As the Pokémon UNITE fourth anniversary celebration continues, Latias is making its way to Aeos Island as the latest Pokémon to join the fray! This Dragon- and Psychic-type Pokémon is something of a counterpart to Latios and is ready to rain a flurry of mist down on the battlefield. Read all about how Latias uses its speed to create an advantage for its teammates.
Ability: Levitate
When Latias uses a move, its movement speed increases for a short time. Similarly, when Latios is nearby, Latias’s movement speed increases. When Latios is on the same team as Latias, Latias can fly to Latios.
Levitate can only be used when Latias is not in combat, and it goes on cooldown after it’s triggered.
Basic Attack
Latias’s basic attack deals damage to opposing Pokémon.
Choose One
Confusion
Latias releases a weak telekinetic force in the designated direction, dealing damage and applying a slowing effect to opposing Pokémon it hits.
Swift
Latias shoots star-shaped rays across a large area in the designated direction, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon it hits.
Choose One
Dragon Pulse
After Latias learns Dragon Pulse, it gains Eon power whenever it defeats wild Pokémon. Latias generates a beam in the designated direction, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon it hits and restoring Latias’s HP. If Latias hits a Pokémon from the opposing team with Dragon Pulse, Latias gains Eon power. Dragon Pulse also releases telekinetic projectiles, which deal damage. The more Eon power Latias has accumulated, the more projectiles are released and the more damage they deal.
If Dragon Pulse is upgraded, its beam also applies a slowing effect to opposing Pokémon.
Dragon Breath
After Latias learns Dragon Breath, it gains Eon power whenever it defeats wild Pokémon. Latias exhales a mighty gust in the designated direction, dealing damage to opposing Pokémon it hits and decreasing their Sp. Def. If Dragon Breath hits Pokémon on the opposing team, Latias gains Eon power. The more Eon power Latias has accumulated, the greater Dragon Breath’s attack range and damage.
If Dragon Breath is upgraded, it also applies a slowing effect.
Choose One
Mist Ball
Latias releases a mist-like flurry of down in the designated direction. After a set amount of time passes, or if Mist Ball is used again, the flurry of down bursts, creating a zone of mist. Opposing Pokémon in the zone take damage, receive a slowing effect, and are marked. Marked opposing Pokémon deal decreased damage. If either Latias or Latios deals damage to marked Pokémon, the duration those Pokémon remain marked increases.
Mist Ball can be upgraded to increase the duration opposing Pokémon remain marked.
Dragon Cheer
Latias rallies the designated ally Pokémon, granting itself and that Pokémon a shield. If the rallied ally Pokémon is Latios, movement speed is also increased. The rallied ally Pokémon’s next attack deals additional damage. Dragon Cheer can be used again to rally a second designated ally Pokémon. If this second usage rallies the same ally Pokémon as the first, Latias also flies to that Pokémon and rallies itself.
Dragon Cheer can be upgraded to strengthen the effect of the shield it grants.
Mist Blast
Latias aims at the designated Pokémon from the opposing team and charges power before releasing a pulse, dealing damage. Latias’s move cooldowns immediately reset and are reduced for a short time. If Latios is also aiming its Unite Move at the designated Pokémon from the opposing team, the pulses stack and explode, dealing damage around the target as well.
Trainers can add Latias’s Unite license to their collection from Friday, August 8, 2025, at 12:00 a.m. PDT to Thursday, September 4, 2025, at 4:59 p.m. PDT. During this time, you’ll obtain one free die each day that you can roll to advance a number of squares along a map. Complete a tile mission for the square you land on, and you’ll be able to roll another die. Collect plenty of coins to exchange for Latias’s Unite license!
Princess Beatrice‘s birthday is extra special this year. King Charles‘ niece turned 37 on Aug. 8. Friday marks the royal’s first birthday since welcoming her second daughter, Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi.
Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s second child together was born prematurely in January at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. “Athena arrived healthy, a few weeks before her due date. She was so tiny it took more than a few weeks for the tears of relief to dry and for life with our healthy baby to feel real. Her feet were so small – almost the same size as the paws on one of my older daughter’s soft bunnies,” the Princess later shared in a personal essay for Vogue.
Beatrice additionally shares daughter Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi with Edo, who is also a father to son Christopher “Wolfie” Woolf from a previous relationship. Following Athena’s birth, the dad of three gushed on Instagram, “We are all (including Wolfie and Sienna) already completely besotted with her.”
