Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2007
Stuttgart, Germany
April 26 - May 1, 2007
Deadline: Dec. 1, 2006

Aaron Erkenswick, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science program, has given back to his alma mater by creating an advanced campus map using Flash animation. Erkenswick finished the project with three other students and was supervised by geography professor Mark Harrower.

"Every other school map that I've seen, aside from maybe one, is a PDF or a very primitive interactive map," says Erkenswick, originally from Evanston, Illinois. "Our map goes beyond even Google Maps."

On Jan. 24, 2007, Channel Frederator (www.channelfrederator.com) will present "The Freddies," Channel Frederator's first annual awards ceremony. Held at Cinespace in Hollywood, the awards will recognize a wide array of achievements seen on Channel Frederator's weekly podcasts throughout the year. The awards, which range from "Cartoon of the Year" to "Cartoon Most Likely to be Censored by the FCC," will be distributed in the form of an eight-inch replica of Joe Robot, the spokesrobot for Channel Frederator.

VisualMedics, founded by the Italian born medical illustrator Lara Laghetto, has become an international network of medical drawing freelancers that turns medical content into interaction and e-learning environments for specialized and lay audiences.

Last year they tried 3-D, this year the producers of NBC's hit supernatural drama, MEDIUM, returns a special two-hour episode, "Four Dreams," with a 2D-animated scene by Van Partible (JOHNNY BRAVO). The special episode, starring Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette, will air Nov. 15, 2006, 9-11:00 pm, before resuming the following week in its regular day and time, Wednesdays, 10-11:00 pm

To celebrate Channel Frederator podcast’s first anniversary, Frederator Studios has created Fred-Ex, an ongoing experiment in animation collaboration exploring the existence of robots. Frederator has assembled a global group of enthusiastic animation directors and creators to answer in a toon an age-old question: "What is it like to be a robot?"

Sustainable Table, a leading resource designed to celebrate the sustainable food movement and educate consumers on food related issues, and Participant Prods., a socially conscious film company, launched an animated short, THE MEATRIX II 1/2 online (www.moremeatrix.com) to promote the live-action theatrical, FAST FOOD NATION, and its social action campaign, produced by Participant. FAST FOOD NATION will be released Nov. 17, 2006, by Fox Searchlight. Sustainable Table produced THE MEATRIX films with Free Range Studios.

MoonScoop and Classic Media announced that they will produce and distribute a brand new CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST animated series. India’s DQ Ent. has also come on board as co-production partner and the series will be developed with TF1 in France. Production on the new 52x11 series is set to commence in February 2007. Distribution of the new series will be shared between the co-production partners.

Cape Town-based Strika Ent. debuted its first Flash-animated series, SUPA STRIKAS, at this year’s MIPCOM Jr.

The animated series is based on Strika’s most popular comic, SUPA STRIKAS. The comic follows the ups and downs of an African soccer team. The comic is a huge success with 1.5 million copies distributed every month to eight African countries and South America.

Strika Animation completed 13x1 Flash animated episodes that were broadcast in South Africa and in the rest of Africa.

For October, Animation World Magazine is tackling the topic of TV animation while VFXWorld is looking at global market trends. Specifically, AWM is looking for suggestions in regards to Flash being used for TV series and religious programming utilizing animation. For VFXWorld, we’d like to learn more about VFX work being done in the Middle East and India. For AWM, send all inquires to Sarah Baisley at sarah@awn.com and for VFXWorld, send suggestions to Bill Desowitz at bill@awn.com.

This week in AWN's Forums, a member has some newbie-ish questions regarding the best way to go about producing their first 5-minute short film in Flash. Another member is looking for a good entertainment lawyer in NYC. There’s a thread that is putting out a call to have “Weird Al” Yankovic inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame. There’s another thread that discusses the state of the animation industry in India. A junior member has a question what to do next with their cartoon series.

Pileated Pictures announced that it recently wrapped production of a dozen animated episodes to support the launch of Trivial Pursuit DVD for Kids. The team at Pileated handled all aspects of production for Parker Brothers, owned by Hasbro, including animation, design, voice-over production, video post work and DVD authoring.

Wildform, Inc. announced the release of a new, consumer priced “Lite” version of its popular presentation program, WildPresenter, which allows users to create Flash slide shows, flow charts, ads, online lessons and sales presentations.

Users can combine text, images, audio, artwork and shapes as well as add hundreds of animations, slide transitions and Flash features such as play controls, preloaders, links and mouse-overs. Additionally, users can import and then edit, combine and manipulate any Flash SWF and FLV file.

This week in AWN's Forums, members are debating the pros and cons of steady work versus exciting projects. Others are chiming in one who they think is the greatest Looney Tunes director. More discussion continues on why drawing is so important. There’s a member who is wondering whether they are being taken advantage of with a recent salary offer as a Flash animator. Other member has questions about making maquettes. There are also a thread on Cintiq and tablet-based animation, outsourcing and experimental animation.

KAPPA MIKEY, the breakout Nicktoons Network hit anime/comedy series about a struggling American actor-turned-Japanese anime star, migrated to Nickelodeon as of Aug. 20, 2006, at 11:00 am, leading into the net's new series, SHURIKEN SCHOOL at 11:30 am.

Nicktoons Network, Nickelodeon’s 24-hour animation network, and Frederator Studios announced award winners from Nicktoons Network Animation Festival during the festival’s first two-day live event at the Nick Toon Studio lot in Burbank, California. Keith Dawkins, gm, Nicktoons Network, emceed the presentation of the awards plus a sneak peak at the shorts to be broadcast.

The winners and prizes are as follows:
Student Award Winner — LIBRARYHEAD by David Bazelon, Los Angeles

Warner Bros. Online is launching a website for the classic animation house Hanna-Barbera, relaunching its Scooby-Doo website and add a host of new content to its LooneyTunes.com site.

Beginning in mid-August, each site will roll out new, innovative, interactive content, including: broadband video channels featuring classic animated shorts; original downloadable audio content; customized applications; social networking; user-generated content; games and much more.

Adult Swim’s newest original series, METALOCALYPSE, which premiered Aug. 6, 2006 at 11:45 pm, earned the network’s best premiere delivery and ratings to date in 2006, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. The animated satire on extreme rock bands ranked #1 in its time period among adults and men 18-24 and men 18-34. The premiere also charted strong double-digit delivery and ratings gains among all targeted young adult demos.

This week in AWN's Forums, there’s a new thread dedicated to good podcasts about animation. A member is getting advice on how to turn his big Flash bummer into an animation success. Others discuss why drawing is important. There’s a thread discussing racist imagery in classic cartoons. A member has a question about copyrighting scripts. Others are posting their work or equipment for sale. As well as, tools for teaching animation, the business of animation and, as always, brand new stuff to check out in show and tell!

This week in AWN's Forums, a member posts his big Flash bummer. Another member is looking for information on master’s degrees. There are multiple threads asking software and hardware questions from 3D scanners to Flash. There’s a post discussing Disney’s latest short, LITTLE MATCH GIRL. The world’s funniest cartoon quotes are being collected in one thread. There’s a member that needs help on walk cycles.