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Joe Biden, Kamala Harris: A new hope

2021-01-21T07:24:00.002-08:00

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris: A new hope

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After defeating President Donald Trump in a nail-biting election, Democrat Joe Biden Saturday addressed the nation for the first time as President-elect. (AP)

2 / 16
The President-elect declared it was "time to heal" America and positioned himself as a leader of both Democrats and Republicans who "seeks not to divide, but to unify" the country. (AP)

3 / 16
“I sought this office to restore the soul of America,” said Biden in a prime-time victory speech not far from his Delaware home, “and to make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home.”(AP)

4 / 16
Biden vowed for a new beginning and urged all those who voted for President Trump to give him a chance. “Let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again,” he added. (AP)

5 / 16
After over three days of uncertainty, with a record surge in mail-in ballots, Biden propelled past the finish line with a projected win in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. (AP)

6 / 16
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the victory speech, for the first time in history, was delivered in a parking lot where supporters gathered to cheer for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. (AP)

7 / 16
Biden was introduced by his running mate Kamala Harris who has written history by becoming the first women, first black women and first South Asian American women to become the Vice President-Elect of the United States. (AP)

8 / 16
Harris is set to become the highest ranking woman to ever serve in government, four years after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.(AP)

9 / 16
Harris introduced Biden “as a president for all Americans” who would look to bridge a nation riven with partisanship and nodded to the historic nature of her ascension to the vice presidency. (AP)

10 / 16
In her victory speech as the Vice President-elect, Harris said, “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. “When our very democracy was on the ballot in this election and the very soul of America was at stake and the world was watching, you ushered in a new day for America,” she added. (AP)

11 / 16
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and their families, watch fireworks on stage in Wilmington, Del., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

12 / 16
A supporter wipes away tears listening to Biden's address.

13 / 16
A supporter waves a "Biden for President 2020" flag in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg after the results were announced. (AP)

14 / 16
The event ended with a fireworks dislay. (AP)

15 / 16
People react to a victory speech by President-elect Joe Biden, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

16 / 16
Trump is the first incumbent president to lose reelection since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992. However, the president has refused to concede, saying the “election is far from over” and that he will not “rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and what Democracy demands”. (AP)

TRUMP SUPPORTERS

2021-01-21T07:15:00.002-08:00

Trump supporters clash with counter protestors over election results

1 / 6
Several thousand supporters of President Donald Trump in Washington protested election results and then hailed Trump's passing motorcade before nighttime clashes with counterdemonstrators sparked fistfights, at least one stabbing and at least 20 arrests. (Reuters)

2 / 6
Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden's Electoral College and popular vote victory as legitimate. In pic: A supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump faces a counter protester in Washington. (Reuters)

3 / 6
After night fell, the relatively peaceful demonstrations in Washington turned from tense to violent. Videos posted on social media showed fistfights, projectiles and clubs as Trump supporters clashed with those demanding they take their MAGA hats and banners and leave. (Reuters)

4 / 6
The tensions extended to Sunday morning. A variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, were filed against those arrested, officials said. In pic: Protesters burn a poster of US President Donald Trump at the front door of the Capital Hilton hotel in downtown Washington. (Reuters)

5 / 6
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump are escorted out of a crowd of counter protesters near BLM plaza after a day of pro-Trump rallies, after the 2020 US presidential election was called for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Washington. (Reuters)

6 / 6
Trump himself had given an approving nod to the gathering Saturday morning by dispatching his motorcade through streets lined with supporters before rolling on to his Virginia golf club

2021-01-21T07:13:00.001-08:00

show the horror of Trump supporters storming Capitol Hill

1 / 25
A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America's presidential election, undercut the nation's democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House. In picture, supporters of President Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

2 / 25
Supporters of President Donald Trump climb the West wall of the the US Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

3 / 25
Trump supporters occupy the US Capitol Building in Washington, (Reuters)

4 / 25
Map shows the location of the White House Ellipse, site of a rally that spark Trump loyalists to march to the US Capitol and breach the building

5 / 25
People protesting the presidential election results inside the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.(Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

6 / 25
An American flag is seen reflected in a door window smashed by demonstrators in the US Capitol in Washington D.C (Photographer: Erin Scott/Bloomberg)

7 / 25
District of Columbia National Guard stand outside the Capitol, Wednesday night, Jan. 6, 2021, after a day of rioting protesters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

8 / 25
Glass is broken as members of a pro-Trump mob storm the Capitol building to disrupt the recording of Electoral College votes (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)

9 / 25
Christian Angelo Hill, 19, of Los Angeles, is helped after being hit with pepper spray as he approached a rally of President Donald Trump supporters at LA City Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Sarah Reingewirtz/The Orange County Register via AP)

10 / 25
Supporters of President Donald Trump, who were protesting election results, and counter-protesters brawl outside Los Angeles police department headquarters in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Sarah Reingewirtz/The Orange County Register via AP)

11 / 25
A D.C. Metropolitan Police officer is wheeled to an ambulance after supporters of US President Donald Trump occupied the Capitol Building in Washington (Reuters)

12 / 25
Debris litters a hallways after supporters of US President Donald Trump occupied the . Capitol Building in Washington (Reuters)

13 / 25
Demonstrators left a pile of broken TV equipment outside the the US Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

14 / 25
Pro-Trump protesters clash with Capitol police during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results (Reuters)

15 / 25
A supporter of US President Donald Trump gets detained by law enforcement officers at the Capitol during the protest (Reuters)

16 / 25
Members of law enforcement rest in the US Capitol in Washington D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Photographer: Erin Scott/Bloomberg)

17 / 25
A protester waves a "Trump" flag while demonstrators breach the US Capital building grounds in Washington, DC (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

18 / 25
A television in the empty Capitol subway system shows the riots outside as the U.S. Capitol is under lockdown in Washington D.C., US (Photographer: Erin Scott/Bloomberg)

19 / 25
A "Trump 2020" banner is carried as demonstrators swarm the U.S. Capitol building during a protest in Washington, D.C (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

20 / 25
People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

21 / 25
A protester climbs scaffolding as demonstrators swarm the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C., (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

22 / 25
Members of law enforcement rest in the US Capitol in Washington D.C (Photographer: Erin Scott/Bloomberg)

23 / 25
Demonstrators destroy broadcast video equipment outside the US Capital building after they earlier stormed the building in Washington, DC (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

24 / 25
A flashbang grenade explodes as law enforcement push back demonstrators at the US Capitol building during a protest in Washington (Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg)

25 / 25
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., helps ATF police officers clean up debris and personal belongings strewn across the floor of the Rotunda in the early morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, after protesters stormed the Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

2021-01-21T07:05:00.004-08:00

President Joe Biden takes charge of the United States of America

1 / 22
U.S. President Joe Biden signs three documents including an Inauguration declaration, cabinet nominations and sub-cabinet nominations in the Presidents Room at the U.S. Capitol after the 59th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2021. Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via REUTERS
2 / 22
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th US President on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.(Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)
3 / 22
Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice president as her husband, Doug Emhoff, holds the Bible. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via The New York Times)
2. 4 / 22
  After being sworn in Vice President Kamala Harris gives Joe Biden a fist bump at the Capitol (The New York Times: Ruth Fremson)
3. 5 / 22
  President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrive at Biden's inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington. (AP)
4. 6 / 22
  Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, assuming the helm of a country beset by deep political divides and battered by a raging coronavirus pandemic. (AP)
5. 7 / 22
  President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill, along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff arrive at the U.S. Capitol ahead of Biden’s inauguration, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
6. 1. 8 / 22
    President-elect Joe Biden is greeted by former President Barrack Obama as he arrives for the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol. (AP)
9 / 22
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris greets former U.S. President Barack Obama ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2021. (REUTERS)
10 / 22
President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, arrive for the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (AP)
1. 11 / 22
  House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, and former President George Bush, take a selfie before the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (AP)
2. 12 / 22
  Former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington. (AP)
3. 13 / 22
  Guests listen during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (AP)
4. 1. 14 / 22
    Stay home, Americans were exhorted, to prevent further spread of a surging virus that has claimed more than 400,000 lives in the United States. (AP)
  2. 15 / 22
    Guest name tags for seating assignments are organized prior to the 59th inaugural ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in Washington on Wednesday. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
  3. 16 / 22
    President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden attend Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle during Inauguration Day ceremonies Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington. (A
  4. 17 / 22
    Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States and Kamala Harris will take oath as the first woman Vice President on Wednesday, amidst heightened security concerns after a mob of pro-Trump extremists violently breached the Capitol two weeks ago. (AP)
  5. 18 / 22
    The historic inauguration will be held under the unprecedented security umbrella of more than 25,000 National Guards, who have transformed the capital into a garrison city. (AP)
  6. 19 / 22
    The area in and around Capitol Hill, a large part of Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House has been made out of bounds for the general public with eight-feet high iron barricades being erected. (AP)
    20 / 22
    A street vendor sells Biden-Harris merchandise ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's and Vice President-elect Pamela Harris’ inauguration ceremony in Washington. (AP)
    21 / 22
    An Indian artist Aejaz Saiyed gives finishing touch to an art work featuring US President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi, ahead of Biden's inauguration ceremony in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. (APi)
    22 / 22
    National Guard troops reinforce the security zone on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president on Wednesday. (AP)

46 PRESIDENT DONALD JOHN TRUMP

2020-10-22T07:47:00.002-07:00

As with any significant event that has the potential to make a significant shift in the global world order, people on the internet look towards past prophets who may have predicted the event before it has actually taken place. With the US Presidential elections 2020 just around the corner, netizens have done just that.

They have turned to the French astrologer, seer, Nostradamus who is recognized as the one who could allegedly predict future events.

People on the internet have now cited lines written by him in his book 'Les Propheties'.

The reference to a 'trumpet' causing 'Byzantium to change its laws' is being taken as a cryptic message signifying Trump's return to the Oval office.

The lines read:

"The false trumpet concealing madness,

"Will cause Byzantium to change its laws.

"From Egypt there will go forth a man who wants

"The edict withdrawn, changing money and standards."

MyDailyMagazine

Critics have cited that Nostradamus' 'predictions' are nothing but cryptic poetry, adding that his words have no bearing in major global events that have/will take place in the near future.

At this moment the French prophet's prediction is not aligning with the present reality as rival Joe Biden is leading the poll numbers. Can Donald Trump clinch another victory in 2020? All we can do is wait for the day of reckoning when it will be clear as daylight as to who would win the election.

Meanwhile, Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden on Thursday have their third and final round of debate ahead of the upcoming US election on November 3.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge Review

2017-06-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar's

Pirat

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In order to release his father, Will (Orlando Bloom), from the curse of the Flying Dutchman, Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) is on a quest to find the magical Poseidon’s Trident. Along the way, he joins forces with scientifically minded orphan Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) and his dad’s one-time frenemy Cap’n Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) — who happens to have an evil Spanish ghost (Javier Bardem) after him.

