Trailering The Wolf of Wall Street
There’s going to be an industry implosion, according to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, appearing Wednesday at the grand opening of the Interactive Media Building at the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA). And after the dust settles, a new paradigm shift will occur. Tentpoles will become even more massive if less frequent and VOD will be the thriving platform for quirky, personal movies, and interactive games will increasingly become more empathetic. Read more
Good news: Despite failing to reach the funding goal of $750,000 from its Kickstarter campaign, Bill Joyce’s Golem videogame will be completed at his Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana, thanks to alternate financing and the support of Guillermo Del Toro, who will produce an animated Golem feature spinoff directed by Joyce. Read more
Star Trek: The Video Game, offering co-op play in the roles of Kirk and Spock to battle the rapacious Gorn, is now available from Paramount Pictures and Namco Bandai Games America. Read more
Animation historian Jerry Beck (formerly co-owner of Cartoon Brew) has launched Animation Scoop, which will be part of the Indiewire blog network, where I will serve as contributing editor, writing about animated features with interviews and behind the scenes pieces. Read more
After buying Lucasfilm 154 days ago, Disney has closed LucasArts, laying off 150 employees. This is on the heels of cancelling The Clone Wars animated TV series on Cartoon Network and laying off animators at Lucasfilm. This means we will not be seeing the darker and edgier next-gen shooter game, Star Wars 1313, featuring higher quality performance-captured animation from Lucasfilm Animation and VFX from Industrial Light & Magic. Read more
In conjunction with Autodesk’s Unfold conference this week, they’ve launched the Entertainment Creation Suite 2014 with the latest versions of Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage, and Sketchbook Designer. They offer new workflow enhancements to handle complicated data sets more quickly and efficiently. Read more
Autodesk will commence Unfold 2014, a two-day celebration March 26-27 unveiling the latest 3D animation software releases. Festivities will include live and virtual events, where artists can see Autodesk’s newest technology in action, interact with product managers, learn from 3D experts and check out new customer projects. Read more
Get an explosive sneak peek at the immersive co-op Star Trek The Video Game (April 23) with part one of this making of video. Read more
Life of Pi clawed its way closer to VFX Oscar gold Tuesday night, powered by Rhythm & Hues and MPC, grabbing four prizes at the 11th annual VES Awards at the Beverly Hilton, including Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature; Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture (R&H’s CG Bengal tiger, Richard Parker); Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture (MPC’s Storm of God); and Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture (Storm of God). Read more
