UCLA Anderson School of Management has launched a new Entertainment and Media Management Institute, to expand and enhance its long-standing Entertainment Media Program. The new Institute in Los Angeles will bring together industry pros, MBA students and faculty researchers to exchange and embrace new ideas for managing and thriving in the face of transforming entertainment and media business models.

NewTek Inc. announced the LightWave [8] Training Edition, a special offer that provides more than $400 in training materials free to new LightWave 3D purchasers. By special arrangement with the publishers New Riders, Wordware Publishing and Kurv Studios, purchasers of new licenses of LightWave will be able to receive six books, four training videos and the DVD KAZE: GHOST WARRIOR, which includes extensive extras on how the independent CGI film was produced.

The Savannah College of Art and Design will announce the latest addition to its film and digital media curriculum — a minor in technical direction — and will display the award-winning student animation that dominated the annual Student Projects in Animation Competition and Exhibition (SPACE) at SIGGRAPH 2004, Aug. 8-12, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Macromedia has launched the Macromedia Back-to-School Fall 2004 student promotion. Through Oct. 31, 2004, students may register to win a weekly drawing for a Casio EX-S3 Exilim digital camera and view a new online comicbook at www.macromedia.com/resources/student. Any student, age 14 and older, who purchases Macromedia Studio MX 2004 with Flash Professional by October 31, 2004, may register for a chance to win a digital camera.

Oregon3D Inc., The Academy for Digital Arts & Sciences, is offering an Intro to Urban Simulation course. Scheduled for Sept. 14, 2004, this one-day course offers an introduction to the dynamic field of urban simulation, aimed at students seeking a general overview for a broad range of projects in entertainment, business and government.

Oregon3D has announced it will offer a series of classes specifically devoted to content creation for the Unreal Engine, the leading 3D technology platform pioneered by Epic Games. Scheduled during the SIGGRAPH 2004 Conference, this one-day session will run on both Aug. 9 and Aug. 10, from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm in the Los Angeles Room at The Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The Media Design School, New Zealand's premiere learning institution for the digital arts, announces a slate of new faculty additions that include Tom Zuber, Patrick McNabb and Richard Hicks, going into its visit to SIGGRAPH 2004 conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center from August 10-12, 2004 at booth #1958.

National Cartoonists Society's 2002 Newspaper Illustrator of the Year and international syndicated cartoonist and illustrator Steve McGarry will speak to animation, videogame, art and design students at The Art Institute of California-Orange County, July 28, 2004 at 11:30 am.

The Gnomon Workshop has six new DVDs touting the concept design work of Mark Goerner and Neville Page in conjunction with Design Studio Press. Goerner's two titles illustrate sketching and rendering interior spaces; and Neville Page's four DVDs take you through character design, painting and detailed techniques for rendering eyes and flesh.

Digital-Tutors (DT), an award-winning service of PL Studios Inc., announced the release of its mental ray training kit for Maya. This highly requested training kit provides core data needed to learn the extremely powerful mental ray rendering system. The mental ray kit features step-by-step instructions on sub-surface scattering, hdri, global illumination, final gathering, displacement mapping, light baking and more.

The Hollywood Post Alliance is presenting the 2004 Summer School Program, a tutorial on post-production. The program will run from July 23 - 24, 2004. The workshop will kick off on July 23 with drinks and hors d’oeuvres at 6:00 pm followed by as case study on SPIDER-MAN 2 at 7:00 pm.

Oregon3D Inc., The Academy for Digital Arts & Sciences, will be holding a two-day open house scheduled for July 20 and 21, 2004. Technology presentations will focus on game development and design/visualization applications.

Oregon3D's Game Development Day: July 20, 3:00 to 7:00 pm
Presenters from Turbo Squid, RTzen, Right Hemisphere and other guest speakers will explore the tools and techniques used to create today's top-selling videogames.

Alias announced its full lineup of new Maya Learning Tools to accompany Maya 6, the latest version of its 3D animation and special effects software. Maya Learning Tools are books and DVDs that offer self-paced learning for 3D professionals, students and enthusiasts. Alias will release dozens of DVDs and books in the coming months for a variety of learning levels, many in time for SIGGRAPH (Aug.

Gnomon School of Visual Effects' Maya Fast Track program for summer 2004 begins July 5 and runs through Sept. 10. This intensive, nine-week program is designed primarily for individuals already familiar with 3D and who want to get production-ready on Maya as quickly as possible. Consisting of nine one-week classes, the Maya Fast Track program is based on industry-approved Gnomon courses.

The Fast Track includes three hours of lab time after class, five days a week.

The Art Institute of Phoenix (TAIP) is now offering a new bachelor's degree program in Visual & Game Programming designed to prepare upcoming technical artists for the videogame and animation industries.

Students receive intensive training in the foundations of art and design before entering into the more technical areas of programming for 3D animation. Students learn the essential skills to effectively solve technical problems and effectively bridge between the technical programmer and the creative artist.

Gnomon School of Visual Effects now has open registration for the summer term (June 28-Sept. 12). Meanwhile, the curriculum for digital courses (including image-based techniques and character skinning) will now reflect new tools and techniques. Erick Miller, lead technical director of Digital Domain, will be the new character skinning instructor, while Kyle Jefferson of DreamWorks will again teach previsualization and animatics.

Professor Ron Morse, as part of the Asian studies program, will start a new course on anime and manga at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, reports THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL.

"Most people stop reading comic books when they're six years old," said Morse. "It's more than childish stuff. It's a serious sociological critique."

The class was spurred by the growing influx of anime in the U.S. Morse comments that serious issues such as drug addiction, prostitution and murder make anime worth studying at a university level.

Bobby "Boom" Beck and Carlos Baena of Pixar Animation Studios and Shawn Kelly of Industrial Light & Magic have launched the new online animation school, AnimationMentor.com. The interactive school is a place where students will learn from guest professionals in the feature film industry. AnimationMentor.com hopes to become an international education hub that is more affordable than traditional art schools. Classes are scheduled to begin in fall 2004, and students can join at any time until seats are full. Enrollment will begin in September 2004.

Computer Master Institute of Technology (CMIT) has announced that, along with its e-Business and New Media Studies Diploma graduates, CMIT's first all female class of Advanced Digital Animation students have completed their studies.

The new Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) at Boston University is enrolling students of all ages and experience levels for a variety of certificate programs and workshops in digital filmmaking, photography, 3D animation, game design and visual effects.

Students may sign up for intensive training through a nine-month certificate program or basic skills through a foundation certificate or workshop series. Courses range from Beginning Photography for the Digital Age to Digital Film Boot Camp and all levels of Photoshop, editing, lighting and real-world assignments.