★★★★★

Theme-park rides are great fun, but get back on and go around again and it’s always the same ride. So perhaps it’s deliberate that Salazar’s Revenge (weirdly changed from the superior US title Dead Men Tell No Tales) feels like little more than a remake of the first-ever Pirates Of The Caribbean. Much like the previous three Pirates instalments, in fact.

Yet again, you have a payback-seeking villain — Javier Bardem snarling it in as Salazar — trapped in a state of living death thanks to the actions of Jack Sparrow. You have the rum-addled buccaneer reluctantly teaming with a pair of young, attractive adventurers (Skins’ Kaya Scodelario and Aussie pretty boy Brenton Thwaites). You have a mythical McGuffin with nebulous magical powers (in this case a big, glittery fork that controls water and ends all sea-curses). And you have the Royal Navy — here represented by the nostril-flaring, rent-a-seethe form of David Wenham — chasing about after all those clashing, motley pirate crews. It’s the same ride. But it’s not nearly as fun this time around.

Jack now feels like a routine rather than a person.

To be fair to Norwegian directing team Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (who proved their cinematic sea-legs with 2012’s Kon-Tiki), there’s some innovation on show in the earlier slapstick-swashbuckling (slapbuckling?) set-pieces. One treats us to the sight of Jack trapped in a rotating guillotine, centrifugal force pushing and pulling the spine-severing blade inches from his neck. Another outdoes the Fast & Furious gag of cars dragging a bank safe by having a speeding horse-drawn carriage tow an entire bank. But later, as the scale and volume ramp up, sense-assaulting CGI floods the action and any visual elegance becomes lost at sea. Honestly, what’s wrong with just having a sword fight every now and again?

Story-wise, it really does feel on-rails – stock characters shoved from action sequence to action sequence with only dry lumps of exposition to serve as anything close to motivation. When we revisit Hector Barbossa (a knackered-looking Geoffrey Rush), he’s living the high life in a bling-festooned galleon. Why does he risk all this to go and seek out Salazar? Because, er, he doesn’t want to retire. Even though he seems to have already, and quite comfortably, too. And it’s not clear why they even needed Wenham’s character there at all. He joins the late-starting race to reach Poseidon’s Trident, announcing “only the British Empire will hold the power of the sea!”, but makes no noticeable impact on the narrative at all.

Then there’s the infuriatingly fuzzy mythology. Jack still has his magic compass, which takes you to that which you most desire, but if you lose it you have to face your greatest fear (or something); meaning that when he trades it for a bottle of rum, Bardem’s Salazar announces “he’s given away the compass! We are free!” Huh? So, he and his ghostly seamen are able to escape the cave Jack trapped them in decades earlier and board and destroy other ships… But they’re destroyed if they ever set foot on land. What? Why? Well, because an incoming double-cross wouldn’t work if they could go on land, even though the treacherous character in question had no knowledge of the information on which said double-cross is dependent.

Keeping up with the nonsensical plot lurches and inconsistencies is exhausting. And even the once-reliable Johnny can’t distract us like he used to. Jack’s shtick has consumed the character. Where once he was an engaging oddity whose unhinged mannerisms you felt cloaked hidden (and sober) depths, Jack now feels like a routine rather than a person. Where his soul once dwelled, we find only backstory — executed with some horribly uncanny valley de-aging CGI work on Depp’s face, and one supremely pointless revelation. Ever wonder why he’s called “Sparrow”? Us neither.

Not the return to form you

45 USA PRESIDENT DONALD JOHN TRUMP

2017-01-21T07:38:00.001-08:00

REVENANT FULL VIDEOS

2017-01-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

WORLD WAR Z: – VFX

2017-01-11T07:28:00.005-08:00

WORLD WAR Z: – VFX

How was the collaboration with director Marc Forster?
It was a pleasure to work with Marc Forster, he’s a great director and I hope we will get the chance to work with him again.

How was the collaboration with Production VFX Supervisor Scott Farrar?
Scott has got a great eye and is very good at finding the essence of a problem and coming up with solutions.

What have you done on this show?
completed more than 450 shots for WWZ, including all of the work in the Jerusalem sequence with zombie hordes, the plane crash sequence, the Wales sequence and the Epilogue.

How did you approach the impressive Jerusalem sequence?
It was clear from the beginning that one of our biggest challenges would be the large Z crowd scenes. Max Wood, cg supervisor on the show and in charge of the 3d pipeline, started planning early on for the different aspects of the challenge including building of a large crowd of humans and zombies, mocap clips needed, R&D updates (including tools for our in house crowd system ALICE) as well as planning for how we would be able to render these large and dense crowd scenes.

We set up a photo booth with our photographer James Kelly, on set in Malta where we photographed performers and extras. 2h3D scanned the same characters that we used to build a large crowd of humans and zombies.

What was the main challenges to recreate Jerusalem?
The Jerusalem scene was shot in Malta. In a variety of shots we had to slightly augment the cityscape by adding architecture from Jerusalem. We also created large 2.5d matte paintings of Jerusalem using photos taken on location by one of our compositing leads Lev Kolobov. The environment team lead by Thomas Mouraille built a 70 ft tall wall that was seen in many of the shots in ”Busland”.
It’s the wall that we see the zombies climb later on in the sequence. The wall was built using photo references of small pieces of the on-set wall as well as various other concrete build references. Outside the wall we created a large CG environment with derelict buildings. The wasteland environment was created using stills photography and aerial footage from Malta.

How did you recreates the various vehicles such as the helicopters?
2h3D scanned the various vehicles, MPC’s photographer James Kelly did the texture shoots of the vehicles that were then built back at MPC using Maya, Photoshop and Mari. MPC built a helicopter, a bus with texture variations, a passenger plane with texture variations, a smaller Cessna plane and a military Antanov plane.

The hordes of zombies are moving in a fresh new way. What were your references and indications for it?
During pre production we received reference material showing insects swarming and schools of fish formations as well as motion studies that had been made with performers overseen by the Production Animation Supervisor, Andy Jones. We also received concept work early on showing different formations that the Zombie crowds could take. These included pyramid formations and also tentacle-like shapes.

Can you tell us in details how you handle the crowd animation?
Animation supervisor Gabrielle Zucchelli worked closely with crowd lead Marco Carboni to make sure that our zombies moved in the right way when part of large crowds, interacting with live action and as hero digital doubles. MPC’s pipeline was adapted to be able to push single ALICE agents through to the animation department and then either keep them as hero or incorporate them back into the crowd simulation.

Part of the animation challenge was to match the live action performers Zombie movements and in some cases take it a step further. The Zombies keep on running even when their limbs are broken and attack prey head first, without pain. In all of the complex crowd shots we added quite a few layers of hand animated zombies.

Can you tell us more about how you used your crowd system ALICE?
Using ALICE our Crowd team went through a huge number of development tests trying to define what these Zombie effects should look like, many of the shots required us to leverage the power of PAPI, MPCs Physic API.

PAPI and ALICE are bridged together allowing us to create behaviours and animations in the crowd engine which can then also be used to drive physics simulations at the same time. This allowed the crowd team to weight in and out of ragdolls, create partial ragdolls and/or entirely/partially driven animations to choreograph the hordes of zombies which plough through Busland. Some of the zombies also had extra logic written so they could interact with their surroundings and other zombies.

PAPI is built on top of the Havok physics engine and is exposed as both a scrip-table and node based physics system to the TDs, which they can use to drive all manner of effects. Although being originally conceived for KINGDOM OF HEAVEN many years ago, WWZ was by far the most challenging combined rigid body and crowd simulation we have ever tackled.

Can you explain in details about the zombie creation?
Creating characters for the movie was a big task as we had to build so many unique humans and zombies. Characters were built from reference photography and scans gathered on set. Our Model Lead Ashley Tilley and Texture lead Jung Yoon Choi oversaw the asset team, creating 24 different body types, men women and children with lots of different texture variations. Each character was built as human, and at three different levels of zombification. Level three zombification being emancipated with missing hair, defined veins and wounds. Level one being zombies that just had been bitten, with a few bite marks or smaller wounds. The texture team created a library with wounds, blood stains, bite marks, rotten teeth etc that they would add to the zombies.

Each character was also built at four different levels of detail, hero (LOD A) for close ups through to LOD D for distance. LOD A B and C had groom with dynamics and full cloth simulations. LOD D was rendered with geometry hair and no cloth simulation. We used Maya, Zbrush, Photoshop, Mari and Nuke for building our assets.

For our large crowds we created an even bigger wardrobe. The wardrobe was designed so that any item of clothing could go together and each item would fit any body type. Clothing items were built to match the different zombification levels, dirty and torn for level three and clean for humans. Once built we decided on a crowd with 3000 variations, not one identical to another. Where needed, we could still go in and change the top or trousers of any character where it would make more sense for the shot.
The cloth and hair simulation team was lead by Edward Lim. For the larger crowds we used MPC solver, our in-house cloth solver that is well integrated with ALICE. We used ncloth for hero cloth simulations or where extra crowd cloth detail was needed.

How did you create the impressive shots with the zombies doing a pyramid?
We captured a wide variety of mocap clips for the different actions that we needed. For the pyramid shots we captured actions including climbing up ramps and a net. We started with the geometry and then populated it with clips based on inclination using ALICE. The larger pyramids typically included around 5000 agents. Once the pyramids were populated we started working on the detailing, adding animation vignettes with zombies climbing and falling as well as the various actions needed on the ground.

Can you tell us more about the render challenges of so many zombies?
Rendering the zombies in the large crowd shots was challenging in many ways. Once the crowd and animation work was complete we analyzed the scenes to work out how we could split up the crowd before passing them over to cloth simulation and lighting. We would work on different groups of zombies that could be rendered together, based on position and how close to camera every agent would appear throughout the shot. In quite a few shots, zombies that start in the background end up very close to camera. These agents all had to be rendered with a very high detailed characters. Our lighting leads Jon Attenborough and Wes Franklin worked closely with our compositing supervisor Jonathan Knight to break down the many passes and layers that made up the crowd. Compositing leads Lev Kolobov and Jeremy Sawyer then set up standardized Nuke templates that streamlined the compositing work flow. For the complex zombie shots we rendered deep passes allowing us to combine the different layers of the crowd.

How did you handle the plane destruction and the debris?
Most of the plane sequence was shot inside a section of plane on a gimble rig. Green screens were put up outside the windows and we comped in aerial plates shot in Wales. The plane was filled with extras and stunt performers to which we added CG crowd extensions. We also added plane extensions to a few shots.

