Ex'pression, a digital arts school located in California's Bay Area, has given several of its Digital Graphics Design students the chance to apply the knowledge gained in classes to a real world situation when they were selected by Tech TV to create a station ID for the technology channel. Using applications including Maya and After Effects, the students created the 10-second long bumper, called "Marble Madness," which shows the Tech TV logo elements (silver and red balls) becoming marbles.

Curious Pictures has once again teamed up with Nickelodeon, this time to create the packaging for the new cartoon block "Nicktoons," currently running every Friday night from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The project includes the opening for the hour program, along with 19 bumpers, 5 intros and 5 credit crunches that will rotate during the block each week. The spots feature Nick’s cartoon personalities goofing around in the production studio, while reminding the viewers that they’re watching Nicktoons.

The crew at guru animation studio in Toronto was recently presented a Silver Promax/BDA award for their work on 3 of 15 "very, very short films" for Canada's YTV network. Begun in July 2001, the spots were commissioned for YTV's 2001 fall branding campaign. The 3 1/2 second spots feature various characters, each of whom convey an abstract emotion, a weird concept or just a simple visceral pleasure.

Hollywood,
California-based production company Super 78 recently completed an
extensive graphics and animation package for the pilot of
reality-based show TAKE 2: LIVING THE MOVIES, airing on the USA
Network. The premise of the show is to assemble a cast of ordinary
people to recreate some of the most life-threatening,
adrenaline-pumping and outrageous scenes from well-known movies. For
this unique program, Super 78 designed and created animation that
illustrates the action for the benefit of the viewing audience.

MTV Animation alum Chris Prynoski went back to his roots by once again creating a stylish opening sequence for the 2002 MTV Movie Awards. The show was produced by Austin Reading and executive produced by Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet. MTV commissioned Prynoski and his company, Titmouse Inc., to produce this year's Awards Show open after Titmouse delivered a successful graphics package for last year's show.

If you visited the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) in Los Angeles May 22-24, 2002, you may have come upon ComputerCafé's CGI cinematic presentations created for the debut of two of Electronic Arts' (EA) new videogames, COMMAND AND CONQUER GENERALS and EARTH AND BEYOND. For the massively multiplayer online adventure game EARTH AND BEYOND, ComputerCafé created 18 realistic CGI scenes of planetary exploration as seen through the eyes of the character Dewinter.

Film Roman Commercials and Special Projects division has produced animated opening title sequences, interstitials and several commercials promoting "Night Out On Sho Too," a Wednesday night program block featuring gay-themed movies, original series and specials. The animated spots, which are currently airing on Showtime, bring to life the characters featured in the retro, "tiki-lounge" style paintings by California-based artist Shag.

Estonian animation studio A Film Estonia has recently completed the production of two animated "postcards" for the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which will be held on May 25, 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia. The postcards will be seen as two of the many interstitials shown between the competing songs during the European broadcast of ESC. The aim is to introduce different aspects of the host country.

The New York Times calls it "an odd amalgam of OZZIE AND HARRIET, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES and THIS IS SPINAL TAP," and after being on air less than a month it's MTV's biggest hit in over two decades. It can only be THE OSBOURNES, the reality sitcom about former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne and his family. To create the introductory graphics for the series starring the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness, THE OSBOURNES executive producers called on the new broadcast design division of Klasky Csupo.

The program names alone are enough to inspire a bounty of images: MTV’s ASS KICKING CHICKS and WHAT A GUY WANTS are two new projects to come from the creative team at digital content studio Super-Fi. Led by creative director Daniel Garcia and executive producer John Yuiska, the projects were fun adventures that afforded the Super-Fi team a great deal of creative freedom.