NVIDIA ups the ante at NVISION 08 by throwing down hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and hardware and giving you a chance to win part of the largest prize package in North America this year.

All you need to do for your chance to win is participate in one of NVISION's marquee consumer events: GeForce LAN and NVScene. And you can watch the best video game players in the world battle it out for their share of the prize money at the Electronic Sports World Cup. All this happens this August in San Jose, California.

After a 16-month run, virtual world content creator The Electric Sheep Company (ESC) and its critically acclaimed machinima animation division, previously ILL Clan, have restructured to operate as distinct business entities.

In its 13th annual appearance, fmx/08 once more lived up to its reputation. For four days, the conference on all things relevant to digital entertainment drew the international CG community to Stuttgart's Haus der Wirtschaft to inform themselves about the latest developments and -- more importantly -- to exchange ideas and experiences.

CBS drama CSI: NY and the Electric Sheep Company partnered to wrap up the Virtual World killer plot line in recent episode "DOA for a Day."

The first part of the episode titled, "Down The Rabbit Hole" originally aired, Wednesday, October 24.

In "DOA for a Day" the CSI's, working with an anonymous tip, travel to an abandoned warehouse and back into the virtual 3D computer world where they hope to find one of the city's most-wanted criminals.

Antics Technologies released Tuesday new premium content for users of Antics V3 BasePack, the recently-released free version of Antics' core 3D animation software.

Antics is a leading provider of real-time, point-and-click 3D animation software.

The free V3 BasePack, the entry-level option to the Antics product family, features increased functionality, enhanced ease of use and improves users' ability to import 3D content.

Aniboom (www.aniboom.com), the premier multi-platform animation network that partners with untapped animation talent from around the world to create independent animated content for global distribution, is holding its 2007 Aniboom Awards. Animators can enter work in five categories, with no limit to the number of categories or submissions per entrant. Categories include Funny, Drama, Music Videos, Amateur and Experimental. Each month for four months, one winner from each category will join the finalist pool. From there, a winner will be chosen from each category to compete for the grand prize. Prizes include a $25,000 original series development deal, $3,000 to each category winner, Toonboom Software (valued at $7,000) and exposure to some of the most renowned industry executives. The Aniboom Awards will be judged by entertainment executives and animation industry veterans, including multi-award-winning animator and Oscar nominee Paul Driessen. In 2006, the Annual Aniboom Awards received more than 1,700 entries from more than 70 countries in its inaugural year. Winner Jossie Malis took home $25,000 for his animation BENDITO MACHINE. Malis is working with the Aniboom Creators Studio to develop his original series, which is set to launch in 2008. For more information, visit www.aniboom.com.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2008, the first non-North American venue for a SIGGRAPH conference, to take place Dec. 10-13 at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center, Singapore, is anticipating 6,000 participants and some 80 exhibiting companies and country pavilions.

SIGGRAPH Asia committee overview:

* Conference Advisory Group Chair - Alyn Rockwood, VP of ACM SIGGRAPH (US)
* Conference Chair - Lee Yong Tsui, associate professor at the Nanyang Technological University's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (Singapore)

As a featured component of Los Angeles' International AFI Film Festival, AFI DigiFest is presenting two interactive media showcases highlighting the latest innovations in digital media and their real-world applications. Presented at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' beautiful Linwood-Dunn Theater, the two days of presentations and seminars will be filled with some pretty dazzling stuff. Here's the program: Day One (November 8): AFI hosts a series of curated presentations that highlight noteworthy digital productions from around the world. Among the presentations, Marshall Herskovitz, creator of THIRTY SOMETHING, MY SO-CALLED LIFE and BLOOD DIAMOND, will preview QUARTERLIFE, a new dramatic broadband series that premieres on MySpace on Nov. 11. Presentations rounding out the day feature the best in new digital thinking from the worlds of film, television, games and mobile. Bobby Beck, CEO/President, Animation Mentor, will be part of a panel titled "The Reinvention of Storytelling through Interactive Media." Day Two (November 9): AFI presents five new prototypes incubated in the AFI Digital Content Lab: an online video platform and citizen journalist toolkit for NOW, PBS' weekly investigative news program; a strategy for retaining viewer interest during ads in a DVR environment for Bravo; a social network tailored for players, a documentary about videogame fans being produced by MTV, EA, and Mekanism; a pilot for an original dramatic machinima series created within a 3D game engine; and, finally, a unique user-generated film contest, Filmocracy, for ITVS. For more information, visit www.afi.com/onscreen/AFIFEST/2007/.

In 2006, Web animation viewers watched as beautiful swordswomen battled on a pyrotechnic chessboard. A gladiator with a steam-powered arm fled an army of wraiths. A sorcerer and an angel fought atop a cliff overlooking a fantasy city.

This was BLOODSPELL, the animated epic released online last year and downloaded by more than 100,000 visitors worldwide. Now, the "punk fantasy" has spawned an 84-minute feature film.

Animatu celebrates work in 3D/2D digital shorts, Machinima and Animations for mobile phones.