As previously announced, the Academy will be spotlighting female animators with a special event on Monday, August 7: “An Invisible History: Trailblazing Women of Animation.” The discussion is set for 7:30 p.m. in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Joining host Mindy Johnson — an author and historian whose Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation will be published on September 5 by Disney Editions — will be:
Gretchen Albrecht (Robin Hood); an artist in Disney’s Ink & Paint department in the 1970s who eventually took it over, overseeing the move from painting by hand to digital methods.
Jane Baer (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?); who was one of only a few female animators at Disney when she animated the candles sliding off the sloppy birthday cake in Sleeping Beauty.
Lorna Cook, the lead character animator on The Lion King.
Eleanor Dahlen (Sleeping Beauty); who has worked in animation departments at Disney, Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network.
Jun Falkenstein (Despicable Me); animation director, writer and story artist who has worked for Disney, WB, Universal, Hanna-Barbera and DreamWorks.
Virginia Fleener, who began working in Disney’s Inking department in 1942, working at the studio through WWII.
Carole Holliday (Prince of Egypt); animator, storyboard artist, director and founder of Crowded Metro Films.
Patty Peraza (Beauty and the Beast), the first credited female effects animator at Disney Features.
Tina Price (Fantasia 2000), the first female Head of Computer Animation at Walt Disney.
’Animaniacs’ Star Plots His Comeback After Cancer
While the animation community was sad to hear of Andrea Romano’s retirement due to illness this week, her old colleague Rob Paulsen opened up about regaining his voice after a showdown with throat cancer. The actor is back in the booth recording “Donatello” for Nick’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
A June Night in September
Writer Mark Evanier has posted information about a public memorial for the late, great June Foray, to be held at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Tuesday, September 19 — one day after what would have been the legend’s 100th birthday.
‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature’ Cracks New Clips The Cal Brunker-directed sequel hits theaters everywhere on August 11 via Open Road Films. Until then, you can watch Surly (voiced by Will Arnett) make a dire miscalculation with Mr. Feng (Jackie Chan) in “Don’t Call Me Cute,” and see what happens when kept pet Frankie (Bobby Cannavale) tries to show Princess the pug (Maya Rudolph) what it takes to live in a gilded cage … or kennel?… in “Roll Over.”
‘Leap!’ – First Day of Class Clip
The Weinstein Company is finally releasing the ballet-themed coming of age adventure in the States on August 25. You can also hear from SNL star Kate McKinnon about the three characters she voices for the film in a behind-the-scenes featurette here. More info on the film from an earlier announcement here.
SIGGRAPH 2017 has come to a close, having attracted more than 16,500 attendees to the Los Angeles CGI confab. The conference covered over 600 papers, courses, lectures, panels, installations, artworks and experiences and giving a platform to more than 1,800 speakers and contributors over the past week. In addition, select sessions that were live-streamed generated significant viewership, with over 29,000 views on YouTube, and over 73,000 views on FaceBook thus far.
“We had a fantastic, very well-attended show this year! SIGGRAPH 2017 presented more activities, technologies, experiences, and venues than we’ve ever seen before,” Conference Chair Jerome Solomon said. “Once again, SIGGRAPH has proven itself a preeminent conference for computer graphics and interactive techniques, and I’m confident that our 2018 show next year in Vancouver will no doubt present even more unique experiences, as SIGGRAPH contributors continue to fulfill the future potential of interactive technology and innovation from every corner of the globe.”
Best Real-Time Graphics & Interactivity: “The Human Race” (The Mill, in collaboration with Epic Games)
Emerging Technologies Best in Show: “MetaLimbs: Arms Interaction Metamorphism” (Japan)
Best Art Paper: “Transforming the Commonplace Through Machine Perception: Light-Field Synthesis and Audio-Feature Extraction in the Rover Project” by Robert Twomey (Youngstown State University) and Michael McCrea (University of Washington)
The 45th annual SIGGRAPH conference and exhibition will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from August 12-16, 2018.
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Pixar Animation Studios held its 2017 RenderMan Art & Science Fair on Wednesday, previewing upcoming technologies including new interactive capabilities for RenderMan 22 and work on “XPU” rendering using CPU+GPU cores together. Presentations from Pixar and ILM revealed how feature films such as Cars 3, Coco, and Rogue One drove enhancements to RenderMan’s core technology.
RenderMan 21.5 (released July 26) significant new features include “Path Traced Subsurface Scattering,” the most advanced technique for skin and soft materials available for production VFX. New artistic controls provide a wide range for new effects in hair and fur. This version delivers raw rendering performance gains on scenes with thousands of light sources, or complex combinations of mesh lights, hair and fur, volumetrics, and arbitrary outputs. The updated Denoiser enables new compositing workflows and is substantially faster due to advanced code optimizations. Plus, UI simplification and workflow improvements for secondary passes, holdouts, material presets, and deep compositing.
Previewing RenderMan 22, Pixar demo’d next-gen tech. “Always-on” rendering embedded in artist applications, responding instantly to geometry, camera, light and material edits delivers incredible interactive frame rates with the same renderer used for batch renders. Fast vectorized OSL shader network evaluation on Intel scalable-SIMD CPUs were also shown.
RenderMan XPU renders on both CPUs and GPUs concurrently, taking full advantage of workstation resources. RenderMan XPU was shown live on a production scene, demonstrating the power and artistic possibilities of this upcoming technology. More information on RenderMan XPU will become available closer to delivery.
“RenderMan 22 is looking phenomenal,” said Steve May, Pixar CTO. “The speed of creative iteration is critical to our artists. I am excited to see what they will do with a truly live, next-gen RenderMan in their hands. They will be able to refine artistic decisions faster and explore a wider range of possibilities while doing it. It’s a great example of RenderMan innovating around the needs of production and feeding new creative tools back to artists.”
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This year’s event wasn’t without a bit of controversy, caused by a giraffe named Tiny who made two appearances as part of an animal drawing workshop. While some attendees were delighted by the novelty, others objected to the exhibition of a wild animal in captivity. A Change.org petition aimed at SIGGRAPH president Jeff Jortner was launched on Wednesday. According to Business Insider, Tiny was brought in by a “well-respected organization” called Hollywood Animals. The company’s website states it has been training animals for film, TV and commercials for more than 30 years — it currently offers dogs, cats, birds, primates, big cats, bears, wolves and “other exotics,” including a giraffe.
Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival (fantasiafestival.com) wrapped up its three-week event on Wednesday, toasting its 21st and most successful edition ever with nearly 100,000 attendees soaking up the latest in contemporary genre filmmaking from around the world.
