Hasta La Motion!

Imagination is running amok for MCU fans after Marvel dropped a teaser of its upcoming animated project, What If?. The teaser shows a glimpse of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker suited up as Hawkeye played by Jeremy Renner in the Marvel films.

As reports suggest, What If? will feature alternate scenarios and storylines that are otherwise impossible in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). For instance, one episode will look into the idea of Peggy Carter taking the serum created to make super-soldiers instead of Steve Rogers, becoming Captain Britain.

Still from ‘What If?’ teaser

Another scenario suggests Spider-Man suiting up as Hawkeye. That too the version of Peter Parker played by Tom Holland in the MCU films. The look was first spotted by ComicBook.com.

The teaser features Holland’s Parker wearing the Hawkeye outfit, with a quiver of arrows on his back. Marvel president Kevin Feige had announced at last year’s San Diego Comic Con that original MCU actors would return to voice their own characters in What If? 

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Samuel L Jackson, and Jeremy Renner are expected to reprise their roles in this animated series. And what we might call a Freudian slip, actor Jeff Goldblum revealed that Robert Downey Jr. aka Iron Man will return to the MCU as well.

The rights for Spider-Man are owned by Sony, who renegotiated an agreement to feature the character in Marvel films and series, after a brief spat saw the rights revert back to Sony last year. Officially, a third Spider-Man film has been spoken about under the new terms.

While production of all Disney+ MCU shows, including the Hawkeye series, has been stalled due to the pandemic, What If? is reportedly under production.

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The Children’s Media Conference (CMC) has announced that former Lord Mayor of Sheffield and Green MEP Magid Magid will be the keynote speaker at this year’s virtual conference online between 6 to 10 July 2020.

Aged only 28, Magid became Lord Mayor of Sheffield, being the youngest-ever, the first ethnic-Somali, and the first Green Party councillor to hold that role. In May 2019, he was elected to the European Parliament as Green Party MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Magid Magid

In 2018 he won over the CMC audience with his enthusiastic welcome on opening night. Now Magid is back to address the revised conference theme of ‘Still Here Right Now’ on 6 July. He will deliver his thoughts on the future-focus of his environmental campaigning and offer a refugee’s perspective on life for young people in Britain today. As delegates can’t go to Sheffield for the annual gathering, Sheffield Lord Mayor will talk about challenges and inspiration in equal measures.

Speaking about new plans, CMC Editorial director Greg Childs said, “We want to welcome all delegates to the brand-new CMC 2020 Online. We are going to stream webinar sessions and online keynotes between 6 to 10 July to avoid overloading delegates on busy lockdown days. We’re making use of bespoke software to allow delegates to build their own conference schedule with strands of additional ‘on-demand’ content to view whenever they want.

We will also be running online social events in the week, to invoke the ‘Sheffield spirit’ for The Children’s Media Community – this time from the comfort of their own homes.

 In the last few weeks the CMC Advisory Committee has been nothing short of brilliant in pulling together a new way of looking at the conference. In July we will come together as a community to share learning, insights and inspiration, challenge, argue and discuss – just as we do in Sheffield. Delegates will still need to make their own tea – and maybe even the odd G&T.”

CMC has re-interpreted its 2020 theme from ‘Right Here Right Now’ to ‘STILL Here Right Now’. Presently, more than ever, kids and young people need the media-makers to come together to consider how they are being served, what the future holds, what works and what doesn’t, how to improve the diversity, commitment and engagement of kids’ media content and to have some fun exploring creative and business innovation.

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Novel Entertainment is hosting a virtual fancy dress parade on 29 May as part of its Horrid Henry half term activity. To join the parade, children are encouraged to take a photo dressed up as their favourite fictional character, or find their best dress-up photo from their photo library to share and also encourage their parents or carers to take part. The parade will be hosted on the Horrid Henry YouTube channel, where fans can tune in to see themselves featured alongside entries from across the globe, and submissions can be made via email or by tagging #FancyDressFriYAY on social media channels.

The #FancyDressFriYAY virtual parade rounds out Novel Entertainment’s Horrid Henry half term activity week which has included dressing up with the stars alongside interviews with Great British Chef contender Hrishikesh Desai, super teacher Zane Powels and Happy Hudson Sherbourne, as he completed his virtual run from Oxford to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium.

Novel Entertainment creative director and co-founder Lucinda Whiteley said, “Half term is hopefully a time to regroup and relax, but it can also be a time to let your imagination and creativity run wild. During these times when we’re more physically apart than we’d like to be, our first ever virtual parade will offer kids from all over the world a chance to come together and express themselves. We’ve already had some fantastic fancy dress photos submitted and can’t wait to see all the entries during the parade.”

This activity is part of the newly created content output, produced under the banner of Horrid Henry Unlocked and designed to offer a familiar environment for fans to discover how the Horrid Henry family is responding to the current crisis. As well as the recently launched Horrid Henry podcast, new material includes daily online activities like projects, challenges, puzzles, and bespoke videos including newly created songs, short videos and behind the scenes content, with a different curricular theme each week.

