7 Big Questions for The Amazing Venture Bros. Duo

(a.k.a. Chris McCulloch) and are the mad geniuses behind Adult Swim’s brilliant series The , which begins its seventh season last saw the gang, we witnessed all kinds of wild developments involving the supernatural assassin Red Death, The Monarch, The Blue the villains in a secret bathroom in the Morpho Cave. Despite their crazy busy schedules, Jackson and Doc found some time to give us episodes of their cult classic creation.

It’s about time Marvel fans got to see some amazing diverse, female superheroes join forces to save the world. This month, Comic Marvel Rising four-minute animated shorts and a new movie titled Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, debuting this fall.

Featuring characters such as Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Quake, Patriot, America Chavez, Ghost Spider and Inferno, the new franchise focuses rock the world, in their own special way! The top-notch voice cast features the likes of Dove Cameron, Chloe Bennet, Tyler Posey, BooBoo Stewart, Skai Jackson, Kim Raver, Ming-Na Wen, Steven Weber and Dee Bradley Baker, among others.

“Marvel characters are so relatable because they live in our world and face the same challenges we Marvel Rising team of heroes is with different backgrounds, particularly a set of strong female leads that our young audience can connect with,” said Cort Lane, Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Animation & Family Entertainment.

“We did a lot of research because, although this franchise isn’t just for girls, we wanted it to be appealing to girls,” Lane adds. “Half of our audience is female, but we weren’t creating content that was - torically, we’ve had great female characters, but this is a very female-forward project. It’s very gender neutral, as there are also young men on the team. We hope to attract a whole new generation of fans which also includes very diverse characters.”

The Marvel team did a lot of research on what types of characters would appeal to young female audience, and they discovered that girls were very interested in how these characters interacted with each other. “The entire project really pushes the boundaries - clude animated versions of Avengers Assemble, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man. “Our heroes have to deal with the usual pressures of being a teenager as well.”

the friendship between Squirrel Girl (Milana Vayntrub) and Ms. Marvel (Kathreen Khavari) develop. “They are so much fun to watch,” she says. “There’s this great sense of adventure and a special relationship between the two of them which really embodies the spirit of the - ries that weren’t about the end of the world, but focused on problems that were happening right outside your door. Our characters want to be the best versions of themselves and prove that they can be heroes and gain the skills to make the world a better place.”

The shorts and feature’s design and pre-production work is done in the Marvel studio in Glendale, while the actual animation production is done by The Answer Studio ( Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract) in Japan.

In terms of visual inspirations, Lane says the goal was to have the characters grounded in reality. “We didn’t want it to be too cartoony,” he says. “But at the same time, girls love humor, so we wanted to be - pressive faces to convey emotions.”

“We have a great team at the studio, who came up with fantastic character designs and back take place in New York and New Jersey, so it looks like the real world, but the palette is saturated and gorgeous to look at.”

men and women will get a sense of empowerment after watching Marvel Rising. “We hope they’ll feel like they are special and have something special to offer the common ground with people who are different from you, you can make the world a better place.”

Adds Lane: “The timing is perfect. Young people are rising up and want to make sure their voices are heard. that direction, and it’s a great thing to see.”

The folks at Cartoon Network are planning a major takeover this year: Experience taking over the booth, along

“Superheroes of Body Positivity: A Conversation with Steven Universe’s Rebecca Sugar,” featuring Sugar, Estelle - ect. Friday sees the big -

There’s more Steven Universe Ballroom) with show creator Rebecca Sugar and voice stars Estelle, Michaela Dietz, Deedee Magno Hall and Zach Callison. Also planned for is a panel titled “Drawing on Inspiration,” featuring creators Matt Burnett and Ben Levin ( Craig of the Creek), Daniel Chong ( We Bare Bears), Diego Molano ( Victor & Valentino) and Julia Pott Jones Quartey ( OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes).

level of game cinematics coming through. “The new Hearthstone from Blizzard and Blur Studio’s are represented well. The cinematic for Ubisoft’s was a lot of fun, too.”

He points out that there is an abundance of interesting looking work done with real-time technology. “We are showing Epi by Oats Studios, which is interactive demo for Unity’s is also featured.”

- tival also includes several pieces focusing simulation done by NASA offering a multiple-angle of a hurricane, as well as a Cana intelligent. Poland’s Platige Image has a great piece which is the deconstruction of a painting. Toronto-based studio Guru’s short is also quite visually impressive.” (Guru’s short is directed by inhouse artist Samuel W. Bradley and follows vast and unsettling derelict space station.)

