Toy Story 3 Teaser

sequel's sequel, how much expectation do you have? I think Pixar can still make it good.

Updated boxart of Astro Bopy Game

Here is an updated box art for the upcoming Astro Boy video game. This image is one of the screenshot selected from the movie: Astro is traced and surrounded by Military fighters.
The game is developed by High Voltage Software and set for release this fall through D3 Publisher.

di:stage

I really like this figures set which is very helpful for action design and posing. That will speed up a lot the staging when doing storyboard. Very useful tool. Got to get one!

Princess of Frog Teaser

Here you go the official trailer for the Disney animated film, The Princess and the Frog. We haven't seen any 2D animation from Disney for long time... seems this is a fun one.

Cars’ Tokyo Mater

New shorts from Pixar, Cars’ Tokyo Mater is a 6 min. short film that hilariously spoofs Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift with references to Grendizer and Power Rangers.

BTW, herad that Pixar is opening a satellite studio in Vancouver which will be dedicated to producing short subjects. According to a story in The Vancouver Sun, the new studio will not work on Pixar’s feature films, but will make shorts which, general manager Amir Nasrabadi hints, could include TV series.

“First and foremost for us is to concentrate on Pixar legacy characters,” said Nasrabadi, citing Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, and Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars as four of its legacy characters. “We want to keep these well-known and well-liked characters alive without creating a distraction to those working on the full-length motion pictures in California.

“The types of products we produce will be niche products, such as short films, whether they are standalone or episodic in nature,” said Nasrabadi, a 12-year veteran of the digital entertainment business. “They will be helpful to all of Disney’s ancillary businesses, such as television, compilations on DVD, Internet broadcasting, as well as theatres.”

source: Hollywood Reporter

Culture UNIQLO Commercial (Gatchaman)

Japanese store UNIQLO is covering video games with its new line of t-shirts. Games like Arkanoid, Bomberman and Pac-Man have their own UNIQLO threads.

The latest UNIQLO TV spot makes a not so subtle reference to new line of game clothes. There’s also Ken the Eagle from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, who’s appearing on UNIQLO anime shirts and starred in Capcom fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

X-Ray Art

cool X-Ray photos of consoles and controllers, ineresting visuals.





see more Reintji's X-Ray collection at Flickr

AstroBoy at East Touch

AstroBoy at "East Touch Magazine".
今期東TOUCH有AstroBoy封面及幾頁特寫, 內容有點無厘頭. ..

Astroboy Comic

IDW is rolling out brand new comics based on the upcoming CG animated Astro Boy movie, and now we've got a look at the covers of the collected versions, now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. More information at AstroBoy World

The Cover art is great which is painted by Ashley Wood, I don't expect the inside will be as good as Tezuka's original one, i expect to see a different and more western style version...

DragonBall Evolution

I felt something wrong with the movie "Dragonball Evolution" when i saw the first trailer. I told myself to watch it... after i heard more and more feedback from friends, i decide not to waste money and time to see that. For what i saw, that's 100% not DragonBall at all. The character, the world set up, the tone, the design, the fighting style etc. all are way "OFF"!! 100% around me think the same... It doesn't work for Asian audience, maybe it works for US. But after i checked the bad boxoffice, it showed that neither US audience doesn't like it... I don't undertsand why FOX set up the movie like this.

This poster is closer to my expectation on DragonBall

Fans recommended FOX people if they're still thinking about a sequel to the poor flick they released, pleass ask Funglisoft for consulting, I bet they could radically improve thier understanding of Dragonbal! Or even better: actually should outsource the production of the next DB movie to them! You see what I mean after you watched this clip featuring a fight between Gohan (Goku’s son) and the cyborg siblings:

http://teaser-trailer.com/

Ultraman Soda

DyDo Drinco Corp is marketing a traditional soda in collaboration with the popular “Ultraman” series. Ultraman themed soda just released in March in Japan which comes in two flavors and 12 different can designs, selling at 100 Yen each. It won't give you super power :P


I like the way they use the costume graphics, simple and fun! the website is pretty fun as well, check this out. Thanks Patrick share this with us.

