Marza Animation Planet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. in Japan, has started pre-production on its first original CG-animated feature, Robodog. The news was announced by the studio’s new CEO Masanao Maeda, who recently joined the company after spending 20 years as president and COO of Sega.
Marza has ramped up its animation production capabilities and plans to produce one feature film every 12 months. In addition to Maeda, the Marza animation team includes exec VP Kazunobu Takita, head of production Jeannette Manifold (Happy Feet, All Dogs Go to Heaven) and Ai Inoue and Mei Onishi in charge of marketing and distribution.
Robodog will be directed by Henry F. Anderson III (animation director on Gnomeo & Juliet) and written by Robert Reese. The pic will be produced by Paul Wang (Astro Boy, TMNT).
The movie is described as a “heartwarming family adventure about two dogs that couldn’t be more different from one another. One is a bright and energetic Robotic dog and the other, an old and grumpy real dog who’s seen it all. The unlikely duo make a classic odd couple as they embark on an adventure of a lifetime as they learn about their place in the world and the true nature of friendship.”
Company executives Masanao Maeda, Kazunobu Takita, Ai Inoue and Mie Onishi will be in Cannes at the upcoming film festival to introduce Robodog to sales companies and distributors and explore additional strategic partnerships for this film and other projects in development.
Visual effects icon Ray Harryhausen, whose stop-motion creations brought many monsters alive in movies such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, died on Tuesday morning (May 7) at age 92. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he lived in the U.K. for several decades with his wife Diana.
“Harryhausen’s genius was in being able to bring his models alive,” said an official statement from his foundation. “Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray’s hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right.”
Born in Los Angeles in June 1920, Harryhausen had a deep love for dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures which led him to make his own version of the animals. According to biographers, movies such as the 1925 epic The Lost World and the 1933 version of King Kong led him to seek a meeting with model animation master Willis O’Brien when he was starting out. His first commercial job was working on George Pal’s Puppetoon shorts.
Harryhausen joined Frank Capra’s film unit during the Second World War and helped make the influential Why We Fight series to help the American war effort. After the war, he was hired by O’Brien to create the ape in the 1949 movie Mighty Joe Young, which got him his first Academy Award. He then went on to create some of the most memorable fantasy creatures of all time in beloved classics such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Mysterious Island (1961), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), One Million Years B.C. (1966), The Valley of Gwangi (1969), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Clash of the Titans (1981). Many will forever remember him for the remarkable sequence of the fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts and the realistic Medusa in the original Clash of the Titans. In 1992 Harryhausen received a special Oscar to honor his work with special effects.
Through his amazing creations, Harryhausen inspired new generation of vfx artists, directors and animators, including industry giants such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson.
Spielberg said Harryhausen’s “inspiration goes with us forever” while Cameron said Hollywood science fiction filmmakers had been “standing on the shoulders of a giant”. George Lucas noted, “The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much.”
Aardman Animations’ founder Peter Lord described Harryhausen as “a one-man industry and a one-man genre” on Twitter while Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit called Harryhausen the “king of stop-motion animation.”
Visual effects master Phil Tippett told Variety, “He was the guy that everybody was inspired by to do visual effects work. He was the singular creative person, so he inspired a lot of singular artists. It wasn’t like the head of a studio turning out stuff. He was a singular craftsman who shaped all the movies he worked on from cradle to grave. He was there on the set making sure everything was shot the right way and finished it all up. He was a total filmmaker that had his hands in everything … Nobody else has done anything like that. Or had such an impact.”
Disney Channel has promoted Adam Bonnett to the newly created position of Disney Channels Worldwide exec VP of original programming. The announcement was made today by Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide, to whom Bonnett reports.
Marsh said, “Adam is an extraordinarily talented executive who brilliantly blends great storytelling with great comedy and in doing so, has helped create the #1 kids network on television. His instinct for finding and developing the nucleus of what makes great kid and family programming is unrivaled.”
Bonnett will continue to oversee all live action development and current original series and movies for Disney Channel and Disney XD as well as casting and talent relations for those channels.
Bonnett leads the programming development team responsible for developing shows such as Good Luck Charlie, Jessie, Shake It Up, Austin & Ally, and A.N.T. Farm. He also developed Disney Channel’s Dog With A Blog, as well as upcoming series Liv and Maddie and the Disney Channel movies Teen Beach Movie and Cloud 9. Among the other shows he developed at Disney over the past 16 years are Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, The Suite Life on Deck, Sonny With A Chance, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens and the animated hits The Proud Family and Disney’s Kim Possible.
Born and raised in Washington D.C., Bonnett earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cinema Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He is based in Los Angeles, California.
Nickelodeon has announced the 12 winners of its second annual Animated Shorts Program, which is designed to identify and develop original comedy-driven content for kids. The cabler says this year, the program received close to 900 pitches from artists, designers, writers, directors and comedians globally. The winners will be developed as animated shorts with the potential to air on Nickelodeon, appear on www.nick.com, or on the recently launched Nick App. Nick also plans to expand the shorts program and launch an international version in the coming months.
