Strider’s Web – Page 78

Something to Watch: Discs

Kung Fu Panda 3 almost had this week’s western Movie and TV section to itself, and is coming out both as a stand alone film and bundled either with the first two films, or with them and three other discs filled with all the KFP Short Films they have spun off, depending on where you shop. I consider the Kung Fu Panda trilogy one of the finest animation series ever made, an excellent story self contained in each movie forming an arc that ties them all together, combined with some of the most beautiful animation work I have ever seen. It is in multiple styles, each one used to tell a different aspect of the story, and it was created by teams of animators working in both China and the US. The really exciting part? We are only half way through the project, there are a total of 6 films planned to tell the complete story. The other film coming out this week is Elstree 1976, a behind the scenes look at the teams who have worked on Star Wars.

In Anime, Den-noh Coil: Collection 1 i the first 13 episodes of a story about young people who have spent their whole lives wearing augmented reality glasses, tying them into layers of the world not available to the un-enhanced. But when they end up in Daikoku City, the e-space turns sinister, and some people may have already died trying to figure out what is going on there. Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom: Wild Dance of Kyoto takes place in historic Kyoto, where the Shinsengumi battle for control of the country with the vampire-like Ronin, and a woman may hold the key to victory in the form of an elixir that grants superhuman speed, strength, and healing. Selector Spread Wixoss is the next dozen episodes of the Selector series, as Ruko fights for answers and to rescue her friends inside the game. Yurikuma Arashi: Complete Series is a story of love, loss, and bear attacks featuring the heavily armed women who attack them. It takes place in a parallel time line where humans share the planet with sentient bears with a taste for human flesh. Finally we get One Piece: Collection 16, bringing us episodes 373 through 396 of the continuing pirate saga.

Hello Sleepwalkers 360

The new Hello Sleepwalkers release is Planless Perfection, which they rolled out back in March, and the VR style 360 degree song posted first is from that album. I recommend putting on your VR headset and best set of headphones for that one; being surrounded by the band while they play is quite a nice effect. The second track here, called something like the collapse of the Myth of Huai, is also from their latest realease. They are probably best known for doing the OP for the first season of the anime Noragami, which is a fun little show about an unemployed god; that track was on their 2014 album. Finally, again from Planless Perfection, a slight change of pace with their song Breaking Dawn.

VR 360: Inside the Large Hadron Collider

This 360 degree VR formatted video from BBC News takes you on a brief tour inside the Large Hadron Collider, which is pretty much the most complex machine in the world. The folks over at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have done a lot of excellent science with this installation. Since I probably won’t get to visit the place in person, it is nice to have a virtual visit to play in the headset.

Gravity Wave Astronomy

Gravity Waves have finally been observed, not once, but twice, and the era of Gravity Wave Astronomy is now here. So far our detectors can only pick up really powerful events in the form of black holes multiple times the mass of our sun colliding together, but as the science matures we should be able to detect less energetic events. Why did I say finally been observed? Because they were predicted by Albert Einstein right around 100 years ago as part of his General Relativity Theory, and it took us until last year to begin to detect them.

CW DC Returns in October

The DC Comics shows that the CW Network runs are favorites of mine, and they return with new episodes in October. The Flash kicks off its new season on Tuesday, October 4th, followed by Arrow hot on its heels on Wednesday the 5th. Also on Wednesday the 5th they roll out the new sci-fi show Frequency, which is a spin off from the movie rather than based n a DC Comic, but the trailer on that one looks really good. Supergirl joins the CW lineup with the season 2 premier on Monday, October 10th, and the trailer includes a quick peek of the Flash chatting with her about the other DC characters on that channel. It could have started on CW rather than CBS, because two of the three developers created the Arrow and Flash TV series, and I am looking forward to whatever crossover stories they come up with. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has its season premier on Thursday, October 13th, and it gets followed be the season premier of another non-DC favorite, Supernatural. You can see the various trailers at their web sites, linked here; thanks to THR for the heads up on this one.

SIGGRAPH 2016: Computer Animation Festival Trailer

SIGGRAPH 2016 is coming up on July 24th through the 28th in Anaheim, California this year, and one of mt favorite tracks is their Computer Animation Festival, so I had to post the trailer for it. The name is from their original newsgroup identifier from the Internet’s early days, Special Interest Group, GRAPHics. This gathering is the 43rd international conference and exhibition on
Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques, in case you were wondering how long ago those early days were, and they didn’t hold these every year during the first decade. How important this event is to the creators of these excellent animations can be explained by saying it has been their version of the Academy Awards since the late 70s. How important it is to the rest of us is best expressed by this quote from their web site:

The Computer Animation Festival is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival. Since 1999, several works originally presented in the Computer Animation Festival have been nominated for or have received a Best Animated Short Academy Award.

It is not too late to make this year’s gathering; the deadline for registering and getting the discounted registration fees is July 1st. Entering your creations to the event is already over, though, but there is always next year!