Hollywood, California-based Gnomon, a school for visual effects, has
expanded their offerings of short-format classes. Designed both for current
working professionals and individuals wanting to get into digital effects
and animation, these seminars and workshops are between a hour-and-a-half
and six hours long. Courses include Intro to 3D Concepts, Color Theory for
Movies, Integrating 2D and 3D CGI, Maya 2.0: Dynamics, Maya 2.0: Fur,
Resume Workshop, Interviewing and Negotiating Skills, and Math for

Master animator Barry Purves will be teaching Acting for Animation at the Museum of the Moving Image in London. The class takes place from Saturday, July 10 to Sunday, July 11, from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm both days. Barry Purves is one of the world's leading stop-motion puppet animators. He began his career at Cosgrove Hall Productions working on such programs as THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. Since then Barry has gone on to write, direct, and animate several award-winning films: NEXT (1989), SCREEN PLAY (1992), RIGOLETTO (1993), and GILBERT & SULLIVAN (1998).

Arts Unlimited, a 5-week summer program for children in grades 4-8, has added three animation classes to its arts curriculum. The classes will be taught by Wendy Jackson and will introduce animation techniques such as zoetropes, flipbooks, clay, cut-outs, drawing on film, and pixilation. Jackson will also teach a class
in giant puppetry. Additional program offerings include ceramics,
calligraphy, computer art, dance, mixed media, music, publishing, and

The School of Visual Arts in New York City will offer a course for credit on "Japanese Animation: History and Style" as part of its Continuing Education program. Instructor Brian Camp, author of several articles about anime, will focus on the recent history and stylistic development of anime, from the pioneering work of Osamu Tezuka in the '60s, to the epic space sagas of the '70s, to the visionary achievements of a host of innovative animators in the '80s and '90s.

Yale University's Child Study Center, a division of Yale Medical School,
has chosen New York's School of Visual Arts' Animation Department to create
an animated film for use in autism research studies. The animation will
test the brain systems involved in social understanding, allowing
investigators to test specific hypotheses about autism. The animated
experiments will portray human interaction with geometric shapes. Reeves
Lehmann, Chair of the School's Film Video and Animation Department, is the

Masters of Visual Effects, LLC has released the first two series of Masters
of Visual Effects training videos. The series' offer an overview of visual
effect that artists, producers, and filmmakers, whether novice or
professional, will benefit from. The first series, entitled "Introduction
to Visual Effects," covers introductory concepts in visual effects such as
visual effects cues, film and video as digital images, commercial post
production basics, pre-visualization and offline editing. The second

International Fine Arts College, founded in 1965, has received approval
from the Florida State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities to
offer the Master of Fine Arts in Computer Animation. Classes will begin
January 2000. The Master of Fine Arts Degree in Computer Animation is a
studio based, sixty credit program focusing on animation utilizing the
Silicon Graphics platform with Alias|Wavefront Maya software. The Animation
Studio boasts 63 SGI O2s running the latest versions of Alias|Wavefront;

George Lucas has donated $1.5 million, while Steven Spielberg has donated $500,000 to the USC School of Cinema-Television to help fund the new, yet-to-be-built Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. The Lucas money will help build a sound stage which will be named for Akira Kurosawa.

Famed animation director and educator Richard Williams will present his acclaimed Animation Masterclass at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London, England, May 21st-23rd. This intensive three-day workshop teaches the solid principles behind classical animation that apply both to traditional and computer animators. Triple Oscar winner Richard Williams has won over 250 international awards including numerous Hollywood and British Academy Awards. His films include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Christmas Carol, and the original Thief and the Cobbler animated feature.

Canadian animation channel Teletoon announced the winners of its first Animation Scholarship Competition, at the Ottawa International Animation Festival awards ceremony on October 4. The prize money--a total of Canadian $28,500--is being divided among 15 selected winners in three categories. First place winners received $4,500, second place $2,000, third place $1500, fourth place $1,000 and fifth place $500. The winners are as follows:


Entrance Category:


1st place: Liem Nguyen, Kelvin High School (Winnipeg, MB).