Three new Scandinavian markets surrendered their airwaves to Pokemania.

Worldwide sensation Pokemon was recently sold to TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in

Denmark and TV2 in Norway. The show will hit the new territories in January

and February 2000. The international distributor, Lacey Entertainment, also

announced the sale of the Pikachu-vehicle to ATV in Turkey and Noga

Communications' Children's Channel in Israel.





The Pokemon phenomenon began in America in 1998 with the release of the

yU + CO, in collaboration with Digital Domain, provided the motion graphics

design for seven new American Express "Blue" commercials. The titles appear

at the close of the spots as a grouping of light and dark squares, as in a

highly pixilated image, before coming into focus as letters. The titles

where designed to comment on the physical flexibility and the holographic

blue box center of the new card. Garson Yu was designer and director for yU

Viz Communications, a leading U.S. publisher of Japanese animation and

comics (anime and manga), including titles such as POKEMON, DRAGON BALL

Z, and Hayao Miyazaki's NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF WIND, announced new

Internet partnerships and the relaunch of their chief Web sites.

www.viz.com will provide the latest news and information on anime and

manga series. www.j-pop.com will feature reviews on the latest in

Japanese pop culture including anime, manga, games, music and film.

As we reported in the past [AF 7/1/97], the

world-renowned Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki had decided to

hang up his white film gloves and never make a feature film again. Well

cheer up anime fans! The master is back to work on a new feature film. This

announcement ends a 2 1/2 year hiatus after PRINCESS MONONOKE broke box

office records all over Japan. What's the follow-up to the US$150 million

hit at the Japanese B.O.? The project is titled SEN TO CHIHIRO NO

* Wednesday, January 26 - Sunday, February 6, 2000. Rotterdam, The

Netherlands.







The Rotterdam International Film Festival includes a short film section

with categories in animation that include Fiction, Documentary, and

Experimental. To highlight the fest's Japanese program, an exhibition

entitled "Manga Manga!" will showcase selections from manga productions

from 1945 to the present. The festival will again present its "Exploding

Urban Vision will soon re-release Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City. The

classic horror anime D will hit streets January 18, 2000 and Yoshiaki

Kawajiri's hit Wicked City debuted December 7, 1999. Both flicks will be

available in an English Dubbed version for US$19.95 and a Japanese with

English subtitles version for $29.95. Other anime titles coming soon to DVD

are Slayers: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000 for $29.98

and Legend Of Crystania: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000

A year ago, French and other European animation professionals gathered at
the third "Crossroads of the Image of the Indian Ocean" to discuss European
cartoons. At this event, financing is always a hot topic of discussion.
France is the third largest producer of animation worldwide, after the U.S.
and Japan. Production itself has greatly developed in recent years with the
proliferation of television channels. In 1988 there weren't any 26
half-hour episode series being done in Europe, now there are dozens every

TVFI, a trade association supporting the international sale of French TV
programs, presents a French Animation Evening in Los Angeles, with a
screening of "La France s'Anime" ("France Gets Animated"), followed by a
French party. "La France s'Anime: 19 Projects for the Year 2000 " is a
compilation of French TV series pilots including: "Les Aventures d'Ooki"
(Les Films de la Perrine), "Chris Colorado" (AB Productions), "Les Mysteres
de Babel" (Praxinos), "Mars Brothers" (France Animation), "Allo la Terre

In a far distant future, a
would-be master race seeks to dominate the galaxy. Against these merciless
Afressians, mankind has just one hope: the mysterious female warrior known
as Emeraldas. This is the story behind the Houston, Texas-based ADV Films
November 23, 1999 release of QUEEN EMERALDAS on DVD. The US$29.98 QUEEN
EMERALDAS DVD will be in English and Japanese with English subtitles. Also
from ADV the following VHS tapes will all be released on January 25, 2000:
The war against Genom escalates as the Knight Sabers find themselves forced

A.D.V. Films is releasing the following anime titles in the US. On November
9: MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO VOLUME 1 - INVASION! - An unorthodox crew
fights to save Earth from annihilation by Martians; COMPILER 2 - It's
Compiler versus Compiler in deadly showdown!; and ORIGINAL DIRTY PAIR
VOLUME 4 - Kei and Yuri stumble upon a child who is the sole survivor of a
mass murder committed over twenty years ago. November 23: BUBBLEGUM CRISIS
VOLUME 2 - TRIAL BY FIRE - Sylia's brother Mackey joins the team as the

