"Setting Up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Needs To Know,"
was written by Jeremy Vineyard, a writer and director based in Los Angeles...

The past few weeks were marked with announcements regarding companies
beginning to broadcast animation over the 'net, and this is only going to
intensify...

Charles Schulz, the creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire
PEANUTS gang, has decided that he will retire in order to concentrate on
beating his newly diagnosed cancer. This desicion will end almost five
decades of Schulz's world-famous comic. Schulz, who has always refused to
let another artist draw PEANUTS, said he would stop producing new daily
panels as of January 3, 2000 but allow his syndicators to recycle comic
strips from 1974 if newspapers still wanted to run the strip. On a daily

Florida, U.S.-based AARGH! ANIMATION, Inc., one of the largest independent
cel animation houses, has produced a series of national spots for Cold-Eeze
cold medicine that combine live-action with cel animation. The cel
animation was directed by Mark Simon and Dave Kallaher of AARGH! Now
running and continuing through the cold season, these spots, three :10
spots and two :30 spots, are running in heavy rotation on major U.S.
networks. The spots feature live-action actors whose sneezes morph them
into animated characters.

Urban Vision will soon re-release Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City. The

classic horror anime D will hit streets January 18, 2000 and Yoshiaki

Kawajiri's hit Wicked City debuted December 7, 1999. Both flicks will be

available in an English Dubbed version for US$19.95 and a Japanese with

English subtitles version for $29.95. Other anime titles coming soon to DVD

are Slayers: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000 for $29.98

and Legend Of Crystania: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000

Disney's television animation chief Charles Hirschhorn has been given the
boot. The now former head of Walt Disney Television and Walt Disney
Television animation officially exited the position on Wednesday, December
8, 1999. It's speculated that Hirschhorn's responsibilities at WONDERFUL
WORLD OF DISNEY will most likely be taken over by ABC movies and
mini-series head Susan Lyne, while his duties for TV animation and
direct-to-video flicks will most likely be folded into the feature

Next summer the third feature installment of the POKEMON trilogy will make
its way to Japanese theatres. POCKET MONSTER: THE LORD OF THE UNKNOWN TOWER
will introduce yet another of those little "pocket things" to kids and
merchandising execs around the world. Kunihiko Yuyama is set to direct the
film, which will feature a short tentatively titled POKEMON 2000. If in the
U.S. or Europe one may ask, whatever happened to POKEMON 2? Well, fear not
Charmander chums, the second POKEMON feature, which was released in Japan

"Spike & Mike" fest organizers, Mellow Manor Prods. has teamed up with
Netcaster IFilm to bring its twisted toon vault exclusively to Cyberspace.
The two year deal will allow Net surfers the chances to see animation
shorts only previously showcased at the "Spike & Mike's Classic Festival of
Animation" and "Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation."
BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD-creator Mike Judge, SOUTH PARK's Trey Parker and Matt
Stone, TOY STORY's John Lasseter, and the NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS'

Harvey Entertainment Company has inked a deal with San Francisco-based
Spunky Productions, Inc., a digital media company, to produce and
distribute Richie Rich Web cartoons. The new toons will be available on
both SpunkyTown.com and the Harvey site. Spunky will adapt early comic book
adventures of the world's richest kid into 2 - 5 minute episodes to start
airing during the holiday season. Product tie-ins will be developed by both
companies to be sold on both of their Web sites. Dan March, Director of New

The Downtown Athletic Club (DAC), presenters of the Heisman Memorial Trophy
for the year's outstanding U.S. college American football player, have
contracted with Lemon Custard Comics, the San Francisco-based computer
animation production house, to produce a Flash-animated comic strip for the
Web to tell the story of the trophy and football in general. The first
installment, "The John W. Heisman Story," will run simultaneously on
HeismanMemorialTrophy.com and LemonCustard.com. DAC plans to use the Web to

