Genius Brands announces Stan Lee’s ‘Superhero Kindergarten’ starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

‘Superhero Kindergarten’ artwork

Genius Brands International has announced the launch of an all-new comedy, action-adventure animated series for children, Superhero Kindergarten created by the legendary Stan Lee. Superhero Kindergarten targets preschool kids in a unique entrance to and sector of the superhero landscape.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator franchise, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Total Recall, Predator) as the lead character, the series will also be co-produced by Schwarzenegger’s Oak Productions and Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment alongside Genius Brands.

“It is an honour and privilege to work with Genius Brands and POW! Entertainment on this new series and help carry on Lee’s creative legacy by introducing this new group of superheroes to preschool children around the world. Not only does Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten feature comedy and action, but there are many valuable lessons to be learned along the way! Of particular pride to me is the fact that I am not only teaching kids to use their superpowers, but I am also imparting valuable lessons to kids worldwide about the importance of health, exercise, and nutrition,” commented Schwarzenegger.

Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza is scripting the series. Genius Brands chairman/CEO and multiple Emmy Award-winning producer of more than 5,000 episodes of children’s programming, Andy Heyward, and POW! Entertainment president of Gil Champion are serving as executive producers.

Stan LeeHeyward mentioned, “Lee loved and admired Schwarzenegger as not just an actor, but a true hero in so many ways and always envisioned Arnold for this role. Stan was the greatest creator that Hollywood and pop culture has ever known. We are honoured to continue his legacy of creating a new superhero franchise for kids with another iconic hero, Schwarzenegger, in Superhero Kindergarten. What will be particularly unique about this series is that there will be an animated cameo of Stan Lee appearing in every episode.  Just as his millions of fans look forward to seeing him appear in each Marvel film, they will look forward to his presence in each episode of this cartoon. The strong positive messages from Schwarzenegger will make it a series that parents will enjoy alongside their children.”

Champion added, “Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten was near and dear to his heart, working with one of his longtime collaborators Heyward, as well as Schwarzenegger, and we look forward to continuing the partnership with Genius Brands to bring Lee’s vision for this new adventure series to life.”

Main Street Advisors CEO Paul Wachter helped to broker the deal and will executive produce with Schwarzenegger, Heyward and Champion. Main Street Advisors represents some of the most prominent and celebrated names in sports, entertainment and business.

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New C4D Optimized Laptops, CPU vs GPU, and Minor Apple Updates

Better and faster, a look at the latest computer news to excite motion designers and 3D artists.

As the 2019 Computex conference gets underway, there’s some exciting news out of the technology show already. Read up on the latest laptops for NVIDIA claimed to rival the MacBook Pro, as well as big news from AMD and more.

NVIDIA

First up, NVIDIA has announced a new line of laptops that will run their RTX cards. In total, there will be 17 new NVIDIA laptops from the likes of Acer, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, MSI, and Razer.

In a write up over on TechCrunch,

The 17 laptops will be equipped with Quadro RTX 5000, 4000 or 3000 GPUs or GeForce RTX 2080, 2070 and 2060 GPUs. Nvidia claims they can perform up to seven times faster than the MacBook Pro. Studio laptops with Quadro RTX 5000 GPUs will have 16GB of graphics memory, and some of the devices will also have 4K displays and Nvidia’s Max-Q tech for building thin and lightweight laptops, enabling incredible performance and longer battery life.

New C4D Optimized Laptops, CPU vs GPU, and Minor Apple Updates - NVIDIA

Image via NVIDIA.

In the company’s press release, the General Manager of GeForce software and technology at NVIDIA Jason Paul said,

NVIDIA Studio pairs RTX GPUs, which enable real-time ray tracing, AI processing and high-resolution video editing, with studio-grade software to surpass the growing demands of today’s creators, the new RTX Studio laptops are the perfect tool for creatives who need desktop-class performance while on the go.

The new NVIDIA laptops will begin retailing in June, with prices starting at $1,599.

Razer Blade Studio

Hardware Canucks has some more on the updates to the Razer line in this video on the Razer Blade Studio. These machines are loaded with NVIDIA’s Studio Drivers (formerly Creator Ready), meaning they are optimized for use with Cinema 4D.

Razer Blade Studio Specs:

  • NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000
  • 9th gen Intel® Core™ processors
    • Intel Core i7-9750H (15-inch)
    • Intel’s Core i9-9880H (17-inch)
  • UHD OLED touch display
  • 32 GB RAM
  • 1 TB NVMe storage
  • Cinema 4D Optimized

Asus ZenBook Duo

Also revealed at the conference, is a look at Asus new dual-screen laptop. The ZenBook Duo and ZenBook Pro Duo will have two built-in 4K screens.

