Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the voice for ‘Maleficent’ in Hindi

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been brought in by Disney, to lend voice for Maleficent in the Hindi version of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Rai Bachchan revealed the news herself  through a teaser on social media. The teaser features her as the Disney anti-heroine, lending voice to the cult character made memorable by Angelina Jolie. The Hindi teaser, released on Wednesday night has received more than one lakh likes on Rai Bachchan’s Instagram account. With striking green eyes, a strong red pout and severe updo, Rai Bachchan looks quite convincing as Maleficent in her latest post, which has received a lot of appreciation already.

Commenting about the association with Rai Bachchan voice for the Hindi version of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Diney India’s Bikram Duggal mentioned, “Looking at how Angelina Jolie fits Maleficent’s role down to the letter, it was hard to imagine anyone else essaying the character other than Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for our local audience. We wanted to build a strong connect and bring her character to life in Hindi and felt Rai Bachchan’s persona, which is filled with elegance and poise, would be a perfect blend.”

The sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which releases on 18 October, follows few years later after the incidents of the 2014 original movie. Based on the classic fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, the sequel has been directed by Joachin Rønning and stars Ed Skrein, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Robert Lindsay, Harris Dickinson, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville.

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FREDRIKSTAD ANIMATION FESTIVAL TRAILER

Sri Lanka declares esport as an official sport

The Sri Lanka ministry of sports has declared esport as an official sport in the country. The declaration was made on 26 September by minister of telecommunication and sports, Harin Fernando. With the official announcement, Sri Lanka became the first South Asian country to recognise esports, joining the list which includes France and South Korea.

With esports as a demonstration sport in the Asian Games, The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) endorsed it, encouraging its inclusion as an official sport in the country.

The decision was officially passed under section 28 of the Sports Act No. 25 of 1973 of the national assembly, and hopefully the move will certainly act as catalyst for other countries. Esports has been a significant factor in the video game industry, with many game developers actively designing a professional esports subculture.

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Submarine appoints APC Kids as global partner on ‘Huggleboo’

Submarine, the multi-disciplinary production company based in Amsterdam, has appointed leading children’s entertainment company APC Kids as the global distribution partner on its new pre-school animated series Huggleboo which is commissioned by Dutch broadcaster KRO NCRV and Belgian channel Ketnet and co-produced with Dutch independent producer BosBros. APC Kids has already secured the first sale for the series 26 x 7’ series with HOP! In Israel with launch planned for 2020.

Currently in post-production with delivery due by the end of September 2019, Huggleboo is a hybrid 2D animated series with cut-out animation techniques and photo-realistic images. Submarine co-founder and managing director Bruno Felix  said, “We already have a successful relationship with APC Kids on Fox & Hare and we are excited to expand on this with Huggleboo – we look forward to rolling out the TV series and consumer products programme globally.”

Huggleboo is a wayward little girl experiencing small adventures in and around her house, where she lives with her parents and her newborn baby sister Elisabeth, but also in her garden and at her grandparent’s farm.

Together with her doll Fluffy, she explores her little world, finding simple things that seem ordinary to us but are very special and exciting to her: from playing hide and seek to turning her room into a princess palace, from discovering a shed being built behind the rhododendrons to finding a beautiful butterfly in the grass.

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Vidnet 2019 : A success story looking at all the aspects of OTT industry

Organised by Indiantelevision dot com, the fourth edition of Vidnet was a successful one that quite aptly looked into the golden era of Indian entertainment. The first day of the two-day-long video and content conclave, Vidnet saw noted names from the digital video industry coming together and highlighting the challenges and opportunities that the space is dealing with right now.

Anil Wanvari

The summit on 3 October at Sahara Star, Mumbai, hosted a number of panel discussions and fireside chats to present an in depth image of the functioning of the video ecosystem, parallely in ‘Creator’s Track’ and ‘Business and Tech Track’. The day began with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari addressing the audience, with a succinct report of the challenges and prospects that the current OTT ecosystem is facing. ranging from getting users to subscribe to preventing piracy. He urged those present in the audience to work on more massy content to create and support robust businesses for the future.

