San Francisco-based Spazzco Animation has produced an animated music video for “Love This Way,” the latest single from the pop group Eden’s Crush. The video, rendered in a futuristic anime style, depicts the group as interplanetary travelers who touch down on an angry planet. Upon discovering unhappy alien residents, the five women of Eden's Crush get to work spreading their melodic, positive message and transforming the barren landscape into a lush paradise. The video can now be viewed exclusively at cartoonnetwork.com as part of the site's Web Premiere Toons program.

In an attempt to keep the MATRIX franchise hot, Warner Bros. has green-lit anime adventures based on the original flick. The film's directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, who were originally inspired by anime to make the MATRIX, are currently looking for anime directors to create episodes for the video. MATRIX ANIME is being planned for a late 2002 or early 2003 release. The live-action sequel, MATRIX RELOADED, is scheduled to hit theaters in May 2003.

* 2nd Annual Festival of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction: Friday, August 03 - Sunday, August 26, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA.

The July Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now on-line! July focuses on Internet animation. There is no denying that the Internet entertainment market has changed...so how are four prominent leaders in the field adjusting to the brave new world? Rick DeMott reports. Jacquie Kubin gains insight from executive Paul Samulski on NewKidCo, which is bringing some of the most well known properties and characters into the children's gaming arena.

TriStar Pictures is set to release METROPOLIS, directed by Rintaro (X) and written by anime legend Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA), in the U.S. on November 9. Based on the classic comic by Osamu Tezuka, the film is set in the futuristic city populated by humans and robots. Amidst the chaos created by anti-robot factions, detective Shunsaku Ban and his sidekick Ken-ichi are searching for rebel scientist Dr. Laughton, to arrest him and seize his latest creation, Tima, a beautiful young female android created to succeed the leader of Metropolis. The film is a combination of cel and digital animation.

According to Sound Scan, a video industry analyst group, Pioneer Entertainment's newly released AKIRA was the number-one selling DVD for the week of July 29, 2001. The classic anime film was first released in 1989, but was recently restored by Pioneer Entertainment at a cost of $1 million. The DVD beat the debut of live-action films FAMILY MAN, starring Nicolas Cage, and SWEET NOVEMBER, starring Keanu Reeves. The film is set is Neo-Tokyo after World War III and follows childhood friends Tetsuo and Kaneda as they encounter a military operation to retrieve an escaped experimental subject.

The World Animation, August 7-12, 2001, is proud to announce a new show added to its ambitious schedule. Sony Pictures Entertainment will host a "sneak peek" of Osamu Tezuka's "Metropolis." Based on the classic manga by Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of anime and manga, "Metropolis" was brought to the screen by two of the most respected figures in Japanese animation today: Katsuhiro Otomo ("Akira") and Rintaro ("X," "Galaxy Express 999"). In fact, Rintaro began his career working for Tezuka on his popular "Astro Boy" (Tetsuwan Atom) television series.

Entertainment on the Internet: Where Did the Promised Land Go?

There is no denying that the Internet entertainment market has changed...so how are four prominent leaders in the field adjusting to the brave new world? Rick DeMott reports.



From Akira to Princess Mononoke? Don't Think So

Montreal, Quebec, Canada's Animation Resource Group is looking for all level ANIMATORS. . . Montreal, Quebec, Canada's Chad Management, an agency promoting 3D game companies, is looking for an ART DIRECTOR. . . Toronto, Canada's Elliott Animation, a CGI animation studio, is looking for PROGRAMMERS with Web experience. . . Coquitlam, British Colombia, Canada's Golden Swallow Inc., a Web-based educational service company, is looking for a WEB DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. . . London, UK's ITS Media, a game company, is looking for 3D MODELLERS with 3DS MAX & Photoshop experience. . .

CartoonNetwork.com has announced that the second quarter 2001 was its busiest quarter ever. Time spent on the site increased by almost ten minutes, peaking at a record 44 minutes 42 seconds in June. Cartoon Network attributed this rise to Cartoon Orbit, the Website's online trading community for kids; its Web Premiere Toons; and Toonami: Reactor, a 12-week broadband test, which featured on-demand anime content. The Website set a monthly record in June, attracting 3,102,000 unique users, a 100% increase from the previous year.

