Sometimes, the only way to deal with events so sinister, so beyond comprehension, is to lay them bare with the darkest of humor.  Never shying from controversy, the South Park team confronts the Penn State scandal head on as well as from behind.

 

Pixar has posted a funny new "short" from Brave, entitled "Summer Games."

16 top episodes culled from all three seasons of J.G. Quintel’s Emmy® Award-winning series Regular Show have just been released on DVD by the folks at Cartoon Network.  Needless to say, that’s 16 great opportunities to share in the hijinks of Mordecai and Rigby, our friendly neighborhood blue jay and raccoon, bored stiff park groundskeepers, best friends and consummate slackers.  The show is one of the few animated series that works both for kids and adults without alienating either.  We had an opportunity to talk to J.G. (The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Camp Lazlo) about the show’s success and the challenges faced in creating an animated television series.

 

 

By Brian Taylor

The World Solar Challenge is a 3,000 kilometer race across the Australian outback. That’s 3,000 kilometers of scrubland and blistering sunlight -- the kind of environment that’s not particularly welcoming to humans or technology, unless that technology happens to be solar-powered.

In late October 2011, for the eleventh race since 1987, a group of solar-powered cars designed by groups from around the world attempted to cross the continent, from Darwin to Adelaide, on solar power alone. Some cars made it; some had to resort to being towed on trailers part of the way by gasoline-powered vehicles. Members of one 70-person-strong team from Cambridge University designed, built and drove a car in the race.

 

Ace & Son Moving Picture Company, led by Richard O’Connor’s animation direction, recently finished a poignant and thoughtful animated documentary short on the horrors of honor killings.

 

For her role as Visual Development Artist on Wreck-It Ralph, Lorelay Bove tapped into her Spanish roots and her love of Catalan modernist architecture to help influence the style, color and character design for Sugar Rush, a candy-coated cart racing game. Inspired by this distinct artistic style that includes such masters as Antoni Gaudi, the filmmakers were able to envision Sugar Rush as a sweet landscape environment that was both credible and melt-in-your-mouth edible.

With Wreck-It Ralph about to be released for the home entertainment market, we chat to the talented artist to discover more about the hilarious, arcade-hopping animation and the amazing artistry behind it…

 

Disney has just released 8 character portraits with descriptions from Tim Burton's upcoming stop-motion horror flick, Frankenweenie.  The set includes profiles on the following characters:  Victor (voiced by Chalie Tahan), Sparky, Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein (voiced by Catherine O'Hara & Martin Short), Elsa van Helsing (voiced by Winona Ryder), Persephone, Toshiaki (voiced by James Hiroyuki Liao), Bob (voiced by Robert Capron) and Bob's Mom (voiced by Concata Ferrell). Links are included to 1200x1800 pixel images - very detailed and very cool.

 

As you can imagine, in my position at AWN, I receive a lot of DVDs.  Many great films, many not so great films. So it’s always a treat when the postman delivers a DVD of a film you really enjoyed and have been waiting to watch up close and personal in all its splendiferous Blu-ray-ness deliciousness (sorry, been watching too many Diners, Drivers and Dives lately).  I’ve been waiting with great anticipation for my copy of Wreck-It Ralph to hit the mailbox. Thankfully, it finally arrived.  I haven’t been this happy since my eldest daughter took over her car payment. 

As an unabashed fan of the film, I can honestly say, with all bias and lack of objectivity, that the high-def Blu-ray version is exquisite.  What a treat to watch on a big screen TV, comfy couch, warm slippers, hot popcorn and trusty bottle of Makers Mark in hand.  Not even my poor old mutt Cassie, polluting the family room with such toxic ferocity I thought Union Carbide moved in next door, could spoil my moment of animation fanboy bliss.

Imagine exploring Paris through a digital window in your living room, using a camera to capture a 3D blueprint of your house to plan your next remodel, or trying on clothing in a virtual dressing room that shows how fabrics flow with your every move. These are a few potential applications of visual computing, a fast-growing field of technology that combines photorealism, HD video and audio, interactivity and computational modeling to enable real-time, lifelike immersive experiences.

The demand for visual computing is accelerating in parallel with increasing computational power that enables the processing of complex visual data, the proliferation of mobile devices and the demand for improved user experiences. In the future, people will use their computing platforms to interact with the world in richer ways, letting them enjoy realistic simulated experiences that blur the line between the physical and virtual worlds.

 

Pixar has released four slightly (and I mean, ever so slightly) different versions of the first Monsters University trailer, which has a June 21, 2013 U.S. release date.  Four high-res images were released as well - links and full images supplied below.