dimensional digital environment, which is done by sequencing consecutive images, or "frames", that simulate motion by each image showing the next in a steady progression of steps, filmed by a virtual "camera" and then output to video by a rendering engine.

The animation industry in India has been growing at a robust 22% every year, with many animation studios & production houses packed with work, be it outsourced from foreign studios or in-house projects for Indian market. Animation films, TV commercials, Computer games & Elearning industry are all in the booming phase in India & hence the demand for animation professionals are huge today.

Our animation courses has been segmented into 3 parts – Fundamentals of animation, 2D animation & 3D animation. The program has been designed with a lot of inputs from the industry experts & it covers all 3 stages of Animation project lifecycle such as Pre-production, Production & Post production in a comprehensive manner.

Monday, 8 February 2016

When creating game art, atmosphere is key – and even the best photo editing software and Illustrator tutorials can't do that for you. This piece was created to establish the mood and important gameplay elements in Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Tower of London mission.

The theme of the image is player versus the environment and, in this case, it's the new playable character and master assassin Evie, versus the Tower of London.

The colour palette used here is complementary: specifically, mauve and pale yellow. The mission is a stealth mission, hence I knew it was important to create a clear difference between light and shadow in the environment.

As a high-level conceptual design, the main focus of this artwork was to establish atmosphere and reinforce the art direction. It's a great tool for level artists, lighters and level designers to visualise the space we have.

We wanted to focus on the big picture instead of fine details. At first, I came up with a few quick composition sketches, trying to find something epic and showing the scale. Once we had chosen one that we thought would work I produced a few lighting sketches, trying to capture the atmosphere we wanted.

Fortunately, it didn't take us too long before we realised our vision. From there on it was simply tweaking, blocking in and painting. For efficiency purposes, I mostly used photos, a 3D mesh from the game and my previous boat illustrations to block in contents.

01. Tell a story

Evie's capivating pose tells the character's narrative

The theme of the image is Evie vs the Tower of London. Here Evie is placed on a higher position than the tower to establish her dominance. The backlight makes her stand out more and adds some mystery to the character. These are very simple, but effective ways to tell a story in one image.

02. Produce a rough sketch

Block out the composition before adding further detail

This sketch was chosen because it had the most potential to deliver the atmosphere and lighting we wanted to see. The challenge here was the lack of height variation in the surrounding buildings, which made it hard to show depth. Flipping is always a good way to check if a composition is balanced.

03. Blocking in the scene

Use layers and photographs to create an editable version of your scene

I use photos to create a base for painting later, paying attention to hue and value (check your values in greyscale using a black layer set to Saturation mode). I keep different planes on separate layers, so I can easily tweak them when necessary. Adjustment layers and clipping mask can be very useful here.

04. Painting the details

I tweak almost everything. I change Evie's pose, the height of the Tower of London and the surrounding buildings to refine the composition. To create depth, I play with the smoke and fog to create more layers and add a crowd in the distance to show scale. I always try to maintain the values that I've established in my sketches.

05. Light emphasis

Place emphasis on your character and add a thematic feel

I place the moon behind Evie to push the silhouette and give it a romantic feel. The light direction creates planes of light and shadows that help emphasise the focal points. Local lights in areas of shadow generate interesting value variations and tertiary points of interest.

06. Using filters

Male use of filters - Overlay, Smudge and Displacement are invaluable tools

I flip and transform part of the image, and change the Blending mode (usually Overlay), then use the Smudge and Displacement filters to create the reflection. I use boat illustrations, which I did earlier, to save time.

I also review the perspective, luminosity and contrast so they blend in well. The reflections are lower in terms of luminance, compared to the light source.

Source Link : creativebloq.com

Sunday, 7 February 2016

LOS ANGELES -- Pixar Animation Studios was the big winner at the 43rd Annual Annie Awards, Saturday evening at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Inside Out received Best Animated Feature along with 11 other categories, including Outstanding Music -- Michael Giacchino; Outstanding Editing -- Kevin Nolting; Outstanding Production Design -- Ralph Eggleston; Outstanding Voice Acting -- Phyllis Smith as “Sadness”; Outstanding Writing -- Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley; and Best Directing -- Pete Docter. This year was the first for the new category Best Animated Feature-Independent with Filme de Papel’s Boy and the World taking this top honor.

