Hasta La Motion!

Taiwan Expo 2018, that has been declared open by Taiwan Excellence at the Taiwan Excellence pavilion, treated the visitors with a spectrum of hi-tech gadgets. Coming to India for the first time, Taiwan Expo 2018 attracted a large number of visitors on its opening day. The three day event will serve as an important platform to bring together Taiwanese and Indian businesses to explore growth opportunities together.

The Taiwan Excellence pavilion showcased a range of products such as IoT solutions, healthcare equipments, lifestyle enhancement appliances, ICT and office equipment, and entertainment products. The pavilion became the centre of attraction of the expo after the opening ceremony. Visitors got a glimpse of various Taiwanese brands that displayed cutting edge, award-winning products using state-of-the-art technology.

Some innovative products were unveiled for the first time, underscoring the commitment made by Taiwan Excellence to align with India’s digital mission. The featured brands included MSI, one of the dominant names of the gaming industry; ASUS, a household name in India with its high-quality laptops and smartphones; Gigabyte, that holds a global market for motherboards, graphic cards and computer notebooks; and Thermaltake with its TteSports and LUXA2 lines of merchandise. Other brands included D-Link, Edimax, Acer, Adata, Tokuyo, Aver and Advantech. Among the new brands were Walrus Pumps, QNAP, Moxa, XTGL and Apex.

Addressing media persons on the inaugural ceremony, TAITRA executive director Raymond Chen commented, “This is the first time that Taiwan Expo is being held in India. We at Taiwan Excellence have always put our best foot forward to support the Government of India in various path-breaking initiatives like Make in India, Digital India and Skill India. By participating in the India edition of Taiwan Expo, we are trying to bring about a synergy between Taiwanese and Indian companies. We will network with other stakeholders and explore ways of collaborating with them through the expo.”

Considered to be a major facilitator in developing Taiwan’s bilateral trade relations with its neighboring countries, Taiwan Expo was conceived as a result of the implementation of Taiwan’s new Southbound Policy to create mutually beneficial partnerships with its southern neighbors. Besides showcasing Taiwanese products and services, the expo serves as a platform for Taiwanese and Indian companies to further their cooperation. The pavilion has been popular with the visitors as it seeks the country’s culture of technological innovation and cutting edge design. It also provides an appropriate platform to strengthen bilateral trade and economic relations. This year, its pivotal role in enhancing Taiwan’s business relations with its neighbours will also be experienced in India.

Taiwan Expo is being held from 17 to 19 May at Pragati Maidan Hall.

The post Taiwan Excellence’s first India edition, Taiwan Expo 2018 is all about tech extravaganza appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Scholastic Entertainment will be back on TV with a reboot of Clifford The Big Red Dog. Based on the best-selling Scholastic book by Norman Bridwell, the re-imagined animated series will feature the larger-than-life dog and his best friend Emily Elizabeth. The huge canine character will return on Amazon Prime Video and PBS Kids in 2019.

Still set in Birdwell Island, Clifford The Big Red Dog will offer fresh and colourful new locations. The show will also have a strong emphasis on social-emotional skills such as empathy, along with a solid curriculum designed to boost early literacy and encourage imaginative play.

The classic Clifford The Big Red Dog series has aired in 110 countries around the globe, and also inspired a spin-off, the Emmy-winning Clifford’s Puppy Days. Scholastic published the first Clifford title in 1963, and till date there have been  more than 133 million Clifford books in print in 16 different languages. A vintage hardcover edition of the original Clifford storybook was reissued in fall 2016 and it also has its very own classroom magazine, distributed by Scholastic in the U.S.

In a statement, the show’s executive producer Iole Lucchese said: “There is something enduring in Clifford’s gentle, loyal spirit that touches fans even after they become adults.We see it in tributes on social media and in fan art, and of course, in every parent who grew up with Clifford and now share their love of him with their pre-schoolers.”

Produced by Scholastic Entertainment, the first Clifford The Big Red Dog series premiered on PBS KIDS in 2000. The show garnered numerous industry excellence awards, including nine Daytime Emmy nominations, two CINE Golden Eagle Awards and a New York Film Festival Award. For the new series 100 Chickens,9 Story and Brown Bag Films are brought on board to bring the animated show to life.

Currently scheduled to go on for 39 episodes, the new show will also feature original songs, new and old characters. Sadly, one person who will be unable to return to the show is John Ritter, the original voice of Clifford who passed away in 2003. He was posthumously nominated for an Emmy in 2004 for his performance.

To accompany the launch of the new show, Scholastic Entertainment is also developing a global publishing, broadcast, merchandise and licensing program to help further extend the positive messages of the brand to children and families around the globe.

The post Scholastic Entertainment returns to TV with ‘Clifford The Big Red Dog’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.

The most awaited event for the AVGC industry commenced today with a huge response from students, professionals and industry’s big names. GAFX 2018 saw a traditional beginning with lightning of the lamp by the ABAI management team.

With sessions and workshops around the entire campus of The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru, the enthusiasts managed to grasp as much knowledge as possible. Nickelodeon VP of CG productions, Dean Hoff kicked off the conference with interesting insights about the animation sector. Mentioning the hard work and long time taken behind the creation of animated films, he said, “Animation is a long process because we select only one or two great contents from the 20 pilots we have received. It takes 55 weeks to create an hour long animated film and hence a season of around 26 episodes take about 18 months.”

Feeling proud about the Indian animation industry he mentioned, “India has been the country where Nickelodeon has done production constantly for 12 years,” and motivated the students present at the do by asking all to accept the coming change as with it comes new opportunities.

Biren Ghose had a question answer session with Hoff wherein the audience got to know all they wanted to quench their curiosity.

With applauds, the crowd welcomed the second speaker for the day, VES annual award winner Rashabh Bhutani. He showcased few advertisements showing the detailed VFX work done for creating a single advertisement.

The audience were all ears but it was noon already and the hall got vacant but, only for lunch.

There was more in store after lunch with Netflix and DreamWorks’ international animation talent consultant, Shelly Page showcasing animated shorts that made the audience completely awestruck and conducted her Eye Candy Show.

A plethora of short films which amazed the crowd included Petite Faim, Burn Out, Swim, Lifting Mr. Burden, Parfum Fraise, Shark in the park, Archivist, Mechanique among others.

The next in the queue of amazing session was The Mill’s creative director Adam Grint. His session saw jaw dropping VFX work in advertisements of Nike. “I am blown away by the talent here,” Grint said complementing the Indian talent. He explained the process of VFX, talking about the initial concept, abstract crowd design and final rendering. Grint further added, “Only the storytellers that work arm in arm with the technologists make the good work.”

The sessions for the day concluded with Vaibhav Studio founder Vaibhav Kumaresh sharing the exclusive showreel of his 100-minute long animated film, Return of the Jungle’s first part, The Blue Jackal.

The B2B session was quite inspiring and interactive with sellers and buyers bonding over their discussions.

With more great sessions yet to be seen for tomorrow, day one saw a remarkable content display as well. Stay tuned for the upcoming sessions this weekend. We will keep you updated!

The post GAFX 2018 raises its curtains appeared first on AnimationXpress.

A Pro-Artist Platform to Sell Signed, Limited Edition Fine Art with a Single Post