Sienna will celebrate her first birthday since becoming a big sister next month. The couple’s older daughter will turn 4 years old on Sept. 18.
Sisters Sienna and Athena were spotted out with their parents and big brother last month as they joined the crowds lining The Mall in London for the Lionesses’ homecoming victory parade. Over a week before their family outing, Beatrice and Edo celebrated five years of marriage. The CEO and founder of Banda Property commemorated their fifth wedding anniversary on July 17 with a makeup-free photo of Beatrice and himself on a beach in Scotland.
“Happy 5th Anniversary to my incredible partner, the most beautiful and amazing wife,” Edo wrote alongside the picture. “I cherish every moment we’ve spent together and am deeply grateful for our journey. Here’s to countless more years filled with laughter and tons of love! 🩷.”
Princess Beatrice is Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson‘s elder daughter. The mom of two is currently ninth in line to the throne, while her daughters are tenth and eleventh, respectively.
The official second LP from Ethel Cain is here (the previous Perverts has since been categorized as “other studio recordings”) it’s a spiritual offering chocked full of beauty, melancholy and themes of love and loss. The record shows growth artistically, sonically and continues the Ethel Cain storyline perfectly.
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You combines the grandiose scope of Cains debut, Preachers Daughter with some of the more experimental aspects that populated Perverts to make a solid album. For example, the track “F**k Me Eyes” balances lush synthesizers with the story of a woman growing up in small town America and the tribulations that come with it. It’s an epic track that is best enjoyed on a good sound system.
Anthony Scanga
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Iowa Public Radio
Ethel Cain at Hinterland 2024
The album has a few instrumental interludes spread throughout that evoke rural spaces — a backcountry road, a sprawling open field, driving a pickup truck in the middle of the night to outrun inescapable problems. Those interludes worked well on Perverts, but here add a different layer of “secret sauce” to the overall listening journey. If you choose to skip them, you’re doing yourself a disservice of the overall journey of the album.
Slow burns are prevalent on this album, but stick with them. Many of the tracks crescendo into full-blown band showcases, with Cain giving impressive vocal performances throughout. See “Dust Bowl,” “Nettles” and “Tempest” for prime examples of this.
Chances are, if you’re already an Ethel Cain fan you’re going to really like this release. If you don’t know who Ethel Cain is but are a fan of the works of Mazzy Star, Phoebe Bridgers or Lana Del Rey give this record a listen, you might find a new favorite artist.
When Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You comes to an end with “Waco, Texas,” it’s a high note and is sure to bring tears to your eyes. This was my favorite track on the album. It’s a very beautiful piece of songwriting to end a melancholy album.
Ethel Cain, AKA Hayden Anhedönia, has shared that this will be her last record under the “Ethel Cain” persona and that she now has to “go out and get more life experience.” If this is the end of Ethel Cain, it was a journey worth taking and one worth revisiting. Where will Anhedönia go from here? Only time will tell.
The trophy was named in remembrance of Medhi Narjissi, a member of France’s U18 squad in 2024, who was tragically swept out to sea during a recovery session at Cape Point last year, as SA Rugby and the participating teams paid tribute to the French player.
The South African pack laid a brilliant platform with their strong scrum, which gave the backs space to launch wave after wave of direct attacks, tiring out the French defence.
But it wasn’t one-way traffic – after conceding an early maul try to Chinedu Amadi (flanker), the visitors hit back and set up camp in the South African half, only to be kept out by great defence from the men in green and gold.
Even when Kai Pratt (prop) was sin-binned, the hosts managed to keep France at bay and when they finally made it back into the visitors’ half of the field, they struck immediately when Gert Kemp (No 8) crashed over to make it 14-0 after 25 minutes.
Amadi added his second try five minutes later, again from a lineout drive, and when Liyema Nela added a penalty goal to his first three conversions, it was 24-0 with four minutes left in the half.
That soon changed to 31-0 when SA U18 captain and centre Markus Muller crashed over, with Nela again on target with his fifth consecutive shot at goal, giving the hosts a big 31-0 lead at the break.
Jadriaan Afrikaneron the attack.
France came out of the changerooms recharged and three minutes into the half, Auguste Albuisson (No 8) scored a classic try off the back of an attacking scrum for their first points.
