The nicknamed “Duke” controller for the original Xbox was big, bold and tough. On June 11, Hyperkin, a video game hardware development company from Los Angeles, announced that – in partnership with Xbox – it is bringing back The Duke for the Xbox One family of devices (Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X) and Windows 10 PCs. Hyperkin’s Research and Development team sought the assistance and the blessing of Seamus Blackley, who played an integral part in the original Xbox team.
The Duke sports a faithful recreation of the original controller’s form-factor with some updated features: a logo display screen, left and right bumpers, and a 9 ft. detachable cable.
It’s such a big year for anniversaries in vfx, so here’s another one: The Lawnmower Man recently turned 25. I talked to people from Xaos and Angel Studios about the groundbreaking CGI and VR work for VFX Voice.
John McTiernan’s Predator is perhaps most fondly remembered for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line, ‘Get to the chopper!’ But it also featured some incredibly memorable optical effects, crafted by R/Greenberg Associates and overseen by visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek.
These included a distinctive camouflage effect wielded by the alien Predator creature (appearing also in a monster suit designed and built by Stan Winston Studio), a heat vision-inspired Predator POV look, and several other optical effects.
Despite the challenging nature of the shots, and the challenging jungle shoot, the work culminated in an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects (the nominees were Joel Hynek, Robert M. Greenberg, Richard Greenberg and Stan Winston).
In this interview, Hynek details the optical compositing tests that led to the eventual camouflage effect, the ill-fated red-suit-in-the-jungle approach to obtaining plates, and the almost ill-fated attempt at using a thermal camera for the Predator POV shots.
vfxblog: Can we set the scene – what were you doing at the time you began working on Predator?
Joel Hynek: I was head of the optical department at R/Greenberg Associates. We had a good relationship with producer Joel Silver having done Xanadu with him, doing live action streaks on an optical printer for that film. He thought that we would be a good fit to try and do the camouflage effect for Predator. At the time we looked at it as, ‘Okay, this is something where it has to be invisible but yet also visible.’
We just tried all kinds of things, and we had done a commercial for Southern Bell where where we had a person in a red suit and they were holding a green orb against the blue screen. I guess that’s where the light bulb went off of, ‘Okay, we’ll put a guy in a red suit and we’ll run around in the jungle because the jungle’s green and the sky’s blue,’ and so we tried it. We tried everything we could think of by pulling mattes off of that red suit. Sort of like blue screen in reverse, where your subject is the screen and the foreground is actually the background.
Producer Joel Silver and director John McTiernan on the set.
vfxblog: Was that something that worked for the camouflage effect?
Joel Hynek: Well, we tried freeze framing it, diffusing it, but it just kept looking like this cutout form running around. One day one of our optical printer operators, Eugene Mamut, through our CG department, came up with something. He was trying to do a slitscan effect on the optical printer, and so he was requesting mattes to be made by the CG department and they were basically just lines, lots of lines.
In effect, each piece of frame of film would be one scan line and so he managed one day to warp just a plain old background so that right in the middle it looked like a lens. It just got a little bigger in the middle. It’s something of course that’s so simple to do today but it was done optically, and we were like, ‘Ah, okay, but how can we do that with a human being?’
The first version of the Predator in the red suit, with the red light approach. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
Now, I had worked out a method for making outlines around any kind of shape, simply by making what we call a black core matte and clear core matte, use the negative positive high-con matte, that if you offset it four times in the northwest, southwest, east-west and so forth directions, you come up with an outline. It’s great for doing outlines on titles but you can also do that to people, and that’s basically how we’d done the live action streaks for Xanadu.
We were just trying to figure out how to do that, and it was the day before Joel Silver was supposed to come and see what we’d been up to because we had done a test with a person in that red suit running around in Griffith Park.
Camouflage test.
Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head when I realised that I could make a series of inline mattes instead of outlined, doing it the opposite direction, and make inline mattes – larger and larger and larger ones, and then use the one before it to print out the larger one so that you ended up with this set of concentric inline mattes. Then I remember just laying it on a piece of paper as we did our layout sheets for the optical camera operators.
