Atop a sheet of ice on Lake Superior, a close friend of mine recalls the passing of his father, 2 years ago. https://www.facebook.com/projectjoynorthland Music – Steve Horner www.hornermusic.com
NEW ALBUM ‘SPECTRE’ OUT NOW Buy now: http://spectre.laibach.org/order-spec… Deluxe CD: http://smarturl.it/SpectreDeluxeCD CD: http://smarturl.it/spectreCD LP: http://smarturl.it/spectreLP iTunes: http://smarturl.it/spectreiTunes SPECTRE TOUR http://www.laibach.org/future-events The Whistleblowers video Directed by Morten Traavik DOP: Valdis Celmins 1AC: Janis Jurkovskis 2 AC: Miks Ramans Art director: Kristaps Epners Costume designer: Jurate Silakaktina Make-up artist: Viktorija Safronova Gaffer: Juris Zemitis Line producer: Agne Skane Editor: Gatis Belogrudovs VFX: Madars Upitis, Jaroslavs Kreilis SFX: Janis Kreituss Colourist & online editor: Kriss Rozins Sound: Artis Dukalskis Special thanks to Valnoir, Paris and School 41, Riga Produced by VFS Films and Traavik.Info Technical support SDG Lighting and BBRental” LYRICS: We rise, we grow We walk and we stand tall We never fall As big as the sky As far as the dawn We walk And we do not fall We sleep, we dream With no time in between We never stop Whistling our chant In the heat of the night We sing The spirit is clean From north and south We come from east and west Breathing as one Living in fame Or dying in flame We laugh Our mission is blessed We fight for you For freedom unforeseen Thinking as one Rolling along To the beat of the drum We march The black cross machine We stand alone But soon the day will come When freedom rings We’ll meet again Now eternally And walk Once more as one! TOUR DATES: 06 March – Luzern, Schüür – CH 07 March – Weinheim, Café Central – DE 08 March – Paris, Trabendo – FR 10 March – Leuven, Het Depot – BE 12 March – London, Village Underground – UK 13 March – Amsterdam, Melkweg – NL 14 March – Cologne, Stollwerk, DE 15 March – Schorndorf, Manufaktur – DE 16 March – Munich, Technikum – DE 22 March – Hong Kong – The Vine Center — CN 02 April – Rome – Orion Club – IT 03 April – Milan – Live Club – IT 04 April – Frankfurt am Main – Mousontrum – DE 05 April – Dresden – Reithalle – DE 07 April – Berlin – Volksbühne – DE 08 April – Hamburg – Uebel & Gefährlich – DE 10 April – Malmö – Babel – SE 11 April – Rostock – Zwischenbau- DE 12 April – Poznań – C.K. Zamek – PL 13 April – Gdansk – B90 – PL 15 April – Wien – Arena – AT 16 April – Budapest – A38 – HU 17 April – Olomouc – S-Cube – CZ 18 April – Prague – Archa Theatre – CZ 09 May – Zagreb – Tvornica – HR 16 May – Ljubljana – Križanke – SLO 24 May – Belgrade – Dom Omladine – RS
Thu 29th May 2014 | News
Pixar Animation Studios today announced a series of important innovations in the latest version of its forthcoming Academy Award®-winning RenderMan software that will impact the way film imagery is rendered and accessed by everyone. RenderMan establishes an entirely new modular rendering architecture called RIS that provides highly optimized methods for simulating the transport of light through multiple state of the art algorithms, including an advanced Unidirectional Path Tracer and a Bidirectional Path Tracer with Progressive Photon Mapping (also known as VCM). Along with major feature and performance enhancements, physically-based, artist-friendly workflows, progressive re-rendering, and the established advantages of RenderMan’s traditional REYES architecture, RenderMan now offers two rendering modes within one unified environment, providing the most advanced, versatile, and flexible rendering system available.
With rendering technology constantly evolving, RIS represents a forward-looking framework through which Pixar can deploy additional rendering methodologies as they become available. RenderMan is the conduit through which applicable advanced research from within the Walt Disney organization will be channeled into the production industry, including in the forthcoming release, Disney’s Principled BRDF shader and supporting materials.
“This truly brings the future of fully photo-realistic ray-traced rendering to RenderMan” said David Hirst, Global Head of Lighting at MPC. “We did tests with the production assets from one of our latest movies and were completely blown away by the speed and how interactively we could preview and render these assets. The RIS based integrator is going to change the way we work, with more scalable rendering and faster results.”
Pixar is announcing that, in conjunction with the upcoming release, free non-commercial licenses of RenderMan will be made available without any functional limitations, watermarking, or time restrictions. Non-commercial RenderMan will be freely available for students, institutions, researchers, developers, and for personal use. Those interested in exploring RenderMan’s new capabilities are invited to register in advance on the RenderMan website to access a free license for download upon release.
