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AWN Headline News

Game Headline News

EMotion FX 3 Character Animation System Now Supporting Xbox 360

Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Mystic Game Development announced that its latest next-gen product, EMotion FX 3 the realtime character animation SDK for multi-core processor systems will fully support the Xbox 360 videogame system from Microsoft.

Studio Headline News

Silicon Studio Highlights Products, Hosts Party at GDC

Silicon Studio Corp., a leader in digital content development products targeted at the entertainment industry, is showcasing two of its latest products and sample technology at the Game Developers Conference 2006 (GDC 2006) to be held from March 20, 2006 in San Jose, California, at the booth # 1346. In addition, Silicon Studio is hosting a Happy Hour with complementary beverages and hors doeuvres from 5:00 pm on March 22, the first day of GDC, during the GDC Expo Booth Crawl.

Autodesk Headline News

Autodesk Unleashes Weapons of Mass Creation at GDC

Autodesk Inc. is heading to the 2006 Game Developers Conference (GDC) with arguably the worlds leading portfolio of animation tools for next-generation game development. Autodesk will showcase the latest versions of its 3D animation software products at booth #526. GDC will take place from March 22-24 at the San Jose Convention Center.

Television Headline News

TV Academy Student Winners Announced

Students from Savannah College of Art & Design and CalArts took first place in the animation categories of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation�s 27th Annual College Television Award. The winners were announced March 19, 2006, at a gala ceremony at the Culver Studios in Culver City, California.

Headline News

BOXX Launches AMD-Powered GoBOXX 1400 Mobile Workstation

BOXX Technologies Inc. announced the new version of its award-winning mobile high-performance workstation, GoBOXX 1400, now powered by AMDs Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processors. Designed to maximize productivity and performance, GoBOXX 1400 combines the powerful AMD Athlon processor technology with a WUXGA GlassView Type Active Matrix display for 2D/3D graphics and animation professionals on the go.

Headline News

RE:Vision Effects Releases RE:Flex for Fusion

RE:Flex brings intuitive morphing and warping directly to eyeon Software's Fusion 5. Superior results are achieved using RE:Vision Effects' proprietary and sophisticated technology. RE:Flex is especially easy to learn because it uses the Fusion's own drawing and masking tools to direct the warping and morphing; as such, there is no need to learn a whole new user interface.

Design Headline News

Concept Designers James Clyne and Neville Page Join Gnomon

Concept design luminaries James Clyne and Neville Page will be teaching two new courses at Gnomon School of Visual Effects during the spring 2006 term, which begins April 3. Clyne has developed and will teach Environment Workflow Techniques, while Pages course is Character Workflow Techniques. Both courses are five weeks in length.

Headline News

SCI FI Channel Restructures Online Group To Focus on Broadband

SCI FI Channel has restructured SCIFI.COM to focus on broadband development and feature a richer balance of original online content and channel-related fare, with video playing a prominent role in every facet of the site.

Matthew Chiavelli will oversee the effort as Multimedia director and will be assembling a broadband team charged with developing the site's new broadband network, which will debut in May 2006. Also as part of the SCIFI.COM restructure, Marlon Jackson has been named web director and Shara Zoll has been named project director.

Headline News

Simon Kenny to Head Warner Bros. Digital Distribution

Simon Kenny moves into the new role of president of the newly formed Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, one of the companies that make up the Warner Bros. Home Ent. Group. In this newly created role, Kenny will manage the worldwide electronic distribution streams of the studios product over existing, new and emerging digital platforms, including pay-per-view, electronic sell-through, video-on-demand, subscription-video-on-demand, wireless and more.

Universal Headline News

SCIFI.com Hosts World Premiere of King Kong's Skull Island

To celebrate the DVD release of King Kong on March 28, 2006, SCIFI.com will host the world premiere of KING KONG'S SKULL ISLAND, a fascinating look at the unforgettable setting of three-time Academy Award-winning picture on March 18. SCI FI Channel will broadcast the featurette, beginning March 21, making the website and the cable network the only places audiences can experience this intriguing behind-the-scenes look at KING KONG before the release of the two-disc special edition DVD.

Home Headline News

Warner Home Video to Deliver First HD DVD Titles to Marketplace

Warner Home Video (WHV) announced it will launch its first titles on HD DVD. Clint Eastwood's four-time Academy Award-winning, Best Picture of 2004, MILLION DOLLAR BABY; four-time Oscar-nominated epic, THE LAST SAMURAI and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Joel Schumacher's movie adaptation of Broadway's longest running show will all be released on April 18, 2006. Each of these titles will be available for $28.99.

Dreamworks Headline News

Viacom to Sell DreamWorks Film Library For $900M

Soros Strategic Partners LP and Dune Ent. II Llc., an affiliate of Dune Capital Management LP, have signed a definitive agreement with Viacom Inc. to purchase the film library of Paramount Pictures' DreamWorks Llc. in a transaction that values the film library at $900 million. The library sale, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in April. The transaction completes the second stage of the DreamWorks acquisition.

Software Headline News

Virtools Previews New PSP Development Solution at GDC

Virtools, a Dassault Systèmes company, announced it will preview its upcoming framework for PSP development at GDC 2006, held March 20-24, 2006.

