As we at Animation Magazine reflect on 2015, it’s clear that this has been a most eventful year — both for the world at large and for our ever-growing, animated corner of it.
It is inspiring to see how artistic and technological innovation have once again impacted forever the global landscape of animation and visual effects, and we hope that our readers have enjoyed following the 2015 roller coaster as much as we have enjoyed reporting on it.
Thank you, readers, for continuing to support Animation Magazine both online and in print. We look forward to another year of sharing amazing films, inspiring people and as much news as we can pack into the pages with you in 2016. Until then, www.animationmagazine.net will be taking a short holiday break, and we’ll meet you back here on Monday, January 4.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
The Society of Illustrators has announced the inauguration of the M. Prize, a financial award to be given in memory of American cartoonist Timothy Patrick Moynihan to gold and silver medalists of the Comic and Cartoon Art Annual. Gold medalists will each receive $200, and silver medalists will get $100.
Timothy Patrick Moynihan grew up in Albany, NY, the son of late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Under the pseudonyms Mendl and Gus Murphy, Moynihan created the comic strip New Thermos, drew political cartoons and illustrated the music history Rock ‘n Woodstock in 1994. Moynihan also worked as a sculptor and created props for off-Broadway theatrical productions. The M. Prize was created by his family and friends in order to preserve his legacy.
The third Comic and Cartoon Art Annual is open for submissions in the categories of Long Form (Adult), Long Form (Kids/YA), Short Form, Special Format, Digital Media, Comic Strip and Single Image. Entries are considered by a jury of professionals, with the most outstanding work to be exhibited at the Society’s MoCCA Gallery from June 14 – August 20, 2016. Medals will be presented to works judged the best in each category at an opening reception June 17.
Book submissions must be received by the Society by January 5, 2016. The online submission deadline is February 12, 2016. More information is available at societyillustrators.org.
The end of year sales figures for popular media have been totted up, and the gruesome action-adventure franchise Attack on Titan tops the list for Japanese consumers. The anime series, based on the manga written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, is produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G and debuted in Japan in 2013 — it arrived Stateside last year thanks to online streaming distribution from FUNimation and Crunchyroll.
According to the figures compiled by Japanese entertainment news outlet Oricon (and translated by Anime News Network), the combined yield of Attack on Titan home video, music, novels and manga sales in Japan from December 8, 2014 to December 13, 2015 came to an estimated 7.3 billion yen (about $60.5 million USD). It is closely followed by perennial shounen favorite One Piece with 7.19 billion yen in sales.
The top 10 properties are rounded out by Nakaba Suzuki’s The Seven Deadly Sins (5.79 billion yen), Love Live! (5 billion yen), Kingdom (4.86 billion yen), Haikyu!! (4.775 billion yen), Mobile Suit Gundam (4.772 billion yen), Assassination Classroom (4.72 billion yen), The IDOLM@STER (4.719 billion yen) and Tokyo Ghoul (4.5 billion yen).
Sony Pictures Animation set release dates for three upcoming animated features to look forward to: The Emoji Movie will hit theaters August 11, 2017, followed by a new adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit on March 23, 2018 and finally a nudged back date for the untitled animated Spider-Man movie, which will now hit screens December 21, 2018 instead of during the summer blockbuster season that year.
SPA won a surprisingly heated bidding war for The Emoji Movie earlier this year, besting Paramount and Warner Bros. interests in the tiny characters. The project is being co-written by Eric Siegel (Men at Work) and Anthony Leondis (Igor), who is also directing.
The Spider-Man project is being written and produced by the masterful comedy flick team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street). The duo will most likely not be directing the film as they are also set for an upcoming Han Solo movie for Disney’s ambitious Star Wars franchise re-invigoration.
Entertainment Weekly has just dropped a handful of new photos for Disney and Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange movie, having just come out with an issue featuring the film. The images include pics of Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character as well as concept art from the production.
Directed by Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) from a script by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus), the comic-book adaptation is set to hit screens November 4, 2016 and will be an origin story of how neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange discovers a hidden universe of alternate dimensions and magical abilities. Cumberbatch stars alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor (Baron Mordo), Tilda Swinton (The Ancient One).
The feature story also reveals the roles to be played by previously announced co-stars Rachel McAdams and Mads Mikkelsen. While the characters remain unnamed, exec producer Stephen Broussard told the magazine that Mikkelsen will be the main villain who is a renegade sorcerer, while McAdams plays a fellow surgeon that has a history with Strange and serves as a connection between the main character’s past and his world-changing transformation.