I laid it all out, gave it to the operators, and said, ‘Here. Do this.’ I came back in the morning and there it was. That effect. We showed it to Joel Silver and he’s looking at it, and he’s not quite sure. Richard Greenberg was there with me and Joel says, ‘Hey Richard, what do you think of this?’ And Richard says, ‘It’s good. Good, Joel. Good.’ So Joel gets on the phone and immediately calls producer Larry Gordon in LA and says, ‘Okay, we got a movie, we’re going to do it,’ and that was it. That’s how that started.
Motion control rig used in the jungle during the first round of shooting. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
vfxblog: You obviously managed to find a solution, but I’m curious at the time, which is the mid-80s, whether you contemplated a computer graphics solution in any way?
Joel Hynek: CG was so much in its infancy that we really didn’t think about the possibility of doing anything with CG. I know the script had been bouncing around from studio to studio until Joel Silver got his hands on it. No one could really describe, I guess, what they wanted to see except that it had to be kind of scary and a visible representation of invisibility.
It all boiled down to just trying everything that you could think of on an optical printer. Of course, the inspiration for what we finally did actually come through computer generated scan lines which were then filmed out and used on the printer.
Further camouflage test.
vfxblog: And what about the creature itself, which of course was a suit performer – were there any other ways it was thought of as being brought to life?
Joel Hynek: We were originally working with Boss Film on that. They were doing the physical creature at the time and John McTiernan had some very interesting ideas about a chicken / alligator type creature that would sort of walk with knees bent backwards. It was a very wild idea, in fact one idea was to have two people possibly with a wire assist to help support them from above.
In the end, the remarkable thing about Predator is that we started shooting without having seen the physical creature yet and the day it showed up, we put it up there and started shooting with it, and at that point Joel Silver looked at it, and I think maybe word reached back to Hollywood the next day and then Joel said, ‘We’re shutting down. We’re not doing this.’
Director John McTiernan on set. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
vfxblog: Can I just ask about the suit, and it’s become part of special effects folklore that a red suit was made that matched the original suit, what was the story behind that?
Joel Hynek: Since we had to shoot a repeat pass to get the background of whatever was actually behind our red creature – you can’t see through him so we had to just do a separate pass – and so we were trying to do motion control in the jungle which required a refrigerated truck and it was just kind of nuts. I was also trying to pull a matte optically, and you really need a good saturated colour, so I was having them shoot red light into the jungle to try and illuminate our predator guy.
But during that shutdown period we’d taken the things that we’d shot and we realised, ‘Oh, we don’t need a red light,’ and, ‘Oh, we don’t need motion control, we can do it manual repeat motion control,’ where we have two monitors side by side and have the cameraman watch the monitor and try to do the best he can because it didn’t actually have to be perfect.
It ended up making a pretty good effect with that, but little did I know others were trying very hard elsewhere to try and come up with the Predator effect in different ways. They were trying that thing when you point a camera at a monitor and you get this endless series of frames that kind of looks like the Predator camouflage effect. They were trying that but they couldn’t duplicate it. So I ended up calling John McTiernan and saying, ‘Hey, we don’t need motion control. We don’t need red light,’ and he was very happy.
Then Stan Winston produced the next creature, which was such a beautiful creature, and Joel Silver said, ‘Okay, we’re going to go to the real jungle now. We’re going to go down to Palenque in Mexico and really do this.’ (Click here for details on Stan Winston’s creature work).
The red suit for the newer Predator design.Close-up on the new red suit.
vfxblog: With that red suit too, there’s stories about Jean-Claude Van Damme wearing it in the shape of the original design, and not being very happy about his role. Was there also a red suit made in the shape of the new creature?
Joel Hynek: Yes, it wasn’t super detailed. It had a larger head and it was more human shaped than the original one. We even tried making a red suit for a monkey but the monkey didn’t like that too much. It just ran up into a tree and hid.