The Best Animated Special Production was awarded to He Named Me Malala (Parkes-MacDonald/Little Door); Best Animated Short Subject World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt); Best Animated TV/Broadcast Commercial Man and Dog (Psyop); Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production for Preschool Children Tumble Leaf -- Mirror (Amazon Studios and Bix Pix Entertainment); Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production for Children Wander Over Yonder -- The Breakfast (Disney Television Animation); Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production for a General Audience The Simpsons -- Halloween of Horror (Gracie Films in Association with 20th Century Fox Television); Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production

“The Annies are drawing more attention from both our industry and the general motion picture industry,” said ASIFA-Hollywood Executive Director, Frank Gladstone. “We wait all year for this event and it never disappoints! It was a fun evening looking back at our history and celebrating what we have accomplished over this past year.”

Presenting the coveted Annie trophies this year were actor, producer & director Edward James Olmos with actress Rita Moreno; actor & writer Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) with actress Laraine Newman (Dawn Of The Croods); actors Alexander Garfin and Hadley Belle Miller (“Linus and Lucy” from The Peanuts Movie) & Snoopy via Video; actress Kristen Schaal (Bob’s Burgers), composer Christophe Beck (Frozen); Phyllis Smith (voice of Sadness from Inside Out) with Bing Bong (Richard Kind) via video; Anomalisa co-directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, John Musker and ASIFA-Hollywood President, Jerry Beck and Executive Director, Frank Gladstone.

This year’s Juried Award recipients included Winsor McCay lifetime achievement award -- Joe Ranft (posthumously), Phil Roman and Isao Takahata. The Winsor McCay Award is one of the highest honors given to an individual in the animation industry in recognition for career contributions to the art of animation. Don Hahn was this year’s June Foray award recipient which honors an individual who has given significant and benevolent contributions to the art and industry of animation.

The full list of winners at the 43rd Annual Annie Awards is shown below:

Best Animated Feature:
Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Best Animated Special Production:
He Named Me Malala -- Parkes-MacDonald / Little Door

Best Animated Short Subject
Don Hertzfeldt -- World of Tomorrow

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Commercial:
Man and Dog -- Psyop

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Preschool Children:
Tumble Leaf -- Episode: Mirror -- Amazon Studios and Bix Pix Entertainment

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Children:
Wander Over Yonder -- Episode: The Breakfast -- Disney Television Animation

Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for a General Audience:
The Simpsons -- Episode: Halloween of Horror -- Gracie Films in Association with 20th Century Fox Television

Best Animated Feature -- Independent:
Boy and the World -- Filme de Papel

Best Student Film
ed -- Taha Neyestani, Sheridan College

Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in an Animated Production:
Jon Reisch and Stephen Marshall -- The Good Dinosaur -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in a Live Action Production:
Michael Balog, Jim Van Allen, Florent Andorra and Georg Kaltenbrunner -- Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron -- Sokovia Destruction -- Marvel Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Television/Broadcast Production:
Chi-Ho Chan -- Dragons: Race to the Edge -- Episode: “Have Dragon Will Travel, Part 1” -- DreamWorks Animation Television

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Feature Production:
Allison Rutland -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production:
Matthew Shumway, Adrian Millington, Blaine Toderian, Alexander Poei and Kevin Lan -- The Revenant -- The Bear (Judy) -- Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Anonymous Content, M Productions, Appian Way, RatPac-Dune Entertainment

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Video Game:
David Gibson -- Evolve -- 2K Games

Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in a TV/Broadcast Production:
Craig Kellman -- Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas -- Screen Novelties and Warner Bros. Animation

Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Feature Production:
Albert Lozano and Chris Sasaki -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Matt Braly -- Gravity Falls -- Episode: Northwest Mansion Mystery -- Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production:
Pete Docter -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Music in a TV/Broadcast Production:
Christopher Willis -- Disney Mickey Mouse -- Episode: ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! -- Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production:
Michael Giacchino -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Kevin Dart, Sylvia Liu, Chris Turnham and Eastwood Wong -- The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show -- Episode: “Peabody’s Parents/Galileo” -- DreamWorks Animation Television

Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production:
Ralph Eggleston -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in a TV/Broadcast Production:
Alonso Ramirez Ramos -- Disney Mickey Mouse -- Episode: ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! -- Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production:
Tony Rosenast -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Kristen Schaal -- Bob’s Burgers -- Episode: Hawk & Chick -- Twentieth Century Fox Television and Bento Box Entertainment

Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production:
Phyllis Smith -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production:
Steven Davis and Kelvin Yu -- Bob’s Burgers -- Episode: The Hauntening -- Twentieth Century Fox Television Bento Box Entertainment

Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production:
Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

Outstanding Achievement for Editorial in a TV/Broadcast Production:
Illya Owens -- Disney Mickey Mouse -- Episode: Coned -- Disney Television Animation

Outstanding Achievement for Editorial in an Animated Feature Production:
Kevin Nolting -- Inside Out -- Pixar Animation Studios

The Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 36 categories from best feature, best feature -- independent, production design, character animation, and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, music, editing and voice acting, and have often been a predictor of the annual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The ceremony was live-streamed again this year at www.annieawards.org/watch-it-live where animation enthusiasts and those unable to attend the event, could watch the show. Highlights of the ceremony will be uploaded to the Annies website in the next few weeks.

ASIFA-Hollywood is the world’s 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, special events, classes and screenings.

Created in 1972 by June Foray, the Annie Awards have grown in scope and stature for the past four decades.

Source Link : awn.com

Friday, 5 February 2016

Po the #Panda will rule the U.S. box office again with Fox’s “Kung Fu Panda 3″ nabbing at least $20 million at 3,955 theaters this weekend, early estimates showed Friday.

The animated comedy will leave a trio of new entries in the dust during a typically subdued Super Bowl weekend, led by Universal’s George Clooney comedy “Hail, Caesar!” with $9.5 million at 2,231 sites. The Coen Brothers’ look at 1950s Hollywood commanded a moderate $3.5 million on Friday, including $543,000 in Thursday night previews.

Sony’s horror-drama spoof “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” was headed for $9 million at 2,930 sites with a $3 million opening day on Friday. The movie is based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s parody of Jane Austen’s iconic 1813 novel.

Only a modest number of moviegoers were choosing “The Choice,” which opened Friday with about $2.5 million at 2,631 sites on its way to a $6.5 million weekend for Lionsgate’s romancer.

Fox’s seventh weekend of “The Revenant” and Disney’s eighth weekend of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will probably be in the mix in the battle for second place. “The Revenant” is heading into the weekend with $142 million domestically and Disney’s already announced that the seventh Star Wars will cross the $900 million domestic mark on Friday.

Studios have tended to avoid the Super Bowl weekend. The record holder is the 2008 opening of Disney’s concert film “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds” with $31.1 million, followed by Sony’s 2010 drama “Dear John” with $30.5 million and Fox’s 2009 launch of “Taken” with $24.7 million. Warner Bros.’ sixth weekend of “American Sniper” led last year’s Super Bowl box office with $30.7 million.

“Hard and fast rules don’t apply to movies that were presented as perfect counter-programming to the SuperBowl,” noted Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore. “The SuperBowl itself provides a chance for Hollywood to give up some short-term box office pain for long-term gain with studios jumping at the chance to have trailers for some of their biggest upcoming blockbusters presented to a massive television audience during the game.”

Fox’s second weekend of DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 3” took in $48 million in its first week and should finish the frame at around $70 million in its first 10 days.

“Hail, Caesar!,” Clooney’s fourth movie with the Coen brothers, has received strong critical support with a 78% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Universal financed the $22 million project.

The Coens’ best performer by far has been 2010’s “True Grit,” which opened with $24 million on its way to a $171 million domestic total. Their next best launch was 2008’s “Burn After Reading,” which launched with $19 million on its way to $60 million.

