Tag Archives: animators

Tameka Raymond Denies Mental Disorder, Wants More Time with Children

Tameka Raymond was a guest today on Good Morning America , taking time to explain her side of the recent custody battle with Usher. The 42-year old told Dan Abrams that she never blamed Usher for the pool accident that nearly took the couple’s son, but was “just angry that it happened on his watch. Never have my children been injured on my watch.” Little Usher Raymond V is now out of the hospital – and playing games with his dad – and Tameka said her reaction to the near-tragedy was simply to keep the child safe. “When the incident happened, my attorney filed an emergency motion so that my son, when he was released from the hospital, wasn’t going back to the house where this happened,” Raymond said. Because Usher is so often on the road, Tameka is simply looking for the “right of refusal.” When the singer is not present, she believes the kids should “come home with their mom,” not a nanny or aunt or some other relative. But, Abrams asked, didn’t Tameka take a psychological examination at some point that revealed she had “a moderately severe mental disorder?” “I’m going to be retested,” Tameka said. “You would think from hearing that, that she must be cutting them, beating them, on crack.” Raymond said she hopes to keep battling for the chance to see her kids more often, but it isn’t easy. Not when Usher is a mega celebrity and she’s simply… a person. “I am an individual. I don’t have a publicist. I don’t have a manager [or] an agent. I just have regular working class friends, family members. We don’t know how to fight the machine.” Usher, Tameka Raymond Fight For Custody

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Tameka Raymond Denies Mental Disorder, Wants More Time with Children

Diddy Mocks Kendrick Lamar, "King of New York" Claim on Instagram

It’s ON now. Diddy just put Kendrick Lamar on BLAST on Instagram, taking issue with a claim he makes on Big Sean’s “Control” where he calls himself the new King of New York. Diddy disagrees. In hilarious, meme-tastic form: Kendrick Lamar’s verse of the Big Sean track – in which he SHREDS Lindsay Lohan, Drake, and everyone else – has been the talk of the web for the last 24 hours. Diddy wasn’t name-checked or threatened with murder (he’s one of the few) on “Control,” but he took issue with Lamar’s lyrics about reigning over NYC. That’s Diddy’s role, b!tch. We’ll leave the argument over who the real ruler of the Big Apple rap game is up to you, THGers … but we have to give Diddy props for his retaliatory style. Jay-Z had no comment, but based on the photo above, his pal’s pretty much implying there’s no daylight between their respective positions on Lamar.

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Diddy Mocks Kendrick Lamar, "King of New York" Claim on Instagram

The Witcher 3 Trailer: Killing Monsters Equals Cinematic Beauty!

It appears as if  The Witcher 3 would like to be in the Best Video Game Intros conversation. Check out this new  The Witcher 3 trailer below! The Witcher 3 Trailer With this “Killing Monsters” trailer, the animators are giving a masterclass on how far CG has come in recent years. The facial expressions, especially of the girl and the dude spitting, are incredible.  Not to mention Garalt’s movements as he kills with ease. So beautiful. The Witcher 3 is scheduled to be released sometime in 2014. Hopefully soon they’ll announce a firm date!

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The Witcher 3 Trailer: Killing Monsters Equals Cinematic Beauty!

WATCH: Ryan Reynolds discovers fire – and Chris Sanders – with ‘The Croods’

There is apparently no end to  Lilo & Stitch creator Chris Sanders’ talents, from doing a great Nicolas Cage impression to braving the bitter cold at the NYC premiere of  The Croods  – with no jacket! Just how impressed was Ryan Reynolds  with Sanders?  “This is my first animated movie I’ve ever done, and I was doing one subsequently right afterwards and I learned so much from [the directors] that I shifted the sessions in the next animated movie to feel more like this one!” The Croods is director Chris Sanders’ second film for Dreamworks Animation, where he defected to after clashing with Disney over  American Dog. ( The title became   Bolt  after his departure).  Is he still enjoying his new home?  “Every film we make we get, like, better technology — so even better!”  Plus he’s already hard at work on  How To Train Your Dragon 2 . But his co-writer and director, Kirk De Micco, chimed in to say there was one area where Dreamworks Animation struggled — creating digital tar!   The request threw the animators for a loop.  “How deep is the tar?!  How sticky is the tar?!  Does it stick to their clothes?!”  Good thing Sanders and De Micco were there to answer their questions. Check out my full interview below: Follow Grace Randolph on  Twitter . Follow Movieline on  Twitter . 

