Nov
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Nov
12
Disney+, which launches today will have a lot of new shows and movies to stream. A handful of the new shows will be available immediately including High School the Musical the Musical the Series, Forky Asks a Question, The Imagineering Story, Encore!, and highly the anticipated The Mandalorian.
Written and helmed by Jon Favreau, who directed Disney’s wildly successful remakes of The Jungle Book and The Lion King, The Mandalorian brings together a constellation of stars from within and beyond the legendary franchise.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which follows a group of high school students as they put on a production of High School Musical, will preview today on the launch of Disney+.
Disney+ is developing a series based on the 2018 teen comedy-drama Love Simon. The series will reportedly follow a different closeted gay high school boy.
Forky from Pixar’s Toy Story 4 will explore various existential questions in Forky Asks a Question, 10-part animated shorts series.
SparkShorts, similar to ShortCircuit, where select Pixar employees are given six months and a limited budget to create their own unique shorts. It’s a way to find new voices and new techniques from within the studio talent pool.
Non-fiction and documentary series debuting today include: The Imagineering Story, Encore!, The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
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Nov
12
Who doesn’t love Scooby-Doo and gets all the more nostalgic about it?
Now one of the most popular and loved cartoons is being made into a 3D animated film, Scoob based on how Shaggy met Scooby-Doo. The film will also find how Shaggy Rogers, Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley and Daphne Blake started Mystery Inc.
Warner Bros has recently dropped the trailer of Scoob which gives a better idea about what to expect from it. The trailer starts with a conversation between Shaggy and Scooby as they take the audience and fans through the trailer itself.
The voice cast includes Will Forte as Shaggy, Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo, Zac Efron as Fred, Amanda Seyfried as Daphne and Gina Rodriguez as Velma, besides Kiersey Clemons, Ken Jeong and Tracy Morgan.
Directed by Tony Cervone, will hit the theatres on 15 May 2020.
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Nov
12
Fans are wondering when the next major update for the Call of Duty Mobile will release and whether it will include COD Mobile Zombies or not. Activision recently posted a community update on Reddit revealing that Zombies will finally be making its way to COD Mobile. Ever since the free-to-play FPS on mobile launched back in October, players have been awaiting the arrival of the classic COD mode, and while no solid release date has been set just yet, Activision said it will be coming “before you know it.”
According to the Call of Duty: Mobile – 8 November Community Update, the mode will be out “before you know it”. The post also mentions that the social media channels of Call of Duty: Mobile will be pushing out teasers of the mode soon.
“Look to our social media channels as we prepare to show Zombies to the world! We share plenty through these Community Updates, but our social media channels have screenshots, videos, and more to share that you may not see here. As we get further into November, we eagerly wait to share more information with you all about upcoming events, whether it is modes, challenges, new gear or skins, gameplay changes, or additions.”
In addition, controller support is also set to be released soon, with the studio stating it’s just finalising the specifics of how it will work in-game with regards to matchmaking. Using a controller could well give players an advantage over people stuck with just their thumbs, so it’s a crucial consideration.
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Nov
12
DC Universe and Warner Bros. Television announced today that it has renewed the streaming series based on DC Comics’ Teen Titans. Titans premiered in 2018 as the first DC Universe original series and the new season will debut in fall 2020.
In the second season, the titular heroes – Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), Rachel Roth aka Raven (Teagan Croft), Kory Anders aka Starfire (Anna Diop), Gar Logan aka Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), Hank Hall and Dawn Granger aka Hawk (Alan Ritchson) and Dove (Minka Kelly), Donna Troy aka Wonder Girl (Conor Leslie), and Jason Todd aka Robin (Curran Walters) – are learning to co-exist as a new team while facing their toughest enemy yet, the deadly assassin Deathstroke (Esai Morales), who threatens to tear this new Titans family apart once more.
Titans is produced by Weed Road Pictures and Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The series was developed by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti, based on characters from DC. Goldsman, Johns, Berlanti are also the executive producers alongwith Greg Walker, and Sarah Schechter.