So…Jean-Claude Van Damme. He kept wanting to have the alien be essentially a kick boxer because he kept wanting to kick all the time and I’ll never forget being in Joel Silver’s trailer and he wanted to put the word out, he wanted to talk to Van Damme. So Van Damme comes into the trailer and Joel says, ‘Look. You can not keep doing that kick. The Predator is not a kick boxer.’ And Van Damme said, ‘No I have to do that. He must do that.’ Then Joel Silver said, ‘Well forget it then. You’re out of here. Goodbye.’ And Van Damme said, ‘Kiss my balls,’ and stormed out and that was the end of that.
Monkey in red suit. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
vfxblog: In terms of the final camouflage effect, did you continue to refine the look and did you in the end have any different looks depending on what shot it was?
Joel Hynek: It did vary a bit. We had developed a printer – in fact, I got an Academy Award, an engineering and design Academy Award, for developing an optical printer that you could do roto-positioning on. Let’s say you were constantly changing the position of something or the size of something, it would remember that so you could just do it over and over again.
For some of the earlier shots, since you were taking in these concentric inline mattes and for each one of them, we would reduce the background a little further, a little further. But we would realise that of course as you kept reducing the image and if the Predator was moving, you’d have to keep repositioning where it was for each different plane because that’s a size change needed to change how much you moved it.
That was kind of a painstaking process, but again, Eugene Mamut, optical printer operator, was dedicated and did a beautiful job on some of the shots where the Predator is running across the frame of using the roto-positioning tool to keep it all aligned, to be very smooth. In one of the earliest shots where we were just winging it, not going to that extent, the imagery sort of wiggles around. In the shot, if you remember, it’s a shot where I think Carl Weathers looks at the creature, the Predator’s eyes flash yellow, and then the image sort of wiggles around him a little bit and I thought, ‘Oh gosh. That’s giving it away!’ But Joel Silver said, ‘No, that’s cool. That’s what the Predator wanted to do. That was the intent.’ It survived.
But the shots did change over the course of the movie. In optical printing, and in making split screen mattes or in this case it’s a set of concentric inline mattes, we were trying to make them not have lines. It was very tough and it’s always a matter of adjusting exposure of each of your elements so that they would bleed just the right amount to make a perfect split. In some of our shots, you can’t see the lines at all. It’s just completely invisible. And other shots, they are quite visible. At times, the fact that the lines were visible when there isn’t much going on in the background since it’s dark, were actually a help.
Early Predator camouflage test.
But we were always trying to get the perfect set to work. There’s a shot where – it’s the guy who gets killed first – he’s under a tree, he’s looking up at the Predator, and it was one of our perfect matte sets and you couldn’t tell there was anything there until it moved. That was our goal and why there is a variability of look throughout the film.
vfxblog: The camouflage effect feels like one of those visual effect shots where you just don’t know how it was done. I even remember thinking at the time, was that computer generated? Maybe? And I wonder if you feel whether that is why these shots have really had a lasting impact?
Joel Hynek: Yes, it has had a lasting effect. It is optical, it’s film, it’s chemistry in motion. You’re not bringing a different technique or a different colour space into it, it’s all the same colour space, and the motion is all generated from a human. The matte, the additional form, it’s all coming from the silhouette of that red suit so it’s organic. I think that’s why it looks good and I guess why people are puzzled as to, ‘Well, how’s that done?’ It looks computer generated but at the same time it doesn’t.
vfxblog: Can we talk about the Predator POV shots. They relied on thermal imaging, didn’t they?
Joel Hynek: At R/Greenberg Associates, we would do commercials and we’d work on features. We had done a commercial with the heat camera. I think it was somebody’s house, it was about insulation, and so when the notion came up for the Predator’s heat vision, we said, ‘Oh okay, let’s use the heat camera.’ But it was a low res image, half standard video res at the time so it was about 250 lines and it had this sort of natural decay because of the heat – it would actually heat up the sensor a little bit and then it would slowly decay. That gave it all an interesting abstract, impressionistic look. I was really worried that people would not know what they’re looking at, so I was like, ‘Okay we’re also going to have to shoot a filler background and combine them.’