The grand prize Cheval Noir Award for Best Film went to Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s crime thriller Spoor (Pokot), while in the dedicated “Axis” animation competition the top honors went to Liu Jian’s suspenseful Chinese feature Have a Nice Day and Japanese short Cocolors, a multilayered story of naive optimism from Yokoshima Toshihisa. The Axis jury was comprised of director Greg Bailey, graphic novelist Dave Cooper, director Nadja Cozic, and cartoonist Jean Lacombe.
A select list of animation and related winners follows. You can find a complete list of all categories at DreadCentral.com.
JURIED AWARD WINNERS
Axis: The Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation
Feature – Have a Nice Day, directed by Liu Jian
Jury statement: “stands out for the implacable mechanic of its script, its acute dialog, and for the quality of its voice talent”
Special Mention (Feature) – Junk Head, d. Takahide Hori
“to acknowledge the tremendous work accomplished in the making of this movie as well as the artistic direction that seduced us”
Short Film – Cocolors, d. Yokoshima Toshihisa
“It clearly stood out above the other films in the category. Great animation, design, story, voices, backgrounds, and sound. There are a number of scenes that will always be etched in our memory.”
Special Mention (Short) – Yin, d. Nicolas Fong
“The animation is amazingly inspired, inventive and fluid, drawing us effortless from one imaginative, visual surprise to the next.”
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS
Best Animated Feature Film
Gold Prize – Napping Princess, d. Kenji Kamiyama
Silver Prize – Lu Over the Wall, d. Masaaki Yuasa
Bronze Prize – Night Is Short, Walk on Girl, d. Masaaki Yuasa
CocolorsFantasia Film FestivalHave a Nice DayJunk HeadYinNight is Short Walk on GirlNapping PrincessLu Over the Wall
DHX Media, Technicolor and A Stark Production announce a raft of international broadcast deals for season 2 of CG-animated underwater adventure series, The Deep. The fresh catch of 13 half-hour episodes will debut on ABC ME Australia, airing daily from August 22, following a weekly rollout on CBBC’s Faves at Five block in the UK which began in July.
The second season has been picked up by broadcasters around the world including Universal Kids (US), Nickelodeon (Greece), NRK Super (Norway), YLE (Finland), POP (Italy), Biggs (Portugal), RTBF’s OUFtivi (Belgium), MBC3 (Middle East), Minimax (CEE), KidZone TV (Baltics), Multimania (Russia), Hop! (Israel), SVT (Sweden), TSR (Switzerland), SRC (French Canada), and Zap (Angola and Mozambique). Previously announced deals were inked with ABC ME, CBBC, Netflix (US), Super RTL (Germany) and Family CHRGD (Canada).
Based on the Aurealis Award-winning graphic novel series created by Tom Taylor and illustrated by James Brouwer, The Deep follows the Nekton family, a team of underwater explorers kitted out with the latest technology who explore the ocean’s most mysterious depths. In season 2, the Nekton family’s search for the lost city of Lemuria becomes urgent, as its legendary power is the only thing that can stop the colossal, dangerous creatures known as Monumentals from waking up — and a young new rival wants that power for himself.
Since its debut, The Deep has scored top ratings around the world and garnered accolades including the 2017 Kidscreen Award for Best New Series (Kids) and the Golden Sparrow Award from the German Children’s Media Festival recently, as well as a nomination for Australia’s AWGIE Award for Children’s Television.
“A commitment to a second season of The Deep from so many international broadcasters is testament to the show’s massive popularity with kids and families, worldwide,” said Josh Scherba, EVP Distribution and Content at DHX Media. “The Deep is fun, fresh and full of excitement, and we’re extremely pleased with the results of this collaboration with Technicolor and A Stark Production.”
Taylor serves as co-creator and lead writer of the TV series, with Brouwer as co-creator and art director. The Deep is a co-production of A Stark in Australia (scripts, design and music) and DHX Media in Canada (animation, voices and post), which also handles distribution. Technicolor is the underlying rights holder and oversees licensing extensions, with DHX’s CPLG serving as multi-territory licensing agent in North America, EMEA (exc. Germany) and Latin America.
Hasbro is flexing its classic brand muscles with new original animated series Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters set to premiere on Netflix worldwide later this year. Produced by Hasbro Studios, the 26-episode series reinvents the 1976 toy sensation as a teen superhero, and features a super cast of pedigreed voice actors and TV icons.
The humorous and action-packed stories will follow high school student Jake Armstrong and his two best friends Nathan Park and Ricardo Perez who are accidentally exposed to an experimental chemical that forever changes their seemingly normal lives, transforming them into unlikely heroes who embark on a series of adventures under the monikers Stretch, Wingspan and Omni-Mass.
Leading the voice cast are Scott Menville (Teen Titans Go!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as Stretch, Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Okja) as Wingspan and Ogie Banks (Ultimate Spider-Man as Omni-Mass, starring with Wil Wheaton as Rook, Felicia Day as Erika, Keith David (Adventure Time, Rick and Morty) as Kane, Kate Mulgrew as Dr. C and Walter Koenig as Mr. Savic.
“Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters is the first Hasbro brand to receive a Netflix original series order. We have been waiting for just the right moment to re-imagine Stretch for a new audience and our friends at Netflix got it right away; they have been a tremendous partner,” said Stephen Davis, Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President, Hasbro Inc. “We have hit a superhero sweet spot, and with Netflix’s global reach, kids across the world will fall in love with its fun characters and action-packed storyline.”
Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters is developed for television by executive producer and supervising director Victor Cook (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated) and executive producers/story editors/head writers Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Ultimate Spider-Man, Napoleon Dynamite) and Kevin Burke (Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble).
Nickelodeon is launching a brand-new, 40-episode animated series, Sunny Day, on Monday, August 21 at 10 a.m. ET/PT. The brightly colored and bubbly show from Silvergate Media promises to have preschoolers “smiling and styling” along with 10-year-old hairstyling maven Sunny, who uses creative problem-solving skills to tackle any dilemma that arises in her seaside town. Sunny Day’s characters celebrate individuality and self-expression, while the show highlights leadership, innovative thinking and teamwork.
Sunny (voiced by Lilla Crawford) is a confident and creative natural leader who runs her own hair salon in the town of Friendly Falls. When adventure calls, Sunny sets out to save the day with her can-do attitude, salon-on-the-go Glam Van, best friends and colleagues Rox (Elan Luz Rivera) and Blair (Taylor Louderman), and her dog Doodle (Rob Morrison). In the series premiere, “Stick with Me,” Rox and Blair accidentally get stuck together with sticky hairspray, and Sunny must help them work together to get unstuck.