The ‘Business and Tech Track’ saw some important panel discussions throughout the day besides few fireside chats and presentations. The first panel ‘Making Indian Entertainment Great’, highlighted on some of the constraints that shroud the video industry, ranging from the technological to the artistic aspects of the business. Gracing the panel were Zee5 India head-AVOD, SEO, news & stories Yogesh Manwani, Sony Pictures Networks India business head-digital Uday Sodhi, Viacom18 business head-digital AVOD ventures Akash Banerji, Viu India country head Vishal Maheshwari, Balaji Telefilms group COO and Alt Balaji CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya, HOOQ India and managing director Zulfiqar Khan. The session was moderated by Nepa India’s managing director Esha Nagar.

Maheshwari opined, “The future is looking very exciting due to the penetration of smartphones and cheaper data. We’re going to see more and more opportunities and challenges in the future.”

Khan revealed that his company is shifting focus to more AI-led content and ventures, hoping to be the first platform to have fully machine-dubbed localisation of content.

Banerjee noted, “OTT has become mainstream now. It is not only for metros and males. It is now targeted at regional audience, it is also for women. “When you are looking at segmentation of consumer, look at how many of them are new vs repeat. To be able to drive value from each of these sets of content, what should be your strategy in terms of content & tech; will help you drive higher value.”

Following this was a presentation by Think Analytics SVP Richard Dowling on “The Power of Personalised Search and Recommendations.” Dowling shared a few case studies from his firm as he talked about how personalised content can help in gathering better audience.

Next on the list was another panel discussion on ‘Captive Audience of the Telecom Trace’ between ZEE5 Global chief business officer Archana Anand, IndiaCast Media Distribution group CEO Anuj Gandhi, Apalya Technologies founder and CEO Vamshi Reddy, Lionsgate MD south asia Rohit Jain, Shemaroo Entertainment COO digital Zubin Dubash, and Hungama Digital COO Siddhartha Roy, moderated by Elara Capital VP – research analyst (media) Karan Taurani.

The panel unanimously agreed that getting associated with telcos can help OTT platforms in getting more audience, however, the challenge of who owns the consumer will remain for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t believe there is a better platform than telcos. Direct carrier billings allow the consumers to stay confident. It also allows us the marketing might. They really help us find our audiences,” Anand said.

Reddy also noted, “Telcos bring in a universal and seamless experience across content. The consumer doesn’t have to go to 10 platforms and enjoy the experience. Eventually it should evolve into a payment mechanism.”

Zubin Dubash noted that this association between platforms and telcos is going to go on as the core of this partnership for telcos is not to own the content but to increase the guzzling of mobile data. Said he,”Telco does have a lot of traction because they are driving the numbers. We are seeing a lot of sampling and consumption of our content happening on telco platforms. This is one service that pushes platform loyalty.”

After this session, NAGRA product line management director Diroshan Ratnarajah gave an interesting presentation on “Combating OTT Streaming Piracy”. He outlined some pressing and pertinent problems that exist in the online video space, which can impact the monetisation as well as content discovery process on streaming platforms.

He highlighted that fighting piracy will require a joint effort from all the players in the industry and development of robust, scalable, and high-performance security platforms.

The proceedings of the day were taken forward by a panel of ZEE5 India head technology Tushar Vohra, Hoichoi TV technology head Aloke Majumder, ErosNow CTO Lokesh Chauhan, NAGRA product line management director Diroshan Ratnarajah, and MX Player chief of product, tech and operations Vivek Jain, moderated by Castle Media CEO Ru Ediriwira.

They discussed about ‘The Challenge of Content Protection’ in the new age media scenario. The panel agreed that there is a need for the whole ecosystem to come together to fight the menace of piracy as it might only increase with robust changes happening in the system. They also talked about the importance of fingerprinting of content.

Vohra said, “We need to get together because the lines are really blurring. As now there are new business models, content producers are being paid on the basis of number of streams and number of minutes watched. Fingerprinting is extremely important. It makes it easy to find the source of the piracy. It can help us identify which user is trying to pirate a piece of content.”