“Nickelodeon received a striking response from all corners of the globe during the 2013 Animated Shorts Program submission period,” said Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon President of Content Development and Production. “We’re thrilled to develop the new characters, relatable storylines and funny kid-inspired content from these 12 concepts into fully realized animated shorts.”
Concepts were received in all animation styles, from 2D, digital 2D, stop motion, CG and mixed media, from a broad pool of creative talent. Creators of the 12 shorts will be provided with the necessary artistic and production support teams to help them complete their fully animated original, humor-based and character-driven shorts.
“In only our second year of the program, we have already tapped into a broad pool of talented artists, designers and directors,” said Jenna Boyd, Nick’s senior VP of animation development. We look forward to developing this original and innovative content across all of our platforms, especially our Nick App which is really resonating with our audience.”
Among the finalists this year:
Bug Salad, from Sanjay and Craig director Carl Faruolo, centers on a naïve fly pulled between two friends, one that’s scared of everything and one that’s fearless.
Earmouse and Bottle, by storyboard artist Brian Morante, tells the tale of an indestructible Earmouse and a fragile Bottle that seek revenge after they are cursed by an evil wizard.
Welcome to Woostump, from artist Zach Smith, Dennis Deer finds himself on an epic quest to get home unseen when he discovers that he’s been accidentally wearing his mom’s jeans.
Jack Casumano’s Broats follows the adventures of three slacker bro goats who capitalize on their “goatiness” by running their own petting zoo at Shopmerica.
Last year, more than 600 pitches were collected during Nickelodeon’s inaugural Animated Shorts Program. From the pitches, 12 shorts were created, six are currently in series development and two will get pilot orders. All 12 will air on the network, or appear on www.nick.com or on Nickelodeon’s new app. Pam and Sid’s Port-a-Party, is one of shorts that is available on the Nick App.
Dark Planet Comics has released its first digital comic, Silver #1, now available for download on ComiXology. The 12-issue miniseries marks the comic book debut of animation veteran Stephan Franck, whose many credits include supervising animator on The Iron Giant, storyboard artist on Despicable Me and story artist on How to Train Your Dragon.
Set in a 1930s extension of Bram Stoker’s universe, and steeped in the pulp tradition, Silver introduces James Finnigan, a witty but (figuratively) soulless con man, who sets out to separate the living-dead from their silver. As Finnigan assembles the crew of talented but broken misfits needed to pull off the heist of the last ten centuries, personality conflicts, emotional entanglements and character comedy abound.
With Silver, Franck offers a combination of light tone and character depth that has served him in the animation field.
“Silver is about fathers,” Franck says. “It’s about sons. Sons who had bad fathers, and who carry the fear of not knowing how to be good into manhood. Ultimately, it’s about greed and emptiness versus the elusiveness of feeling alive.”
Franck had originally written Silver as a spec movie script, but he decided it would be a better idea to launch the concept as a graphic novel independently.
At its annual MAX conference today in Los Angeles, Adobe Systems announced that its market leading Creative Suite, will be replaced entirely by Creative Cloud, the company’s software subscription option. The new suite version ties in with the company’s push to this Creative Cloud subscription model that includes downloads of updated apps for subscribers along with new collaboration tools and online services.
The new suite version will become available on June 17, according to the company. All the applications will be included in the $49.99 a month subscription. Adobe launched Creative Cloud in April 2012, and since then, over a half million members have joined at the premium level. The company offers 20 new features for the suite applications, including brand-new apps like Edge Animate and Muse Mobile, tools for creating Flash-like effects using HTML5 and producing mobile websites from designs without coding. As a result of this new strategy, subscribers will no longer have to wait up to a year to purchase the next release to get new features.
This update to Creative Cloud includes the next generation of Adobe desktop applications — including Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC and Premiere Pro CC.
The Creative Cloud enables the new Adobe CC tools to be much more collaborative and readily available. Settings, styles, fonts, colors, and assets are now synced and available across all desktops and mobile devices and allow users to be connected to the resources and people they need.
With Creative Cloud membership, users now have the new Sync Settings feature in Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe After Effects CC, which enables them to synchronize preferences, including keyboard shortcuts and workspaces, across multiple computers.
Creative Cloud membership now includes integration Behance so members can upload their portfolios and share their ideas and projects with one of the largest online creative communities
Creative Cloud members have access to a rich library of tutorials from both Adobe and industry-leading partners to help customers learn new tools and techniques fast.
Adobe also unveiled the release of its new Photoshop CC as part of a major update to Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe Photoshop CC will be available, exclusively to Creative Cloud members, in June.
