Hasta La Motion!

Based out of London, Seed Animation is a playful and quirky working space, passionate about character designing and of course animation. As almost the entire globe is in lockdown, the animation house came up with a project to poke fun at our new, personal routine. 

Titled Tales from Lockdown, the idea behind this project was to have fun animated clips from anybody across the globe, which we all can look back on and think how bizarre things got during this lockdown. Anyone and everyone can enter the contest.

Seed had been planning to run a new community project for a while, but life got in the way and the team was very busy in the beginning of the year. “When the pandemic really kicked in, we finally had a bit of time in our hands and the idea came straight away. The reason for being able to work on something fun was the lockdown, so it was obvious that the project would be built around that. The structure is based on our similar challenges we’ve done in the past,” mentioned Seed Animation new business and marketing Viki Bebok.

The studio is interested in knowing how our creative community is tackling situations during this time. Everyone’s situation is slightly different, and this provides a platform for everyone to share theirs.

The studio will share each individual animation (with the artists’ social handle and location) on the evolving Tales from Lockdown- Instagram page. Once they have everyone’s entries, they will choose a few clips to create a film showcasing a variety of disciplines. The studio will choose their favourite entry each week (from 20 April), which will be shared on Seed Animation’s social platforms with a short intro from the artist.

After the final deadline, the studio will release the showcase film on Seed Animation’s website and social media platforms. You can find details about the initiative on the official website of Seed Animation.

Bebok thinks great creativity can be born out of limitations, and this situation certainly provides that. “While the foot is off the gas we all have time to reflect, and it’s at these times when creativity can flow. Realising these thoughts is our tonic,” she concluded.

Talent heads out there, it’s time to show off your animation skills. And give the world something worthy to look back at after we get over this pandemic!

The post Tell your tales in this quirky lockdown animation project appeared first on AnimationXpress.

As lockdown continues and the government extends social distancing recommendations, the gaming industry has witnessed an inevitable surge in the way that video games are being consumed.

Since there are ample time for users thanks to lockdown, therefore users are getting more chances to explore new content. However, the increase in time spent is not easily monetised for the app and mobile web publishers. First, much of this increased time on platforms that aren’t heavily monetised by advertising.

In Italy, Facebook has seen traffic increase by 70 per cent, with a group calling increasing by 1000 per cent, Facebook Live and Instagram Live up 100 per cent and messaging up 50 per cent. None of those features can be monetised easily. More importantly, many advertisers don’t have the money now to buy additional impressions, which has depressed CPMs. Adomik, which lets publishers track their ad monetisation, released data recently that showed a 17.2 per cent drop in week-over-week ad revenues in the US between 10 March to 15 March and 17 March to 22 March. The biggest drops were in a direct deal and programmatic guaranteed, with real-time bidding dropping 15 per cent, followed by CPM dropping 14.8 per cent and mobile dropping 13.3 per cent. Likewise, the gaming apps have witnessed near about the same experience while at lockdown.

BombayPlay co-founder and CEO Oliver Jones

Taking example BombayPlay’s businesses receives 80 per cent of revenue from ads so they follow it quite closely. For now, they believe gaming is taking a step back of trends in general as they have witnessed games that have elements of human interaction those ones are winning right now which categorise to brands which are also winning. However, they believe if the game has the ability to connect people then there is a high chance of seeing a lot of organics probably growth in it. BombayPlay co-founder and CEO Oliver Jones shares that Ludo for an example is a great sort of format and people can just join the table and play with each other in a casual way and it has bond which is connecting the users for the game that’s what the consumer looking for .while people are staying indoors. With respect to CPI (cost per install)  and CPM (cost per mille) Jones shares at IGDC webinar“our games are made for America and Europe so spend a lot of acquisition over there and we have seen roughly 30 per cent decrease in the cost of install in the USA and Europe and CPM’s they also decrease the similar amount. But, if your game has an hour or two hours of sessions length right now you can definitely turn that is positive in your direction then math can work out for you, so that kind of trend we are seeing.”

Yozoo Games India CEO Anuj Tandon

Sharing the picture of the Indian Yozoo Games India CEO Anuj Tandon believes now is the best time for acquisition which includes India as well as abroad. In respect to  CPM and CPI, he shares during the webinar that “for casual games, we are seeing almost 50 per cent drop in CPI and correspondingly even eCPM (effective cost per mille) for ad dependent businesses. We are definitely seeing approximately 60 per cent drop on eCPM as well, so there is a good time to acquire may not so good time to monetise. If you just dependent on ad-based business but overall DAU (daily active users) as well as engagement time you can compensate some of the eCPM drops. However the larger challenge will be, maybe two months three months down the line, if the film rates are really dropping as well, then the challenge will start as to for monetisation of ad dependent businesses.”

