Japanese Mascot Chitan getting its own Anime series

Chitan, the mascot has become an Internet sensation ever since it was first seen. The character debuted back in December 2017.  Pegged as a fairy baby, Chitan is a genderless and ageless character with a penchant for mischief. The mascot was originally based on a real-world otter, and Chitan spiffed up their reputation when they were hired as an honorary tourism ambassador for Susak, Kochi.

Natsuki Takemura will be directing Chitan’s anime, and they will also act as a character designer. Isamu Sasagawa will oversee scripts while production falls to both Infinity Vision and East Fish Studio.

The character’s extreme videos became a subject of controversy, and Susaki confirmed it had rescinded the character’s ambassador position last year.

“Following complaints from citizens, the city has decided not to accept future activities as an ambassador,” the Japanese newspaper Live Door revealed.

“Because of the numerous extreme videos posted to social media, the city has decided not to accept Chitan’s ambassador activities,” the report continued. “In the city, about 100 complaints were received like ‘It is possible for the city’s character to be doing this?’, and the city decided to dismiss the ambassador.”

For the unversed, the character has a large following online. In the U.S., audiences were introduced to the mascot through Facebook and Twitter.ith millions of followers, Chitan is well-known for posting a hilarious video of herself doing odd stunts. From running on a treadmill to doing strange sports, Chitan has brought laughter to fans around the world, but it looks like Susaki is okay to part ways with their former sightseeing ambassador.

Kinder TV will begin broadcasting the anime on 3 April 2019

We can’t wait to see Chitan in action

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Yash Raj Films announces Rani Mukherjee starrer ‘Mardani 2’

Rani Mukerji had impressed us all with her feisty performance in the Mardaani. She played the role of a daredevil senior Inspector, crime branch, Shivani Shivaji Roy and took on the kingpin of a child trafficking racket.

It is official now that Yash Raj Films is making the sequel to this much-loved movie and starting the Mardaani franchise. Over the years, Mardaani 2 will see the company launch Gopi Puthran, who incidentally was the writer of the first film. Produced by Aditya Chopra, this will be Rani’s next release after Hichki that was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike and marked her return to acting post pregnancy.

Mukherji said in her official statement, “Mardaani is and will always be extremely close to my heart. Right since its release, everyone has asked me time and again when I would be doing Mardaani 2 and I’m sure this announcement will come as a pleasant surprise to them all. Gopi has written an extraordinary script that we all love and I can’t wait to start shooting this film soon.”

She also gave a sneak peek into the character of the chilling villain who she will have a big face off with. “Shivani will face a cold, merciless villain who has no empathy, no fear of God and is pure evil. The character has been written superbly and I’m excited to find out who the actor will be,” Mukherjee added.

YRF’s Mardaani 2, is set to go on floors next year and will release in the later-half of 2019.

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Kellog’s Choco Fills’ latest commercial celebrates Valentine’s Day in a chocolaty way

It’s Valentine’s Day, the day to celebrate the most amazing feeling, love! Whether you are taken, almost taken, waiting to be taken, assumed to be taken, taken for granted or those who are never taken seriously, this day brings up all the emotions.

The latest commercial of Kellog’s Choco Fills is a perfect representation for those in love and also for those who have tried the potion called love. The advertisement is filled with love, affection, emotions and of course… chocolate!

Ogilvy and Mather, the advertisement agency which works on various amazing commercials, sprinting out creative concepts have done justice to the concept and the product alike. If you are or have been in love, this advertisement will take you back down the memory lanes.

Collaborating with Vaibhav More Films for the animated advertisement, the agency and Vaibhav More Films came up with a concept surrounding the feeling of love around Valentine’s Day.

Considering the duration of the advertisement, it was difficult to narrate the story in such a short span (about 15 to 20 seconds). But the team accepted the challenge and did quite an amazing job to make the advertisement reach the audience well in time.

The concept revolves around the chocorobbers (the product) stealing the chocolate. In this advertisement, the chocorobbers are back to spoil the Valentine’s Day fun of the love smitten chocolates.

The creative team at Ogilvy and Mather came up with the basic idea and after brainstorming sessions and discussions, the final concept was decided upon. The background music given by Rupert and the voice over for the characters also played a significant role in making the 15 second film funnier.