Sausalito, California-based Puffin Designs has announced Commotion DV, a
professional image editing and effects program for digital video artists.
Commotion DV is ideal for creating original stylized motion graphics and
fixing image problems such as video dropouts. The SuperClone brush allows
users to move and duplicate objects such as mountains, trees or clouds to
create just the right background; fill in crowd scenes; or remove visual
distractions such as power lines or a wayward microphone. Playback controls

San Jose, California-based Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced Adobe After Effects 4.1. After Effects is a tool for motion graphics designers and visual effects artists working with film, video, multimedia and the Web. Among the new features are: support for enhanced media exchange, performance enhancements, workflow refinements, and extended creative options and control. Adobe After Effects 4.1 will be available in September 1999 in the US and Canada for an estimated street price of US$699 for the standard version and US$1,499 for the production bundle.

New York-based studioNEXT.com Corporation and Voyager Entertainment, Inc.
have announced a partnership to bring the Japanese television series, STAR
BLAZERS, to the Internet. The series first appeared on US television in
1979, and lasted for three seasons. The story of STAR BLAZERS is about a
group of heroic voyagers who, in order to save Earth from invasion, journey
on the starship Argo to battle the diabolical forces of Gamilon, the evil
stellar empire. "There has been further interest to bring back STAR BLAZERS

Santa Barbara, California-based SANTA BARBARA STUDIOS, a visual effects
company that produces CGI for motion picture, commercial, television and
special venue markets, has hired PETE TRAVERS as CGI supervisor and VIVIEN
MINTON as sales and marketing manager. Travers is returning to the studio
where he previously worked on AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS, after which he
left to form his own company, ShadowCaster, through which he worked as
computer graphics supervisor for Oscar winner WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. Minton

San Francisco, California-based Macromedia, Inc. has announced Macromedia Flash
Writer, a free downloadable plug-in for Adobe Illustrator, which will
enable Illustrator users to save their artwork natively to the Flash Player
file format (SWF). Illustrator users will now be able to deploy their
artwork to the Web immediately without having to reformat it as a bitmapped
file. Flash is the industry standard for high-impact, vector-based Web
sites that deliver motion, sound, interactivity and graphics. Flash Writer

San Francisco, California-based Macromedia, Inc. has announced that its
Flash Player, which enables internet browsers to play web animations, will
be available free on September 1, 1999 for Linux, Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s
Solaris, and Silicon Graphics Inc.'s Irix platforms. Flash is the standard
for creating high-impact, vector-based Web sites that deliver motion,
sound, interactivity, and graphics. Flash Player versions for UNIX will be
available for download at no charge from the Macromedia Web site.

Computer graphics industry leader PDI (Pacific Data Images) will participate in a variety of presentations at SIGGRAPH 99. They include the following:


- PDI Co-founder and Chairman Carl Rosendahl is featured in the new
ACM SIGGRAPH produced feature-length documentary, THE STORY OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS. The documentary "chronicles the history of the industry, its impact on society, and the excitement of future possibilities."


- Electronic Theatre: For the fourth consecutive year, PDI is proud to

The Visual Communication Design department of Austin Community College offers a work intensive program in the areas of Graphic Design and Multimedia production. The two year Associate of Applied Science degree includes classes in Computer Production Art, Typographic Design, Illustrative Techniques, Graphic Design and Basic Drawing. The Applied Multimedia Technology certificate offers extensive training in 2D and 3D Computer Animation, Motion Graphics, World Wide Web Design, Multimedia Authoring, Interface Design and Photoshop Techniques.

Actor Leonard Nimoy, who has gained worldwide recognition portraying the legendary character Mr. Spock in the science fiction juggernaut "Star Trek," narrates the new feature length documentary film "The Story of Computer Graphics."


"The Story of Computer Graphics" which premiered Sunday, August 8th at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, will also be shown during SIGGRAPH 99 in Room 501 of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Screening times are: 9-12 August at 9 am, 10:45 am, 12:30 pm, 2:15 pm and 4 pm; and 13 August at 9 am, 10:45 am and 12:30 pm.

This list of upcoming home entertainment releases includes some new titles,
but most of them are new only to DVD. Disney has just re-released ROBIN
HOOD and ALICE IN WONDERLAND; their live-action RETURN TO OZ, which
includes some stop-motion by Will Vinton Studios, will be released on DVD
and VHS on August 10. Touchstone's WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? will be
released on DVD on September 28. Warner Bros. has just released 1999's
animated THE KING AND I on both VHS and DVD; WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE