Hasta La Motion!

That’s what Dneg vfx supe Sean Stranks used when describing his approach to dirtying up the frame for the new Star Trek film. More on OnePerfectShot.

Magic and mysteries are something that each one of us is keen about, in a skeptical way or the other way round. However, one thing is inevitable; it’s the fact that no one can evade the charm provided by these stories replete with magical adventures, as most of them teach valuable lessons and provide vigour to our journey called ‘life’.

Moana, Disney’s upcoming feature plans to take everyone on a magical journey as the protagonist, a teenager named Moana from presumably the South Pacific Coast sets sails into the heart of the ocean with the demigod, Maui in order to uncover mysteries and finish a pending quest.

While we already knew that Moana would be voiced by Auli’i Cravalho, a 14 year old Hawaiian girl and Maui will be brought to life by none other than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, now during the San Diego Comic-Con, the makers of the film have finally revealed the rest of the voice cast for the animated adventure flick.

Behold!

Voiced by Temura Morrison (Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Seven Nights), Chief Tui is the courageous leader of Moana’s tribe, Motunui and her father as well. Nicole Scherzinger (Grammy-nominated singer for West End’s ‘Cats’) will be voicing Sina, Moana’s mother who always stands up for her daughter and her calling for the ocean, but is witty enough to know that there are great dangers beyond the reef and into the ocean.

Rachel House (Whale Rider, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) will be bringing life to Moana’s cheerful grandmother, Gramma Tala. She is the little girl’s confidante and supports her throughout.

Alan Tudyk (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6) will voice HeiHei, the goofy village roster, who ends up on an unintended adventure with Moana.

Jemaine Clement (The BFG, Despicable Me) will be lending his voice to Tamatoa. Living in Lalotai, the crab is described as “a self-absorbed, 50-foot crab … who wants to be more than a ‘bottom feeder’ and overcompensates for this perceived shortcoming by covering himself in all things shiny.”

The cast also includes the Kakamora, a band of coconut-armoured pirates, who are crazy enough to follow anything until they get it!

We also have Pua, Moana’s innocent pet pig with an incredibly infectious energy, and an adorably cute look.

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, the movie is set to release worldwide this year on 23 November.

The post ‘Moana’ is more vivid now as Disney announces new characters during Comic-Con appeared first on AnimationXpress.

“Stephan Strange, mind if I offer you some advice? Forget everything that you think you know.”

This line which we heard in the teaser trailer of Doctor Strange seems to be not just for Strange but for all of us as Marvel released Doctor Strange’s trailer at San Diego Comic-Con. And boy-oh-boy did it make us marvel and left us pondering on what the movie would be all about.

So far we have seen mutants, metahumans, tech savvy superheroes, gods and alien attacks taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, with Doctor Strange coming into the picture, it’s set to bring in elements and powers which the audiences may have never imagined of: a Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.

The multiverse concept is something that DC fans will be able to relate with The Flash wherein he could be seen travelling between one Earth to another with the help of his speed, gaining him access to the multiple realities / universes (can be witnessed on The Flash season 2). “Flash of Two Worlds!” was a landmark comic book story that was published in The Flash #123 (September 1961). A concept which would be relatively new for the Marvel movie / TV series fans. Inspired by storytellings of black magic and Chandu the Magician, Doctor Strange first appeared in Strange Tales #110 (cover-dated July 1963).

With the idea of multiverse coming into the picture and as observed from the trailer, a city’s (mostly New York) multiverses can be seen folding into one another, probably indicating destruction. This would open many possibilities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe especially in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War movie that’s set to release post Doctor Strange release.

As far as the villain is considered, Mads Mikkelsen can be seen portraying the role of Kaecilius, a disciple of Baron Mordo. In the comicverse, Baron Mordo has been a fierce rival of Doctor Strange as the Ancient One chose Strange over Mordo (trailer paints a different picture). In the trailer released at SDCC, we can hear Kaecilius saying, “I’m death and pain. You will die protecting this world.”

Describing the character, Feige said, “(He) believes that the Ancient One is just protecting her own power base and that the world may be better off if we were to allow some of these other things through.” Mikkelsen added, “He’s not a villain in that way – he’s a man who believes in something else than the hero. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to make the planet look wonderful or he wants to save the world as well, but he has a different way of doing it. He is the antagonist, of course, but he’s not necessarily wrong.”