Vaibhav More Films founder Vaibhav More along with his team which included Rohan Bhalerao and Pravin Badiger has created the animation for the advertisement which is totally created using the 3D open source software, Blender. More always wanted to promote open source culture in the industry. Considering the affordability and feasibility of the open source software, it is a good source to create something better for the smaller companies. “I have been working in open source software since two and half years now and I believe this film prove that open source software are capable of delivering good visual output, ” said he.

Ogilvy and Mather group creative director Shahrukh Irani mentioned that it was fun working on the advertisement, as the entire premise of the chocorobber is very funny. Talking about teaming up with Vaibhav More Films, Irani said, “Vaibhav and his team have painstakingly and lovingly developed each character and their movement to finally make it look effortless. Any suggestion we gave them excited them and they would wholeheartedly give it their best. And you can see the result of that.”

Along with the brand team at Kellogg’s, the Ogilvy team worked on the insight of how singles prank their couple friends around Valentine’s Day, which gave them an interesting plot to play with, making for very entertaining communication. “Occasions like this [Valentine’s Day] are very special for people. And, ads like this helps us create an impact on the audience’s mind and enhance their emotions,” commented More.

In the clutter of regular advertisements, this animated ad will surely appeal the teenage target audience and make everyone drool over their love, chocolate. Happy Valentine’s!!!

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Here’s how popular games are celebrating Valentine’s Day!

As Valentine’s Day is just right around the corner, some people will be planning out dream dates and buying gifts, where for some of us it’s an excuse to curl up on the couch to play games. On the one hand, there’s a wide variety of Valentine’s day themed games available on Google PlayStore, on the other side, some of our favourite games have strapped up to get soaked in the love season with their appealing features and developments. Here are our top five picks:

Fortnite:

Love is in the air for the celebration of Valentine’s Day, favourite online battle-royale game Fortnite has come up with Valentine’s Day special update with the version 7.40 release. Apart from exciting challenges, the update also brings cute and romantic skins. Wide variations of host skins, in-game vehicles and weapons for the players are available. This gala Valentine’s Day theme of the event with hashtag ShareTheLove started from 8 February and to end on 27 February. The ShareTheLove competitive series features a host of competitions divided into four separate divisions. Top performers in these series will directly be promoted to the higher divisions based on their performance.

It also includes an additional update of Overtime Challenges, which aims to serve as an extension to the regular 10 weekly challenges. On the completion of these challenges by the end of the season players to get a chance to unlock five new rewards. As an incentive for players to upgrade their Battle Pass, all players will receive double XP during the weekends in February. Improving the pass will reward the players, as well as existing Battle Pass owners, with new unlockable styles for the Trog, Powder and Onesie outfits.

PUBG:

When it’s time for Valentine’s Day celebration, how can PUBG be far behind? The game has kicked off unique addition for the love season; it has offered a special gift for couples this Valentine’s Day. Beside celebrating love and affection by fighting, it wants its players to match each other with matching sets of costumes. The new love costumes are available in shades of red, pink and white. All these Valentine’s Day unique skins are part of the Killer Angel set and they are available in a time-limited crate only for 17 days.

According to the recent PUBG Mobile tweet a video with the caption “There’s no room for love on the battlegrounds”. In the video, a couple is fighting beside each other near an airdrop, which is about to land on the ground. Moreover, the pair wants to loot it, which necessarily is the primary purpose of airdrops.

As far as the location is concerned, it can be identified it is the Vikendi map as a massive amount of snow can easily be seen in the background, alongside a bunch of rose plants can be seen all around the crate. Whenever there is a crate, snipers are lurking all around it. The couple takes position behind the crate and the fight starts after a few gunshots. Here is the video below:

League of Legends:

On occasion of Valentine’s Day Riot have released two new limited-time skins for League of Legends’ champions Fiora and Vi, aptly named Heartpiercer Fiora and Heartbreaker Vi.

Both these skins are available for purchase through the client and cost 1350 RP each. However, the skins are only up for sale till 5 March after which they will consign to the legacy vault, along with the Sweetheart Xayah and Sweetheart Rakan skins pair.

Also usual, pink hearts and red roses are the themes for each champion’s for the new Valentine’s look, joining the team of Ashe, Lucian, and Orianna, who previously received a skin for the romantic holiday. The new skins also come with Valentines-themed animations for the champions’ recalls and abilities.

Apex Legends:

The new free to play battle royal game Apex Legends of EA games and Respawn Entertainment also joins the love parade with Fortnite and PUBG to celebrate Valentine’s Day. As the game surpassed 25 million players at the end of first weeks, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella expressed that Valentine’s Day is one of the first stops for them to explore and attract players on their way.

