The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has added an animated featurette to its "Shoot First Law" website. The animation offers award-winning artist Mark Fiores take on the Florida law, which took effect Oct. 1 and allows people to use deadly force in public. The animation is available for viewing at www.shootfirstlaw.org.
Nelvana Home Entertainment and Criterion Pictures have set a five-year agreement for the non-theatrical distribution of titles from Nelvanas library of animated programming.
Criterion Pictures picks up distribution rights to ANATOLE (episodes 1 to 26), BABAR (episodes 1 to 78), THE BERENSTAIN BEARS (episodes 1 to 40), CORDUROY (episodes 1 to 13), FRANKLIN (episodes 1 to 78), LITTLE BEAR (episodes 1 to 52) and ELLIOT MOOSE (episodes 1 to 13), with other titles under consideration.
Madrid-based Elastic Rights (ER) has snapped up pre-school toon, HARRY AND HIS BUCKET FULL OF DINOSAURS, for distribution across all platforms in Spain and Portugal (except free TV.
The 52x12 animated series, aimed at kids 2-5, is co-produced by CCI Ent. (Canada) and Collingwood OHare (U.K.) in association with Silver Fox Films (U.K.). Based on the best-selling books by British author Ian Whybrow, the enchanting series follows the adventures of five-year-old Harry and his toy dinosaur friends, which come to life when no one else is watching.
Alain Bielik talks with the visual effects artists behind Aeon Flux to find out how they handled turning the superhuman animated adventures of the title character into a live-action feature.
Sharon Katz traveled to Espinho, Portugal, for the 2005 Cinanima and reports with a bit of background on the international animation event and what it had in store for fans this year.
HDFEST's 2005 Los Angeles event is the conclusion of the HDFEST 2005 World Tour. HDFEST screens films created exclusively using HD technology. The LA festival will screen a High-Definition Animation sequence featuring the best new animations rendered and presented in HD resolution. HDFEST will also award the winner of the Best HD Animation category.
FirstGlance Hollywood Film Fest is holding its 6th annual film festival. The event also includes the FirstGlance Indie Expo, a weekend of seminars, product demonstrations and services specifically tailored towards the truly indie filmmaker. Categories include Features, Shorts, Shorts Too, Mini-Doc, Student-Directed. The festival awards more than $35,000 in prizes. The deadline is June 15, 2005 and the late deadline is July 1, 2005. For more information, visit www.firstglancefilms.com.
The International Forum for Animation Technologies (FITA) is held every year in Angoul
The Gemini Awards is the top honor in television from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Programs eligible for this year's event must have aired between May 1, 2004 and April 30, 2005. The event brings together more than 3,000 craftspeople, producers and decision-makers from across Canada to honor, celebrate and promote the talent and accomplishments of the Canadian television industry. This year a new category for Best Original Music Score for an Animated Program or Series has been added. For more information, visit www.academy.ca.
Escape Studios will be hosting an evening with Pixar where it will be possible to see the latest version of RenderMan and the new RenderMan for Maya in action. There will be demonstrations of the latest releases along with a presentation from Pixar on RenderMan's influence in THE INCREDIBLES.
Escape Studios was recently appointed the European training partner and reseller for Pixar's RenderMan product line. The event will provide both new and existing RenderMan users with the opportunity to be a part of the expanding community in Europe.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Activities Committee in association with the The Bob Hope Comedy Collection of the Archive of American Television will present "Jonathan Winters Is Turning 80 and You're Invited" at 7:30 pm at the Television Academy
Cartoon Network has commissioned a brand new original series, SQUIRREL BOY. The 13 half-hour animated series, from creator/exec producer Everett Peck, has started production at its Burbank-based Cartoon Network Studios and is slated to premiere in summer 2006.
In the last Animation Pimp column, Chris Robinson looks to the stars to see what animation means to him.
In the first installment of VFXWorlds exclusive production diaries, Rhythm & Hues Bill Westenhofer talks about R&D and principle photography on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Platinum Studios and Blue Star Pictures have signed a deal with directors Danny and Oxide Pang to direct the upcoming feature film, THE DARKNESS, based on the popular comicbook published by Top Cow Prods. Inc. Platinum Studios will finance 50% of the production. Platinum, Blue Star and the Pang Brothers are jointly looking for a writer.
The Jim Henson Co. has hired Yuri Zeltser and Cary Bickley to adapt Barbara Hodgson suspense novel THE TATTOOED MAP, VARIETY reports.
Henson Co. principal Lisa Henson previously produced the Fox/Regency film HIGH CRIMES, which Zeltser and Bickley wrote. Janet Yang, who also produced HIGH CRIMES, will produce the film along with Henson. The company purchased the rights to the book and has hired the screenwriters with its own funds.
E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who led The Walt Disney Co. for nearly a decade and a half following the death of co-founder Roy O. Disney, passed away at his La Canada, California home on Monday, Nov. 28, 2005, at the age of 89.
San Diego-based 3D animation studio, Pendulum, recently completed cinematic work for the MTV/Midway Games co-developed interactive property, LA RUSH. Nearly 16 minutes of fully 3D CGI cinematic cut-scenes introduce the viewer to the games key characters and story. LA RUSH is the sequel to Midways hit racing title, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH. Along with a huge selection of signature and real-world cars, the game also features the crew from West Coast Customs of MTVs popular PIMP MY RIDE television series.
Its not an official festival its more of an end of the year get-together. Casey Safron explained the rationale behind the Animation Block Party held at Club Sugar, a downtown Manhattan club on Nov. 29, 2005.
Bob Bacon has been appointed to the newly created position of evp of Walt Disney Feature Animation overseeing all areas of production as well as technology including areas of software development, systems, media and technical support.
Asia Television Forum and Asia Film Market and Conference are the anchor events for Asia Media Festival 2005. An event organized by Reed Exhibitions and hosted by MDA, the fortnight-long Festival showcases a host of trade and public events in print, broadcasting, film, publishing, digital media and online media. Some of the trade events, which held during the festival included Asia Television Forum, Asia Film Market & Conference, Media Financing Forum, Asia Animation Conference, Asian Television Awards and Promax & BDA Asia.
Stopmotionfilm.de hosts the fourth Morph to highlight the best in short stop-motion films. The length should be two minutes and it doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a professional. There are two main topics: best stop-motion quickie and best stop-motion character. The best character of the second category will be assessed by a jury and those of the first category by the audience. For more information, visit www.stopmotionfilm.de.
The I Castelli Animati Festival highlights animation in all its forms from commercials to features films. The international competition awards the following prizes: grand prize, special jury prize, best debut short film, best European short film, audience prize, Fabrizio Bellocchino prize, best Web animation and best non-narrative short film. The Italian competition will give a grand prize and special jury prize to the top Italian productions. The event includes exhibitions, retrospectives, conferences and screenings. For more information visit www.castellianimati.it.
Students who are interested in pursuing a career within the video game industry may now apply for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2006 Student Scholarships.
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will present recipients with full access to all sessions, roundtables and keynotes at GDC, which takes place March 20-24, 2006, in San Jose, California.
Students will be given an opportunity to take part in discussions, network with professionals, and witness the future course of the industry firsthand.
eyeon Software Inc. is now shipping version 5 of its digital video compositor, DFX+, a prominent compositing tool for effects, motion graphics and animation pipelines.
DFX+ is based on the image engine and award-winning architecture of eyeons lead film compositing solution, Fusion. Principal features of DFX+ 5 include 3D compositions with lights, cameras and primitives, OpenGL acceleration with display views and an essential change to ASCII files. Compositions created in DFX+ 5 can easily be opened in Fusion, to help move any project forward.