Jain insisted that enforcement of piracy laws in India needs improvement so that not only can pirated content be identified easily but also pulled down immediately.

Post-lunch, fireside chat between Wanvari and Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gourav Rakshit found the duo discussing how the nature of the content in India is evolving with the changing audience sensibilities. “The nature of content we are going to produce and put on these platforms is going to be transformed based on the sensibilities of the user,” added he. “Every platform needs to have certain centrality in content. Even for Voot Kids, we are looking to engage and not replace education.” 

The following panel discussion on ‘Fine-tuning Models of Monetisation and Consumer Engagement’. The panel consisted of Vimmi co-founder and co-CEO Eitan Koter, ALTBalaji SVP and head marketing Divya Dixit, Google industry head-media and entertainment Sandeep Ramesh, MX Player SVP and revenue head Virat Jit Singh, Merkle Sokrati SVP Sampath Rengacheri, and myNK co-founder Deepak Jayaram, along with moderator by PwC India partner and advisory leader entertainment, media, and sports Raman Kalra.

The panel discussed the different opportunities and challenges that AVOD and SVOD mode of subscriptions come with and what role does technology, content, and telcos play in the system. This panel also indicated that a massy approach to content generation will help in driving better revenues. “It is going to be a very vibrant OTT space in India like TV. There isn’t going to be a winner-takes-all scenario,” mentioned Ramesh.

Next in line was a fireside chat between Amazon Prime Video head of India originals Aparna Purohit and moderator The Linus Adventures founder and chief evangelist Sunil Lulla who talked about how Amazon Prime India is working towards improving content on the platform.

Purohit shared that it is the best time for writers as well as actors and directors to be in the industry as not just Prime but all other platforms are looking for good stories to be told. It was followed by a short Q&A session with the cast of MX Original series, produced by Applause, Hello Mini—Gaurav Chopra and Anuja Joshi. The duo not only talked about the show but also unveiled its official trailer.

“I am always chasing good stories. Stories that will travel the world but are really deeply rooted in our soil. “In addition to Hindi content, we are now developing content in 10 different languages. For us, everything is customer backward,” quoted Purohit.

The day ended with a screening of The Hitler Chronicles: Blueprint for Dictators, The Bisexuals, which were first telecast on Hulu, by myNK co-founder Deepak Jayaram.

Parallely in the ‘Creators Track’, some of the finest creators, writers, and directors from the OTT spoke on many important topics like how to write good stories and how to make them travel beyond national boundaries.

Wanvari in his opening remarks said, “India’s video ecosystem had never been so exciting in the last two decades. Similar excitement was seen during the satellite boom period in the early 90s. With OTT today, a similar phenomenon is happening where lot of Bollywood professionals are making content for OTT just as how the industry created content for satellite channels . I believe that the content boom has still not hit India and we are at the beginning of content boom on OTT platforms. With OTT coming into the picture, there will be more opportunities for content creators in our country.”

The first panel discussion of the day was around “Unlocking a Story’s Potential” between Zee Studio Originals VP creative and head Ashima Avasthi, MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar, BBC Studios business head Sameer Gogate and Vista India CEO Rajiv Raghunathan. The session was moderated by Bodhitree Multimedia co-founder and director Mautik Tolia.

Discussing the importance of localisation, synopses, subtitling, dubbing, and visuals in helping subscribers discover and enjoy stories they love, the panel emphasised on ways to aggregate content on OTT.

Raghunathan said, “OTT is the most exciting thing that happened to us. The platforms are evolving every day. Some OTT players have identified certain niche segment which is working well for them while other players are still figuring out what will work for them.”

Avasthi noted that there can’t be a better time for content makers than today. Sharing her strategy for the OTT platform she said, “The mantra is to look into the stories and develop something which has strong character. The stories or content does well is only because of the character. Audiences tend to forget story or plot of the show but they remember the characters which they like. So, we focus on stories which are very character-centric. Even on OTT, the advantage is that we are able to bring our created characters to the larger audience.”