To do that, it had to be shot from the same perspective so we worked out a beam splitter where the heat camera would point down onto this 45 degree angle mirror and then shoot out horizontally and then behind the mirror we’d have a film camera shooting straight to it. We set these two images, the heat image and the optical image, and then manipulated the optical image. It was essentially a blue negative image icon made from that but it had all the trees in it so you remained oriented, you knew what you were looking at. At one point, Joel Silver got a little frustrated, ‘Why are you going to all this trouble?’ And I just had to keep pointing out, ‘Joel, without that, you’re not going to know what people are looking at unless you’re doing close up of the face.’
Thermal camera image. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
We built one also for a Steadicam, this beam splitter. Then it became slightly tricky because you were essentially lighting with heat. You want something to really stand out? Well, you hit it with a hair dryer and it’ll be bright.
vfxblog: What kind of manipulation did you end up doing on the final image?
Joel Hynek: Well, speaking photographically, we didn’t have the means to actually record the heat vision on videotape. It was not possible. So we got a van and set up a little recording setup in this truck, with a monitor and a film camera. Whenever we were doing heat vision there was always this long cable, video cable, running to the heat camera. And then that was being filmed, real time, off this monitor. That probably also contributed to its film look – that it was on motion picture film, even though it was being recorded from a monitor, but it wasn’t video tape.
vfxblog: Wait, you had a van doing this? In the jungle?
Joel Hynek: Yeah!
vfxblog: What were the logistics of all that?
Joel Hynek: First they built this big wooden platform, kind of like a lathe bed but but out of wood, and then we mounted the camera and then a monitor, and then in the van all the windows are blacked out so it’s all dark in there. It wasn’t that hard but you always had to make sure you had a long enough cable going to the heat camera. I do have a funny story that goes along with this and I was a little concerned when we were going to this approach that, shooting in the jungle, it might get so hot that you wouldn’t be able to distinguish a human in the background.
On a stage, we built this plastic enclosure with a screen, a plastic sheet, and put a human in there and just started heating it up and discovered that at around 94 degrees, you can no longer distinguish a human being from a background. It just becomes this kaleidoscope of colours. I sent Joel Silver a memo saying, ‘Joel, we’ve got to be careful because after 94 degrees we’re not going to be able to see the human.’
John McTiernan on set. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
So, I don’t hear anything back. We’re down at the jungle, it’s the first day of heat shooting, and of course it’s hot. They fire up the camera and it’s just a kaleidoscope of colours. You can’t see the people. Joel Silver starts screaming at me and says, ‘What the hell is going on here? This is a breach of contract! And I said, ‘Well Joel, didn’t you get my memo? I told you if it was more than 94 degrees you weren’t going to be able to see a human.’ And he says, ‘So what are we going to do?!’ and I suggested, ‘Well you’re going to have to cool down the jungle.’ Then he goes, ‘What? How?’ and I said, ‘With water. Spray it with water.’
So, we pack up. Next day, we try it again. They brought in these water trucks and were spraying down the jungle. We fire up the heat camera and, it was still hot, and it was still just a kaleidoscope of colours. Joel Silver’s screaming at me again, ‘Breach of contract!’ But then I realised that the water trucks that they had brought in are painted black and they’d been sitting in the sun. So they’re actually hosing it down with hot water. I said, ‘Okay Joel we’re going to have to get cold water. Ice water.’ The next day, they show up with these trucks with ice water. They hose down the jungle, and it works beautifully. People stand out excellently and we were good. But by then of course, as nature would have it, after that it wasn’t hot anymore, the weather had cooled down and we hardly had to use the water again at all.
vfxblog: Another of the very memorable effects in Predator was the ‘electricity’ effect over the creature’s body when he’s damaged. Although in those days I think there were lots of great hand-articulated lightning effects, this felt different. How was it done?