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Nov
12
VRstudios announces the launch of VR multiplayer game ‘Terminator: Guardian of Fate’
Posted in: AnimationVRstudios has announced the latest exclusive experience for Dave & Buster’s proprietary multiplayer virtual reality simulator – Terminator: Guardian of Fate. The intense, action-packed interactive experience featuring the incredible talents of Linda Hamilton voicing Sarah Connor, is now available to play nationwide, thrusting players into the middle of the action on a heart-pounding, treacherous rescue mission alongside Sarah Connor, and putting them face-to-face with the deadliest Terminator yet.
Protect the target at all costs! When a Terminator arrives in their local town, players must spring into action alongside Sarah Connor and her team to stop the deadly Terminator from annihilating a target who will prove invaluable to the future of the Resistance. Players must outrun and outwit the Terminator to ensure the target and her work escape safely. Sarah Connor guides players every step of the way as they fight through a zombie-style shootout with the Terminator who will stop at nothing to attack the players’ vehicle while causing tons of destruction in its wake, and finally culminating in a showdown of epic proportions!
Players will never have the same experience twice as another chapter of the game will be out soon that will add multiple endings and more terrifying surprises! This is all combined with other elements of variability including subtle differences in gameplay. Terminator: Guardian of Fate features iconic characters Sarah Connor and the Terminator, along with some new characters that were created to support this original narrative. There are also four randomised player avatars and players will be able to use a variety of weapons against the Terminator through a series of weapon upgrades within the game.
“We have really created something very special with Terminator: Guardian of Fate. This is an all-out adrenaline-fueled interactive experience that is a roller coaster of intensity. The Terminator is the ultimate movie monster and just when players think they have destroyed it, it comes back! The action is so relentless that you will barely have time to catch your breath” said VRstudios’ vice president of creative development Chanel Summers.
VRstudios has teamed up again with development partner Strange Reptile, after working together to build the successful titles — Star Trek: Dark Remnant and Men in Black: Galactic Getaway for Dave & Buster’s. Together the companies have brought to life the terrifying, fast-paced action of the Terminator experience for all to enjoy. Terminator: Guardian of Fate leverages both VRstudios’ and Strange Reptile’s years of work in Location-Based Virtual Reality, including VRstudios’ deep understanding of the Dave & Buster’s simulator. Building on a very successful initial nationwide deployment in June 2018, VRstudios’ VRcade Attraction Management Platform (AMP) now manages and operates 143 individual simulators, each running five unique game titles, in Dave & Buster’s locations across North America.
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Nov
12
Animation design for mobile devices
Posted in: Animation
Before using an application, the user needs to understand how it works. This can be done with the use of good design and animation which, if done right, can provide the user with a pleasant experience while learning how to use it as well as navigate it. Each interactive feature of a mobile phone comes with an animation attached to it. Whether the animation is minimal or complex, it can provide a great deal of feedback and a smoother interactivity experience to the end-user. Animation can help guide the user, this element transforms the animation from just a decorative feature to a practical one as well.
User control and visual feedback
All animation should be able to provide some sort of feedback to inform the user if the action has been registered. Animations need to provide the user with a sense of control and to do this, animations are created in a way that would mimic a person interacting with objects in the real world. Animators need to consider aspects found in real life to include when creating the animation such as physics, sound, and responsiveness. To make animations appear to have a more natural movement and interactivity, real-life physics should be included in the animation whenever possible, together with smooth changes and maintaining momentum during the transition. This is to somewhat combat the lack of feedback that people used to get when pressing real buttons. While pressing a button, users could feel resistance to that button and even a subtle sound. With touchscreens, this is no longer the case and so, much emphasis has been put on animation feedback.
A normal animation needs the only duration, it begins and ends after a set amount of time, every time. It consists of a start value, end value and an interloper. No external force can be used to interact with the animation and nothing can impact its progression. In contrast, physics-based animations such as spring animation and fling animation are governed by force. Playing Pool on mobile, we can see this animation working. The player decides how much force to apply to the animation by how much the cue is being drawn after which is instantly released.
Familiar visual feedback would be the swipe animation. If the swipe action is done fast, the images quickly switch to the next one, however, when swiped very slowly, the images move sideways at the same speed as the swipe action. The loading animation is another great example. It tells the user that the application is working, however, but before using it, it has to first load its contents. There are many times when an animation accompanies the loading process to make it less boring such as a moving illustration. This can especially be seen in gaming apps. Checking and un-checking functions such as turning on WiFi adds color to the previously gray button telling the user that the function is now active.
