Bob Swain and Ron Diamond traveled to Potsdam for Cartoon Movie 2005 and report back with what’s hot in the European feature market.

Mary Ann Skweres examines the connections between the visual effects industry and medical visualization.

This month the Animation Pimp gets a little queer about the gay hysteria circling around various cartoons.

Anime expert Fred Patten reviews the latest anime releases including Chrono Crusade, Get Backers, Knight Hunters: Eternity, Rave Master and Time Bokan.

Mary Ann Skweres sniffs out the 411 on UVPhactory’s CG stylings for Pete Miser’s hip-hop video, Scent of a Robot.

Anime expert Fred Patten reviews the latest anime releases including Chrono Crusade, Get Backers, Knight Hunters: Eternity, Rave Master and Time Bokan.

Tulay Tetiker presents an overview of the many companies competing in the growing German visual effects industry.

Rick DeMott talks with Gregg and Evan Spiridellis of JibJab Media and John Evershed of Mondo Media about how two firms — vastly different during the dotcom bubble of 2000 — have survived and now thrive on the Net.

Peter Plantec contributes to the “Digital Eye” column this month with a riff on the wizardry of previs.

Taylor Jessen reviews five short films: Gopher Broke by Jeff Fowler, In the Rough by Paul Taylor, Suite for Freedom by Aleksandra Korejwo, Caroline Leaf and Luc Perez, Oedipus by Jason Wishnow and A Buck’s Worth by Tatia Rosenthal. Includes QuickTime movie clips!

Sean Wagstaff reviews MotionBuilder 6, which remains unmatched at manipulating, re-using and blending animation data from multiple sources, and creating character performances from scratch.

In Part 2, Christopher Panzner looks at how independent producers have to be a vertically-integrated individual as well as a little of a cowboy to survive in the industry.

Fred Galpern reads Paul Marino’s new book The Art of Machinima and writes about what he has learned.

Scott Shaw! writes about Fat Albert’s return to animation… within his first venture into live-action.

Ellen Wolff explores how ILM’s Stefen Fangmeier mixed cutting edge technology with a bit of “old cinema magic” to help conjure the retro look of Lemony Snicket.

In Part 1 of this series, Ellen Besen sits down with maverick CG director Chris Landreth, creator of Bingo and the new, breakthrough film Ryan, to discuss the current state of CG human characters and realism.

Taylor Jessen talks with Henry Selick about going dry-for-wet on The Life Aquatic and opening the door on the looking-glass world of Coraline.