But the SA Bomb Squad that came on seven minutes later immediately delivered when Jacobus de Villiers was driven over from an attacking lineout that came from yet another scrum penalty against the visitors.
The French hit back with a good try by Christian Mendes Tani (lock) from a quick tap penalty, but the SA U18s added their sixth try when Junaide Stuart went over after they showed some patience on attack in the visitors’ 22.
With time running out, Mendes Tani scored his second try late in the game to make it 43-21, which gave the French some respite in a game in which they were put under immense pressure for most of the 70 minutes.
In the first game of the day, Ireland edged the SA U18 ‘A’ team by 36-33 after a penalty goal with a minute left on the clock, while a fired-up Georgia beat England by 35-31 in the second game.
Scorers:
SA U18 43 (31) – Tries: Chinedu Amadi (2), Gert Kemp, Markus Muller, Jacobus de Villiers, Junaide Stuart. Conversions: Liyema Nela (4), Ruben Groenewald. Penalty goal: Nela.
France 21 (0) – Tries: Auguste Albuisson, Christian Mendes Tani (2). Conversions: Timeo Gillouin-Lemaire, Valentin Bouju (2).
We want to hear from families in the US. As the new school year approaches, have you noticed rises in the cost of back-to-school items? How have prices changed recently? What has been the effect on your family?
Since taking office in January, Donald Trump’s tariff policies have upended trading relationships, rattled global markets and stoked fears of inflation.
The latest wave of the president’s tariffs came into force on 8 August – and more than 60 countries around the world are scrambling to respond. The US is still threatening major tariffs on China, and other major foreign suppliers of US goods are already working out how to pass on the costs of the levies.
Business leaders have warned that Trump’s high, volatile tariffs will force companies to raise US consumer prices. Tariffs are already affecting prices at retailers including Walmart and Best Buy. How has the cost of getting ready for school affected you?
Share your experience
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PTI’s Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan and Opposition Leader in the Senate Shibli Faraz, were removed from their seats, according to notifications by the respective houses’ secretariats that came to light on Friday.
On Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had disqualified the Senate and National Assembly opposition leaders, Sunni Ittehad Council chief Hamid Raza and other PTI lawmakers following their convictions in cases related to the May 9 riots.
According to the notification by the National Assembly Secretariat dated August 7, “ Consequent upon disqualification and de-notification of Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan from being a member of the National Assembly (NA-18 Haripur) under Article 63 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan … the office of the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly has become vacant with effect from August 5th, 2025.“
A similar notification for Faraz was issued by the Senate Secretariat: “Consequent upon disqualification and de-notification of Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, from being a member of the Senate under Article 63 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan … the office of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate has become vacant with effect from 5th August”.
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday halted ECP from taking any action against PTI leaders Faraz and Ayub.
A notification from the ECP had said Faraz, Ayub, Kharal, Raza, MNA Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan, Gul, MPA Muhammad Ansar Iqbal, MPA Junaid Afzal Sahi and MPA Rai Muhammad Murtaza Iqbal were now disqualified under Article 63(1h) (a person shall be disqualified from being elected [if] … he has been, on conviction for any offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years) of the Constitution and their seats were vacant.
On May 9, 2023, PTI supporters, protesting the party founder Imran Khan’s arrest, staged violent protests throughout the country, vandalising military installations and state-owned buildings, while also attacking the Lahore corps commander’s residence. Following the riots, thousands of protesters, including party leaders, were arrested.
Last month, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad sentenced over 100 leaders and workers of the PTI, including several key opposition figures, to jail terms of up to 10 years in connection with the May 9 riots.
NA Opposition Leader Khan, Senate Opposition Leader Faraz, MNA Zartaj Gul, Raza, Sheikh Rashid Shafique (nephew of former interior minister Sheikh Rashid), Kanwal Shauzab, Farah Agha, Rai Haider Kharal and Muhammad Ahmad Chattha were among those sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Ayub had lambasted the ATC’s “bogus verdict” in a post on X, saying that he would contest it and the ECP’s disqualification in court.
He also posted a video of himself at the Peshawar High Court with other PTI leaders and lawyers, saying the court had given him a few days and bail would be granted to him on filing his appeal.
The ECP disqualification followed other recent disqualifications of PTI leaders and lawmakers.