In the movie a Zombie makes it into the cabin and starts an outbreak. Gerry throws a grenade and destroys part of the side of the plane. MPC enhanced the SFX teams explosion, adding vapour and debris, and cg Zombies who get sucked from the plane, as well as a cg wing and engine. In the shots where the camera is outside the plane, we added a full cg plane, debris, vapour and cg Zombies. The sequence ends with the plane crashing into trees and tumbling towards camera. A live action plate of the trees and ground was shot outside London. MPC added mountains to the background, replaced the centre section of trees with cg breakable trees and changed the sky. A cg plane was added and the FX team, lead by Oliver Winwood added layers of fx including a large flowline dust trail, tree parts and ground interaction. Live action elements were added in comp and were combined with the fx elements using deep passes. Asset lead, Leandre Lagrange, oversaw the up-resing of models and textures of our existing plane for the crash, this included a broken engine, wing and nose cone.

How did you created the UN research center in Wales?
The majority of the exterior of the building was shot in camera. MPC added a skybridge in between the two different buildings. For an establishing shots we created a 2.5d matte painting of the practical building which we added to the background.

Can you tell us more about your work on the Epilogue?
We created a few different shots for the Epilogue. One shot is a large 2.5D matte painting based on photography showing a large rubbish dump with large stacks of zombie bodies. The stacks were created with our crowd tool and then rendered. On top of the renders we added layers of matte painting and live action elements of smoke, fire and embers. We also built a couple of diggers that drive through the scene.
For another section we created large stacks of zombies climbing up a building. The environments were a combination of aerial plates and matte painting. We added flame thrower elements using live action fire elements.
For the stadium shot we created a large crowd of zombies that enter the stadium and get blown up by a large bomb. This shot was seen through a night / drone look.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
The biggest challenge was the large zombie crowd shots in the Jerusalem. The challenge came from the complexity of the shots, and ensuring the many departments who worked on the sequence worked closely together. Great team work and some fantastic people on the show helped us overcome the challenges.

How long have you worked on this film?
MPC worked on WORLD WAR Z for over two years including pre production.

What was the size of your team?
The team size varied through the time that we worked on the project. Average size towards end was around 150 people.

VFX

2017-01-11T07:00:00.002-08:00

300 – RISE OF AN EMPIRE:

2017-01-11T06:36:00.002-08:00

300 – RISE OF AN EMPIRE: CHARLEY HENLEY (VFX SUPERVISOR) WITH SHELDON STOPSACK AND ADAM DAVIS

How did you work with Production VFX Supervisor John DJ Desjardin?

The work was based out of MPC London so with DJ over in Los Angeles we had regular cineSync reviews. We reviewed shots together from our FCP suites and he was able to draw and add notes directly onto the footage, which is very useful. We also had a three way link with MPC Vancouver VFX Supervisor Pete Dionne and 2D Supervisor Arek Komorowski. The important thing was to make sure communication was as clear and direct as possible. We reviewed the work regularly sending layouts, temps, and WIPs continuously through the short post period to make sure the edit was up to date with our latest work and most importantly that we were all on the same page with look and shot design. This was very important, as there was so much creative freedom on the show, we all needed to tune in to the tone of the movie.

What have you done on this show?
In a nutshell our job was to create the world around the actors who where shot on predominately blue screen stages. MPC’s scenes included the post burning of Athens on the acropolis, Xerxes palace, the desert and caves, the post battle of Hells Gate on the cliff edge, Xerxes bridge over Hellespont and the epic Marathon Battle.

Original, beautiful and graphic environments were designed for each sequence, with the correct atmosphere, historical content and style to support the mood and story. We built beaches, the sea and boats, palaces, deserts, cliffs, cities on fire and ancient Greek monuments like the acropolis. These then needed to be filled with a combination of digital and live action characters, mythical creatures and armies, animal’s and even flies. Atmosphere and FX filled the left over space with smoke, rain, eyeballs, flying limbs, sweat and blood. We even added “floaties” particles to fill the space and catch light. Most shots involved almost every VFX skill set, from animation to environments, from simulated FX to element compositing.

The show was a blast to work on as we had so many different challenges and a freedom to really style up and design the look for each scene.

Can you describe one of your typical days during the post?
A day in post for the lead team would generally start with a production meeting to summaries key issues and news for the day. Followed by sequence reviews where we would review the shots in edit context with each of two teams covering all disciplines, which had various scenes divided up between them. Other mornings as new shots came in we would brief our team at MPC Bangalore, India for camera tracking, 3D roto animation and rotoscoping and paint work, simultaneously kicking off Matte painting and comp with a creative task to experiment and design a look for a given scene. The afternoon would involved focused reviews with each department, the first few months would be all about asset building, Layout and animation, later we would be concentrating on FX, matte painting, Lighting and Compositing. Many days would end with a review with DJ in LA or with our Vancouver team.

Our Production Team led by Oliver Money and Gracie Edscer were in a constant cycle of budgeting new shots as they where coming in and scheduling and re-scheduling each shot to make sure all departments were feeding each other to maximum efficiency. We had a very tight turn around on this show so it was key that departments dependent on up stream work got what they needed on time. We also had a team of sequence coordinators doing a great job of driving the shots through the pipeline.

How did you recreate the iconic final shot of the first film?
This was based on the original footage scanned from the first 300 film. Additional elements where shot for Xerxes and his horse. His axe was CG matched to a stick he was holding. We had to then manipulate the original plate to have interaction between the horse and bodies as it walked across them, adding CG moving shields and 2D moving cloth as well as extra blood and flies.

Can you tell us in details about the Marathon battle creation?
MB was one of our biggest scenes. It was based on shooting plates on approximately 60×60’ set of mud surrounded by blue screen. In addition to key actors and props we only used about 20 muscular extras playing Greeks and another 20 for the Persians. The rest of the armies were created using a combination of practical shot plates on cards for the closer action and digital crowds to fill in the hundreds behind them.

The first priority was to build the environment. After extensive research on the look of Marathon bay in Greece, we sent our environment lead Marco Rolandi to a wonderful wild beach in Spain to shoot stills. These where used for image based modeling, textures and Matte painting. We used these stills to create the cliffs and environment for the battle. Creating a CG beach and cliff with projected textures and a Matt painted cyclorama for the distant mountains and sky.

Layout of the scene was the next priority as all of the work depended on everyone knowing what should go into each shot! Stanley Dellimore, MPC’s Head of Layout set up a great team for us. Based on early models of the environment, the whole battle was plotted out and then constantly referring to the cut we split the battle out into beats to keep it manageable.
Hundreds of shots needed character specific roto animation to line up soldiers who needed limbs removing or weapons that needed to be added in post, along with huge amounts of roto and paint preparation. CG FX were used for most of the blood hits, simulated using Flowline particles, rendered as meshed geo with additional displacement. The blood was very stylized as was the rain added through out the scene. The references we used were from Frank Millar’s graphic novel style and the movie SIN CITY.

Many shots required lightening, which was created with a combination of animated matte paintings and rendered lighting passes flashed up in compositing. We also stylized the look of lighting strikes carefully timing them and dynamically retiming shots after each strike. Visually any lightening frames had a specific grade and lighting pass to emphasis the graphic novel style. Boats had cloth dynamics for sails and rope work which had to be fine-tuned to look good during the dynamic retimes.

MPC London 2D Supervisor Bronwyn Edwards shot practical elements to enhance the chaos of the battle including blood, raindrops and mud spray, ash particles, dead bodies and smoke. Bronwyn and Arek’s team of compositors had the challenge to find a balance between a photo real finish and styling up every shot to have the feel of a graphic novel with maximum impact always looking to enhance each shots story telling purpose.

How did you created and animated so many soldiers?
MPC Crowd HOD Adam Davis who worked as a CG Supervisor on the show along side Sheldon Stopsack and Max Wood, concentrated on our retime and crowd challenges.
“Animated soldiers were done by the crowd department lead by Jo Plaete, using MPC’s proprietary crowd system ALICE. There was an initial motion capture session for the soldiers which was done out in LA at Giant Studios. This allowed us to capture a lot of really heavy stunt performances, which would be used for the large battle sequence. We also captured several more actions in house to supplement the shots, and along with the keyframe animation cycles for the elephants & war rhinos fed all of these into ALICEs motion synthesis engine.

As we had a very short time to deliver so many shots, we wrapped up as many of the crowd tools as possible, this automated a lot of the complicated tasks the crowd TDs would be facing, shot after shot after shot. Particularly whilst working with the ever changing retimed shots, keeping as much of this as possible hidden from the artists, allowed the crowd TDs to concentrate on populating the shots as quickly as possible. As we also had a lot of artists coming from our layout department to help out, many for the first time, it provided a safety net for them, meaning they only had to concentrate on making the shots look good rather than worrying about a lot of the technical complexities.”

How did you handle the slow-motion challenge?
This was one of the bigger challenges on the show, Adam Davis recounts. “MPC had developed a selection of tools for the movie, another Snyder production, which we updated for RISE OF AN EMPIRE. This film pushed us much further though as we had to deal with so many crowd and fx shots and such a large and varied number of speed ups & slow downs. This was made even more complex by the number of different frame rates the footage was shot at, with a mix of 24fps, 48fps, 96fps, 1000fps and 1200fps.

The retime pipeline was designed to allow us to have a single retime curve for each shot where it was necessary. The curve was generated by our compositing team as part of the plate re-timing process, with one of our compositors on the team Mirek Suchomel, becoming our retime guru, from day one to the end of the show he looked after almost every retime in the pipeline, at some point I think he started to dream in slow motion!

The retime curve could then be brought into all of our major applications such as Maya and Nuke, and exposed a selection of data to the artists and their tools, such as the slowdown or speed up factor in various different forms. The system allowed any work to be done on the shot in any department effectively independent of the retime. Therefore allowing for retimes to be changed later or normal animations cycles to be used and FX dynamics to be calculated at normal speed. Every artist on the team would simply animate or simulate their work matching the plate, and then at render time the retime data would be used to interpolate the caches/animations. This allowed us to keep working on shots without having to go through every department each time a retime changed as the edit evolved and editorial played around with speedups and slowdowns.

The biggest challenge was with the footage shot on Phantom cameras, at 1200 fps this would have meant hugely long frame ranges for shots of only a couple of seconds. The retime system allowed us to split the retime curve into several layers to combat this. For the shots filmed at 1000s of fps, we linearly retimed the plates into what we call our working timeline, before applying the remainder of the retime at rendertime. This allowed the artists to work at sensibly long frame ranges.”

Xerxes had a massive palace. What indications and references did you use for this palace?
The palace was roughly based on the ancient ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persepolis. We took cues from Persian art and architecture. The idea was everything exterior should be centered around the kings podium and that the interiors and exteriors would have an exaggerated sense of scale. Many structures were derived from beautiful classic Persian sculptures.

