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AWN Headline News

Studios Headline News

THQ Acquires Vigil Games

Interactive entertainment software publisher/developer THQ Inc. has acquired Austin, Texas-based, game developer Vigil Games. The Virgil team will be led by David Adams, previously creator/director of several projects for NCSoft and famed comic artist Joe Madureira, best known for his work on Marvel Comic's Uncanny X-Men and his creator-owned comic series, BATTLE CHASERS. Vigil is currently working on new content for next-gen scheduled for release in 2008.

Dreamworks Headline News

HP, AMD Power Over the Hedge

HP technology helped DreamWorks Animation SKG create the 3D-animated feature, OVER THE HEDGE, which was released today in U.S. theaters and is showing at the 59th Cannes International Film Festival.

HP, which is DreamWorks Animation's preferred technology provider, delivered servers, workstations and HP Halo collaboration studios to meet the demanding business and production needs required to create the new animated comedy.

Special Headline News

Fairly OddParents Holds 'American Idol-Style' Contest in Hour-Long Special

Nickelodeon's THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS pays homage to the AMERICAN IDOL craze with its very own Idol-like singing competition in FAIRY IDOL, a one-hour special premiering May 19, 2006, at 8:00 pm. The special stars former AMERICAN IDOL contestant Diana DeGarmo, as the singing voice of her biggest fan, Cosmo. The older-skewing special repeats on Nickelodeon May 20 at 7:00 pm and May 21 at 5:00 pm.

Effects Headline News

Rainmaker Announces New Animation and VFX Facility in London

Rainmaker has established a new facility in the Soho district of London: Rainmaker Animation and Visual Effects UK Ltd. In fact, all the visual effects in the St. Sulpice sequence of THE DA VINCI CODE were completed there. Led by Rainmaker visual effects supervisor Mark Breakspear and visual effects producer Nick Drew, the crew produced the longest visual effects sequence in the film.

Animation Headline News

Houdini 8.1 Public Beta Released

Side Effects Software, developer of the award-winning Houdini family of 3D software, announced the public beta of Houdini 8.1. This new version features an artist-friendly Auto Rig, Muscle System, Character Picker and Pose Library, as well as enhancements to the Rigid Body and Wire dynamic solvers. CG artists from around the world are invited to download the Houdini 8.1 public beta for free from www.sidefx.com as part of the Houdini Apprentice Program.

Animation Headline News

endorphin Used to Create Realistic Chaos in Poseidon

NaturalMotion Ltd. announced that its award-winning endorphin software was used by Giant Killer Robots to create several character animation sequences for POSEIDON. endorphins ability to quickly and easily generate realistic animation allowed the teams to create very demanding and destructive shots that would have been near impossible to achieve using traditional tools.

Dell Headline News

Dell to Make AMD Switch

Dell announced that it would begin using processors from AMD in place of those from Intel to help regain lost market share. Dell said that the AMD-based Dell high-end servers with four Opteron processors would be introduced by the end of this year.

Kevin B. Rollins, Dell ceo, emphasized, however, that it is a fairly small category that has been given to AMD, and that Intel would continue to remain the supplier of most processors used by Dell.

Award Headline News

Academy Announces 2006 Student Academy Award Winners

Thirteen students from nine different colleges and universities have been named winners in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition. They will participate in a week of industry-related activities and social events culminating June 10, 2006, with the awards presentation ceremony at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. One film student from South Africa also has been selected to receive this year's Honorary Foreign Student Film Award.

The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title within category):

Film Headline News

Adobe Celebrates Student Filmmaking at Cannes

Adobe Systems Inc. announced that it is sponsoring the American Pavilion Student Filmmaker Program at the Cannes Film Festival, May 17 through May 28, 2006. Students representing 30 film schools in North America, the U.K., India and South Africa will be paired with professional filmmakers and instructors to create documentaries on their experience at Cannes using the Adobe Production Studio, Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Studio 8. Documentaries will be broadcast daily on the Adobe.com website.

Entertainment Headline News

IDT Ent. Gets Sheepish With CG Feature

IDT Ent. has announced the start of production on a new CG-animated feature film, titled SHEEPISH. The film, in production at the companys West Coast headquarters in Burbank, is a comic twist on the old saying beware of wolves in sheeps clothing. Animation will be done at IDT Ent.s studio in Toronto.

Films Headline News

Grind House Stalks Easter Weekend 2007

Dimension Films has announced that GRIND HOUSE, the highly-anticipated collaboration from directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, will be released in theaters Easter weekend, 2007.

"The Easter holiday was a record-breaking weekend for Dimension this year with SCARY MOVIE 4, and we are confident that GRIND HOUSE will do extremely well in this slot," said Bob Weinstein, co-chairman of Dimension Films.

Headline News

Del Toro & Cuaron Team on Dahl’s Witches

Guillermo del Toro (HELLBOY) and Alfonso Cuaron (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) have been hired by Warner Bros. to make an adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1973 book, THE WITCHES, reports VARIETY. Del Toro will write and direct with Cuaron producing via his New York-based company Esperanto.

