Hasta La Motion!

The Halo 3 PC release date has finally been confirmed, and you don’t have too much longer to wait to refinish the fight.

Developer 343 Industries revealed on the official Halo Twitter account that Halo 3 will join the rest of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC on 14 July . That will complete the original trilogy of Halo games on PC, and will leave Halo 3: ODST as the last portion of the Master Chief Collection to be ported over.343 Industries has already hosted some tests, but come 14July everyone with The Master Chief Collection will be able to hop into the war.

While Halo has carried on and spawned a bunch of games since then, Halo 3 sees the conclusion of the arc that started with Combat Evolved, sending Master Chief back into the fray to finish the fight, though not the series.

Halo 3 will join other entries in the collection which up until this point has consisted of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary and Halo: Reach.

Players will be able to purchase the game either through the Microsoft Store or Steam, however, owners of Xbox Game Pass for PC will be entitled to download the game for free with their membership.

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GKids has acquired the North American distribution rights to Studio Ghibli’s Earwig and the Witch, directed by Goro Miyazaki (From Up on Poppy Hill, Tales from Earthsea). The film is produced by studio co-founder Toshio Suzuki, with planning on the feature from Goro’s father and Oscar winner Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro).

Earwig and the Witch, which is based on Diana Wyne’s children’s novel of the same name, marks Studio Ghibli’s first entirely 3D CG animated feature. The film follows the titular Earwig, who grew up in an orphanage and never knew her mother had magical powers. Her life takes a new turn when a strange family takes her in, and she is forced to live with a selfish witch.

“Nowadays, in our country, there are many adults and few children. It must be tough for these children, so few of them having to deal with so many adults,” Goro Miyazaki said of the film. “It was while I was thinking about this that I got to know Earwig. And I realised, ‘That’s it!’ How does Earwig deal with the annoying adults? Please watch Earwig and The Witch to find out. She may be cheeky, but I sincerely hope that our adorable Earwig will encourage children and cheer up adults.”

Growing up in an orphanage, Earwig has no idea that her mother had magical powers. Her life will take a new turn when a strange family takes her in, and she is forced to live with a selfish witch. The animated feature is an official selection for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, and is slated to air on NHK in Japan this winter. GKIDS will release the film theatrically in North America in early 2021.

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Do you fancy yourself as a VFX enthusiast? VFX webinars are in spades. VES society’s webcast series that are hosted by industry professionals on zoom have embellished insightful and relevant sessions on the landscape for the AVGC community.

The George Floyd incident caused a furore all around the world, igniting discussions around racism. The dialogue has trickled down all sectors including VFX community. Recently Netflix had conducted a discussion on jobs and people of colour. VES Society’s latest edition is an initiative towards building a more inclusive community.

Set to happen on 9 June 2020 at 5 pm PST, the latest special edition of VFX Pros: Home Edition will shin a spotlight on how to spot and shift gender, race & LGBTQI bias in the industry.

We have natural tendencies to assign people into various social categories by traits, such as age, gender, race, and role. And some of our implicit or unconscious thinking includes stereotypes, which are traits that we associate with a category – and that can lead to discrimination if we are not vigil.

The discussion will be centered on questions like :-

How is Hollywood doing? What does that matter? And how do we make the unconscious conscious and change it?

Award-winning filmmaker and director of inclusion initiatives at the American Film Institute Nancy Malone and former Director of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women Tessa Blake will provide an incisive presentation on how to spot bias and how to change it, providing tangible ways that organisations, people and productions can make small changes that will make a big difference toward greater equity.

VES

The Visual Effects Society is a professional global honorary society dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and applications of visual effects and to upholding the highest standards and procedures for the visual effects profession. It is the entertainment industry’s only official organization representing the extended global community of visual effects practitioners, including supervisors, artists, producers, technology developers, educators and studio executives. VES’ more than 4,000 members in 40 countries worldwide contribute to all areas of entertainment – film, television, commercials, animation, music videos, games, new media and special venues.

VFX Pros: Home edition is a dynamic new initiative that will shine a light on a range of issues and developments in the visual effects sphere with a hot lineup of talks with successful visual effects professionals from different backgrounds – and a new platform for inspired storytelling. The live-casts will entail interactive forums with top pros offering career insights, words of wisdom and tales of triumph and adversity from their VFX journeys.

— Get their insights on tools and techniques and more!

• The evolution of compositing
• Photo-real vs. photo-believable: what does the audience see
• Fix it in Comp: benefits vs. over/misuses
• Good vs. sloppy compositing
• The ins & outs of being a generalist vs specialist
• Overuse of fake camera and lens tricks
• Our favorite film comp sequences: how we did it and how would we do it today!

