SIGGRAPH Asia Tokyo 2018 has just wrapped up, and it was a fantastic week. The attendance was up near 10,000 and you could feel the buzz at the conference centre. Here’s my run-down of 5 of the coolest things I was able to see there.
1. Behind the scenes of Pixar’s Bao
Bao director Domee Shi.
If you haven’t seen this Pixar short film yet, make sure you do. What was magical about this presentation at SIGGRAPH Asia Tokyo, led by director Domee Shi and several of her crew, was that it revealed a lot about the inspiration and the artistry and technology behind the short. It can just be so hard to capture the amount of work that goes into any animated project, and this presentation had everything – story points, design, cinematography, lighting, effects. The room was jam-packed, too.
2. Mixed reality Pac-man
The mixed reality view for Pac-in-Time.
There’s always something a little bit whacky at SIGGRAPH Asia. Bandai Namco Studios fitted participants out with mixed reality Hololenses and sat them on Honda Uni-Cubs to produce a real-life version of Pac-Man (it was called Pac-in-town, I think). And lots of fun.
3. From Gollum to Thanos – Weta Digital’s CG characters
Weta Digital visual effects supervisor Matt Aitken.
Over the years I’ve been able to cover so much of the work of Weta Digital in its crafting of digital characters. VFX supe Matt Aitken distilled all this work down into a fun history of the studio’s achievements in this area, all the way from The Frighteners, through Gollum in Lord of the Rings, Kong, the Apes films, Furious 7 and most recently with Thanos. It was a fantastic talk and one that made you think about how important these characters are in film history.
4. Robots and love
Kaname Hayashi during our Q&A.
One the last day of the conference, I helped emcee keynote speaker Kaname Hayashi’s talk about his imminent GROOVE X robot, Lovot. While he couldn’t show any pics of the robot, it was particularly interesting to hear about the idea of companionship and emotion that might be able to come from a machine. Audience questions were also fascinating – there was so much comparison to pets (seems obvious now, but I hadn’t thought of it that way).
5. Real-time Live!
VTubers during their Real-Time Live! presentation.
It’s brilliant that Real-Time Live! is now part of SIGGRAPH Asia. The truth is, there was something a little chaotic about this year’s presentations, but they were all still very watchable. I enjoyed, in particular, Pinscreen’s app, BanaCAST’s anime-like mocap character, and the VTubers and Mimic Productions virtual humans (both of these made use of IKINEMA’s tech for helping to realise CG characters live on screen).
I’m excited to say I’m part of the committee for SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 in Brisbane, Australia, and I would obviously encourage any reader to come down to Oz for the event!
Undoubtedly, Spiderman is one of the most beloved superheroes in the world. Spiderman comics have had the widest dissemination, making him a household name along with being a poster boy for Marvel. The good news is that Marvel has announced a new series that is all set to fascinate the fans.
Superheroes are not seen to be ageing most of the times. It’s the world around superheroes that they adapt to in order to evolve with times and stay relevant. Majority of the times superheroes are stuck in a time warp where they stay the same age in all comics. The chariot of time doesn’t seem to give them the dreaded ride that we mortals are bound by, sometimes taking even dozens of years to make them phase out of their teenage years.
Peter Parker, who has endured semi-status as a perpetual young man for so long, through so many resets and setbacks that we rarely get to see Spiderman grow up. Comicbook.com reports that Marvel Comics today announced Spider-Man: Life Story, a new six-issue miniseries set to launch in spring 2019.
Peter Parker became a superhero in 1962. What if we followed his entire life over six decades, as he grew up as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man in an ever-changing, ever-growing world?
The opportunity to watch a version of Peter Parker evolve and grow over such an extended period, while the world around him—along with the very idea of heroes and villains itself—grows ever more involved and complex, is almost incredibly promising.
Spider-Man: Life Story #1 is slated to release in March 2019
Cartoon Network won three honours at the Asian Academy Creative Awards on 6 December, the region’s version of the International Emmy Awards.
Cartoon Network took home three awards. Lamput from India won “Best 2D Animated Programme or Series”. The show has struck a chord not only in India but with the audience around the world. The other awards included Bill & Tony for “Best 3D Animated Programme or Series” and “Best Children’s Animated Programme or Series.” The kids network also scored a further 10 national wins for its shows in Australia, India and Japan, where three were for Turner’s other entertainment brands MondoTV and TABI Channel.
Cartoon Network India also celebrated multiple wins earlier this year at the Asian Creative Asia Awards (AAA). For Lamput, the team won across categories that included – “Best Short Form Content”, “Best 2D Animated Programme or Series” and “Best Children’s Animated Programme or Series” along with “Best Children’s Programme (one off/special)” for Roll No.21 Kris Aur Ulta Pulta Time.