Can you explain in details about its creation inside and the outside?
Interiors where all detailed models, textured and lit with ray traced reflections and bounce. We filled the space with atmospherics; smoke flames and particles in comp. For the exteriors, to deal with the massive amount of detail and the fast turnaround needed, we modeled in full but texturing was a combination of a basic texture pass which was lit combined with matte painting techniques used to add additional detail. Some of the big exterior shots were treated as stand alone environments and rendered in Mental Ray. But we mostly used Renderman.

At a moment, Xerxes emerges from of river of gold. Can you explain in details the creation of this beautiful shot?
CG Supervisor Sheldon Stopsack: The biggest challenge of this shot was the marriage of two different plates, one for entering the pool in the cave and the other for rising as a king and stepping out into the Palace. Being shot at very different angles and lenses. There was a lot of juggling by one of our lead layout artists Paul Arion, to find the perfect blend of two real camera moves into a seamless single CG camera. The liquid gold effect as Xerxes emerges was done with Flowline particles, being meshed and rendered as a solid surface. Accurate Keyframe Roto Animation plus additional Tech Anim to fully match Xerxes body with a CG model was crucial to ensure a good connection to the fluid simulation. The look of liquid gold proved to be challenging as well with a lot of tweaking needed to find the right viscosity in drips and rippling effects.

Can you tell us more about the CG elephants?
CG Supervisor Sheldon Stopsack: Part of my role was to supervise the creature, asset builds and lighting pipeline for the show. Building believable giant elephants and selling their scale was the challenge but we were able to take some cues from the mammoths we had built for previous films. A key issue was to give them a sense of weight. Our rigging department played a lot of attention to the layout of muscles, and creating believable muscle dynamics, which then drove the overlaying skin. At which point the shading also became a crucial aspect, skin wrinkles and folding, even though partly displacement had to be dynamically driven by the rig. Selling the scale and weight was the key. Adding hair, dirt and dust also helped sell scale and realism.

What was the biggest challenge on this project and how did you achieve it?
The sheer number of digital characters that need to move in so many ways was certainly one of the bigger potential challenges on the show, but MPC’s proprietary crowd system ALICE made it possible. Being able to seamlessly mix in numerous motion capture cycles for bipeds with animated cycles for quadrupeds we could bring to life an army for Xerxes, with elephants, giants, immortals, war rhinos, horses and motion captured dwarves riding animated giants all could be tuned by the crowd TD’s per shot and adjusted for scale and speed and number. ALICE really saved us on this show massively reducing the need for hand animating anything from charging armies, one to one fights sequences, ship sailing, horses rearing, birds, even flies swarming.

Have you split the work amongst the various MPC offices?
We did the majority of the sequences in London leading the project. Three sequences were done in Vancouver including the burning of Athens along with some environment and FX work. In our facility in Bangalore we completed Matchmove, Rotoscope and Paint and Prep work along with some of our assets builds and some compositing for the London based shots, so it was really a global show.

What do you keep from this experience?
We had a great experience on the show. It was brilliant to have encouragement to be creative in promoting the fun and stylish look of the film. DJ allowed us to push out some cool ideas for shot design and look development and the team really went for it. Exercising freedom to express the mood and story behind a scene with all the tricks available to the VFX artist will hopefully carry on to other shows for many of our artists who worked on RISE OF AN EMPIRE.

How long have you worked on this film?
March 2013 to end July 2013.

How many shots have you done?
215.

What was the size of your team?
Around 300 people would have worked on the project at some point over the five months.

What is your next project?
MPC are working on a number of shows including GODZILLA, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, CINDERELLA, MALEFICENT, X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and EXODUS.

See Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s New $5.5 Million D.C. Home

2017-01-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

See Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s New $5.5 Million D.C. Home

12 Most Epic Red Carpet Dresses Of All Time

2017-01-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

12 Most Epic Red Carpet Dresses Of All Time

It’s no secret that celebrities put a lot of thought and effort into looking amazing on the red carpet. This is especially true for female celebrities. Unlike their male counterparts, who just have to wear a suit and they’re pretty much done, famous women often have to go through a lot of preparation and put in a lot of work in order to look dazzling on the red carpet. They spend weeks leading up to an event on crazy diets and doing an insane amount of exercise, they go through days of all sorts of massages, body wraps, facials and peels and scrubs. The whole day of the event is spent on getting the perfect hair and makeup done, all to look awesome in that perfect dress they’re gonna wear on the red carpet. And as tedious as it sounds sometimes it’s worth it, because they’ll be remembered in that dress forever. So let’s talk about the 12 most epic red carpet dresses of all time.

1) Kristen Stewart in Zuhair Murad at Twilight London Premiere
You can criticize the hell out of Kristen Stewart when it comes to her acting and how she’s way too awkward. She’s well aware of it and often says that she knows she looks weird in dresses and feels like she doesn’t belong, like it’s just not “her thing”. But you’ve got to admit that this Zuhair Murad jumpsuit she wore was pretty freaking cool.

2) Mila Kunis in Elie Saab Couture at the 2011 Oscars
Mila Kunis looked like she walked out of a fairy tale when she appeared on the red carpet in a lilac Elie Saab dress. We’re pretty sure that is the lightest dress ever and when you wear it, it probably doesn’t even feel like you’re wearing anything. Mila looked so effortlessly elegant, like a ballerina. A pretty awesome choice to wear when you’re representing Black Swan at the Oscars.

3) Gwyneth Paltrow in Tom Ford at the 2012 Oscars Vanity Fair Party
This is one of the simplest dresses ever, yet it looks stunning. The clean lines and the simplicity of the white dress somehow make it stand out and make it look amazing. It’s like Gwyneth Paltrow knew that everyone will be trying really hard to wear the most shocking dress, so she went dressed all in white, and truly looked like she was on a whole other level, above everyone else.

4) Lupita Nyong in Ralph Lauren at Golden Globes 2014
Wearing a bright red dress to a red carpet event is a very brave choice. Many would worry about just blending in with the carpet, but not Lupita Nyong. She made a brave decision and it was worth it. She shone bright in that dress and looked incredible.

5) Julia Roberts in Valentino at the Oscars 2001
Julia wore this dress to the Oscars back in 2001, when she promptly won an Oscar for Erin Brockovich. Just that makes this dress one of the most epic red carpet dresses ever. But what you probably didn’t know is that this dress was a vintage design from 1992, that Valentino found in his archives. It was supposed to channel the classic style of Hollywood, and boy did that work. It’s been years since and this dress still looks like something a celebrity could wear even now.

6) Rihanna, in Azzedine Alaia red dress at Grammy Awards 2013
Rihanna is known for changing her style a lot, whether it comes to fashion or haircuts. We all have our favorite Rihanna version. I say version, because every time she changes her style she seems to evolve into something new, while staying very true to herself. Well, this Rihanna is a long red Cinderella style dress is my favorite Rihanna. She looked so perfect in this Azzedine Alaia dress, don’t you think?

7) Selena Gomez in Atelier Versace at the MTV Video Music Awards 2013
Selena Gomez grew up on screen. We’ve seen her turn from a little girl into a grown woman. It wasn’t easy for her, since people often aren’t keen on letting go of their idea of a child star. Well, it’s probably fair to say that this dress was a pivotal point in Selena’s career. When she wore this amazing Versace dress it’s like she told everyone – I’m not a kid anymore, I’m a woman – deal with it.

8) Emma Watson in Chanel Dress at Cannes 2014
It’s quite surprising to see how this particular Chanel dress looked on the runway, and how it then was transformed when Emma Watson wore it. Somehow it became more classy, after all, Emma is a classy lady and everything she wears just becomes classy by extension.

9) Jennifer Lopez in Elie Saab at the 2015 Oscars
Doesn’t Jennifer Lopez look just like Cinderella in this Elie Saab dress? I know, I know, Cinderella’s dress was blue, but hey, this nude blush dress just screams “Disney Princess”, doesn’t it? It’s so elegant and gorgeous, with the long train and sparkly sequins. There’s definitely something Cinderella-esque about this dress and Jennifer knew it.

10) Hilary Swank in Guy Laroche at the 2005 Oscars
I’m fairly certain Hollywood hasn’t seen dresses that plunged that low in the back before this. It’s hard to say what kind of a reaction this kind of dress would elicit nowadays, but back in 2005, Hilary Swank definitely made a memorable impression on everyone in more ways than one. Her character in Million Dollar Baby was anything but feminine, yet Hilary looked like the epitome of style, class and femininity at the Oscars in this Guy Laroche dress.

11) Diane Kruger in Jason Wu at Met Gala 2011
Who knew this dress could look better on Diane Kruger than it did on the runway, but that’s a fact. She looked smashing at the Met Gala in a Jason Wu dress. In fact, it wasn’t exactly a dress. It’s a nude top with sequin embellishments and a black silky flowy skirt. What a wonderful and elegant ensemble, don’t you think? Especially with the big blonde waves and red lipstick. Diane looked like a classic Hollywood diva.

12) Angelina Jolie In Atelier Versace at Golden Globe Awards 2011
Angeline has been called the most beautiful woman in Hollywood many times, and we’ve come to expect her to look amazing no matter what she wears. But she does tend to favor classic monochrome colors. We often see her in black, white, nude and all sorts of nude. We rarely see her wearing bright colors. On a rare occasion she’ll don a red dress to look especially impressive. But no one expected her to wear an emerald green dress, yet there she was – subverting expectations in a Versace dress and looking more gorgeous than ever.

KAJAL AGARWALL PHOTO SHOOT

2017-01-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

AMAZING PLACES

2017-01-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

IM Cooling Tower, Belgium

2. Kolmanskop, Namibia

Kolmanskop was a small settlement in Namibia that saw a boom in the early 1900s when German settlers realized that the area was rich in diamonds. The surge of wealth gave out after WWI, however, when the diamond field began to deplete. By the 1950s, the town was completely deserted, and is now visited by photographers and tourists.

3. 102-Year-Old Floating Forest in Sydney, Australia

This is the hull of the SS Ayrfield, a large steam ship condemned to dismantling in Homebush Bay, Australia after WWII. When the dismantling yard closed down, however, it and several other ships remained where they were. Now, it is a beautiful and haunting floating forest that serves as an example of nature’s capacity for survival.

4. The Maunsell Sea Forts, England

The Maunsell Sea Forts were erected near the Thames and Mersey rivers in Britain to help defend against potential German air or naval raids during WWII. After being decommissioned in 1950, they have been inhabited by various new tenants, including pirate radio operators and by the Principality of Sealand, which claims to be an independent sovereign state.

5. Last House on Holland Island, U.S.A

This house was part of what was once a fairly successful small island colony in Chesapeake Bay in the U.S. Rapid erosion of the island’s mud and silt coast, however, meant that there was less and less room to live on the island. This house was the last one left on Holland Island before it too collapsed in 2010.

