Here Are Best Animation Films Worldwide 2017

Number of Animation Films releasing worldwide is increasing day by day.

The new trend in animation has lots of theatrical animated features.

Technology has leveled out the playing field, making feature-scale animation production accessible to producers everywhere. Even in the early 2000s, animated features were the privileged domain of a few well-heeled producers but now-a-days the situation is remarkably different remarkably from then.

While we’re not going to have 6,000 animated features per year, nor animation will be live-action production, the industry is finally starting to increase production in a meaningful way.

Sometime within the next decade, it will not be unreasonable to expect hundreds of animated films per annum.

No, they won’t all be good, and that’s fine, too.

But more films mean more opportunities for more filmmakers, and only good can come out of that.

Nearly 100 Animated movies released worldwide in 2017, out of which the following 5 movies are the highest grossing films of 2017.

Despicable Me 3 (stylized in marketing and onscreen as Despicable M3) is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated action comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment for Universal Pictures.

It is the fourth overall installment and third main installment in the Despicable Me film series.

It is the sequel to Despicable Me 2 (2013). The film is directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, co-directed by Eric Guillon[6] and written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio.

In the film, Dru,the long lost Twin Brother of Gru,the main character,teams up together to defeat a new enemy named Balthazar Bratt, a 1980s child actor who grows up to become a villain.

Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove and Dana Gaierreprise their roles of Gru, Margo and Edith from the first two films and Julie Andrews returns as Marlena, Gru’s mother from Despicable Me (2010).

Kristen Wiig and Steve Coogan return from Despicable Me 2, while Trey Parker, Jenny Slate and Nev Scharrel (replacing Elsie Fisher as Agnes) join the cast.

Annecy International Animated Film Festival showed Despicable Me 3 on June 14, 2017, at the , released in the United States on June 30, 2017, by Universal Pictures in 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX 3D.

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics[7] and has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing film of 2017, the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all time and the 24th highest-grossing overall.

After Minions in 2015, it is the second film to gross over $1 billion, produced by Illuminations, becoming the first ever animated franchise to do so. Despicable Me 3 became the second non-Disney film and the sixth highest animated film after Toy Story (2010), Frozen (2013), Minions (2015), Zootopia and Finding Dory (both in 2016) to gross over $1 billion, and is currently the fourth highest-grossing animated films of all time and the twenty-fifth highest-grossing films of all time.

The Boss Baby is a 2017 American computer-animated adventure comedy film loosely based on the name written and illustrated by Marla Frazee[4] and produced by DreamWorks Animation.

It was written by Michael McCullers and directed by Tom McGrath .

Miles Bakshi, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, and Tobey Maguire, voces the supporting characters while it stars the voices of Alec Baldwin as the title character.

The plot follows a baby who is a secret agent in the war between babies and puppies.

At the Miami International Film Festival,The Boss Baby  was premiered on March 12, 2017.

It was released by 20th Century Fox on March 31, 2017.

Upon release, the film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $498 million worldwide against its $125 million budget.

A sequel is scheduled to be released on March 26, 2021.

An American 3D computer-animated auto racing sportscomedy in 2017,Cars 3 is a drama film.

It was produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Brian Fee, the screenplay was written by Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson and Mike Rich.

After Cars and Cars 2, the producers made a sequel in this Film. Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper, Armie Hammer, Nathan Fillion, Kerry Washington and Lea DeLaria gave the supporting characters voices and were joined by the returning voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt and Larry the Cable Guyare for the main characters , in addition to dozen NASCAR personalities.

In the film, Lightning McQueen sets out to prove to a new generation of high tech race cars that he is still the best race car in the world.

Grossing over $383 million worldwide, the film was released on June 16, 2017.

It has received generally positive reviews, with many critics considering it an improvement over its predecessor, as well as praising its emotional story and animation.

3D computer-animated, The Lego Batman Movie is a superhero film.

It is produced by Warner Animation Group.

It was written by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern and John Whittington.

It was directed by Chris McKay,and produced by Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

The film is an international co-production of the United States, Australia, and Denmark,and is based on the Lego Batman toy line and the first spin-off installment of The Lego Movie.

The story revolves around  Batman’s attempts to overcome his greatest fear to stop the Joker‘s latest plan, with Will Arnett reprising his role as Batman for the film, along with Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, and Ralph Fiennes.

Premiered in Dublin, Ireland on January 29, 2017, The Lego Batman Movie was released in the United States on February 10, 2017.

Internationally, the film was released in 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX 3D.

The film received positive reviews and grossed $312 million worldwid.

An American 3D animated computer science fiction comedy film,The Emoji Movie was released in 2017.

It is directed by Tony Leondis and written by Leondis, Eric Siegel and Mike White, based on the trend of emojis.

