Feb
11
GET GOLF MEDIA NOW
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Feb
11
Outsider :: Domestic Violence PSA
Posted in: Animation
In late 2016, we collaborated with Mai Family Services, a Michigan based NGO to launch a film addressing the issue of domestic violence that women in the South Asian and larger immigrant community face in the United States. Written by Sofia Ashraf, and featuring the voice of Ratna Pathak Shah, this spoken word piece aims to raise awareness regarding the unaddressed problems these women endure everyday. Credits: A Supari Studios and Post Office film In Association with Mai Family Services Director: Mohit Bhasin, Aditya Tawde Executive Producers: Advait Gupt, Akshat Gupt Writer: Sofia Thenmozhi Ashraf Producers: Manoti Jain, Tara Kapur, Mohit Bhasin Post Head: Aditya Tawde Lead Animators: Harsh Sharma, Kunal Prabhu Cell Animators : Mehr Chatterjee, Vikrant Barmate Illustrators: Mehr Chatterjee, Vikrant Barmate, Bhanushankar Bhartia 2D Colourists: Ez Ak, Bhanushankar Bhartia Associate Producer: Akshita Kariwala Original Score and Sound Design: Rahul Pais Voice Over Artist: Ratna Pathak Shah StoryBoard Artist: Adarsh Panicker
Feb
11
PFF – Autonomy For Humans
Posted in: Animation
The robots are coming! And by robots we mean nimble, autonomous sidekicks able to carry all the things. We were invited by Piaggio Fast Forward to tell the story of their newest members of the family, Gita and Kilo. Using a clean graphic approach to tell the story of this everyday assistant, we had a blast crafting a not-too-distant look into a more productive future. Client: Piaggio Fast Forward Directed by: Oddfellows Creative Direction: Colin Trenter Art Direction: Jordan Scott Producer: Jen Szeto Script: Liz Marks Design: Yuki Yamada Additional Design: Jay Quercia Cel: Josh Parker, Stan Cameron, Khylin Woodrow, Kavan Magsoodi, Jay Quercia, Tyler Morgan 2d Animation: Jordan Scott, Tyler Morgan, Colin Trenter 3d Animation: Colin Trenter, Jonas Elsgaard Music and SFX: BXFTYS
Feb
11
Action…Avengers: Infinity War
Posted in: Animation
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Feb
11
For Cartoon Brew, I got to speak with Chris McKay, who was animation supe on the first LEGO Movie and now director on LEGO Batman. Check it out and hang tight for some more big LEGO Batman coverage I’ll be sharing.
Feb
11
A thorough look into the journey of ‘The Alan Dimension’ as its BAFTA dream nears climax
Posted in: AnimationThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is known for identifying and inspiring practitioners of the art forms of the moving image and this year, in its British Short Animation category, out of the three nominations, two films are made by the students of the renowned National Film and Television School (NFTS).
Since the past three years, NFTS students have bagged this category award and this is the second consecutive year that two of their students’ graduation films are competing for the same prize.
The short films which have been nominated are The Alan Dimension (directed and co-written by Jac Clinch) and A Love Story (directed by Anushka Naanayakkara).
The Alan Dimension
AnimationXpress got in touch with the director and co-writer of The Alan Dimension, Jac Clinch to gain more insights on he went about creating the short, the techniques used, challenges faced and the overall experience.
What was the whole idea behind coming up with this short?
The character of Alan, a retired accountant who can see the future, came from my own experience of deja vu. When I feel like I’ve dreamt of a moment before it has happened, a small voice in my head thinks ‘maybe I have seen the future’! Unfortunately these visions concern incredibly mundane and routine occurrences. I found it funny that such a miraculous, time-space-continuum-defying ability would be used to foresee what’s for breakfast next Tuesday, for example. And so Alan was born, a fool with a divine gift. At the National Film and Television School I shared the idea with my co-writer, Jonathan Harbottle, and producer, Millie Marsh, and together we worked up a story around his character.
How many people have worked on the film?
I have mentioned Jon and Millie. After developing the idea with them, we pitched to all the departments in the school: Production Design, Cinematography, VFX, Editing, Composing, Sound Design and Production Management. Eventually the directors amass a team of filmmakers for their project. I was fortunate to work with, respectively, Declan O’Brien, Miles Ridgway, Luke Hardistings and Matt Moyes, Xanna Ward Dixon, Tim Morrish, Justin Dolby and Anna Bennett Squire, as well as many other contributors.