Joel Hynek: It was done with the standard approach, it was animated. It was hand drawn on paper and then photographed on the animation stand, and then optically combined with the Predator. It’s just really a skill. One guy in particular, his name is Don Poynter, he was animating that. He really had a feel for it. In fact, there’s one frame in there where he claims he spelled out his name in electricity on the Predator. I can’t say I’ve ever found it.
We also had a spark coil, an Oudin coil, something I’d made a long time ago, so we brought that in and used it as reference. It’s similar to a Tesla coil, so he’d watch that for a while.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in mud for the film’s finale. Image courtesy Joel Hynek.
vfxblog: Were there any other shots or effects work that you wanted to share from the project?
Joel Hynek: There was one other effect that is an optical / chemical effect, and it’s where the Predator reveals himself or covers himself up. So, there are a few times where he sort of lights himself on or off – it was an effect we call high con-fade wipe. It’s where on the optical printer, you would just vary the exposure of what you’re shooting to go from nothing, so the film’s totally clear, to totally black, and in this process, the mask or the density would follow the lighting contours on your subject, in this case, the Predator.
So we would shoot him blue screen to get his matte and then just based on the way he was lit and his own brightness variations across his body, as we went from 0 to 100%, the wipe would sort of follow the contours of his body. So it looked 3D but just because it was really where the light was falling on a 3D form. It looked better than I expected it to look because of that. That’s another photochemical thing that went along with the look of the film.
Beau Marx, Don McAlpine and John McTiernan ‘beating up’ Joel Hynek.
Thanks to Joel Hynek for this great interview. Don’t miss the Cinefex issue on Predator (#33) for incredible detail and imagery.
In the past three years, worldwide technology leader in the media and entertainment sector, Technicolor, strengthened its position in the visual effects and animation department with the acquisition of Mr. X, OuiDo Productions, The Mill and Mikros Image. The following strategic decisions were taken by the group to offer clients an innovative array of brands that support their specific service and market needs.
With MPC, it already had a strong hold in the VFX sector of feature films and TV commercials. The Mill further establishes Technicolor’s leadership positions for visual effects and digital creation of imagery across all segments of high-end content, including cinema, TV, VR and advertising whereas Mr. X offers services to high-end TV and international film markets. Finally, Mikros Image is uniquely positioned to produce full length feature films in France, UK and Canada. They also have a strong VFX presence along with MPC Paris making Technicolor the leader in France’s advertising market.
Before these acquisitions, back in 2006, Technicolor took a decision to establish itself in Bengaluru, India. This studio which is a multi-brand facility, has successfully reinvented the perception and mindset about India’s ability to perform to global quality and delivery specifications.
So how are these two pieces of news connected? Early 2017, The Mill, Mr. X and Mikros Image have each made their India entry under the Technicolor umbrella and with the launch of Technicolor India Production Services (known by its acronym TIPS) has offered a new bespoke VFX platform to these Technicolor brands to ramp up studio operations in India.
Over the past decade, Technicolor has worked with its dedicated unit model in India with many world leaders including DreamWorks Animation, their own MPC films and advertisement VFX teams, Rockstar Games etc. The Mill was incubated in October 2016 and moved to the studio in February. Mikros Image began in January and Mr. X in April.
Biren Ghose
Technicolor country head Biren Ghose says, “TIPS VFX is an innovative venture where we are trying to do something which has never been done before – create a new entity to serve as a multi-brand start-up. The vision for TIPS was put together by deputy CEO and president production services, Tim Sarnoff who believes in the potential India offers to our global production ecosystem.”
Bengaluru’s robust state-of-the-art infrastructure, which includes massive storage, render and connectivity, makes it strongly and interactively connected with Hollywood, UK and other production centers. Technicolor India has lived up to its objective of making its clients and global studios feel as if they are in ‘the room next door.’