It stars the voices of Christina Aguilera, Sofía Vergara, Sean Hayesand Patrick Stewart as well as  T. J. Miller, James Corden, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright’s voices.

The film centers on Gene, a multi-expressional emoji who lives in a teenager’s phone, and who sets out on a journey to become a normal  emoji like his parents.

It is Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Premiered on July 23, 2017, at the Regency Village Theatre The Emoji Movie was theatrically released in the United States on July 28, 2017 was panned by critics, but It grossed over $215 million worldwide.

So animation has great future and animators be ready to unleash your creativity. Are you ready?

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3DS MAX OR MAYA WHICH IS THE BEST 3D SOFTWARE

Are you a 3D model artist? Have you ever stumbled upon the confusion of which 3D software to use? Well, there is surely a long list of softwares available to choose from.

From beginner’s level programs (like, Photoshop CC, AutoDesk 123D Design, 3D slash etc), to intermediate level programs (like, OpenSCAD, Sculptris, SketchUp etc), to professional level programs (like, 3DS Max, Blender, Mudbox, Maya), countless choice is handy.

To be precise, the most popular 3D software among the 3D artists are- AutoDesk’s two

 

popular products- 3DS Max and Maya.

The two software’s is used widely in various industries- 3D printing, gaming, architecture, animation, 3D modelling and many more.

It is indeed a crucial decision to choose between the two, in order to ensure unhindered flow of work and produce the best output.

To choose either of the software, as the best, you must know it’s strengths and how you want to use them.

These two programs have become industry standards due to a reason- they both are dynamic softwares.

Below are listed the detailed analysis to decide the best software among the two.

MODELLING

3DS Max provides a booming toolset for modelling and it is equipped with a huge library containing a wide range of modifiers, that eventually makes the process of creating models quite easy.

If you have the knowledge of Boolean operations, then it can be an added advantage, as it will make your modelling process easier.

It is known to work more swiftly and smoothly than Maya, in terms of modelling.

The user friendly interface of 3DS Max helps to access the tools easily.

It is easier to work with the pushing and pulling of vertices, which can prove to be very helpful, when you are creating models and assets.

3DS Max helps the artists to bring out the best architectural visualisations to create interiors and buildings, which is why, it is very popular among artists and designers.

While in Maya, modelling can be little less accepting and the task pf creating complex models can be a little difficult.

Though after the release of Maya 2014, some robust sets of modelling toolkit has been introduced which has made this software quite accessible?

It has also upgraded with some re-topology tools and a faster workflow.

But in my opinion, 3DS Max is more user friendly and can give out more satisfying and convincing outputs, in terms of 3 models.

ANIMATION

When it comes to Animation, Maya is known to be more effective due to its boasting range of animation tools.

If you have some knowledge of MEL or Python, then it can be very helpful, as they are scripting languages used in Maya, so you can also customise it according to your needs.

Maya is used by the best feature film animation studios like Blue Sky Studios, Industrial Light and Magic, Framestore and many more.

Maya is considered to be an important part of their production pipeline,
when it comes to animation.

Though, 3DS Max also gives out powerful animation and the same level of output can be achieved here, like Maya.

The latest upgradation of this software provides you with efficient toolset, to create better

3D and Virtual Reality (VR) content in considerably lesser time.

Though the final verdict on choosing either of these software for animation would be choosing Maya, which is easy to use and the right amount of tools available in it.

RIGGING

Maya is a bit ahead, when it comes to Rigging characters. If you want to create complex character rigs, then Maya can be your choice, though it requires a bit of programming in MEL. Again the best Animation production houses, choose Maya to rig their characters.

Rigging in 3DS Max can be easier, with availability Biped and CAT. But it is difficult to create complex character rigs in 3DS Max, like Maya.

So for rigging your complex characters, Maya can be handier than Max.
 

RENDERING

Mental Ray is an in-built render engine, available in both Max and Maya.

So, you would probably get to witness the same rendering capabilities in both of the software.

Though the workflow is a bit different, but you can get undifferenced output in either program..

But many artists prefers to use 3DS Max for rendering over Maya, as rendering is easy in Max due to the ease of material setup.

And also, Max gives out great quality, in terms of output.

ACCESSIBILITY

Both 3DS Max and Maya are very flexible softwares to work with.

However, Max dazzles when you are working in a small team due to its completeness.

Everything in Max can be done really fast with greater quality output.

And also skinning and rigging takes comparatively less time in Max than Maya. It is also easy to set up particles and various effects in Max.

But, Maya is also flexible and precise. It is quite easier to fit into any pipeline.

Maya can be really helpful for big projects with huge team due to it’s crucial control over their tools.

THE CONCLUSION

It is really important to analyse the reason to use either of the application, before choosing any of them, to accomplish your task.