How did you go about with the script?
I chose to work with a co-writer, Jonathan Harbottle, and together we would bounce ideas off each other and see what made us laugh. There were a lot of possibilities with a man who can see the future, so it was about choosing the story that best explored Alan’s relationship with Wendy, but also highlighted the absurdity of his gift. The script came together quite quickly once we established the rules of Alan’s power.
Walk us through the storyboarding process.
Storyboarding started very soon after scripting and the two developed simultaneously, with certain images feeding back into the script and inspiring new plot elements. I had previously studied a course in illustration at Kingston University and love comics, so storyboarding is one of my favourite parts or the process, drawing the story and adapting to feedback. Although I have to resist drawing too many images and dipping into animation!
I began storyboarding on post-it notes, and when there became too many I switched to digital, so they could be quickly swapped into the animatic. However, many of the original post-it notes stayed through to the final edit before animation began.
Which medium and software did you use to bring Alan’s tale to life?
The Alan Dimension is a combination of stop-motion, 2D and CG animation. We first built the model set and shot an empty film with no characters, but with moving doors and objects. Then we used Adobe Flash to animate the 2D characters and composited them in with Aftereffects. The VFX artists used a technique called photogrammetry to create the spectacular transitions into space.
What did you aim to portray through the film?
I initially wanted to create a character-driven comedy, that contrasted grand, epic science fiction with the prosaic mundanity of domestic life. However, the relationship between the characters became far more important than the sci-fi element, and the emphasis switched to being present with one’s partner. Alan’s obsession with time causes him to neglect Wendy, but its a problem that many couples can run into: becoming accustomed to your partner means it’s easy to forget them in the pursuit of your own interests.
We approached the precognition as any other hobby, Alan could just as well have been obsessed with gardening. It just happens to be ‘subverting the linear nature of the time-space continuum’!
What was the most challenging part during the creation of this film?
On a technical level we ran into a few head scratchers, as ‘The Alan Dimension’ mixes 2D characters with a stop-motion model set and CGI VFX. One particularly hard shot depicts Alan entering a ‘vision’, the walls surrounding him crumble and break away into space. This combined a complex camera movement, whilst VFX dissolved the model set around a 2D animated character. Aardman kindly offered us their motion control camera, however this meant disassembling the whole set and transporting it all down to Bristol for a day of shooting! The VFX guys used photogrammetry to create a photo-realistic 3D replica of the set which they could distort and break apart. Then I had to animate a character turning with the camera motion. That scene was a real technical puzzle but it was a relief to see the pieces finally fit together.
On which project are you headed next?
I really enjoyed the writing process of ‘The Alan Dimension’ so I’m working up some new ideas as well as directing some animated sequences. I’m am currently putting the finishing touches to my first live-action short, which I wrote and directed for Channel 4’s Random Acts and Screen South. Set in a hybrid hairdressers / restaurant, diners receive a smart haircut whilst they eat. Unfortunately the meals get covered in hair and events take a surreal turn. The animator in me had to resist micromanaging the actors’ every move, but it was a fantastic opportunity to adapt my directing skills to live-action, and also to reunite with the team behind ‘Alan’.
Share with us your overall experience while working on this film.
It was the largest project I had ever undertaken, and it was very challenging at times, especially through the long months of animating with no sunlight. Having said that, I loved collaborating with a team of such talented filmmakers, and screening it to audiences around the world is very rewarding.
How was the support provided by NFTS?
I feel very lucky to have had the support of the NFTS. I had wanted to go to the school before I even thought animation was a possibility for study, so when the opportunity came I was thrilled. What sets it apart is the collaborative nature of the courses – a way of working that I was not used to prior to attending. Students and tutors all contribute to the films and support them throughout production and beyond.
Whether the film will bag the award will be revealed on 12 February, 2017 during the BAFTA Awards ceremony.
The post A thorough look into the journey of ‘The Alan Dimension’ as its BAFTA dream nears climax appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
11
The Avengers. Guardians of the Galaxy. Spider-Man. Doctor Strange. They’re all together in Avengers: Infinity War– the culmination epic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, against the ultimate supervillain Thanos. How would it be like? Take a dekko at the recently released video by Marvel, of the first look at Avengers: Infinity War, behind the scenes.