Virtools Dev is the prototyping software leader with an unparalleled and intuitive graphical scripting system and a library of more than 450 ready-to-use behavior building blocks that can be directly attributed to objects, characters, camera, game logic and any other prototype components.

Headline News

Scientologists Declare War on South Park — and Win

Reports out of Hollywood indicate that the Church of Scientology used its well-known celebrity muscle to pressure Comedy Central into pulling an upcoming episode of the cartoon SOUTH PARK that satirized the religion. According to DAILY VARIETY, the clash between Scientology and the SOUTH PARK creators is escalating in the wake of this latest move. The controversy first gained national attention earlier this week when Isaac Hayes, the voice of the popular character Chef, quit over an episode mocking Scientology and its most famous adherent, Tom Cruise.

Films Headline News

Films By Jove Launches Animated Soviet Propaganda Series

Films by Jove has begun delivery of the much anticipated ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA series. The unique anthology is based on more than three dozen anti-American, anti-German, anti-British, anti-Japanese, anti-Capitalist and anti-Imperialist animated shorts produced by the Soviets from 1924-1984.

Game Headline News

Russian Nival Interactive Opens U.S. Headquarters

In a first ever move for an Eastern European game company, Nival Interactive Inc. announced it has established its global headquarters in the U.S. and recruited an executive management team comprised of American videogame industry professionals, including Kevin Bachus, co-creator of Microsofts Xbox, as ceo. The changes are part of the companys plan to expand in the computer, video and mobile game markets by offering its partners superior products with global commercial appeal at a significantly lower production cost.

Shows Headline News

Toonami Broadens Appeal To Tweens, Adds Live-Action

In the U.K., Toonami has added live-action drama and comedy to its cartoon lineup to broaden the appeal of the channel.

Aimed at boys and girls 6 to 12 years old, Toonami is the first kids channel from Turner Broadcasting to include live-action series, which will be added to the channels popular cartoons including THE BATMAN, POKÉMON, JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS and STATIC SHOCK.

Television Headline News

AOL & Warner Bros. Launch First Broadband Television Network

AOL and Warner Bros. announced the launch of In2TV, the first broadband television network, on AOL.com. The network offers the largest collection of free on-demand TV shows on the Web, including full episodes of favorite Warner Bros. programs from the past 40 years, such as WELCOME BACK, KOTTER, CHICO & THE MAN, GROWING PAINS, KUNG FU, LOIS & CLARK, as well as animated series, along with interactive features and viral videos that enable audiences to experience and interact with television programming in a new way.

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

As we head into GDC this month and NAB in April, theres going to be a greater concentration on reviews of software upgrades. The question inevitably becomes: Are there enough improvements to warrant the cost? With Adobe After Effects 7, for example, Fred Galpern suggests that there are, including a new UI. Meanwhile, Alain Bielik unmasks the vfx for V FOR VENDETTA (opening Friday), supervised by Dan Glass (BATMAN BEGINS and THE MATRIX sequels), which escalated from 120 to 500 shots, with Cinesite acting as lead facility.

Bill DesowitzEditor

Film Headline News

VES, ACM SIGGRAPH Los Angeles to Explore Games and Film

The Visual Effects Society (VES) and the Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH are jointly sponsoring "Experiential Narrative in Games and Film," which will take on the issues of how to keep an audience engaged and participating. The event will take place March 25 at the Digital Cinema Laboratory at the Pacific Hollywood Theater, 6433 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, California, 90028. The event begins at 10:00 am with a social hour followed by the panel discussion from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Series Headline News

Marvel's Fantastic Four Finds U.S. Home on Cartoon Network for Fall 2006

Cartoon Network has bought exclusive U.S. television rights to Marvel Est.s all-new animated series based on the ever-popular Fantastic Four Super Hero franchise. Cartoon Network will debut 26 half hours of the FANTASTIC FOUR series in fall 2006.

Special Headline News

SCI FI Channel Unmasks V For Vendetta March 16

SCI FI Channel will give audiences a sneak peek behind the mask of mysterious freedom fighter 'V' in V FOR VENDETTA: BEHIND THE MASK, airing at 11:00 pm tonight, March 16, 2006. This exclusive 30-minute behind-the-scenes special takes an in-depth look at the Wachowski brother's dark and uncompromising vision of the future, V FOR VENDETTA, which opens in theaters Friday. There will be a special a special encore broadcast of the special March 17 at 8:30 am.

Headline News

Battlestar Galactica Finale Shocker Available Online

For those who might have missed it, SCIFI.COM has made the final moments of the shocking season 2 finale of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA available online. Viewers can go to www.scifi.com/battlestar to watch the video stream.

The BATTLESTAR GALACTICA area of SCIFI.COM is constantly being updated with fresh content that is getting lots of traffic, including:

* Podcasts of commentary on each episode by exec producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, which have received two million downloads to date

Software Headline News

REALVIZ Launches Stitcher 5.1

REALVIZ has made version 5.1 of its award-winning panorama software, Stitcher, immediately available. With version 5.1, Stitcher now also becomes available in German, in addition to English and French. The release of version 5.1 also accompanies the launch of a brand-new website (http://stitcher.realviz.com), dedicated to the REALVIZ stitching products, Stitcher & Stitcher Express.

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