The panelists also spoke about the initiatives taken by them towards localised content. They discussed how, with OTT, catering to specific TG has become easy and focused. They also informed that acceptance of fiction format has also taken up in our country via OTT platforms.

Following this panel discussion, “Empowering the Creative Vision” had Friday Filmworks head-digital content and IP Devendra Deshpande, Yoodlee Films producer and Saregama India VP films and TV Siddharth Anand Kumar, and Ellipses Entertainment managing partner Tanuj Garg, in discussion with moderator Film Companion’s Sucharita Tyagi, discussing how streaming platforms are backing storytellers in translating their vision on the screen. They elaborated on the key role the platforms play in identifying and promoting content that resonates with the audience.

“The New Creators’ Breed” panel between TVF global head-business and content Rahul Sarangi, Swastik Productions and One Life Studios producer and managing director Rahul Kumar Tewary, BToS Productions partner and independent director Angshuman Ghosh, Monozygotic Solutions co-founder Rajiv Laxman, WPP national business head-motion content group India, and Rose Audio Visuals director Goldie Behl, moderated by WWM Content Studio VP Vidyut Patra. The panelists shared their thoughts on how the new-age creators are transforming the way Indian audiences consume content.

They elaborated that OTT platforms are chasing content creators for two reasons; one is to acquire and retain users on their platforms in the best way through content, and secondly, there are no such parameters to measure success on the platform and that is the reason why they invest so much money. They also understood that due to the geographical and demographic masses of the country the platforms are willing to go to much length for finding the new creators.

The panelists agreed that this is the best time for the content creators, as now they can try whatever they want. The story and storytelling is what makes the difference and long-form content survive time.

This session was followed by an insightful panel discussion on “Making Indian Stories Travel”, in which the speakers talked about the processes—both creative and technical—which can take

Indian content to foreign screens. Sitting on the panel were MUBI India content advisor and producer Guneet Monga, creator, director, and writer Richie Mehta, and Red Chillies Entertainment producer and chief revenue officer Gaurav Verma. The discussion was moderated by BookMyShow VP content and strategy Monisha Singh Katial.

To make Indian content travel around the world, the panelists said that subtitles and dubbing of the content in different languages is important. Apart from this, they also noted that appealing stories and subjects play an important role in reaching to the wider audiences across the world. The panelists agreed that the only way to dazzle audiences on OTT platform is through content and script.

The proceedings of the day were taken ahead by a fascinating panel discussion on the topic of “Redefining Storytelling with Technology” between Endemol Shine India CEO Abhishek Rege, SonyLIV SVP and head-original content and partnerships Amogh Dusad, and Monozygotic Solutions co-founder Raghu Ram. Moderating the panel was TVFPlay head Vinay Pillai.

The moderator began the discussion by giving a background on how technologies are helping content to evolve. The panel gave an understanding that technology has helped in two ways, one is in the making of content and the other is in translating that content to the consumers. The panelists also informed that technology has not influenced the way of storytelling but it has definitely influenced the way content is consumed.

The discussion was followed by a “Deep Dive with Pocket Aces” on how to build and run a successful media tech company between Pocket Aces founders Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita, and moderator Hungama Digital Media Entertainment VP Soumini Sridhara Paul. The founders of the company threw light on the inception of the company in 2014 and its journey.

They shared their experience of early days’ challenges faced by startups. The day continued post-lunch with a panel discussion on the very interesting topic of “Creating Binge-worthy Content”. On the panel were MX Player CEO Karan Bedi, House of Cheer founder and CEO Raj Nayak, Vikatan Group managing director B Srinivasan, and Viniyard Films founder Ashvini Yardi. Moderating the panel was Wanvari.

The panelists shared their individual perspectives on what makes content binge-worthy. The panelists said that it is important to hook the audiences for the first five minutes, and last seven minutes. They also informed that efforts to hook the audience on AVoD are more than SVoD as the former has more migrating audiences.