LIPSinc., the producer of Ventriloquist for 3D Studio MAX, recently
announced that they had launched a new lip-synching program called Echo.
Whereas Ventriloquist is a plug-in for 3D Studio MAX, Echo is a standalone
program which outputs in flipbook, dope sheet and function curve animation
data for animation platforms, interactive 3D game engines, and multimedia
applications. Timeline Studios, a company founded by best-selling author
Michael Crichton, is using Echo in the company's first title, slated for

Cinanima '99 finished its week-long run on November 14, 1999. The Espinho,
Portugal festival highlights the best in animation from around the globe.
This year, the International Jury gave their Grand Prize to Alexander
Petrov's film THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. The Canadian and Japanese produced
film also won the RTP Prize, an award given by the Portuguese State
Channel's special jury, and the Best Soundtrack Prize. The
Canadian-produced film by Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove entitled

On November 18, 1999, LEAF, the London Effects & Animation Festival,
bestowed their award for best effects in a feature film on STAR WARS:
PHANTOM MENACE. Over 700 industry personalities watched LEAF's finale, an
hour long visual effects smorgasbord from around the world. Rob Coleman was
on hand to except the award for Industrial Light & Magic's work on the
PHANTOM MENACE. Other winners included: AKA Pizazz's "Megalomaniac" for
best commercial animation; Jason Shulman's HOLLOW for best student film;

Linda Simensky, Cartoon Network's VP of original animation, received one of
Girls Inc.'s four 1999 honors. With over 50 years of service, Girls Inc.
has been dedicated to helping American girls become strong, smart and bold
through educational programs. Each year the organization honors industry
execs who have helped challenge and inspire young girls across America.
Along with CBS pres. Nancy Tellem, Lifetime VP Kelly Goode Abugov, and
Entertainment VP at WB Jordan Levin, Simensky was recognized for her work

* Saturday, December 18, 1999. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.



John Canemaker, animator/author/director of the animation program at NYU
Tisch School of the Arts, will be in Los Angeles this month to sign copies
of his latest book on animation history: "Paper Dreams: The Art And Artists
Of Disney Storyboards." Canemaker will be available at 2 pm at the Howard
Lowery Gallery, 3812 W. Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, where he will sign
"Paper Dreams" and copies of any and all of his many books on animation.

As part of the International Children's Film Festival in Hyderabad, India
on November 17 - 18, 1999, 45 children ages 5 - 15 years old came together
to create a wildly imaginative, 5 minute animated short titled TOONED IN 2
DAYS. The feat was done at a 2 day workshop on animation conducted by Dr.
Neeraj's Animation Studios, the digital animation production facility of
Sriven Multi-Tech Limited. Twenty of the studio's top animators, led by
Dhimant Vyas and Rajsekhar took on the responsibility of guiding the

The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has announced the members of their
international jury for the 2nd European Television Producer Award. Guy
Fournier, the Canadian writer/producer, will preside over the seven member
jury. Guy Fournier has written some 2000 hours of television drama for
French and Canadian productions, over 150 hours of films and series for
television, plays for the theater, feature length films (FANTASTICA, UNE
AMIE D'ENFANCE) and has also published a number of books. Other jury

This month Animation World Magazine is taking a special focus on Asian
Animation, especially Japan. Kosei Ono profiles Japanese artist, Tadahito
Mochinaga, and Gigi Hu introduces us to two of Japan's leading independent
filmmakers. A group of key creative talent from Blue Sky Studios recently
toured Japan and have provided us with a scrapbook of photos and stories.
Andrew Osmond takes an indepth look at the impact Japanese animation is
having on animation made outside of Japan and we begin the first in a

The Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning is looking
for an Assistant Professor of Design, Digital Design for September 2000...

The Imagina computer conference and festival is often referred to as the
European equivalent to SIGGRAPH. For its 19th edition, in keeping with
tradition, the event will start in Monaco, January 31-February 2, 2000, but
will then continue in Paris February 2-4, 2000 with the exhibition of new
industrial developments and technologies. The events in Monaco include the
"Prix Pixel-INA" awards competition, the Innovation Space, and various
conferences and panel discussions such as "2D/3D Animation," a discussion