Season one celebrity guest stars include Ashley Parker Angel (O-Town), Lance Bass (NSYNC), Kether Donohue (Grease Live, Pitch Perfect movies), Sutton Foster (Younger, Anything Goes), Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack), Adam Jacobs (Broadway’s Aladdin), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos, Entourage) and Shanice Williams (The Wiz Live!).
Ahead of the linear premiere, full episodes and short-form content will arrive on NickJr.com and the Nick Jr. App, along with a makeover game “Smiling and Styling with Sunny!” launching Aug. 4. Plus, each episode of Sunny Day features a unique an online/in-app extension where kids and their parents can watch fun, live-action hairstyle tutorials that are tied directly to the looks featured in each episode, narrated by Sunny.
Encounters Film Festival has issued the program lineup for the 2017 edition, taking place in Bristol from September 19-24. Over 3,000 submissions have been narrowed down to 247 films in competition, with the festival offering a total of more than 400 films and 60 special events.
Animation luminaries in attendance include Michael Dudok de Wit, who will host this year’s “Desert Island Flicks” session on Sept. 21 to talk about the films and figures that have influenced his career. And Despicable Me franchise creator, director, and voice of the Minions Pierre Coffin will hold a masterclass on the making of the films and developing Minion-ese.
The festival has three shorts competition tracks: Animated Encounters, Brief Encounters and the brand-new Immersive Encounters for 360-degree VR projects. Animation short programs this year are: “Packing a Punch,” “Lucky Dip,” “Life’s Journey,” “Heartstrings,” “Sweet & Sour” and “Birds & Beasts.” A variety of CG, 2D, stop-motion and hybrid films can also be found in the programs “Sci-Fi: Other Worlds,” “Horror: Thrilling & Chilling,” “Comedy: Fun Rides,” “Comedy: Love Bites,” “Late Lounge: Red,” “Late Lounge: Blue” and “Children’s Jury.”
Highlights of the inaugural Immersive Encounters include a performance by musician, AV producer and visual artist Stuart Warren-Hill’s musical VR piece Holotronica 3D on Sept. 22; plus interactive exhibits of Marieke Verbiesen’s Mayhem Machine and Playback from Random Acts.
To wrap up, Saturday will offer two family friendly screenings, beginning with an extended, interactive version of Lupus Films’ animated take on Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, followed by a matinee of BBC’s two-part Roald Dahl adaptation Revolting Rhymes, produced by Magic Light Pictures.
Other notable programming spotlights this year are a collection of shorts from the Tate’s “Art in the Age of Black Power” exhibition, and celebrations of female talend with a focus on Polish women in film, the “Final Girls: Female Body-Shock Horror” and “Females in Puppetry” programs, and two guest VR programs curated by media pioneer Catherine Allen. Encounters continues its “Widening the Lens” initiative this year with a workshop for emerging filmmakers from diverse backgrounds.
The longest running competitive short film and animation festival in the UK, Encounters is a qualifying contest for the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, European Film Awards and the Cartoon d’Or. More information online at www.encounters-festival.org.uk.
Pierre CoffinMichael Dudok de WitBirdline by Evan Derushie (Animation 6: Birds & Beasts)Seesaw by Yookyung Cha (Children’s Jury)
NBCUniversal has added the DreamWorks TV channel to the purview of Duccio Donati, whose title will now be Executive Vice President, Lifestyle and Kids. The branded channel has been rolling out internationally since Comcast/NBCU acquired DreamWorks Animation last year for $3.8 billion.
“It’s particularly compelling to take on responsibility for DreamWorks channel – working with the talented DreamWorks team and with the brand’s beloved children’s content and characters – as we focus on deepening relationships with our customers and partners,” Donati commented.
Based in LA, Donati will continue to oversee the E! channel internationally, and is also in charge of identifying opportunities for kids and lifestyle content from the company’s E!, Bravo, Oxygen and DreamWorks networks across EMEA, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
“Taking a portfolio approach to managing these two key genres aligns with NBCU’s organizational approach to cable brands in the US. Duccio is uniquely positioned to take on this role having had extensive commercial and operational experience across both the licensing and channels business, a track record of success with E! International and an established role connecting NBCU’s international and US brand teams,” said Chairman of Global Distribution & International Kevin MacLellan, to whom Donati will report.
Prior to being named EVP for E! In 2013, Donati was based in London as EVP, Universal Networks International. Donati came to NBCU television from the Comcast side of the family, which he joined in 1999.
Warner Bros. has signed on The Book of Life helmer Jorge Gutierrez to build up its LEGO movie project The Billion Brick Race through development, and take over in the director’s chair.
The off-shoot project was first announced in 2015 as an original story from writer Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), who was developing and set to co-direct the film with Jason Segel. WB had set a release date for Billion Brick Race as May 24, 2019. No story details have been revealed.
Gutierrez’s feature directing debut The Book of Life (produced by Reel FX and released by Fox) earned $99.8 million worldwide, performing especially well in Mexico and Brazil. The colorful, folklore-inspired adventure received much recognition, including the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and a nomination for the Golden Globe. Gutierrez has also won a Daytime Emmy for his Nickelodeon series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera.
Gutierrez is currently working on his first animated VR project, Son of Jaguar, with Google Spotlight Stories. The short, which was a big hit at this week’s SIGGRAPH confab in Los Angeles, is about a masked luchador with a family legacy facing the most important match of his life.
Warner Animation Group’s next release is The LEGO Ninjago Movie (Sept. 22, 2017) [Trailer 2], followed by the Sergio Pablos-conceived yeti tale Smallfoot (Sept. 14, 2018), The LEGO Movie sequel (Feb. 8, 2019), and a Scooby-Doo movie which was pushed back to 2020 last month.
Adobe Research has built on its Project StyLit experiments to develop a new project called “Stylized Facial Animation” — a tool for automating rotoscopy which can apply any selected artistic style, from a pastel sketch to a bronze statue, onto video footage of actors’ faces. Adobe will hold a public demo of the technology on Thursday, August 3 at SIGGRAPH, or you can read up on the project in Digital Trends’ interview with Senior Principal Scientist David Simons.
Following its presentation at Tuesday’s “Open Source at Pixar: USD and OpenSubdiv” Exhibitor Session, Animal Logic has launched its USDMaya plugin (known as “AL_USDMaya”) as an open source tool. The plugin enables powerful and efficient authoring and editing of 3D graphics data using Pixar’s open source Universal Scene Description (USD) in Autodesk’s Maya. The aim is to leverage the strengths of both Maya and USD, and use each one to represent the data it’s most suited to.