Another highlight is the French short 1 Mètre/Heure ( One Meter Per Hour) by Nicolas Cannes Festival earlier this year, is a photorealistic piece capturing the performances - cently choreographed ballet on the wing of an Air France jetliner.

- itive year. “The jury had to make some tough didn’t tell the jury which projects were student all came down to performance and sensitivity to storytelling and strength of narrative.”

- ing done using Blender and Unity all over the place. “Great CG animation is being produced everywhere,” he notes. “It’s wonderful to see fresh work using animation as a universal represented. What it all boils down to is that it’s more about the talent that the tools.”

“Some of the projects I’ve been involved with at the intersection of creativity and advancing technology. My favorite collaborations are when pushing the envelope, working within some constraints to create something new. In terms of advice, I’d suggest that when you are hearing your trusted team tell you about brushing up against the limits, that probably means you’re onto something. Let those limits inform the creative, and let the creative push the limits of the technology — you’re probably working on something completely new. It’s fun when that happens.”

Favorite conference activity: “I love the technical conference. Every session I attend is inspiring and opens the doors to new concepts that I didn’t think would be possible even a - there was a time that the only High-Dynamic Technologies venue]? It blew us all away. Now, you can hang an HDR TV on your wall for

“I started attending SIGGRAPH by walking the show to the show than that. Make sure to see the Electronic Theater (part of the Computer Animation Festival) and take the time to walk through Emerging Technologies, too. Try a day pass to attend some Courses as part of the technical conference and get inspired.”

talent was young and green, but they were very enthusiastic about learning as much as they could about the industry. Ray was a true own their own animation studios in China.”

Under the CGGE banner, Neoh and his team - duce new animated content for both Chinese and international audiences:

CG Global Entertainment Ltd. (CGGE) aims to build a global ecosystem centered around information research, technology, publishing, education, consulting, content development and investment in order to foster cooperative digital entertainment development around the world, and to nurture, support and connect the

CGGE has also aligned with China GIMC (Guangdong Advertising Group Co., Ltd.), the largest advertising company and biggest integrated marketing communications group billion. GIMC provides established marketing channels and advertising resources across all of China.

CGGE’s global perspective and slate of focused international business initiatives will support China’s national policy of building up the digital creative industry as part of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. The company’s stated mission is to bring two giant forces together by providing a business and communication conduit for bringing China’s digital media industry to the rest of the world, while simultaneously bringing the world of digital media content creators to China.

CGGE provides original IP creators with a complete solution that includes: • Story development • Script development • Pre-production • Chain of titles and legal support • Production and outsourcing partners • Original music and scoring • Production control • Post-production

CGGE helps Chinese companies secure in and TV series projects. Content is translated into English and/or other languages from its original Chinese language version. In addition, CGGE can help foreign companies distribute their IPs in China and other Asian markets—CGGE will help foreign studios get the necessary Chinese government approval to distribute their shows on various theatrical, broadcast and digital platforms -

CGGE is active in helping companies and governments in staging Global Digital Media - pany is producing a Digital Media Industry Guangzhou, China this year. The Conference • Technology • Hardware • Content creation.

CGGE also produces global digital media in market focuses.The Chinese Directory provides practical guidance for those who want to enter the Chinese market for science and technology and talent introduction, co-production and outsourced production. It includes links to China’s digital media companies, joint productions, industry TV series and technology sales, training services, as well as information regarding media content in line with Chinese government policy for partnerships. The directory aims to bring the content of China’s creative and cultural industries into the international arena, increase global cooperation and let the world know more about the content and development of Chinese cultural market. (www. cgge.media/directory)

Filmmaker J.J. Abrams ( Super 8) and his Bad Robot Productions company have relied on - visor Jay Worth on acclaimed projects such as Lost, Fringe, 11.22.63, Person of Interest and Westworld. The latter two shows have delved into the complicated and often frightening relationship between humans and technology. “Jonah [Nolan] and Lisa Joy are notorious for creating new things every time,” Worth says of the co-creators of HBO’s Westworld, which centers on the an - ther of them rests on their laurels when it comes to design and new ideas.”