Adobe’s desktop apps, including Photoshop, were previously known as Creative Suite(R) (CS), and will now be branded CC to reflect that they are an integral part of Creative Cloud and have been reinvented to support a more intuitive, connected way of creating. Photoshop CC includes a wide range of innovative enhancements, including new image deblurring and sharpening features to improve design workflows, and new Camera Raw capabilities. This update combines Photoshop standard and Photoshop Extended features to deliver greater accessibility to 3D tools and image analysis, while Creative Cloud integration offers flexible collaboration and sharing capabilities.
New Features in Photoshop CC include:
– A fleet of new tools introduce the most advanced deblurring and sharpening technologies to date. The new Camera Shake Reduction tool analyzes and corrects for blur from camera movement to produce a better image. The all-new Smart Sharpen tool uses adaptive sharpening algorithms to minimize noise and halo effects while producing high-quality results. With intelligent upsampling users can increase the size of an image – large enough for a billboard – without pixelating the image.
– Adobe Camera Raw 8 brings three new photo-editing capabilities to Photoshop CC. The Advanced Healing brush allows photographers to “heal” or “patch” images with a brush stroke instead of a circular area. The new Radial Gradient offers powerful controls to draw attention to the focus of an image without applying a standard vignette, and the Upright tool automatically straightens horizons and applies perspective corrections without distorting the image. Camera Raw edits can also be made to any layer or file within Photoshop CC.
For designers, improvements to rounded rectangles add the ability to adjust corner radii at any time. Users can also now select multiple paths, shapes and vectors at once, providing a faster, easier workflow for working with multiple objects.
In previous releases, Adobe Photoshop Extended was released as a separate application comprising all Photoshop features as well as 3D and image analysis capabilities. Beginning with Photoshop CC, all Photoshop Extended features will be integrated within one application, providing all users with advanced capabilities for 3D image editing and image analysis.
Photoshop CC is the first Adobe desktop app to include the ability to post files directly to Behance from within the application, showcasing work immediately and integrating peer feedback into the creative process. Behance is the world’s leading online creative community, with over 1.4 million members.
Photoshop CC includes all the Photoshop feature innovation delivered exclusively to Creative Cloud members over the last year, including: Smart Object support for Blur Gallery and Liquify effects, Conditional Actions, and CSS support for faster web design.
Adobe is also previewing a new workflow from Photoshop CC to Edge Reflow CC that will enable creatives to build web designs in Photoshop that can easily be turned into responsive websites, viewable across devices. Adobe expects to update Photoshop CC with this new capability this summer, underscoring the constant steam of innovation delivered to Creative Cloud members.
A new Disney animated feature may be the next stop for Arrested Development star Jason Bateman. According to an item in The Hollywood Reporter, the actor is in talks to work on the next big Disney toon, set to be directed by Byron Howard of Tangled and Bolt fame. Before co-directing the two Disney pics, Howard worked on a string of the studio’s titles, including Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch and Brother Bear.
Bateman also lent his voice to the Fox school-set animated series Sit Down, Shut Up, which was created by Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) among other shows.
Disney Animation’s Frozen, a new take on the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Snow Queen will be released Nov. 27, 2013. The much-anticipated fairy tale is directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee and features the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff. The studio has another untitled secret project slated for November of 2014. DisneyToon’s Planes comes out on August 7, 2013.
Zoidberg will find true love in an upcoming episode of Futurama, when the final season of show returns to Comedy Central in June. Entertainment Weekly broke the story last week that the show’s popular decapodian will find a romantic interest in a flower stand owner with no sense of smell, voiced by Game of Throne’s Emilia Clarke.
“She falls in love with Dr. Zoidberg — the smelliest character on Earth in the future — but she can’t smell him, so it’s a match made in heaven,” series executive producer David X. Cohen told ew.com. “However, being a doctor, he has the opportunity to perform a nose transplant and give her a sense of smell, which would destroy their romance, so it’s a big dilemma.”
Clarke’s episode is slated to air as the second-to-last episode of the series. Futurama will end its seven-season run of 140 episodes on Sept. 4 on Comedy Central.
Disney and Electronic Arts today announced a new multi-year exclusive agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on Star Wars characters and storylines. EA will develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres, while Disney will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.
“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive. “Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.”
“Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau. “Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.”
The Disney/Marvel tentpole Iron Man 3 proved its mettle this weekend by opening to $175.3 million in North America, and becoming the second highest debut of all time right behind Marvel’s The Avengers ($207.4 million) in 2012.
Meanwhile in foreign territories, the film hit the $175.9 million in its second weekend, bringing its cume up to a hefty $680.1 million. In China, the film scored a very impressive $63.5 million, the top opening of all time for a Marvel film. Industry observers are also predicting strong performances for Marvel’s two other big titles—Thor: The Dark World, which opens Nov. 8, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, opening April 14, 2014.