Animal Logic uses AL_USDMaya to allow native Maya entities such as complex Maya Rigs loaded as references, and other assets not easily represented in USD, to be embedded in USD scenes and imported into Maya in their native form. The plugin maintains a “live” connection between the USD and Maya scene, and can respond to various events, keeping the Maya and USD scenes in sync. This affords a dynamic user experience that allows artists to swap in and out different representations of objects in their scene, including Rigs for geometry caches and different levels of detail. Additionally, heavyweight scene elements such as sets and crowds can be represented in OpenGL in the Maya viewport, and manipulated either with USD or Maya tools and UI components. The source code is available now.
Fabric Software (www.fabricengine.com) introduced Fabric Engine 2.6, with key advancements for VFX, games and VR studios. The update is available in August for existing customers.
+ Asset Patterns offer a rules-based way to control data flow to and from many different industry formats with support for change propagation – so modeling and other asset modifications made in an authoring application can be quickly pushed to game engines like Unity and Unreal without a full import process.
+ Manipulation Framework lets technical directors and developers tailor the user experience of using Fabric to create applications and animation rigs that work anywhere in a production pipeline without being limited to what is available in DCC applications like Maya.
+ Rigging Enhancements, including support for the Autodesk’s newly open-sourced AnimX curve library; and a new RBF (Radial Basis Function) solver ideal for pose-based deformations that need to be solved in real-time, such as facial animation or secondary animation of cloth over a muscle system.
+ Universal Scene Description Support, tapping in to Pixar’s open-source USD library for handling vast, complex scenes. “We believe that USD could be a key technology for real-time applications used for visualization, VR and AR,” says Fabric Software CEO Paul Doyle. “There is no industry standard yet for how we store and work interactively with data at scale. Customers are telling us that USD might be it. With our new Asset Patterns functionality, we see Fabric Engine as an enabling technology for USD that could accelerate adoption and help developers standardize their pipelines.”
NVIDIA and game developer Remedy (Alan Wake, Quantum Break) showcased their team-up solution to streamlining motion capture and animation using a deep learning neural network, running on NVIDIA’s powerful DGX-1 server. After being “trained” with information on previously produced animations, the network is able to generate sophisticated 3D facial animation from videos of live actors, greatly alleviating the time and labor burden of traditional mo-cap animation — it can even learn enough to generate facial animation from just an audio clip. The companies believe this system could eventually produce animation that’s just as good or better than traditionally produced fare.
“Based on the Nvidia Research work we’ve seen in AI-driven facial animation, we’re convinced AI will revolutionise content creation,” said Antti Herva, lead character technical artist at Remedy. “Complex facial animation for digital doubles like that in Quantum Break can take several man-years to create. After working with Nvidia to build video- and audio-driven deep neural networks for facial animation, we can reduce that time by 80% in large scale projects and free our artists to focus on other tasks.”
Attendees should seek out the Pavillon France to meet the companies selected by Cap Digital and Imaginove to represent the finest in French tech and innovation. The 16 exhibitors in the 24-company contingent are seeking to connect with major players from around the world, with the support of the CNC: Eisko (www.eisko.com) – specializing in 3D celeb representations for VFX and interactive; 4DViews (http://4dviews.fr) – dynamic volumetric capture system; Dynamixyz (www.dynamixyz.com) – facial performance capture software; SPARTE (https://sparte.io) – solutions for VR, 3D printing, etc.; Stimergy (www.stimergy.com) – green energy render farm rental; Ranch Computing (www.ranchcomputing.com/en) – render farm & 3D modeling/calculation services; Qarnot Computing (www.qarnot-computing.com/fr) – fully-featured green render farm as a cloud of home heaters; Persistant Studios (www.persistant.ca) – PopcornFX real-time 3D particle effects middleware; Mercenaries Engineering (www.guerillarender.com) – 3D software for animation & VFX, Guerilla Render; Golaem (http://golaem.com) – crowd simulation, layout & previz tools; Texels (www.texels.com) – Kurtis pipeline creation and automation software for animation & VFX; Mikros Image (www.mikrosimage.eu) – post-production for animation, feature films & commercials; TVPaint Animation (www.tvpaint.com) – bitmap-based 2D software; Composite Films (www.compositefilms.fr) – Film restoration/colorization; Kolor (Gopro division) (www.kolor.com) – software solutions for immersive experiences; and Speedernet-Sphere (www.speedernet.com) – software for 260 and VR experiences for web.
At SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Shotgun Software announced the winners of its fourth annual Pipeline Awards, recognizing outstanding achievement in pipeline tool development. This years honorees were innovation leaders tackling the challenges of VFX and animation production, scaling up to meet big project demands, and showed generosity to the community in making their tools open source.
“Honoring these great innovations in pipeline tool development is one of our favorite things to do each year … it’s amazing to see what technologists and tool builders are coming up with to make pipelines more manageable for studios of all sizes,” said Don Parker, co-founder of Shotgun and VP production platform at Autodesk. “We’re always looking for new ways to make pipelines more efficient, and these creative solutions inspire us every day.”
And the winners are…
DreamWorks Animation for the DWATV Credits Tool: Originally designed to streamline credits by tracking and spell checking the names and titles of thousands of people who work across DreamWorks Animation, this tool grew to also track approvals and revision history, and connects to Shotgun. It’s now one of the studio’s most widely-used tools, bridging communication across the studio with simplicity in mind.
Visual Concepts for the NBA 2K17 Facial Animation Pipeline: Visual Concepts’ facial animation pipeline saves time by automating previously manual tasks including tracking video, solving data, converting data to the proper format for the game, generating review material, and notifying supervisors for review and approval. The new automated pipeline handles thousands of tasks each day, saving time for artists and allowing them to complete the vast majority of facial animation in-house, giving them greater control over the final product.
Psyop for Cryptomatte: Cryptomatte automatically creates ID mattes using information already available at render time including names, object namespaces, and material names. It also supports motion blur, transparency, and depth of field. Recently, Psyop’s “Cryptomatte Committee” expanded the tool to the wider community by making an open standard Cryptomatte that integrates with Nuke, and AIShaders for Arnold.
Pipeline AwardsPsyop’s Andy Jones and Jonah FriedmanPipeline Awards
Viacom International Media Networks Asia has entered a partnership with iQIYI — China’s leading streaming service — and Zhejiang TV’s Zhejiang Blue Star Media to develop and produce an original animated children’s series, Deer Run. This marks the first time that Nickelodeon Asia has boarded an original Chinese production from the concept phase.
