Curious Pictures, headquartered in New York, has signed director Brian Drucker whose background is as an animator and VFX artist. Drucker has worked at a number of top N.Y.-based motion graphics, animation and VFX houses, most recently Freestyle Collective.
He is already at work on his first Curious project, a animated sequence for a feature film being produced by Focus Features.
Drucker is a director/designer with an extensive animation resume that includes art direction, 3D animation/visual effects and compositing. He’s worked as a set designer for live action and theater, and as an exhibit/media designer for museums and live events. His film work combines his background in architecture, design, illustration and photography to create stylized environments and characters.
While at Freestyle Collective, which has since been merged into Nice Shoes, Drucker worked on projects for such brands and media properties as Office Depot, Syfy, Nickelodeon and Fuel TV. As a freelance designer he’s also worked at Rhino, Charlex, Tröllback, Psyop and Loyal Kaspar, among other studios.
“What I like most about Curious is that it’s able to tackle any animation aesthetic–from 3D to stop-motion to traditional to everything in between,” said Drucker. “They’re not afraid of experimenting, and I’m excited about that.”
While he’s had the opportunity to direct some projects prior to joining Curious, this move represents what he calls the next step in his growth as a director. “My goal is to integrate live action and stop motion into my 3D work in unexpected ways, and this is the perfect place from which to do that,” he related. “This is an opportunity for me to let people peer into my imagination, and I’m looking forward to that.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More