Design and animation studio Laundry has signed independent rep firm Reber Covington for West Coast commercial representation. The Reber Covington team consists of Brooke Covington, Rebecca Reber and Andrea Uzcategui-Levy. L.A.-based Laundry was launched in 2005 by partners/executive creative directors PJ Richardson and Anthony Liu. James Sweigert is Laundry’s managing director…..
DP John Baker has joined Innovative Artists for representation in commercials. He has worked with production companies World War Seven, Bonfire Labs and Slim Pictures, among many others…
Also new to the Innovative Artists roster is production designer Spencer Graves who will be handled for commercials and music videos. Graves won the 2017 MTV VMA for best production design for Kendrick Lamar’s Humble music video….
Vatican, Microsoft Create AI-Generated St. Peter’s Basilica–For In-Person and Virtual Visitors
The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world's most important monument's while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems. Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica, the digital replica is going online alongside two new on-site exhibits to provide visitors -- real and virtual -- with an interactive experience. "It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued," Microsoft's president Brad Smith told a Vatican press conference. The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee, a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica's Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day. "Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house," Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project's development teams at an audience Monday. The digital platform allows visitors to reserve entry times to the basilica, a novelty for one of the world's most visited monuments that regularly has an hours-long line of tourists waiting to get in. But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to "visit" the church and learn about its history. The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data — enough to fill five million DVDs — Smith said. The images have already identified structural... Read More