Both has it’s own strengths, when it comes to the type of work we want to do. Like, animation and rigging in Maya has a slight edge over Max due to it’s greater toolset.

While, for modelling, Max can be the best choice for it’s robust toolset.

For architectural visualisations, visual effects artists and game developers too, 3DS Max is the best in industry software available.

3DS Max is generally visualised as the best 3D application for the game industry to create their assets, and it is known to be more flexible and have more options.

May be availability of Max only in Windows Operating System is a shortcoming (as it is not supported in Mac and Linux), but it is still considered to be the best 3D software, for its wholesomeness, of professional level, over Maya.

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NICKELODEON INDIA CHILDREN’S ANIMATION CHANNEL

NICKELODEON a cable television network – was launched in 1977.

It is based in New York City  and is owned by Viacom through Viacom Media Networks .

Its weekday morning edutainment programs are targeted at younger children ages 2–5 while it is primarily aimed at adolescents and children aged 6–11.

The first five cent movie theaters were called nickelodeons, from which the name of the channel came.

Nickelodeon’s history dates back to December 1, 1977.

Originally commercial-free, advertising was introduced in January 1984.

The animated series that aired on Nickelodeon were largely imported from foreign countries until 1991 and some original animated specials were also featured on the channel up to that point.

Original animated series continue to make up a substantial portion of Nickelodeon’s line-up, since the late 2000s, after the channel struck a deal with DreamWorks Animation in 2006 to develop the studio’s animated films into weekly series.

Consisting largely of original series aimed at children, pre-teens and young teenagers, Nickelodeon’s current schedule includes animated series.

SpongeBob SquarePants, ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks, Regal Academy, The Loud House, Bunsen Is a Beast, Welcome to the Wayne, and Mysticons).

To live-action comedy and action series (such as Nicky, Ricky,  Power Rangers Ninja Steel, The Thundermans , Game Shakers, School of Rock, along with the month-long running show Hunter Street), as well as series aimed at preschoolers (such as Team Umizoomi, PAW Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Wallykazam!, and Dora and Friends: Into the City!).

Nickelodeon’s original  television series  which was animated is being  shown as Nicktoons   (although it has seldom been used by the network itself since the 2002 launch of the spin-off digital cable and satellite channel of the same name).

The network’s Nickelodeon Movies film production division (whose films are distributed by sister company Paramount Pictures) produce some Feature films.

They are sometimes shown in the channel.

The cable channel does not have access to most of the movies produced by its film unit, as the film division bears the Nickelodeon brand name.

Produced by The Nickelodeon Movies banner gives license for broadcast to various broadcast and cable television outlets within the United States other than Nickelodeon for the majority of the live-action feature films.

Original series hour-long episodes are advertised as movies, in this channel, though the “TV movie” versions of Nickelodeon’s original series differ from traditional television films.

In that they have shorter running times (approximately 45 minutes, as opposed to 75–100 minute run times that most television movies have), and use a traditional multi-camera setup for regular episodes (unless the program is natively shot in the single-camera setup common of films) with some on-location filming.

Theatrically released feature films are also sometimes acquired by Nickelodeon for broadcast on the channel including Universal‘s Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale, several Monster High films.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever (which was later released by Nickelodeon Movies through Paramount for DVD release), with the Barbie and Monster High films usually aired under a brokered format in which Mattel purchases the time in order to promote the release of their films on DVD.

As the Nickelodeon channel does not have to meet the Federal Communications Commission rules which disallow that arrangement for broadcast channels due to regulations disallowing paid programming to children, the film’s release are done after a few days of the initial screening in the channel.

Nickeledon India – An Indian children’s television network is also called Nick India.

It is based in Mumbai. It is is owned by Viacom 18, a joint venture between Viacom and Network 18  and is the Indian equivalent to the original American network and.

Nickeledon India can be seen in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil languages.

Nick India is also available in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

Viacom International started Nickelodeon India in 1999. Later, newly formed Viacom18 joint venture took it over in 2007.

In 2011, Viacom18 launched a new channel called Sonic. The channel switched their focus to comedy in 2016, which was initially focused on action and adventure.

Nick Jr. India was launched in late 2012 after being spun off from the main channel.

TeenNick  it was discontinued due to ratings issues, which was aired in the evenings before 1 February 2017.

On 5 December 2015, Nickelodeon HD+ was launched by Viacom 18 in India, the first children’s channel in the format in India.

It follows a different schedule than the main network, and airs previously unseen international programming such as The Legend of Korra.

The television channel – Nickelodeon India is aired to children. It is shown in India and neighbouring countries.

Most notable programmes like Motu Patlu and Ninja Hattori-kun is broadcasted by Nick India.

In addition, there are educational shows for toddlers, like Dora the Explorer, that are featured on Nick India’s pre-school channel, Nick Jr. Teen-oriented programming is broadcast on Teen Nick.