The brothers’ best picture Oscar winner “No Country for Old Men” took in a total of $74 million for Miramax in 2007-08.

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is a $28 million production financed by Cross Creek Pictures and is being distributed by Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems label. Lily James portrays Elizabeth Bennet battling lass prejudice and the undead.

“The Choice” is the 11th movie based on a romance novel from Nicolas Sparks. It was acquired by Lionsgate for under $10 million and centers on two neighbors whose love affair is derailed by tragedy.

source link : http://variety.com/

Friday, 29 January 2016

How Moviepilot sees this week’s wide releases shaping up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google

Does digital data offer indicators that can be used to monitor marketing effectiveness and predict box office success even before awareness turns into intent? Moviepilot — which studies social data and box office trends — analyzes this weekend’s new movies across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google (the methodology behind the numbers is laid out in the appendix below) over the seven days leading up to their release, when marketing campaigns are at their peak.

“Kung Fu Panda 3,” 20th Century Fox

Moviepilot Prediction: $48 million

“Kung Fu Panda 3” is set to brave the winter cold and climb its way to top spot at the box office this weekend with a take of over $50 million. Po the panda is currently pacing very similarly to “Home,” which opened to $52.1 million for Dreamworks Animation and 20th Century Fox early last year.

Social has played a large role in re-activating franchise fans and letting them know that a new adventure is on the way: over New Year’s weekend, Snapchat made four custom “Kung Fu Panda 3” filters, which were designed by Snapchat influencers, available to fans so they could wish each other a happy new year in style. This is in addition to a set of “Kung Fu Panda 3” Facebook stickers, a feature which is used by millions on Facebook Messenger every month.

Kids (and parents of course) have also been able to play in the Panda Village on Minecraft – and you can believe this game is popular with kids – and new character Mei Mei also does her best Jenna Marbles impression, introducing herself via a series of vlogs on YouTube.

“Kung Fu Panda 3” is a shoo-in for top spot this weekend; the only question is how high over $50 million Po is able to climb?

“Fifty Shades of Black,” Open Road

Moviepilot Prediction: $12 million

Marlon Wayans returns this weekend with “Fifty Shades of Black,” his own tongue-in-cheek take on last year’s box office romp “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Wayans has put the full weight of his social presence behind the campaign, tapping into his millions of followers on Twitter, and using Instagram to publicize positive fan reviews of the movie. Wayans also took part in a Reddit AMA as well as a Twitter Q&A with AMC cinemas.

Interestingly, from a social media standpoint, the movie also stars King Bach, the Vine star with the most loops, who also has a significant presence across YouTube and other socials. Tapping into his millions of social followers provides access to a whole new audience outside of the Wayans’ fanbase. “Fifty Shades of Black” should be good for a take around $12 million for the weekend.

“The Finest Hours,” Disney

Moviepilot Prediction: $9 million

“The Finest Hours” tells the true story of a rescue mission to save the crews of oil tankers destroyed by storms off the coast of Cape Cod. The movie has an all-star cast who have appeared extensively across digital, with lead Chris Pine taking part in a Q&A on the Entertainment Weekly tumblr and the whole crew answering people’s questions on Facebook. “The Finest Hours” has solid search volume and is looking good for a take just shy of $10 million for the weekend.

“Jane Got A Gun,” Weinstein

Moviepilot Prediction: $3 million

“Jane Got A Gun” finally sees a wide release with the Weinstein Company. Debuting on over 1,000 screens, the star power of Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor could see “Jane Got A Gun” pull in as much as $3 million for the weekend.

Tobias Bauckhage (@tbauckhage) is co-founder and CEO of moviepilot.com, a social-media-driven movie community reaching more than 29 million Facebook fans and 30 million monthly unique users. Based on community data, Moviepilot helps studios to optimize their social media campaigns, identifying, analyzing and activating the right audiences. The company works with studios like Focus Features, 20th Century Fox and A24.