Having so many options and ways to create animations, it is easy for a designer to go overboard. This is maintaining a good balance between functionality and creative design so that it does not distract the user from using the application for what it was built for. Overuse of animations, especially long ones can lead to the user’s frustration if the application is used regularly. Having the same long animation play out a few times tends to get boring and irritating, therefore, animation should be used in ways and places where it makes sense and does not impede the user in any way.
Google and material design
When designing animations for a mobile phone or application, an important thing is to consider the current landscape of mobile design. Using material design as the base for animations is a great first step. Google has come up with material design back in 2014 that emphasises good interface design. The design philosophy is based on the idea to mimic real-world objects and materials, textures and physics to be used when designing and animating icons and an interface, be it an application or a website. Featured here is also the idea of material design animation, an example described above would be the physics-based animation to mimic how objects work in the real world. The language was developed further in 2018 to provide designers with more flexibility to create complex and creative geometry, colors, topography. The language suggests that all components of the interface should be consistent in their design as well as animation and developed to allow fully gradual user flow.
After the material design language has been released to the public, it has been embraced by many designers, with many loving the idea saying that the language seems very cohesive and thoughtful with the motion design aspect serving a major role in the core idea of material design. The animation offered by Google in material is all done realistically, each of them being consistent and with good timing. The mobile version of a web interface should be designed in such a way to not lose sight of the core elements. Many online casino websites, for example, have been able to take this into consideration s that navigating their website on mobile remains easy and the casino games themselves are in full view of the user. Traditional desktop sites only are out of the question as much more emphasis is being put on mobile with cross-platform support on multiple devices.
Casino websites have been around for many years, since the early days of the internet and have been quick to adapt to the constantly-changing technology. This included adapting their websites to mobile. The same principles apply to casino websites as well, designing it to comfortably fit the screen of the device and some functional animations to the interface to guide the player. All in all, the main purpose of good animations is to provide a sense of personality and functionality to the end-user, making them feel in control of their actions and providing pleasant feedback while using the application or navigating the website. It is used for either helping or informing the user about a process while at the same time guiding them and drawing their attention to the important features.
The post Animation design for mobile devices appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Nov
12
Viacom18, is all set to expand its digital ecosystem with the launch of its first subscription play – VOOT Kids. Leading kids’ content on broadcast, Viacom18 now extends its thought leadership with a unique digital service for kids, which creates a seamless experience for both fun and learning in a safe, parentally controlled environment.
Certified by Early Childhood Association (ECA), VOOT Kids is India’s first and only multi-format Kids app offering Fun and Learning, with its largest and most versatile collection of over 20,000 videos, e-books, stories and quizzes, aims to usher in the next evolution in the kid’s digital ecosystem. Priced at Rs 799 for a year and 99 per month with Free Trials in both packages, the VOOT Kids app is available to download on iOS and Play Store.
“Viacom18 has grown over the years by focussing on white spaces that are challenging and yet have tremendous potential. As a network, we have been the undisputed leader in kids’ entertainment content since the past 5 years. Our digital play VOOT is the second largest video-on-demand platform in the country today.VOOT Kids is a synergy of these two growth stories from the house of Viacom18. Marking our sharper segmented foray into the world of subscription-based VoD, VOOT Kids is India’s first and only multi-format Kids app offering fun and learning. No other kids app offers Watch, Read, listen and learn all at one place,” said Viacom18 Group CEO and MD Sudhanshu Vats.
With a mission to make screen time meaningful for Kids, the app strikes a balance between fun learning and entertainment for kids between the age of 02 to 08 years. The app will achieve this by delivering a holistic experience focussed on viewing, reading, listening and playing all in one place. The app encompasses Kids’ favourite toons, best of pre-school and learning shows, beautifully crafted picture e-books, audio stories and fun quizzes and will empower parents with relevant and superior quality engagement options for their children. Behind this impressive content, the line-up is partnerships with best in class brand owners and leaders like Nickelodeon, Oxford University Press, Warner Media, Green Gold, Ceebeebies, TV Asahi, Sony Music, Hasbro, Mattel, Lego and many more.