Whereas the Emmy-winning debut season was about establishing characters and in inner workings of the android “hosts,” the World and The Raj as Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) mounts her violent revolt of revenge against humanity.

count for visual effects shots and this year we’re - bled a larger team on the production side to accommodate for the quicker turnaround and higher volume. “We did some world building in season one but had a lot more uniformity because it was shot in Utah. There were scenes in the Mesa with the arrivals terminal but those - ing out what this world looks like a bit more. Jonah and I have started to utilize visual effects with the tiger and robotic bull.”

- duced for a Super Bowl ad promoting the second season. “They were going to have a real bull but about a week before the spot was to be aired Jonah comes around and says, ‘ Why don’t we make it a robotic bull?’ I was like, ‘Dude, we’ve got a week! How are we going to design, implement and do all of that for this huge Super Bowl spot?’ - ment around the world, going from London to that entire sequence off adding the gorgeous innards of this robotic bull in under a week — which is shocking and not a good precedent to set!”

A digital tiger was created by Rhythm & Hues, which won an Oscar for creating the same animal in Life of Pi. “We wanted the tiger to look different than some of the other ones we’ve

Fans of Ant-Man’s amazing miniature world are in for many more elaborate visual effects in the fantastic sequel AntMan and The Wasp, which is playing in theaters this month. This time around, the Quantum Realm and The Wasp take the lion’s share of the creative team’s work.

“Hope van Dyne has completely transformed into The Wasp,” notes Marvel Studios Cloud Atlas), ( Ant-Man) on the sequel. “It was clear talking to Peyton, everybody at Marvel Studios and Evangeline Lilly that there were strong ideas as to how they wanted her to be. Scott Lang [Paul Rudd] was thrown into the Ant-Man costume almost by mistake, while Hope has been training since she was a young girl, so she’s in control and knows her stuff.”

Ceretti and his team did major development able to create an interesting animation test Wasp has wings which Ant-Man doesn’t have, Wasp would always have to go small in order -

in the Quantum Realm. “We looked at what was done in Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy “Olivier Pron at Method Studios in Vancouver did a lot of concept art along with the visual development department at Marvel.”

deep into the Quantum Realm it’s all based on probability. Things are not in the same place levels of reality. We tried to make an environment that was active and disorienting for someone who goes deep down into the world

Every great superhero story needs a remarkable villain. The team’s antagonist in this outing is Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), a character who is contaminated by quantum energy in her youth. “She can go through walls, objects and people as well as has multiple realities of herself which compete against each other.”

Multiple versions of Ghost were superimposed and animated at the same time.

“We would shoot Hannah doing something and on top of that would add other layers of her doing other actions. All of them were cho-

I and smoke for a long time, and doesn’t appear to be - mance and interactivity that allows us to get where we want to be faster, with higher quality.

mostly to work with the new GPU viewport as well as than bouncing around between interfaces.

So, the GPU Viewport Display: It’s incredibly helpful — dare I say, vital — to be able to see what is happening with your simulation. I mean, how do you know if something isn’t work viewport that kind of gave you a hint of what the simulation - that you make to the shading parameters. Also, depending on - els within the viewport.

Retiming — always a huge thing in simulations — was already pretty impressive, utilizing wavelet and velocities to be able to retime a simulation without destroying the integrity. And the under-the-hood simulations have a new advection type that minimized numerical losses, Vorticity II optimizations mean faster calculations with a lower memory footprint, and simulations can scale in density but retain similar results.

temperature, and a Light Meter utility. That’s right, you may have to look up how to use a light meter — or even worse, what a light meter is.

A new denoiser has been incorporated in the same line as smarter adaptive lights. This is the the result of thousands of images rendered through Iray. And through deep learning, is has begun to un Pretty cool, yes? But not as cool as continuing to learn about your image as you go through your progressive renders to adjust lighting and shaders. Your test ren - age should be denoised.

The downside may be that you do need an NVIDIA card to take advantage of the denoiser. But before we leave denoising, it’s worth it to mention that render elements can be denoised so that your comps with

- dreds of VRscans from Chaos Group. There is a new physical hair material that really gets into the physiology of hair — like melanin content and an eumelanin to pheomelanin ratio. (Yeah, I had to break out Google, probably not a big deal, is that V-Ray material now has shaders coming from Substance Painter and Designer.

So much goodness! If I could have rendered this review in V-Ray, I would have!

Don’t be a Pinocchio! without any pay!

Perhaps the most common and sophomoric attempt at negotiating a lower rate, bottom-feeders love to aggrandize themselves and their hokey projects, as if anyone who bears witness to them will trample over the