Additional cast includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Scott Adkins and Amy Landecker.
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Japanese film distributor Toho has announced its 2016 release lineup, including the promise that Studio Ghibli’s feature co-production The Red Turtle, directed by Oscar-winning Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit (Father & Daughter) will hit Japanese screens in September. The project is co-produced with French production and distribution house Wild Bunch.
Announced back in April, The Red Turtle is the story of a man marooned on a desert island, desperate to escape, until an encounter with a strange sea turtle changes his life. The script is written by de Wit and director-screenwriter Pascale Ferran, whose 2006 film adaptation of Lady Chatterley won the Cesar Award for Best Film.
The project was conceived after Wild Bunch chief executive Vincent Maraval visited Studio Ghibli in 2008 and met with Hayao Miyazaki, who expressed an interest in meeting and working with de Wit based on his admiration for Father & Daughter. The Red Turtle is de Wit’s first feature-length animation.
During production, de Wit temporarily moved to Tokyo to work on the film’s storyboards at Ghibli’s Koganei headquarters, under the guidance of the film’s artistic producer Isao Takahata. Animation is currently being completed in France. Wild Bunch and Studio Ghibli previously collaborated on the 2010 film The Secret World of Arrietty.
Gaming fans now have their first glimpse of stars Michael Fassbender (who is also producing) and Marion Cotillard in character for New Regency’s live-action adaptation of hit franchise Assassin’s Creed. The film is directed by Aussie helmer Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders, Macbeth 2015) and will be released by Fox on December 21, 2016.
Assassin’s Creed, a historical fiction-action-adventure game series from Ubisoft, has proven one of the most popular game franchises of all time. In addition to selling 73 million copies and spawning roughly 20 titles, the property has spread across the pop culture landscape with comic books, novels, animated shorts and even its own encyclopedia. Although in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fassbender confessed to never having played the game until he got offered the role of Callum Lynch.
DreamWorks Animation’s prehistoric comedy Dawn of the Croods is now available on Netflix, and to celebrate they are offering a couple last clips and images. Check ’em out!
DreamWorks Dawn of the Croods 2015 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights (Photo: DreamWorks Animation)
Even Ahhh! Valley’s best bonker, Grug, and his all-important hunting rock are no match for these predators! Follow along as the Croods learn the tricks of escaping Ahhh! Valley’s most ferociously funny creatures.
DreamWorks Dawn of the Croods 2015 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights (Photo: DreamWorks Animation)
Once upon a time, Thunk told a riveting story about history’s first imaginary hero, Hunk Tugga-lug. There’s only one small problem: his family thinks the story is happening INSIDE Thunk’s head! See what happens when the Croods try to find Thunk’s “make-stuff-up place.”
Clip: “First Test”
Can Eep and Lerk outrun a Liyote and pass the first test EVER?
Clip: “Moon”
Croods do not back down from any challenge, including a fight with the moon!
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued to blast through box-office records at warp speed over the Christmas holiday, hitting the $1 billion milestone faster than any film in history and leading North American theaters’ biggest Christmas weekend ever, taking in $153.5 million for a domestic total of $544.6 million.
Force Awakens surpassed $1 billion on Sunday on its twelfth day out, edging past Jurassic World‘s previous record of 13 days. Jurassic World was helped significantly by a day-and-date China release which brought in an opening total of $100 million, while Force Awakens doesn’t arrive in Chinese theaters until January 9.
Jurassic World also had its biggest second weekend crown snatched by the new Star Wars.
In addition to the North American box-office, Force Awakens raked in $133.3 million overseas, totting up a foreign release total of $546 million and $1.09 billion worldwide. The largest hauls were from theaters in the U.K. ($97.2 million), Germany ($54.3 million), France ($47.8 million), Australia ($35.7 million) and Japan ($31.3 million).
This Christmas weekend saw a raft of new titles hitting screens, contributing to a record setting $300 million-plus draw. In addition to Star Wars, audiences flocked in for newly opened Daddy’s Home, Joy, Concussion, The Big Short and Point Break. Additionally, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant drew major crowds to select cinemas.
Lionsgate wants you to warm up and get your rear in gear to prepare for the January 15 launch of Norm of the North, an original CG animated family comedy from Splash Entertainment. So, gather up your lemmings and get dancey with “Arctic Shake.”
