Now available in the AWN Store are two exclusive videos from renowned Brazilian Animator Marcos Magalhaes....

MILIA 2000, the World's Interactive Content Marketplace, will take place
February 14-18, 2000 in Cannes, France. The sixth edition of the MILIA d'Or
Awards - The World's Interactive Content Awards will be sponsored for the
second consecutive year by DVD FORUM, an international association
dedicated to developing DVD formats and promoting its broad acceptance.
Awards categories include interactive (games, family entertainment and
learning), as well as Interactive TV, e-commerce and online entertainment.

A website devoted to Walt Disney has been launched at
disney.go.com/disneyatoz/waltdisney/home.html. The site covers
Disney's entire career, and features clips from Disney's animated and
live-action films, as well as family photos and home movies.

Sausalito, California-based Puffin Designs has announced Commotion DV, a
professional image editing and effects program for digital video artists.
Commotion DV is ideal for creating original stylized motion graphics and
fixing image problems such as video dropouts. The SuperClone brush allows
users to move and duplicate objects such as mountains, trees or clouds to
create just the right background; fill in crowd scenes; or remove visual
distractions such as power lines or a wayward microphone. Playback controls

San Diego, California-based Pixels, Inc. is shipping version 3.2 of PiXELS:
3D for Power MacIntosh. The new version is 25% faster than the previous
version. Among the features are: an Inverse Kinematics system that lets you
draw bones and create joints; Organic Modeling that enables users to mold
primitive objects like clay; a MorphMaker that allows for multi-target
morphing and an Animation Timeline that lets you fine tune the movement of
objects. PiXELS: 3D 3.2 Studio version sells for US$299.00 and PiXELS: 3D
3.2 Studio Pro version sells for US$499.

A.D.V. Films is releasing the following anime titles in the US. On November
9: MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO VOLUME 1 - INVASION! - An unorthodox crew
fights to save Earth from annihilation by Martians; COMPILER 2 - It's
Compiler versus Compiler in deadly showdown!; and ORIGINAL DIRTY PAIR
VOLUME 4 - Kei and Yuri stumble upon a child who is the sole survivor of a
mass murder committed over twenty years ago. November 23: BUBBLEGUM CRISIS
VOLUME 2 - TRIAL BY FIRE - Sylia's brother Mackey joins the team as the

SONY PICTURES FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP has appointed five key development
executives. BOB HIGGINS has been promoted to Senior Vice President of
Creative Affairs; STACEY ATTANASIO has been named Senior Vice President of
Production; JOE D'AMBROSIA has been named Executive Director of Creative
Affairs; TARA POLACIK has been promoted to Director of Creative Affairs and
GRACE BENN has been named Creative Executive. Prior to his new appointment,
BOB HIGGINS served as Vice President of Creative Affairs for Columbia

CARTOON NETWORK has promoted MARK NORMAN to senior vice president of
business operations for Cartoon Network USA and BOOMERANG. Norman will be
responsible for long range strategic planning and forecasting, including
network investments in original programming and program acquisitions. He
will also oversee all business and operational aspects of the new Cartoon
Network Studio in Los Angeles, as well as orchestrate the launch and manage
all operation of Boomerang, the network's new classic animation channel
which will launch on April 1, 2000.

Some fans, who are still shaking their heads over the poor boxoffice performance of the critically acclaimed THE IRON GIANT, director Brad Bird's adaptation of the children's book by British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, have suggested that Warner Bros. should re-vamp their publicity campaign for the film by targeting a larger audience than the young kids that were originally targeted, and re-release THE IRON GIANT theatrically. Such a scenario appears unlikely now that Warner Home Video has announced THE IRON GIANT for home video and DVD.

McFarlane Toys is releasing four dual-packed assortments of action figures based on characters in YELLOW SUBMARINE featuring The Beatles, John, Paul, George and Ringo. Each card comes with two figures and accessories. John comes with Jeremy, the Nowhere Man; Paul comes with Glove, one of the Blue Meanies instruments of evil; George comes with the Yellow Submarine; and Ringo comes with a Blue Meanie. The figures will be released in late September or early October, and retail for between US$8 and $11.