In the first years ,the channel showed  mostly original programs, like Rugrats,  As Told by Ginger, Rocket Power, The Wild Thornberrys and other animated shows such as The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Rocko’s Modern Life, The Angry Beavers, CatDog, Hey Arnold!,

The Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom.

The Live action shows were also shown , such as Kenan & Kel, Drake & Josh, Clarissa Explains It All, Legends of the Hidden Temple.

Nick Bites and many more.

In 2011, the channel went downhill and stopped airing original shows, in similar fashion to Disney Channel India.

It shows new episodes of their in house shows, as well HD episodes and shows from the original Nickelodeon channel such as Marvin Marvin and Zack and Quack.

Ninja Hattori is the most popular cartoon amongst the cartoons aired by Nick India.

Educational shows such as Dora the Explorer are also aired on Nick Jr. India.

It can be noticed that most of the shows are not Nickelodeon US shows and even high rated shows such as The Fairly OddParents  are never shown on Nick India.

VOOT, a video on demand service is recently launched by Viacom 18.

In the VOOT Kids Zone there are several Nickelodeon shows that were never shown on Nick India TV.

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IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING AN EXTENSIVE STUDY

In our today’s blog we will take you through extensive discussion about Digital Matte Painting.

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”- Henry David Thoreau.

Imagination is something which doesn’t has any limits.

An artist can imagine or fantasies anything beyond any barrier to give life to his creativity and make it fascinating.

An Artist’s imagination lets one see many outlooks.

No one knows the Origin of art, every Civilization every Culture has its own Art form, Style and Way of Imagination.

 

 Art form Evolved from time to time!

And has reached to a milestone where we got introduced to Digital Art! or Digital Matte Painting.

It’s quite alluring to think about the transitions that art took in past decades!

From Engraving designs on stone till painting on papyrus, followed by the synthetic brushes till a digital Pen Tablet.

Ever wonder how those incredible scenes of panoramic vistas, impossible futuristic cities, or fantastic alien worlds come to life?

It’s all through the magic of  digital matte painting.

If only I had a dollar (hey, inflation!) for every time someone responded, ” Digital Matte Painting?”

Ages ago, extremely talented artists painted these realistic scenes on large sheets of glass.

It really is a lost art nowadays.

The painting used to have blank areas that would get filled in with live action.

The filmed segments were optically composited with the painting for the result.

A matte is a solid shape that is used to block out areas of the film frame so that no image gets exposed there.

A simple matte shot must contain painting with a matte to block out the live area, the film sequence with a matte to block out everything but the live area, and a final piece of film for everything to be exposed onto.

Art in today’s time has unlocked limits of imagination.

Which became possible because of Digital Matte Painting.

Digital Matte Paintings are one of the most important and popular techniques used in VFX Industry for Film Making to create illusions which are not even available in the real world or the Shooting Location.

Digital Artist or we can say Matte Painters use many techniques to combine Digital Matte Painted image with a Live Action Footage or a CG generated Footage to complete a Fantasy scene.

It’s not possible to pinpoint the invention of the matte painting. Since the mid-19th century, photographers were experimenting with double-exposure to create composite images.

Magician and legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès used the matte painting technique in many of his films.

In his 1898 film Un Homme de Têtes – Four Heads Are Better Than One.

A glass pane painted with black was used to create a matte Méliès.

When shooting on film, the black matte kept light from reaching the camera.

Since a portion of the film was not exposed to light, it would leave part of the frame empty.

Méliès use to rewind the film and use to set up an opposite matte.

By removing the original matte and blacking out everything else, the film would now fill in the blanks.

The resulting sequence was astonishing. Norman Dawn used glass paintings in his 1907 film Missions of California.

Many of the missions Dawn was filming had been partially destroyed.

He used matte paintings to visualize the buildings look whole again, often painting the missing arches or roofs.

Dawn would also disguise telephone poles as trees, as he illustrated below.

Norman Dawn is known as the inventor of matte paintings, but he was just the first to apply for credit.

From the source of The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting, Dawn applied for a patent for his “glass painting” technique in 1911.

But following a lawsuit it was deemed that the technique had long existed.

Dawn was just an early adopter of using matte paintings in films.

Alfred Hitchcock was using glass pane matte paintings throughout the 40s and well into the 60s.

They were prominently used in North by Northwest and The Birds.

By the 1970s, the previously mentioned VFX masters at ILM would use many   digital matte paintings to bring Star Wars to life.

Star Wars had a multitude of great artists, like Christoper Evans.

Evans created many of the iconic Star Wars images, like Darth Vader’s imperial march.

ILM also created the  digital matte painting for the legendary finale to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It took three months to paint all the crates and boxes.