Directed by Trevor Wall, Norm of the North features the voices of Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, Gabriel Iglesias, Loretta Devine, Michael McElhatton, Colm Meaney and Bill Nighy.
Synopsis:
A polar bear of many words, Norm’s greatest gripe is simple: there is no room for tourists in the Arctic. But when a maniacal developer threatens to build luxury condos in his own backyard, Norm does what all normal polar bears would do…he heads to New York City to stop it. With a cast of ragtag lemmings at his side, Norm takes on the big apple, big business and a big identity crisis to save the day.
The colorful cast of beloved kids’ program Sesame Street welcomed some extra special celebrity guests to celebrate their return to TV on a brand new broadcast home in a new trailer. Big Bird, Elmo, Grover and the rest of the gang will be moving to HBO, starting January 16.
The minute-long teaser features favorite muppets playing along with some of their famous human friends who have appeared on the show: Pharrell Williams, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Usher and Tracee Ellis Ross. The new season will offer both premiere and classic episodes of the series to audiences, brought to you by the letters H-B-O.
HBO secured the Sesame Street deal over the summer, and will be delivering twice as much new Sesame content per season . PBS will be airing new episodes nine months after they debut on the cable network.
Aardman Animations and Google ATAP’s Spotlight Stories have debuted their first original short, Special Delivery, a holiday film using Spotlight’s unique interactive storytelling experience that is viewable on the YouTube app on many Android devices. The short is directed by Aardman’s Tim Ruffle.
Not wanting anyone to miss this “Pink Panther” style caper, a YouTube 360 version is also available for other Androids, iOS devices and web viewers. Both versions are available on the Spotlight Stories YouTube Channel, and can be viewed on Google Cardboard.
Special Delivery centers on a humble caretaker who is surprised by a mysterious stranger causing mischief on the roof. Setting out to investigate, he can’t seem to catch a glimpse of the interloper. As the chase goes on from room to room, up and down, the stranger remains elusive — leaving only a trail of gifts for the caretaker to follow. Viewers follow the action at their own pace from whatever angle, unlocking mini-stories within the short. The producers have woven in 10 subplots, three potential endings and over 60 decision moments for viewers to create an individual story experience.
DreamWorksTV invites you to celebrate a new annual tradition from the world of How to Train Your Dragon: the age old Viking tradition of Snoggletog. You can get into the spirit by watching a new “Toy-Motion” episode from Kevin Ulrich (BrotherhoodWorkshop), Hiccup & Toothless vs. The Skrill that Stole Snoggletog, animated using Ionix toys and stop-motion techniques.
Synopsis:
“Twas the night before Snoggletog, and all throughout Berk, not a creature was stirring ‘cept a viking at work. Hiccup & Astrid were fishing with dragons, unaware of what soon would happen! A hungry Skrill was all up in the sky, ready to attack! Help Toothless & Stormfly!”
Hiccup & Toothless vs. The Skrill that Stole Snoggletog
Redshift got to play Santa’s helper by delivering high-quality image rendering with a quick turnaround for Blue Zoo animation studio’s shiny new CG Christmas short, More Stuff. The production schedule allotted a mere eight weeks to deliver the two-minute musical treat.
Named a Vimeo Staff Pick, More Stuff is a hilarious singing, dancing celebration of the true meaning of Christmas: gratuitous consumerism. It features an assortment of mischievous elves mocking the latest must-have items of 2015 while cavorting around Santa’s sweatshop. The festive song was written and produced by musical comedian Ben Champion.
“We had just three weeks for lighting and rendering which is a really big challenge. To deal with this, we opted to use Redshift, as we knew it could deliver the very high quality visuals we wanted without missing our strict deadline,” says Blue Zoo co-founder & producer Tom Box. “The first things we made were the characters – the speed at which we could look dev these using Redshift was incredible. It set the team’s render benchmark very high from the start, and was the main driving factor of the quality across the project from then on. They say you can’t have quality, speed and budget efficiency at the same time – I think Redshift has well and truly broken that rule!”
Redshift was recently given the Best New Application honors at the 2015 CG Awards. It is the world’s fastest production-quality, final-frame GPU renderer. Blue Zoo in London was an early adapter, and has been using the solution since February.
