Gordon Whittaker has been promoted to vice president, chief operating officer of Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Helix Animation Inc. Formerly general manager for the studio, Whittaker has a background in marketing, operations and industry relations and he will be spearheading the marketing and promotional efforts for the company. Since opening in July 1999 Helix has completed layouts and key animation on sixteen episodes of FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, for imX Communications and Funbag Animation Studios.

New York-based design and visual effects company Fluid has launched a sound design division and added sound designer Fred Szymanski to their team. Szymanski has created sound design and special sound effects for a variety of film and television projects and music videos. He will be creating sound design for commercials exclusively through Fluid. Szymanski and Fluid recently completed sound design and sound enhancement for a series of spots for 6 new Xbox games for McCann/NY client Microsoft.

Oscar-winning, independent animator Faith Hubley passed away in New Haven, Connecticut on Friday, December 7, 2001 of cancer. She was 77 years old. Hubley was a native of New York, where she and her husband John established Hubley Studio in 1955. Prior to John’s death in 1977, the Hubleys created 21 animated films together, including the Academy Award winners, HOLE, MOONBIRD and HERB ALPERT AND THE TIJUANA BRASS DOUBLE FEATURE. Faith Hubley collected many awards over her long career.

Tom Hershey has been promoted to senior vice president of operations at Sony Pictures Imageworks, the visual effects and animation division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hershey's expanded role will now include leadership of console game development at Imageworks. Hershey recently forged a deal with the Institute of Creative Technologies (ICT), a joint venture between the Army branch of the U.S. Military and the University of Southern California (USC). Together with Pandemic Studios, Imageworks is collaborating with ICT to create simulation training programs via immersive technologies.

Cinesite Hollywood has appointed David Remba as manager of research and development, and Ray Mitchell, Jr. as director of engineering. They will report to Daniel Rosen, chief technology officer. Remba has been the managing technical director at Cinesite since the beginning of 2001. He worked with the character setup team on Megiddo and guided and assisted the development of the water animation and rendering pipeline for Cinesite Orange County. In his new role, Remba will be responsible for all software activities at Cinesite Hollywood.

Roger Dondis and Nelson Uduando have joined Toonz Animation India, as creative director and head of animation respectively. Roger Dondis joins Toonz Animation India from Wild Brain Studios where he worked as animation director and overseas supervisor on feature film productions. Roger has been director, animation director, designer and animator on many commercials and several long format projects. He begins with Toonz Animation India on January 1, 2002. Nelson P. Udaundo joins Toonz Animation India as head of the animation department.

New York-based Click 3x has hired engineer Mike Bittle and veteran visual effects and graphics producer Todd McCammon. Bittle becomes chief engineer and will oversee all technical issues for the visual effects, animation and design studio, as well as assisting in the planning and implementation of future imaging technologies. He comes from a similar position with Post Perfect, New York. While at Post Perfect, Bittle handled engineering for film transfer, color correction, editing, compositing, animation and graphics production, as well as for a shooting stage.

Charlex has added award-winning visual effects artist Alan Neidorf to its roster. Neidorf comes to Charlex after a sixteen-year run as senior visual effects artist and editor at Tape House and Black Logic, where he worked closely with director Michel Suissa, now of Parallax One. His credits include commercials for Coldwell Banker and Texas Instruments and work for Grey Advertising, McCann-Erickson Worldwide, MBVMS and other advertising agencies. "Charlex is well known for its unique, collaborative creative approach," Neidorf said.

Director Andrew Adamson, who partnered with Vicky Jenson to direct this year’s blockbuster animated film SHREK, has recently signed with the United Talent Agency and is hard at work on his next project for DreamWorks. Adamson will direct TRUCKERS, a feature film mixing live-action with animation and based on Terry Pratchett’s young adult novel about alien creatures called nomes who live in a department store. Adamson will write the script with Joe Stillman, one of the authors of SHREK.