Gametion founder Vikash Jaiswal

Well, exceptions are always there, for example, mobile game LUDO king has recently crossed 50mn DAU with the daily installation of 20 to 25 mn during the lockdown, however, before COVID19  their DAU was around 14 to 15 million. They have also seen a dip in CPI that is almost 30-40 per cent in India alone and eCPM as well, in initial days till 5 April it was decreasing. However, Gametion founder Vikash Jaiswal has miraculously noticed that “I don’t know-how in our game, our eCPM is now increasing, maybe because some advertisers are targeting our game so this is the states in our game.”

This joins the circle if anybody wants to experiment or explore new projects now is time to acquire or plan however if somebody wants to monetise the content as well then they should add human quotient to the content like video interaction which hte Houseparty app did because that is what market is ready to consume right now.

The post How has the lockdown affected CPI and CPM in mobile gaming business? appeared first on AnimationXpress.

The free streaming service Tubi has just announced that it has started to roll out Tubi Kids on Android. Tubi Kids will be available to all Android users in the coming days, expanding its current availability on Roku, Fire TV and Comcast Xfinity.

Tubi Kids features a robust library of children’s content – over 1,200 age-appropriate movies and television shows or over 5,000 hours of content – completely free in a dedicated section built just for families. The content is completely free and has its own section, made just for families. Tubi Kids also gives parents peace of mind as their kids enjoy content, without needing supervision.

Tubi Kids includes hit movies including Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of TinTin, Norm of the North, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, alongside series with iconic characters including Sonic the Hedgehog, Strawberry Shortcake, Paddington Bear, The Wiggles and many more.

Tubi is available on android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, Cox Contour, and on OTT devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and soon on Hisense TVs globally. Consumers can also watch Tubi content on the official website.

The post Tubi Kids will be available to all android users appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Graphic India has launched the fifth season of its popular animated series, Bahubali: The Lost Legends today, 15 April, on Amazon Prime Video, with an additional new 16 episodes.

Produced by Graphic India and Arka Mediaworks, Bahubali: The Lost Legends initially launched in 2017 and was created by Baahubali films director S.S Rajamouli and Graphic India co-founder Sharad Devarajan. 

Commenting on season five, Devrajan, who is also the series co-creator and executive producer along with Rajamouli and Arka MediaWorks, said, “Season five takes Bahubali to ancient Japan on an adventure filled with intrigue, betrayal, war and action against some of the deadliest samurai and ninja warriors he has ever faced! We continue to take fans deeper than ever into the events that shaped Bahubali from a young prince into a legendary hero he is destined to become,

Based on the blockbuster film franchise, Bahubali: The Lost Legends is set before the Kalakeya invasion depicted in the first movie, when Bahubali and Bhallaladeva are still both young princes of Mahishmati. Two brothers competing to rule the greatest kingdom of its age and the epic adventures they must endure to prove they are worthy to one day wear the crown.

The synopsis goes like – In the current season, Baahubali, Kattappa and Bhallaladeva must journey east to the land of the rising sun, Japan (Nippon). There they find a country torn asunder by war. Nippon is falling apart with several warlords fighting over the pieces of what’s left. It is now up to Baahubali to unite the country and bring peace to the country by returning a fabled sword to the person most fit to rule. Standing in his way, however, are an army of merciless samurai, treacherous ninjas, ruthless warlords, dangerous swordsmen, and the villainous machinations of his own brother, Bhallaladeva!

“We are extremely happy that the Baahubali franchise continues to grow and live on in the hearts of our audiences through our animated series, Baahubali: The Lost Legends. It’s been a tremendous journey over the past few years with Graphic India, creating 71 episodes in the season five on Amazon Prime Video,” added one of the executive producers of the series, Shobu Yarlagadda.  

Rajamouli, Yarlagadda, Prasad Devineni and Devarajan are executive producers on the series along with Graphic India EVP Creative and the lead character designer Jeevan J. Kang and Graphic India lead writer Ashwin Pande.

The season features new, never before revealed stories about the characters from the film including Baahubali, Bhallaladeva, Kattappa and Sivagami as well as all new characters that expand the world of Baahubali.

The post Graphic India and Arka Mediaworks launch ‘Bahubali: The Lost Legends’ on Amazon Prime Video today, 15 April appeared first on AnimationXpress.