Universal’s Tom Cruise sci-fi actioner Oblivion dropped to the No. 4 spot with another $5.8 million (cume of $76 million) and DreamWorks’ caveman comedy The Croods landed on the No. 5 spot again with another $945,000, bringing its U.S. cume to $14.2 million. Worldwide the feature has made over $517.9 million during its 45 days in theaters.
Is there some sort of curse on the role of the villain Eduardo in the upcoming sequel Despicable Me 2? Over the weekend, Deadline.com reported that Al Pacino had exited the role in the Universal/Illumination’s upcoming summer movie. The studio cited the reason as “creative differences.” You might recall that Pacino stepped in when Spanish star Javier Bardem vacated the role last year. Now Benjamin Bratt (Traffic, Snitch, Law and Order) has taken over the role from Pacino. Bratt also voiced the character Manny in Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its upcoming sequel.
Slated for a July 3 release, the sequel is directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. The pic features the voice of Steve Carell, who reprises his role as the project’s central character, Gru. The voice cast also includes Kristen Wiig, Ken Jeong, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand and Steve Coogan. Illumination founder and president Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy are the toon’s exec producers. The original Despicable Me movie was a huge hit and brought in over $540 million worldwide in 2010.
It looks like Loren Bouchard’s dysfunctional Bob’s Burgers will be flipping their goods on Adult Swim in the near future. Deadline.com reports that Adult Swim has picked up the off-network cable rights to the 20th Century Fox TV’s animated hit. The deal includes the first three seasons of of Bob’s Burgers, which will begin airing on Adult Swim this summer. Bob’s Burgers will join The Cleveland Show, Family Guy and King of the Hill on the Adult Swim block.
Bob’s Burgers first debuted on Fox in January of 2011 and received an Emmy nomination for Best Animated Program last year. The series, which will begins its fourth season next fall, centers on the Belchers – parents Bob and Linda, and their children Tina, Gene, and Louise who run a burger joint. Bouchard writes and exec producers the show with Jim Dauterive.
“We hope that this deal makes Loren Bouchard filthy rich. After working on great shows like Home Movies and Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, he deserves it,” said Mike Lazzo, senior VP of programming and production for Adult Swim.
The Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival is accepting entries for its upcoming edition, which will take place on October 18, 19 and 20, 2013. The deadline for film entries is September 20, 2013.
Started in 2009 and now preparing its fifth edition, the Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival is the world’s first festival dedicated exclusively to films made using stop motion animation.
The festival has been host to many special guests, including Oscar-winner Co Hoedeman, Barry JC Purves, (Next, Plume) Peter Saunders of Mackinnon & Saunders (Corpse Bride), Mark Shapiro (ParaNorman) and Merlin Crossingham (Aardman).
Each year, the Festival offers family-friendly stop motion workshops, guest lectures from international experts in the field, and the best stop motion films from around the world.
The Montreal Stop Motion film Festival was launched by Concordia University teacher Erik H. Goulet in 2001. For more info, visit www.stopmotionmontreal.com.
The 47 finalists in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards competition were announced on Wednesday. The winners will come to Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Previous student Oscar winners include luminaries such as John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Robert Zemeckis and Trey Parker. Nine projects were selected in the animation category. They are:
Couch & Potatoes, Chris Lam and Eunsoo Jeong, San Jose State University
Dia de los Muertos, Lindsey St. Pierre and Ashley Graham, Ringling College of Art and Design
Drifters, Ethan Clarke, California Institute of the Arts
Make a Wish, Heejin Kim, School of Visual Arts
Peck Pocketed, Kevin Herron, Ringling College of Art and Design
Runaway, Emily Buchanan and Esther Parobek, Ringling College of Art and Design
Still I Breathe, Sang Ho Lee, School of Visual Arts
Watercolors, Robert Kornstein, New York University
Will, Eusong Lee, California Institute of the Arts
As Disney/Marvel’s Iron Man 3 crosses the $300 million line overseas—the pic has grossed over $307.7 million through Wednesday. The studio is expecting the Shane Black-directed pic to deliver huge numbers Stateside during its Thursday night and Friday shows. The movie’s Chinese opening day on Thursday brought in $21.5 million, surpassing The Avengers’ 2012 record. Deadline reports that on Friday, Iron Man 3 will pass the total international box office cume for Iron Man 2 of $312 million on its 9th day of release.
Industry watchers are predicting the threequel to perform in the $165 million to $180 million range this weekend. Online ticket outfit Fandango also reported that Iron Man 3 is making up 86% of its weekly sales.
The Chinese version of the movies offers four minutes of additional footage, which includes a new character named Dr Wu played by local actor Wang Xueqi. The Chinese sequence showcases the film’s hero Tony Stark being treated by a Chinese doctor in a mix of surgery and acupuncture!
Wacom has released the new Cintiq 22HD touch, a state-of-the-art addition to its expanding interactive pen display portfolio, now featuring multi-touch. Combining multi-touch with Wacom’s renowned pen technology, the new Cintiq 22HD touch offers an immersive on-screen experience and a more intuitive and natural way to work.