In regards to Nicolas Roegs 1989 adaptation, Del Toro said, "The Roeg film is a brilliant movie but certain aspects are a departure from Dahl's original. Dahl had the brilliance of writing children's stories, which shocked adults.

International Headline News

Aardman Launches International TV Distribution Division

Aardman Animations, the Academy Award-winning stop-motion animation studio, is making its foray into distribution, launching its own dedicated sales arm, Aardman International, to exploit its growing catalogue of properties.

Miles Bullough, Aardmans head of broadcast and development, will oversee the new division.

Headline News

Dean Devlin to Make Directorial Debut With Ghosting

Producer Dean Devlin (INDEPENDENCE DAY and FLYBOYS) will helm his first film as director, GHOSTING, a vfx-filled paranormal thriller, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Devlin will begin shooting early next year after principal photography is complete on his sci-fi adventure, ISOBAR.

Devlin will also produce GHOSTING for his company Electric Ent. with in-house partners Kearie Peak and Marc Roskin.

Studio Headline News

Studio B Awards Scholarships To Young Animators

Studio B Prods., one of Canadas leading animation studios, is opening up their doors to scholarship winners. The winners were chosen by their portfolios from their respective first and third year animation programs. Three $2,000 scholarships and the opportunity to work with Studio B during a four-week paid internship program were awarded to:

* Capilano Colleges Lauren Airriess from Salt Lake City, Utah working in the Design & Storyboard Department on GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE and RICKY SPROCKET SHOWBIZ BOY.

Focus Headline News

James Schamus Named Sole Head of Focus Features

Focus Features, the art house division of Universal Pictures, named company veteran James Schamus as its sole ceo.

The new title for Schamus, who co-produced the Oscar-winning BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, follows the recent promotion of David Linde from co-head of Focus to co-chairman of Universal Pictures, sharing that job with Marc Shmuger. Previously Schamus and Linde had run Focus together.

Framestore Headline News

FrameCycler DI Goes to Framestore CFC

Iridas has sold two seats of FrameCycler DI to Framestore CFC. The application provides disk-based, full-resolution playback; conform of Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) for online review of the editors' work; primary color grading for look development; and Iridas' new ReviewLink technology for interactive review session from multiple locations.

Disney Headline News

Narnia, Fantastic Four Sequels Change Release Dates

Disney has moved THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN from Dec. 14, 2007, to summer 2008, to avoid direct competition with Columbia Pictures fantasy, THE WATER HORSE, which is slated to open Dec. 8, 2007, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Both are produced by Walden Media. The move also gives NARNIA director Andrew Adamson and his crew extra time, according to Walt Disney Studios svp of publicity, Dennis Rice.

Animation Headline News

CIS Hollywood Leverages Massive on Poseidon

Massive Software's artificial life-driven animation system has been adopted by CIS Hollywood to produce digital visual effects for Warner Bros. POSEIDON.

CIS Hollywood acquired single license of Massive to complete a number of POSEIDON shots that required realistic digital characters. These included establishing shots and other sequences showing people in passageways, as well as shots of crewmembers, waiters and cooks in the ships galley and a large party scene.

Work Headline News

Titan Books to Publish Stan Winston Tome

Stan Winston is collaborating on the first-ever book to reveal all the behind-the-scenes secrets of his groundbreaking and hugely influential artistry and effects work.

Titan Books of London will work closely with Stan Winston and the artists of the Stan Winston Studio on the new book, tentatively titled THE WINSTON EFFECT: THE ART AND HISTORY OF STAN WINSTON STUDIO, written by CINEFEX editor Jody Duncan.

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

E3 has come and gone, but managing editor Rick DeMott reports this week on the latest gaming achievements, trends, issues and concerns that were voiced at the various E3 conferences. Meanwhile, Peter Plantec reports on the cross-pollination and growing U.S. presence that occurred last month at fmx/06 in Stuttgart, Germany. Were covering features and shorts this month, so Renee Dunlop interviews Kyle Jefferson and Cameron Hood about directing FIRST FLIGHT, the first 3D-animated short from DreamWorks Animations Glendale campus.

Series Headline News

AWN Debuts Latest Lesson in High-End Animation Directing Series

By Dan Sarto | Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 12:00am

AWN has launched the latest free video lesson in its exclusive video learning series taken from Hollywood Camera Work: The Master Course In High-End Blocking And Staging, a comprehensive and ambitious six DVD training series for animation and live action directors. The newest lesson cover focal length, which is primarily thought of as being about picking lenses that give us the right shot size, and fit the characters into the set. However, the primary reason to pick a lens is really to control the Compression of Space.

Features Headline News

Focus Features Picks Up Laika’s Coraline

Focus Features has acquired the world rights to Laika Ent.s stop-motion feature, CORALINE, based on the book by Neil Gaiman, reports VARIETY.

The film features the voice of Dakota Fanning as a young girl who walks through a secret door in her new house where she discovers an alternate version of her life.

Laika supervising director Henry Selick is adapted the script and will co-helm alongside Mike Cachuela. Pandemonium Films head Bill Mechanic is producing with Laika's Mary Sandell. They Might Be Giants will provide the songs.

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