Apple TV+ Announces ‘Shape Island’ Stop-Motion Kids’ Series
Coming January 20, the new animated show, based on the best-selling picture books by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, follows the silly adventures of Square, Circle, and Triangle; also announced, ‘Helpsters’ Season 3 returns this Friday with all-new episodes.
‘ARK: The Animated Series” Season One Trailer Drops
Based on the popular dinosaur survival adventure video game ‘ARK: Survival Evolved,’ the series features an all-star cast including Gerard Butler, Russell Crowe, Michelle Yeoh, and Vin Diesel, set to release on a yet-to-be-named platform later this year.
‘Harry & Bunnie’ and ‘Chuck Chicken’ Heading to MENA
Animasia Studio inks deal with MBC Group, bringing 2 original animated series to the Middle East and North Africa; shows feature the slapstick adventures of a wannabe magician, and Chuck and the Kung Fu master with his magical egg.
FMX 2023 Shares ‘The Beauty’ Conference Trailer
Returning in April as ‘climate-friendly’ certified, the event will feature discussions on sustainability in film and media production; programming announcements include a look at animated shorts ‘A Flammable Planet’ and ‘Can’t Negotiate the Melting Point of Ice,’ and advancements of AI Rotoscoping.
NVIDIA Launches ‘Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine’ Early-Access
New suite of cloud-native AI microservices helps developers build and deploy intelligent virtual assistants and digital humans at scale, including adding animation to any avatar built on virtually any platform – such as Unreal’s MetaHuman tech and cross-platform game avatar development tools - and deployed on any cloud.
Build-A-Bear Producing ‘Glisten and the Merry Mission’ Animated Feature
The ‘stuff it yourself’ teddy bear toy company is teaming with Foundation Media Partners on its first animated Christmas feature, complete with an all-star cast, based on the real-life Holiday plush collection star Glisten the snow deer.
NVIDIA Reveals New Omniverse AI Tools for 3D Artists
As part of tech giant’s CES Special Address, company announced Blender enhancements that include Omniverse Launcher and Audio2Face, Audio2Gesture, and Audio2Emotion — generative AI tools that enable instant 3D character animation.
‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Returns for Season 2
EPs Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett talk cloth simulations, matte paintings, and military dynamics as their hit 3DCG animated series debuts its sophomore season tomorrow, January 4, on Disney+.
NVIDIA Releases Major Omniverse Enterprise Updates
The latest release features new deployment options, new Omniverse connectors, and enhanced performance for optimized workflows that connect 3D pipelines to develop and operate large-scale, physically accurate virtual 3D worlds.
Hulu Drops ‘Koala Man’ Trailer
Debuting January 9, the original animated series about a middle-aged superhero dad, his titular not-so-secret identity, and his quest to stamp out crime in his hometown, stars Michael Cusack, Hugh Jackman, Sarah Snook, Jemaine Clement, and Demi Lardner.
Adapting Character Creator and iClone’s Procedural Tools for Virtual Productions
Piera Varda explains how he and his team at Peru-based La Escena Virtual designed and produced their ambitious animated short, ‘The Within,’ after upgrading their workflow to integrate new real-time tools that enabled much greater creative control and artistic freedom.
‘Santiago of the Seas’ Creator Niki López Completes Short for Nickelodeon
The Puerto Rico native, one of ‘Variety’s 10 Animators to Watch,’ made the film as part of Nick’s Intergalactic Shorts Program initiative to develop original comedy-driven content with an eye towards eventual series development.
Luma Pictures Helps Grow a ‘Groot’
Marvel Studios’ 5-episode collection of ‘I Am Groot’ animated shorts finds the mischievous toddler sprouting his childhood wings, produced through a close collaboration between director Kristen Lepore and the VFX studio’s animation director, Raphael Pimentel; the series is now streaming on Disney+.
‘Paul Martin and the Magic Magnifying Glass’ Getting Animated
Creation Entertainment Media and Magic Frame Animation are teaming up to develop and produce and feature film adaptation of Georges Alexander Vagan’s detective adventure book series that follows young Paul Martin as he traverses a land of perpetual Christmas and snow.
Review: The 22nd Annual 'Animation Show of Shows'
This year’s selection of 10 shorts, including films by Patrick Smith, Gil Alkabetz, and Oscar winner Frederic Back, showcases a variety of techniques and tones in a celebration of unconventional approaches to the medium.
New Images Revealed for ‘Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham’
Three exciting first-look character images have been released for upcoming Lovecraftian animated film, including glimpses of Batman (David Giuntoli), Harvey Dent, (Patrick Fabian), Oliver Queen (Christopher Gorham), and Talia al Ghul (Emily O’Brien).
Crime and Funishment: A Feline Hero Returns in ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’
Joel Crawford, director of DreamWorks Animation’s latest adventure-comedy, talks about Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, and the making of his new film about the famous whiskered adventurer’s coming to grips with mortality, a brilliant, instant classic, now in theaters.
Crunchyroll Drops New Trailer, Release Date for ‘NieR: Automata Ver1.1a’
The anime series based on Square Enix and Platinum Games’ role-playing game, featuring the battle between androids and machines in a post-apocalyptic Earth, is set to release January 7.
‘Karma’s World’: An Invaluable Education in Black Character Animation
Series head writer Halcyon Person shares how Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges’ hit children’s show pushes boundaries and tell stories never told before in animation, representing both the Black experience and Black culture of a true Brooklyn neighborhood; Season 4 now streaming on Netflix.
NVIDIA Studio Highlights ‘I Am Not Afraid!’ Animated Short
Creative studio Fabian&Fred harnessed Adobe Creative Cloud, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve, bolstered by GeForce RTX 3090 GPUs, creating an authentic reflection of a little girl’s fear and her discovery of the true meaning of bravery.
Stoopid Buddy Stoodios Transports ‘Nouns’ into the 134th Annual Rose Parade
The Emmy Award-winning animation studio teams up with the Nouns DAO digital art community to usher in 2023, designing and building a 65-foot-long float manned by greater than life-sized memes Cone, Pickle, and Shark – some of the digital figures sold in daily NFT auctions.
Is Another ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Project on the Way?
Avatar News reveals an original animated series following the next ‘earth cycle’ Avatar, set after the events of ‘The Legend of Korra,’ may be coming to Paramount+ in 2025.
Famed ‘Naruto’ Producer and Studio Pierrot Founder Yuji Nunokawa Dies at 75
In addition to the illustrious anime icon’s achievements in entertainment, he was responsible for establishing initiatives to aid the anime industry, such as The Association of Japanese Animations collective and NUROANI Juku.
Madi Piller’s ‘My Elliot:’ 24 Hours in the Life of Elliot Yarmon
Alice Walker once wrote, ‘Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.’ How do you pack a 24-hour narrative into a 3-minute film? By animating time. In conversation with the filmmaker.
‘Goodbye, Don Glees!’ Artfully Captures Teenage Insecurity and Invincibility
Atsuko Ishizuka’ highly personal 2D animated feature tells the story of 3 childhood friends who, over a summer, find that life is leading them onto very different paths of self-discovery, now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