Deer Run is a CG-animated series about four different deer characters who happen to meet one day, and come together to overcome various obstacles while forming a lasting friendship. The project is produced by iQIYI with creative guidance and supervision from Nickelodeon Asia, which will bring it to broadcast in summer of 2019 following a digital premiere on iQIYI’s platform.
“Deer Run will be our first in-depth animation collaboration for Nickelodeon in China. We chose this project because of its great story and compelling, relatable characters that resonate with the Nickelodeon brand. This collaboration deepens our existing strategic relationship with iQIYI, whose extensive distribution ability in China will be the hallmark of the project’s future success in China,” said Pierre Cheung, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Greater China, Viacom International Media Networks.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Viacom International Media Networks on iQIYI’s original IP animation series, which will be supervised by experienced producers at Nickelodeon Asia. With our distribution capability and track record in IP development, we believe Nickelodeon’s excellence in production and storytelling will extend our IP to kids in China, and beyond,” commented iQIYI’s Chief Content Officer, Wang Xiaohui.
The platform has carved out a piece of the lucrative local market for preschool and kids’ animation with titles like Ling Yu, The Totem Warrior, Sword Dynasty and Everlasting Immortal Firmament.
Cartoon Network is boosting the future of African-produced animation content with the Imagination Studios initiative — created to inspire, motivate and celebrate the imaginations of children by inviting them to come up with their own character duo. Four category winners of this creative competition will get to see their ideas come to life on Cartoon Network channels across the continent, and the network has recently taken steps to ensure 100% local production.
A Turner spokesperson commented: “We here at Cartoon Network are so excited about Imagination Studios, so much so that we decided to take it a step further this year, by involving some amazingly talented, locally selected, third-party professionals. This local alliance will simply take what we have already previously perfected, and rejuvenate it by injecting a unique, authentic, African flair which will not only be engaging, but relatable to our audience, too. We have been extremely impressed by the amazing creative energy present within each of the partners and this energy, together with the imaginative entries received in this year’s Imagination Studios competition, has reinforced our investment into localising content and our promise to further mentor the African animation industry.”
The network is teaming up with locally-selected partners to produce the Imagination Studios shorts. Pan-African animation company MyChild TV (which is also part of AniComp) has been tapped as executive producer, coordinating all parties working on the project. Scripts will be handled by Cape Town-based Punch Monkey Studios, which won the Turner Kids Animation Pitching competition at DISCOP last year with Cloud Life. CN has also partnered with 2D animation studio Mindseye Creative in South Africa, and post-production facility Audio Militia.
To complete the package, the winning kid-created characters will be voiced by local comedians and actors including Nina Hastie, Trevor Gumbi, Richelieu Beaunoir and Alex Radnitz.
“It is really cool to see that international brands such as Cartoon Network are starting to fully localise their content in order to speak to, and engage with, their audience on a deeper, richer level,” said Nick Wilson, MD of MyChild TV. “We are so honored and excited to have been selected to work on this project, presenting us with many areas of potential and growth for the African animation industry, ensuring that our creative voices as Africans continue to be heard.”
The Imagination Studios shorts will air across Africa in October. See the quite charming winning character designs here!
Brooklyn’s 14th annual Animation Block Party wrapped up over the weekend, revealing the must-see shorts that earned awards. The 2017 Best in Show winner is My Man (Octopus) from French filmmaker Stéphanie Cadoret. The 8-minute short is a metaphorical exploration of domestic conflict, in which a woman comes home to an apartment which has become the oppressive, watery ecosystem of her partner — an octopus.
ABP 2017 Juried Award Winners:
Best In Show: My Man (Octopus) by Stéphanie Cadoret (France)
Original Design: Running Lights – Gediminas Siaulys (Lithuania)
Experimental Film: NSFWhale – Nathan Campbell (San Francisco)
Student Film: Nueva Vida – Jonathan Seligson (CalArts)
Minute Movie: disillusionment of 10 point font – Greg Condon (NYC)
Animation For Kids: DAM! The Story of Kit the Beaver – Kjell Boersma (Toronto)
Audience Award: Bluehilda – James Sugrue (Titmouse)
The 14th annual Animation Block Party was held July 27-July 30 at Rooftop Films and BAMcinématek in Brooklyn, NY. ABP is the largest animation festival on the East Coast, dedicated to exhibiting the world’s best independent, professional and student animation. 2017 festival highlights included a look into the Cartoon Network shorts program, Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure in 35mm, Bee Movie written by Jerry Seinfeld and “An Evening with BoJack Horseman.”
Jason Blum’s horror hit factory Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, The Purge) will make its first foray into animation, taking advantage of its connection to DreamWorks Animation through Universal — with which the studio has a first-look deal. The feature film, right now known as Spooky Jack, is based on an original idea from and written by Robert Ben Garant (Night at the Museum). The project was announced via Deadline.
The film will be a dark comedy that uncovers the world of the creepy creatures that inhabit children’s imaginations — from the Monsters Under Your Bed to Boogeymen, Leprechauns and the Chupacabra. The story follows three young siblings who move into a house and discover that all the monsters their parents told them didn’t exist, actually do — and they’re just as scared of people as people are of them.
The project was originally a live-action project, but proved a good fit when DreamWorks Feature Animation Group President Chris deFaria came looking for a family-friendly scare. DeFaria calls the film “a touching and funny story that allows us to take audiences deep into folklore from around the globe and create several truly memorable animated characters in addition to a visually unique world inside our own.” The animated take on Spooky Jack will be produced by DreamWorks Animation’s Damon Ross, with Blum as executive producer.
“We’ve worked with Ben before and when he brought us this idea, we all realized it would make a great animated feature. It’s a testament to the remarkably collaborative environment that Universal fosters among its creative family that we’re now jumping into animation in the very capable hands of Chris deFaria and the talented DreamWorks team,” said Blum. “We are having a ton of fun with this original, funny and totally relatable take on what happens when kids join forces with the monsters and ghouls who live among us.”
At a press event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Netflix made its clear that it is throwing its chips in with the global craving for anime content. Already home to titles like Knights of Sidonia, The Seven Deadly Sins, Blame! and recent hit Castlevania, the company outlined plans for 13 series and movies that will debut on its streaming services over the next few years. The projects — some of which have been previously announced — range from manga adaptations, to reboots of classic properties, to brand-new animated worlds.