In an official post earlier on the EA website, Zampella shared a few plans for the near future, one of which revolves around Valentine’s Day. “We’ll be celebrating Valentine’s Day by introducing some limited-time Valentine’s Day themed loot, so all you (Apex Legends) lovers out there keep your eyes open,” he said.

Respawn has planned the first-ever e-sports tournament is kicking off today, Valentine’s Day-themed loot drop later this week, and the start of its first season and launch of its battle pass subscription in March.

“Since we launched Apex Legends last week on Monday we’ve seen the creation of an Apex Legends community that is excited, thriving, and full of great feedback and ideas. Our goal is to build this game with you, our community, so keep giving us your feedback because we really are listening,” Zampella wrote in a blog post.

Honour of Kings:

It is obvious that game developers usually sell virtual goods from character skins to costumes to weapons to make money out of it. Tencent Holdings, which is running one of the world’s most significant video games business, is taking it one step further by selling real products for the occasion of Valentine’s Day.

Tencent’s mobile title, Honour of Kings, is offering its own gold and silver accessories in partnership with Hong Kong jewellery retailer Chow Sang Sang, the Hong Kong-listed internet giant announced on a microblogging site.

The Honour of Kings-themed jewellery products which are inspired by five heroes in the game is now available via Chow Sang Sang’s online stores as part of a Valentine’s Day marketing campaign. The most expensive item is the bracelet with a gold pendant of Daji, a Chinese concubine-turned-magician character with destructive powers in Honour of Kings, costs $ 292.The video game tie-up with the jewellery retailer comes after an earlier collaboration with Canadian cosmetics brand MAC. Last month, Honour of Kings and MAC launched five co-branded lipsticks, featuring colours on the lips of the game’s popular female characters.

With these amazing upgrades in your favourite game, we hope that your Valentine’s Day plan is sorted. We wish you a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Unusual yet adorable animated shorts to watch this Valentine’s Day

“If love is your greatest weakness, you’re the strongest person on Earth” – Rabindranath Tagore

Love is perhaps the most prized sentiment of all emotions. It binds us together, breaks us and even makes us. Though a day isn’t enough to celebrate the power and strength of love, this Valentine’s Day, let’s spread love and laughs in this world that’s presently full of hatred and bloodshed.

To make this day even more special, we’ve picked few ‘out-of-the-box’ animated shorts that’ll surely melt your heart –

In a Heartbeat (2017)

Love is a beautiful feeling and that has nothing to do with one’s sex. Sex is biological but gender is social, and this film portrays just that. The film finds a closeted boy who runs the risk of being exposed by his own heart, after it pops out of his chest to chase down the boy of his dreams.

Created by Beth David and Esteban Bravo, the film adorably and wisely shatters the stigma attached to homosexuality. It highlights that it is absolutely normal to love anyone irrespective of their sex, race, religion and it’s as beautiful as the concept of love.

The baring of one’s heart out to someone they love, getting it broken and mended by the same person, metaphorically showcases the bond that strengthens by facing all the hardships together.

The Spider and the Butterfly (2018)

Love isn’t merely restricted to humans. Other creatures also equally feel the emotion as strongly as we do, and this animated short beautifully portrays that.

Created by Dragonfoxgirl, this heartwarming short revolves around a little white female spider who daydreams about flying off to meet her other half from her hanging flower pot. Wishing the same company as the butterflies, she makes leaf wings to take off but falls into the abyss of the grass bellow. There, she comes across a peculiar butterfly and together they discover the beauty of imperfections and explore different dynamics of relationships till their last breath.

The short ends with their offspring, a spider-fly embracing her uniqueness and taking a flight to soar higher. This film also showcases embracing one’s peculiarities and being confident about their scars.

Head over Heels (2016)

Written and directed Timothy Reckart, this British stop motion animated short film is probably the dearest one on this list. Nominated for Best Animated Short Film for the 85th Academy Awards, Head over Heels tells the story of Walter and Madge, an elderly married couple who have grown apart from each other after many years of their marriage.

They live separate parallel lives (he lives on the floor and she lives on the ceiling) barely even looking at each other, leave alone talking. When Walter tries to reignite their old romance, it brings their world crashing down on the ground (both metaphorically and literally) and the couple who can’t agree which way is up, must find a way to put their marriage back together by striking an equilibrium.