Next item on the list was a panel discussion on “India’s New-age Writers” between writers Ameya Sarda, Suhani Kanwar, Sagar Haveli, and moderator Tulsea content & creatives Samabesh Das. The panelists being the first generation writers of this golden age of OTT platforms find themselves being bogged down by the huge responsibility that comes with being a content creator.

The trio also believes that on OTT there is a challenge to create content in more interesting and better ways to hook the audience. Another challenge which they highlighted is to execute the demands coming every now and then.

Next in line was, Afsos co-creators Anirban Dasgupta and Dibya Chatterjee in conversation with OML managing partner Gunjan Arya, who shared their experience from being writers to show-runners.

The day was concluded by Bard Of Blood author and creator Bilal Siddiqi and director Ribhu Dasgupta talking about creating this exquisite thriller with The Story Ink founder and chief storyteller Sidharth Jain. The duo shared their experience on making of show for the first time on the OTT platform. Bard of Blood is Red Chillies’ first show for Netflix while Emran Hashmi and Dasgupta debut on OTT platform as an actor and director respectively.

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The second edition of IndiaJoy Festival 2019 is back and promises to be grand

IndiaJoy Festival 2019, the largest congregation of gaming, animation, VFX, esports and entertainment Events In India is back with its second edition, from 20 to 23 November 2019 at HICC Hyderabad.

India Joy festival is organised by the Telangana Visual Effects Animation and Gaming Association (TVAGA) with the support of the Government of Telangana and Software Technology Parks of India.

“Hyderabad has witnessed tremendous growth and dynamism in the media and digital industry sector in the last few years and has far outperformed all other sectors. At this juncture giving a bigger push to the sector by organising a mega event like IndiaJoy makes a lot of strategic sense for the government. The government continues to extend crucial support to the sector keeping in view the huge growth potential. We expect more inward investments, more interest among the people to take up a career in the sector, and the emergence of a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem,”  said Govt of Telangana ITE & C department Principle secretary Jayesh Ranjan.

After a successful first edition, IndiaJoy Festival is returning with exclusive events in gaming, animation, VFX, esports and entertainment promising a bigger and grander experience for all stakeholders of the Industry.

“It’s wonderful to see how the creative industries are developing in India. There is so much talent down here that it’s untapped on the broader world stage. We are committed to support and enrich IndiaJoy Festival and make it a global annual event happening in Telangana,” expressed TVAGA president and Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka.

This year IndiaJoy is a weekday knowledge gaining event, will be packed with enlightening speaker sessions, exhibitions, workshops, contests, and networking sessions which will the help community of enthusiasts, professionals, stalwarts and students to know better about the industry and the business prospects.

The festival held in the Hyderabad city last year and is a great platform for industry veterans, production houses, animation, visuals and gaming-savvy students and professionals, fetching participants from all across the globe, to showcase the diversity of best talent, content and projects.

The elaborate line-up of collaborated events of IndiaJoy Festival 2019 are as follows:

• The India Game Developers Conference (22 and 23 Nov) -India’s premier Game Development Conclave
• NODWIN Esports Arena – India’s Premiere esports event
• Indywood Film Carnival
• DesiToons – Celebrating Indian Animation
• VFX Summit – Celebrating Indian VFX
• Influencer Con
• OTT Pulse – OTT platform connects with Indian content developers
• IndiaJoy Music Fest – Indie music evenings
• Association of Designers of India (ADI)
• And other Invite-only events by top software developers

IndiaJoy festival bringing together standalone media and entertainment events under one roof with delegates from more than 50 countries to explore investments, co-production, Indian market potential. This time it’s going even bigger and grander with the new addition of VFX Summit, a celebration of Indian Animation with DesiToons, OTT pulse where OTT platform connects with Indian content developers along with Association of Designers summit.

Stay tuned for the grander conglomeration of speakers, investors, artists, conferences and more at Hyderabad IndiaJoy Festival 2019. Registration to the event are now open https://www.indiajoy.in/

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Xfinity ~ Music

Gaming platform Wormhole gaining popularity among influencers and streamers at TwitchCon 2019

Wormhole, a scale social technology platform that merges the real world with the virtual world, received a massive amount of sign ups from Twitch partners, affiliated streamers, and fans alike at TwitchCon 2019.

