Hasta La Motion!

Sometimes I will watch a film or see a game and really, really want to know what work went on behind the scenes. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to have covered the film or game, sometimes there’s a great making of book. But often there isn’t. Enter: Craft, a new site that’s looking to show tons and tons of behind the scenes materials for animated films and games.

Rather than talk about what’s in Craft, why not head on over and get a taste of the materials. It’s definitely early days, but no doubt animation lovers will get a thrill from what’s on offer there – pics, videos, sketches, early animation. There’s also a bunch of subscription levels and pricing plans. Again, worth checking out.

Animasia Studio has recently announced that their latest animation series, Harry & Bunnie, will premiere every Friday from 20 May on Disney Channel in Southeast Asia. Harry & Bunnie will also be available on Disney Channels in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and India.

Targeted at children aged 7 to 11 years, Harry & Bunnie is a fast paced, non-dialogue, 2D animated slapstick comedy series featuring Harry, a young wannabe magician who invents magical tricks to impress his friends. Unfortunately for Harry, he often fails to impress. Meanwhile, his mischievous stage rabbit Bunnie, seems to always steal the limelight with its ongoing antics to steal Harry’s magic wand.

“We have had several collaborations with Disney over the years and we anticipate Harry & Bunnie to be a success,” said Animasia Studio, Managing Director, Edmund Chan.

Harry & Bunnie consists of 78 x 7 minute episodes. It is created and produced by Animasia Studio with Edmund Chan and Raye Lee as the executive producers and ahLoong as the executive director. Some of the other notable shows that were animated by Animasia include Chuck Chicken, and Supa Strikas.

The post Animasia Studio’s ‘Harry & Bunnie’ to air on Disney Channels in Asia this May appeared first on AnimationXpress.

After announcing a development centre in Hyderabad, tech giant Apple will set up an app design and development centre in Bengaluru to support developers in India creating innovative mobile apps for its iOS platform.

The announcement is the part of Apple chief Tim Cook’s visit to India.  As part of his visit, Cook is expected to meet government officials and key industry executives from telecom firms to discuss matters like manufacturing and expansion of network in the country. The Apple CEO’s visit comes at a crucial time when the US-based firm is focusing on new growth markets like India after posting its first-ever decline in iPhone sales.

“The company will establish a design and development accelerator in Bengaluru, the home of India’s startup scene. Tens of thousands of developers in India make apps for iOS (foundation for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch). This initiative will provide additional, specialised support for them,” Apple said in a statement.

The company, however, did not disclose the investments for the initiative. The centre is expected to open in early 2017.

The facility will also provide support and guidance on Swift, Apple’s intuitive programming language created to build apps for iOS, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch. Each week, Apple experts will lead briefings and provide one-on-one app reviews for developers. Apple’s team will work with developers on best practices, help them hone their skills and transform the design, quality and performance of their apps on the iOS platform, it added

“India is home to one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS development communities in the world. With the opening of this new facility in Bengaluru, we are giving developers access to tools which will help them create innovative apps for customers around the world,” Cook said.

The post Apple announces new iOS app development accelerator in Bengaluru appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Coldplay has released a surreal music video for their track “Up&Up”, featuring Dali-esque dream sequences, flying turtles and a Liliputtian Chris Martin. Co-directed by Gal Muggia and Vania Heymann, the music video is laden with visual effects playing with the perceptions of up and down, mixing underwater, ground and sky scenes. Coldplay Up&Up is the third track from Coldplay’s new album ‘A Head Full of Dreams’. The music video has already had more than 4.9 million views on YouTube since its release on May 16, with 3.3 million views in the first 24 hours.

Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia commented: “All we can say is that it was a great honor and pleasure to create this video for Coldplay. On paper this concept felt abstract and unclear, so we would like to thank Coldplay for believing in our vision and running with it. We would really like to thank all of the wonderful and talented people who have worked so hard throughout this long journey. We were inspired by many collage artists, past and present. Hopefully the images do the rest of the talking.”

Coldplay Up & Up Credits

Filming was shot by director/VFX artist and cinematographer Vania Heymann and director/editor Gal Muggia via Prettybird with executive producers Juliette Larthe and Nathan Scherrer, production coordinators Laura Thomas-Smith and Cheyenne Miller, cinematographers Roman Linetsky and John Schmidt, working with Coldplay creative director Phil Harvey, Parlophone Records video commissioner Sam Seager, band managers Dave Holmes and Mandi Bursteen.