The mission for TIPS VFX is to be a platform for visual effects that takes Technicolor’s relatively newer entities and makes sure that they are provided the same stellar service allowing them to ramp up and make India a part of their production systems. Secondly, it wants to ensure that these entities get the benefits of the technology and infrastructure and supervision in one location which has a great advantage compared to building three distinct studios.
“Most production entities Technicolor acquires in the world of animation and VFX will be at an advantage of starting up here in India. No other studio location in the world has these many verticals under one roof. We have three buildings and six data centres. We have a magical combination of creating an efficient, flexible platform that people can leverage for their tailor-made applications in gaming, animation or VFX. We can adapt our production systems and pipelines according to their needs and we can do this across CG imagery in any format!” boasts Ghose.
Would TIPS VFX be working on domestic India projects? “That is not presently we have geared up to do. It all depends on the budgets. WWe have not seen the budgets in India currently able to support our investments in technology and our set up which is geared to the big international projects. China and India are growing their digital production methods and until that becomes a norm it is unlikely that, in the short term, we will do many local film projects in our current infrastructure.”
TIPS VFX, general manager, Vamsi Ayyagari
As Technicolor India believes in providing end-to-end solutions and not just operate as a low-cost outsourcing studio, the same model would be observed with TIPS VFX. “In the short term of one to two years, The Mill and Mr. X will probably have a lot of work that they can immediately give to India whereas Mikros Image — being more focused on animation — will initially start with their VFX work alone and then build up the animation team as they ramp up their efforts locally,” mentions Ghose.
With three studios under TIPS VFX, it will fast track the development of skills of an artist – especially while working on a short form VFX project. Advertising and short form result in a far more fast track learning. One needs to develop multiple cross functional skills as the work isn’t restricted like the department method seen in long form CG productions. “In television series, projects come in and go out very quickly, and hence the need to cross train talent accordingly which is a speciality of our studio. It’s amazing that our artists have the ability to be trained by international supervisors in world class projects and learn the ropes at their trade.”
Working with Technicolor, MPC and now TIPS is a good CV builder. In a TIPS environment for every year a person works, s/he would be exposed to over 25 or so projects from world leaders like The Mill and this is a tremendous showcase.
There’s a great diversity of work as well – the projects will have many different styles across CG or fully animated sequences. There is also a lot of 360 degree and VR projects already being worked upon. It is a very eclectic mix which can be immensely beneficial to the artist. It takes India, yet again, to another level of training and development of skill sets.
Vamsi Ayyagari formerly general manager of MPC Films, has been charged with the strategic mission to help The Mill, Mr. X and Mikros Image build their brands and businesses on the TIPS VFX platform. As the business unit head he is now general manager at TIPS VFX. “The platform will have 200 people by end of 2017,” says Ghose.
There are just two days left for Cars 3. If you haven’t watched the previous two Cars movies, go watch them before you watch the third. Why do we say so?
The Cars series is all about experience (which begins where entertainment ends). It traces the journey of one race car, McQueen, from a rookie to a legend. And when does one become a legend? When it is not one’s time anymore. But he decides about it when he’s done. And he feels that he has a lot more to do.
Cars introduced us to the young, handsome, fast, ambitious and a cocky McQueen for whom winning, fame and luxury mattered. But fate had other plans. After a Piston Cup race, McQueen suddenly found himself in a humble town, Radiator Springs where he learnt that life was more than just victory and prosperity. When he returned back to the racing world, he brought back those values with him and won all hearts.
Cars 2 was more of a spy story (no spoilers) and less about racing but it was entertaining nonetheless, considering that it revolved around automobiles. Here, McQueen’s friend Mater took the center stage, cracking a mystery of racing cars and getting burnt on account of alternative fuel.
Now, Cars 3 will complete the circle (and you’ll know why if you’ve watched both these movies).
In the first movie, Lightning McQueen is observed as a young, ferocious racer who regarded himself as the speed. However, he lacked experience which then came from the retired and three-time Piston Cup winner Hudson Hornet, also known by folks as Doc Hudson.