For the first time ever, people can experience enhanced teleporting throughout the world like you are actually there and walking around – to socialise, interact with their favourite streamer, play games, crowdsource and shop. Known as Wormholing, this is made possible by a patented platform that combines commerce-enabled XR, Search and Stitch-able Streaming.

Streamers and attendees at TwitchCon noted that Wormhole is “like Ready Player One coming to real life.”

“Being able to stay home and go to other locations from the comfort of my bedroom is exciting, especially as a person who already travels quite a bit. I also think that being able to see the live streams of the avatars will help with discoverability, which is so important to growing on the platform.” -D1 (@xD1x)

“The fact that you can be anywhere you want, and with your friends, is really cool.” -Classify

Alongside D1 and Classify, Streamers and Social Media Influencers signing up with the platform included OMGitsfirefoxx, Disguised Toast, and Sleightlymusical, EE, Chloe Lockley (ChloeLock), WantedOW, Pettans, Tocata, Bryce Hutchinson (ItsBrycehutch), Amouranth, Rizzoh & VGBootCamp.

Wormhole enables streamers to engage and monetize their brand and communities more easily. Streamers can create customised 3D Spatial Environments, known as Clubhouses, that fans and friends can hang out in as custom avatars, as well as purchase exclusive skins and merch, even when they are not streaming.

Created by Wormhole Labs, the technology has been in Beta in 108 countries and is designed to be a platform that builds community and gives streamers and their fans a more immersive and intimate social experience.

Founder and CEO Curtis Hutten shared, “The response has been phenomenal from the community. People from across the globe see the potential of how Wormholing can empower streamers and content creators and create a new level of intimacy, immersion and interaction for all levels of gamers.”

Co-chairman Rowland Hanson, an early marketing executive at Microsoft who named Windows, and oversaw its branding and launch, believes the technology platform is the solution for the future of the gaming industry. “Wormhole™ consolidates XR, Search, and Immersive Commerce all into a single platform, and combines it with a social experience. The application of the Wormhole™ technology is endless and I believe this has the power to be bigger than Windows.”

The platform is currently onboarding partners via signing up Streamers and Social Media Influencers, and they will be able to onboard their followers on Android, iOS, Windows and MacOS.

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FitXR: 58 per cent of gamers play ‘social’ video games

FitXR, a virtual reality (VR) fitness games,  announced survey results offering deep insights into the videogame industry. Executed in collaboration with Propeller Insights, the survey polled more than 1,100 consumers in the U.S. about their gaming hardware and applications, usage habits, playing time, preferences for social gaming, and interest in gaming-related fitness.

In terms of gaming hardware and its use, more than half of respondents (56 per cent) said they play video games, with 21 per cent of those surveyed owning a VR headset. Among those who own VR headsets, 83 per cent said they use them to play video games. Behind gaming, the second most popular use of VR headsets was watching TV and movies (21 per cent), illustrating the growing presence of this technology in the entertainment space. Using VR headsets for exercise was the third most popular use of the technology (14 per cent).

“The survey results align closely with what we’re seeing in the gaming space and with what our players tell us. As the data projects, the next wave of gaming is trending toward technologies like VR to drive new applications and provide experiences that integrate with other aspects of people’s lives, such as making new friends and integrating fitness into gaming routines. We’re excited because the future is so wide open for technology to make gaming much more than a solitary, sedentary and 2D activity,” observed FitXR co-founder  Sameer Baroova.

Gaming usage habits were also explored. Of the respondents who reported playing video games, more than half (51 per cent) reported playing at least a few hours a day, with a subset of that group playing eight hours a day or longer. Specifically:

 

49 per cent reported playing “a few hours a week”
32 per cent reported playing “a few hours a day”
11 per cent reported playing between “four and eight hours a day”
6 per cent reported playing “more than eight hours a day”
1 per cent reported playing “all day”

Social gaming
Social gaming also proved popular, with 58 per cent reporting that they play social video games that allow them to compete with their friends, family and online acquaintances. In fact, 56 per cent of respondents said that they’ve “met and made new friends while playing a video game,” with 23 per cent reporting that they made one to two new friends, 42 per cent reporting that they made three to five new friends, and 35 per cent saying that they have made six or more new friends while playing video games. Some 55 per cent of respondents says they have met those friends in real life.