6. Pripyat, Ukraine

PASSENGERS VFX

2017-01-02T07:47:00.002-08:00

PASSENGERS: PETE DIONNE – VFX SUPERVISOR – MPC

Pete Dionne has been working in the visual effects for over 16 years. He took care of the effects of many films such as THE LONE RANGER, ELYSIUM, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE or THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. As a VFX Supervisor, he worked on GOOSEBUMPS and then PASSENGERS.

What is your background?
Prior to VFX supervision, I was a CG supervisor at MPC for several years, and a CG generalist at Technicolorbefore that.

How did you and MPC got involved on this show?
MPC’s involvement with PASSENGERS began in the spring of 2015, after production VFX Supervisor Erik Nordby and Director Morten Tyldum met for the first time and immediately formed a bond over a shared vision for the film’s visual effects. From there, I was brought onto the project as the vendor-side MPC VFX supervisor, to lead the teams in London and Bangalore. Erik and I have worked on several films together in the past, so it was a natural fit.

How was the collaboration with director Morten Tyldum?
Morten was great to work with. He’s a very open and trusting collaborator, always encouraging new ideas and outside input, but without compromising his own vision of the work.

That’s his first big VFX movie. How did you help him with that?
The great thing about Morten is that he always has his eye firmly planted on the big picture, which to him is constantly reinforcing story, character, and themes. From the very beginning, he put his trust in us to run with the minutiae of the visual effects development, yet still lead us on a high level by ensuring that every detail had a purpose, and existed in support of the story he was trying to tell. He is also a quick learner, and he picked up the nuances of the VFX development process very quickly.

What was his approach and expectations about the visual effects?
For every sequence, every shot, every detail in the frame, Morten was always clear on what the purpose and impact would be to the story. He would first figure out what he was trying to achieve, followed by figuring out the specific details or visuals after. His aesthetic definitely biased towards invisible effects, and where they couldn’t be invisible by nature, to keep them restrained and to never distract from the drama. All of this was great for us, as despite his initial inexperience with visual effects, it became easy to anticipate his direction.

How did you organize the work with your VFX Producer and the MPC team?
MPC took on around 1150 shots, which was a significant number considering how lean the budget was for what Morten required us to achieve. The first thing that MPC Producer Tomi Nieminen and I did was break down the shots and identify the groups of work which required the most design or technical development. Despite when the work was turning over in the schedule, we wanted to maximise the time spent on the most important and challenging work, such as the zero gravity water sequence, and of course the Starship Avalon. There was also so much design work to be done on this show; we had to be very diligent in scheduling out the work which required a lot of creative and subjective development in parallel with the sequences with much more clear and established targets, to avoid any major slow-downs or bottlenecks at any point in the schedule. It was a complex show from a project management point of view!

Can you describe to us one of your typical day during the post?
Like any film of this scope, it involved spending a lot of time sitting in a theatre, developing, strategising, and reviewing key work. I was located in London during post, so my day was mainly dictated by the overlapping of time zones with the other locations involved in the show; my mornings would be primarily focused on working with key team members in our Bangalore studio, my afternoons would be focused on working with key team members in our London studio, and then the evenings would be spent remotely reviewing and developing the work with Erik and the other filmmakers in LA.

How did you work with the art department for the beautiful spaceship Avalon?
MPC inherited an amazing design for the Avalon by production designer Guy Dyas, who was responsible for the clever rotating helical blades that encase the mechanical core of the ship. Our job upon receiving his design was to further embellish the ship with additional detail and design logic, which was in itself a mountain of work for a ship of this scale.

Can you explain in detail about the creation of the Avalon?
Our first task was to position all of the practical and digital sets inside of the Avalon, of which there were around forty. This formed a base logic and purpose for each component of the ship. For example, of the three blades, one was dedicated to habitation, sharing many design qualities with large cruise ships, one was dedicated to entertainment, sharing qualities with mega malls, and the last blade was dedicated to shipping, it’s form influenced by large shipping freighters. All of the sets relating to crew, like the bridge and crew hibernation, for example, took place in the front halo in the centre of the ship. The engine and power centre was located in the middle of the ship, with zero gravity elevator shafts connecting all components together. I could go on and on about the logic in the design; we spent the first two months of Avalon development strictly focusing on this, and it really paid off once we took our development to the next level, for both holistic and granular details of the ship.

Once this was completed, the next step was to model these details to a rough blocking level, led by Asset Supervisor Lisa Gonzalez, so that they could be discussed and developed in a three dimensional manner. This also allowed us to render still frames of this grey model and then paint finer details overtop in Photoshop, to help visualise the look of the final ship. Morten responded quite strongly to these paint-overs, which gave us the confidence to move past the conceptual stage and into proper asset development, which was an additional 5 month process of modelling, texturing, rigging, look-development, and finally lighting and comp templating.

Can you tell us more about the animation of the many parts of the ship?
The animation of the ship itself was quite straight forward, actually. Due to it’s speed and scale, we animated the world moving past the ship, with the Avalon locked at origin. The outer blades rotated at 1.8rpm to create 1g of artificial gravity, while the inner core rotated in the opposite direction at 3.6rpm, both for artificial gravity, as well to counteract and stabilise the momentum of the blades. So once this was established, it was set up as automatic controls in the rig and only required minor bespoke shot work by Animation Supervisor Gabriele Zucchelli and his team of animators, which was great, as they had their hands full with animating the complex movement of the cameras, characters, and tethers.

How did you manage its lighting?
Lighting the Avalon presented several challenges to us, both on set and in post. First, this film takes place in deep space, 30 lightyears from our sun, so Morten wanted the lighting design to reinforce how distant and isolated the ship was during this point in it’s voyage. This immediately disqualified using NASA photography within our own solar system as visual reference, as this has a very high contrast light from the sun which we needed to avoid.

It was clear that we had to invent a lighting design for deep space, but to keep it photographically plausible, so we looked to other real-world references for inspiration. We ended up taking several queues from photography of glass skyscrapers at dusk; as much as possible we would position the dark ship against the exposed band of the Milky Way to give it a strong silhouette, we motivated a very slight and cool ambient light from the distant space detail, we made the shaders of the Avalon very shiny to allow the reflections of space to provide definition of the ship’s form, and finally, we allowed the warm glow of the thousands of over-exposed windows and exterior lights to provide pockets of localised lighting, to support the overall scale of the ship and provide further fine details.

The spaceship is a massive asset. How did you handle the render challenge?
CG supervisor Sebastien Gourdal identified early on that with an asset of this magnitude, we had to be extremely diligent during it’s development, to avoid creating a beautiful but unrenderable starship. Essentially, his strategy was to cap the level of overall detail on the ship in modelling and texturing, to the top limit of what could be reasonably rendered, and work back from there. For all of the sections of the ship that the camera was very close to, we treated as additional environment assets, which were all built for specific shots and would be layered overtop of the main ship renders. This allowed us to go to town on the bespoke detailing, without compromising the render times of every other shot in the film. But even with this approach, it was still a huge challenge to manage the rendering of this asset, which required a constant and ongoing process of optimisation on every front.

How did you created the space environment and especially the Red Giant star?
To create space, Environment Supervisor Marco Rolandi and his team started with high-resolution maps of our own Milky Way, and used that as a base to build upon. We rebuilt all of the accumulated gas and distant nebula around the main band of the galaxy, and then embellished the front facing and back facing features, while maintaining the familiar gas structures that we see in long exposure photography of our galaxy. By layering space up in this way, it gave us full control to rebalance the exposure and grading of the gas layers per-shot, depending on the tonal requirements of the scene. We also rebuilt the stars into several planes of depth. The Avalon is travelling at half the speed of light, and we found that just the slightest amount of parallax between layers gave us a subtle sense of directional travel. Furthermore, layering the stars in this way also gave us some great depth in our native stereo composites of the exterior shots.

The red giant star which the Avalon slingshots around was a visual treat for us to work on. We referenced NASA photography of our own sun for both the look and the structure of the star; we developed an animated DMP map for the photosphere, then volumetric chromasphere and corona FX elements layered on top, and then further simulated erupting prominences similar to those found in the sun. One additional layer we recreated for our red giant star were visible magnetic rays arching across the entire star. Technically, these can only be seen outside of the visible spectrum of our own sun, but they’re so beautiful that we couldn’t resist sweetening our star with this element.

Inside the Avalon, there are many rooms. Which one was the most complicated to created and why?
The Grand Concourse, which was a massive build for us. The practical set itself encompassed the entire ground floor of the main area, so we had that to use as an initial structure to base our design and modelling from. We had to build extensions of hundreds of meters in both directions, as well as six stories up. The main concourse had a very minimalist design, but we were still required to build dozens of full CG storefronts, as well as furniture, holograms, and hanging banners, with enough variations to fill the entire space. Once we had the entire CG build assembled, it was quite a complete and cohesive digital set. This allowed CG supervisor Audrey Ferrara to have her team position cameras through the digital set and render them for comp, with very little bespoke shot work needed. It took many months across several departments to achieve this build, but the end result looks great.

Can you explain in detail about your work on the bartender Arthur?
Special Effects supervisor Dan Sudick built a great rig for Michael Sheen to kneel on, with additional rigging to support his back and keep it straight as he quickly slid back and forth along a track. The rig itself was very impressive. In VFX, we were tasked for a combination of rig removal, stabilisation, and retimes from the waist up, then building the CG structure below the waist which supports Arthur in the film.

There are many Zero G shots inside the ship. Can you explain in detail about their creation?
There is one great scene where the gravity cuts out as Jim and Aurora are running across the Grand Concourse. First, Jen’s stunt performer and Chris were swept up into the air and dropped hard down to the floor at full speed, to achieve the desired stunt. Jen was then strapped into the stunt rig and acting through the same stunt at half speed, to achieve the required performance plate for her face replacement. To drive home the point of gravity loss and then restoring, we also filled the environment with CG furniture and robot debris, as well as the fountain with CG water, which we then ran simulations on to achieve the desired gravity effects.

How did you created the digi-doubles of the actors?
We built CG digi-doubles for medium and wide shots of the actors in various costumes, which were created from great photogrammetry models provided to us from the folks at Captured Dimensions. For any close up shots of the actors which couldn’t be achieved in camera, we shot performance plates using a three-camera array and relied on facial projections. For all of the spacesuit replacements, the material from Captured Dimensions as well as our own polarised texture booth photography was enough to recreate the suits digitally at a very high resolution, which we relied on a lot on this show.