Speaking about VOOT’s venture into the premium subscription space, Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gourav Rakshit, said, “The foray into the subscription space with VOOT Kids is the first step in our journey towards building an entire digital ecosystem under brand VOOT. VOOT Kids has been built on the 3 pillars of Product Experience, Content and Safety. In VOOT Kids, we are bringing an offering that is child-friendly, yet parent focussed and gives them an opportunity to bond with an immersive co-consumption experience. Our brand philosophy of ‘Masti Mein Acchai’ reflects our mission to make screen time meaningful.”
VOOT Kids is a key enabler that enhances the bond between parents and children through immersive co-consumption experiences. The curated ad-free content library has parental control features that allow parents to evaluate progress, limit screen time and track content consumed which makes VOOT Kids India’s safest one-stop online destination that entertains, engages and enriches kids, all under one roof.
Elaborating, VOOT Kids business head, Saugato Bhowmik said, “VOOT Kids is a category creating product in the space of digital fun learning that caters to needs of discerning Indian parents who seek meaningful screen-time that aids in holistic development of the child’s mental, emotional and social faculties. The app has the largest and most versatile offerings in the space of toon videos, e-books, audio stories and fun quizzes that provides children with a parent-controlled, safe and entertaining content destination. We believe masti(fun) should never be served up without acchai (good learning) and the same holds true the other way around. And this is our guiding philosophy at VOOT Kids.”
VOOT Kids will be Viacom18’s first-ever digital subscription service providing immersive content delivered through an elevated product experience and seamless gameplay. With this launch, VOOT Kids will bring alive the ‘Masti Main Acchai’ brand idea through a high decibel integrated marketing plan that will reach over 50 mn households driven by a mix of print, on-air, on-ground activations and digital outreach. Priced at Rs799 for a year with a 30 day free trial and 99 per month with a seven day free trial, the VOOT Kids app is available to download on iOs and Android.
The post Viacom18 launches multi-format kids app offering fun and learning – VOOT Kids appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Nov
12
Netflix recently dropped the first trailer (in Japanese) for the anime comedy Dino Girl Gauko. The 20 x 7’ series comes from Crayon Shin-chan creator/director Akira Shigino and producer Hitoshi Mogi.
Based in Japan, the series follows Naoko Watanabe — a typical 14-year old, except for her strange gift/curse. When her anger reaches a fever pitch, she transforms into Gauko the fire-breathing dinosaur girl.
A seemingly typical tween possesses a strange gift and curse — when her anger exceeds a maximum level, she turns into fire-breathing dinosaur girl Gauko.
Set to debut on 22 November 2019, Naoko introduces us to the other personalities that fill her “ordinary” home town, and we get a look at Gauko in action.
The post Netflix’s recent trailer of Dino Girl Gauko is adorable and fiery appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Nov
12
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has had its ups and downs. It was originally planned to release in theaters this November, but it was delayed after significant fan backlash. Sonic the Hedgehog fans were upset about Sonic’s new look for the movie, with the criticism loud enough to convince the filmmakers to go back to the drawing board. Now fans have gotten their first good look at Sonic’s new design for the upcoming film, thanks to a new trailer shared by director Jeff Fowler.
The trailer opens with Sonic going from his world to our world. While he starts out just by killing time (reading Flash comics, playing baseball and, uhh, karate), he’s eventually found by James Marsden’s character, Tom. The two embark on a road trip to escape the clutches of the fiendish Doctor Robotnik, played with all his ’90s comedic overblown might by Jim Carrey.
As for the Sonic redesign: it’s a little more cutesy and a lot less nightmare fuel. The teeth are still there to some extent, sure, but the wider eyes and more exaggerated features make it far more palatable.
In the meantime, other Sonic the Hedgehog fans may be more interested in a new main series game starring the blue blur, but it’s unclear when such a game will materialize. The last main series Sonic the Hedgehog games came out in 2017, and while Sega confirmed a new Sonic game is in development earlier this year, no further details have been released so far.
The post New ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie trailer reveals upgraded character’s redesign appeared first on AnimationXpress.
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