Recognizing the need for fitness

Amidst all of the time spent gaming, there is a recognition that fitness – and short fitness breaks – would be welcomed by gamers to combat the sedentary aspects of their hobby. When asked about short one- to two-minute “fitness breaks” during long gaming sessions, a total of 59 per cent of respondents said that they would either “love the idea” or “it would be a good way to reset and get my body moving.” Conversely, 22 per cent of gamers indicated that they “work out on my own time, so I wouldn’t need this.”

Gaming trade-offs
The survey also explored what gamers would be willing to give up other than their “gaming time.” And, while 22% wouldn’t give up anything, some of the trade-offs that people were willing to make included:

24 per cent would give up their Amazon Prime subscription
29 per cent would give up their morning smoothie or juice
31 per cent would give up podcasts
34 per cent would give up a food delivery, such as Caviar, Seamless or Uber Eats
37 per cent would give up beer or wine

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How animation has evolved in the last century

We have certainly come a long way from our rock painting days in prehistoric times, yet, that is the birthplace of modern-day graphics and animation. The crudely sketched monochrome images of our ancestors illustrate the significance of recreating the images that have made an impression on us, and the way in which those pictures can convey a message, later became a turning point – giving us insights into the lives of previous civilisations, like that of ancient Egypt through studying their hieroglyphs.

Today, we have the means to create complex and colorful static images as well as moving graphics. With the variety of skills brought to the industry by various artists, as well as the wide range of tools made available to us, the way in which we illustrate has evolved to suit the various industries and purposes served by animation.

The evolution of animation and graphics in films

While Disney may have claimed the spot for being the best-known animated film producer,  many other names have become prominent, bringing a new look to the screen. When you look at the way in which the creators of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was painstakingly hand-drawn, sequence by sequence, the emergence of CGI was a true blessing. In fact, it came at just the right time.

Cue SFX and CGI

As attention spans began to decrease, and the need for faster, brighter, more action-packed sequences began to rise, computer-generated images were ready to step in. In 1973, the sci-fi, Westworld, was the first to use CGI effects and blend them into real-time film. They had to color-separate each frame which was then pixelated before being edited and converted back to achieve the iconic scene.

16 years later, the first emulated water effects were used in the film The Abyss, in 1989. In 1993 Jurassic Park, debuted similar groundbreaking effects, this time crafting a whole horde of prehistoric beasts. James Cameron’s Titanic in 1997 used over 500 visual effects, with the film undoubtedly being ocean’s away from Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie, 69 years previous. From there, CGI has simply grown and improved, creating visual effects we could never have dreamed of, even a decade ago.

The improvements in gaming animations

The gaming industry, on the other hand, uses real-time computer graphics (also known as real-time rendering) primarily, as a subcategory of CGI. Video games use CGI occasionally when they include pre-cut scenes or cinematic introductions. Real-time computer graphics enable the software to evaluate the images and manipulate them in real-time, giving players control over their characters.

Online casino games like Video Slots, have vastly improved their graphics, and have partnered up with major names in Hollywood to improve and further the capabilities animation used in online slots, giving gamers a far more immersive effect. Examples include major cinema blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises, The Incredible Hulk, Castle Builder, and Avalon 2. The idea was to create lifelike sequences that has the player enjoying a similar quality experience they’d get from watching the film. It’s fascinating to observe the leaps made, even in this fragment of the entertainment industry, and illustrates our inherent fascination with alternative realities.

All-in-all, the world of animation and graphics is becoming ever-more realistic. As in art, there are new styles constantly emerging and artists continue to experiment with artistic techniques, other than just aiming for hyper-realism.

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