Can you explain more about the impressive Zero G pool sequence?
We knew this was going to be a real challenge from the start, so we immediately began R&D simulations in FX to see how water would actually behave in this environment. What we found was that at this scale, the water would move so slowly that it failed to achieve the required feeling of peril, and once we started applying stronger forces onto it, it would explode and completely lose it’s form. Luckily, There is lots of great NASA reference of smaller volumes of water and it’s behaviour in space, relative to the surface tension and friction at this scale, so we looked towards that to achieve something that was much easier to art-direct.

We shot performance elements of Jen submerged in the pool against green, and later again in a 14′ tank built of optical glass for close-ups. However, other than that the sequence was entirely CG, so we had full control over camera blocking. This really allowed us to craft the sequence on editorial, initially with Previs, and then refining it in post with our animators, including the basic animation of water volumes, which our FX simulations would later use as general reference targets.

The unexpected aspect of these effects was that as soon as we layered up too much complexity into the water simulations and shading, it would distract from Jen’s powerful performance, which was the core of this scene. So we began a process of both simplifying the overall form of the hero water volume, as well as reducing the level of refraction and distortion of the water which we view Aurora through, in order to preserve focus on her struggle. To make up for this, we would then layer as much droplets, spray and familiar water structures as possible around the periphery of her without distracting from her performance.

The movie is full of motion graphics and holograms. Can you explain in detail about their design and creation?
There were several holograms required throughout the film, many of which played a very specific narrative role. One of the most involved holograms was the Dance Machine video game, which had holographic CG dancers act out dance sequences for Jim and Aurora to mimic. For the dancers, Morten wanted them to look like futuristic technology, but still read as ‘gamey’. We looked at a lot of reference of current high-end video game cinematics, and used these for design inspiration. We motion captured professional dancers portraying the moves, applied them to the characters, then rendered them with a lot of supporting technical passes to create the holographic look in comp.

The holographic attendant who wakes Jim and Aurora from stasis was also a major holographic character for us. Morten wanted her to appear soft and inviting, but clearly projected from futuristic technology. Erik had the idea to have her face properly represented when viewed from Jim’s POV, but then deteriorate when viewed from the sides, including seeing the backside of her face when viewed from behind, like the inside of a mask. To achieve this, we created a CG model of her bust, based on photogrammetry model from Captured Dimensions, then projected plates of the actress’ performance onto the geometry, which we captured using a three-camera array set up. It worked great, and gave us a robust three dimensional hologram that we could track along with Jim’s moving pod and render trough various camera angles.

Is there any invisible or unusual effect you want to reveal to us?
One aspect of the work that I’m very proud of is the amount of VFX that actually remains invisible. A good sign that we did our job well! This involved a lot of set extension, stunt work, split comps, and work of this nature. Over 80% of this film was touched by VFX.

Was there a shot or a sequence that prevented you from sleep?
The Avalon and the look of space probably gave me the most anxiety over the last year and a half. We had so many massive CG exterior shots, including and especially the climax of the film, that if we didn’t pull this off, it would have absolutely compromised the credibility of the entire film. No pressure, right?

What do you keep from this experience?
This was the most inspiring team I’ve ever worked with on a film; there was so much talent and skill both in the VFX team and throughout the rest of the film crew, and their dedication and professionalism was something that made me proud to be part of this film.

How long have you worked on this show?
I joined the film during pre-production in July 2015, and delivered the final shots in November 2016

What’s the VFX shots count?
Around 1400 total, with 1150 at MPC.

What was the size of your team?
Over six hundred artists and production staff were involved in MPC VFX alone on PASSENGERS, as well as support staff and additional crew involved in MPC Previs, Postvis, Motion Graphics.

Assassin’s Creed (Behind The Scenes)

2017-01-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

US Presidents Who Appear on American Money dollar secret

2016-12-30T08:08:00.004-08:00

POST SUNIL JEWISH CGI

US Presidents Who Appear on American Money

Since the first US bank notes were printed, in 1862 to raise funds for the Civil War, they've been graced by the faces of presidents. The early days of paper money saw a variety of now-defunct notes, including Silver Certificates, Federal Reserve Bank Notes, Interest Bearing Notes, and Fractional Currency - notes issued in lieu of coins during the Civil War. Almost all of these had an American president on them, though they weren't always consistent from printing to printing.

Despite the many different types of currency the US has issued, the main type of paper currency has always been consistent - from 1862 to 1971 it was the United States Note, and since then, the Federal Reserve Note. These bills, and the coins that go with them, usually feature presidents, though several bills of note do not. Larger, now-discontinued bills have also featured presidents. Every sitting president either has or will be featured on Presidential One Dollar Coins, though these coins aren't being printed for circulation, only for collection.

This list of presidents on money includes all of the presidents that have been featured on US currency, along with several prominent Americans who grace the nation's current bills, but never held the highest office.

George Washington

Washington has been on the one dollar bill continuously since 1869, when paper money was known as "United States Notes." Washington was also pictured on a variety of defunct currencies.

Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson has appeared on the two dollar bill since its inception as a United States Note in 1869. The bill hasremained in circulation, despite its unpopularity. He has also appeared on the nickel since 2006, and was on some Fractional Currency during the Civil War.

James Madison

Madison appears on all versions of the $5,000 bill - which is still considered legal tender, despite not having been printed since 1945.

Andrew Jackson

The polarizing and controversial Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928, when he replaced Grover Cleveland. A campaign is underway to replace Jackson with Underground Railroad crusader Harriet Tubman, but it remains to be seen how this will turn out.

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln has graced the five dollar bill since 1914, though various other presidents were on its predecessor notes, including Hamilton, Jackson, and Grant. Lincoln has also been on the penny since 1909. Because of the cost of copper, pennies actually cost almost twice as much to make as they're worth.

Ulysses S. Grant

Grant has graced the $50 since 1913, though the note has existed in other forms since 1861. The former general also appeared on various gold and silver certificates. Congress has twice introduced legislation to replace Grant on the $50 bill with Ronald Reagan, but the bills were voted down both times.

Grover Cleveland

Cleveland sits on the now-discontinued $1,000 bill, which has been out of print since 1945, and out of circulation since 1969, but is still legal tender. Cleveland also graced the $20 bill, until he was replaced by Andrew Jackson in 1928.

Woodrow Wilson

Wilson's face adorned the largest bill ever printed in American history - the $100,000 Gold Certificate. The bill was never released into the circulation; it was only used to transfer money between banks during the Depression.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt has been on the dime since 1945. His visage was added shortly after his death as a tribute to his work with the March of Dimes charity.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dollar coins have never been especially popular in the United States. One attempt at doing so featured President Eisenhower. The Eisenhower dollar was only printed from 1971 through 1978, when it was replaced by the smaller (and equally unpopular) Susan B. Anthony dollar. The coins are still technically legal tender, but function mostly as collectors' items.

John F. Kennedy

The so-called Kennedy half-dollar was first struck in 1964 as a tribute to the late president, with his face replacing Benjamin Franklin. They were made with silver, and snatched up for the value of their metal, but didn't circulate much, due to their size. The silver was removed in 1971, and Kennedy half-dollars were struck until 2002, though a commemorative gold half-dollar was struck in 2014.

All of the Presidents

Time and time again, the US has attempted to introduce one dollar coins to replace one dollar bills. The Eisenhower dollar begat the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which begat the Sacagawea dollar. In 2005, the Senate drafted a bill to commemorate each president with their own one dollar gold coin, in a similar fashion to the popular campaign to commemorate each state with its own quarter. From 2007 through 2011, each president, from Washington through James Garfield, was commemorated with their own specially designed Presidential One Dollar Coin.

But the coin flopped, just like every other attempt at a dollar coin. The general public didn't use them, and businesses actually returned them to the Treasury. The strike number started at over 300 million, but dropped to just 70 million with the Garfield coin. Finally, faced with over one billion coins sitting in storage, and more coming back to them than going out, the Treasury Department suspended the program. The coins are still struck, but in numbers of just 8 million, and only for collectors.

BONUS: Benjamin Franklin

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin has been featured on the $100 bill since 1914. Previously, $100 notes were graced by various American figures, including President James Monroe, and Admiral David Farragut.

BONUS: Alexander Hamilton

Founding Father and first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton has been on the $10 bill since 1928. In June 2015, it was announced that a woman would appear on the $10 bill to replace Hamilton, and the search is currently underway for who will be pictured on the bill.

BONUS: Salmon P. Chase

Likely the most obscure figure to appear on US legal tender, Salmon P. Chase was Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln. To raise funds for the war, Chase masterminded the printing and distribution of the first paper currency - the Demand Note. In honor of this accomplishment, Chase was depicted on the $10,000 bill from 1928 through 1946, when all bills over $100 were discontinued.

POST SUNIL JEWISH CGI

Christmas around the world

2016-12-30T07:35:00.001-08:00

Christmas around the world

Top 10 Hottest Actresses in Hollywood

2016-12-29T08:14:00.001-08:00

Top 10 Hottest Actresses in Hollywood

Appears on many “most beautiful women” lists, Angelina Jolie is one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning actress who has become popular by taking on the title role in the “Lara Croft” series of blockbuster movies. Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees

9. Emma Stone

Stone began acting as a child as a member of the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, where she made her stage debut in a production of Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows”. She appeared in many more productions through her early teens until, at the age of 15. Stone was a cast member of the TV series Drive, and made her feature film debut in the comedy Superbad (2007).

8. Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is one of the Hollywood’s hottest actresses and has excellent acting skills as well. This South African beauty has one of the most beautiful eyes in the world. She born on on August 7th, 1975, but she looks young and gorgeous as ever. She became the first South African to win an Oscar for her film, Monster. Her other notable movies include The Devil’s Advocate, The Italian Job and Mighty Joe Young.

7. Olivia Wilde

Actress and fashion model, Olivia Jane Wilde is one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. She has appeared in a number of television shows and commercial movies. She chose her last name “Wilde” from famous author, Oscar Wilde. She was PETA sexiest celebrity in 2010. Her most notable movies include The Change-Up, In Time and Tron Legacy.

6. Jessica Alba

Born in Pomona, California, on April 28, 1981, Jessica Alba is one of the sexiest model and hottest actresses of television and film. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack. She is often portrayed as a s.x-symbol. She has made the list of the hottest actresses of Hollywood of many prominent magazines. Her notable movies include Fantastic Four, Sin City and Machete. She also appeared in the TV show, Dark Angel.

5. Scarlett Johansson

One of the most attractive American celebs, Scarlett Johansson was born in New York City to mother, Melanie Sloan and father, Karsten Johansson. Scarlett has a huge male fan base. She is only 31 years old and is considered to be one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. Several magazine have included her in the list of the sexiest and the most hottest celebrities. She has been nominated for the Golden Globes 4 times now. Her most notable movies include The Avengers, The Prestige, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Iron Man and Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron. She’s also world’s top earning actresses right now.

