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n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 c g w 1 3 F E A T U R E it came to the visual effects, of which there are 1,800. They center on Wonder Woman's powers, bracelets, and lasso. There are plenty of face replacements and then, later, digital takeovers on some of the extreme stunts and action. Effects artists also craed wonderful environments, including Wonder Woman's home island. In addition, artists augmented a number of other landscapes. The third act contains fully digital locations and green- screen shots for a big battle scene. ANIMATION Cars 3 Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures June 16, 2017 Lightening McQueen is back in this third installment that finds the race car trying to regain his edge. The movie takes McQueen on a road trip back to the past, but the film is all about the future – for Lightening Mc- Queen and of lighting and effects at Pixar. Here, lighting and VFX artists worked with Pixar's RenderMan RIS to create compelling scenes in this colorful, fast-moving film. Coco Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures November 22, 2017 Despite his family's baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together they set off on an extraordi- nary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history. The animation is ab- solutely stunning and breathtaking, detailed in the feature on page 4. Despicable Me 3 Illumination, Universal Pictures June 30, 2017 In this sequel to the popular series, reformed villain Gru meets his long-lost brother Dru, and they embark on some villainous activity albeit with good intentions. Gru uses some of his father's cool inventions while he shows Dru the mastery of villainy, as he tries to capture the latest bad guy, the former child star Balthazar Bratt. For the animation, Illumination stepped up its game, delivering a film that has improved characters that remain visually familiar to fans. Ferdinand Illumination, Universal Pictures December 15, 2017 Under the direction of Director Carlos Saldanha, Blue Sky artists stepped into the ring to deliver a rich animation that captures the look and feel of Spain, with a character whose performance is outstanding. The stu- dio revamped its Studio tool and performed full radiosity, resulting in a painterly feel that retains all important detail. Loving Vincent BreakThru Productions, Good Deed Entertainment September 22, 2017 There is no question. This is a unique film. It's an animated exploration of Vincent van Gogh's last days using the artist's own paint- ings. To create the 90-minute film, painters produced 65,000 oil paintings on canvas, representations of landscapes and portraits van Gogh created during his last years. Artists repositioned brushstrokes in one painting when creating the next; they were then pho- tographed and retouched using CG soware. That is the simple explanation; the process was far more involved and complicated. • • • Two animated films from Gkids are getting some buzz, too. One is Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, a Spanish film directed by Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero, based on Vazquez's post-apoca- lyptic graphic novel and 2011 short film. The feature, set for a December 2017 release in the US, tells the dismal story of some children living on an isolated island in the middle of the sea, ruined aer a nuclear power plant disaster. The other is The Breadwinner, from Nora Twomey. It is an Irish-Canadian co-production about an Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family. It is set for release November 17, 2017. Other animated features that could find their way onto various initial lists: Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony Pictures Anima- tion, Columbia Pictures), The Boss Baby (DreamWorks Animation, Twentieth Cen- tury Fox), The Emoji Movie (Sony Pictures Animation, Columbia Pictures), and The LEGO Batman Movie (DC Entertainment, Warner Bros.).