Category: Disney Animation Studios

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Disney Animation Studios to Debut VR Short Film ‘A Kite’s Tale’ Later This Month

Disney Animation Studios is set to debut its second VR short film, A Kite’s Tale, late this month at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles.

Following the debut of their first VR short film, Cycles, last year at the same conference, Disney Animation Studios will offer the first showing of A Kite’s Tale at SIGGRAPH 2019 in the ‘VR Theater’ portion of the show. The event is being hosted from July 28th to August 1st at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Disney says that A Kite’s Tale “combines classic hand-drawn animation and the latest innovations in virtual reality to tell this whimsical tale of two kites; a playful puppy (with a wagging tail) and a pompous dragon who clash, tangle, and ultimately must learn to live with one another subject to the winds of fate.”

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The short film is being directed by Bruce Wright who has been working with Disney for more than 20 years. Some of his credits include work on Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Frozen 2.

A Kite’s Tale was born out of Disney Animation’s ‘Short Circuit’ program which allows anyone within the studio to submit blind pitches that may be selected to be turned into short films. The VR short film is the second to come from the Short Circuit program, with the first being Cycles.

Though A Kite’s Tale will debut at SIGGRAPH, it isn’t clear when (or if) the film will be released to the public. Cycles, which debuted in 2018, is still not publicly available.

The post Disney Animation Studios to Debut VR Short Film ‘A Kite’s Tale’ Later This Month appeared first on Road to VR.

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Disney to Develop New “Top Secret” VR Short Film Following Success of ‘Cycles’

Walt Disney Animation Studios has approved another “top secret” VR short after the apparent success of Cycles (2018), the studio’s first foray into VR short films.

The next project is slated to be directed by Jeff Gipson, the director behind Cycles, CNET reports. The news was announced by both Gipson and Cycles‘ producer Nicholas Russell at Sundance 2019 in Park City, Utah.

The pair is remaining tight-lipped on the specifics, although the project is “likely to also be a short that falls in the three- to five-minute range.” The project also has the go-ahead to use “Disney’s existing cast of characters in VR.”

Image courtesy Disney Animation Studios

“What Cycles is proving is VR is something the studio wants to explore,” Russell said. “The fact that they greenlit another one this quickly is proof that they might not know exactly what tomorrow looks like for Disney and VR, but we’re going to keep exploring.”

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While this may be Disney Animation Studios’ second VR film, the company as a whole has been involved in VR for quite a while now. Starting in 2014, Disney’s Accelerator started backing around 10 companies each year, offering financial investment and a mentorship program at the company’s creative campus in LA. Companies to come out of Disney’s Accelerator 360 streaming platform Littlstar, 360 video production studio Jaunt, and location-based VR arcade The Void.

Disney-funded VR experiments also exited several divisions including Pixar’s Coco VR experience and Void experiences Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire and Ralph Breaks VR. More recently, Disney Games and Interactive Experiences debuted a Marvel-based VR game at CES 2019 that ties an electric Audi’s movements into VR.

The post Disney to Develop New “Top Secret” VR Short Film Following Success of ‘Cycles’ appeared first on Road to VR.

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Disney Animation Studios to Debut Its First VR Short Film Next Month

Walt Disney Animation Studios, the group behind animated classics like The Little Mermaid (1989), The Lion King (1994), and newer blockbusters like Moana (2016), is set to debut its first VR short film next month at the SIGGRAPH 2018 conference in Vancouver.

The VR short film, titled Cycles, will be centered around a singular family home and the stories that happen therein, reports Variety. While Disney, a sprawling corporation, has experimented with VR across several divisions—Pixar’s Coco VR experience and Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, to name a few—this will be the first VR short film to come from Walt Disney Animation Studios itself.

Image courtesy Disney

The film will be directed by Jeff Gibson, who has worked as a lightning artist at Disney Animation Studios since 2013. Variety reports that the studio took an experimental storyboarding approach, using motion capture and VR artwork tools like Quill to pre-visualize the film before starting into production proper.

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The film will debut at SIGGRAPH 2018 next month, but there’s no word yet on when it might see a public release.

