CATNAP, Chicago Area Toon Novices and Professionals, moves to a new meeting location in February. We will be at the Loop Campus of the Illinois Institute of Art, 180 N. Wabash Ave., Room 234. Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the location by using public transportation. This month's featured presentation will be by Ron Fleischer and John Griffin on the preproduction steps required to send the film "Lemmings" out for final animation work. The meeting is scheduled from 1 to 4 pm. Attendees are encouraged to bring work for screening and discussion.

Animators, Ink is thrilled to announce its third anniversary celebration, which will include animation, film, music, art, and most importantly, creative people from all walks of life. Membership submissions will be screened during the entire course of the festivities while being accompanied by live DJ

Join us for the up-to-date low-down and see a live green screen demo!

Dan Schmit from Engine Room demonstrating

Gnomon School of Visual Effects will be holding an Alias Users Group meeting. The meet and greet will begin at 5:30 pm with the presentation starting at 6:30 pm. First, Eric Hanson, author, and Eric Pender, contributor, of MAYA 5 KILLER TIPS; and Erick Miller, co-author of INSIDE MAYA 5 will show tips and tricks in Maya 5. Then Digital Domain's technical and sequence lead Darren Hendler will discuss Digital Domain's use of set extensions and how they created the digital crocodile using Maya. Finally, Tefft Smith and Hudson Shock of Look fx! will do a shot breakdown on the maggot scene they produced for THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. MAYA 5 books will be raffled off at the event. To RSVP, e-mail rsvp@gnomon3d.com. For more information, contact Gnomon Inc. by calling (323) 466-6663 or visiting http://www.gnomon3d.com.

The 11th Beijing Student Film Festival is scheduled its opening on April 18th, 2004. This anual event draw almost all Chinese celebrities and showcase most high rated movies produced in mainland China judged by academy standard. Organized by Beijing Normal University School of the Arts and Communications, it has been a successful for 10 yeas since 1993 and considered one of the best film festivals in China which involves filmmakers and college students. It is highly distinguishable of festival

AVIT is a community based and led organization dedicated to creating a place where artists, developers, educators and manufacturers from all around the world can come and share their knowledge with each other. AVIT aims to help those who are eager to learn about the tools and techniques available for live audio/video performance and to provide a platform for performance.

The objective is to bring together both established and up-and-coming artists within the field of live audio-visual arts and new media, thus creating a space to explore and share views and techniques. To further raise the profile of this new media to educators, curators and related industry leaders, to introduce the artists to the technology and the manufacturers and developers to the artists.

eyeon Software USA will be holding the first event in a series of Digital Fusion user group meetings. This inaugural event will be hosted by Digital Dimension, 4100 W. Burbank Blvd., 2nd Floor, beginning at 7:00 pm. The evening will be hosted by Rony Soussan from eyeon USA. A compositing artist from Digital Dimension will show off their recent visual effects work on the film SCOOBY-DOO 2. Other topics will include: flow management; techniques for keeping a complex flow organized; efficiency techniques; maximizing memory; how to use live preview; caching to disk; snapshot your display; and make a specific notes node. An open discussion will also be held for anyone with specific questions or comments. Food and beverages will be provided. If you would like to attend please RSVP to rony@eyeonline.com with the number of guests attending. Seating is limited so please make sure to respond ASAP. For more information, visit www.eyeonline.com or call (310) 571-1571.

This month's CATNAP meeting features Jim Rohn, formerly of Midway Gaming, who will examine the development process for games. He will walk through the pre-visualization process from storyboard to 3D layout in Maya. The meeting begins at 1:00 pm with networking. Bring works for the open screening session as well as technical questions you may have. The new meeting location is the Illinois Institute of Art, 180 N. Wabash (corner Lake and Wabash), Room 234 in downtown Chicago.

The May meeting of CATNAP focuses on stop-motion animation. Guest speakers will be independent filmmaker Tom Brierton and Dave Brooks, vp of Creative for Bix Pix Entertainment. The meeting will begin at 1:00 pm at the Illinois Institute of Art, 180 N. Wabash, Room 234. Networking and open screenings are part of the monthly meeting schedule.

Anime Expo 2004 (AX2004) is the largest convention in the United States devoted to anime (Japanese animation) and manga (comic books). More than 20,000 fans and professionals from across the country are expected to attend. Artists and designers from Japanese computer game companies, computer animation companies and American animation companies will also be on hand to discuss the growing influence of anime on mainstream American entertainment.

The 13th Annual Anime Expo will host panel discussions, video and film programming, workshops, masquerade events, karaoke contests, anime art exhibitions and much more. A center piece of the Expo are the Cosplay (costume play) events, where participants dress up and compete as their favorite anime characters.

Thousands of devoted fans are expected to attend and participate in an Anime Masquerade event, AX Idol karaoke and Anime Music Video contests.

Hosted by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, a non-profit organization with a mission to popularize and educate the American public about anime and manga as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans.

For more information, visit http://www.anime-expo.org/.