Archive for May, 2015
May26
Sanrio unveils new animation studio
2015 at 03:54 pm by admin | Comments Off
Sanrio, Inc., the multinational character merchandise company widely known for the creation of Hello Kitty and other adorable characters, has announced that a brand new American-based animation-focused branch of their company will begin operation in June! The new company, called Sanrio Pictures Entertainment, will focus on creating big budget Hello kitty films, works, anime, and other short features starring Hello Kitty and other popular Sanrio characters, like Badtz-maru, My Melody, Keroppi, Tuxedo Sam, and more. While Sanrio’s in-house animation studio has been creating shorts based on their characters for years, Sanrio Pictures Entertainment hopes to bring the highest quality to their works, and plans to work around a budget of $164 million per movie. The company is also considering working collaboratively with other characters from separate companies, and is even thinking about creating video games and film-related goods. With such extravagant plans set for Hello Kitty on the big screen, the future is looking exciting for Sanrio fans worldwide!
May20
Artist constructs free-standing paper bridge
2015 at 03:24 pm by admin | Comments Off
Artist Steve Messam has taken paper design to a new level with his free-standing PaperBridge! The culmination of four years of design work, PaperBridge is unique in that the bridge is fully functional, able to support the weight of hikers, spectators, and more, all without using a single support! The bridge itself, located in the Lake District of northwest England, is made of 22,000 sheets of red paper, and relies on standard architectural principles rather than glue, bolts, or frames to stay sturdy and standing. Inspired by classical pack horse bridges that dot the Lake District, is also environmentally friendly, leaving no footprint on the beautiful scenery around it. The bridge will be recycled once the display ends, turning it back into usable paper once again. The bridge is only the latest of Messam’s paper-based installation pieces, so look forward to wherever his next piece may pop up!
May20
LEGOLAND Hotel opens in Florida
2015 at 12:55 pm by admin | Comments Off
LEGOLAND Florida has just opened the doors of a brand new LEGO-themed hotel to its visitors! The LEGOLAND Hotel, which opened on May 15th, stands as the largest and one of the only LEGO-themed hotels in the world, and offers plenty of attractions and unique services for fans hoping to spend a night with their favorite building block toy. The hotel hosts 152 rooms, divided into Adventure, Kingdom, Pirates, and LEGO Friends themes, with every room featuring iconic LEGO themes, decals, and pieces in all of its furniture.
To keep children and adults of all ages engaged, the rooms include their own building LEGO sets for families to enjoy on downtime, as well as scavenger hunts throughout the site that unlock unique treasure chests filled with goodies. Including a fully functional LEGO restaurant and swimming pool, the hotel will also host regular LEGO workshops and events, making it a must-see locations for any fans visiting LEGOLAND Florida this summer!
May19
Inventor flies jetpacks over Dubai
2015 at 10:47 am by admin | Comments Off
Yves Rossy, Swiss engineer and pilot, recently debuted a video of his newest invention to YouTube: a fully functional jetpack! Accompanied by skydiver Vice Reffet, the duo are shown soaring through the skies of Dubai with the prototypes, turning and performing maneuvers with all the grace of a bird. The flight packs weigh 120 pounds, and allow their uses to fly freely for 15 minutes in speeds up to 186 miles per hour. While the packs are still heavily in development, and require assistance in order to perform take-off and landing procedures, Rossy’s invention is a hopeful sign of the next generation of flight technology to come!
May15
“Cubes” turns food into isometric art
2015 at 12:43 pm by admin | Comments Off
Design studio Lernert & Sander have taken food to the next level with their photo project titled “Cubes”. The project was commissioned by Dutch newspaper “de Volkskrant” in 2014 for a food-themed documentary, and Lernert & Sander stepped up to plate with a giant print of 98 different food cubes. Each identical 1″ cube is cut from a different food product, and the materials range from vegetables, fruits, meat, and even mushrooms! All of the food was freshly cut before their photo session, keeping the products looking clean and tasty. The food was cut using a unique slicer over the course of the five-day photo shoot session, and come together into one isometric presentation. Lernert & Sander are currently selling prints of the finished piece through their website, so fans of the clean design aesthetic and delicious food can have one of their very own!
