Binocular Briefs - March 2025
AWN’s latest survey highlights under-the-radar animated shorts that are currently making their way through the festival circuit—or are newly available for online viewing.
AWN’s latest survey highlights under-the-radar animated shorts that are currently making their way through the festival circuit—or are newly available for online viewing.
The venture will include its ‘Assassin’s Creed,’ ‘Far Cry,’ and ‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six’ brands; Tencent will gain an approximate 25% economic interest in the subsidiary, which will remain exclusively controlled and consolidated by Ubisoft.
Andrew Osmond crosses over to Chinese animation this week, to consider ‘Ne Zha 2,’ the highest grossing animated film in the world.
Expansion to state-of-the-art facility with up to 250 artist positions grows the company’s international footprint and ability to take on more ambitious work; expansion also planned at Los Angeles headquarters.
Artists can bypass game engines and use their normal pipeline to put ray-traced 3D content on LED walls; NVIDIA DLSS 4 support enhances photorealism.
The Doctor and new companion Belinda Chandra will face great dangers, bigger enemies, and wilder terrors than ever before when the new season premieres April 12 on Disney+ where available, and exclusively on the BBC and BBC iPlayer in the UK.
From his early, revolutionary work at Disney on ‘Tron’ to his Oscar-nominated short, ‘Technological Threat’ and Coca Cola ‘Polar Bear’ commercials, the long-time industry veteran was front and center at the nexus of revolutionary change from hand-drawn to computer animation.
The co-showrunner has left the production to focus on his mental health after co-showrunner Steven Maeda left ahead of Season 2 production; Joe Tracz will lead the series going forward.
Inspired by the hit kids’ series, the new game explores 5 iconic boroughs of City Island through 14 immersive mini-games, where players can paint a mural, plant a community garden, and interact with colorful citizens.
The ill-fated live-action/3DCG hybrid film may finally have a buyer and distributor in deal reportedly nearing $50 million.
Lists of participating speakers and companies have also been published; presentation categories include VFX for Features, Feature Animation, Sound Design, Managing Change, and News.
With an impressive guest cast that also includes Kristen Wiig, Ali Wong, and Chloe Fineman, Season 8 of Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning animated comedy, which follows the Bridgeton teens dealing with puberty’s glorious nightmare… now as highschoolers, streams May 23.
The director reteams with his ‘Coco’ co-director Adrian Molina in the sequel to their Oscar-winning 2017 hit animated film, set for release in 2029.
The leading VFX and animation studio delivered 150 shots across multiple episodes on the Lucasfilm series, working on destroyed cities, security droids, elephantine character Neel, and futuristic ‘gold’ currency.
Now available for free on IOS, Android, and PC, the 4X strategy game based on the beloved animated series includes Father Glowworm, first introduced in the novel ‘The Rise of Kyoshi,’ as well as new enemies to defeat like Chanyu, Borte and Murong.
All this 11-year-old space fanatic wants is to get abducted by aliens, which finally happens, though not as he imagined, as he’s mistaken for Earth’s leader and must deal with a truly galactic crisis; hits theaters June 20.
The Oscar and Annie Award-nominated ‘Presto’ director also previously led teams on classics like ‘Monsters, Inc.’ and ‘Cars;’ he recently worked on Psyop-produced short-form content for mobile gaming giants Dream Games and Supercell.
The show was renewed last July at SDCC for what will now be its final season; Mike McMahan, Josh Bycel and Sydney Ryan’s hilarious, NSFW series centers on four aliens evenly split on whether Earth is awful or awesome.
The voices behind Petunia Pig, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck talk martini jokes, the need to recognize more women voice actors come awards season, and the challenges working on Warner Bros. Animation’s new sci-fi buddy action comedy, now in theaters.
The digital animation tools and workflow collaborative initiative includes Immersive Enterprise Labs (IEL) and House of Moves; software technologies from JALI, Ozone Story Tech, and mGear; tablet displays from Xencelabs, with support from Vicon and Lenovo.
Third season will be based on ‘The Titan’s Curse’ by Rick Riordan; series, fresh off this past Saturday's 8 Emmy Award wins, has been renewed ahead of its second season premiere this December.
The ‘District 9’ and ‘Gran Turismo’ filmmaker will adapt the classic Robert A. Heinlein sci-fi novel; the project will not serve as a remake to the 1997 feature adaptation from Paul Verhoeven.
See highlights of the studio’s work on HBO’s ‘Dune’ prequel delivering 421 shots across 44 sequences, including the fully CG Imperial Palace on Kaitain, with its opulent gardens, grand monuments, and vast ocean backdrop.
Following investor-related issues and ‘the fall-out from the writer and actor strikes,’ the VFX and animation studio has paused operations, reportedly temporarily; legal steps have supposedly been taken to ‘protect the position of the business.’
The mission-driven live action/CGI blended series, inspired by the work of world-renowned ethologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, premieres April 18.