Effective immediately, Pixar is also announcing that the price of the current version of RenderMan is $495 per license for commercial use, with customized peak render packages offering built-in “burst render” capability. The upcoming RenderMan release will combine the functionality of the previously separate RenderMan Pro Server and RenderMan Studio through a flexible license, providing unmatched versatility in allocating artist or batch render assets at different stages of production.
The new RenderMan is being released in the timeframe of SIGGRAPH 2014 and will be compatible with the following 64-bit operating systems, Mac OS 10.8 and 10.7, Windows 8, 7, and Vista, and Linux. Autodesk Maya compatibility is with versions 2013, 2013.5, 2014, and 2015. Pixar’s annual maintenance program benefits customers with access to ongoing support and free upgrades.
Sonic, the ultimate action destination is all set to turn on the heat this summer. An exciting line-up of new shows coupled with a month long interactive campaign is giving kids an action-packed summer. Sonic’s summer campaign ‘Sonic Action Mania’ will travel the length and breadth of the country giving kids their dose of adrenalin with its key shows – Power Rangers, SupaStrikas and Idaten Jump.
The on-air leg of ‘Sonic Action Mania’ excites kids to come to the channel every Mon-Fri from 1 PM to 3 PM to watch shows that are a perfect mix of action, sports and adventure. Power Rangers SPD showcases the samurai warriors battle the evil with their cohesive team-work, intergalactic weaponry and their fighting skills. SupaStrikas is a series for the ones who love sports and the surprises it brings along. The show revolves around the world’s greatest football team. Idaten Jump, a popular adventure series revolves around a young boy and his love for mountain biking. All that kids have to do is to watch Sonic between 1PM-3PM, answer simple questions and win exciting prizes like mobile phones, bi-cycles and watches. Kids can voice their answers through SMS to 56882 or dial 5056882 from Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Tata mobile &Airtel Landline/ 1255568 from BSNL Landline, mobile & MTNL mobile and even log on to www.sonicgang.com. Other exciting line-up of action shows includes Power Rangers Mega Force, Koni Chan and Naruto Rock Lee.
‘Sonic Action Mania’ raises the action meter further with a nation-wide engagement program. In addition to a 360 degree marketing campaign spanning cross channel promotions, print, radio and ambient, Sonic will innovatively connect with kids through a comprehensive on ground activation plan that includes gaming championships, all India van activations and meet and greet with the famous Sonic action heroes.
Speaking on the channel’s initiatives, Ms. Nina Elavia Jaipuria, EVP & Business Head, Kids Cluster, Viacom18 Media stated, “Sonic fills the need gap for action which, as a genre, was missing earlier from the television screens. A great variety of shows and the huge on-ground engagement is only enhancing the experience of real action, sports and adventure.We hope kids enjoy meeting their favourite action heroes and experience the thrill and the adrenaline rush Sonic has to offer on-air and beyond.”
Kids will get a chance to meet and greet their action heroes- ‘The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and ‘Power Rangers’, at popular malls like Phoenix Market City in Kurla, Mumbai and Hamleys outlets in Mumbai and Delhi every weekend. A dedicated Sonic Zone has been created to give kids a flavor of the action and adventure with games like Kill the Alien with Power Rangers, Shoot a Goal with SupaStrikas or even play video games. There are energetic performances by the Samurai heroes and the Ninja turtles, hour long workshops and storytelling sessions at the zone.
That’s not all! Sonic and Fun City have come together to engage the video game enthusiasts in a gaming championship starting June 7,, 2014 across 14 outlets in India. Every weekend of June will have kids join their favorite heroes, Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, across Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kanpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad, and participate in cool and unique action-packed games.
The ‘Sonic Action Mania Vans’, yet another leg of the ‘Sonic Action Mania’ will travel across 19 cities that Include Pune, Aurangabad, Nasik, Nagpur, Solapur, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Allahabad, Varanasi, and Jaipur all through June. Kids will get to meet their favourite action heroes and there will be engaging games and fun activities like Foosball with SupaStrikas, Bi-Cycle Balance with Idaten Jump lots more at the Action Van.
Sonic will continue to keep the online audience busy on www.sonicgang.com. The website will not only host the Sonic Action Mania Contest but will also give kids a chance to win all through summer with the ‘Kung Fu Panda – Watch-n-Win’ contest this season.