Additional features including a 21.5 full HD display, an ergonomic rotating stand and 16 customizable ExpressKeys, make the Cintiq 22HD touch an ideal creative platform for graphic designers, animators and game developers.
The new release gives users the power to work with digital tools in a completely natural and intuitive way, multi-touch supports gestures for rotating canvases, zooming and panning. The Cintiq 22HD touch closely replicates the experience of working with two hands when using traditional materials such as paints and markers, while giving the artist powerful capabilities that only exist in today’s creative software applications. Windows 7/8 and Mac OS users can benefit from touch savvy applications such as Corel’s latest Painter 12.2 update and Autodesk’s Mudbox and Sketchbook Pro.
The Cintiq 22HD touch offers a wide-format, full HD LCD with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. Combined with brilliant color quality, offering 16.7 million colors, the Cintiq 22HD touch provides an organic and immersive experience to users.
The Cintiq 22HD touch provides best-in-class ergonomics, helping professionals increase comfort and productivity. The adjustable stand allows for real display rotation, offering both landscape and portrait viewing angles as well as the option to set an incline between 10° and 65°. Its multi-touch capabilities also provide users the option to quickly and easily rotate canvases on screen using gestures, perfect for illustration, sketching and painting.
The Cintiq 22HD touch offers 16 customizable, application-specific ExpressKeys located on each side of the display’s bezel. User-defined Touch Strips, conveniently placed on the back of the display can also be used for such functions as zoom, scroll, brush size adjustment and canvas rotation.
Delivering virtually the same feel and feedback as traditional brushes and pens, the Cintiq 22HD touch features Wacom’s professional pen performance, providing 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt recognition to produce dazzling artistic effects within creative software applications from Adobe, Corel, Autodesk and many more. The Cintiq 22HD touch supports the optionally available Art Pen and Airbrush to deliver natural brush effects within Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (CS3 and above) as well as Corel Painter (10 and above).
With the existing 13HD, 22HD, 24HD and 24HD touch, there is a Cintiq interactive pen display to suit a wide variety of workflow requirements and budgets. For more info, visit www.wacom.com/en/products/pen-displays/cintiq.
Thinkbox Software has unveiled Stoke MX, a particle simulator plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max designed to simplify and accelerate the creation of high-volume particle clouds driven by velocity fields.
Stoke MX supports a large number of emitter and velocity sources, and introduces new workflows. Previously unavailable capabilities include multi-threaded particle advection, rapid memory-buffered playback, and asynchronous multi-threaded particle file saving, which enables significantly higher performance compared to existing workflows.
Key features of Stoke MX include:
Quick particle generation from other particle systems, geometry surfaces, volumes, vertices and edges including selection and soft-selection support, as well as from Sitni Sati’s FumeFX simulations.
Optional emitter channel acquisition with minimal overhead
Particle advection using velocities from other particle systems or files, 3ds Max force space warps, FumeFX simulations, Thinkbox’s Ember simulations, and other Stoke simulations
Velocity field mixing, scaling and optional divergence removal from particle-based velocity fields to produce uncompressible fluid motion
Flexible memory caching for fast simulation iterations and interactive viewport playback
PRT file saving using one or more background threads, decoupling the simulation from the particle saving process for even faster iterations
Integration with local and Thinkbox’s Deadline partitioning
Extensive MAXScript exposure enabling the creation of custom Stoke-based tools
Compatible with the Thinkbox’s Krakatoa MX high-volume particle renderer and its various components including PRT Loader and other PRT objects, Magma and delete modifiers, particle data viewer, etc
Compatible with Thinkbox Software’s Frost particle mesher (version 1.3.5 and higher)
“The flexibility of Stoke is phenomenal so we are super excited to see what artists can do with it,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software. “Stoke enables a completely new way of working. Instead of being stuck in a rigid linear simulation workflow, artists can essentially layer their particles and work backwards to mix, enhance or alter simulation data quickly and easily without having to re-simulate. It opens up a lot of possibilities.”
The Stoke MX base package includes one workstation and two network simulation licenses. Additional network simulation licenses can be purchased individually. To request a 15-day evaluation license, or for more information about Stoke MX, including pricing, visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales.
The British Film Institute has awarded 20 production companies a share of $4.3 million (£2.8 million) handed out separately from a cash pool from 170 applicants. The BFI provided its Vision Award for up to $310,000 (£200,000) to each selected applicant over two years for film development and company growth.
The BFI said the companies each demonstrated a clear strategic vision for their future growth as well as a commitment to nurturing a diverse range of new voices and fresh ideas from across the UK, with a focus on creative excellence running through all the proposals. For the first time, thanks to the recently introduced UK tax credit for animation, four animation studios were selected for the prize.