Horrid Henry’s fifth season is currently on air in the UK and Novel is in production on new longer form content. The brand includes film, stage, radio and online extensions, as well as being at the heart of a successful licensing and merchandising programme. A total of 250 episodes are now available with recent sales including Amazon Prime Video (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

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There is no question about animation booming in the modern world. Aside from the ever-developing studios for games and cartoons in Europe and the Americas, there is also a huge rise in Anime creations, originating in Japan but with big names rising in Korea and China. And, it seems that the world of online gambling is using this advantage to the fullest and trying to apply these advances to their own business model.

This change is important for several reasons, as it separates what was possible in the real world with mechanics and digital displays, and the virtually (no pun intended) limitless possibilities of cyberspace.

When switching to online, not only can these games become flashier and host intellectual property from video games, movies, comic books, and TV shows, but also can influence the mechanics. Some things that are simply impossible due to Newtonian physics and classical mechanics are completely okay for games online.

The future is now, or soon

Technology didn’t only allow for new gambling games to develop but has also improved on the traditional casino games where we can get a sense of sitting in a brick and mortar casino without ever moving our face from the screen.

Independent reviewers recently found out that most players in India prefer live casinos, and enjoy playing games like poker or blackjack. This is an important piece of information because India is one of the biggest global markets in the world and it can tell us where gaming developers will tend to go.

The biggest future unknown for online gambling is VR. Even though the current levels of immersion are slim, there are huge strides and you can now walk in VR through a virtual casino. If this becomes any better, brick and mortar establishments will be in more danger than they are today.

How animation helped gambling so far?

Simply analyzing the current offer when it comes to online gambling in general we can see how much animation techniques are used to improve the sensations.

For traditional games, it is used to increase immersion and animate either just the dealer or even other players, cards, dice, and everything else. Even though the result when casting dice was calculated in microseconds using an algorithm, it is fun to wait for them to drop and roll around.

Additionally, for spinners and similar iGaming options the animation is the base upon which they are built. The excitement with which the numbers, symbols, or objects spin are half of the fun, and explosions and animations usually inform us instinctively if we have done well or not.

Virtual reality and augmented reality

VR and AR will probably be the biggest advantages, not only for online gambling but possibly for IRL gambling as well. Augmented reality may allow us to blend the line between virtual and physical, letting us see things around us that are either thousands of miles away, or non-existent entirely.

It is plausible that in the future online gaming will mean having actual poker nights with your buddies from all over the world, everybody sitting at their own kitchen table but seeing everyone else, and the virtual dealer.

Is this dangerous?

There are some scars from both legislators and third-parties that the same tricks used to entice people to play video games will be used to draw in players for online gambling. Ironically, non-wager games were under more scrutiny from the public in the last few years than online gambling, probably due to the lack of restrictive legislation that is present with gambling.

But, as the numbers are showing right now, these claims are currently baseless, and would maybe only evolve into something more sinister in the far future. It seems that the rise of online gambling has made the opposite impact of addiction, with more people realizing that they should be playing for fun and not strictly profit.

Additionally, greater transparency online has allowed independent reviewers to see the same games, exposing any predatory practices and exploitive games. This wasn’t possible in traditional casinos and is a major boon for players around the world.

Finally, because of the low price of organizing the games and the sheer size of the market, operators do their best to stay away from any predatory practices in the player’s market. 

Time is unstoppable

If Cher wasn’t able to turn back time, there is no chance for us mere mortals. The best thing we can do is to adapt and use everything that is offered while staying aware of the risks. Too much of anything is not a good thing, including playing games.

But, if we combine the efforts of reviewers, legislators, and the online community, we can be sure that we are playing safely and with the best options provided to us. The only thing left is to have fun.

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The age-old story of the the rise and fall of economy is now being written by a virus. World is dealing with a deadly enemy that has brought the industry to its knees. In times like these, industry aspirants and experts are already finding ways to upskill in order to emerge stronger when the ecosystem regains resumption.

Go behind the scenes of the iconic sunken city in Godzilla: King of the Monsters :-

Our talented Environment team gives you an inside look at how they created the ancient city, the inspiration they drew from and more in our new ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Environment VFX Breakdown. 

We had a lot raining debris that was intricate and complicated from a visual effects standpoint. We did a lot of development work to make sure we had a system in place that could drive effects destruction based off of the creature movements.

VFX breakdowns are indeed making for a great source of education to the folks who are interested in learning the art and craft of the industry. DNEG’s recent breakdown of Godzilla is an elaborate and step-by-step explanation of the humongous task of building images as per the vision of the filmmaker.

DNEG produced vignettes where Secondary Titans, such as the massive mammoth known as Behemoth, make appearances.  DNEG did about 150 VFX shots over 13 sequences. DNEG’s VFX Supervisor Brian Connor (The Meg, Wonder Woman) supervised the process which was mainly done in Vancouver, with some aid from their team in Mumbai.

DNEG did the vignettes of the titans awakening around the world, with the art department providing the basic designs for all the titans and DNEG then working on model, texture and rigging the characters. While DNEG has a clear idea of how the characters would be seen in their shots, they made sure the various titans worked from all angles as DNEG provided these back to MPC for use in the third act of the film.

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