Full schedule below:
| Where | When | What to expect? |
| Phoenix Market City, Kurla. Mumbai | 16th May – 1st June. (24th-25th May, 1st June TMNT | Meet and Greet with Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Sonic Zone with loads of cool games and prizes up for grabs |
| Hamley’s(Mumbai)- Pheonix Market City, Kurla and High Street Pheonix, Lower Parel | 24th- 25th May – Kurla, 7th, 15th June – Lower Parel | Meet and Greet with Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Cool games with great merchandise to be won |
| Hamley’s(Delhi) – DLF Mall Saket and Ambience Mall, VasantKunj | 1st June – DLF Mall Saket | Meet and Greet with the Sonic Action Heroes. |
| Funcity | Month of June | Meet and Greet with Power Rangers and TMNT. Gaming championship and prizes. |
Sonic is available in multiple languages on all leading DTH platforms like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel Digital and Videocon D2H.
The Hyderabad based VFX studio has been doing some good work down south, and one of those in the recent past was Attarintiki Daredi, which was a 2013 Telugu comedy drama film helmed by Trivikram Srinivas.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com Pixelloid Studios founder & creative director Raj Potula says: “Nearly about 60 artists worked on this project, and it took us about four months to complete.”
The film stars Pawan Kalyan and Samantha in lead roles. The film was produced by B.V.S.N. Prasad and Reliance Entertainment. It was released on 27 September 2013. The film opened to highly positive reviews and eventually went on to become the highest grossing Telugu film of all time.
Explaining the hurdles faced by the team for the execution of the shots, Arun Pawar, VFX supervisor for this film says: “Due to the nature of the complex shots the directer wanted, it couldn’t be shot in a regular live railways station as it would cause disruption to the shooting and the trains.”
The director wanted to add more impact to the emotional dialogues in the scene; he wanted a train to zoom by at a very specific time, in sync with the dialogue. “That would be impossible to achieve if done in real world. This and other things like time-freeze shots demanded that this situation required it to be shot in a set instead” Pawar adds.
Trivikram Srinivas was very happy with Pawar’s creative inputs and the quality delivered.
“We had hired a Mylo camera match move rig for this particular sequence. This was one of the main sequences in film, at the climax, where it was important for the director to show emotions of all the actors. He wanted to do it in a unique way, where the time freezes for others, while one person would be going through the emotions and thinking out loud while walking around. It was a tough one but it came out well and the director was pleased with the result as well,” reveals Pawar.
The shots came across exactly as visualised by the director. “We have delivered VFX for most of Trivikram Srinivasgaru’s films and it’s always a pleasure to work with him,” adds Pixelloid founder and sr. VFX supervisor Nayeem Akthar.
Some of the previous films of Srinivasgaru on which the studio has worked on are: Jalsa, Khaleja and Julayi.
In 2005, Pixilloid was started with a close knit team of 10 creative and goal oriented individuals to push the boundaries of technology by providing cutting-edge 3D animation and visual effects solutions to Indian and international clients. Today, Pixelloid’s creative workforce has grown to about 150 people, and the facility is equipped with more than 200 high-end work stations and has opened up branches in Karnataka (Bangalore) and Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam & Guntur).
Animaster Academy, a Bangalore-based college that provides education and training in animation, VFX, gaming and graphic design, has a new industry partner in Sporedust Media, a leading animation and design studio based out of Nigeria. This association is being seen as an amalgamation of two rapidly developing animation industries.
Animaster Academy has a good number of students from Nigeria enrolled in its university degree and diploma programs. “The students from Nigeria are very talented and are enthused about animation. However, they face a lot of issues with visa and work permits that make it hard for them to continue their studies or find jobs in India. Our partnership with Sporedust is very encouraging for our Nigerian students, who can now get assistance, along with good animation and design jobs in a great studio in their homeland. Indian students can also get an outlook on the Nigerian animation scene”, says Animaster
Academy director Veena Pratap. “Even in India, we are one of the few animation colleges that have collaborated with a reputed university, making our program a genuine university higher education program in animation. The program also offers specialisation in gaming, VFX and graphic design. This is part of our efforts to encourage higher education in vocational fields such as animation”, she adds.
Sporedust Media is a young animation studio that is an ensemble of sincere animation enthusiasts and is best known for it’s internationally acclaimed short film Chicken Core: The Rise of the Kings. Since then, Sporedust has extended its expertise to mobile apps and computer animation used in production of PSquare’s music video, “Unlimited” in collaboration with Square Records & P-Classic. The studio’s work has achieved global acclaim and its team aspires to make it the Pixar of Africa.
Sporedust recognises the importance of education and training in animation in achieving this vision. “It’s an incredibly exciting and rare opportunity to collaborate with Animaster in supporting our vision towards capacity development and building the Nigerian animation industry. This alliance provides an avenue for cross-cultural integration and exchange of both Nigeria’s and India’s rich cultural heritage. We are delighted to have Animaster as an industry partner in developing our indigenous talent and exploring advancements in animation”, expounds Sporedust Media CEO Shina Ajulo.
