The monthly meeting of CATNAP, Chicago Area Toon Novices and Professionals, will take place Saturday, January 17th at 1 PM. Meetings feature open screenings and discussions of various aspects of animation. This months meeting will focus on setting the topics for 2004's meeting schedule, so bring you ideas. Meetings take place at iToons, 3717 N. Ravenswood, Suite 210, Chicago,

SHOUT AND SCREAM, POUT AND PREEN v2
The next music video event - Shout and Scream, Pout and Preen v2 - will be held on Sunday 25th January 2004.
This is the networking event for those involved in the music and filmmaking industries.

Venue :
The Buffalo Bar,
259 Upper Street,
Islington,
London N1

Time :
8.00pm - 12:00pm

Entry :
UKP4

** Now accepting MUSIC VIDEO submissions for this event **

Our last event was described as ... "A packed-out plethora of pulsating performance, positive posing and partial pedantics ... perfect!"


All information online - http://www.shootandslice.com

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

The San Francisco chapter of SIGGRAPH is pleased to announce the screening of the entire 2003 Electronic Theater. We are proud to be screening the full showing of the Electronic Theater, one of the first times the complete show has been available outside of the conference. The Electronic Theater is the premier computer graphics film and video showcase that is part of the Computer Animation Festival each year at the SIGGRAPH conference. The conference was held in July 2003 in San Diego and as usual the Electronic Theater was one of the favored events.

Date and Time:
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
7:30p - Doors open, snacks available
8:00p - Speakers:
Dena Slothower - Conference Chair, SIGGRAPH 2004 and Associate Director, Freshman and Sophomore Programs, Stanford University
Jonathan Gibbs - Panels Chair, SIGGRAPH 2004 and Lead Effects Animator, PDI/DreamWorks
Lourdes Livingston - Executive Director, School of Animation and Visual Effects, The Academy of Art, San Francisco
8:30p - 10:00p Electronic Theater

Before and after the show Sam Chen, artist and producer for "Eternal Gaze", which won Best Animated Short in Electronic Theater 2003 will be on hand to answer questions about his experience.

Location:
Academy of Art College
Morgan Auditorium
491 Post (at Mason) San Francisco
Parking is available at several garages in the area.

Directions to the Morgan Auditorium can be found here:
http://san-francisco.siggraph.org/calendar/viewEvent.php?eventNumbe

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.

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 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