On July 29, the ECP had disqualified MNA Abdul Latif from the NA-1 constituency (Upper and Lower Chitral), raising questions over the haste with which a flurry of similar decisions were taken in recent days.
On July 28, the commission had disqualified Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, MNA Mohammad Ahmed Chatta and MPA Ahmad Khan.
On December 21 and 26 last year, a military court had sentenced over 50 PTI leaders and activists, including Imran Khan’s nephew Hassaan Niazi, to up to 10 years for their involvement in the May 9 riots.
The ATCs have been hearing May 9-related cases daily to meet a deadline set by the Supreme Court for the conclusion of trials by August.
ILM visual effects supervisors Mohen Leo and Scott Pritchard, along with members of their talented crew, discuss the process behind building the TIE Avenger as it journeyed from concept to screen.
By Jay Stobie
(Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
For many Star Wars enthusiasts, the word “avenger” conjures up images of Captain Needa’s Imperial Star Destroyer Avenger, the TIE Avenger starfighter featured in Lucasfilm Games’s Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994) video game, or even Marvel’s prestigious superhero collective. The second season of Andor (2022-2025) has now pushed its own TIE Avenger to the forefront of that list, as the epic series chronicled Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) theft of the prototype craft from a Sienar Fleet Systems test facility. Outfitted with advanced armaments and a hyperdrive, the TIE Avenger transported Cassian to Yavin 4 before playing a key role in rescuing Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) and Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Ben Amor) from Imperial forces on Mina-Rau.
Industrial Light & Magic’s Mohen Leo, whose resume boasts projects like Ant-Man (2015), The Martian (2015), and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), served as Andor’s production visual effects supervisor for both seasons of the series, while ILM visual effects supervisor Scott Pritchard (Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015], Avengers: Infinity War [2018], Avengers: Endgame [2019]) oversaw the creative output of the work across ILM’s global studios in London, Vancouver, and Mumbai. Leo and Pritchard gathered alongside CG supervisor Laurent Hugueniot, modeler Owen Rachel, texture artist Emma Ellul, look development artist Renato Suetake, animation supervisor Mathieu Vig, and compositing supervisor Claudio Bassi to chart the TIE Avenger’s course from conceptualization to the completed sequences seen in season two.
Constructing the Concept
The TIE Avenger prototype is first unveiled at the beginning of season two, resting in its Sienar hangar bay before being commandeered by Cassian and embarking on a dramatic escape. “The idea for the opening sequence began with [showrunner] Tony Gilroy wanting to start season two off with a big, classic Star Wars action sequence,” Mohen Leo tells ILM.com. “That initially came out of an outline that Tony gave us in 2022. Early on, a big story point became that Cassian doesn’t know how to fly it, so the Avenger had to have completely unfamiliar controls, and the interior had to look different from any TIE fighter or ship that you’ve ever seen before.”
When it came to the Avenger’s look and layout, Leo worked closely with production designer Luke Hull. “Luke explored various prototype airplanes, and then we played around with the idea of what the ship needed to do in terms of the chase sequence. We wanted something that wasn’t just a dogfight. If he immediately jumps in and it’s just a chase, it’d be difficult to do something original with that,” adds Leo. “Luke had already decided to build a full-sized practical TIE Avenger. As far as its physical construction, the wings were inspired a bit by the TIE interceptor.” While Andor’s Avenger shares a name with the craft from the TIE Fighter game, it maintains its own design lineage. “I don’t think the previous ship was a strong influence,” Leo begins. “When we were designing our Avenger, how the ship functioned became something Luke and I reverse-engineered based on what we wanted the ship to do. That dictated the look.
(Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
“I put together a pitch deck for the Avenger before we got into previs when the directors weren’t even on yet,” Leo continues. “I wanted to make sure that the ship and the weaponry, in particular, were based on real weapons and felt both dangerous and aggressive. The team based the TIE’s fold-out Gatling-like cannons on the United States military’s M61 Vulcan rotary cannon. Hull wanted the Sienar base itself to feel like a Skunk Works test facility or NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“It was a back-and-forth between previs and Luke Hull and the art department in terms of the ship’s design,” Leo notes. “We’d say, ‘We need guns that fold out,’ and then Luke would go, ‘Let me see where we can fit those in.’ It was almost as much driven by the necessity of the functionality as it was by the aesthetics.” Once the additional armaments, including external launchers and a powerful cannon below the cockpit, were set, the team pitched the action sequence to Tony Gilroy. “We blocked the whole sequence with a temp model, and Tony generally really liked it.”
