The Australian Effects & Animation Festival (AEAF) kicks off its four-day festival on December 1, 2002 with the Australian premiere of Disney's TREASURE PLANET. The festival, which runs from December 1-4, 2002 in Sydney, NSW, Australia, will also present numerous panels featuring some of the world's most innovative visual effects and animation houses. Panels covering such hot topics as virtual humans, the future of CGI, desktop technology and creating effects on a budget will be presented, and representatives from Animal Logic, Framestore CFC, Sparx*, Photon VFX, Weta Digital and Sony Picture Imageworks, will divulge the secrets of LORD OF THE RINGS, GHOST SHIP, SPIDER-MAN, WALKING WITH DINOSAURS and many other feature film and commercial projects. In addition, AEAF is devoting an entire day to the digital effects of STAR WARS: EPISODE II "ATTACK OF THE CLONES." Tuesday, December 3 has been earmarked as a special "Star Wars Day," an exclusive insider's forum for exploring the VFX techniques and processes behind George Lucas' effects blockbuster. Headlining the program for the day is Rob Coleman, animation director at ILM. Coleman will also host a masterclass focusing on the character and facial animation techniques used in EPISODE II. To register or find out more information about AEAF, visit www.dmw.com.au.
