Chicago Chapter of Women In Animation Launch Party

Location: 941 W. Lawrence Ave. Suite 500, Chicago, Illionois

Featuring: screenings, guest speakers, door prizes, libations and more.

Admission fee is $5 for WIA members, students and seniors and $10 for non-members.

Submit work for the screening. Animators are encouraged to contribute copies of their work on vhs format along with their contact information for archiving.

AWN and VFXWorld are giving away 10 "total access" reserved festival tickets to this year's VES Festival, the best visual effects storytelling platform in the world! The event runs June 27-29, 2003 at The Los Angeles Film School, 6363 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90028. These reserved tickets, which normally cost $300.00, give you complete access to the entire three days of presentations and screenings. Special thanks go to Tom Atkins and the Visual Effects Society for making this sweepstakes possible.

This year, there are 10 fabulous presentations that will focus on the process of visual effects and how they bring the vision of the director to life. Highlights include:

- ILM presentations on both THE HULK and TERMINATOR 3
- Pixar presenting FINDING NEMO
- Sessions on X-MEN 2, THE CORE and MATRIX RELOADED
- A Retrospective on the making of TRON
- There's even special screenings of both THE HULK and the entire ANIMATRIX series!

Fill out the simple entry form today for your chance to win. The contest ends June 23, 2003. Complete contest information can be found at the contest webpage listed below.

Mighty Fudge is currently producing a follow up video for Dressy Bessy's new album. They are focusing on making an animated music video and producing our own "Saturday Morning Cartoons for Adults." Big Toe Productions (Damian Griffin) will talk about the production of his short film and touring the animation festival circuit. Damian is the single mind and force of will behind his stories, production, promotion and distribution of his work. Wednesday, May 28, 2003 at 7:00 pm at the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design Theater 6875 E. Evans Ave Denver, CO 80224 http://www.ASIFA-Colorado.org

You're invited to come and see "Talent Bloom" at the Academy of Art College San Francisco's Annual Spring Show. See the exciting work of talented students from all of the school's majors: Advertising, Architecture (MFA Only), Computer Arts, Fashion, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Artchitecture & Design, Motion Pictures & Television and Photography. The exhibition opens for a Special Industry Preview on May 22, 2003 from 10 am to 6 pm. Industry and other invited guests only, for invitation or information email careerservices@academyart.edu. The exhibition opens to the general public May 22, 7-9 pm and runs from May 23 through June 7. Open daily from 10 am to 6 pm. Closed on Sundays. Don't miss your chance to check out the next generation of artists and designers! For information call 1-800-544-ARTS or logon to www.academyart.edu. Admission is free.

The Los Angreles Chapter meeting of SIGGRAPH will feature "making of" presentations of the visual effects in X2: X-MEN UNITED , as well as a special screening of the movie at Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Academy of Motion Picture Artists & Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. Artists from Cinesite and Rhythm & Hues will be on hand to discuss the creation of innovative effects from Nightcrawler's teleportation to Storm's tornados. Event is sponsored by Side Effects Software, whose Houdini 3D software was used extensively throughout the film. Speakers scheduled to appear: Doug Bloom Tornado Effects Lead Rhythm & Hues Mike O'Neal Lead Effects Animator Rhythm & Hues Greg Anderson CG Supervisor Cinesite Arnon Manor CG Supervisor Cinesite Craig "X-Ray" Halpern CG Effects TD Cinesite Meeting is free for members and $10 for non-members. For more information visit: www.la.siggraph.org

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 Visual Effects Society (VES) will hold a special one-day event, "Finding and Keeping a Job in Today's Visual Effects Industry," on May 17, 2003 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood. The day will feature four panel sessions to address employment issues specific to a particular segment of the visual effects industry: o Visual Effects for Feature Films hosted by Sony Pictures Imageworks o Computer Animated Feature Films hosted by DreamWorks o Visual Effects in the Game Industry hosted by Electronic Arts o Visual Effects for Broadcast (panelists to be announced) A fifth panel, moderated by recruiter/hiring strategist and career coach Pamela Thompson, will address general issues such as hiring strategies, career growth, freelancing, independent studios (effects for ride films, commercials and television) and legal matters. The Los Angeles Film School is located at 6363 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. Attendees should bring their r

British grandmasters of animation Ray Harryhausen, Oliver Postgate and Bob Godfrey are set to share the stage at the fourth annual Animated Encounters at the Watershed Media Center in Bristol, England May 9-10, 2003. Last year more than 5,000 attended the festival offering a mix of international and U.K. premieres, industry seminars and events. The audience will vote for their favorite film that will then become a nominee for the European Cartoon D'Or film award at Annecy. More than 50 films will be screened in addition to all five BAFTA nominees in the short animation category. Events include a retrospective on pioneering work to emerge from animators and studios in Manchester, England plus a look at Channel 4's animators-in-residence scheme and 11 shorts to emerge from that program.

Motion Media Invites you to our first 3DS MAX User Group! Where: Motion Works Studios 4054 Glencoe Ave. Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 When: Wednesday, April 30 6:00PM - 10:00PM Food and Drinks start at 6:00PM Meeting starts at 7:00PM We are hoping to make this a regular meeting. We have lots of guest speakers, behind the scenes, Max/CS tips and tricks up our sleeve, and of course demonstrations of cool software, and gear to come. We want to get the first meeting together and get a feel for what you want to have in a user group so come and join the fun - we want your input! To RSVP: RSVP@motionmedia.com Please include how many will be attending and email addresses for confirmation, thanks! What's on Tap: Be the first to see a preview of the upcoming new extension for 3DS Max 5.1 - Particle Flow, a new procedural particle system available for 3DS Max 5.1 This is very cool, come take a look! Scott Kirvan from Splutterfish will be giving a demo and answering questions about Brazil, an advanced rendering system for 3DS Max. Motion Works recently completed the motion capture for the upcoming Matrix sequels and will talk about their experiences.

Digimation will be holding an ongoing series of contests. This contest has been created so that CG artists using Digimation plug-ins or Viewpoint Models can share their work. Great prizes to be awarded for the top three entries:



1st Place: 1 Plugin. Winners choice of SpeedTreeMAX, Illustrate, Shag:Hair, or Stitch

2nd Place: 1 Plugin. Winners Choice of Essential Textures, Stitch Lite, Particle Tools, or Lume Tools
3rd Place: 1 Plugin. Winners Choice of Lightning, Light Galleries, or Grow



For complete details please visit the Website listed below. The software prizes will differ for each contest and contestants may enter as many times as they like. Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place entries. Contest winners will be featured on the Digimation home page, in the newsletter following completion of the contest, and in association with the software products used.