4. Megan Fox

Everyone knows Megan Fox. She began her acting career in 2001. She became a worldwide sensation at the time of the film, “The Transformers”. She is 30 years old and is considered a s.x symbol. She ranked several time among the most beautiful people in the world. She’s at number four amongst the hottest Hollywood actresses. Her other notable movies include Jennifer’s Body, and Transformers 2.

3. Mila Kunis

The talented Milena “Mila” Markovna Kunis was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, USSR (now independent Ukraine), to a Jewish family. The 33 years old actress has been portrayed by many magazines and media as one of the hottest celebrities in Hollywood. Her most notable movies include Black Swan, Friends with Benefits, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Her career has been on a continuous rise and she will be seen in several movies in 2017-18. Her hotness prompted a US Marine Corps Sergeant to ask her out on a date through YouTube, which she accepted.

2. Natalie Portman

The beautiful, Natalie Portman is an actress and model with dual American and Israeli citizenship. She is one of the most beautiful women in the world. She won 2011 Oscar for best actress for her movie, Black Swan. Her star has been on a continuous rise. Her other notable movies include V for Vendetta, Thor, Closer, and No Strings Attached. Her career has been on a continuous rise and she will be seen in several movies in 2017-18. She has featured in a number of publication’s lists of the hottest Hollywood actresses. See Natalie’s Bald Look.

1. Marion Cotillard

Marion Cotillard is at top of the list of hottest actress in Hollywood. Marion Cotillard is a French actress who over the last few years has made it big in Hollywood. She is now famous worldwide and is one of the most beautiful actresses of this generation. She starred in the movie, Inception. Other movies like Midnight in Paris and Public Enemies were very well received. She was recently seen in the movie, From the Land of the Moon. Her film, La Vie en rose, earned her an Oscar, which allowed her to make history as the first person to win an Oscar for a french film.

Did you enjoy our list of Top 10 Hottest Actresses in Hollywood? Share with us your favorite in comments.

The 10 Most Beautiful Women of 2016

2016-12-29T08:02:00.002-08:00

The 10 Most Beautiful Women of 2016

10. Pia Wurtzbach

The Miss Universe 2015, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, once professionally known as Pia Romero, comes at number ten in the list. She is an actress, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 2015 after becoming Miss Universe Philippines 2015 at the Binibining Pilipinas 2015 pageant on March 15, 2015.

9. Emilia Clarke

Friendly and fierce, Kid sister and killer, Movie star and girl next door – The gorgeous Emilia Clarke has wonderslist’s list of “The 10 Most Beautiful Women of 2016” at ninth place. She’s twenty-eight now, one of the stars of Game of Thrones, the mother not just of dragons but of John Connor in the latest movie Terminator Genisys, and Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive.

8. Adriana Lima

The Brazilian brunette, “Supermodel of the World” is best known for being one of the Victoria’s Secret Angel’s. Her beauty has been recognized, regularly finding herself in the top 10 of the world’s hottest women by Maxim’s Hot 100. She’s currently the second highest paid model with earnings of $9 million, according to Forbes.

7. Priyanka Chopra

The former Miss World, once again make it amongst the most beautiful women of the world. Chopra has been voted as the ‘Sexiest Asian Woman‘ for the year 2015 by a London-based weekly, Eastern Eye. She is a sensational performer in the Bollywood and has won many awards. She’s and one of the most popular and high-profile celebrities in India. Last year, she began starring as Alex Parrish on the ABC drama Quantico, becoming the first South Asian woman to headline an American network series.

6. Amber Heard

The young, hot American actress Amber Heard has often appears in magazines’ Most Beautiful and Sexiest lists. She got her first ground-breaking role in the 2007 television show Hidden Palms. However, her breakthrough came with roles in Never Back Down and Pineapple Express in 2008. Recently she appeared in films 3 Days to Kill, Magic Mike XXL and The Danish Girl. It is reported that Heard is in talks to play Mera, Aquaman’s Atlantean Queen, in the upcoming 2018 film, Aquaman.

The beautiful Heard got married Johnny Depp on Feb. 2015 in a private civil ceremony at their home in Los Angeles. She holds the sixth position on the world’s most beautiful women of 2016 list.

5. Pixie Lott

Pixie Lott cites Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston as major influences on her style of singing. The famous pop star hold fifth position in the list of “The 10 Most Beautiful Women of 2016”. She has given some super-hit songs like Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh) and ‘Boys and Girls’ that gained this London girl enough fame in the year 2009. Her top six albums made to the list of top 10 and her first 3 albums recahed three shart topping singles. In FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women list, she was voted No. 45 in 2010, No. 31 in 2011, No. 12 in 2012 and No. 7 in 2013-14.

4. Deepika Padukone

The highest-paid Bollywood actress, Deepika Padukone hold the fourth position in the list of 10 most beautiful women of 2016. She has been considered a sex symbol and style icon in India, and ranks high on various listings of the India’s most beautiful women.

She looks beautiful always. She’s cited by her figure, height, smile, and eyes as her distinctive physical features, which always makes her stand out of all the beauty queens of Bollywood and Hollywood too.

Deepika Padukone is busy shooting for Hollywood movie “xXx- The Return Of Xander Cage” in which she plays the lead female role opposite Vin Diesel. She is an active celebrity endorser for several brands and products, including Tissot, Sony Cyber-shot, Nescafe, Vogue eyewear, Maybelline and Pepsi, among others.

3. Nana Im Jin-Ah

Im Jin-ah, known by her stage name Nana, a former member of the K-pop girl band After School, has wonderslist’s “Most Beautiful Women of 2016” at third place. In June 2015, Nana was more active in China, where she has featured in such films as “Go Lalal Go 2” with Ariel Lin, Vic Zhou and Chen Bolin. She was ranked Number 1 on the Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Faces of 2014 and again in 2015. In February 2016 it was confirmed that Nana would be joining the cast of the fourth season of the female special of Real Men

2. Liza Soberano

Filipino-American actress and model Liza Soberano comes at numer 2 in the list of 10 Most Beautiful Women of 2016 with the most beautiful faces in the world. She started in a range of television series and films, including Wansapanataym, Kung Ako’y Iiwan Mo, She’s the One, Must Be… Love, Got to Believe, Forevermore, Just The Way You Are and Everyday I Love You. Currently, she’s starring opposite Enrique Gil in the romantic comedy television series Dolce Amore

1. Selena Gomez

The former disney starlet, Selena Gomez, hold the top position in the ‘World’s Most Beautiful Women of 2016’ list! She has blossomed into an extremely stunning young woman. She used to be a cute and innocent, now she’s the perfect combo of beautiful and sexy. Selena just exudes a confidence and a natural sense of poise that make her in the ranking.

The 10 Most Beautiful Women of 2016

Selena Gomez (USA)
Liza Soberano (Philippines)
Nana Im Jin-Ah (South Korea)
Deepika Padukone (India)
Pixie Lott (UK)
Amber Heard (USA)
Priyanka Chopra (India)
Adriana Lima (Brazil)
Emilia Clarke (UK)
Pia Wurtzbach (Philippines)

Week in Pictures: From Aleppo evacuation to Egypt blast

2016-12-29T07:19:00.003-08:00

Week in Pictures: From Aleppo evacuation to Egypt blast

A photo round-up of some of the week's key events, from evacuation of east Aleppo to a deadly bombing at a Cairo church.

save your life?

2016-12-29T07:02:00.001-08:00

Might getting undressed in front of a hungry polar bear save your life?

Alexander Bazykin treats a polar bear cub to a caramel candy

Alexander Oboimov, member of the Russian Geographic Society, meteorologist, Arctic lover and traveler.

Young polar explorers often ask me these questions on their first trip to Arctic. Some of them might seem funny and insignificant, but as they kept coming I thought why not to answer ten most often asked.

Do polar bears like sweets and honey? Do they eat snow?

This is in fact not a silly question. Polar bears are predators, but also they are omnivorous which means that they can eat everything, including boots left outside a house by a forgetful polar explorer, or something equally inedible.

They love condensed milk, I’ve watched them savouring it many times. Same goes for candies, see the picture of my colleague Sasha Bazykin who made friends with a polar bear cub and treated it with caramel candies. Honey - now, given a shortage of beehives in the Arctic, their only hope to get honey is at our storehouses. If, or rather when they manage to sneak inside, they love to get hold of honey.

Polar bears are not very picky in terms of food, but if they have a choice between a seal and nearly everything else, they'll choose a seal. However, due to intensive climate changes, the Arctic menu shrank a lot.

Polar bear cubs stay with their mothers up to three years.

How big are polar bears? How long do they live?

The polar bear is one of the largest predator mammals, the only bigger ground predator is the sea elephant. Polar bears can grow up to three meters long. Male bears on average weigh 400-450 kg; they are 200 to 250 cm long and 130 to 150 cm shoulder height.

Females are significantly smaller, weighing between 200 and 300 kg.

The smallest polar bears live on Spitsbergen island, the largest - in the Bering sea.

In the wild polar bears live up to 30 years maximum. Record longevity in captivity for a polar bear was 45 years.

Polar bears swim at a speed of 10 kmph. The fastest Olympic swimmers go at 7 kmph

What do we know about polar bear breeding?

Polar bears can cross-breed with brown bears and produce fertile hybrids called polar grizzly. Polar bears breed at the end of spring when temperature in the Arctic starts to increase. Pregnancy lasts about 8 months. During this time mother bears eat a lot to save energy and survive a winter with cubs.

At the beginning of a winter a female bear digs a den inside big snowdrifts or atop an ice floe.

In the middle of winter in some of the planet's coldest places female polar bears give birth to their cubs. Usually female bears have two cubs at a time, sometimes it can be just one, rarely three cubs.

When cubs are born, they are totally dependant on mother bear. They stay in the den till the beginning of spring, then leave it and start exploring the world.

In the first year their diet is mixed, cubs eat milk and seal meat that their mother brings. Once they get bigger, mother bear teaches them to hunt.

Cubs stay with their mother for nearly three years, then the family breaks and a mother leaves them to start breeding again. Giving birth and raising cubs requires a lot of effort from the mother, so in years when there isn't enough food, polar bears rarely breed.

Why do polar bears roll in snow?

I've heard lots of tales and stories about polar bears, but one thing is definitely true - they are very neat.

These animals spend 15-20 minutes a day on hygiene and carefully get rid of dirt and food crumbles stuck in their fur.

They do roll in the snow and while it looks like they play, this is a very practical habit that helps them clean fur. It is very important for them because dirty fur looses its [thermal] insulation properties.

There is a plan hold polar bear census in 2018.

Are they good at swimming?

Polar bears have truly amazing swimming skills, a lot more impressive than say swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Their massive paws are perfect for cutting through the ocean waves as fast as 10 kmph. Compare it to pitiful Olympic records - 7 kmph at the very best. So it doesn’t matter how many golden medals you've got, you can still become polar bear's breakfast.