Held in conjunction with Asia Television Forum in Singapore, the Asian Academy Creative Awards are part of the Singapore Media Festival.
With under two weeks before we reign in the festivities of Christmas, Netflix is already working out on making anime lover’s festive period a special one as the streaming giant has announced that Japanese anime Aggretsuko: We Wish You A Metal Christmas would premiering on the platform on 20 December 2018.
A musical comedy based on a Sanrio character, Retsuko is a 25-year-old red panda who copes with her thankless office job and daily frustrations by belting out death metal karaoke after work. The season one, which debuted in April this year, was received to an encouraging response from the fans and even though there’s quiet sometime before the second season hits in, they can binge on the upcoming Christmas special episode that’s a small gift from its makers to the fans.
The episode also features a punk cover of “Jingle Bells”, performed by Tim Timebomb and the Interrupters. (Tim Timebomb is a music project of Tim Armstrong, frontman of the legendary punk band Rancid.)
Here’s the synopsis of the episode: Retsuko’s newfound obsession with posting pics on her social media account threatens to ruin her Christmas, while Haida still hopes to spend Christmas with her.
The episode has been written and directed by Rarecho.
One Piece‘s latest episode finally brought Big Mom tête-à-têtewith the Straw Hat pirates as now they have to protect the Thousand Sunny from her violent rampage. This implied that the Straw Hats had to make the biggest decision yet
Jinbe was the first to face Big Mom directly, and which resulted in a pathway that enabled the biggest fight the character has ever had yet.
When Jinbe stands up to Big Mom and tells her that her wedding cake isn’t there because Perospero lied to her, Big Mom gets incensed and begins attacking Jinbe. He dodges her attack, but her being on the ship while Prometheus is on top of her head is making the whole ship catch fire.
Jinbe uses his Ocean Current Shoulder Throw and this temporarily halts Big Mom as well. Jinbe then uses his Vagabond Drill and punches Big Mom right in the stomach. The strike is strong enough to completely knock Big Mom back and off the ship completely. Zeus catches her before she can fall in the ocean, and she’s really only angered further by this attack, but Jinbe did major damage to Big Mom.
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold.
Toonz Media Group, in partnership with Gummybear International has announced the launch of the second season of their successful animated series“Gummibär And Friends: The Gummy Bear Show” on 13 December.
Toonz Media Group’s new non-dialogue comedy Boo Bah B also just launched exclusively on YouTube and the YouTube Kids app on 30November, strengthening the partnership with the platform.
The hugely successful Gummibär And Friends: The Gummy Bear Show premiered on YouTube on 24 June 2016 with immediate success. ‘The Surprise Egg,’ the most watched episode of season one, has alone generated more than 36 million views. Overall, the first season has received over 330 million total views on the Gummybear International YouTube Network – the Gummibär centric MCN. With over 12.6 billion total views and over nine million subscribers, Gummibär is the most viewed animated character on the internet.
This second season of Gummibär And Friends: The Gummy Bear Show, 39×7, continues with the crazy and comical adventures of Gummibär, everyone’s favourite singing and dancing gummy bear character, and his two best friends, Harry the nervous, geeky and gadget-genius chameleon, and Kala the feisty, intelligent gung-ho serval cat.
Adding to the success of the Gummibär brand on YouTube, the outrageous and comical little green bear has become a global entertainment phenomenon with CDs and DVDs released in 27 different languages in over 40 countries and a highly successful consumer products business. The IP goes from strength to strength, and the production and premiering of this second season of the series on YouTube is a result of the huge following the first season generated on the platform. Toonz’s distribution arm, Imira Entertainment, handles worldwide sales of Gummibär And Friends: The Gummy Bear Show.
Gummybear International founder Jurgen Korduletsch comments, “We are very excited for the debut of season two of The Gummy Bear Show. We know his fans have been eagerly awaiting new episodes, and we’ve been putting in lots of time and effort to provide them with the highest quality content we can.”
Toonz’s new non-dialogue, slapstick comedy series Boo Bah B 104×5, is also premiering exclusively on YouTube and the YouTube kids app, and follows the exploits of Bah, a self-centred Lion who believes he has the grace of a king, without a kingdom, sets himself on a mission to impress.
