Universal Studios and Mondo Media have teamed on a multi-level ad campaign in support of AMERICAN PIE 2. The campaign consists of a blend of advertising and original content in a new advertising package called the Mondo Side Show. Ads will run on Mondo Web-syndicated Flash animation Mondo Mini Shows such as THUGS ON FILM, GARY THE RAT and ELMO AARDVARK OUTER SPACE DETECTIVE. Commercial content will include an interactive game, a viral marketing component, a commercial and mini Website.

Treat, the commercial production arm of Dogmatic, Inc., has created a thirteen Webisodes series for Pepsi, spoofing the cola company's successful Britney Spears commercial campaign. The 60 to 90-second long Webisodes, directed by the comedy directing team of Larry Shanet and David Rosenthal, combine Flash animation with live-action. The first eight installments follow an inept camera crew - ordered by Mr. Butch R.

Skunk has signed Flash director Michael Overbeck to their roster. The London-based company will represent the director internationally for commercials and music videos. Overbeck has won numerous international awards, including the 2000 Audience choice award at RESFEST. Overbeck recently worked on a pilot entitled UTICA CARTOON for the Cartoon Network, which aired Friday, July 13. "It's a great pleasure to be working with such a young and unique talent. Mike takes the application of the extremely popular Flash to another level," said Hyun-Ho Khang of Skunk.

Caligari Corporation, a provider of 3D authoring technologies, has announced that its 3D modeling and animation package trueSpace 5.1 now supports Macromedia Flash. This is in addition to Caligari's existing support for Macromedia Shockwave3D, Director8.5 and Viewpoint Experience Technology. Web developers can now convert their trueSpace5.1 objects (including NURBS) and scenes to Flash format, including all trueSpace geometry, materials, lights, views and even advanced animation techniques such as script animations, bones and key-frame animations.

Warner Bros. has launched a highly immersive Website to promote their upcoming live-action/animated feature OSMOSIS JONES at www.osmosisjones.com. Opening in the U.S. on August 10, the feature film teams a white blood cell and pill in a race to destroy a lethal virus that has infiltrated the body of Frank Detorri. Visitors to the film's site who select game mode will sign on as cops on the same immunity police force that employs Officer Osmosis, chasing down a lethal virus through the City of Frank, investigating suspects and tackling games of skill in a special arcade.

Gothenburg, Sweden's 3rd Dimension is looking for a SOFTWARE DEVELOPER to help create a Maya interface aimed towards 3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave and Softimage users. . . Tehran, Iran's Alian Shiveh Co. Ltd, an animation studio, is looking for a 3D ANIMATOR. . . Blue's Clues-Nickelodeon in New York is looking for an EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT to a supervising animation director and animation producer. . . Ireland's Clockwork Monkey Media is looking for a COMIC BOOK ARTIST/WRITER to work on series that they plan on publishing this year. . . Century City, California's EMA Multimedia, Inc.

New York's Across Frontiers International, producers of CD-Rom based movies for corporate/educational interests, is looking for a VIDEO EDITOR/ANIMATOR. . . India's Animindia, a 2D animation studio, is looking for a BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE. . . Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada's Collideascope Digital Productions, Inc., a new media and convergence company, is looking for ROUGH KEY & INBETWEEN ANIMATORS, CLEAN-UP ANIMATORS and LAYOUT/BACKGROUND ARTISTS for a children's animated series. . .

London's AGI-UK, a game development company, is looking for an ARTIST/GAMER for computer games. . . Los Angeles, California's Back Alley Pictures, an independent film & Web content creation company, is looking for an ANIMATOR for a mock news show combining animation and live action. This is an unpaid job. . . London, UK's Change Limited, a game company, is looking for a LEAD ANIMATOR with 3D Studio Max and Character Studio experience. . . New York's Curious Pictures is looking for CHARACTER ANIMATORS (traditional and/or Flash) and INTERNS for upcoming broadcast projects. . .

Budapest, Hungary’s Cartoon Webworks recently completed three commercials for TEAM Hungary, a Young & Rubicam subsidiary. These are the first three in a series of twelve animated spots that will begin airing this month on Viva+, Hungary’s music television channel. The commercials are among the first TV ads in Europe produced entirely in Macromedia Flash.

