Gnomon School of Visual Effects and Pixologic will be hosting the first official Pixologic ZBrush User Group meeting, Sept. 30, 2004, at 6:00 pm at Gnomon (1015 N. Cahuenga Bl. Hollywood, CA 90038).

* Bay Raitt (Creature Facial Lead for Gollum and co-founder of Box Rocket) will discuss the strengths of ZBrush and its use in various production pipelines, i.e. Weta Digital, Valve Software.

Digital-Tutors announced the worldwide availability of the highly anticipated FUNDAMENTALS OF APPLE MOTION training kit - the latest release in a series of helpful training resources for Apple users and the motion graphic design and production industries. In more than 2.5 hours of step-by-step training methods, FUNDAMENTALS OF APPLE MOTION offers users the necessary foundation to rapidly develop and enhance new skills.

With Hurricane Frances bearing down on Florida, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center have developed a new satellite animation tool that provides detailed, near realtime movies of the hurricane as it approaches the Florida coast. The animation, available at www.ssec.wisc.edu/~rickk/frances.html, shows the massive storm sweeping across the Bahamas toward Florida. Updated every half-hour, the movie is produced from visible and infrared satellite imagery obtained from the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-12 satellite.

The Gnomon Workshop will offer two new Analog DVDs that will be available Sept. 15, 2004, produced in conjunction with Design Studio Press and with a new instructor, Yanick Duseault (Dusso) -- THE TECHNIQUES OF DUSSO, 1: INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING and THE TECHNIQUES OF DUSSO, 2: DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING FUNDAMENTALS. Both DVDs are priced at $69.

Digital-Tutors announced the availability of MAYA DYNAMICS: PARTICLES AND FIELDS training kit, with more than 218 minutes of instruction. Highlights include: creating particle emitters, working with cycle emission, emitting from surfaces, colliding particles with surfaces and driving particle simulations with texture maps.

The CG Academy has releases its latest training DVD series, AFTERBURN MASTERS SET. The three DVD set, created by Allan McKay, includes Afterburn Fundamentals with its exploration of the Afterburn system and includes many examples of how to achieve real world effects. For example, it explores a production level effect of a fireball blasting down the aisle of a passenger jet, and concludes in air strike with a focus on making an effect be as procedural as possible so it can be re-used with ease on new shots, crucial for those on a tight schedule. The set sells for $210.

Twelve young people, ages 8-12 will be able to animate public service announcements (PSAs) of their choosing at CAMP TELETOON in Vancouver, at a 10-day workshop, Aug. 23-Sept. 3, 2004. In a series of hands-on workshops, the youths will develop three broadcast-quality, animated PSAs for broadcast on the TELETOON Network starting in October 2004. This community-based initiative is a partnership program between Vancouver-based Arts Umbrella Scholarship Program, Canadian broadcaster TELETOON and Vancouver’s Studio B Productions.

NVIDIA Corp. and the USC School of Cinema-Television have formed a partnership that will provide students training on cutting-edge 3D graphics technology and the ability to graduate with the necessary skills to compete for highly sought-after positions in filmmaking, vfx and animation production, realtime content creation and other interactive industries.

UCLA Anderson School of Management has launched a new Entertainment and Media Management Institute, to expand and enhance its long-standing Entertainment Media Program. The new Institute in Los Angeles will bring together industry pros, MBA students and faculty researchers to exchange and embrace new ideas for managing and thriving in the face of transforming entertainment and media business models.

NewTek Inc. announced the LightWave [8] Training Edition, a special offer that provides more than $400 in training materials free to new LightWave 3D purchasers. By special arrangement with the publishers New Riders, Wordware Publishing and Kurv Studios, purchasers of new licenses of LightWave will be able to receive six books, four training videos and the DVD KAZE: GHOST WARRIOR, which includes extensive extras on how the independent CGI film was produced.