Brad Ball has been named to the newly created position of executive vice president, domestic corporate marketing, Warner Bros. Ball moves to this key strategic post after having served as president of domestic marketing of Warner Bros. Pictures for the past three and a half years. Ball's responsibilities include oversight of all the studio's brand marketing efforts across all divisions, including Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

Illustrator and cartoonist Gray Morrow (born Dwight Graydon Morrow, 1934) passed away at his home in central Pennsylvania on Tuesday, November 6, 2001. Although he had suffered with health problems the last few years, his death was unexpected. "Gray was both a participant in and a witness to comics history," said Insight Studios Group's Mark Wheatley, who edited GRAY MORROW VISIONARY, published last summer. "He was a master illustrator who had the respect and friendship of his peers.

Award-winning visual effects designer and digital artist Deak Ferrand has left post-production facility R!OT to launch the independent studio Hatch with his long-time visual effects producing partner, Cheryl Bainum. Hatch designs and produces digital visual effects for films, television, commercials and interactive projects by using the latest techniques in digital matte painting, compositing and computer graphics. The studio specializes in concept design and designing and creating 3D matte paintings.

Corus Entertainment has confirmed that Nelvana founding partner and co-CEO Patrick Loubert has left Nelvana to become an independent producer. The news comes just over a month after another co-founder, executive VP Clive Smith, left Nelvana to pursue other projects. Michael Hirsh, last of the three original founding partners, remains at the company as CEO.

NY Visual Effects studio Liquid Light, a division of Version2 Editing, has added Smoke artist Nathan Hurlburt to their roster. Initially an Avid editor, Nathan now includes visual effects design, compositing and online finishing among his talents. "Nathan is considered a ‘whiz kid’ Smoke artist that I knew would impress our advertising and editorial clients," said Liquid Light executive producer Frank Devlin.

The terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11th touched people worldwide, and many cartoonists have turned to art to express their grief. 9-11: EMERGENCY RELIEF is a comic book project to benefit the American Red Cross featuring some of the comic world's leading talents from legendary creators such as Will Eisner to hot new talents such as artist Frank Cho, who’s original artwork for the cover of the book recently sold at Baltimore Comic-Con's benefit auction for $5,000, with the money going to the American Red Cross.

Award-winning producer Dan Balaam has been promoted to creative director of Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the U.K. and is now in charge of all on air promotions and packaging for the channels. Having been with the channel since its launch, Dan has had a huge influence on the fun and irreverent look and style of the channel. While at Cartoon Network U.K.

Douglas Greiff has left his position as VP of program development at Nickelodeon to join Hip TV as partner and head of production. Specializing in Latin-themed programming, Hip TV has produced original programming in English, Spanish and Portuguese for USA Networks, E! Entertainment Television, The Discovery Channel and Fox Sports World, among others. Hip TV founder Beatriz Acevado said, “I’m delighted to have Doug as a partner in Hip TV.

Visual effects and graphic designer Victor Barroso has been named director of the newly created graphics & visual effects division at PostWorks, New York. Victor has spent the last three years as the director of graphics and effects at Flicker fx, the New York-based visual effects/design shop he co-founded in 1998. Prior to that he was director of graphics and effects at Edefx, New York. Victor brings his training as a painter and illustrator to his work and is equally comfortable on Avid Media Illusion, Henry, Hal, Discreet Logic’s Flame/Inferno systems and Nothing Real’s Shake.

MoCap systems manufacturer Motion Analysis Corporation has hired Jeff Thingvold as VP of application engineering and Napoleon Hambrick as VP of new media sales for North America, South America and Japan. Focusing on the new media animation sector of the motion-capture industry, Jeff Thingvold will coordinate the development of all software tools and incorporate customers' current and future needs into software technology designs. Prior to joining Motion Analysis Corporation, Jeff was the chief technology officer at Lambsoft.

Santa Monica-based commercial and film production company Steam has added creative directors Rob Legato and Ron Ames and executive producer Marcy Frey to their roster. Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor Rob Legato will be working with Steam as creative director. Rob continues to be represented by Sony Imageworks for feature film visual effects assignments. His credits as a visual effects supervisor include HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, CAST AWAY, WHAT LIES BENEATH and ARMAGEDDON.