This film beautifully captures the complexities of relationships and the various phases it goes through in life. The couple’s world mirrors the modern world which is devoid of a focal point. Thus their world turns upside down, (which is again subjective to each of them) when they fight and cannot zero down on what’s correct way.

Though they seem to have drifted apart, they still have an invisible bond between them. The film conveys the message that love always finds a way back if it’s meant to be and it’s never too late to mend anything, even a broken relationship.

Tea Time (2015)

Love comes in all shapes and sizes! It finds you when you least expect it in various forms, even objects and this short shows how!

Tea Time finds an elderly woman who is assisted by an almost broken robot, 24X7. Things get haywire when she replaces her old companion robot by a more latest one. This short smartly points a finger to the consequences of extensive digitisation and advancement of technology which makes us look away from the simpler things in life and dear ones.

Created by Esma, It also ensures the fact that “broken crayons still colour” or rather ‘broken robots still saves the day’ and brings back harmony in her life.

A love Story (2016)

The title of this short might sound cliched but the content and treatment is one of a kind. The film impresses us with its simplicity and spreads its message without being preachy.

Living in a society full of competition where everybody is on the run to be the best, many times we live behind simpler things of life and people we love. In our constant efforts to be better than others, most of the times we forget that we can be better together. And this exactly what the film depicts that there’s a good way to live together and fight for love than fighting with each other.

Let there be love always! Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Animography and the “A word, a week.” project

Everyone loves a good community-based project and you definitely won’t want to miss this one with loads of amazing work from some of the best in the industry!

YGT – Sinking Ship

Strengths and Weaknesses of Professional Writing Help

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3D Artist and Alita

Screen Shot 2019-02-14 at 4.58.24 am

For 3D Artist magazine, I talked to Weta Digital about their work on Alita: Battle Angel.

Blaft Publication: Taking India to the world, one story at a time.

We often fawn over the stories from the mainstream wellsprings of the international platforms. The stories that have captured imaginations across the world on account of their scale and grandeur. The preoccupation with the mainstream stories that inundate the repository makes the content reposed in the niches escape our attention. Nevertheless, those stories represent the true spirit and essence of the geography they emerged from, being just as worthy of a wider platform. It is commendable that publications and institutions take initiatives to steadily pluck the local stories from obscurity and package them in a coherent and appealing format for the readers across the world.



One such publication in India that comes to mind when we speak of the portals that revive the forgotten and underrepresented artforms and promote the rustic and stirring stories from the nooks and crannies of our country and the world is Blaft Publication.  

Speaking to AnimationXpress at the Mumbai ComiCon, Blaft Publication co-founder Rashmi Ruth Devadasan had described Blaft as  “an independent publishing house based in Chennai. Our list includes Indian and Pakistani crime novels, pulp art, folktales, graphic novels and content from all around the world”

Where are you going, you monkeys?  is another quirky book that fits the criterion of the strange and intriguing section. These Tamil folktales contain a gallery of jealous husbands and conniving goddesses, pious sparrows and randy mice, jewel-crazy girl ghosts and angry star demons.

The Blaft book of six short mythological tales from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram. The book also includes a retelling of the Mizo creation myth: from the Thimzing (or Great Darkness) to the legendary Feast of Thlanrawkpa, and the war between the beasts of the air and the beasts of the land.

Stupid guy goes to India available on Blaft publication is about a 56-year-old manga author Yukichi Yamamatsu travelled to India, armed with little money, less English, no sigmoid colon, and absolutely no idea of what to expect.

        Having largely emerged as a space for the translations, Blaft Publication bucked the trend by not taking the oft-trodden path of mainstream publishing. Kickstarting the journey with Tamil pocket novels that you find adorned in every local tea shop across Tamil Nadu. Tawdry yet appealing covers featuring hand-painted cover art with conspicuous titles of the original region novellas, Blaft publication set in motion the task of compiling and bringing to the fore those cult classics of the 80’s era. The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol 2008 features English translations of short novellas by some of the most profound and loved authors of Tamil popular fiction. Blaft Publications’ paperbacks are sold both online, as well as in bookstores.

With an aim to give a platform to a variety of genres ranging from regional fiction to Indie comics and graphic novels, Blaft Publication is inching towards diversity in its overall orientation. In its decade-long existence, Blaft has published around 22 books. At the heart of it, its the quirkiness that Blaft seeks in the content they publish.

We hope more such publishing houses come forward and uphold the spirit of reviving the stories that deserve to be told.

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