The last hand painted mattes used in a major motion picture was in the 1997 epic, Titanic.

Most production Houses has shifted to blue and green screens, the techniques used by digital matte painters are still applied to modern filmmaking.

Background plates are often hand drawn or painted.

They are used as reference material for the digital artwork.

Digital Matte paintings are no longer a matter of two dimensional images.

Entire 3D sets, and backgrounds are created digitally.

Even Professional digital cameras are used to add movement.

There are still films that will use matte paintings as backdrops.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, six 100-foot canvases were stitched together and placed behind the set.

Digital Matte Painters usually belongs to arts and designing backgrounds.

Although a showreel of digital matte painting work can be called for, consisting of landscapes, set extensions and interiors.

Images demonstrating careful skill in integration, match grading and an understanding of depth of field, exposure, scale, lens distortion and grain can also be presented as part of job applications.

It is possible to move into digital matte painting with more of a blend of skills in 2D digital preparation (prep/paint) or junior compositing – particularly for people who show skills as part of their junior compositing showreel.

Use breakdowns to show how your work was built up in layers and with color adjustments. Photorealistic work is always in-demand.

From 3D texture painting, you can also look for opportunities to move ‘across’ to junior or entry level matte painting.

Students get an insight into techniques like compositing, match-moving, digital  matte painting & editing  at our Maac Institute.

Here is some of  glimps of our student work.

Still thinking just call us @9836321595.

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THE OVERNIGHT GAMING SENSATION POKEMON GO

Gaming series Pokémon, short for Pocket Monsters, started off in 1989-90 as an idea. The idea was conceptualized by video game designer, Satoshi Tajiri.

As a child, Tajiri enjoyed insect collecting as a hobby.

He used to live in Machida, Tokyo when the place still maintained rural geography.

As development and urbanisation took over, natural landscape was paved over and resulted in a loss of insect habitats.

Tajiri wanted the animation game to enable the children to experience the lost hobby of insect catching, collecting while exploring the world around.

The main character in the original gaming series, Ash Ketchum is Tajiri’s virtual image as a child.

During the designing, real world animals were taken and modified in physical features and colour to maintain familiarity with the world.

Every Pokémon animated series, games and comics have the same underlying themes of collecting, capturing, training and competing.

The main animation gaming characters of the animated series include Ash Ketchum, Pikachu, Misty, Brock and Professor Samuel Oak.

Misty and Brock were replaced by May, Max, and Tracey in the successive generations.

Other constant characters include James, Meowth, and Jessie from Team Rocket. Pokémon GO as a game does not bring back the main human characters.

Instead, they bring Professor Willow to help you with introduction and tutorials.

Games

There have been a number of gaming right off from the Game Boy days in Japan with Pocket Monsters Red and Green.

On account of the popularity of the game, the company made A Pokemon Red and Blue for the international gaming release.

Subsequently, the game was released in the USA on September 30, 1998.

The second animation gaming series was a largely enhanced version called Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition.

Both these animation gaming comprised the first generation of Pokémon.

The second generation gaming began with Pokémon Gold and Silver for the Game Boy Color in 1999.

Later an enhanced version was introduced called Pokémon Crystal.

The third generation gaming started with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire for Game Boy Advance followed by an enhanced Pokémon Emerald.

The fourth generation started off with Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for Nintendo DS followed by the enhanced Pokémon Platinum.

The fifth generation of the games began with Pokémon Black and White in 2010.

The game used Nintendo DS’s 3-D capabilities and was followed by sequels, Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2.

The sixth generation animation launched on Nintendo 3DS was Pokémon X and Y.

The seventh generation game, Pokémon Sun and Moon was launched on the 20th anniversary of the franchise and was made available worldwide on November 18, 2016.

Niantic

Pokémon GO is not made by Nintendo as the history may lead you to believe but instead the game is made by a company called ‘Niantic.’

The company was founded by John Hanke, who started Keyhole in 2000 to combine maps with aerial photography.

Google acquired Keyhole and Hanke later helped make Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Street View.

He later launched Niantic Labs and explained the name “The Niantic is the name of a whaling ship that came up during the gold rush and through a variety of circumstances got dragged on shore.

This happened with other ships, too. Over the years, San Francisco was basically just built over these ships.

You could stand on top of them now, and you wouldn’t know it.

So it’s this idea that there’s stuff about the world that’s really cool but even though it’s on the Internet, it’s hard to know when you’re actually there.”

Ingress

The first breakthrough for the company came in the form of Ingress in 2010.

Ingress combined gaming world with the real world and made users (gamers) get out and explore to play the game.

Hanke further explained “In the case of Ingress the activity is layered on top of the real world and your phone.

While I was commuting back and forth from home to Google, it was something that I always used to daydream about.”