After that there was no stopping to McQueen. He sprinted at a lightning pace winning Piston Cup year after year and became a big name in racing and commercial industry. With the passage of time, his place was taken over by a high-tech race car Jackson Storm and then began Queen’s journey to hoist his flag which might be his last race.
Pixar is known to create wonderful moments in its movies which resonate for long even after the movie has ended. This has been done in Cars and Cars 2. The concept, plot, dialogues, humour and of course animation all knit together to create a perfect story. Through these two movies they have shown the development of McQueen’s character and his interaction with everyone else as he passes through these stages of growth.
This also includes the bonding of friendship and love which McQueen develops with Mater and Sally respectively. Small messages of humility and trust were also given along the way. But the biggest lesson of life is yet to come because from now on everything will change.
What McQueen has to learn now is acceptance. Accepting that it is not “the one” anymore and it’s time for a new star to rise. All skills and morals acquired over the years will be put to test in this race of Cars 3 to imbibe the greatest virtue that is acceptance. There is a thin line between giving up and accepting. The legend will show us the difference as it gears up for its last battle for the last time. And mind it, this is not just the story of a car. It is the story of life narrated by a car.
Cars 3 looks like a heavy (and promising) ride but we look forward for Pixar to make it light with its line-up of beautiful song compositions. And how can we forget the waggish Mater with all his slapstick-humour charm. Then there is the cool Sally calming everyone down in times of distress and giving McQueen several doses of motivation.
We have Doc Hudson getting McQueen familiar with the harsh realities of life and the exuberant Ferrari-drools Luigi and Guido in their Italian accent. The eager race technician Cruz Ramirez and the latest rookie Jackson Storm are also characters to look out for. And wait till the end…something of the likes of Find Yourself may play.
Will Cars 3 conclude McQueen’s journey or will we get to see him being a guide to another rookie? Well, we don’t know. But what we know is that the movie awaits us with a trunk of emotions, surprises and lessons of life narrated in the Pixar-way. Ka-chow!
Disney-Pixar’s race car will ignite the theatres this Friday, 16 June, 2017.
Tons of fans turned up for the world premiere of Disney-Pixar’s Cars 3 at the Anaheim Convention Center, USA. Tattoo artists,performers on stilts and arts and crafts stands entertained little ones prior to the start of the third film in the franchise.
Owen Wilson who reprises his role as Lightning McQueen attended with his son in tow along with the executive producer and Pixar chief’s creative officer, John Lasseter and director Brian Fee. The voice-cast of the movie including Kerry Washington (voice of Natalie Certain), Cristela Alonzo (Cruz Ramirez), Armie Hammer (Jackson Storm), Larry the Cable Guy (Mater), John Ratzenberger (Jack), Nathan Fillion (Sterling) and “Blackish” star Jenifer Lewis (Flo) were also present.
American television host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel was also present to celebrate the family-friendly film’s world premiere.
Following the opening, some lucky guests got to experience Cars Land in Disney California Adventure theme park. They dined on burgers, hot dogs, veggie pizza, ate ice cream, cotton candy and rode the park’s top three attractions: Radiator Springs Racers, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Rollick Roadsters.
The E3 press conference from Sony had a lot for the fans waiting with anticipation. While there were numerous new announcements, the event also had some familiar faces for everyone.
Sony revealed a new story trailer for the new Uncharted spin off titled Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The trailer puts up Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross on a treasure hunt in the mystical lands of the Indian sub continent. While both of them do not make up to be the greatest duo, they must stick together and face off the dangers in order to find the artifact they are looking for.
The game is set sometime after the events of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End but does not feature Nathan Drake. The world of the game is embellished with intricate details throughout the surroundings giving us the feeling of being at the very place. The detailed architecture is another mesmerising part of the story trailer.
The game would be priced at $39.99 and would be releasing exclusively over PlayStation 4 on 22 August, 2017. However, people who had earlier purchased Uncharted 4’s add-on bundles will be getting the game free of cost.