The post Disney Animation Studios to Debut Its First VR Short Film Next Month appeared first on Road to VR.

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SIGGRAPH 2018 Reveal Lineup For Electronic Theater Showcase

Inter-disciplinary educational and technology event that showcases the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques has announced the full lineup for their Computer Animation Festival Electronic and Virtual Reality (VR) Theaters.

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The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival is known for continuously pushing the boundaries of computer-generated storytelling in film, videogames, visual effects, and more. Thanks to the improvements in immersive technology both VR and augmented reality (AR) have a place at the festival, showcasing what the technology is capable of achieving. For SIGGRAPH 2018, the theme of the conference is “Generations”, and keep to that the Electronic Theater’s lineup is poised to  epitomize a next-generation showcase of 25 short films and
presentations, culled from over 400 submissions.

With an international showcase, the Electronic Theater will feature works from Ecuador, Spain, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States; five student projects; and, two major studio shorts – Pixar Animation Studios’ “Bao,” written and directed by the studio’s first-ever female director of a short film, Chinese-Canadian-American artist Domee Shi, and DreamWorks Animation’s “Bilby.” The Electronic Theater is set to run for three evenings from 13th August through to 15th August, as is a ticketed event.

“We will be presenting a high caliber of work this year from a very competitive, international field of submissions. Our jury commented several times that there were tough decisions to be made over pieces that might have been a ‘slam dunk’ in previous years,” said SIGGRAPH 2018 Computer Animation Festival Director Larry Bafia. “Each year, the Computer Animation Festival provides a spectrum of computer graphics that is unique from any other festival. The work shown ranges from hyper-real to stylized, from student grad projects to small studio work, from large studio shorts to visual effects house showcases. Our 2018 festival will, once again, present a great variety of styles of visual storytelling — sure to make for an entertaining and compelling show.”

It was also revealed last month that Disney Animation Studios with be debuting a VR short at SIGGRAPH 2018 in the form of Cycles. The short is said to be one of the highlights of the programmer, being an experiment film that centers around the meaning of ‘home’ and what it means to create one and the life that is lived within its walls.

SIGGRAPH 2018 is set to start on the 12th August and run until 16th August at the Vancouver Convention Centre, hosting a range of different programs within the conference and exhibition space. Further information and tickets can be found on the official SIGGRAPH website. For more news and coverage in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

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Disney VR Animation Short to Debut at SIGGRAPH 2018

Inter-disciplinary educational and technology event SIGGRAPH has announced the line-up for its virtual, augmented and mixed reality program, with a short VR film from Disney Animation set to have a prominent place.

Walt Disney animation Studios will be bringing its VR short film Cycles to SIGGRAPH 2018 for its world debut, where it will be shown alongside many other projects in the immersive technology area.

Recognising the growth of the immersive technology sector, the organisers of SIGGRAPH have created a space of visitors to the event to get a glimpse into the present and future state of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) with the Immersive Pavillion.

The Immersive Pavillion will be devoted exclusively to immersive technology and will feature the Vrcade, which will contain a variety of VR,AR and MR videogames and experiences. There will also be the VR Theater, which the organisers describe as a ‘storytelling extravaganza’ which will form part of the Computer Animation Festival.

“We are so excited about the new Immersive Pavilion — it will instantly become the place for our attendees to experience, play, and learn about the latest technological advances across all areas of these rapidly emerging media platforms,” said SIGGRAPH 2018 Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Chair Pol Jeremias. “This year’s VR and mixed reality offerings will include innovative experiments, research, games, music videos, and more that are focused on the exploding and immersive interactive experience.”

The Disney animated short Cycle will form one of the highlights of the programme. Cycles is an experimental film that centers around the meaning of ‘home’ and what it means to create a home, and the life that can be lived within the walls.

Other features of the immersive pavillion will include presentations and panel discussions featuring companies such as Niantic Labs and Nvidia.

SIGGRAPH 2018 is due to take place on 12th-16th August, 2018 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Further information and tickets can be found on the official SIGGRAPH website. For further news and coverage of upcoming events, keep checking back with VRFocus.