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WATCH: Ryan Reynolds discovers fire – and Chris Sanders – with ‘The Croods’

It All Ends With a Taiwanese News Animation About Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

A news story isn’t a big deal unless the animators at Taiwanese news organization NMA take a crack at it. Thus, it’s official: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a big deal. BIG deal, even. How does NMA see the Harry Potter franchise ending? With Voldemort wearing a chef’s hat, naturally. Click through to watch.

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It All Ends With a Taiwanese News Animation About Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The Siege of Blackthorn Castle: Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/v/LTZhBhT_SyM

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Animators Graham Mason and Nicole Boettcher bring us Part 2 of The Siege of Blackthorn Castle. Voices by Brantley Jones and Anna Abhau Elliott. Click here for show credits. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more Rocketboom! Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates! Join us on Facebook for behind the scenes pics and Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Rocketboom Discovery Date : 05/02/2011 04:03 Number of articles : 2

The Siege of Blackthorn Castle: Part 2

Chris Brown’s BET Awards MJ Tribute Was ‘Spectacular,’ Jermaine Jackson Says

‘He deserves to perform, because it’s healing for him,’ Michael Jackson’s brother tells ‘Extra.’ By Gil Kaufman Chris Brown performs during the 2010 BET Awards on Sunday Photo: Frederick M. Brown/ Getty Images Chris Brown wasn’t the only one getting misty-eyed at Sunday night’s BET Awards during his tribute to Michael Jackson . The King of Pop’s older brother, Jermaine, told “Extra” that he was also overcome with emotion during the dance routine, in which Brown paid homage to some of MJ’s most famous moves and then attempted to sing “Man in the Mirror” before being overcome with emotion and weeping onstage. “To see [Chris’] performance, it was very emotional for me, because it was an acceptance from his fans from what has happened to him and also paying tribute to my brother,” Jermaine said. “It was just a spectacular moment.” Fans and critics have been split on the performance, which some saw as the bursting of an emotional dam for the singer, making his first major public appearance since he pleaded guilty to felony assault in his assault of former girlfriend Rihanna last June. Others speculated that Brown may have manufactured the tears to gain sympathy from fans who abandoned him in the wake of the Rihanna attack. Jermaine Jackson said he thought Brown — a longtime devotee of Michael’s and, at one point, considered a modern heir to the R&B throne — had every right to pay homage to his brother. “He deserves to perform, because it’s healing for him,” Jermaine said. “How can he learn from his mistakes if you don’t give him a chance? He needs that. I love Rihanna, and I’m not supporting what he did, but I support him [as a singer] 100 percent. … I’m just very emotional just knowing what has happened. Chris Brown is a human being, and we all make mistakes. We can’t condemn him for what has happened. We hope he has learned from it.” Brown hasn’t made any public statements since the BET performance, but on Monday, he did tweet , “My fans are my world,” a follow-up to a message earlier in the day when he wrote, “I Love you … (ever single one of #teambreezy).” What did you think of Chris Brown’s emotional performance? Let us know in the comments. Related Videos The 2010 BET Awards Related Photos 2010 BET Awards Show Highlights Related Artists Chris Brown Michael Jackson

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Chris Brown’s BET Awards MJ Tribute Was ‘Spectacular,’ Jermaine Jackson Says