New C4D Optimized Laptops, CPU vs GPU, and Minor Apple Updates - Asus

Image via Asus.

Asus ZenBook Duo Specs:

  • NVIDIA RTX 2060
  • Up to an 8-core Intel Core i9
  • OLED panels
    • 16:9 OLED 15-inch screen
    • 32:9 IPS ScreenPad Plus
  • Up to 32GB DDR4 @ 2666MHz
  • 1TB PCIe x4 SSD
  • Thunderbolt 3
  • (2) USB-A
  • Headphone jack
  • HDMI port

Checkout this review of the ZenBook Duo over on The Verge.

AMD

Rumors were circulating the AMD may ditch the Threadripper, but those rumors can now be laid to rest. Not only will the Threadripper line continue, AMD has also announced the new Ryzen 9 3900X which will only cost $499.Plus two more eight-core models were also announced – Ryzen 7 3800X and 3700X.

That means the CPU vs GPU race will live on. Our own Chad Ashley has been taking advantage of CPU and GPU performance, loading his machine with a Threadripper and two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080Ti. You can check out his specs here. This allowed him to complete an assessment of Arnold CPU vs Arnold GPU earlier this year, as well as allowing him the ability to work quickly within Redshift and Octane.

New C4D Optimized Laptops, CPU vs GPU, and Minor Apple Updates - AMD

Image via AMD.

For more, check out the following

Apple

In other news, Apple announced a new iPod touch.

New C4D Optimized Laptops, CPU vs GPU, and Minor Apple Updates - Apple

Image via Apple.

The company previously announced the latest updates to their line of MacBooks. They claim 3D artists can render up to 2x faster in Maya Arnold. Still no news on that new Mac Pro, which we may hear more about next month.

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Showcase: 17 small ideas from Andrew B. Myers

Whether you’re into 2D, 3D or any combination of mediums, be sure to check out this new film by Andrew B. Myers for a healthy dose of inspiration!

HELPING HANDS

‘One Piece’ treats fans to a different Lucci

Depicting the dark justice than ever before, in Episode 886 of the series, it’s revealed that Rob Lucci has been promoted from his duty in CP9 to being the leader of the “greatest and most powerful” unit of Cipher Pol 0

When Shirahoshi becomes the target of a terrible Celestial Dragon, the other royals nearly interfere and doom their home countries by attacking the Celestial Dragon themselves. But since this is the Holy Land Mariejois, the home of the Celestial Dragons, this Celestial Dragon has a special escort. When Leo and Sai go in for an attack, they are immediately put down by Rob Lucci. Dressed completely in white, Rob is accompanied by three others.

Lucci is keen on dark justice at this moment as he will take down anyone who questions the god. Branding the royals as useless before a god, he claims that the Celestial Dragons can do whatever they want and don’t need to explain themselves. It’s clear that Lucci is upholding the rules as much as he did during the Enies Lobby arc, and that has brought him to his current rank. No information on how he got here as of now but hopefully fans will get to see more of the new Rob Lucci in action in the days to come. Fans are bracing themselves for the Strawhat Rematch for sure.

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APC Kids boards Studio 100 Animation and Cosmos-Maya’s ‘Galactic Agency’

APC Kids has boarded new animated series Galactic Agency (52 x 13’) as worldwide distributor outside France, Belgium, Luxembourg and India. APC Kids will be launching the series to potential pre-buyers at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Produced by leading French animation studio Studio 100 Animation along with Singapore-based animation studio Cosmos-Maya as a co-production partner, the 2D animated series aimed at kids aged six to nine is commissioned by French broadcaster Gulli.

Created by Julie Chabrol, a young and talented author, Galactic Agency follows the adventures of a team of extreme repair specialists, featuring Dany the boss, K the hyperactive intern, and the twins Apple and Zed. Aboard the Toaster, their hypersensitive spaceship, they will be called on crazy missions across the WashMash Galaxy to come to the rescue and to fix anything. From a diva-whale’s washing machine to King Cheddar the Fifteenth’s robot teddy, there’s always something to do. But in this kooky-quirky universe filled with freaky creatures of all kinds, nothing ever goes as expected!

APC Kids managing director Lionel Marty said, “We are thrilled to be joining such an exciting, original project, working with some of the most talented producers in Europe and Asia. We are confident that audiences across the globe will love the hilarious and whimsical escapades of this new adventure comedy.”

Katell France, Managing Director of Studio 100 Animation says: “We are delighted to partner with APC Kids as worldwide distributor to spread the funny and wacky adventures of the Galactic Agency’s endearing characters amongst the kids all over the world”.

