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AWN Headline News

Effects Headline News

GigaPix Studios Launches VFX Division

CGI animation company GigaPix Studios has opened a visual effects department headed by Emmy award-winning vfx supervisor Clay Dale. The division will provide complete, high-end visual effects design and post-production for feature films, television, commercial spots and music videos.

Visual Headline News

Rushes Places Record Autodesk Order Amid VFX Expansion

Leading London-based post-production facility, Rushes, has placed a landmark order with Autodesk, as part of its multi-million pound expansion. The project includes the replacement of the facilitys entire visual effects kit with the latest state-of-the-art systems, as well as doubling its capacity for visual effects work.

Japan Headline News

Japan Kicks Soccer Animation Into Arabic Airspace

The Japan Foundation decided to donate an Arabic-dubbed version of a popular Japanese soccer animated cartoon, CAPTAIN TSUBASA, to an Iraqi television station, reported KYODO NEWS.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said the program will be provided to the Iraq Media Network by the foundation, with the cooperation of the ministry and Animation International Middle East.

Films Headline News

FUNimation & Sabella Dern Ent. Launch Anime Theatrical Distribution Program

FUNimation Ent. and Sabella Dern Ent. announced today (March 2, 2006) the launch of FUNimation Films, a monthly initiative that will bring top-rated anime features and series premiers to movie theaters across the U.S. Set to launch on March 17, 2006, in select Landmark theaters, moviegoers will be treated to a special showing of the DRAGON BALL Z feature, THE RETURN OF COOLER, followed by the main event the U.S. premiere of the DRAGON BALL Z movie, FUSION REBORN.

FUNimation Films was developed with The Bigger Picture, a subsidiary of Sabella Dern Ent.

Games Headline News

Play the Apocalypse In Left Behind Game

The developers of LEFT BEHIND: ETERNAL FORCES the highly-anticipated PC game based on the blockbuster fiction series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are set to launch the title in the second half of 2006.

Animation Headline News

Animation Film to Feature Indian Star Rajnikanth

Adlabs Films of the Ambani Group will team with Chennai-based Ocher Studios Pvt Ltd. to co-produce an animation project featuring the Southern superstar Rajnikanth, reports TAMIL STAR.

The project is aimed at Indian and international audiences. The film would be Adlabs first foray in animation.

Ocher Studios is headed by Latha Rajnikanth, the wife of the superstar actor.

Headline News

Flashforward Brings Pros To Seattle

Nearly 1,400 designers, developers and artists have descended on Seattle for Flashforward 2006 an annual conference, according to P-I REPORTER. During the gathering at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Adobe and show producer Lynda.com are stressing that much has changed since Flash's debut 10 years ago.

Headline News

Cinequest Awards Marvel Studios CEO

Cinequest announced that Avi Arad, chairman/ceo of Marvel Studios, will receive Cinequest's Maverick Spirit Award and participate in a conversation with venture capitalist William R. Hearst III on the art of technology an event culminating Cinequest's expanded Filmmaking and Technology Forums. This Meeting of Maverick Moguls event will occur on Saturday, March 11, 2006, at 3:30 pm at the Camera 12 Cinemas. The entire Cinequest festival runs from March 1-12, 2006, in San Jose, California.

Film Headline News

John Dykstra To Make Directorial Debut with Tortoise and Hippo

Two-time Oscar-winning vfx supervisor John Dykstra will make his directorial debut on TORTOISE AND HIPPO for Walden Media and Relevant Ent, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

"It's a dream come true," Dykstra said. "The biggest thing to me is that having waited this long (to direct a feature) has provided me with an understanding of how films are made, and the critical component is collaboration. I'm really looking forward to telling this tale in the company of such a great team."

Movie Headline News

Dimension Gains Comic Book Movie Spoof

Dimension Films has snatched up John Unholz's superhero spoof COMIC BOOK: THE MOVIE, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The spec sold for mid-six against seven figures after going out wide to studios on the morning of Feb. 23, 2006. Dimension purchased the script that night after it drew interest from multiple studios.

Reminiscent of the SCARY MOVIE franchise, this film spoofs comicbook-based films. There are no producers or director attached yet.

Alexander Franklin is overseeing for Dimension.

Series Headline News

Cartoon Network Unveils News Series, Movies & Live Action

Cartoon Network announced its programming lineup for 2006 during its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York City. In addition to the previously debuted BEN 10 and MY GYM PARTNERS A MONKEY, original programming also includes SQUIRREL BOY and the highly anticipated series from André Benjamin, CLASS OF 3000, debuting in November; four original movies, including Cartoon Networks first-ever live-action/animated production, RE-ANIMATED; and new seasons of existing shows.

Headline News

Albie Hecht Launches Biggies Broadband

Albie Hechts new content development company, Worldwide Biggies Inc., has formed a new division, Biggies Broadband, to develop and produce original multi-platform content, syndicated websites and broadband channels aimed at the young adult and family entertainment audience.

Imax Headline News

The Polar Express: An IMAX 3-D Experience Passes $60 Million

THE POLAR EXPRESS: AN IMAX 3-D EXPERIENCE passed $60 million, making it the highest grossing IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) release to date, IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures reported. Showing on 83 screens worldwide, the film passed $15 million in its second season, when it was re-released the same day as the film's DVD launch on Nov. 23, 2005.