The animation awardees were Lupus Films (Ruth Fielding and Camillan Deakin), Nexus Productions (Christopher O’Reilly, Charlotte Bavasso and Claire Jennings), Blue-Zoo Animation (Oli Hyatt, Tom Box and Adam Shaw) and Flickerpix (Joel Simon, David Cumming and Tim Bryans).
The list of Daytime Emmy nominations were announced earlier this morning (Wednesday, May 1). Nickelodeon was the clear leader in the Children’s Animated Program race, with four out of five nominated shows (Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Penguins of Madagascar, Robot and Monster, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) going against PBS’ sole contender Wordgirl.
In the Preschool Animated Program category, Nick’s Bubble Guppies will be competing against PBS’ Dinosaur Train, Disney Channel’s Jake and the Never Land Pirates and Sprout/Guru Studio’s Justin Time.
The Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation Emmy winners are:
Joel Fajnor, Art Director
(Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness “Kung Fu DayCare”) Nickelodeon
Bill Dely, Color Designer
(Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness “KungShoes”) Nickelodeon
Jason Park, Background Designer
(Transformers: Prime “Orion Pax – Part3”) The Hub
Arato Kato, Character Animator
(Transformers: Prime “Hard Knocks”) The Hub
Kirk Van Wormer, Storyboard Artist
(Transformers: Prime “Nemesis Prime”) The Hub
Robert Kline, Storyboard Artist
(Disney’s Minnie’s Bow-Toons “Piano Movers and Shakers) Disney Channel
Here is the complete list of animation-related categories and nominees:
OUTSTANDING CHILDREN’S ANIMATED PROGRAM
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Nickelodeon
Peter Hastings, Executive Producer Bret Haaland, Co-Executive Producer, Supervising Producer Randy Dormans, Gabe Swarr, Supervising Producers Andrew Huebner, Producer
Penguins of Madagascar, Nickelodeon
Bob Schooley, Mark McCorkle, Executive Producers Bret Haaland, Co-Executive Producer Nick Filippi, Ant Ward, Chris Neuhahn, Supervising Producers Andrew Huebner, Producer
Robot and Monster, Nickelodeon
Dave Pressler, Joshua Sternin,
J.R. Ventimilia, Executive Producers Martin Leeper, Jim Schumann, Supervising Producers Monique Beatty, Producer
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon
Joshua Sternin, J.R. Ventimilia, Peter Hastings,
Ciro Nieli, Executive Producers Ant Ward, Supervising Producer MacGregor Middleton, Producer
WordGirl, PBS
Deborah Forte, Executive Producer David Trexler, Supervising Producer Danielle Gillis, Producer John Lynn, Line Producer
OUTSTANDING CHILDREN’S SERIES
The Aquabats! SuperShow!, The HUB
Bob Higgins, Jon Berrett,
Christian Jacobs, Scott Schultz, Executive Producers Ritamarie Peruggi, Supervising Producer Nate Rogers, Justin Lyon, Producers Irene Diaz Oncley, Line Producer
EverydayHealth, SYNDICATED
Dave Morgan, Peter Sniderman, Mark Koops, Jared Tobman,
Ben Wolin, Mike Keriakos, Executive Producers Mike Odair, Camie Holmes, Eric Day, Co-Executive Producers
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour The Series, The HUB
Dan Angel, Billy Brown, Harvey Kahn,
Kim Arnott, Executive Producers Jane Stine, Joan Waricha, Co-Executive Producers Charles Lyall, Dawn Knight, Supervising Producers
SciGirls, PBS
Richard C. Hudson, Executive Producer Kathleen Shugrue, Co-Executive Producer Angie Prindle, Senior Producer Angela Ewald, Paula Engelking, Producers Joan Freese, Lisa Regalla, Sarah Carter, Co-Producers Emily Stevens, Joan O’Brien, Managing Producers
OUTSTANDING PRE-SCHOOL ANIMATED PROGRAM
BubbleGuppies, Nickelodeon
Jonny Belt, Robert Scull, Executive Producers Ellen Martin, Helen Lebeau, Scott Dyer,
Pam Lehn, Supervising Producers Allie Strawbridge, Coordinating Producer Lynne Warner, Producer Jason Pattan, Line Producer
Dinosaur Train, PBS
Lisa Henson, Halle Stanford, Craig Bartlett,
Wong Kok Cheong (KC), Executive Producers Sue Bea Montgomery, Producer
Disney Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Disney Channel
Rob LaDuca, Executive Producer Bradley Bowlen, Line Producer Mark Seidenberg, Produced and Story Edited by
Justin Time, Sprout
Frank Falcone, Mary Bredin, Executive Producers Christine Davies, Producer
OUTSTANDING PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN’S SERIES
The Fresh Beat Band, Nickelodeon
Scott Kraft, Nadine van der Velde, Executive Producers Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg, Supervising Producer Chris Robinson, Line Producer Heather MacGillvray, Linda Mathious, Consulting Producers