Coming back to Baron Mordo, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the role of Karl Mordo (original name Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo) and can be unexpectedly seen in a positive light who becomes Strange’s mentor. Ejiofor noted this, saying, Mordo is “very ambiguous” and “a very complex character that, really, I don’t think can be nailed down either way.” Mordo also seems to have a certain liking towards Strange and believes there’s a certain quality in him as he says, “There’s a strength to him.” Will we ever get to see the villainous Mordo as observed in the comic books? Director Scott Derrickson stated the “antagonism between Mordo and Strange” is in place to explore in the future.

A conversation exchange between Stephen Strange and Karl Mordo

As far as the Ancient One played by Tina Swinton is considered, she’s the one who seems to be looking for him as in the end of the trailer she says, “I’ve spent so many years, hearing through time, looking for you.” As opposed to the comic book universe wherein the Ancient One is depicted by a Tibetan man with a long beard, over here a female can be seen portraying the role. Swinton stated that the character’s gender is “all in the eye of the beholder”. Producer Kevin Feige said, “we use the terms ‘her’ and ‘she’ in the film but, other than that, it’s very androgynous.”

As for Benedict Cumberbatch who plays the protagonist Stephen Strange is considered, so far he has managed to captivate us with his stellar acting skills. From the teaser trailer and the SDCC trailer, there’s an imminent shift in his persona; from an arrogant neurosurgeon who never believed in energies, the power of belief or chakras, can be seen desperately wanting to learn the mystic arts; however at the same time, he’s sceptical about his own powers as he says, “I can’t do this” to which Mordo states, “There is no other way.”

The psychedelic trailer right from its beginning with its kaleidoscopic visuals managed to grip its viewers, wanting to watch it again and again, trying to comprehend the strangeness looming in the clip. All the answers to our questions will be answered on 4 November, 2016.

The post Tripping over Doctor Strange’s trailer? Untangling the confusion left by Strange appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Shotgun Software, developer of the cloud-based review and production tracking software, has announced Shotgun 7.0 at SIGGRAPH this week in Anaheim, CA. Shotgun is laser-focused on solving collaborative review challenges at studios, and making it easier for teams of all sizes to upload, share, view, and then keep track of all of their media on a single, intuitive platform. This latest update expands Shotgun’s review capabilities by introducing editorial cut data into the review process, enabling teams to view their work at any time, in context with the latest cut.

“VFX and animation studios need to constantly view their latest work in context of the cut, and yet editorial makes continual changes throughout the project,” says Don Parker. “Keeping up with this process manually takes way too much time and can lead to frustrating delays and mistakes. This release is a major step forward, helping teams understand what has changed and allowing artists and supervisors to look at their work in context of the latest cut, both in our web player and on the desktop with RV.”

Shotgun 7.0 Feature Highlights Include:

Import Cut: Editorial information is quickly published to Shotgun, summarizing changes that can be shared with anyone on the project.

Play Cuts Anywhere: With one click, watch the full cut either in the browser or in the Shotgun RV desktop player. Powerful filtering tools control which shot versions show up in the cut, such as “latest,” “latest animation” or “latest approved.”

View any Shot in a Review Session in Context of the Cut: Teams working through shot versions in review sessions can seamlessly switch between viewing the shot in the review playlist and viewing the shot in the context of the cut.

Track Overlapping Cuts: Quickly access a full history of all cuts on a project, including overlapping cuts such as :30, :60, :90 cuts on commercial projects, or both sequence and trailer cuts on film projects.

API Ready: A new data model tracking the cut data is fully exposed in Shotgun’s API so studios with development resources can integrate with their pipelines.

The post Shotgun 7.0 announced by Shotgun Software at SIGGRAPH 2016 appeared first on AnimationXpress.

MTV has released the nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards 2016 with a live Facebook announcement, connected with a panoramic mural at First Street Green Art Park in New York’s East Village. The Video of the Year nominees are presented with a wall each: Adele (“Hello”), Beyoncé (“Formation”), Drake (“Hotline Bling”), Justin Bieber (“Sorry”) and Kanye West (“Famous”). Other categories are presented alongside. The mural was created by artists John Paul Ogrodnick and BD White (Drake), Damien Mitchell (Kanye West), Marc Evan (Adele), Resa (Justin Bieber), BKFoxx (Beyonce), @nyc_graffhead, Queen Andrea, Hektad, Giz (Hip Hop), Such and Poem One. Beyoncé has 11 nominations, including Video of the Year for “Formation” and the newest VMA category, Breakthrough Long Form Video, for her groundbreaking HBO special Lemonade. The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from Madison Square Garden on Sunday, August 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

MTV Video Music Awards 2016 – Video of the Year

Adele – “Hello”
Beyoncé – “Formation”
Drake – “Hotline Bling”
Justin Bieber – “Sorry”
Kanye West – “Famous”