“I always thought you could make an awesome game using all the physical data that we have. I watched phones become more and more powerful, and I thought the time would come that you could do a really awesome real-world adventure-based gaming.”

April Fools Prank

The entire idea for the raging app started off from a prank in 2014.

Google and the Pokémon Company teamed to make the April Fool’s Day joke where users could see Pokémon on Google Maps.

The popularity of the idea gave Hanke the idea that this app can be turned into a real animation game.
Work on Pokémon Go

He started the work on the data already collected by Ingress where users submitted the map locations of their meeting points.

Using the Ingress data gave the development of Pokémon GO a huge boost.

The boost translated in the animation gaming series being pre-populated with important meeting points, instead of making the populated map from scratch after collecting all the data from users.

John raised $25 million from Google, Nintendo, and the Pokémon company and later launched the game on July 6, 2016.

Pokémon Go App

Since its launch the app has overtaken Tinder in the number of users playing the game.

The company Niantic has launched a minor update from the initial launch version 0.29 to 0.29.2 to fix the privacy concerns raised by the app.

Though there is no official change log for the changes done in the update by the company.

The game was initially launched in Australia and Canada and later rolled out in the USA.

At the time of writing the game has rolled out in Germany and is set to roll out in Europe.

Even though the staged and limited rollout has not stopped the gamers from downloading the game and side loading it on their Android devices or install in on their IOS devices through outer methods.

The game has completely changed the way people interact and play games within a period of just eight days. People are conducting Poke walks in cities and meeting complete strangers.

People have claimed to discover a lot more about their cities because of the game despite living there for years.

Snapchat had a dedicated featured stories section for Pokémon GO gaming series.

The popularity is such that Pokémon GO servers are taking a huge hit. It becomes way more difficult to play the game at night than during the day.

Pokémon GO is making $1.6 million from the in-app purchases of virtual goods every day as reported by Quartz.

The app took a record 14 hours to top the list of most grossing gaming apps in App Store.

It is only second to HBO Now in the time it took to become the top grossing app.

Even though HBO Now users were automatically billed after their trails ended, so that was not fair.

According to the app analytics company SensorTower on TechCrunch, Pokémon GO has crossed 7.5 million downloads on Google Play and IOS App Store in the USA.

It is leaping beyond WhatsApp every day.

ANIMATED SERIES MOTU PATLU –THE AWESOME TWOSOME

An Indian animated children’s television series airing on Nickelodeon and Vasantham– Motu Patlu , has taken the Television world by storm .

The series is produced by Cosmos-Maya.
 


It is adapted from the classic comic strip on Lot Pot. It was premiered on 16 October 2012, beginning with episode “John Banega Don”.

It is based on life of two friends, Motu and Patlu, who lives in the fictional city Furfuri Nagar.

This animated series is directed by Ronojoy Chakraborty and the theme music is composed by Sandesh Shandilya.

The producers are Deepa Sahi and Anish JS Mehta. Sukhwinder Singh has sung the theme song “Motu Aur Patlu Ki Jodi”.

It is one of the most popular animated kids show in India.

Maya Digital Studio’s super hit series ‘Motu Patlu’ aired on Nickelodeon is the winner of the Best 3D TV content at AAKA (Animation Association Karnataka Award) 2013.

An animated series favorite amongst kids and parents, Motu Patlu is a Maya Digital Studios property.

Earlier, International cartoon characters dominated the Indian animation industry mostly.

“I am glad that Motu Patlu has successfully broken this tradition, making it one of the few Indian characters which is loved by both kids and parents alike”, said Mr. Ketan Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Maya Digital Studios.

“In the early days, foreign production houses used to approach Indian animators to provide backend services.

For this reason, Indian animators lacked a sense of story-telling for a long time.

But now there is a new animation revolution underway and Maya aims to be a leader in Indian animation content development”, he further added.

When Maya Digital Studios launched this 3D animated series ‘Motu Patlu’ on NICK in October’12 the famous characters from Lot Pot comics struck a chord with kids and families across the nation instantly.

Already a phenomenon in India, Motu Patlu is one of the kid’s favorite animated characters and it is the only Indian kids’ show which is able to compete with the best of the world.

Motu Patlu is inspired from the characters of Lot Pot Comics, and is a lively comic caper that is set in the beautiful city of Furfuri Nagariya.

Similar as chalk and cheese, Motu and Patlu … the Awesome Twosome is always on an adventurous expedition and has an uncanny ability to get into tricky situations.

The animated story focuses on how they have a penchant to land in hilarious situations and later rescue themselves by sheer luck.

Samosas are the favourite food of Motu. Motu is always trying to lift samosas from the local Chaiwala who thinks he makes the best samosas in the city.

Patlu always solve the problems which Motu creates most of the time, sometimes Ghasitaram, Chingam and Dr. Jhatka aid them.

