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.

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.

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/.

Avid and Softimage, along with event sponsors HP and Intel, are pleased to invite you to the

The September meeting features independent animator Chris Sullivan. Sullivan, a professor at School of the Art Institute will discuss his body of work, including the recently completed feature "Consuming Spirits". The meeting will take place at the Illinois Institute of Art, 180 N.Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Room 234 from 1 to 4 PM. Networking and open screenings are a regular part of this monthly gathering of Chicago area animators and students.

Gnomon School of Visual Effects and Pixologic are hosting the first official Pixologic ZBrush User Group meeting. Bay Raitt will discuss the strengths of ZBrush and its use in various production pipelines, i.e. Weta Digital, Valve Software. Meats Meier, The Gnomon Workshop, will demonstrate how he has used ZBrush in the creation of his personal artwork. Timur "Taron" Baysal will demonstrate modeling and displacement (medium to high rez details) and possibly rendering displacement in Messiah.

It will take place at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, 1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, California 90038. A meet and greet time will start at 6:00 pm with the meeting beginning at 7:00 pm. RSVP to rsvp@gnomon3d.com. Please include your name, phone number and number of people you are bringing including yourself. For more information, visit www.gnomon3d.com/title.html.

Key Code Media presents a Boris FX Software Demo. Featured solutions include Continuum Complete: comprehensive suite of 150+ plug-in filters; Boris Red 3GL: integrated 3D compositing, titling and effects; and PowerProduction StoryBoard Artist Studio: storyboarding and previsualization. Sessions will take place at 10:00 am or 2:00 pm at Key Code Media, 11530 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, California 91604. For more information or to RSVP, visit www.channelwolves.com/ppp_register2.html.

REALVIZ is hosting a presentation of their latest software releases for the VFX industry on at the Centre d'affaires Domicila (149, rue St Honor

Discreet invites the public to its Data Overdrive and Open House events that will showcase Discreet

Discreet invites local 3D creators to experience a free demonstration of the new features of its 3ds max 7 software. Jason Crosby, producer at Digital Dimension, will speak from 6:00 to 9:30 pm at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Society.

Located blocks away from Warner Bros. Studios, in Burbank, California, Digital Dimension specializes in 3D animation, motion graphics and visual effects for the film, television and interactive industries. The company, founded in 1995, has earned a Visual Effects Society Award and four Emmy Awards. Digital Dimension recently produced more than 100 invisible effects for the New Line film CELLULAR and recently completed visual effects work on EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING.

To register, log on to www.discreet.com/events.