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AWN Headline News

Headline News

Alias’ 64-bit mental ray Standalone Part of Larger Product Plans

As the initial part of its greater 64-bit plan, Alias is shipping mental ray Standalone 3.4 64-bit, which is fully compatible with the Maya 6.5 software. The 64-bit software offers faster processing times, and the ability to create and accurately render more complex scenes and images for film, games, broadcast, digital publishing and design visualization.

Headline News

Digital-Tutors Releases Basics: Introduction to RealFlow

Digital-Tutors announced the worldwide availability of the highly awaited BASICS: INTRODUCTION TO REALFLOW training kit the first in-depth training resource for RealFlow. An evaluation version of RealFlow 3, is included with the training kits, allowing users immediate access to the software and training.

Digital Headline News

Maas Digital Creates Deep Impact Animation For NASA

Dan Maas of Maas Digital has created an animation charting NASA's Deep Impact spacecrafts trek from Cape Canaveral to its collision with the comet Tempel 1 in the early morning hours of July 4, reports SPX.

Using detailed research and hours of conversations with mission engineers and scientists, Maas has recreated every detail from the precise structure of the spacecraft to the celestial bodies it takes pictures of along its journey.

Brand Headline News

Spider-Man 2 & Care Bears Take Home 3 LIMA Awards

Spider-Man Merchandising LP (Marvel Enterprises & Sony Pictures Consumer Products) won top honors last night as SPIDER-MAN 2 was named the 2004 Overall Best License of the Year at the Annual LIMA Gala and Awards Ceremony for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Assoc. (LIMA). The presentation, honoring the best and most creative and innovative programs and products in the multi-billion dollar worldwide licensing industry was held on June 22, 3005, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

Films Headline News

Spiderwick Author’s Valiant Bought by MTV Films

MTV Films has acquired the film rights to VALIANT, a teen novel about fairies by THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES author Holly Black, according to the trades. Chuck Roven and Alex Gartner will produce through their Mosaic Media Group in conjunction with MTV Films. Paramount Pictures will distribute.

Published by Simon and Schuster on June 1, the book follows on a 17-year-old runaway who joins a group of squatters living in the New York subways. She soon discovers that her new friends hold the dark secret that many New Yorkers are actually a species of fairy.

Studios Headline News

DisneyToon Studios Promotes Snedeker & Ferguson

DisneyToon Studios has promoted two execs with Brian Snedeker, previously svp of creative affairs for DisneyToon Studios, assuming the title of svp of pre-production and Karen Ferguson taking on the role of vp of 3D production.

Snedeker will report directly to Sharon Morrill, president of DisneyToon Studios. In his new undertaking, Snedeker will oversee pre-production as well as take an active role in the production phase of all animated films made by the studio.

Mattel Headline News

Mattel Named Master Toy Licensee for One Piece

Mattel Inc. signed a multi-year licensing agreement to serve as master toy licensee for ONE PIECE, a popular animated series airing on 4Kids TV, 4Kids Entertainment's Saturday morning children's programming block on FOX, as well as on Cartoon Network's Tonami block on Saturday evenings.

The master toy license grants Mattel the exclusive rights for a full range of products including action figures, play sets, role-play items, games and puzzles. ONE PIECE toys are anticipated to be available at retail in the U.S. and Canada by December 2005.

Games Headline News

JAKKS Pacific Signs HIT Ent. Properties for Plug It In & Play TV Games

JAKKS Pacific Inc. has signed licensing agreements to market and distribute multiple Plug It In & Play TV Games titles and GAMEKEY expansion packs based on HIT Entertainment's internationally renowned children's brands, including The Wiggles, Barney, Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends and Angelina Ballerina.

Headline News

Banjax Opens Digital Animation Studio in Belfast

Banjax has opened a new digital animation studio based in Belfast's Titanic Quarter, to produce province's first major animated feature film and breathe life into the creative industries in Northern Ireland.

Banjax founders Darryl Collins, formerly of Blackstar, and award-winning director and writer Richard Morss and director/animator Alastair McIlwain, are focusing on the export potential of two major projects in a global industry sector that is expected to grow 10-fold over the next five years. Their efforts are being supported by Northern Ireland agencies.

Headline News

SIGGRAPH 2005 Posts Electronic Theater Program

ACM SIGGRAPH has posted the program for the Computer Animation Festivals Electronic Theater for SIGGRAPH 2005, the 32nd International Conference on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques, being held July 31 to Aug. 4 in Los Angeles, California.

The screenings will be held in Hall K Aug. 1 (7:00-9:00 pm), Aug. 2 (1:30-3:30 pm, 7:00-9:00 pm) and Aug. 3 (1:30-3:30 pm, 7:00-9:00 pm).

The Electronic Theater program includes:

* 9U.S.Director: Shane Ackerwww.shaneacker.comContact: Shane Acker

Motion Headline News

Vicon Forms Feature Unit

Vicon, developer of Academy Award-winning motion capture technology, the Vicon Feature Unit (VFU), a new Los Angeles-based entity devoted to on-site consulting, custom service, development and pipeline building for its film, videogame and TV clientele. VFU will be able to provide everything from purchasing and setup advice, pre-production, capture and post-production services through to custom hardware and software to rapidly deliver on unique studio requirements and project demands.

Nick Headline News

Nick Orders 20 New Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends Episodes

Nickelodeon has ordered 20 new episodes of MISS SPIDER'S SUNNY PATCH FRIENDS, a 3D animated co-production from Nelvana/Absolute Pictures, which airs weekdays on Nick Jr. at 10:00 am. The series is based on the beloved book series by David Kirk (published by Callaway & Kirk).