Lombard, Illinois' Big Idea Productions, a family media company now branching out into feature films, is looking for a LIGHTING ARTIST, RENDERER and TD/SOFTWARE DEVELOPER. . . London, UK's Cubicspace Studios Limited, developers of real-time technologies for the real estate industry, is looking for a 3D CHARACTER MODELLER/ANIMATOR. . . Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's Dynomight Productions, a full-service animation studio creating original content for global entertainment properties, is looking for a DIRECTOR, LINE PRODUCER and PRODUCER for their upcoming slate of proprietary television series. . .

Cambridge Animation Systems has announced Animo 4.0, the newest version of their flagship cartoon animation system. Available this month from Cambridge and their distributor network, the new version includes a number of new features, greater performance and the ability to output work in Flash format. Animo 4.0 users now can reduce their Flash file output size and optimize their content for the low bandwidth of the Internet through special controls such as disabling filter nodes and disabling animation of any bitmap image.

Worthington, Ohio's Big Fish Animation needs a CLEAN-UP ARTIST for a
feature film. . .North Vancouver-based Capilano College is looking
for a new INSTRUCTOR. . .Munich, Germany's Dowsing & Leonard Film
Production Gmbh seeks a 2D/3D ANIMATOR. . .Edgar Productions, Inc. is
looking for an ASSISTANT ANIMATOR & CLEAN UP as well as a COMIC STRIP
ARTIST. . .Toronto-based Imarion Inc. needs a VFX SUPERVISOR. .
.Milano, Italy's Neo Network is seeking a 2D (FLASH) & 3D ANIMATOR. .
.New York-based Stargiving is looking for a summer INTERN. . .The

Acme Filmworks is looking for a temporary PRODUCTION ASSISTANT. . .An
Interactive Entertainment Company is seeking an EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT.
. .The Center for Advanced Digital Applications needs a CLINICAL
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR. . .Flyboy seeks a WRITER for series being
pitched to MTV, HBO and Comedy Central. . .New York's HEAVY is
looking for a FLASH ANIMATION INTERN. . .Klasky Csupo, Inc. wants a
RECRUITMENT INTERN. . .The Lansing Community College needs to fill a
faculty position for ANIMATION/ MULTIMEDIA/ WEB DESIGN FACULTY. .

Toon Boom Technologies has announced the release of ToonShader, the latest addition to the USAnimation system. ToonShader lets Alias|Wavefront's Maya users import their 3D models and motion capture data directly into USAnimation, giving animators the ability to bring a 3D flair to their 2D animation as well as ouput to all media platforms including the Internet. "Alias|Wavefront is very pleased to welcome USAnimation and ToonShader to the family of integrated plug-ins available for Maya," said Tom Reyburn, developer relations manager for Alias|Wavefront.

Warner Bros. Online has announced the launch of ZETA QUEST 3D, a "walk-through" online video game based on the popular Warner Bros. Animation's series THE ZETA PROJECT. Players assume the identity of Zeta, an anti-terrorist synthoid who has escaped government operators and gone in search of Dr. Selig, the scientist who created him. Classified as a high-tech menace-at-large, Zeta is pursued by his captors while trying to clear his name.

Italy’s Digital Video S.r.l., developers of the 2D animation package Toonz, has started shipping the new 4.5 release for the Windows NT/2000, Irix and Linux operating systems. The new version of Toonz provides a number of new features, including Flash support, a new palette extraction tool, native support for new scanners, DDR to VCR control, new effects, a new “wizard” button to make batches more efficient and others.

3D authoring technology vendor Caligari Corporation has released trueSpace 5.1, the newest version of its 3D modeling program that now features new support for Macromedia Shockwave3D and other web output capabilities. The company lowered the price for the stand-alone version of trueSpace, as well as launched a new paid subscription-based "proTeam" program of online tools, training programs, libraries and support services.

The International Animation Festival of Brazil, Anima Mundi, presents
its second Web animation competition, Anima Mundi Web. The
competition is open to all international works in Flash format and
under 500 K. The deadline for entries is June 1, 2001. There is no
entry fee. The festival will pre-select twenty works that will be
displayed on the festival Website for viewing and voting from June 15
to July 20, 2001. Viewers can vote for the public prize. A group of
animation professionals will be invited by the curators of Anima

* Tuesday, May 1 – Sunday, July 22, 2001, Online.

Leading independent animation house Film Roman announced increases in revenue and operating income for the their most recent quarter. Company revenue increased by 51% or $6.5 million, to $19.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2001 from $12.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2000. The company attributed the increase to the delivery of more fee-for-services episodes and a movie-of-the-week special.