Nashville’s Magnetic Dreams, a multiple Emmy award-winning studio, recently had the opportunity to work with writer and executive producer Jeff Galle on the independent feature film Yellow Day, a stunning combination live-action and CG animation film about a young man’s spiritual journey as he relentlessly searches for his lost love.
“Working with Magnetic Dreams on Yellow Day was awesome, and we were thrilled to achieve such high quality effects on a reasonably sized independent film. We have been greeted with numerous compliments by industry professionals, who have been taken aback by the complex blend of live action and 3D animation, particularly on a film of our size. It’s been super exciting for us,” said Galle.
Once the film was shot, Magnetic Dreams was brought on board to discuss the animated portions of the film and VFX touch-ups. The studio generated approximately 140 shots of fully animated content and visual effects. From the onset, Don Culwell, EVP at Magnetic Dreams, requested that Blackmagic Design’s visual effects and motion graphics solution, Fusion, be used for all compositing. “Many of the shots took place in a dark foggy world and the ability to create and fine tune the fog in Fusion was a huge time saver,” explained Culwell.
Joël Gibbs, compositing supervisor at Magnetic Dreams, was asked to do some tests with the volume tools in Fusion, “Everyone was blown away by the results. It became apparent that many steps traditionally handled by our main DCC app could be handled by Fusion, freeing up artists and making director tweaks more accessible. The look of the fog was easy to manipulate and tweak and the speed was amazing. A mid-range NvidiaGTX 770 was getting updated fog (between 4-6 Volume fog nodes with various noise settings per scene) in 2 to 4 seconds working at 2K.”
Magnetic Dreams relied heavily on Fusion’s volume mask tools primarily for color correction. “When combined with a world position pass, I could pinpoint a single area on the set that I wanted to darken or highlight and the mask would stick to that point throughout the shot,” elaborated Gibbs, “and since it was based on a world position pass, the settings worked from one shot to the next as long as I was in the same environment. That made setting up similar shots super fast!
“Another more specific use of the volume mask was to transition from the dark night world to the daytime world. In a majestic camera pull out, the world changes from dark and foggy to sunny and colorful. We could have used a regular mask, but having access to the volume mask made it so that the mask was actually pushing through the trees. The fog really felt like it was being pushed away.”
Taking advantage of Fusion’s scripting capabilities, Magnetic Dreams built in-house tools to speed up the comp setup time. “Echo, written by Tim Crowson, is like a shot duplicator tool. You set a shot up and then you can select which other shots in your sequence have the same set up. Then it goes in and creates a new comp, changes loaders, changes savers, and saves the comp in the right location.” explained Gibbs. “We have a few other pipeline scripts that also help us manage 3D render passes. They worked wonders on Yellow Day and we plan to expand them for projects in the future.”
Gibbs explained that it took a few projects before they fully understood how invaluable Fusion would become to their workflow, “We had an opportunity to work on a music video ‘We Both Know,’ directed by Roman White for Relativity’s feature film Safe Haven … It required environment creation with some water and pier extension for footage all shot on green screen. Inspired by Uncharted Territory’s work on [Roland Emmerich’s] Anonymous,” continued Gibbs, “I jumped in and was able to knock out 40 – 50 shots in under two weeks!”
Yellow DayYellow DayYellow DayYellow DayYellow DayYellow DayYellow DayYellow Day
Specializing in motion graphics, 3D animation, compositing, and visual effects, Magnetic Dreams has a popular roster of clients and productions for the commercial, film and video, and broadcast markets, including Taylor Swift’s “Fifteen” music video, several projects for the classic children’s series “Sesame Street,” and Marvel’s “Iron Man Extremis” and “Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers.”
[This story was prepared by Blackmagic Design and edited for this post by Animation Magazine.]
Financially troubled Hong Kong animation studio Imagi International, which produced 2007’s TMNT, made public Friday that two of its mainland Chinese board directors have gone missing. Imagi has not been able to contact chairman Shan Jiuliang since mid-October, and non-executive director Wen Di has not been heard from since November 8. The company has set up a special committee “to protect the company’s interests and assets.”
Many in China generally assume such disappearances are the result of secretive arrests made as part of the country’s various (and increasing) corruption probes. Such arrests and detainments have been growing under President Xi Jinping, and the government rarely reveals details of the allegations, or where or by whom the detainee is being held.