On the slate, in alphabetical order:
A.I.C.O. Incarnation [Spring 2018, Global]
Studio: Bones | Director: Kazuya Murata
From the creative team behind My Hero Academia and the director of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos come an original bio sci fi action series. In Japan in the year 2035, an accident known as the “Burst” occurs during a research project, spawning an out-of-control artificial life form called “Matter” that has spread throughout the Kurobe Gorge. The research city that was once hailed as the hope for humanity is cordoned off by the government. Two years later, 15-year-old Aiko Tachibana, who lost her family in the Burst, learns something unbelievable from Yuya Kanzaki, a new student at her school. A secret is hidden within her body, and the answer to the puzzle lies at the “Primary Point” that was the center of the Burst. When boy meets girl with the fate of humanity in their hands, what new truth will come to light?
B: The Beginning [Spring 2018, Global]
Studio: Production I.G | Directors: Kazuto Nakazawa (original concept), Yoshinobu Yamakawa
Formerly titled “Perfect Bones,” this original 12-episode suspense drama is set in a world powered by advanced technology, where crime and action unfold in the archipelagic nation of Cremona. Koku, the protagonist. Keith, the legendary investigator of the royal police force RIS. A mysterious criminal organization. A wide variety of characters race through the fortified city as it is beset by the serial killer, Killer B, and a chain of crimes. Nakazawa also serves as character designer and key animation supervisor; Rui Kuroki is producer; screenplay by Katsunari Ishida.
Baki [TBA]
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Based on the original manga series by Keisuke Itagaki (more than 63 million copies printed), the 26-episode show centers on Baki Hanma, who trains with an intense focus to become strong enough to surpass his father, Yujiro Hanma, the strongest fighter in the world. Five of the world’s most violent and brutal death row inmates are gathering to face Baki. Their objective is to taste defeat — their unmatched strength and skill have led them to grow bored of life itself, and they now seek out Baki in the hopes that he can overwhelm and utterly crush them. In this crisis, other underground martial art warriors gather to fight by Baki’s side: Kaoru Hanayama, Gouki Shibukawa, Retsu Kaioh, and Doppo Orochi. An epic showdown between violent death row inmates and Baki and his friends begins!
Cannon Busters [TBA]
Studio: Manga Ent. Ltd., Nada Holdings, Satelight | Creator/Director/EP: LeSean Thomas
From the creator of Children of Ether, the 12-episode series follows the adventures and exploits of S.A.M, a high-end, royal-class friendship droid who’s joined by a quirky, discarded maintenance robot and a brash, deadly fugitive. Together, the unlikely trio embarks on an unforgettable journey in a fantastic and dangerous world in search of S.A.M’s best friend, the heir to a powerful kingdom under siege. Thomas writes with Natasha Allegri (creator, Bee & Puppycat), Anne Toole (The Witcher videogame), Nilah Magruder (M.F.K.) and others. Matt Wayne (Justice League Unlimited, Niko & The Sword of Light) is story editor.
Children of the Whales [2018, Global exc. Japan]
Studio: J.C.Staff | Director: Kyohei Ishiguro
Adapted from Abi Umeda’s hit manga. In a world covered by oceans of sand, 513 people live in complete isolation on the “Mud Whale,” an island-like ship adrift on the sand. Chakuro, the island’s archivist endowed with special powers, meets a mysterious girl named Rikosu as he investigates an abandoned ship that drifted up to the Mud Whale one day. It is the first time anyone on the island has made contact with someone from the outside world, but is it an auspicious sign that a new world awaits? Character design by Haruko Iizuka, art direction by Toshiharu Mizutani (Moonflower).
Devilman: Crybaby [Spring 2018, Global]
Studio: Science SARU | Director: Masaaki Yuasa
A 10-episode series based on the iconic ‘70s manga by Go Nagai and directed by anime maverick Yuasa (Lu Over the Wall; TheNight Is Short, Walk on Girl). The protagonist Akira Fudo learns from his best friend, Ryo Asuka, that an ancient race of demons has returned to take back the world from humans. Ryo tells Akira that the only way to defeat the demons is to incorporate their supernatural powers, and suggests that he unite with a demon himself. Akira succeeds in transforming into Devilman, who possesses both the powers of a demon and the soul of a human … the battle begins. Screenplay by Ichiro Okouchi.
Fate/Apocrypha [US & Canada: Nov. 7; Global exc. Japan: Dec. 2]
Studios: ANIPLEX, A-1 Pictures | Director: Yoshiyuki Asai
Fourteen Heroic Spirits gather for an apocryphal Holy Grail War. In a city called Fuyuki, seven magi and their Heroic Spirits once clashed in a Holy Grail War. But amid the chaos of the Second World War, a magus made off with the Grail. Decades later, the Yggdmillennia clan holds the Grail high and secedes from the Mage’s Association, declaring their independence. Angered by the move, the Association sends assassins after them, only to have them wiped out by a Yggdmillennia Servant. The choice is made to fight Servants with Servants, and the Holy Grail War system is expanded to two factions of seven Servants each. A Holy Grail War of unprecedented scale — a Great Holy Grail War — begins in Trifas, Romania. Based on the light novel adaptation of TYPE-MOON’s Fate/stay night game written by Yuuichiro Higashide, with original character design by Ototsugu Konoe.
Godzilla: Monster Planet [Fall 2017]
Studio: Polygon Pictures | Directors: Kobun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita
The first anime movie based on the classic monster franchise takes the franchise into uncharted territory — a harsh world of the future in which Godzilla has dominated the Earth for the past 20,000 years, and a fateful final confrontation with mankind looms. Original story and screenplay by Gen Urobuchi (Psycho-Pass, Fate/Zero) and Sadayuki Murai. The feature will arrive on Netflix following its theatrical debut in Japan on Nov. 17 through Toho. Last year, Hideaki Anno’s live-action Shin Godzilla earned $82.5 million in the US alone.
Kakegurui [2018, Global exc. Japan]
Studio: MAPPA | Director: Yuichiro Hayashi
In this 12-episode series based on the manga by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura, there is one absolute rule in gambling — at the end of the day, there is a winner and a loser. The winner gains riches and prestige, while the loser is branded a failure and left with nothing. In the silence leading up to the moment that separates winners and losers, instincts are sharpened and desires reach the point of ecstasy. This is a harsh microcosm of life in a capitalist society. Why are people captivated by a world filled with risk? What lies beyond the madness? As the class system of modern society crumbles, an unprecedented adrenaline-pumping anime sweeps the world. Character design by Manabu Akita; art direction by Haruka Matsuda and Masanobu Nomura; CGI direction by Shin Jaehoon.
