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

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.

Cascade SIGGRAPH and Oregon3D host 3D Graphics Guru, Mark Sylvester's presentation, "Three Tribes - The Creation of Maya." The former co-founder of Wavefront Technologies will address the Cascade SIGGRAPH chapter outlineing the history of Alias, Wavefront and Thomson Digital Images and talk about how these three companies came together to develop Maya. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after his presentation, followed by several immersive 3D presentations in Oregon3D's Visualization room. TIME: Sign-in and registration for the event begins at 3:30 pm with the presentation occuring from 4:30 to 6 pm. ADMISSION: free for Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH members and $5 for non-members, payable at the door. Please RSVP: rsvp@cascadesiggraph.org

The June meeting of CATNAP will feature a presentation on timing breakdown and background layout. These monthly meetings include networking and screenings. The meetings are free and open to anyone, and start at 1:00 pm at the studios of Itoons, 3717 N. Ravenswood, Suite 210, Chicago, Illionis.

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.

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,

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.

Asia

Annual Conference of Digital Media/Animation for educators from all higher education institutes and professional training organizations, publishers and other related companies in China to discuss topics of education and training programs, textbooks, industry trends, police, theory and technology of the field.

Organizers:
Beijing Normal University Institute of Digital Media
Beijing University Department Digital Arts
Tsinghua University SJC New Media Center
Beijing Film Academy School of Animation
Beijing Broadcast Institute School of Animation
Zhejiang University National Key Lab of CG
ACM SIGGRAPH Beijing Chapter

CATNAP returns to it's monthly meeting schedule after a brief summer hiatus with a presentation by Marc Vulcano, former director of animation for Big Idea Productions. Marc will speak on the subject of "Character Animation, How to Make Your Work Believable". Drawing on his many years of experience in the animation business he will address the character animator's approach, philosophy, responsibilities and priorities in the creation of exceptional animation. This program is a must-see for any serious animator, and is free and open to the public. The meeting begins at 1:00 pm.