Pajanimals, NBC
Hugh Martin, Dez McCarthy, Jack Jameson, Directors
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour The Series, The HUB
Neill Fearnley, Ken Friss, James Head, Directors
Sesame Street, PBS
Ken Diego, Kevin Clash, Joey Mazzarino, Matt Vogel, Directors
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATION
WINNERS:
JOEL FAJNOR, Art Director
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness “Kung Fu DayCare”, Nickelodeon
BILL DELY, Color Designer
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness “KungShoes”, Nickelodeon
JASON PARK, Background Designer
Transformers: Prime “Orion Pax – Part3”, The HUB
ARATO KATO, Character Animator
Transformers: Prime “HardKnocks”, The HUB
KIRK VAN WORMER, Storyboard Artist
Transformers: Prime “Nemesis Prime”, The HUB
ROBERT KLINE, Storyboard Artist
Disney Minnie’s Bow-Toons “Piano Movers and Shakers”, DisneyChannel
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC DIRECTION ANDCOMPOSITION
The Backyardigans, Nickelodeon
Evan Lurie, Music Director, Composer Douglas Wieselman, Composer
The Fresh Beat Band, Nickelodeon
Scott Kraft, Nadine van der Velde, Music Directors Ric Markmann, Dan Pinella, Peter Zizzo, Chris Wagner, Composers
Penguins of Madagascar, Nickelodeon
Adam Berry, Composer
Sesame Street, PBS
Paul Rudolph, Music Director Bill Sherman, Joseph Fiedler, Music Directors, Composers
Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Cartoon Network
Kevin Kiner, Composer
T.U.F.F. Puppy, Nickelodeon
Guy Moon, Composer
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG – CHILDREN AND ANIMATION
“3RD & BIRD”
3rd &Bird!, Disney Channel
Ziggy Marley, Composer & Lyricist
“BELLY BREATHE”
Sesame Street, PBS
Bill Sherman, Composer Joey Mazzarino, Lyricist
“ELMO THE MUSICAL THEME”
Sesame Street, PBS
Adam Schleisinger, Composer Belinda Ward, Christine Ferraro, Luis Santeiro,
Joey Mazzarino, Annie Evans, Molly Boylan, Lyricists
“FORGIVENESS SONG”
Robot and Monster, Nickelodeon
Jeff Sudakin, Composer & Lyricist
“IF YOU’RE A GUY”
Littlest Pet Shop, The HUB
Daniel Ingram, Composer Roger Eschbacher, Lyricist
“QUEEN OF NACHO PICHU”
Sesame Street, PBS
Bill Sherman, Chris Jackson, Composers Joey Mazzarino, Lyricist
OUTSTANDING WRITING IN ANIMATION
Arthur, PBS
Peter Hirsch, Executive Story Editor Claudia Silver, Dietrich Smith, Jon Greenberg, Writers
Doc McStuffins, Disney Channel
Kent Redecker, Noelle Wright, Writers Chris Nee, Writer/Story Editor
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Nickelodeon
Peter Hastings, Writer/Producer Doug Langdale, Gene Grillo, Paul Rugg, Kevin Seccia, Writers Scott Kreamer, Writer/Story Editor
Martha Speaks, PBS
Ken Scarborough, Head Writer Joe Fallon, Writer
Penguins of Madagascar, Nickelodeon
Bill Motz, Bob Roth, Brandon Sawyer, Writers
WordGirl PBS
Tom Martin, Eric Shaw, Head Writers Jack Ferraiolo, Jayne Hamil, Ryan Raddatz, Writers
OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A CHILDREN’S SERIES
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour The Series, The HUB
Dan Angel, Billy Brown, Erik Patterson, Jessica Scott,
Melody Fox, Craig S. Phillips, Harold Hayes, Jr.,
Jack Monaco, Natalie Lapointe, Greg Yolen, Writers
Sesame Street, PBS
Joey Mazzarino, Head Writer Molly Boylan, Annie Evans, Christine Ferraro,
Emily Perl Kingsley, Luis Santeiro, Ed Valentine,
Belinda Ward, John Weidman, Writers
WildKratts, PBS
Martin Kratt, Chris Kratt, Head Writers
OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR AN ANIMATED SERIES OR SPECIAL
The Legend of Korra, Nickelodeon
Shannon Reed, Casting Director Sarah Noonan, Original Casting by Gene Vassilaros, Original Casting by
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon
Meredith Layne, Casting Director Sarah Noonan, Original Casting by Gene Vassilaros, Original Casting by
OUTSTANDING SPECIAL CLASS SHORT FORMAT DAYTIME PROGRAM
DC’s World’s Funnest #1, Cartoon Network
Sam Register, Executive Producer Ben Jones, Sandi Yi, John Woolley, Producers Rich Webber, Director
Disney Friends for Change: Education in India, Disney Channel
Amanda Erlanson, Supervising Producer Puja Puri, Producer, Disney Jaycen Armstrong, Line Producer F. Michael Blum, Writer/Director Tom Pace, Writer Eric Covert, VP Creative Content, Disney Maria Gitto, Creative Director, Disney Tracy Pion, Creative Director/Editor Adam Santelli, Director of Photography