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Samsung collaborates with Disney for some clever wallpapers

After last year’s Disney AR emojis, Samsung has partnered with The House of Mouse again for some exciting licensed content – hole-punch wallpapers for Galaxy S10 and S10e.  

Users have literally created some clever wallpapers that camouflage the camera. Everyone has been creatively trying the fun of hiding the front-facing cameras on the Galaxy S10 series, by making hole-punch wallpapers for easy application and it’s fun seeing all the ways people are taking up to hide the camera cutouts, even fan-made Disney/Pixar wallpapers around.

Now, there are five official wallpapers available for free download on the Galaxy Themes store for the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10e, featuring Olaf from Frozen; Jack-Jack and Violet from The Incredibles; Flash from Zootopia and our beloved Mickey Mouse.  

Most of Samsung’s official phone themes aren’t free. Generally, users can use them for 14 days before they expire and revert back to the phone’s default theme, unless they pay for it. But Disney has said that these new ones will be free for Galaxy S10 and S10E users. But, there’s a catch! These wallpapers are only for the single-camera models.

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Allen Animation Academy inspires and prepares young minds into the field of animation

Animation is a combination of imagination, creativity, thoughts, colours and stories. Our generation has grown up watching all the famous animated characters on screen and have adored them. These characters made our childhood memorable, all thanks to the animators behind the superb animations.

Superhouse Education Foundation, based in U.P. is setting up a foundation for the young animators and creators out there. Not only focusing on academics, but also on enhancing other life-skills of each child for their holistic development, the organisation, under the banner of Allen Animation conducts animation classes.

With student strength of more than 1500 across 14 schools, the foundation comprising self-branded Allenhouse Public Schools as well as Delhi Public Schools, a team of three dedicated members, alongwith 30 faculty members manage the courses.

Started in year 2015 with total number of 800 students, today the academy boasts of 1800+ students. “We firmly believe excitement at work level leads to miracles, the excitement amongst the student is so high that they actually bring their imagination into reality,” said Superhouse Education Foundation project manager-animation Naman Agarwal.

Students from a very early stage are imparted basic training in animation related software and are also familiarised with upcoming trends in animation. Key Programs include graphics designing (vector art and raster art), digital painting, VFX, motion graphics, A.V. editing, compositing and introduction to 3D.

Each class has different course, considering their education intake, which includes basics of design using shapes and tool to create simple designs from shapes, caricature, Simple logo for class two and what they try imaging with little complex design in class three.

Class four is taught to create sketch, cartoonish effect and basic digital painting, while class fifth and sixth learns complex designs with banner, logos, brochure and cards design and colour correction, photo re-touch up for photo-shoot and magazine, creating posters.

Class seven gets to learn techniques of VFX, motion graphics, green screen and composition with class eight students about concepts of designing in 3d environment with help of architectural designs.

“We have also initiated district or state level school’s competition ‘GAVFX: Animated Dreams’ so that students can showcase their talent and skills,” added Agarwal.

Agrawal believes that the students of Allen Animation Academy are all set to make their space in gaming, movies, VFX, graphics industry and create a difference and if started at an early age, it will give enough time for the child to learn, unlearn and explore it to the optimum.

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Netflix appoints Monika Shergill as International Originals series head

Monika Shergill

After Simran Sethi called its quits last week, Netflix India has brought on board VOOT EVP and content head Monika Shergill as International Originals series head.

Sources from the streaming giant told AnimationXpress, “We confirm the news [of Shergill joining Netflix]”.

Shergill has been the key driving force behind VOOT’s increasing original content, and Voot launched 18 original series under her supervision. She joined Viacom18 in 2015 and brings with her an enviable experience in the media and entertainment space.

Netflix eyes India as a crucial and important market and has thus announced an extensive slate of originals – 11 series and 22 films (including the upcoming Chopsticks, Cricket Fever and many more). Thus, a high-profile acquisition was expected, given the streaming powerhouse wanted the leadership to be based in India to work in close association with content creators and producers.

In her new role, Shergill will possibly report to International Originals VP Bela Bajaria and will be responsible for creating quality original content and big budget licensed content.

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Global video gaming market is expected to reach $179.1 billion by 2024

The rate of the gaming industry is growing exponentially each year in tandem with the digitisation. In a recent report launched by Report linker, it was indicated that the global video game landscape looked replete with opportunities in the smartphones, tablets, PCs, and consoles market with even brighter future prospects.