Toonz Media Group CEO, P. Jayakumar, comments on the exclusive premieres of its two productions “YouTube is a very important partner for Toonz, and the season one success of The Gummy Bear Show has enabled us, along with Gummybear International, to produce this second season and proudly premiere it exclusively on YouTube and YouTube Kids, extending the Gummy Bear footprint even further around the globe. It has also helped us launch entertaining new family-engaging shows like Boo Bah B which have a strong universal appeal.”
However, a little happy-go-lucky rabbit called Boo, and his alien best-friend, B, are anything but impressed, and they do everything to stop the boisterous Lion in his tracks.
PUBG Corporation has collaborated with Battery, an independent creative advertising agency based in Hollywood, and RSA Films to create an ambitious global campaign for the launch of the Sony PlayStation4 version of the popular digital game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
“Beginning with our game, the goal has always been to work towards becoming an all-encompassing entertainment franchise. Having Jordan bring us a step closer to that has been a delight to see,” said PUBG Corp CMO Richard Kwon.
The centerpiece of the campaign is Pan-demonium, a long-form social film produced by RSA Films and directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, whose work includes the feature film Kong: Skull Island and a variety of high-profile commercial campaigns.
“Bringing this iconic game to life was such an amazing opportunity for us And working with Jordan and his team of cinematic legends like Rob Alonzo and Chung Hoon Chung was a dream come true,” said Battery partner/VP creative director Scott Brown.
Pan-demonium is an action-packed, funny, highly choreographed and relentless fight film that recreates the visceral excitement of the game in live action with an ensemble of actors including Jason Mitchell of Straight Outta Compton and Nick Robinson of Jurassic World. The film features the cinematography of Chung-Hoon Chung (Old Boy) and the stunt direction of Robert Alonzo (Deadpool). The campaign includes: 60, :30 and :15 versions of the film, which will air on television around the world.
“When approaching this campaign, I wanted to capture and translate the individual moments of emotion the gameplay elicits from a player when experiencing PUBG. I wanted gamers and fans of the title to watch this piece and feel that the filmmaker and team behind this spot understood the authentic fun that have made PUBG a piece of the zeitgeist. I wanted to find a way to bottle that magic and the excitement, kinetic rush, and idiosyncrasies of PUBG for its fans, while also making it accessible to new viewers, whether they’ve played PUBG before or not” said Roberts.
The campaign’s long-form social video will be distributed on PUBG’s official site as well as the brand’s social media pages and other multiple paid online platforms.
Xilam Animation has secured a slate of global broadcast sales for its hilarious newseries, Mr Magoo (78 x 7), based on the hugely successful classic cartoon of the same name. The series is currently in production and will start airing from late 2018.
Turner has picked up Mr Magoo in France, French and English-speaking Africa, the Middle East, Israel, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Central and Eastern Europe for its Boomerang channel, while Discovery Kids has acquired the series for Latin America. In Europe, the show will also air on Super RTL in Germany, VRT and RTBF in Belgium, SIC K in Portugal, alongside RTVE in Spain and RTS in Switzerland.
These new partners bolster the existing line-up that includes CITV in the UK, in addition to Discovery and DEA Kids in Italy. Xilam’s Mr Magoo was originally commissioned by France televisions, with Cartoon Network Asia also on board as a broadcasting partner.
The fresh take on Mr Magoo will target kids aged 6-11 years and follows the eponymous disaster-prone senior who first appeared on screens to delight young audiences nearly 70 years ago. Mr Magoo will continue to cause just as much chaos as before – mainly because he forgets to put his glasses on.
Xilam Animation, EVP global sales development Morgann Favennec says, “We’re delighted to be significantly expanding the broadcaster line-up for Mr Magoo, establishing a strong global footprint for this fantastic new show ahead of its eagerly anticipated rollout. The calibre of the partners we are securing is testament to Mr Magoo’s universal appeal and we’re confident that the show’s warmth, slapstick humour and hilarious antics will strike a chord with a new generation of kids, along with fans of the classic series.”
In the neighbourhood, everybody loves Mr Magoo – the lively, kind-hearted and cheerful guy always happy to give a helping hand. But beware – he also causes disasters! Without his glasses, he mistakes his surroundings for other places, gets people mixed up, and wreaks havoc everywhere he goes. All his neighbours have kindly adjusted to his uniqueness…except for one: a megalomaniac hamster by the name of Fizz whose sole goal is to have all of humanity recognize his tremendous genius. He’s determined to leave his mark on history, but somehow Magoo always interferes, forever thwarting Fizz’s crazy plans!
Starting with the French and UK markets, Mr Magoo will also be a key merchandise priority for Xilam.It has been adapted by Olivier Jean-Marie from John Hubley’s original series, created in 1949. The new series is directed by Xilam’s Hugo Gittard.
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