Search form

AWN Headline News

Headline News

VO Actor Peter Hawkins Passes Away

Peter Hawkins, a British actor who voiced characters that ranged from THE FLOWERPOT MEN to the sinister Daleks on DR. WHO, has died, reports various news outlets. He was 82.

Hawkins started as a stage actor after his World War II service in the Navy. After working in conventional roles on TV, he moved into voice over in the 1950s on the children's puppet shows THE FLOWERPOT MEN, which featured two creatures with legs made from flower pots.

Online Headline News

Accredited Online Colleges Adds 3D Training Institute

Accredited-Online-Colleges.com has just added 3D Training Institute to its database of online colleges and universities.

The 3D Training Institute teaches via the Internet with a live instructor online. Based on a students skill level, a teacher covers the 3D Project Based Course or the 3D Foundation Workshop. 3D animation classes are taught by some of the best in the industry who possess years of real world experience and/or are currently working in the 3D animation industry.

Headline News

Animation An Outlet For Victimized Children, A Tool For Research

Sharon Tettegah, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been studying the use of animation as an outlet for victimized children and for a new research method that tests the empathy of teachers who may deal with them.

Tettegah believes so strongly in the value of animation specifically "animated narrative vignette simulations" that she sought out a computer science professor at Illinois, Brian Bailey, to help develop her concept for a child-friendly program for producing them.

Headline News

NBC’s Heroes Pilot Debuts At Comic-Con Q&A Panel

Comic-Con International 2006 fans will be the first to watch an exclusive 72-minute special cut of NBCs HEROES pilot episode, created just for the annual event in San Diego. Debuting this fall on Mondays at 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET, HEROES chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover that they possess extraordinary abilities.

Headline News

Warner Bros. Shines Spotlight on Top Projects at Comic-Con

Warner Bros. Ent. will have a significant presence at this year's Comic-Con. For the first time, the Studio will have a booth on the convention floor, with a full slate of activities with all divisions of the Studio (Animation, Pictures, Television, Home Video, Interactive Entertainment, Worldwide TV Marketing, etc.) are participating with Booth Signings, as well as major presentations throughout the Comic-Con schedule.

Warner Bros. Pictures three big panels are:

Thursday, July 202:00 3:30 pmRoom 6CDEF

Animation Headline News

Best Of Animation Show to Screen at Comic-Con

MTV and The Animation Show will host a special screening of THE BEST OF ANIMATION SHOW at Comic-Con on July 22, 2006 at 9:00 pm in Room 6CDEF. THE BEST OF ANIMATION SHOW is a feature-length compilation of the best animated short films in the world. The film is co-produced and created by Mike Judge (OFFICE SPACE, BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD, KING OF THE HILL) and acclaimed animator Don Hertzfeldt, whose 2001 REJECTED was nominated for an Academy Award.

THE BEST OF ANIMATION SHOW includes:BUNNIES: By Studio Soi RABBIT (new) By Run Wrake

Film Headline News

Animated Renaissance Comes to Comic-Con

Miramax plans to highlights its latest acquisition from France the motion capture film, RENAISSANCE. The studio will be located at booth #5469.

Directed by Christian Volckman, RENAISSANCE takes film noir to its most stylized edge, utilizing live action motion capture, animated in 3D and rendered in high contrast black & white to create a graphic novel look.

Mipcom Headline News

It's Time To Get Involved With AWN's Upcoming MIPCOM Newsletter!

Continuing our special event specific Flash Newsletters, we will be publishing a special edition for MIPCOM. The market is fast approaching and our editorial and advertising staff is gearing up for the MIPCOM-specific Flash Newsletters. Here are the dates for the publications. Please send your news two weeks prior to the publication date.

MIPCOM NewslettersSept. 19Sept. 26Oct. 3

All your news can be sent to editor@awn.com. For sales opportunities, contact Dan Sarto at dan@awn.com or call (323) 606-4200.

Marvel Headline News

Marvel Comics & Planetwide Games Announce Comic Book Creator

At San Diego Comic Con in Booth #719, Marvel Comics and Planetwide Games will unveil new content for Planetwide Games original Comic Book Creator interactive entertainment software. Under the terms of the agreement between the two companies, Planetwide Games has the right to create and publish versions of the interactive software and content booster packs for Comic Book Creator based on classic Marvel s characters such as the X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, and Dr. Octopus to name a few.

Effects Headline News

MPC & Cinesite Provide VFX for Little Man

Moving Picture Co. (MPC) of London was hired to create the little man character in Sony/Revolutions LITTLE MAN, while London-based Cinesite contributed 210 vfx shots to the Wayan brothers comedy.

The Wayans filmmaking team enlisted visual effects supervisor Alex Bicknell and visual effects producer Rob Yamamoto to oversee the complex effects process, which included hiring outside effects houses, to watching over daily principal photography, to overseeing post-production.