Craig Miller and Marv Wolfman, who created and produced POCKET DRAGON ADVENTURES, are offering THINKING VISUALLY: HOW TO WRITE FOR TV ANIMATION, a single session class at The Learning Annex in Los Angeles. Topics to be covered include what's required to break in; what extra things you need to think of when writing animation; writing the premise, outline, and script; writing with your intended viewers in mind; working with story editors; and humor and action, how far can you go. Handouts will include a sample story premise, outline, and script.

San Jose, California-based Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced Adobe After Effects 4.1. After Effects is a tool for motion graphics designers and visual effects artists working with film, video, multimedia and the Web. Among the new features are: support for enhanced media exchange, performance enhancements, workflow refinements, and extended creative options and control. Adobe After Effects 4.1 will be available in September 1999 in the US and Canada for an estimated street price of US$699 for the standard version and US$1,499 for the production bundle.

San Francisco, California-based Mondo Media, Inc. has announced a one-year deal with Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc., to provide Netscape's Netcenter Web site with two weekly animated shows which will be presented under the banner of MONDO MINI SHOWS. LIKE, NEWS is written and directed by Don Asmussen, a regular cartoonist for TIME and GEORGE magazines, and features a sarcastic teenager with a nose ring who "interviews" newsmakers such as Saddam Hussein and Al Gore.

Tens of thousands of gameboys in the US and Canada flocked to retail outlets early on the morning of Thursday, September 9 as the Sega Dreamcast videogame console was made available for the first time in North America. As Sega expected, sales for the console during the first 24-hours set a new record for biggest 24-hours in entertainment retail sales with a total of $97,904,618.09 (about 500,000 players at a retail price of $199). The previous record was held by STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE, with its $28 million boxoffice on its first day of release in May 1999.

Montreal, Canada-based Toon Boom Technologies Inc. is now shipping version 2.3 of TicTacToon. Some of the features included on this new version are the ability to: customize and modify the aspect ratio of each scene at any stage of production; work on up to three levels of animation simultaneously; drag and drop entire columns of drawings with their cel names and timing to and from the Animation and Exposure Sheet modules; make order and timing changes quickly in either module through insert, replace or append options; and draw paintable rectangular zones to close outer edges of any drawing.

Buena Vista's supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE, with visual effects by
DreamQuest, finished second at the US weekend boxoffice after topping the
list for its first five weeks of release, grossing an estimated $17 million
over the weekend, for a total of $198.2 million. No other animation related
films finished in the top ten.

Italy, Rome-based Digital Video S.R.L. has announced Toonz version 4.3,
which provides 2D users with new tools to be more creative and efficient on
their job. The digital exposure sheet is much more user friendly, including
many new special effects, complete keyframe capabilities on all parameters,
and enlarged number of mathematical expressions for more controllable
motion. Enhancements of display features include icons in the level header
area for quick reference of elements. Texture mapping has been strengthened

DreamWorks Home Entertainment is hosting a chariot race on Tuesday,
September 14 at 7:50-9 am to celebrate the release of DreamWorks' 1998
animated feature THE PRINCE OF EGYPT on home video and DVD. In the race,
which will be known as the Pharaoh's Cup Championship, Egyptian chariots
will race through two blocks of Hollywood Boulevard, between Cherokee and
McCadden, in Hollywood, California as part of an effort to raise donations
for The Eastside Boys and Girls' Club of America, Children's Action

London, UK-based RICHARD PURDUM PRODUCTIONS has completed three spots for
Nestle Polo mints. In "Aliens," which was designed by Robin Heighway Bury,
the mint is chased by aliens. In "Cement," which was designed by John Paul
Early, the Polo mint is hounded by a mob, and in "Beach," which was
designed by Adrian Johnson, the mint is chased by muscle men into a ladies'
changing room. The three designers brought their individual styles to each
of the spots, which were all directed by Richard Purdum for agency J.
Walter Thompson.

Diepenbeek, Belgium-based Androme N.V. has announced the release of
CreaToon, a tool for cut-out animation, animated paint and any other
animation that needs the manipulation of images or video sequences.
CreaToon enables real-time editing and preview, and allows all parameters
and textures can be animated with multiple camera views and scenes and lots
of plug-ins, such as file format plug-ins (TGA, BMP, JPG, PNG and AVI), a
layers plug-in (image and gradient layer) and others. The package also