"Miss Spider's message of friendship and kindness to fellow bugs is an important one for all of us ... bug or human!" said Brown Johnson, exec creative director, Nickelodeon Preschool Television. "It's great to be working with Nelvana and David Kirk on another season of this beautiful series."

Animated Headline News

BKN Signed Global Interactive Licensing Deals on Legend of the Dragon

BKN International A.G. announced during the Licensing International 2005 Trade Show in New York City that it has signed worldwide interactive licensing deals for two of its animated titles with The Game Factory, Inc (Game Factory) and Planeta DeAgostini Interactive (Planeta).

Headline News

AWN & VFXWorld Sponsor VES’ eDwards

Animation World Network and VFXWorld are proud to announce that we will be a media sponsor for the Visual Effects Societys eDIT 8.Filmmakers Festival in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 9-11, 2005. We will be sponsoring eDward VI, which celebrates the work of talented artists under the age of 30. The theme for this years competition is Artificial Humans. The top finalists will be showcased in a gallery of AWN. For more information on the event, visit http://www.edit-frankfurt.de.

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

Continuing our focus this month on education and jobs, Karen Raugust looks at how Indian animation and vfx programs are teaming up with studios and software providers such as Alias to expand their workforce and grow their 3D industry. Meanwhile, later on this week and next, Alain Bielik explores the cutting edge vfx in both BEWITCHED and HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, which are also part of the programming lineup this weekend at the 2005 VES-VFX Festival of Visual Effects, June 24-26 at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

Motion Headline News

New Captain Scarlet Powered by Vicon MX40 Cameras

GERRY ANDERSONS NEW CAPTAIN SCARLET, the 3D-animated TV series currently airing in the U.K. and picked up for U.S. distribution by Sony Pictures Television, marks the first entertainment project completed with Vicons four-million pixel MX40 motion capture cameras.

Effects Headline News

2005 VES-VFX Festival Bows This Weekend at the Aero

The latest in visual effects artistry will be on display this weekend, as the Visual Effects Society presents the 2005 VES-VFX Festival of Visual Effects, June 24-26 at the newly renovated Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. The festival boasts 15 events, including chats with Academy Award- winning visual effects artists, screenings of topical vfx films, panels with the leaders of vfx used in television, commercials, games and more. Tickets can be purchased online at www.vesfestival.org and are also available by calling the Visual Effects Society office at (310) 822-9181.

Nickelodeon Headline News

Nick & Viacom Latin America Forms Retail Partnership with Ripley In Chile

Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products Latin America, and Ripley, one of the largest department stores in Chile, have formed an exclusive retail partnership to bring some of Nickelodeons most popular properties to Ripleys, across multiple categories with special marketing and promotional tie-ins.

Story Headline News

Toy Story 3 Slated for Summer 2008

Disney Consumer Products chair Andy Mooney announced that the Pixar-less TOY STORY 3 will open in the summer of 2008 at the International Licensing Show in New York City.

This comes on the heels of Disney Feature Animation announcing at Los Angeles ACM SIGGRAPH earlier in the week that it will be heavily recruiting CG talent for TOY STORY 3 at SIGGRAPH 2005.

Headline News

Marvel/Fox Zoom Lawsuit Against Sony/ Revolution

Marvel Enterprises and 20th Century Fox have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Revolution Studios and Sony Pictures Ent. over the production of sci-fi comedy ZOOM, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The case claims that the film, which stars Tim Allen and Chevy Chase and is based on Jason Lethcoe's graphic novel ZOOM'S ACADEMY FOR THE SUPER GIFTED, copies too much of the X-MEN mythology.

The lawsuit filed June 20, 2005, in U.S. District Court, Central District of California is seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages.

Headline News

Bandai & Manga Ent. To Release Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Volume 7

Manga Ent. and Bandai Ent. have announced the release of the seventh and final volume of GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX in both Standard and Limited Editions versions on July 26, 2005. Both editions contain three half-hour episodes encoded directly from high-definition masters, featuring superb surround sound plus bonus extras.

The Special Edition comes with a Laughing Man T-shirt, Tachikoma Collectors ID card and an exclusive collectors tin DVD Box that will fit all of the 7 Volumes of the SAC series together.

Japan Headline News

Animation/Robot Exhibition Proposed in Japan

The Japan Business Federation proposed June 21, 2004, holding an animation and robot exhibition to help boost the number of foreign tourists to Japan to 10 million by 2010, reports Yahoo.com.

The nation's biggest business lobby, known as Nippon Keidanren, recommended Japan host an animation and robot exhibition as early as 2009 between the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai to introduce Japanese pop culture and state-of-the-art technologies to the world.

Books Headline News

Dragon Booster Scorches with New Licensing Deals

Alliance Atlantis has secured North American publishing and apparel deals for its children's CGI animated property, DRAGON BOOSTER.

Hyperion Books for Children, having acquired the U.S. and Canadian publishing rights, will launch a series of DRAGON BOOSTER books beginning in fall 2005. Extreme Concepts, who will begin rolling out the clothing line in fall 2005, has licensed the DRAGON BOOSTER apparel rights in the U.S.

Show Headline News

Nick Brings Avatar & Three Nick Jr. Programs to Licensing

Nickelodeon comes to Licensing Show at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City with a brand-new licensing program for AVATAR, Nickelodeon's newest animated series that is already the number-three animated program on television, third only to powerhouses SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS and THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS. The network also brings new plans for animated hit show DANNY PHANTOM, live-action tween favorite ZOEY 101 and hotter-than-ever SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS.

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