MTV Video Music Awards 2016 – Best Female Video

Adele – “Hello”
Beyoncé – “Hold Up”
Sia – “Cheap Thrills”
Ariana Grande – “Into You”
Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work” (short version)

MTV Video Music Awards 2016 – Best Male Video

Drake – “Hotline Bling”
Bryson Tiller – “Don’t”
Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”
Kanye West – “Famous”
The Weeknd – “Can’t Feel My Face”

Best Collaboration

Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Freedom”
Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work From Home”
Ariana Grande ft. Lil Wayne – “Let Me Love You”
Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”
Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work” (short version)

Best Hip Hop Video

Drake – “Hotline Bling”
Desiigner – “Panda”
Bryson Tiller – “Don’t”
Chance The Rapper ft. Saba – “Angels”
2 Chainz – “Watch Out”

Best Pop Video

Adele – “Hello”
Beyoncé – “Formation”
Justin Bieber – “Sorry”
Alessia Cara – “Wild Things”
Ariana Grande – “Into You”

Best Rock Video

All Time Low – “Missing You”
Coldplay – “Adventure Of A Lifetime”
Fall Out Boy ft. Demi Lovato – “Irresistible”
twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
Panic! At The Disco – “Victorious”

Best Electronic Video

Calvin Harris & Disciples – “How Deep Is Your Love”
99 Souls ft. Destiny’s Child & Brandy – “The Girl Is Mine”
Mike Posner – “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”
Afrojack – “SummerThing!”
The Chainsmokers ft. Daya – “Don’t Let Me Down”

Breakthrough Long Form Video

Florence + The Machine – “The Odyssey”
Beyoncé – “Lemonade”
Justin Bieber – “PURPOSE: The Movement”
Chris Brown – “Royalty”
Troye Sivan – “Blue Neighbourhood Trilogy”

Best New Artist

Presented by Taco Bell®
Bryson Tiller
Desiigner
Zara Larsson
Lukas Graham
DNCE

PROFESSIONAL CATEGORIES

Presented by Orbit® Gum

Best Art Direction

Beyoncé – “Hold Up” (Production Designer: Jason Hougaard)
Fergie – “M.I.L.F. $” (Production Designer: Alexander Delgado)
Drake – “Hotline Bling” (Production Designer: Jeremy MacFarlane)
David Bowie – “Blackstar” (Production Designer: Jan Houllevigue)
Adele – “Hello” (Production Designer: Colombe Raby)

Best Choreography

Beyoncé – “Formation” (Choreographer: Chris Grant, JaQuel Knight, Dana Foglia)
Missy Elliott ft. Pharrell – “WTF (Where They From)” (Choreographer: Hi-Hat)
Beyoncé – “Sorry” (Choreographer: Chris Grant, JaQuel Knight, Dana Foglia, Anthony Burrell, Beyoncé Knowles Carter)
FKA Twigs – “M3LL155X” (Choreographer: FKA Twigs)
Florence + The Machine – “Delilah” (Choreographer: Holly Blakey)

Best Direction

Beyoncé – “Formation” (Director: Melina Matsoukas)
Coldplay – “Up&Up” (Director: Vania Heymann, Gal Muggia)
Adele – “Hello” (Director: Xavier Dolan)
David Bowie – “Lazarus” (Director: Johan Renck)
Tame Impala – “The Less I Know The Better” (Director: Canada)

Best Cinematography

Beyoncé – “Formation” (Cinematographer: Malik Sayeed)
Adele – “Hello” (Cinematographer: André Turpin)
David Bowie – “Lazarus” (Cinematographer: Crille Forsberg)
Alesso – “I Wanna Know” (Cinematographer: Corey Jennings)
Ariana Grande – “Into You” (Cinematographer: Paul Laufer)

Best Editing

Beyoncé – “Formation” (Editor: Jeff Selis)
Adele – “Hello” (Editor: Xavier Dolan)
Fergie – “M.I.L.F. $” (Editor: Vinnie Hobbs)
David Bowie – “Lazarus” (Editor: Johan Söderberg)
Ariana Grande – “Into You” (Editor: Hannah Lux Davis)

Best Visual Effects

Coldplay – “Up&Up” (VFX Editor: Vania Heymann)
FKA Twigs – “M3LL155X” (VFX Editor: Lewis Saunders, Jihoon Yoo)
Adele – “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” (VFX Editor: Sam Sneade)
The Weeknd – “Can’t Feel My Face” (VFX Editor: Bryan Smaller)
Zayn – “PILLOWTALK” (VFX Editor: David Smith)