Director Arvind Palep and exec producer Serge Patzak have launched 1st Avenue Machine, a new CG boutique in New York City that will integrate what it perceives as a fresh live action and animation hybrid to its design work.
Continuing a successful collaboration with Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and director Francois Vogel of Paris-based Paranoid Projects: Tool, Zoic Studios has just completed the visual effects for HP's FRANCOIS II, which showcases the capability of the HP Photosmart 375. Last year's spots, FRANCOIS I and PICTURE BOOK, were both recent Clio winners, garnering the Bronze and Silver for Best Visual Effects, respectively.
Digital-Tutors has released the MAYA IN PRODUCTION: FUNDAMENTALS OF ANIMATION training kit, the fifth installment in the popular Backwater Bunch Series and latest release in a growing library of industry leading training resources for emerging digital artists.
Maxon Computer has announced its support of the new Intel-based Apple Macintosh Generation.
Maxon cto Harald Schneider stated, "Apple's announcement is good news for a cross-platform developer like Maxon. Since our products' source code is over 95% platform-independent, it can be ported very quickly. In addition, Intel has always proven to be a very flexible and dedicated partner."
Apple ceo Steve Jobs announcement last week that Macintosh computers will embrace Intel microprocessors next year in an effort to improve speed and efficiency, especially on notebooks, has received mixed reviews.
Some analysts fear a rocky transition ahead and a diluting of the brand. However, others are more optimistic. This move away from IBMs PowerPC would allow the Mac to eventually run Windows at full speed, opening it up to more software choices.
Beginning June 13, 2005, Jetix will kick off a Super Summer of Heroes, an on-air and online programming event that includes the premiere of the popular 1990s animated series THE TICK and the return of FANTASTIC FOUR to ABC Familys Jetix block. Jetix airs evenings on Toon Disney and mornings on ABC Family, seven days a week.
The coveted short film grand prize at the 29th International Festival of Animated Film at Annecy went to THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO by Anthony Lucas from Australia. The awards were presented at the closing ceremony held on Saturday, June 11, 2005 in Annecy, France. Congratulations to all the winners!
A while back VFXWORLD visited the set of Michael Bays THE ISLAND and more recently viewed the opening 45 minutes at a special DreamWorks presentation at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie get vfx help from CaféFX in two exciting escape sequences for Twentieth Century Foxs MR. AND MRS. SMITH, which opens June 10.
They play a married couple who appear bored with their quiet life but, unknown to each other, are actually international assassins whose career paths are about to fatally collide.
All the short and feature films on competition have now been screened at Annecy 2005 and the judges are off to make their final deliberations for the awards ceremony tomorrow night, June 11 in Annecy, France. The week started off a bit cold and dreary, in both the weather and the film selection. But there have certainly been better selections than the previous year, offering a remarkably varied amount of styles, techniques and storytelling.
PorchLight Entertainment will produce a new season of JAY JAY THE JET PLANE episodes that will include an interactive mystery element and a new Latina airplane character friend for Jay Jay.
The FAIRLY ODDPARENTS special to air June 10, 2005 at 8:00 pm on Nickelodeon will be music to the ears of big musical and series fans as the animated gang breaks into song after song for an hour in "Schools Out! The Musical." There is a ton of music in this ambitious special, 11 musical numbers, ranging from pop to rap to classic show tunes. The show takes place on the last day of school in Dimsdale, as Timmy Turner and his friends want to start summer vacation. The show repeats June 11 at 7:00 pm and June 12 at 4:00 pm.
Rushes Post-production Ltd. has announced the short list for the seventh Rushes Soho Shorts Festival to be held between July 30 and Aug. 5, 2005. After seven successful years based solely in the capital, the festival has teamed up with VUE CINEMAS to become a Nation-wide event with screenings across the U.K. In addition, a record breaking 1,900 Short Films, Newcomer Films, Music Videos, Title Sequences and Idents were entered into this years festival, reinforcing the U.K.s reputation as one of the leading creative industries in the World.
20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures have taken the bid from Microsoft to produce a feature film adaptation of videogame HALO, reports VARIETY. The final details are still being hammered out, but for certain Universal will handle domestic rights with Fox taking international.
Toon Boom Animation announced that Toon Boom Concerto is phased out of the market due to the superior toolset offered by Toon Boom Harmony. Building on Opus and Concertos capabilities, Toon Boom Harmony comes with more advanced features such as morphing, inverse kinematics and glue that enhance the animation production process, whether it is traditional or digital. Harmony also includes a global template library that facilitates the reuse of assets, all set up in an integrated pipeline.
Heeding complaints about space and hot air of previous MIFAs, this years international market, in conjunction with the Annecy Festival in France, opened with more space, an improved air system, more areas to gather, a screening area for buyers, even better food and beverage services for those attending.
Antics has started shipping Antics Pre-Viz, its previs product designed specifically for live-action production teams for $995/£570/675.
Sega Animanium, a 3D character animation software that has been used by leading animation studios and videogame developers in Japan, is now available in both a full version and a newly released lite version.
USA Index Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Japan-based Index Corp. and licensee of Animanium, has released Animanium Express for $99. Animanium Express offers most of the features of the full version of Sega Animanium, however is limited to no more than 180 frames and does not offer the automatic clean-up function.
TV-Loonland has appointed Irina Ignatiew as sales manager for TV and home entertainment in the German-speaking territories (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) in order to grow its internationally successful distribution activities. In her new position, Irina Ignatiew will report directly to the TV-Loonland managing board in Munich. Ignatiews responsibilities include the sales and distribution of TV-Loonland programs throughout the German-speaking world.
Videogame maker Atari Inc. announced that president/ceo James Caparro resigned, and the board appointed chairman/cco Bruno Bonnell to take his place on a temporary basis while it searches for a permanent replacement.
Shares of Atari Inc. dropped 54 cents, or about 18%, to $2.40 in after-hours activity.
Caparro is leaving Atari after fewer than eight months on the job to become president/ceo of Entertainment Distribution Corp., a division of Glenayre Technologies Inc.
John H. Williams is set to produce PHREEX, an animated feature following a group of rejected lab animals, reports the trades. The screenplay was written by Matt Corman and Chris Ord. Williams will begin shopping the project to partners soon.
Williams will produce alongside Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, who have worked with Williams writing his Vanguard houses VALIANT, which the Walt Disney Co. will release August 19.
Stopping the potential for a strike, SAG and AFTRA have comes too terms with the videogame publishers, backing down from their demand for residuals from the $7 billion videogame industry, reports VARIETY. Yet, the actors will be a hefty 36% increase in the base rate of $556.20 per session for voiceover work.
DreamWorks Animation has signed a deal with videogame publisher Majesco to become the first studio to release films for Nintendo's Game Boy, reports VARIETY. The first title will include SHREK, SHREK 2 and SHARK TALE in Majescos proprietary Game Boy Video format. Price tag for the films will be about $20.
Previously, the publisher released TV shows from Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network. The run has always been that the Game Boy format can only hold animated content up to 90 minutes.
Inspired Corp. announced the release of STORY STORE, a new 13-episode children's animation series. There are five DVDs, each containing three episodes and a free children's book. There is also a holiday special that includes one bonus episode. The release is under Inspired Corp.'s Peter Pan label.
Its the proverbial calm before the storm this week as we await the highly anticipated June 15 release of BATMAN BEGINS. Although its vfx are not intended to be as flashy as REVENGE OF THE SITHs, youll soon see how it raises the bar in crafting invisible effects. You can read all about it and much more next Wednesday, when Danny Fingeroth explores the significance of director Chris Nolans back to basics approach to the Dark Knight.