Ghasitaram, sometimes misguides and tricks them by making Motu Patlu try Dr. Jhatka’s vast repertoire of weird gadgets and gizmos and crazy inventions.

Motu receives more energy and derives more strength than his normal state, when he eats samosas.

The main villain of the series is a criminal named “John- the self proclaimed Don” who is always accompanied by his two dumb henchmen, Number One and Number Two.

John wishes to become a super criminal of high repute but his objective is never achieved due to the heroic actions of Motu Patlu, who trap him and expose him and his plans following the strategy of Tit for Tat.

The main characters of this show are:-

Motu: Motu is a fat man who is one of the show’s central characters.

He likes to eat samosas which provide him power. His best friend is Patlu.

He often lands in trouble because of his actions.

But he is a good-natured man who wants to help others. He wears a red tunic with a navy blue vest, yellow Pyjamas, and shoes.

He gets extra energy like Chhota Bheem and can defeat anyone in the world, after eating samosas.

He is depicted as extremely afraid of mice.

Patlu: Patlu is a slim man who serves as the one of the show’s main protagonists.

He is often portrayed as the smartest guy in the city.

He often gets into a quarrel with Motu but he manages to help himself and Motu when they land in trouble.

He always wants peace and advises Motu to lead a peaceful life, but he can always be requested by Motu into helping him.

He wears a yellow tunic with orange leggings, brown-framed glasses, and brown shoes.

Dr. Jhatka: Dr. Jhatka is an eccentric scientist. His accent is like a sardar, so he is referred as a Punjabi.

His inventions are very good and successful but not useful to the people.

Ghasitaram: Ghasitaram has 20 years of experience in every field but none of the experience is useful to anyone.

His design is a parallel version of Patlu. He wears a cobalt blue tunic, purple dhoti, dark brown vest, and shoes of the same color.

Chingum: is a police inspector. He believes that no criminal can escape from his clutches.

However, with the help of Motu and Patlu ,chingum  catch the criminals merely by luck.

A Rajinikanth devotee with a strong south Indian accent, Chingum is a solicitous police inspector.

Chaiwala: A man who lives near Motu’s house. He makes Motu’s favorite samosas and Patlu’s favorite tea in the city.

John: John the Don serves as the main antagonist of the show.

John wants to be the fearsome Don.

But his intentions fails very badly and thus end up in him getting arrested.

Unlike other thieves, he is afraid of Motu and Patlu and not Chingam,the policeman.

He always wear  a blue dress shirt with dark blue flower prints, yellow undershirt, brown belt, dark periwinkle leggings with blue cuffs, and brown shoes.

Number 1 is John’s goon who serves as the one of the supporting antagonists.

Number 2 is John’s goon who rarely speaks.

He has a dark mark on his eye and a band aid on his oversized nose.

He has dark brown hair, wears a cyan striped shirt, aquamarine ascot, and brownish-orange pants.

Boxer: wears red boxing gloves, a white tank top, and red pants with vertical yellow stripes, and is Motu’s neighbour.

He is an aggressive man and a teacher in the school they used to attend.

Bubblegum: He is the Commissioner of police of the area comprising Furfuri Nagar and adjoining villages and is the father of Chingum.

Hera Singh: He is an Hawaldar of Inspector Chingum..

Pheri lal: He is an Hawaldar of Inspector Chingum. .

Sabziwali: In the whole Furfuri Nagar, she sells the best vegetables. She wears a green sari over a black blouse.

Additional characters include Mayor Mr. Singh, the Chief Minister, and Chhotu

Since the inception of the television series, its creators Lotpot magazine, Maya Digital Studios and the Nickelodeon India are aggressively promoting its merchandising the series products and tie-ups.

So we can conclude our discussion by saying animation has huge scope in Indian market and creative people we need you badly. So if you have creativity in you just join us we are just a phone call away @9836321595.

LATEST TECHNIQUES & TRENDS USED IN VFX

Over the years, VFX has become an integral part of the entertainment industry.

Be it movies or advertisements, it is used worldwide, and a notable increase has been witnessed with the evolution of accessible and easy to use animation and composition software.

VFX involves the assimilation of live action and CGI to create realistic environments, effects and shots, which would otherwise be impossible or dangerous to film. It also helps to curb the filming expenses.

The approach to the use of VFX techniques have changed a lot and influencing a huge change in the whole film making process.

Below the few emerging trends that are changing the scenario of the VFX use.

COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGERY (CGI)

Using CGI, we can achieve anything and lately, there has been am increasing trend in using more practical and realistic computer generated imagery.

Some might criticise that VFX is becoming all about CGI, but filmmakers are following this approach and attempting the making of more and more shots using CGI.

Due to the availability of CGI softwares and increased computer speed VFX artists are depending a lot on it to produce professional grade movies of high end quality.