Headline News

ATI Delivers Improved Gaming With CrossFire Xpress 3200 Chipset

ATI Technologies Inc. has apparently changed the rules of the motherboard industry with the introduction of its CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset, delivering the enthusiast gaming platform of the future. Developed from the ground up for multi-GPU gaming, the CrossFire Xpress 3200 chipset arguably enables the world's fastest gaming performance, advanced overclocking capabilities and bedrock stability available in an AMD-based PC motherboard today.

Universal Headline News

Search On for Unsigned Music Talent for Scarface Game

Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) has launched the SCARFACE: THE WORLD IS YOURS Videogame Soundtrack Talent Search," a nationwide talent contest running on MySpace.com that will reward the best unsigned music talent in North America with the chance to have a song featured in the upcoming SCARFACE videogame and the opportunity to perform in front of music and videogame industry leaders at a major concert event in Hollywood. The nomination process is now open at www.myspace.com/scarfacegame.

Animation Headline News

Israel Gets Animated With New Toon & Game Studio

On Feb. 28, 2006, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) debuted Israels first-ever media center, along with a multimillion-dollar animation studio, in an effort to turn Jerusalem into a major player in the animation and gaming field, reports RED HERRING. The startup, Jerusalem Animation Lab, will include an animation and gaming studio, as well as a development lab to create animation for cellular phones.

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

We finished February with J. Paul Peszkos fascinating look at creating more compelling transitions in commercials and music videos with the latest cutting edge 3D software (supported by several illustrative images). Meanwhile, on the movie side, Alain Bielik explores how Menfond Electronic Art & Computer Design created more than 850 shots for ULTRAVIOLET (opening Friday from Sonys Screen Gems) a major coup for the Hong Kong-based vfx studio. And Tara DiLullo discusses how Animal Logic handled vfx chores for Foxs mermaid comedy, AQUAMARINE (also opening Friday).

Animation Headline News

Filipino Firm Boasts Inexpensive Quality Animation

Grace Dimaranan, managing director at Filipino animation firm Top Peg Animation and Creative Studio Inc., has said her company does not need much money to produce quality animation, reports INQ7.net. Recently, the firm produced the award-winning educational and family-oriented animated film, TUTUBI PATROL, which was co-produced with Gecko Prods.

"You really don't need much to produce animation," Dimaranan told INQ7.net.

Headline News

FUNimation Ent. Sets U.S. Broadcast Debut of Akira Kurosawa's Samurai 7

FUNimation Ent., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corp., struck a deal with Rainbow Media for the U.S. debut and cross-channel airing of Akira Kurosawa's SAMURAI 7 on both VOOM HD Networks' ANIMANIA HD on March 1 and IFC on April 1.

"Akira Kurosawa's SAMURAI 7 is a great series. It is a perfect match for FUNimation's philosophy of hand-picking the best titles from Japan and bringing them to the United States," said Gen Fukunaga, president/ceo of FUNimation Ent. "It is that quality that also makes it a perfect match for ANIMANIA HD and IFC."

Headline News

Rendercore Launches Macintosh OSX Support for Maya 7.0

Rendercore Inc. provides complete integration and support for Mac OSX version of Maya 7.0 from Alias.

"With prevalence of Mac OSX as an important part of creating photoreal imagery in the computer graphics industry, we worked diligently to include the Maya Mac OSX version shortly after its introduction," commented Brian Kim, technical director for Rendercore.

Digital Headline News

James Cameron to Keynote NAB2006’s Digital Cinema Summit

Director James Cameron, a passionate advocate of digital 3-D, who will helm his next feature, PROJECT 880, in the fledgling format, will deliver the Sunday keynote at NAB2006s Digital Cinema Summit, April 23, 9:00 am, at the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall.

Cameron will address near and far horizons for digital 3-D. In addition, National Assn. of Theatre Owners (NATO) president John Fithian will join Cameron in a Sunday afternoon dialogue that will explore the future of exhibition, digital cinema and digital 3-D.

Film Headline News

Lady and the Tramp Sparkles on DVD

In honor of its 50th anniversary, a new two-disc special edition of Disneys beloved LADY AND THE TRAMP comes to DVD Feb. 28, 2006 (Walt Disney Home Ent., $29.99). Like BAMBI and CINDERELLA, a 4K scan of the Technicolor negative was made, finally offering the entire CinemaScope image with brilliant resolution and clarity. Assisting the Technology Film Restoration team headed by Theo Gluck was John Lowrys group at DTS Digital Images. They scanned 4.2 miles of film and removed 30 million pieces of dust and dirt.

Brickyard Headline News

Brickyard VFX Wraps AT&T 2006 Winter Olympics Campaign

Brickyard VFX lifts up U.S. Olympians and viewers in a series of AT&T commercials for the 2006 Winter Games. The campaign includes the :30 HD ads SKI LIFT and MEDAL CEREMONY, which leverage Brickyard VFXs compositing, animation and effects expertise to create everything from lift lines connecting two continents to an 8,000-mile fly-over around the world.

Wild Headline News

Wild Brain Acquires Kidrobot

Wild Brain announced a majority stake acquisition of New York-based, limited edition art toy creator and pop-culture phenomenon Kidrobot. Wild Brain and Kidrobot plan to develop animated television, feature film, direct-to-video and other entertainment properties, utilizing the existing popularity of Kidrobot characters and the "Kidrobot Style" to develop future projects.

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