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Appendix

Facebook fan (or like) numbers are a good indicator for fan awareness for a movie, even months before the release. For mainstream movies with younger target audiences, fan counts are particularly important. However, big fan numbers can be bought and movies with older target audiences typically have lower fan counts. Fan engagement measured by PTAT (People Talking About This) is a more precise but also a fickle indicator, heavily driven by content strategy and media spending. Both numbers are global and public-facing numbers from the official Facebook fanpage.

YouTube trailer counts are important for measuring early awareness about a movie. We track all English-language original video content about the movie on YouTube, down to videos with 100 views, whether they are officially published by a studio or published unofficially by fans. The Buzz ratio looks at the percentage of unique viewers on YouTube who have “liked” a video and given it a “thumbs up.” Movies with over 40 million views are usually mainstream and set to dominate the box office, while titles drawing around 10 million indicate a more specific audience. If a movie does not have a solid number of trailer views on YouTube four weeks before its release, it is not promising news. But again, it is important to understand whether trailer views have been bought or have grown organically. These numbers are global and public-facing.

Twitter is a good real-time indicator of excitement and word of mouth coming closer to release or following bigger PR stunts. Mainstream, comedy and horror titles all perform particularly strongly on Twitter around release. We count all tweets over the period of the last seven days before release (Friday through Thursday) that include the movie’s title plus a number of search words, e.g. “movie” OR a list of movie-specific hashtags. The numbers are global, conducted using a Twitter API partner service.

Search is a solid indicator for intent moving toward release as people actively seek out titles that they are aware of and are thinking about seeing. Search is particularly significant for fan-driven franchises and family titles as parents look for information about films they may take their children to see. We look at the last seven days (Friday through Thursday) of global Wikipedia traffic as a conclusive proxy for Google Search volume. We have to consider that big simultaneous global releases tend to have higher search results compared to domestic releases.

post appeared on : variety.com/

Sunday, 24 January 2016

The Good Dinosaur (2016)
In-Home Release Date: On Blu-ray™, Digital HD & Disney Movies Anywhere February 23, 2016 http://di.sn/6003BkuwW

Synopsis: From the innovative minds of Disney•Pixar comes a hilariously heartwarming adventure about the power of confronting and overcoming your fears and discovering who you are meant to be.

The Good Dinosaur asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely, and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? In this epic journey into the world of dinosaurs, an apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.

Bring home this original story full of humor, heart, action and imagination, perfect for the whole family!

Saturday, 23 January 2016

We think of memory as the ability to recall something, but there's more to it than that. Here's how your brain stores short-term memories for the long term and what happens when that process malfunctions.

Friday, 22 January 2016

King and Country developed the original branding and iconic logo for Vikings when the series debuted in 2013, so they were intimately familiar with the series.

“History came to us with their concept and scripts for the project and were looking for a partner they could trust to shoot halfway around the world,” says K&C partner/executive producer Jerry Torgerson. “They know the high level of creativity and attention to detail that our directors put into their work. We were there at the launch of Vikings and have been huge fans since, so it was amazing to work with them again.”

The shoot took place over the course of two days on the Vikings Ashford Studios soundstage in Wicklow, Ireland, while the new season was still in production. K&C’s main production challenge was working around the show’s filming schedule because they were utilizing the same location, crew, props and talent. This meant planning for as many variables as possible in advance, so they could adapt quickly to the availability of the cast, crew, and stage.

Because the power of the spots comes from the intimacy of the internal monologues, K&C partner and director Rick Gledhill says they never let production techniques get in the way of the characters and the audience.

“After working so closely on the show’s branding, it was great to get the opportunity to work up close and personal with the actors and frame them through our lens,” says Gledhill. “The beauty came from a balance of subtle cinematography, art direction and the incredible lighting and compositing achieved by our team.”

King and Country shot with the Red Epic Dragon attached to a Technocrane to allow them to move quickly through two shoot days. They shot live-action plates of the environment and snakes on set before augmenting everything in post. K&C was after a different look aesthetically than the show, so along with the already rigged lighting for the set, they used candles, open flames, and flame bars. In post, they used Premiere, Maya, After Effects and Nuke to create the layered composites, animated snakes and rich palette showcased in the final spots.