According to Patrick Frater’s report for The Boston Herald, the disappearances of Shan and Wen are part of a growing pattern of Hong Kong companies being affected by mainland Chinese judiciary actions. Earlier this month, prominent businessman Guo Guangchang was reported missing by entertainment conglomerate Fosun International but resurfaced after four days. Alibaba Pictures Group head Patrick Liu Chunning was also detained earlier this year.
Having enjoyed a brilliant reception for Shaun the Sheep Movie, Aardman has inked deals with two major partners for the charming non-dialog series in the U.S.
On the home entertainment front, Lionsgate has picked up the entire Shaun the Sheep catalogue of five seasons and the new half-hour special The Farmer’s Llamas. Home releases will begin rolling out at major entertainment retailers beginning February 23.
And in broadcast, Turner Broadcasting will be bringing all five seasons of the show to young fans on its Boomerang channel.
These deals follow an agreement with Amazon Prime Video for the U.S. launch of The Farmer’s Llamas, as well as a new partnership with JLK Licensing which will build a long-term licensing and merchandising program for the brand Stateside.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the ten remaining films in the ongoing race for the Visual Effects category for the 88th Academy Awards, being held in Hollywood February 28. The shortlist was determined by the Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee.
The films are listed below in alphabetical order:
•Ant-Man •Avengers: Age of Ultron •Ex Machina •Jurassic World •Mad Max: Fury Road •The Martian •The Revenant •Star Wars: The Force Awakens •Tomorrowland •The Walk
All members of the VFX Branch will now be invited to view 10-minute excerpts of each film on January 9, whereafter the members will vote for the five films to attain Oscar nomination slots. Nominations will be announced January 14.
Amazon Studios has reaped a new harvest from its latest fall pilot season, giving the green light to three original kids series and placing an order for a third season of Tumble Leaf, which this year picked up five Daytime Emmy Awards on top of other notable honors from Annecy, the Annies and Parents’ Choice.
New series Danger & Eggs, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Niko and the Sword of Light will be available exclusively through Amazon’s Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan and Austria. Tumble Leaf is created by Drew Hodges , and the third stop-motion animated season will again be executive produced by Hodges and Kelli Bixler of Bix Pix Entertainment.
Danger & Eggs for kids 6-11 is created by Mike Owens (Yo Gabba Gabba!) and Shadi Petosky (MAD). The show centers on fearless stuntwoman D.D. Danger and her hyper cautious best friend Phillip — a giant talking egg. The voice cast features Saturday Night Live comedians Aidy Bryant and Eric Knobel, and is produced by Petosky and Chris Hardwick’s Puny Entertainment.
Niko and the Sword of Light (kids 6-11) was passed over earlier this year but now will go into production at Titmouse Animation Studio. Written by Rob Hoegee (Generator Rex, League of Super Evil) and based on the motion graphic comic from Imaginism Studios and Studio NX, Niko is an epic tale of a 10-year-old boy who is the last of his kind, set in a strange fantasy world.
And, a fresh animated series based on the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond will get a 26-episode season, aimed at preschoolers. The adaptation is being written and adapted by Ken Scarborough, whose credits include Arthur and Doug.
Reel FX, the L.A. and Dallas-based studio behind The Book of Life, is offering up details of its latest feature project, Wish Police, including the first concept painting for the film. Due out in late 2017 to early 2018, the project has also picked up key additions to the production and art teams.
Based on the novella by Daniel Nayeri, Wish Police is set in a world where children’s bad wishes come to life as mayhem-making villains, and a secret organization called The Wish Police must work around the clock to snag the evildoers and keep the world safe. The award-winning Spanish director trio known as Headless — a.k.a. Adrian Garcia, Alfredo Torres and Victor Maldonado — is at the helm.
Reel FX has enlisted industry veteran Kirk Bodyfelt (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Open Season 2 & 3) to produce the film. Bodyfelt was previously at Paramount Animation, and was one of the founders of Sony Pictures Animation. His career began at Disney Feature Animation, where he worked in production on Mulan, The Lion King and Tarzan.
Also on board are The Neuland’s Annie-nominated production designer Patrick Hanenberger (Rise of the Guardians) and art director Margaret Wuller (How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods). They will lead visual development alongside the directors.
“We couldn’t be happier to unveil a glimpse of the unique visual style of Wish Police,” says director Victor Maldonado. “We think our color palette and character designs – which you see only a hint of here – feel fresh and unexpected. We want to create a film whose visuals are as moving as its story.”