The Indian animation industry is growing at a phenomenal rate. The industry, once known as the sweatshop of the animation world, is now focused on producing local content and creating its own intellectual property. Likewise, the Nigerian animation industry, although nascent, is booming and showing immense potential. Studios such as Sporedust are eager to create their own content and popularise the African context of animation. “Our association with Sporedust would engage and mobilise talent, technology and craft from the two creative industries. We hope to have a fruitful collaboration based on mutual learning, sharing, and growth”, concludes Pratap.
After some speculation going around Wall Street, the online streaming behemoth – Netflix – has confirmed that it has struck a deal for Sony Animation films, taking on films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 from Starz, which still has a secure deal for Sony’s live-action features.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this new agreement will be a windfall for Netflix as it will recover part of the content it lost after discontinuing a licensing deal with Starz. Though only a couple of titles will be added per year, the Sony Animation content will add to Netflix’s dominant kids animation content catalogue, which already includes exclusive access to Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks animated flicks.
“Netflix and Sony Pictures Television have reached a multi-year agreement to bring Sony Pictures Animation feature films in the first pay TV window to Netflix members in the US, beginning with the hit movies Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and The Smurfs 2 in 2014,” the three companies revealed in a joint statement.
The studio behind successful animation outings like Wall-E, Up and Toy Story, recently (read on Monday) revealed the first details about its next animated film Inside Out on its website. The movie’s characters will be five emotions, portrayed by a stellar cast: Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith), who control a young girl Riley’s mind and guide her through her life.
Pete Docter’s (Monster Inc. and Up) intriguing new project Inside Out is due in theaters 19 June 2015. The official synopsis from Pixar’s website reads:
“Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it’s no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley’s main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.”
Doctor, who scribed Toy Story among many other Pixar films and won an Oscar for Up, is heading the project. Another Pixar movie, The Good Dinosaur, will also premiere later that year on 25 November.
Walt Disney’s Academy award winning animation feature – Frozen – is continuing to win hearts across the globe; and now is conquering box-office records as well.
The feature recently (this weekend) surpassed the studio’s Iron Man 3 to become the fifth-highest grossing film of all time, with $1.219 billion worldwide.
Strongly leveraging its $400 million-plus Stateside cume, added to a nearly unheard of $194 million cume in Japan, Frozen is only second to Disney’s release of Marvel’s The Avengers, which is the No. 3 all-time top grosser, with $1.5 billion globally. Iron Man 3 made $1.215 billion globally last year.
Frozen now stands tall as the No. 5 all-time worldwide grosser behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 that has collected $1.34 billion.
In its near seven-month global run, Frozen already has become the highest-grossing animated feature of all time, after surpassing Toy Story 3, which stands at $1.063 billion worldwide.
The movie has managed to rank No. 1 at the weekend box office for eleven straight weeks now and stands as the third-highest grossing ‘Western film’ there ever. It’s a monumental achievement for the flick, considering Japan has such a strong local animation tradition, not to mention a strong local live-action film industry, in general.
Animaster Academy, a leading college providing education and training in animation, VFX, gaming and graphic design, has taken its standard of student support a notch higher by collaborating with Wacom India, making it a strategic Industry Partner. “Wacom’s graphic tablets and pens are essential tools for CG artists. We have about 200 students pursuing our University Degree and Diploma programs at our campus. With this collaboration, all our budding animation students get the Wacom products at subsidized prices. This will definitely make their learning and artistry very effective. “, explains Animaster Academy director Veena Pratap. “We will soon be launching our online higher education program in animation to a wider student base and will be offering our students Wacom devices as part of their program, to enrich their online learning experience,” she adds.
With this association, Wacom India will play a pivotal role in the development of skilled animation, VFX, gaming and graphic design workforce in India. It will also support the growth of several other animation industries through Animaster’s online education program that is opening up to animation enthusiasts in remote corners of the world. “Animation in today’s time is pivotal in every aspect, not caging itself to any age group, making it widely acceptable. Animaster is a college that is cognitive of this creativity and has achieved a high stature. Wacom is an organization that takes into consideration the necessities of an aspiring and budding artist by making graphic pen tablets. It will be a long association and lethal combination when two organizations, having an eye for creativity will work together to benefit the artist,” says Wacom India MD Manu Nanda. Wacom will also be providing internships to students of Animaster Academy.
Animaster Academy is confident that collaboration such as this will open more doors for Animation education in India. “Wacom has been very encouraging and supportive in our endeavor to impart quality Animation education. We look forward to this association and to enhance skills in the animation education industry together,” ends Pratap.
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