Make Your Mark: Ben Horowitz, Bullying PSA Disney Channel
Richard Loomis, SVP/CMO Disney Channels Marketing & Creative Ron Pomerantz, Vice President Disney Channel Marketing & Creative Siobhan Murphy, Creative Director Disney Channel Marketing & Creative
Nickelodeon Presents: History & Heritage, Nickelodeon
Kay Wilson Stallings, Executive Producer Elly Kramer, Producer Saxton Moore, Director Kimberly Chalmers Diaz, Writer Maya Jade Frank, Talent
Olive the Ostrich, Sprout
Oli Hyatt, Producer Helen Arntsen, Producer
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING – ANIMATION
Ben10: Omniverse, Cartoon Network
Jeff Shiffman, Otis Van Osten, Supervising SoundEditors Tony Ostyn, Dialogue Editor Gerry Gonzalez, Matt Hall, Roger Pallan, Sound Effects Editors
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Nickelodeon
Joe Pizzulo, Gary Falcone, Supervising Sound Editors Jeremy Zukerman, Supervising Music Editor Benjamin Wynn, Music Editor Rob McIntyre, Sound Editor Anna Adams, Dialogue Editor Marc Schmidt, Andrew Ing, Jeseey Drake, Sound EffectsEditors Roberto Dominguez Alegira, Foley Editor Cynthia Merrill, Foley Artist
Slugterra, Disney XD
Jonny Ludgate, Supervising Sound Editor Jeff Davis, Gordon Sproule, Sound Editors
SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon
Paulette Lifton, James Lifton, Supervising Sound Editors Mishelle Fordham, DJ Lynch, Dialogue Editors
Jeffrey Hutchins, Sound Effects Editor Wes Otis, Aran Tanchum, Foley Editors Vincent Guisetti, Monique Reymond, Foley Artists
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon
Jeff Shiffman, Otis VanOsten, Supervising Sound Editors Anna Adams, Dialogue Editor Gerry Gonzalez, Matt Hall, Roger Pallan, John Sanacore, Sound Effects Editors Alex Ullrich, Foley Artist
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING – ANIMATION
Ben10: Omniverse, Cartoon Network
Carlos Sanches, Re-Recording Mixer
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Nickelodeon
Justin Brinsfield, Production Mixer Thomas J Maydeck C.A.S., Re-Recording Mixer Rob McIntrye, SFX Mixer
Penguins of Madagascar, Nickelodeon
Justin Brinsfield, Production Mixer D.J. Lynch, Re-Recording Mixer Ian Nyeste, Re-Recording Mixer
Slugterra, Disney XD
Gordon Sproule, Dean Giammarco, Re-Recording Mixers
Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Cartoon Network
David Acord, Re-Recording Mixer Cameron Davis, Dialogue Recordist
Young Justice: Invasion, Cartoon Network
Carlos Sanches, Re-Recording Mixer
The Daytime Emmys will be held at the Beverly Hilton and broadcast on cable station HLN on June 16 at 8 p.m. For more info, visit www.daytimeemmys.tv.
Veteran animation director Lionel Gallat (Despicable Me, The Lorax, Flushed Away) has launched an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign for a game he created titled Ghost of a Tale. Gallat has already done most of the project’s heavy lifting, including designing, modeling, animating and rendering everything by himself. He now needs some financial support to finish the job.
The third-person video game, which is slated for an early 2014 release, allows players to pretend they’re a little mouse in a dangerous world. Gallat counts as his inspirations Disney’s Robin Hood, the fables of La Fontaine, Redwall, Winnie the Pooh, The Secret of NIMH, The Dark Crystal, the paintings of Alan Lee, John Howe, Paul Bonner and John Bauer.
“My goal is to craft a small yet beautiful game with environments that look a bit like movie sets and characters that have a sense of stylization in their design, while retaining a certain simplicity and immediacy as far as gameplay is involved,” he writes on his game’s Indiegogo site. “I know it sounds hockey but I’m really trying to recapture the sense of wonder I felt as a kid when I discovered the games from the ’80s and early ’90s. But with a AAA quality (as far as I’m able) that’s very much up-to-date. You play as a mouse on an adventure set in a medieval world. At the beginning of the game, you get to the Island of Periclave. Now what is the mouse looking for? What happened on the island? Why are there undead rats roaming around? That will be up to you to discover.”
Of course, if you contribute to his campaign, you’ll receive awesome premiums like shirts, hats and cool figurines (as well as bragging rights). You just have to do it soon, because the campaign has less than two weeks left and the goal is to raise 45,000 euros (about $59,230).