May15
Artists recreate Millennium Falcon in LEGO
2015 at 12:28 pm by admin | Comments Off
A team of Singapore-based artists called Titans Creations have unveiled their to-scale replica of Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon spacecraft in honor of this year “May the 4th” event. Unlike the traditional LEGO Millennium Falcon sets released by the company for retail release, Titans Creations’ version strives to stay as true to the source material as possible, while keeping the craft in-scale with the LEGO figurines. That means that the Falcon is giant, measuring in at over 3 and a half feet long and including over 10,000 LEGO bricks, and recreates all the rooms and hallways of the ship seen in the beloved movie franchise.
The Millennium Falcon was constructed without a roof so that all the inner details can be seen in detail, and includes 24 LEDs for the ship’s cockpit, engines, hyperdrive, hallways, and more. Putting even the official $500 limited edition LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon set to shame, this custom build is really a sight to behold for fans of LEGO and the Star Wars franchise.
May15
1600 Pandas+ debuts in South Korea this May
2015 at 12:07 pm by admin | Comments Off
After a year under wraps, French artist Paulo Grangeon’s “1600 Pandas” installation exhibit has finally resurfaced in South Korea! The exhibit, now titled “1600 Pandas+”, has been rennovated to reflect the 17% increase in the worldwide panda population over the past 10 years, and features new papier mâché sculptures to match the current number of 1,864 pandas. A new addition to the South Korea exhibit will be the “Mom and Cub” statues, featuring a mother panda with her baby on its back!
The exhibit, which most recently appeared in Hong Kong last June, has made its way around the over over the past 7 years, showing up in France, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and more. For its stop in South Korea, the swarm of adorable panda statues will debut on May 23rd at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, and will afterwards make surprise appearances in a number of locations across South Korea until the exhibit’s end on June 30th.
May14
Ratchet & Clank movie slated for 2016
2015 at 12:40 pm by admin | Comments Off
After a series of delays and setbacks, Sony’s “Ratchet & Clank” film finally has a set release date of April 29th, 2016! The film was originally announced by Sony in 2013, and adapts the characters and environments from the classic Ratchet & Clank video game franchise, in which the action duo of Ratchet the Lombax and his robot companion Clank journey across distant planets and galaxies. The series is remembered for its unique mix of action and comedy, but little has been released about the movie since the trailer release at last year’s E3. Now that the film finally has a 2016 release date, fans can start looking forward to the debut of their favorite Ratchet & Clank characters on the big screen!
May13
Miku returns to opera this summer
2015 at 03:58 pm by admin | Comments Off
Popular Vocaloid program icon and character Hatsune Miku will return to the stage this summer with “The End” opera project! This stage show originally debuted at Yamaguchi, Japan in 2012, and then was shown at the Theatre du Chatelet Opera House in Paris, France in 2013. Now, “The End” will come to the Dutch National Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam on June 4th, as part of the 2015 Holland Festival! In line with the previous showings of “The End” over the past couple of years, the show will be entirely CGI, focusing on creating a narrative around the songs created through the Vocaloid program. A short teaser video was uploaded onto the Holland Festival YouTube, giving us a first look at the visuals intended for the performance. On top of this summer performance, Miku will also be receiving a concert at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo, Japan this September.
May13
Lily makes debut as retail camera drone
2015 at 11:08 am by admin | Comments Off
Meet Lily, the latest in autonomous drone technology ready to hit shelves around the world! Lily, which began as a hobby project at a UC Berkeley robotics lab in 2013, strives to take homemade photography and cinematography to the next level by offering a completely user-free experience; just throw Lily into the air to activate it, and it will autonomously record your every move! The drone follows its user through the use of a tracking device, which also allows Lily to be programmed to take photos and videos in various modes and tracking positions. Through specially designed optics, Lily is able to take 1080p high definition videos, and can even take 12 megapixel still photos and slow-motion video! Lily is also waterproof, allowing use of the drone in a wide variety of environments and situations. Lily, which is scheduled to release in February 2016, is currently available for pre-order for $499.
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