Knights of the Zodiac: SAINT SEIYA [TBA]
Studio: Toei Animation | Director: Yoshiharu Ashino
Based on the manga by Masami Kurumada, the 12-episode series follows modern day adventures of young warriors called “Knights” who are sworn protectors of the reincarnated Greek goddess Athena. Each Knights wears a powerful armor based on their chosen zodiac constellation, and are called Knights of the Zodiac. They aid Athena in her battle against powerful Olympian gods who are bent on destroying the humankind. Eugene Son (Avengers Assemble) is story editor & head writer. Character design by Terumi Nishii, armor design by Takashi Okazaki.
Lost Song [2018, Global]
Studios: Liden Films, Dwango | Direction & Screenplay: Junpei & Morita
Featuring the voices of J-pop princesses Yukari Tamura and Konomi Suzuki, the 12-episode series hinges on Rin (Suzuki), an energetic girl who loves to eat and lives in a verdant frontier village; and Finis (Tamura), a songstress living in solitude deep within the royal palace. Both share a special power no other person has. A miraculous power that can heal wounds, create water and stir the wind — the power of song. Guided by destiny, the two young women each face an arduous journey with the power of song. The shadow of war looms over the kingdom, tainting even the miraculous songs with the blood of innocents. Loved ones meet their deaths as silent screams echo through a stone prison. As two destinies intersect, will the final song be one of despair, hope or …? Original character design by Tomonori Fukuda; music by Yusuke Shirato with lyrics by Aki Hata.
Rilakkuma [TBA]
Studio: Dwarf
Since its sales launch by San-X in 2003, Rilakkuma (a portmanteau of Japanese words for “relax” and “bear”) has enjoyed immense popularity, and is now being brought to life in stop-motion for its first animated series (13 episodes) in honor of the character’s 15th anniversary. Rilakkuma is a soft toy bear who showed up one day to live with an office worker named Kaoru. He spends his days lounging around the apartment. Although there’s a zipper on his back, what’s inside is a mystery. He loves pancakes, rice omelets, custard pudding and “dango” rice dumplings. His friends are Kaoru’s pet bird Kiiroitori and a small white bear cub named Korilakkuma who also showed up out of the blue.
Sword Gai: The Animation [Spring 2018, Global]
A weapon that has drawn the blood of countless victims becomes legend, and at times takes on a life of its own. When such a weapon’s human host is filled with hate and murderous intent, he becomes a demonic combination of weapon and man that thirsts only for slaughter. An organization has faced these dangerous beings over the centuries. A young man named Gai is destined to live as a weapon. As humans are enthralled by their weapons’ power, epic battles unfold with the fate of humanity in the balance in this battle action fantasy. Based on the manga by Toshiki Inoue, Osamu Kine, and Keita Amamiya, the series has a screenplay by Toshiki Inoue and was originally reported in 2014 to be a production of DLE Inc. and Fields.
The 31st Cinekid Festival is not long off, with the start date set for Wednesday, October 18. For two weeks over the fall holiday break, the largest film, TV and media event for children ages 3-14 will invite over 60,000 youngsters and their guardians to enjoy a range of programming in Amsterdam and across 35 other Dutch cities. In addition to screenings, the festival hosts the MediaLab “digital playground” with the latest games, VR installations and workshops.
This year’s opening film will be the national premiere of 2D-animated feature film Next Door Spy from Denmark’s Copenhagen Bombay (The Great Bear, Beyond Beyond). Directed by Karla Van Bengtson (Tigers & Tattoos), the kiddie espionage adventure has been given a Dutch dub especially for the event, and fits perfectly into Cinekids 2017’s “film noir” angle — one of the year’s themes along with “modern fairy tales” and “scary films.”
“I am proud to have the 31st edition of our festival open with the Dutch premiere of an animation film that was pitched as a project at our event, less than one year ago. [Next Door Spy] is a cheerful ‘film noir’ with a very engaging animation style.” said festival director Floor van Spaendonck.
Next Door Spy tells the story of 10-year-old Agathe-Christine, or AC for short. AC likes to be on her own and loves a good mystery. She has set up a small detective agency the basement of the building she recently moved into. AC’s first mystery appears to be simple to solve, but before long AC finds herself caught up in an affair that’s much more complicated than she could ever have imagined.
The film was pitched during the Junior Co-Production Market at the Cinekid for Professionals event last October. The market invites international media producers to convene in Amsterdam to present their projects to potential buyers and co-producers. Participating projects are selected by Cinekid. More information here.
View the full Cinekid Festival program at cinekid.com.
Autodesk as ever has taken the opportunity of SIGGRAPH to highlight the next generation of its storytelling and collaboration tools. “The continued growth of AR and VR and steady flow of new productions from Netflix, Amazon and others, mean animation and VFX houses are in more demand than ever. We’re focused on helping our customers create, connect and compute faster and more efficiently so they can balance their increasing project loads with tighter schedules and budgets,” said Media & Entertainment SVP Chris Bradshaw.
For the overall Media & Entertainment Collection, new subscription benefits include Cloud Rights, popular drawing tool SketchBook for Enterprise, and access to an Arnold 5-pack promo starting Sept. 7.
Maya 2018 offers additional character creation, motion graphics, and rendering functionality. Improvements have made character creation easier, faster, and fun. The motion graphics toolset now includes dynamics and new instancing capabilities. Maya 2018 is available with the latest version of Arnold, including new features and core architecture improvements.
Shotgun has introduced features to simplify workflows, make it easier to integrate creation tools with Shotgun, and strengthen security. Shotgun 7.2 introduced plug-and-play integrations to accelerate artist workflows; updates to RV; and new single sign-on. Shotgun 7.3 continues to build on a secure and reliable foundation for studios by adding improvements that make it easier for site administrators to run and manage Shotgun. Features include smart data retention for improved site performance and community-driven enhancements including improved action menu items and the ability to restart your own site.
Arnold 5.0.1 builds on the strengths of the recent 5.0 release, and includes new functionality like AOV shaders for cryptomatte workflows, thin film for standard surface shader and additional updates and optimizations. Arnold 5.0.1 is available with the latest versions of Maya and 3ds Max or as a plugin for additional DCC applications; and is now available for free to educational institutions through the Autodesk Education Portal.
3ds Max update adds VR authoring tools for design visualization artists and generalists; 3ds Max interactive, a VR engine that simplifies the creation of immersive and interactive architectural visualizations; and additional UX and UV unwrap improvements. Check it out in a 3ds Max to VR Workflow demo at the booth.
Flame Family 2018.2 introduces new creative tools that enhance artist productivity and expand pipeline integration possibilities. Some new features are Pybox, a python scriptable software handler for processing images via external renderers; projector functionality, map inputs and a contextual menu in action; smart merge for the connected conform workflow; and the ability to drive the batch environment via scriptable commands.