‘Eclipse’ Werewolves: Five Secrets Revealed

Visual-effects master Phil Tippett tells MTV News how he remade Jacob Black and the wolf pack into primordial animals for third installment. By Eric Ditzian Photo: Summit You’ve met Jacob Black and his pack of werewolves before, but you’ve never seen them like this. Fans were first introduced to the hirsute shape-shifters last November in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” but when director David Slade took over directing duties from Chris Weitz on “Eclipse,” he brought with him a new vision for the wolves. And it was up to visual effects legend Phil Tippett — his studio engineered a dizzying array of hits, including “Cloverfield,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “Men in Black II” — to translate Slade’s vision into computer-generated effects worthy of the big screen. With just hours to go until the midnight opening of “Eclipse,” Tippett called MTV News and gave us on a behind-the-scenes look at these cinematic wolves. The Wolves Have New Fur, Eyes And Behavior Weitz requested wolves that had more of a rangy look to them, with matted fur and eyes that more closely resembled human eyes than wolf ones. By contrast, Slade wanted his wolves just a bit more, well, coifed. “They weren’t supposed to look like poodles, but [Slade] wanted them a lot sleeker looking and with shinier, shimmering coats,” Tippett explained. Slade was also adamant that the “Eclipse” wolves revert to the wolf eyes you might see in nature. But it wasn’t just the wolf pack’s physical attributes that got a makeover for the third installment. Tippett and his team were also directed to adjust the wolves’ overall behavior. “The ‘New Moon’ wolves, we played them as heroic sentries,” said Tippett. “When the wolves met the humans, we attempted to make it appear as though the wolves had a center of conscience that was definitely human. And David really wanted to play it that the wolves were far more primordial and much more wolf-like. The wolves became less sentries sent from God and a lot more twitchy, uncertain, fairer animals.” Perhaps the biggest similarity between both film’s wolves, however, is that neither set actually has genitals — a compromise necessary to secure a PG-13 rating. “We just deal with it by putting extra fur down there,” he laughed. Taylor’s Wolf Is Sad Tippett and his crew spent countless hours perfecting each member of the wolf pack, but obviously Taylor Lautner’s wolf receives the most screen time and thus required the closest attention. Specifically, they had to capture Jacob’s unrequited love for Bella while he was in wolf-form. “Through non-language pantomime on the wolf’s part, he had to appear to be engaged and try to make his expressions telegraph the tragic love that is their relationship,” Tippett said. “So there is a sad kind of a longing and protectiveness that we try to imbue him with.” To get the look right, crew members traveled up to a wolf preserve, and actually got into pens with the 200-pound animals and sketched out what they observed. “I’m a huge advocate of that. Anytime you can get close to an animal, that’s the closet model you can find,” he said. “And the animators are cast just like actors. Certain animators are really strong on action and there are animators that are really strong on the emotional moments. And the animators strong on emotion were the ones creating the emotional response of Jacob’s wolf.” The Vampires Fought With a Potato Since the wolves are entirely CGI creations, the actors are presented with a challenge: how to interact with — and often fight hand-to-paw against — imaginary beings. What’s more, they had to do all this in such a way that would allow Tippett and his animators to plug in their digital creations. The solution they hit upon was what came to be known as the “potato.” “We came up with this object that we called the potato,” Tippett said. “And the potato was roughly a very rudimentary wolf form that was kind of like a big pillow that matched the dimensions of the wolves without hair. And those would be set on location by the special-effects department, and they would rig these potatoes with wires so they would hang and we would be able to manipulate them in a way that we knew later on we would be able to match with the wolves in a realistic confrontation. Taylor Dressed Up In A Gray Leotard Alas, the potato wouldn’t always suffice. For one scene in which Jacob’s wolf nuzzles up against Bella, filmmakers required something just a bit more lifelike than a big pillow. “David was very insistent that Taylor actually perform with Kristen, and so he had the wardrobe department make up a grey leotard and a hoodie that Taylor wore, and he would kind of crouch down and try as best he could to fit that space where we knew later the wolf would be,” Tippett said. “And Taylor could remain in character and ensure that the performance was a performance based on contact between two performers, not just Kristen talking to a golf ball or something like that.” Fantasy Trumped Physics In the climatic fight scene, when the wolves take on a newborn army of vicious vampires, the effects team found itself in a conundrum: How could a 1,200-pound wolf and a 180-pound vampire get into a realistic fight? “We have to be true to Earth’s specific gravity in the performance work to make it seem like the wolves are really there,” Tippett said. “But if a 1,200-pound object is slamming into a human being at 30 miles an hour, it’s going to have pretty severe consequences. And so there are these scenes where it’s like, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to pull this off?’ ” Their solution was to sprinkle a hefty dose of magical realism into their physical calculations. “David’s justification for it was, ‘OK, the newborns are made out of some material that increases their mass and that they are closer to 500 pounds,” Tippett said. “The actors didn’t actually play it like that — I don’t think they ever told them that because they didn’t start walking around like the Hulk or anything — but what it did is gave us an excuse to be able to choreograph these things. So when a wolf runs and attacks and slams into one of the newborns at the tail end of the third act battle, we have a performance justification for how that works. That was actually planned out and made sense and didn’t look stupid.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos ‘Eclipse’ Hits New York City Related Photos ‘Eclipse’ Stars In New York

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‘Eclipse’ Werewolves: Five Secrets Revealed