Google Chrome Shorts

Google has just launched a YouTube page with 11 short films to promote the launch of their new web browser, Chrome. They were each created by different directors and artists. Here is my favorite one:

Google teamed with Motion Theory to craft the first video for Chrome's arrival. Directors Mark Kudsi and John Fan created a lively 2 1/2D animated spot celebrating Chrome's revolutionary features with music by Tim Meyers. A Chrome Short by Motion Theory. http://www.motiontheory.com/

The Making of PlayStation

above you see the development of PS logo, I always interest to see any "the making of" stuffs, where is the original idea and how thge final design was developed etc. Edge Magazine has an retrospective up for the PlayStation, from its early break with Nintendo to its current struggles to for market share; cool logo and controller prototypes, etc. a interesting article.
Read the full article at edge-online

Two minutes of 9 online

Two minutes exclusive clips of "9" is now available on MTV.com
Based on Shane Acker’s Academy Award-nominated short film of the same name, “9” follows nine ragdolls on a quest to save humanity in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Featuring the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer, “9” hits theaters in limited release on September 9 (in other words, 9/9/09).

Tezuka Manga in iphone!

cool news!

The software distributor Yappa has announced on Monday that it is releasing an application for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch mobile devices to distribute its Weekly Tezuka Osamu Magazine. Every Tuesday, the application will update with about 100 pages from Mighty Atom (Astro Boy), Phoenix, and other titles from the manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka. The application and the manga installments themselves are in Japanese, but the application is available in Apple's App Store outside Japan. The application and the weekly issues will be free for six months. A version compatible with Microsoft Windows Mobile devices is planned for the future.

The first weekly issue includes manga installments of Mighty Atom, Phoenix, Black Jack, Dororo, and Under the Air. The next issue will go online on April 21 with Princess Knight, The Crater, and Rainbow Parakeet. Despite Tezuka Productions' recent efforts to add color to its founder's manga in free digital form, Yappa's initial manga lineup is in the original black-and-white except for the "cover" pages. The online magazine is part of the ongoing 80th anniversary celebration of Tezuka's birth. Dark Horse Comics, Vertical, and Viz Media have all released Tezuka's manga in North America. IMAGI's computer-animated film adaptation of the Astro Boy manga is slated to open in North America on October 23.

Source: TezukaOsamu LiveJournal via Yappa.co.jp

Old Sketches of G1

Woww, old stuffs! this sketch I did long long time ago (2005)! I've just found it when i cleaned up the data in my computer. I was inspired by animated version of Batman at that time and tried to see how the western cartoon animated Gatchaman looked like...

Video Game Controllers Evolution

This neat illustration, we can see how the Video Game Controllers Evolution hands on. From dates back to the Tandy and Atari 2600 Video Game Console Controllers and continues through the years passing the NES, SNES, Dreamcast, Playstation and finally ends on the Wiimote.

It is amazing to see how Video Game consoles have evolved simply by the use of the controllers. What once was only a Controller with only a stick and a button has grown to the Nintendo Wiimote with a Directional Pad, 3 Buttons, 4 Options, 1 Shoulder, and is Motion Sensitive, including an additional Stick, 2 Shoulders which is also Motion Sensitive. What will be next?

source: Offworld

Robot Face Scuplture

Amazing Typewriter Robots sculptures, like it.

Giant Beetle Robot

This giant beetle robot named "Kabutom MX-03" was designed and built by a Japanese engineer, Takahashi in Ibaraki. He has taken his robotics hobby to the extreme and created a giant beetle mech that can be seen in the video above. This is no small project; with the final mech measuring 11 meters in length and weighing 15 tons. It has taken engineer Takahashi-san 11 years to complete as he started building it in 1998.

The actual design is based on a rhinoceros beetle and is remote controlled meaning Takahashi-san could recreate one of the many “giant creature attacks city” type films if he so wished. From watching the video though, the slow, limited movement of the machine would make it easy to overpower. It does have a large interior space though, making it viable as a transportation device; albeit for a very slow journey.

This is amazing, isn't it? You should have a great passion and a lot of enthusiasm to continue. I admire him!

Read more at CrunchGear and AltJapan, more pictures are also available at the Japanese Home Design Weblog

KIKADER

Speed paint, do it for fun during holiday...
see my other Kikaider painting