- The Ghibli Museum: Miyazaki's Genius On Display

Get an inside peek! Tom Sito visits the construction site of what is sure to become a destination for animation fans worldwide - the Ghibli Museum, honoring none other than Hayao Miyazaki, one of animation's foremost legends.



- Confirming a New Tradition: Cal State Long Beach's 2nd Annual
Japanese Animation Festival

The June Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now on-line! June focuses on independent animation. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman interviews Mo Willems, the creator/director of "Sheep In The Big City" about his career, his inspirations and a small sheep in a big city. Chris Robinson profiles Don Hertzfeldt, Ülo Pikkov, Andreas Hykade and Priit Tender, four of the brightest new stars in independent animation.

On July 12 in New York, the International Flash Film Festival handed out this year's honors. Thirteen winners from the U.S. and around the world received the "arrow" award. The festival is the highlight of the Flashforward2001 conference and expo. The work of all 60 finalists, selected from over sixteen hundred nominations, was screened for the 200 attendees. The winners can be seen at: www.flashforward2001.com. Finalists and winners were selected by two panels of judges from the Flash community.

Spontaneous Combustion conceptualized, designed and conformed a 1 minute 20 second summer image promo, entitled "Max Blockbuster Summer," for HBO/Cinemax. Spontaneous design director Dana Yee said, "Our original intent was to incorporate a mosaic wall which would come to life and showcase a number of films. But during our brainstorming sessions, the focus shifted to graphics with more motion. We studied [fish schools] synchronized movements, how they seem to glitter and leave ripples in their underwater path and applied these characteristics to our test animations.

New York’s Click 3x recently designed and produced a 2-minute video opening for One Show Interactive, a leading awards competition for interactive media design. The video, which kicked off the awards ceremony held recently in New York, features a journey inside the event’s prized Gold Pencil Award to reveal the creativity within. Conceived by Click 3x creative directors Christine Lin, Eve Lim and Michael Wiehart, the piece opens with a field of animated graphics representing software code and a gold-toned “loading” bar.

The May Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now on-line! As we have recently changed to a weekly format with the magazine many of you have noticed that this has also changed our publishing schedule for the downloadable, monthly PDF version. Never fear! We are going to keep publishing the Acrobat version. Each 15th of the month we will publish the previous month's articles.

Each week, Animation World Magazine offers new articles, special features and theme-based coverage of the art, craft and industry of animation. New this week:



- New from Japan: Anime Film Reviews by Fred Patten

Fred Patten reviews the latest anime releases, including: "The Big O," "Urusei Yatsura," "Iria: Zeiram the Animation," "Key, the Metal Idol" and "Ruin Explorers: Quest for the Ultimate Power!"

Alias|Wavefront has begun shipping Maya 4, the latest release of the company’s industry leading 3D animation and visual effects software suite. The new release boasts numerous enhancements and optimizations designed to improve the program’s overall ease-of-use and efficiency, with particular focus on rendering, character animation, brush and paint tools and games related functionality. The new release includes enhanced functionality and usability in several key areas. Focused improvements have been made throughout Maya to upgrade the UI and streamline the production workflow.

Phoenix Tools, an Italy-based computer graphics software developer, announced the release of Origami 2.0, a high-end set of modules and utilities for Softimage|3D, and a new Maya Shader plug-in. Origami 2.0 allows users to extract or reconstruct the lost 3D information from a set of photographs or a motion sequence. The new package is faster and easier, with greater reliability, giving the user a complete set of tools for all the steps that constitute the complex process of camera tracking and 3D reconstruction.

In association with the International Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival, monsieurcinema.com awarded the first award for Best Web Film at Cannes 2001. The seven films in competition were: CUB by Steve Whitehouse, Canada; GOTCHAAA! by Eric Gosselet and Fabien Brandily, France; IN A GROVE by Hiroyuki Watanabe, Japan; LE SECRET MINCEUR by Stéphane Ricard, France; MARCELLE (episode “Les Plaisirs De La Route”) by Guillaume Joire, France; THE BIRTH OF STAINBOY by Tim Burton, USA; and THE SVUOTCHER by Flavio Della Rocca and Mattia Pasquini, Italy.