Assembling the Avenger
“As the studio-side visual effects supervisor, I was involved in pre-production through to the end,” Leo shares. “I also guided the previs development with The Third Floor’s Jennifer Kitching and collaborated with Luke Hull on how we would make the practical build service what we needed to do in the visual effects sequence.” The creative dialogue between the ILM visual effects team and the production designer was vital in ensuring that the computer graphics (CG) starfighter built by ILM would be identical to the full-sized practical ship that was constructed to be used on the Sienar hangar, Yavin 4, and Mina-Rau sets.
“Because we had a practical version of the Avenger during the shoot, we were able to scan that and provide lots of references,” Leo details. As such, the full-scale Avenger proved beneficial for Owen Rachel, the ILM modeler responsible for building the CG Avenger. “My job was to take [the practical model] and replicate it as a digital version. There wasn’t much design work that we had to do other than replace some structural bits, like the Gatling guns as they come down,” Rachel outlines. “We did have to create the laser cannon that comes out from underneath the cockpit. It’s an intricate design because it’s both delicate and powerful at the same time. It felt a bit like the inside of a watch,” recalls CG supervisor Laurent Hugueniot, who was in charge of the team’s 3D output.
The practical TIE Avenger prop on set at Pinewood Studios (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
Texture artist Emma Ellul tackled the job of texturing the TIE Avenger. “We had great reference images, which was super helpful. I tried to focus on real-life objects, too, such as stealth planes. They’re quite smooth and angular, and I’d see how specularity affects the metal. Not every sheet of metal is made the same, so it has a slightly different bend or warping to it. I incorporated that, especially on the paneling on the outside of the wings,” Ellul relays. “There were a lot of nooks and crannies to look at and a lot of small decals everywhere, which I had to match one-to-one with the practical model. It was an awesome asset to texture. Who doesn’t want to texture a TIE fighter? And then I had to destroy it and chuck laser blasts all over it [laughs].”
Look development on the Avenger was handled by Renato Suetake, who asserts, “As a look dev artist, I get the model and textures so I can put them together and make the shaders. I make sure the shaders and materials react precisely like the reference we have in any situation or lighting condition. Certain shots jumped between the prop filmed on set and the CG version, so the digital Avenger had to be identical. At the same time, because the prop wasn’t made of metal, we still had to make it believable as an actual spaceship that flies.” From the Avenger’s weapons to the hangar explosions to the collapsing ice arch, Leo also credits the effects artists who contributed to the sequence, revealing, “In general, all of those things are just massive, complex simulation work.”
Pairing Computer Graphics and Practical Effects
As Andor’s ILM visual effects supervisor, Scott Pritchard helmed his team at ILM’s London studio, while coordinating the work at ILM’s studios in Vancouver and Mumbai. When it came to the Avenger’s breakout from the Sienar hangar, Pritchard observes that the production sought to use the “best tool for the job,” often pairing ILM’s CG expertise alongside special effects supervisor Luke Murphy’s practical effects. Highlighting a shot where an Imperial range trooper takes aim at the Avenger, Pritchard beams, “There’s a huge staged explosion along the back wall that was done by hanging a line of charges. They explode in sequence, so they explode outwards from the center. That in itself is impressive because it gives us some great visual reference to go on and actual practical elements to incorporate into the final comp.
(Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
“There’s a significant amount of work involved in painting out the actual charges and all the little fragments that get blown off properly, as well. It gives you such a great base to work off when you’re putting together a shot like that,” continues Pritchard, who then shifts focus to the Avenger’s weapons blasting through the hangar. “A lot of these explosions are practical, but we’ve enhanced them by adding sparks and additional explosions in CG. Making all this work seamlessly is a great testament to the comp and effects team.”
Compositing supervisor Claudio Bassi concurs, believing that the practical effects supplied ILM with valuable reference for lighting purposes. Bassi also states that, despite the presence of the practical Avenger, the TIE’s wings during Niya’s (Rachelle Diedericks) inspection are actually CG. “The hangar set didn’t have a roof, so we often replaced the wings as it was easier to integrate the CG roof.” Although the hangar set was extremely large, Pritchard highlights the fact that ILM had to extend the hangar to an even greater width, and the entirety of the front section that opens toward the snowy exterior is also CG.