VES shared, “Join us for a special edition of VFX Pros: Home Edition this Thursday, July 9th at 5pm PST — Learn How to Spot and Shift Gender, Race & LGBTQI Bias. We naturally assign people into various social categories by traits, such as age, gender, race, and role. And some of our implicit or unconscious thinking includes stereotypes, which are traits that we associate with a category – and that can lead to discrimination if we are not careful. How is Hollywood doing? What does that matter? And how do we make the unconscious conscious and change it? Award-winning filmmaker, Nancy Malone Director of Inclusion Initiatives at the American Film Institute and former Director of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, Tessa Blake will provide an incisive presentation on how to spot bias and how to change it, providing tangible ways that organisations, people and productions can make small changes that will make a big difference toward greater equity.”

This live webcast series is set to help VFX artists from around the world to gain knowledge about the field and encourage professionals around the world to be more conscious about dealing with discriminatory situations and ensure the springboard for best practises in the industry with regards to inclusiveness and fairness.

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Disney has released the soundtrack for the Disney+ Original Pixar SparkShort, Out, Pixar’s first project with a homosexual protagonist. 

The Out music album is now available on digital platforms including Amazon and includes two tracks by Jake Monaco, who previously scored music for two other Disney+ Original shorts for Pixar – Lamp Life and Forky Asks a Question.

The third track that has been written and performed by Natasha Adorlee. The track list includes – Burying the Bone (4:32), OUT (0:51) and Pink & Purple (3:28) by Adorlee. 

Directed by Steven Clay Hunter, Out revolves around Greg (voiced by Kyle McDaniel), who is going to move in with his boyfriend, Manuel (voiced by Caleb Cabrera) and fears to ‘come out’ to his parents about it. But hell breaks loose when his parents show up on the moving day. What follows is a hilarious ride as Greg has his body swapped with his dog Jim with some divine intervention.

This 10 minute animated short shares a lesson of living authentically though it’s easier said than done. Greg decides to come clean to his parents only after listening to his mom’s confession, and the film ends on a positive note to hopefully make parents realise and understand that being gay is ‘normal’ and isn’t a ‘disease’ to be ‘cured’ or ‘rectified’.

 Out is streaming on Disney+ and Disney+Hotstar in India. 

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The 22nd DigiCon6 Asia Awards, organised and held by Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings (TBS) throughout the Asian countries and territories including Japan, has invited and is now accepting entries from talented short film and animation creators. 

Organised for the purpose of seeking and recognising talented video creators and awarding them for their outstanding works, the 22nd DigiCon6 Asia Awards also has a promo specially curated for India. 

Created by independent animator and former senior character animator at Animal Logic, Sagar Funde, the animated DigiCon India promo is a palette of vibrant colours and stunning, unique animated visuals. 

After his animated short film Kite became the regional gold winner at DigiCon6 Asia Hong Kong, Funde was offered to represent India for this year’s theme – ‘Tomorrow’. 

In a candid chat with AnimationXpress, Funde said, “The idea was to make a short 10 seconds film based on their theme ‘Tomorrow’ which highlights India. I decided to showcase what would be India in future in a comical animated style. The film shows the deep cultural history of India moving into the future in harmony.”

The animated short took him six weeks to complete using Maya and After Effects. 

Sagar Funde

Speaking about visualising the theme of Tomorrow’s India, Funde revealed, “The idea of fusion between our Mythology and the future has always fascinated me. I imagined India in the future where we will possibly have flying cars, futuristic skyscrapers and more yet we will preserve our deep and vibrant cultural history alive. So when DigiCon came up with this theme for the promo film from India, I instantly felt inspired by this thought – how we embraced both. The thought is deep for such a short time span but I visualised it and came up with a simple, typical Sadhu (monk) character representing our cultural history of India moving harmoniously into the future.”

After brainstorming on the theme, he built the visual concept around it and pitched it to DigiCon team through a Previs Pass or a storyboard design. The Digicon team instantly loved it and the feedback Funde received was – “This looks gorgeous and fun! Everyone loves the idea. Cannot wait for the final film, please take it forward”. 

“Their feedback kept me going and I continued the choreography of the whole scene using simple geometries that represent the character and the set pieces of the film. Then I finished the camera work at this stage, and once I was satisfied with the scene, I began designing and modeling the characters in Maya and rigged them. Then came the animation of the characters, and simultaneously I was modeling the set pieces and adding them in the choreographed scene. Once the rendering finished, I composited the film on various layers in After Effects and did little bit of colour correction. It wasn’t difficult for me to do this one without music, as the whole film was about visuals,” added he taking us through the process. 

It’s an indeed happy moment for the Indian Animation community that the country is represented in animation through an attractive animated video oozing with vibrant colours, adorable characters and depicts the cutural diversity of the country. 

“It is a very proud moment for me to create an animated promo for DigiCon Asia that represents my country and I am very thankful to them. I would also like to thank AnimationXpress for covering this and spreading awareness to all the amazing artists and students in the Industry. Lets all Keep Rocking!” noted Funde.

All animators, and creative artists who want their animated short films to be showcased on a platform and receive the recognition it deserves, can send their entries through us, as AnimationXpress is the official media partner for 22nd DigiCon6 Asia Awards. 

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