Well, there are films where we could witness the use of large scale sets, practical effects and realistic miniatures, for example in “INTERSTELLAR”, “MAD MAX, FURY ROAD”, etc.

But all of these films involved substantial use of VFX.

Along with VFX, digital shot were infused to the real life photography, in these films.

But the whole process is quite expensive so many directors tend to use CGI to create the virtual scenes.

VIRTUAL HUMAN CHARACTERS

With the advancement of VFX techniques, we could see the use of realistic virtual human characters.

To make the characters look realistic in each movie, artists are incorporating convincing as animation of the human performances.

By using sub-surface scattering measured skin, material shading models, realistic lighting and upgraded render engines, we can render photorealistic digital doubles, that is hard to distinguish from the real actors.

Like we can see in “THE POLAR EXPRESS” by Sony Pictures Imageworks, where they have been able to capture this trend of creating realistic human characters.

Though the process of simulating human forms is complex and time consuming, but surely they are becoming ‘a new talk’ of the VFX world, which is followed by many.

CHROMA SHOTS

Chroma shots are becoming quintessential part of the film making process. It is extensively used worldwide. In movies like “STAR WARS”, “LIFE OF PI”, “AVENGERS”, in television series like “GAME OF THRONES”, chroma key technique has been utilised for many shots.

The process involves filming of shots in front of a blue/ green screen and inducing computer generated special effects to create a shot, which would otherwise be dangerous or difficult.

Though a lot of money and manpower is required to pull off the desired shot using Chroma key, still it is widely used in the film industry as well as television industry.

DIGITAL VFX ANIMATION

With the progress in Digital VFX Animation, there has been a considerable reduction in physical effects work.

Like we rely more on VFX to create shots with explosions, car crashes, building collapsing etc. In the movie “THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW” quality work can be seen with the use of dramatic digital effects.

The growing popularity for the use of digital effects is mainly due to the fact that it is easily directable than physical ones.

For example, in “MATRIX RELOADED”, digital fire Tsunami was created to chase the character Neo.

Obviously, we could not make the real flames to work like that.

So we can say, we can manipulate the digital effects, as we want. Undoubtedly this is emerging as one of the biggest trend.

POST PRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUALIZATIONS

In the process of film making, VFX and post production has become an important element at the end of the line.

The crucial planning to execute the VFX work is done in advance. It has become a bigger part of the creative process with talented concept artists, creative designers and VFX supervisors.

A lot is left up to VFX to make the scenes look natural.

The conceptualizations of the scenes and the execution of it using VFX has become a trend followed by all in the industry.

For example, in “GAME OF THRONES”, in the episode of BATTLE OF BASTARDS, a messy fight between the horses and the soldiers was conceptualized which indeed grabbed everyone’s attention.

Another example of it is, Animal Logic’s work for “AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON”, they had to design what the Internet looked like.

VFX AND VR

Virtual Reality (VR) technology are emerging as important tool for VFX. Huge investments are being done in this technology to be utilised in gaming, advertising, home entertainment.

etc. VFX artists are using VR technology to create those effects, which were hardest for them.

Like, stitching panorama, 360° videos, and compositing, HDR Lighting, making digital assets and dealing with stereo.

There are a lot of VFX studios that are being transformed to VR studios, like Luma Pictures, MPC, Industrial Light and Magic, Framestore, and plenty of more of them.

The development work in the pipeline and techniques in VR is in progress, but plugins supplied by AV3 have been a solution, as of now.

LIVE ACTION

Live action becomes the trending Animation using VFX technique, instead of handling it with traditional animation. In movies like “MALEFICENT” (2014) and “CINDERELLA” (2015),  live action technique was used to recreate this fairytale retellings.

Critics like Mark Langer has closely analysed the close relationship between live action and animation.

It is becoming an increasing trend to create animated characters in movies like, “JURASSIC WORLD”, “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST”, and many more, using live action technique.

Live action shots can be filmed in a couple of days, with adjustments been made there and before editing. Live action shots are more captivating and more photorealistic.

VFX-GAMES-MOVIES-VFX

The progress in VFX technology has increased the conversion of games into movies and vice versa.

This increase in trend has occurred due to the advance in VFX technology and increase in computational power.

“MORTAL COMBAT”, “ASSASSIN’S CREED”, “LARA CROFT: TOM RAIDER”, and many more are film adaptations of games, with great work of VFX.

Though the films received mixed to poor reviews, in terms pf VFX and entertainment, it have been commendable.

Game technologies are being used in movies (like, HAVOC in “MATRIX” sequels).

While the game developers are also using film style VFX to give a more realistic look to the game.

These are the trends shaping the future of VFX and the Film Making industry as a whole.

With this increasing trends, we can guess that there will be increasing graph of  VFX usage, ahead in future.