HP, NVIDIA and Technicolor have teamed up to explore the next frontiers of human colonization with the “HP Mars Home Planet” project. Participants will work together to design and engineer an urban area for one million new inhabitants on our red neighbor, then they’ll bring it to life through photorealistic renders and virtual reality. (NVIDIA also collaborated on Fusion’s Mars 2030 VR experience, launched last year.) The Concept Phase — phase 1 of 3 — kicks off this week at SIGGRAPH, with participants imagining and illustrating a vehicle, building, infrastructure or products — anything from scanned napkin sketches to 3D renderings will be accepted. Participants can register now at hp.com/go/mars — the first 10,000 registrants will receive a Mars 2030 download code and terrain files. The project winners will be announced at SIGGRAPH 2018.
Nimble Collective, creators of the first cloud-native animation collaboration platform, is on deck to showcase the animated films created in its Pilot Program, with co-founder and head of content Jason Schleifer speaking at the Blender Spotlight on Sunday and set for the Online Collaboration with Virtual Studio Production talk on Wednesday. Senior production manager Corban Gossett was also part of Tuesday’s ASIFA Education Forum “Birds of a Feather” panel. Newly announced at the show are a collaboration with Pixar’s RenderMan which will explore extending training in the technology to new and existing users via the virtual studio platform; and working with Lytro to collaborate on an animated VR project using new features of the platform.
Nurulize, an award-winning virtual reality software developer, has unveiled two disruptive VR content creation tools:
Atom View VR display engine allows filmmakers and 3D artists to convert captured real-world scans into cinematic-quality VR scenes and objects faster than than ever. The agnostic standalone tool able to accept captured data from all leading 3D scanners, offline graphics renderers, and 360 cameras, and efficiently convert this data to real-time VR content in just two steps. Inside, users can edit, color, import, and prepare data for export. Atom View outputs to multiple VR headset formats including Oculus Rift and HTC Vive; and it works with Unreal Engine 4 via its own plugin. Atom View has already been utilized on numerous VR films and commercials, including an upcoming Ridley Scott-produced Alien project directed by David Karlak.
Nu Design (powered by Atom View) is a virtual customizable, freeform space, in which multiple users can collaboratively create, assess, and mark up 3D environments. By combining the worlds of physical production and VFX in one VR space, directors, production heads, and producers can rapidly iterate and sketch out shots in a whole new approach to pre-production and pre-visualization. Both Atom View and Nu Design are now in beta with a commercial release is planned for later this year. Augmented Reality-compatible versions are also currently in development
Visit booth #1139 or nurulize.com to learn more.
StratusCore announced significant enhancements to its cloud-based Virtual Studio platform for digital artists and creative studios. The platform is already used by global content producers such as Sony, Sony Interactive, Universal, DreamWorks and Netflix, and more than 45,000 digital artists worldwide. This includes new Digital Escrow service with milestone-based review, approval, delivery and payment system; Virtual Workstation Anywhere program enabling creative work in game engines and 3D modeling programs over browser; specialized Game Development Virtual Workstation with access to Unity 2017 and Unreal Engine 4 (support for CRYENGINE and more in development); direct cloud rendering access via LaunchPad; and new pricing models for rendering software.
“There’s a massive opportunity to unleash significant efficiencies in digital content creation with the flexibility, intelligence and collaboration that only the cloud can impart,” said Denise Muyco, co-founder & CEO. “We are staying ahead of the pack by closely working with our artist community and partners to build a potent set of connected services that allow digital artists and studios to better compete in the digital content creation workplace.”
X-Rite Inc. and its subsidiary Pantone have announced that AMD Radeon ProRender for 3ds Max, Maya and Blender natively support the Appearance Exchange Format (AxF) it developed — and in a separate announcement, that Next Limit Technologies Maxwell 4.1 does as well. AxF is a vendor-neutral format that enables the communication of all aspects of a physical material’s appearance – color, texture, gloss, refraction, transparency, translucency, special effects (sparkles) and reflection properties – in a single, editable file to bring physically correct material representations to VFX, animation, product design and 3D visualization. New allies join other leading render and CAD tools Allegorithmic Substance Designer, Autodesk VRED Professional 2017, Lumiscaphe Patchwork 3D, Luxion KeyShot and NVIDIA Iray.
AxF is the foundational component of X-Rite’s Total Appearance Capture (TAC) ecosystem, a solution that brings a new level of accuracy and efficiency to the capture, communication and presentation of physical materials in the virtual world. This is comprised of the TAC7 scanner, PANTORA Material Hub desktop application, and Virtual Light Booth (VLB). Physical material samples are scanned using the TAC7 scanner, which captures appearance properties digitally to create AxF files that store appearance data. The files are stored, managed, viewed and edited in the PANTORA desktop application.
Visit booth #1104 to check out new integrations for AxF or learn more online.
Sony Pictures Television Networks has reached an agreement to acquire a substantial majority in leading anime distributor Funimation Productions, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. Gen Fukunaga, CEO of Funimation, will retain a minority stake and remain in his position.
“With Funimation’s long-established leadership position in anime and Sony’s direct access to the creative pipeline in Japan, it will be a great partnership to take Funimation to the next level,” Fukunaga said in the statement.
The announcement from Sony states that the deal values the company at “approximately $150 million.” Variety reports that the agreement is about $143 million for a 95% majority stake.
The acquisition would build on Sony Pictures Television Networks’ existing anime footprint established through its multiplatform network ANIMAX, currently operating in 23 countries (including Japan).
“Around the world, Sony’s networks have been major players in the anime space for nearly two decades, and in more recent years we have rapidly increased our networks’ over-the-top and digital offerings to consumers. With the acquisition of Funimation, the combined IP of ANIMAX, KIDS STATION and Funimation allows us to deliver the best anime to fans across all screens and platforms,” said Andy Kaplan, President, Worldwide Networks, Sony Pictures Television.
Based in Flower Mound, Texas, Funimation is North America’s top English-language anime provider, with a catalog of hit titles including Dragon Ball Z, Cowboy Bebop, One Piece, My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan. In addition to licensing and distributing Japanese content in the US, Funimation also operates SVOD service FunimationNOW.
Outgoing Chairman of Funimation, John A Kuelbs, and lead investor, Doug Deason, said, “Funimation experienced tremendous growth and success since 2011. We believe Sony, Gen and his team are uniquely positioned to lead Funimation and its fans into an exciting and entertaining future.”
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Funimation along with Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP acting as exclusive legal advisor. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as legal advisor to Sony Pictures Television Networks.