Do polar bears attack humans?

Experienced polar explorers know that if the animal is full, it will not show a sign of hostility to a human in case of an accidental meeting.

A curious bear will just observe and sniff a mysterious two-legged creature. Such an encounter is not dangerous for an armed traveler, but if you're unarmed or armed with a stick, you'll feel different.

A few years ago, a very hungry polar bear was chasing a research team that had just landed at Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

It's hard to say what would have happened if not for a brilliant mind of one students. He started taking off and dropping bits of his clothing, making the bear to pause, sniff and try fur hat, mittens and jacket. It gave the whole team precious seconds to get ahead of the bear and jump on a boat.

The biggest polar bears live in the Bering Sea

Can people domesticate a polar bear?

Some animals can't be trained, bloodthirsty and sullen jaguar is one of them. Until now all the attempts to train them have been in vain. Polar bear is the second in line. Polar bears can’t be domesticated. A tough approach will not work on them as they will never obey because of fear.

A polar bear is more likely to attack a human than submit. The only possible way to work with polar bears is when people train them since early childhood. We have only one family in Russia that so far manages to train polar bears - the Denisenko family from Irkutsk in Siberia.

Do polar bears eat their own babies?

Ice is melting more and more, gradually depriving polar bears of their natural habitat and abundant hunting lands.

Catching seals becomes more and more complicated, so polar bears are looking for other sources of food. A couple of eggs found in a bird nest can't satisfy the giants, and in some cases they turned to cannibalism.

Last year a polar bear went to Malye Karmakuly polar station and attacked two little orphan cubs who found shelter at the polar station.

One of the cubs died, the other one was injured. We managed to save him and send him to a safari-park in Gelendzhik (a city in the south of Russia). I was co-ordinating the cub’s travels across Russia.

How many of them are left in the wild?

The polar bear is in Russia's Red Book of endangered animals, because their numbers are getting lower every year.

The total number of polar bears is estimated at 25,000 animals, around 7,000 of them live in Russia.

There is a plan to hold a polar bear census in Russia in 2018, and to take all necessary measures to protect their population.

A polar bear can't be domesticated.

Do polar bears have a ‘capital’ location? Where is it?

Due to a strange coincidence, the city of Churchill in Canada's Manitoba province is the world capital of polar bears. Every spring and summer ice bay by the town thaws, and leaves polar bears without their primary hunting area. Dozens and sometimes hundreds of hungry bears who have no opportunity to hunt for seals get dangerously close to the city.

These bears are not picky at all - they can eat anything, like rubbish for starters and dogs for dessert. Despite the danger, locals managed to adapt to the all-year polar bear invasion. For example, people leave their houses unlocked in case someone is chased by a polar bear and needs a shelter.

People use special doormats with sharp nails sticking out to prevent bears from getting inside.

During Halloween children are accompanied by armed adults. There is a ban for a Halloween ghost costume as it can be easily confused with a polar bear.

There is even a special hotline with an emergency squad on standby.

They even have a jail for polar bears! If a bear keeps coming back to the city, they put it to sleep and lock it inside a former aircraft hangar.

The jail is arranged so that it causes maximum discomfort to animals with no food and only to stay hydrated, and extremely limited space.

The idea is to make their ‘stay’ in Churchill as unpleasant as possible so that they never want to come back. It might sound cruel, but it's the best alternative to killing bears. When the bay is covered by ice again, the bears are set free.

Siberian WOMAN

2016-12-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

What is it like being married to a Siberian woman, are they tougher than 'normal'?

One I very much wanted to avoid and would have had my editor and wife not goaded me into providing an answer. I must tread carefully as my wife and editor are both Siberian women and I don’t want to lose this space on the Times or wake up to find I have had parts of me removed by a very angry wife.

Firstly, being married is a strange thing: two people stuck together forever and ever amen. It’s a tough business in itself. It was even harder for my wife and I as I was only granted residency six months ago and we have in fact been married for just over two years. In the past six months, our first proper period of living together as a married couple, we have had to get used to each other’s annoying habits and idiosyncrasies; it hasn’t always been fun.

I have a habit of writing late at night but Nastya likes to watch movies with me before she sleeps. I like to keep the apartment clean and organised whereas Nastya likes to carpet the floor with all the clothes she decided she isn’t going to wear that day. I’m rather fond of playing jazz music, Led Zep and the like, but Nastya likes to play the Russian pop music. So there have been times where we both could have gladly coshed the other over the head with a blunt instrument.

But these things are normal in marriages aren’t they? I don’t know because neither Nastya nor I have been married before; which makes it seem like I am less qualified to answer this question, because surely I would need to have been married to one woman from every other country in order to make some sort of comparison.

Perhaps it would be better if I were to describe Siberian women?

As a Westerner there have been some cultural differences that have taken a while to get used to; and as a teacher, where I am in a privileged position that allows me to ask all kinds of personal questions of my students, I have been surprised by some attitudes.

What is it like being married to a Siberian woman, are they tougher than normal? This is just one of the many questions I have been asked recently as a result of blogging here.

The majority of my female students think it is a woman’s place to cook for men, to clean the apartment, to look after men generally and to always look beautiful. It is their primary role to be slim, fit and sexy at all times in order to please men.

My male students on the other hand cannot cook a single thing. None of them can even boil an egg. Their primary role according to them is to ‘provide’, ‘fix things’ and be manly. Seems a bit old fashioned doesn’t it? Because it is.

This is why I have been discussing feminist literature with my female students and asking my male students lots of questions about cooking, then telling them how an egg is boiled. Only, my questioning and attempts to ‘educate’ so to speak can be seen by some as an attempt to subvert Siberian culture; so I have had to tread very carefully. Siberians have lived with these values for a long time and it’s probably not my place to try to change anything.

Everyone seems happy, although I was concerned when one of my students couldn’t even contemplate becoming president of Russia when I asked her to write an essay on the subject.

‘But only men are presidents’, ‘men are stronger and wiser and better at ruling the world’. Really? I couldn’t help but feel sad that this one particular student couldn’t even imagine being anything more than second place or second best in the world. In her view men should always be paid more than women even if they do the same job. ‘Men should always be made to feel they are boss’ etc etc etc.

Thankfully I don’t have these kinds of discussions with my wife; I don’t need to: we are equal. Nastya throws the clothes on the floor and I pick them up. I also do most of the cooking, not only because I love cooking but because I don’t want to be ‘looked after’. Equality of the sexes isn’t always about cooking and cleaning though is it. It’s about perception and integrity, dignity and morality. I don’t think my wife feels she is second best; at least I hope she doesn’t.

As you asked, I have to say that in my opinion she ‘wears the trousers’: she makes the majority of decisions when it comes to spending money, where we spend our holidays, our future plans; she even edits my work and advises me what to submit to each publisher. But this is marriage in general isn’t it? Men like to ‘appear’ as the boss when in fact women always have the upper hand; that’s how marriage works doesn’t it?

In Russia there is an expression that goes something like this: ‘Russian women can stop running horses in their tracks’. Siberian women especially have a reputation for being tough, because Siberians are generally tougher than the average human being (sweeping statement, I know).

While I haven’t seen any evidence of Siberian women displaying super-human strength I can say that for the most part they are very stoic and hard-working. My mother-in-law for instance is a force of nature. She takes care of everything at home and grows lots of vegetables at the dacha. Although she is slow she is always in motion: watering crops, chopping wood, taking her grandson to school etc. And her mother, 87 year old Baba Ira is exactly the same.

Although she may look ancient, in her head she is still 20; and regardless of the fact she can barely walk unaided, she still prefers to cook her own meals and likes to visit the dacha in summer too. So to answer your question regarding Siberian women being tougher than other women, I can’t exactly say for sure.

I have three sisters back home in the UK and they’re all tough as old boots; so I guess my answer is both yes and no (I’m being diplomatic here, can you tell). I can’t say anything concrete without writing even more sweeping statements, and I’m still really worried I might come across as a sexist pig (if I haven’t already).

What I can say for sure is that I have no complaints or regrets, however if my wife asks me to watch Sex and the City again, that will probably change.

Siberian women may appear tough, in that they are able to live in a world with an often hostile weather system, and rub shoulders with men when it comes to chopping wood, making fires for the barbeque etc., but to describe the women here as tougher than others may be going a bit far.

They, like women all over, have to live in a male dominated world and put up with the same crap, while constantly competing for equal rights and fairness. One could argue that in general Siberian women are less tough because many (the few I have met anyway) can’t imagine a world where women are equal, and some even question why women should be equal.

In my view the ‘tough Siberian woman’ is a bit of a false cliché: my female students are probably busy beautifying themselves right now or thinking about what they should be doing to please someone else rather than what they’d like to do as people. At the same time one could argue that Siberian women are tougher than women elsewhere because they exist in such an old fashioned patriarchal society and therefore have a longer road to empowerment. I guess it all comes down to what you mean by tough?

If you want to marry a woman who cooks, cleans, regards men as superior and thinks men are ‘boss’, then yes, you might want to look into visiting Siberia and courting a woman here, but, if you did, that would probably say a lot more about you than it would about Siberian women.

But then saying all of this, I don’t know everybody here, and I can only go on my experience with the few people that I know. I have asked many questions of the people I have come across but there is of course the fact that I know less than 0.002% of the population, or less than that, so my perception is quite limited in scope. There is the possibility that there are only a handful of people here with old fashioned views and that they all happened to be in this one place. Which would mean all of the above isn’t very common.

To end I’ll just say this: the differences between the society I knew in Wales and the society I know in Siberia are minute, there are obvious cultural differences but in general Siberians aren’t that different from the people I know back home: they wake, shower, go to work, eat, come home, sleep etc. There are some who live up to stereotypes and some who don’t. Wales, my home country is often stereotyped as a land full of people who like to get busy with sheep. While this ISN’T true for 99.99999% of the population, there is always somebody…Let’s not go there!

Sexy Kristen Stewart smiling and looking hot as always

2016-12-27T08:17:00.001-08:00

Sexy Kristen Stewart smiling and looking hot as always

Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress who is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga film series and for her prolific work in independent films.

Height: 5' 5" (1.65 m)
Born: April 9, 1990 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Kristen grew in family involved in entertainment industry. Father was television producer, mother was script supervisor and also has directed a film. Kristen started her acting career when she was kid. She got known by movie Panic Room there she was still a kid. Acting together with stars like Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker and Jared Leto. Some years past she grew up and got contract with Twilight saga. She most known in the world from that particular role playing her character Bella.

Steward had long dated her co-worker from Twilight saga, Robert Pattinson, While playing role in movie Snow White and the Huntsman, Kristen got in affair with movie's director Rupert Sanders. , Stewart issued a public apology to Pattinson. Since then Kristen relationship status is unknown.