Season 5 of Marvel’s Agentsof S.H.I.E.L.D. will not debut until January 2018. It will air only after Marvel’s The Inhumans wraps up its eight episode season. The positive side is that all 22 episodes will be shown without any midseason breaks putting into question whether the show will employ the pods format that made up season four.
There are reports of the series heading into outer space for its fifth season. It’s unknown if Ghost Rider will return, though there is a high chance of his returning back in the new season.
Also there are no plans to resurrect its dead characters like Grant Ward, Antoine Triplett and Lincoln Campbell through the magic of the Framework (the virtual prison) and AIDA’s body-making machine.
It looks like actor Clark Gregg, who stars as the ever-loveable Agent Phil Coulson, might be stepping behind the camera in the new season. Gregg has experience behind the camera too. He shot the 2008 film Choke and the 2013 movie Trust Me.
While participating in an impromptu and unofficial ask me anything thread on the Marvel Studios’ Subreddit, Clark Gregg revealed he is considering helming an episode of the recently announced fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
“I may direct an episode in season 5. If I don’t pass out from exhaustion, I am just thinking about it,” Gregg wrote in the thread.
Recently a VFX reel of season four was released by Emmy-nominated visual effects studio CoSA VFX that showcases how VFX was utilised to bring the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. to life in its fourth season. Check the video below.
It begins by showing us how the unexpected visual reference to Marvel’s Doctor Strange was put together. There are also few pretty cool shots of the Ghost Rider.
It ventures into a massive virtual construct known as the Framework wherein the agents battled against a sentient artificial intelligence known as AIDA. The result meant a lot of post-production was involved in season four.
Though it doesn’t require the usual green screen shot which wipes over to show all the digital effects that were brought in, CoSA’s efforts seem to be in bringing subtle enhancements to the already filmed footage and generating massive cityscapes to bring the worlds of these television series to life.
Perhaps, most interesting is how seamlessly the studio integrates the requisite effects, producing an image that might only be thought of as a digital effect.
Minister of State for IT, BT & Tourism Karnataka, Priyank Kharge talks about Karnataka ‘Centre of Excellence’ for the AVGC industry, start-up ecosystem, how the government is assisting the studios, shaping up education sector and much more.
Oscar nominated Brown Bag Films, a subsidiary of 9 Story Media Group has announced the production of animated holiday special “Angela’s Christmas” based on the popular children’s story from Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt. The announcement was done at Dublin, Ireland on June 13, 2017.
The half hour long CG film is based on Frank McCourt’s only children’s book inspired by a story his mother Angela told him as a child. McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize for his best-selling memoir, Angela’s Ashes.
The film stars Oscar nominated Ruth Negga (Loving, Preacher) in the role of Angela’s mother, and Lucy O’Connell (Oscar nominated Song of the Sea) as Angela.
The film is written by Will Collins (Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers) and Damien O’Connor (Anya, Doc McStuffins), and directed by Damien O’Conner. Ellen McCourt, Frank’s widow, serves as an Executive Producer on the project and Malachy McCourt who is Frank McCourt’s brother has given the narration.
Set in Ireland in the early 1900s, Angela’s Christmas is a funny, heart-warming and poignant story about the power of family and the innocent desires of a child to ensure everyone is safe, warm and loved at Christmas time.
The movie is currently in early stages of animation and final lighting and is expected to wrap in early November. CG production is taking place at two-time Oscar nominated Brown Bag Films’ Dublin based studio.
9 Story Distribution International is handling the worldwide distribution. Angela’s Christmas was developed with the support of the Irish Film Board and produced with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and RTE.
Executive Producer Ellen McCourt said,“I am so thrilled to see this beloved story come to life as an animated film. Brown Bag Films’ unparalleled artistry in animation, combined with their Irish roots make them the perfect partner to tell Frank’s children’s classic in a new way.”
Creative Director Darragh O’Connell also spoke about the film.He said, “Angela’s Christmas is such a special story. McCourt has a way of capturing the mind of young Angela that will have you laughing and crying.The story lends itself beautifully to animation and we are so excited to share this with audiences around the world.”
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