Effects Headline News

GenArts to Showcase Sapphire Plug-Ins at SIGGRAPH 2006

GenArts Inc., a leading provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industries, will be showcasing Sapphire Plug-ins at SIGGRAPH 2006, being held Aug. 1-3 at the Boston Exhibition & Convention Center. Visitors to GenArts booth #1700 will see demonstrations on a wide range of platforms, including: Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, eyeon Fusion, Apple Shake and Final Cut Pro, Avid Xpress Pro and Autodesk Combustion. GenArts will be presenting new versions of Sapphire Plug-ins for Apple Shake 4.1, Final Cut Pro 5.1 and Autodesk Combustion 4.

Headline News

Radical Axis Animating Comedy Central’s Freaks

Radical Axis, Inc., an Atlanta studio that specializes in animation and design for broadcast (AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE, SQUIDBILLIES), is producing Comedy Centrals new animated half-hour series, FREAK SHOW. The show chronicles the adventures of a band of freak show performers and second-rate superheroes. Created by comedians David Cross and H. Jon Benjamin, Freak Show will premiere Oct. 4, 2006, 10:30 pm.

Headline News

NewTek Ships New LightWave 3D Version 9

NewTek Inc. announced the availability of the latest release of LightWave 3D version 9.0, the next generation of the Emmy-winning 3D application. The new release is the first in a series of major rewrites and restructuring of LightWave 3Ds core with the addition of comprehensive new features such as a node-based materials editor, optically correct cameras, adaptive pixel subdivision, Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces, sub-surface scattering and vast render speed improvements.

Animation Headline News

NaturalMotion Wins Industry Excellence Award at 2006 Develop Games Conference

NaturalMotion Ltd., developers of the highly-acclaimed euphoria and endorphin Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technologies has been awarded the Develop Industry Excellence Award for Tools and Middleware at the Develop Games Conference in Brighton, U.K. Competing against several other companies, NaturalMotion was selected by an independent voting panel of developers, as well as analysts and journalists.

Artists Headline News

Digital-Tutors Releases UV Layout in XSI Training

Digital-Tutors released UV LAYOUT IN XSI, a comprehensive guide to learning the fundamentals of UV layout with in XSI and the latest release in a growing library of interactive training for emerging digital artists. Containing more than three hours of project-based training, UV LAYOUT IN XSI provides artists with time-saving UV mapping techniques, creative workflow and a firm understanding of XSI's UV tools. A 30-day trial version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI Foundation is also included, allowing artists immediate access to explore the software.

Film Headline News

Superman Producer Turns to Comicbook Inspired Films Again

Pierre Spengler, one of the first three SUPERMAN films, will return to comicbook inspired films with a 12-picture deal drawn from titles in the catalog of French graphic novel publisher Humanoides Associes, according to the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

The first will be the live-action film I AM LEGION, adapted from the World War II political intrigue written by Fabien Nury and illustrated by U.S. graphic artist John Cassaday.

Spengler's company, Clubdeal Ltd., will produce the films, whike he is talks with a U.S. distributor to release all 12 films in the U.S.

Cartoons Headline News

John K Posts WB Toons Online, Starts War of Words

REN & STIMPY creator John Kricfalusi believes "Warner Bros. Cartoons hates their fans, after Warner Bros. Ent. forced YouTube to remove clips of classic Looney Tunes shorts for its website, which were posted by John K, according to the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

On Kricfalusis blog (johnkstuff.blogspot.com), the acclaimed animator posts informative essays about his favorite cartoons, which he has posts clips from to illustrate his point.

Headline News

Foxx Prays for the Power of Duff

Jamie Foxx and his manager Jaime Rucker King are set to produce THE POWER OF DUFF, joining Marc Platt, who already has been developing the feature film via his Marc Platt Prods, according to the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Foxx and King will help develop the drama, which Foxx may star in.

Universal won the script in a bidding war last year, paying $900,000 against $1.25 million. Russell Crowe, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks have circled the project as well.

Cartoon Headline News

André 3000’s Class of 3000 to Debut in November on Cartoon Network

CLASS OF 3000, the highly-anticipated primetime half-hour animated series created and exec produced by André Benjamin (OutKast) and Tom Lynch (ROMEO!), will debut in November. The series focuses on a group of musically-gifted kids and an unlikely visitor named Sunny Bridges who brings sunshine to their lives.

Comics Headline News

Middle Eastern Superheroes Coming To Comic-Con

AK Comics Jalila, Rakan, Zein and Aya hit Comic-Con via newly published U.S. issues featuring AKs roster of caped Middle Eastern superheroes.

From a booth, attendees will be introduced to pages of four U.S. titles featuring the visually striking superheroes, as well the creative team bringing them to life. The L.A.- and Cairo-based company also will assemble artists, writers and editors for a panel to be presented 10:30 am in Room 8 on Thursday, July 20, 2006.

Headline News

Adobe Hosts MAX 2006 Conference and Fourth Annual MAX Awards

Adobe MAX 2006 Conference and Fourth Annual MAX AwardsLas Vegas, Nevada, USAOctober 23-26, 2006Deadline: September 1, 2006

Adobe Systems hosts the Adobe MAX 2006 Conference, giving developers and designers a forum to network, share ideas, get hands-on technical training from certified experts, gain new skills and learn about new and emerging Adobe products and technologies. Adobe also announced the call for entries for the fourth annual Adobe MAX Awards, which recognize customer achievement in eight different categories.

Pages