The global video game market is expected to reach an estimated $179.1 billion by 2024 with a CAGR of 6.4 per cent from 2019 to 2024. Mobile and online distribution of games are driving the growth of video game industries.

The report states that there has been a direct impact on the dynamics of the video game industry owing to the development of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) based head mounted displays (HMD) and heads-up display (HUD) products and development of games for academic and skill development.

Key results of the report

Here are the few predictions on the global market as per the report:-

  • The shooting game will remain the largest segment due to increasing interest towards action-packed video games across all age groups thanks to its makers the players have many options available on the internet to choose from of which some are free to play and some are pay to play. The constant improvement in graphics quality which provides real life like the mission is driving the market for shooting games towards the upward direction according to the report and it will continue too.
  • Considering the video game market, smartphone-based games will remain the largest segment and it is also expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to new launches of smartphone-based games, such as PUBG, Battlelands Royale, and War Robots and due to the high usage of these games in emerging nations.
  • The Asia Pacific will remain the largest region and it is also expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to increasing smartphone users and rapid internet growth in the emerging nations. The growing internet users have enabled a steady rise in the online video game market, as it allows gamers to increase the gaming experience with a high-speed internet connection.

Not only that, players are seen to be vying for the leading spot for the year 2024  amid aggressive competition. Case in point; China’s gaming market reached $8.46 billion in the first quarter of 2019, upwards of 8.8 per cent from the previous quarter and 5.1 per cent from a year earlier.

According to the Q1 19 China Gaming Industry Report jointly released by IDC and GPC, the gaming market has shown signs of recovery and regained growth momentum, thanks to the favourable policies such as the resumption of game approvals and incentives for going global.

Trends which are sketching the Indian video gaming scene :

With the emergence of the gaming sector in India, it is seen to be gearing up significantly for years 2024 in the sphere of smartphone gaming.  In a candid conversation with us, Cympl  Studio co-founder Rituraj Behera shared that the gaming market is growing big in India and casual gaming market is pushing the chariot forward. “India will surely have a massive market opportunity in the next five years in the casual space which apparently has the most number of gamers. As per Google, we will reach over 600M+ active users with smartphones and access to the internet,” he added.

Given the fact that monetisation scenario has improved in favour of developers as well as players, casual gaming is seen to be thriving over the years. No longer do players have to struggle with the prospect of looking for authentic wallets as the digital environment has been made much safer and viable for players to operate.

With the availability of the e-wallets like PayTm and PhonePe, it has become a hell of a lot simpler for players to make purchases as opposed to the times before. “With the emergence of Jio, the number of people who make use of mobile data has increased significantly. That, in turn, has boosted mobile game downloads, which has resulted in better revenue through monetisation,” he expressed.

In addition to that, in the recent report from Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) and KPMG India Private Limited (KPMG) titled ‘The Evolving Landscape of Sports Gaming in India’, it was stated that the online gaming revenue is expected to grow to Rs 11,900 crore by 2023.

In 2018, there were 250 million gamers and 250 game developing companies and it seems to be growing at an exponential rate ever since. In the same context My11Circle business head Saroj Panigrahi echoed, “In the coming years, the market competition will only intensify, with the expected fantasy sports users growing to 100 million by 2020.”

The hyper-casual gaming industry has gone through many phases of technical evolution. In an effort to ease players’ troubles of downloading multiple games, companies have introduced gaming platforms on which players can play a variety of games and might get to earn cash prizes at the same time.

For instance, the hyper-casual gaming platform Pocket league currently has over 100,000 registrations with over 20 Million game replays and average time spent per user per day of 30 Minutes. “The Indian gaming industry is growing rapidly and there are skilled talents out there. The bigger studios are putting out great quality content. They are innovating with content targeting India. Some of the work being done by independent studios is top-notch,” said Pocket league CEO and founder Karan Khairajani.

Even though Esports has been in India for quite some time now, the year 2019 has seen remarkable traction. Currently, India is seen to be really pushing aggressively to make an impact in the gaming section; be it through ESL One DOTA2  or FIFA 2019 (organised by game development institution Backstage Pass).

In addition to that Backstage Pass CEO Surya P shared, “Esports in India has been around for a few years, but since 2019 there has been a massive growth as it gained popularity and support, such that well-known companies and gaming giants are holding leagues and tournaments. Not just that, but with more prize money and acceptance, the esports is gaining popularity, attracting international teams to participate in the tournaments held in India. We have seen Indian gamers not only participating in international platforms but also winning sports medals.”

In the global gaming market, India might seem like a fledgeling bird but the recent growth spurt seems to indicate that it has taken flight already, all poised to go neck-to-neck with bigger players in the years ahead.

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