Maintaining a Match
Of course, having both a practical and digital Avenger presented its own challenges when it came to assuring that the details matched, particularly regarding how much damage the CG version sustained at Sienar in comparison to the practical model that was filmed on the Yavin 4 set. “Working with the art department, we knew that the Avenger had gone through the dogfight at Sienar base and should have scorch marks where lasers had hit it,” Leo remembers. “We counted the number of rockets it fired in the first sequence because there’s no way for him to restock in space. We took four specific missiles off the practical build, which we then reversed in digital effects to choose the four that he fires in the opening sequence.”
Hugueniot emphasizes that the same held true for the havoc wrought upon the Sienar hangar itself, commenting, “Not all shots are worked on one after another in story order. There’s a big job of keeping track of what’s going on in every shot. All the scorch marks on the walls, everything that’s been knocked down from the ceiling, and which lights are working in each shot. That was quite a job [laughs].” Bassi agrees, divulging, “We kept track of the marks where the Avenger scratched the floor and which lights broke, and we had a system to recognize them in shot order.”
(Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
That level of realism was reflected in animation supervisor Mathieu Vig’s mission to make the Avenger look “heavy and dangerous, and as if it’s made of metal, not just pixels.” Having the Avenger scrape along the deck helped achieve this. “We’re used to seeing them [TIE fighters] flying very gracefully,” Vig explains. “Usually, we don’t animate them bumping around, so setting the weight is harder than you might think. In a hangar setting, there are so many physical elements to consider, such as the actor in the cockpit doing specific movements that we have to take into account. All of this is a carefully interlocking puzzle.”
Diving Into the Details
While analyzing the projectiles under the practical Avenger’s wings to model them for its digital counterpart, Owen Rachel recognized an intriguing connection. “When we were trying to work out how the missiles fire, we realized the design on the set was similar to those seen in Star Wars: A New Hope [1977], as they go into the exhaust port on the Death Star,” conveys Rachel. As it turns out, the design was a one-to-one match, so Rachel subsequently modeled the Avenger’s projectiles after the proton torpedoes that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) fired at the first Death Star. Effort was also invested in preventing the Avenger’s Gatling-style spray of laser fire from appearing as though it simply hovered in mid-air. “We gave them a bit of an offset and some randomness in both their position in the stream and in their x- and y-axis, so we could get more chaos into that stream,” Pritchard elaborates.
Even the red light that flashes along with the hangar’s klaxon alarm was not nearly as simple as one might assume. ILM had to maintain a perfect rhythm between the flashing lights and klaxon, occasionally analyzing where the visual effects team needed to extend or shift the red light so it all remained in sync. “Compositing is basically the last step in the visual effects pipeline that ensures that all elements are integrated and the CG matches with the plate that has been shot on set,” describes Bassi, who worked alongside Pritchard to successfully pitch the idea that the overall light energy of the hangar would get progressively darker and moodier as the Avenger knocked lights off the ceiling.
A live-action plate (top) was captured on the set with practical explosion elements, which were later integrated with ILM’s work (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
Matching the interior views of the practical and CG Avenger cockpits proved to be another challenge. “ILM’s Vancouver studio did a hologram of Cassian in season one that was absolutely fantastic and so lifelike. We reused that for Cassian’s head,” Hugueniot recounts. Filming Diego Luna in the practical cockpit occurred toward the end of the shoot, as Leo clarifies, “That was the very last thing we shot on the whole project—Diego in a motion base cockpit that we could move around and rattle. I think Diego had a really good time shooting those bits [laughs].”
In Awe of the Avenger
With season two now streaming on Disney+, the visual effects team has been able to view the completed episodes and finally share their work on the TIE Avenger prototype with the world. “I couldn’t even tell which Avenger was CG and which wasn’t,” laughs Emma Ellul, referring to the Sienar sequence. “The blend between the hangar, the ship taking off, and the chaos unfolding is so seamless. It was such an exciting bit to watch.”