“It's clear to see why this show has been such a huge success,” concludes K&C partner/director Efrain Montanez. “The level of commitment and dedication that everyone brings to their roles, whether they're the talent or the crew, is truly inspirational.”

Mindfulness allows us to see our thoughts and feelings as they really are, freeing us from old ways of thinking. Want to give it a try?

Animation by Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne) gobblynne.com

Animation assistant: Kim Alexander kimalexander.co.uk

Narration by Sharon Salzberg sharonsalzberg.com/

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

1. Google Analytics

This web service can be considered as one of the greatest Google tools. In Google Analytics you will find daily statistics of your site visits. This service allows you to know where your site receives the greatest traffic, which pages are more popular with visitors.

2. Google AdSense

Google allows its users to make money online using the web service Google AdSense. After placing a special code on your site pages Google will put ads there which logically correspond to the content of the site or specific pages.

3. Google AdWords

This service provides the ability to create effective advertising messages. Google AdWords is among the five best products of Google and it is one of the sources of income for many companies.

4. Google Ad Planner

This tool provides valuable information to a webmaster about his own websites, sites of competitors, traffic volumes, visitor’s preferences and other kind of information.

5. Google Website Optimizer

This tool allows you to optimize your website. With Website Optimizer you can identify which content on the site is the most interesting for the visitors.

6. Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools can provide information on how the search engine sees your site or some of its web pages. This tool provides important information using which a developer can improve ranking and website traffic.

7. Google Toolbar

Tool Google Toolbar is built-in into your browser, after installation you can find information about the value of web pages. This tool will be useful for SEO-optimizers or website owners.

8. Google Related Links

A useful tool for SEO optimization allows keeping visitors on the site, reducing the number of failures and thus increasing page views.

9. Google Trends

Google Trends provides information on how often keywords or phrases are requested in Google, as well as how popular these or other topics are in different geographical regions.

10. Google Search-based Keyword Tool

This service will be useful for SEO optimizers to search and generate keywords based on the most popular search requests.

11. Google+

Google has created a new social network for its users. In this network you can chat with your friends, share links and photographs. Google+ makes it possible to communicate not only in usual chat, but also in video chat, that is a significant difference from other social networks.Google+ working for business.

12. Google Blogger

Today almost every company has its own blog that helps to attract more visitors and enhance the overall profits.

13. Google Checkout

Checkout service is an analog of the payment system, which can be used to implement a web purchase. This service charges a fee for use as opposed to others.

14. Google Froogle

If you need to find a description of a product, Google Froogle tool will help you. This service is most valuable for marketers to set prices.

15. Google Places

Web application Google Places allows you to attract Google users. This service provides the most comprehensive information on companies including description, photos and a link to the website. By using this service information about your company can often appear in search results, accordingly increasing the number of views.

16. Google Zeitgeist

Google Zeitgeist allows you to find the most popular search requests. In addition Zeitgeist can become a generator of ideas for creation of new content.

17. Google Custom Search

Create an individual search engine for your website based on Google technology. Specifying one or several Web sites, add the application to your site along with the search box and search results. You can also change the application interface.

In this way these services are most useful for webmasters and for site owners. These web applications will simplify your work and save time and money by making your business more successful and productive on the Internet.

Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) -- including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

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01. Tell a story

02. Produce a rough sketch

03. Blocking in the scene

04. Painting the details

05. Light emphasis

06. Using filters

Sunday, 7 February 2016

Friday, 5 February 2016

Friday, 29 January 2016

How Moviepilot sees this week’s wide releases shaping up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google

Sunday, 24 January 2016

Saturday, 23 January 2016

Friday, 22 January 2016

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

1. Google Analytics

2. Google AdSense

3. Google AdWords

4. Google Ad Planner

5. Google Website Optimizer

6. Google Webmaster Tools

7. Google Toolbar

8. Google Related Links

9. Google Trends

10. Google Search-based Keyword Tool

11. Google+

12. Google Blogger

13. Google Checkout

14. Google Froogle

15. Google Places

16. Google Zeitgeist

17. Google Custom Search

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