Colour and title design were by Tal Baltuch. Additional VFX was produced by Amit Chachek and Gil Gavish at Real Motion. Sound was designed by Shlomi Attias. Archive research was by Jane Tucker. Treatment layout and design was by Daniel Fletcher.

New York Crew

Production Supervisor: Christina Woolston
Production Coordinator: Doug Smith
1st Assistant Director: Gabe Blom
2nd Assistant Director: Dan Majkut
1st Assistant Camera: Shane Duckworth
2nd Assistant Camera: Cai Hall
Techno Crane: Matt Roberts
Gaffer: Zach Sulivan
Best Boy Electric: Tim Berg
Electricians: Dave Tumblety and Rick Mitchell
Key Grip: Ken Tanzer
Best Boy Grip: Steve Girouard
Grips: Keith Steinberg and Jason Schaffner
Props: Malcom Sansire, James Lasso and Christina Chandler
Media: Jeffery Haggerman, Arturo Lopez and Tony Starbuck
Production Assistants: Dave Terra, Ron Lokiby, Kat Cameron, Josh Zimmerman, Eric Helper and Joe Pesce

Kiev Crew

Production Company Ukraine: Radioaktive Film
Executive Producer: Sasha Bevka and Darko Skulsky
Producer: Ole Yakovleva
Production Manager: Nick Semko
Production Assistant: Oleg Ptashnyk
Art Director: Sergey Vinichuk
1st Assistant Director: Dennis Sonin
Gaffer: Valera Latuga
Wardrobe: Dasha Filshina
Hair & Make Up Artist: Marta Skalskya
Media: Jan Wachowski
Chaperone: Alexsandra Voskova
Catering: Natasha Barilo

Gloria FX
Executive Producer: Max Colt Producer: Sergii Mashevskyi
VFX Supervisor: Anatolii Kuzmytskyi

Special thanks to:

Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Merryman, Will Champion and Phil Harvey, Dave Holmes and Mandi Bursteen, Sam Seager, Roy, Sigal and Noah Kafri, Rona Segal, Anisia Affek, Tom Melnick, RIO, Indy Hait, Maya Ish Shalom, Sasha Bevko, Joseph Weizenecker, Big Apple Studios and R- Space Kiev, Kerstin Emhoff, Ali Brown, Candice Dragonas and all at PRETTYBIRD.

Coldplay Up&Up Lyrics

Fixing up a car to drive in it again
Searching for the water hoping for the rain
Up and up, up and up
Down upon the canvas, working meal to meal
Waiting for a chance to pick your orange field
Up and up, up and up
See a pearl form, a diamond in the rough
See a bird soaring high above the flood
It’s in your blood, it’s in your blood
Underneath the storm an umbrella is saying
Sitting with the poison takes away the pain
Up and up, up and up it’s saying

(Chorus)
We’re going to get it get it together right now
Going to get it get it together somehow
Going to get it get it together and flower
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
We’re going to get it get it together I know
Going to get it get it together and flow
Going to get it get it together and go
Up and up and up

Lying in the gutter, aiming for the moon
Trying to empty out the ocean with a spoon
Up and up, up and up
How come people suffer how come people part?
How come people struggle how come people break your heart?
Break your heart
Yes I want to grow yes I want to feel
Yes I want to know show me how to heal it up
Heal it up
See the forest there in every seed
Angels in the marble waiting to be freed
Just need love just need love
When the going is rough saying

Chorus

And you can say what is, or fight for it
Close your mind or take a risk
You can say it’s mine and clench your fist
or see each sunrise as a gift

Chorus

oh-oh oh, oh-oh oh oh oh oh

Fixing up a car to drive in it again
When you’re in pain
When you think you’ve had enough
Don’t ever give up
Don’t ever give up

Melody Jams is the awesome new way to become a rock star! Mix and match your favorite characters in fun combinations to create your own songs, then jump in and play along! Join your Melody Jam band on the road to meet new friends, play new instruments, and experience the fun of making music with others. What are you waiting for, get out there and jam! So excited to be able to finally share this project with everyone. I spent the last year building Melody Jams with my friends at Arbitrary, as well as composers Nathan W. Mckee and Hani Zahra who joined the team to create the music. I designed, animated, and developed the concept for this project. Here’s the promo video I created for the launch. If you’d like to learn more about the project visit our site at https://melodyjams.com/ To download: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/melody-jams/id1094833642?ls=1&mt=8 http://arbitrary.io/ http://www.nathanwmckee.com/ https://hanizahra.bandcamp.com/