Pixar
As Disney pushes toward streaming profitability, Pixar to undergo layoffs in 2024
Disney-owned animation studio Pixar is poised to undergo layoffs this year, TechCrunch has learned and the company confirmed. While sources at the company said the layoffs would be significant and…
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VFX artists show that Hollywood can use AI to create, not exploit
Hollywood may be embroiled in ongoing labor disputes that involve AI, but the technology infiltrated film and TV long, long ago. At SIGGRAPH in LA, algorithmic and generative tools were on display in countless talks and announcements. We may not know where the likes of GPT-4 and Stable Diffusion fit…
It looks like Miko’s participation in the Disney Accelerator is paying off in a big way, as the company is bringing Disney and Pixar characters to its Miko 3 robot…
‘Lightyear’ streams today, the first Pixar film on Disney+ with scenes in IMAX’s Expanded Aspect Ratio
“Lightyear” was the first Pixar movie in two years to make it to theaters. A month and a half later, it finally hits the streaming platform Disney+. Today, August 3,…
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Gaming vets promise to make blockchain games fun and sustainable
The runaway success of Axie Infinity and StepN has convinced a flurry of entrepreneurs that web3 gaming, where the ownership of in-game assets is in the hands of users via blockchain adoption rather than a centralized platform, is the future. Some of the biggest hits in the space to date…
Crypto gaming firm Cauldron raises $6.6M to build ‘Pixar of web3’
A number of crypto gaming firms have ramped up production in the past year with hopes of revolutionizing the growing industry. Adding to the list is London-based gaming firm Cauldron,…
Columbus, Ohio’s technology job scene really took off in the early 2010s when the state made investments that enabled entrepreneurs to more easily start companies. Fast-forward to today, and companies…
Omniverse is Nvidia’s platform for allowing creators, designers and engineers to collaboratively build virtual worlds. It’s the company’s platform that brings together design tools and assets from first- and third-party…
Disney+ rolls out support for Apple’s SharePlay co-viewing experience over FaceTime
Disney+ is the latest streaming app to add support for Apple’s SharePlay, the iOS 15 feature that offers a co-viewing experience over FaceTime video calls on iPhone, iPad, Mac or…
Self-driving startup Aurora taps Pixar veterans to make a more realistic virtual world for testing
Aurora, the autonomous vehicle startup scheduled to make its debut on Nasdaq next week, is turning to a team of Pixar veterans to help make the computer simulation tool used…
Amazon introduces Amazon Glow, an interactive, video calling device for kids and families
Amazon today introduced Amazon Glow, a new, interactive device aimed at families that allows kids to interact with family members and other remote loved ones over video calls. While something…
Disney and Amazon partner on a custom voice assistant, ‘Hey, Disney!’ and Echo rollout to Walt Disney World Resort hotels
Amazon, for the first time, is making another voice assistant available on Echo devices. The company at its fall event today announced a new voice assistant, “Hey, Disney,” developed by…
Original Content podcast: Pixar’s ‘Soul’ offers a lively visit to pre-pandemic New York
For the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, we looked back at “Soul,” which was released on Disney+ at the end of last year. The new Pixar film tells…
Using 25% lower bandwidth, Disney+ launches in UK, Ireland and 5 other European countries, France to come online April 7
Disney+, the streaming service from the Walt Disney Company, has been rapidly ramping up in the last several weeks. But while some of that expansion has seen some hiccups, other…
Pixar CG pioneers Pat Hanrahan and Edwin Catmull share $1M Turing Award
The 2019 Turing Award, one of the highest honors in computing, was today awarded to Pat Hanrahan and Ed Catmull, founding members of Pixar who helped shape the future of…
Star Wars and Marvel content is most watched among Disney+ trial users, led by ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
Early adopters of Disney+ are mostly watching Marvel and Star Wars movies and TV shows, according to a new third-party report by SimilarWeb out today. The analytics firm measured Disney+…
The new Disney+ streaming service is oriented around fans and families
You can tell a lot about a service by what it prioritizes on its home screen. With the new Disney + service, the focus is initially organized by fan base,…
Dreading 10x engineers, virtual beings, the fate of Netflix, and Salesforce’s acquisition
The dreaded 10x, or, how to handle exceptional employees The reality (myth?) is that there are engineers who are ten times more productive than other engineers (some would argue 100x,…
Spotify partners with Disney on a new streaming hub aimed at families
In an effort likely aimed at boosting family memberships, Spotify this morning announced a new partnership with Disney on the creation of a Disney Hub on its streaming service. Here,…
Consolidation is coming to gaming, and Jam City raises $145 million to capitalize on it
A slew of banks are coming together to back a new roll-up strategy for the Los Angeles-based mobile gaming studio Jam City and giving the company $145 million in new funding to…
Walt Disney Animation Studio is set to debut its first VR short film, Cycles, this August in Vancouver, the Association for Computing Machinery announced today. The plan is for it to be…
These five trends are rocking the animation industry
I’ve been very lucky to have been in the animation industry since the mid-1980s. Here’s a quick survey of trends in the animation landscape that have me pretty optimistic about…
Zoetrope effect could render Hyperloop tubes transparent to riders
An optical illusion popular in the 19th century could make trips on the Hyperloop appear to take place in a transparent tube. Regularly spaced, narrow windows wouldn’t offer much of…
Samsung’s AR Emojis were met with a…lukewarm reception when they launched alongside the Galaxy S9. The augmented reality avatars were regarded as a me-too response to Apple’s Animojis — and…
Pixar’s John Lasseter taking a six-month leave of absence amid reports of inappropriate behavior
John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, is the latest media executive to face allegations of inappropriate behavior. In a memo to employees,…
The dream of customizable virtual 3D foliage is alive at Disney
Oh, to work at Disney, to have a hand in creating those lusciously detailed 3D worlds, every character lovingly rendered, every animal sidekick unique and hilarious, every tree… filled with…
Apple’s super simple video editing app Clips just got its first significant upgrade since launching in April. There are a couple of feature updates in the mix, but the biggest…
Crunch Report | Judge Rules CRISPR-Cas9 Belongs to Broad Institute
Verizon is reportedly getting a $250 million discount on its Yahoo deal, judge rules CRISPR-Cas9 belongs to the Broad Institute and not UC Berkeley, Pixar teaches the art of storytelling…
Pixar offers free online lessons in storytelling via Khan Academy
There are few organizations in the world that can claim more expertise when it comes to storytelling than Pixar. The Disney-owned animation studio is known for its ability to consistently…
Have you ever stopped to think about what it takes to bring an animated fish to life? How a team of people can take a spark of an idea and…
