London-based PASSION PICTURES pops open four 10-second spots for Cadbury's

Giant Button chocolates. Director Chris Hauge brought to life the animated

little girl Giant Button, voiced by Noddy Holder. In "Boy Bands," she

advises young fans that if a favorite boy band breaks up just "find a new

one." In "Parents," she advises youngsters to emigrate to a desert island

if their parents become too embarrassing. In "Boys," Giant Buttons avoids a

LUCAS LICENSING has appointed KERRY PHELAN in the new executive position of

director of domestic licensing & marketing. In her new role, Phelan will

oversee all aspects of the Star Wars licensing business for the U.S. Before

coming to Lucas Licensing, she was a long time marketing executive at LEGO

toys, where she was responsible for developing the LEGO brand among young

families. "The Star Wars licensing program has always been about creating

February is our annual motion-capture and stop-motion issue, and we have

plenty in store as usual. Sharon Schatz interviews Brian Nilles of leading

motion-capture technology firm, Vicon Motion Systems. Gregory Singer goes

behind the scenes on one of the many projects which uses Vicon's

technology, while Laura Schiff introduces us to Webbie Tookay, a new

motion-capture personality. On the stop-motion side of things, Wendy

Jackson covers Aardman Animations' current high flying times as they work

The SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, located in historic Savannah,

Georgia, USA, is seeking candidates with college-level teaching experience

for the position of PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER ART to teach beginning and

advanced level courses in Stop-Motion and Clay Animation. The successful

candidate should have professional experience as an

animator/director/designer, and familiarity with a wide range of

fabrication materials, techniques and styles, including armatures and

Chicago suburbs-based TERRAGLYPH INTERACTIVE STUDIOS is expanding its

game development team...

When the day broke on Tuesday, an old man wasn't humdrum about joining a

list of Oscar nominees that included three misses and my grandmother who

irons shirts...

For the 40th anniversary of the Annecy festival and ASIFA, Annecy is

welcoming an exceptional guest, Mr. Roy E. Disney, as Honorary President of

this 24th edition...

Animha Productions, a unique association of professionals dedicated to

independent film production and animation workshops, is working on a peace

film project created by Prakash Moorthy in India and Animha's Dave

Brunskill in England. The film will include single drawings and paintings

done by 5-7 year-old children from around the world, and all children are

invited to participate. The subject is "a mother sending her child to

school." Drawings should reflect the national identity of the child, using

Check out the latest "behind the scenes" features and tutorials from Visual

Magic Magazine...

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes fourteen new events,

from animation, short film and visual arts events to business conferences...

Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy

Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...

Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz...

- FIGURE CONSTRUCTION, a brand new Vilppu video


Prestigious life drawing instructor Glenn Vilppu is offering a new video

tape of his classes. Vilppu said: "Figure Construction is a class room

demonstration of basic figure construction. This tape, I feel, is one of

the best examples that I have done so far on basic construction." His

material is being used worldwide in courses for animation students. The

Two years ago, following the theatrical release of "Anastasia," Fox was

expanding its commitment to animation. Fox Family Films, one of Twentieth

Century Fox's four film divisions, was being renamed Fox Animation Studios,

to reflect the division's new plan to focus solely on animated feature

films, including stop-motion, mixed media (live-action mix) and digital

production. Several animated projects were on the development slate then,

including "Dark Town" with Henry Selick, "Santa Calls" with Blue Sky|VIFX,

* Saturday, February 26, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.





Women In Animation, Inc. will be holding their annual meeting with guest

speaker Lynda Weinman of lynda.com. The meeting introduces members and

anyone interest in WIA with what has happened in the past year and what

exciting events and activities are on the way in 2000. Weinman, a pioneer

of graphic and animation on the MAC, will bring to the event her knowledge

* Tuesday, February 22, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.





Come hear from the team of Fox's FUTURAMA at the AFI's Writers' POV. In

past years, AFI has featured the writing teams from THE SIMPSONS and KING

OF THE HILL, who gave a Writers POV on the making of an animated series.

Continuing this popular topic, AFI has invited the FUTURAMA team to

participate in this question & answer event. Guests will include: executive

producer David X. Cohen, and writers Ken Keeler, Eric Horsted, Lewis

Rumored since last fall, Walt Disney Animation Canada Inc. announced

Monday, February 14, 2000 it will close the doors of its animation studios

in Canada by the spring. Opened in 1996, the Toronto and Vancouver branches

of Walt Disney were created to produce primarily direct-to-home video films

in connection with Walt Disney Television Animation. The company slowly

started winding down production last fall and will completely close around

After five years in existence, Fox Animation Studios is laying off nearly

70% of its Phoenix-based toon factory's staff. The restructuring of the

animation department will include more contract work outside the studio.

President of animation at Fox, Chris Meledandri said a foundation of 65-100

of the now 320 employees will remain, including, of course, studio staples

Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Fox will continue to perform pre-production

work including storyboarding, character design, production design and

Mondo Media, a leading creator and distributor of serial-based animated

content, announced Monday, February 14, 2000 that it has secured $20

million in its second round of financing. The newest round was led by

Macromedia and Foundation Capital. Additional funding partners in the round

included Sofinnova Ventures, Red Rock Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and

Phoenix Growth Capital. Mondo Media also added new syndication partners

that include Excite@Home, AltaVista, AtomFilms and washingtonpost.com.

Jim Varney, the comic who most recently provided the voice of Slinky Dog in

TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2, died on Thursday, February 10, 2000 at his

Tennessee home of lung cancer. He was 50 years old. Best known for his

Ernest character in commercials, television and films, Varney also provided

voice over work for characters on the THE SIMPSONS. Varney was the star of

several Disney Ernest films, most notably ERNEST GOES TO CAMP and ERNEST

SAVES CHRISTMAS. Doctors diagnosed Varney with cancer in August 1998, and