The audience’s overwhelmingly positive response to the opening scenes has been equally uplifting for ILM, as the sequence fulfilled what the team set out to do. “When we were talking in previs, part of the idea was that it should feel breathless. Every time Cassian has solved one problem, the next problem comes up. There should never be a moment for him to relax until it’s over,” says Mohen Leo, who praises the sound design provided by Skywalker Sound. “One of the things that always happens after we’re done but makes such an impact is the sound. The sound that Skywalker put to the engines, weapons, and all of that makes such a huge difference.”
The TIE Avenger’s action-packed escape consists of a relatively small amount of screen time—but as Leo and his team have outlined, ILM imbued each facet of the Avenger and its accompanying environments with an extraordinary amount of time, energy, and expertise. So, the next time you rewatch Andor, don’t be afraid to press pause amidst the thrilling moments and soak up the wonders that ILM worked to allow the Avenger to ascend to the stars.
Discover more about the visual effects of Andor on ILM.com:
“Like Eating an Elephant One Bite at a Time”: TJ Falls and Mohen Leo on the Visual Effects of ‘Andor’ Season 2
“Let the Experts Be the Experts”: TJ Falls and Mohen Leo on the Visual Effects of ‘Andor’ Season 2
Read more about the making of Andor on StarWars.com.
—
Jay Stobie (he/him) is a writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to ILM.com, Skysound.com, Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Trek Explorer, Star Trek Magazine, and StarTrek.com. Jay loves sci-fi, fantasy, and film, and you can learn more about him by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.
Azlan Shah and Dr Warisha Javed Khan are two popular Pakistani Digital media influencers with a strong social media following. The adorable couple got married in 2022 and their wedding also trended on social media. The couple is now blessed with an adorable daughter. Azlan Shah is known for his love for the wild animals. Dr Warisha Javed Khan is a dentist by profession and she rose to fame because of her uncanny resemblance with Sadaf Kanwal.
Recently, the couple made appearance in Good Morning Pakistan, hosted by Nida Yasir. In the show, they opened about their wedding event which was crashed by uninvited guests.
Talking about it, Dr. Warisha and Azlan Shah said, “We saw a huge number of guests at our wedding..I asked Warisha if she knows about those guests but she didn’t know about them. We asked each other because the number of guests at the event was more than the expected list, and people kept coming uninvited. It happened because our wedding card was leaked online. We invited 350 people, but there were more than 600 attendees. People were literally sitting on the floor, but thanks to Allah, the food was sufficient.”
Warisha also added, “My sister came to me on stage and informed me that uninvited guests had crashed the event.”
In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Arndt Vogel, MD, managing senior consultant and professor in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology at Hannover Medical School, discusses the clinical use of zanidatamab in biliary tract cancer (BTC), highlighting the importance of patient profiling, the specific biomarker requirements for treatment, and the unique mechanism of action of the drug.
To be effective with targeted therapies like zanidatamab, a critical first step is to accurately profile patients for specific genetic alterations. For zanidatamab, the key biomarker is HER2 overexpression. While this overexpression is often caused by genetic amplifications, a crucial component of patient selection involves immunohistochemistry (IHC). Vogel emphasizes the necessity of a 3+ HER2 overexpression score via IHC for these HER2-directed therapies to be clinically effective in BTC. This requirement is distinct from other cancer types, such as breast cancer, where patients with lower HER2 expression may also derive benefit from HER2-targeted agents. In BTC, the clinical data appears to strongly favor a high level of HER2 expression for optimal therapeutic response.
Zanidatamab is a specialized type of antibody. While other HER2-targeted drugs include monoclonal antibodies like trastuzumab and TKIs, zanidatamab’s design offers a unique advantage. TKIs, which block the receptor from within the cell, have not shown the same level of efficacy as antibody-based therapies in this context.
Zanidatamab is a bispecific antibody that binds to 2 distinct HER2 molecules simultaneously, effectively cross-linking the receptors on the cell surface. This innovative mechanism of action appears to be highly effective at inhibiting the HER2 signaling pathway. By cross-linking the HER2 receptors, zanidatamab not only blocks downstream signaling that promotes cell growth and survival but may also induce immunogenic cell death, a process that triggers an anti-tumor immune response. While a direct head-to-head comparison with trastuzumab alone is challenging, the efficacy data for zanidatamab in BTC is compelling, suggesting its bispecific nature provides a potent therapeutic effect. This novel approach represents a significant advancement in targeting HER2-positive BTC, offering a promising new avenue for treatment.
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