The video starts off with providing a brief of the history of the Infinity Stones: “before creation itself, there were six singularities.” Eventually, the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots- Infinity Stones. According to Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Wiki, the Infinity Stones are six immensely powerful objects created by the Cosmic Entities, and are tied to different aspects of the universe. “Each of the stones possesses unique capabilities that have been enhanced and altered by various alien civilizations through the millennia.”
It then cuts to the massive set on the day one of the shoot i.e. 23 January, 2017 wherein we can observe a huge set-up covered with green chroma screen. The video features Chris Prat (Star-Lord), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron-Man) and Tom Holland (Spider-Man) standing together, talking about their experience of the beginning of the end of the saga. While Prat finds it “pretty unbelievable”, the young Holland talks about how he went to watch the first Avengers with one of his best mates but had never dreamt of “being” in one these movies playing Spider-Man. “I feel like I’m on the top of the world, because this is just mind-blowing.”
Kevin Feige, boss of Marvel Studios, who is also featured in the video, speaks of building a cinematic universe at Marvel Studios, looking at the bigger picture and relating things across movies, across years. “Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe that started in May 2008 with Iron Man,” Feige says. The most important thing in the Infinty War will be “making it (all the movies) come together.” The face-off with Thanos was being set up since The Avengers.
“How do you do that in a way that’s unexpected that pits the Avengers, (who are) more powerful than anyone they’ve ever faced and yet make them completely unprepared to face him? Well, tear them apart,” Feige says. “That’s why we did Civil War before Infinity War” Avengers: Infinty War Director, Anthony Russo said that the end of Civil War was set up for the future films.
The video also talks about the cold war between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, Tony’s internal battles and his endeavour to save the world. “Thanos shows us why he the biggest, the best, the baddest villain that we’ve ever had. And the most frightening villain that the Avengers have ever faced,” says Feige. There are also interviews with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who will create a “combustible, exciting and massive scale adventure”.
What will keep us on the edge is the scenario of the Avengers meeting the Guardians. The makers are trying to create a Marvel film that no one has ever seen before. And with a copious amount of buzz around the film, we expect nothing less.
Avengers: Infinity War hits theatres on 4 May, 2018.
The post ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ gives us the first glimpse of its filming appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
11
‘Steam’s Greenlight’ has been a go-to place for all the indie developers who wanted Steam to be their game’s platform. Now, Valve is planning to change a lot of things, one of which is the closure of its Greenlight system.
Initiated in 2012, more than 6,000 games have been launched through the system. The system had got mixed reactions from both players and developers and Valve acknowledges it by saying it was just a ‘stepping stone’.
The company has now announced that it will be launching ‘Steam Direct’, a somewhat similar initiative like Greenlight, except, it will let developers publish their games directly. The most notable of those would be the fee that developers would have to pay now to submit their games. Now, in order to submit a game, the developer has to make their way through some paperwork, somewhat similar to the process of “applying for a bank account”. The fee however is not decided as Valve is still taking feedbacks into consideration, but it can range from somewhere between $100 to $5000. A developer has to pay the fee for each time they go ahead with a game, however the amount would later be refunded.
Valve explained the change citing the reason as “decrease the noise in the submission pipeline.” Although, this would stop some content from making their way into the platform which is barely games and help in discoverability of deserving titles, it might impact the small-scale indie developers for whom the price might be too steep.
According to Valve, Greenlight help them figure out two areas to focus on, “improving the entire pipeline for bringing new content to Steam and finding more ways to connect customers with the types of content they wanted.”
We’ll have to wait and see what awaits us through ‘Steam Direct’, as it is due to launch in the near future.
The post ‘Steam Greenlight’ shuts down as Valve is all set to release ‘Steam Direct’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
11
Rodeo FX has created a breakdown reel of the visual effects shots it delivered for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The video highlights work on the following key sequences: the interior and exterior of the Woolworth building; the entirely CG interior of MACUSA – the elaborate headquarters of the wizarding world; the reconstruction of Jacob’s room and alleyway; and fantastic beasts and their magical environments.
Founded in 2006, Rodeo FX delivers visual effects to feature films and television productions. The studio’s other VFX projects include Arrival, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Legend of Tarzan and Birdman.
The Rodeo FX team was led by Arnaud Brisebois, who also supervised the studio’s work on the movies Arrival and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Distributed by Warner Bros., Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them received two nominations for the 89th Academy Awards and five for the BAFTA Awards 2017, including Best Special Visual Effects.
The post ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’: Rodeo FX breakdown reel appeared first on AnimationXpress.
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