U.K.-based audio post and music composition company Tamborine provided the audio post work on LEGEND OF THE DRAGON, now airing on the BBC1 Saturday morning slot. BKNs high-action, 26x30 animation series just completed a run on CBBC, before transferring to BBC1.
McFarlane Toys will put a chill in the air this fall creating many products from TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE. The film honors the dark, romantic tradition of Burton's EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS as it follows the path of Victor, a fidgeting groom who is taken from his own wedding and married to a Corpse Bride in the underworld.
Pixologic has announced the release of the learning edition of ZBrush 2 and the ZBrush Learning Kit. Experience ZBrush 2s innovative modeling and texturing tools. With its realtime sculpting and texturing of multi-million poly models, ZBrush will carry your digital art to that next level of realism and artistry.
Radium, the growing artist-owned visual effects house based in Santa Monica and San Francisco, recently added two new talents to its roster. Jon Townley, who will serve dual roles as artist manager and creative director, has held top positions in numerous digital studios from MetroLight to Sony Pictures ImageWorks to L-Squared. Jeff Blodgett, incoming exec producer, brings with him 15 years of invaluable post-production experience.
Addressing the needs of commercial producers and others involved in high-end visual effects production, Hollywood Center Studios has unveiled a new 4,500-square-foot shooting stage with a three-wall, hard cove cyc. Dubbed Stage 12, the new space can accommodate the popular motorized Fisher Light rigs, making it ideal for car shoots, as well as bluescreen or greenscreen work.
Technology and nature blend together seamlessly to create a breezy and soothingly upbeat vibe in 1st Ave Machine's latest creation, SIXES LAST, a music video for the artist Alias, who is currently signed with record label Anticon. Taken off the musicians album MUTED, the video debuted at RESFEST in September 2005 in the Cinema Electronica Showcase.
The Moving Picture Co. (MPC) has completed more than 750 visual effects shots for WALLACE GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, the stop-motion animated feature directed by Nick Park and Steve Box. This first feature-length WALLACE & GROMIT outing was created by Aardman Animations with distribution through DreamWorks. The picture was color graded by Max Horton in the MPC DI lab
While DreamWorks romantic fantasy JUST LIKE HEAVEN (with vfx by Big Red Pixel) ruled the box office for the weekend ended Sept. 18, 2005, seducing $16.4M in its debut, TIM BURTONS CORPSE BRIDE (with vfx by MPC) attracted a lively $385,078 in its five-theater bow, good enough for a whopping per-screen average of $77,015.
The latest Acrobat version of Animation World Magazine is now live. The theme for April was gaming. Janet Hetherington takes a look at Sonys new PlayStation Portable and the challenges of creating big games for the small screen. Karen Raugust looks at how PC and console games are making their way into films and other media while film directors, writers and actors are setting up their own gaming companies. Fred Galpern takes a look at how the progress and advances in technology are shaping the future of the quality of gaming animation.
Palisades Ent. Llc. has announced that, effective immediately, it has entered into a partnership with Diamond Comic Distributors, officially naming Diamond as its distributor for the hobby retail market in North America. After more than a decade of working together, both parties agree that this new, closer relationship will significantly benefit specialty retailers and their customers.
Digital Dimension described the crash sequence from ABCs LOST (Part 2 of the pilot), which recently earned the 2004-2005 Creative Arts Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series. Digital Dimensions work on LOST previously garnered a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program last February.
French-born Sylvain Chomet and his producer wife Sallys studio in Edinburgh, Scotland is creating an influx of animators to the city, reports SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY. Django Films is set to hire up to 250 artists to work on the two feature projects.
The first film is THE ILLUSIONIST, a £10m animated being funded by Pathé Pictures. A second project is in the works with Universal for a computer-animated feature titled, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX.
Kids' WB! new 2005-2006 broadcast season will be highlighted by the world premieres of three new series and four returning hits. Kids WB! kicks off its new schedule Sept. 17 (8:00 am-12 pm ET /7:00-11:00 am PT). On Monday, Sept. 19 (3-5:00 pm ET/PT), the new seasons Monday-Friday weekday lineup will debut, introducing the high-octane vehicles-turned-robots world of TRANSFORMERS: CYBERTRON, along with more exciting adventures of returning shows, five days a week.
Entity FX has begun production for SMALLVILLE after finishing last season with an exclamation point. The season premier, Arrival, which has more than130 high def vfx shots in the episode, airs Sept. 29 at 8:00 pm on WB. This will be the fourth season for which Entity FX produces all the visual effects, all in high def, for the hit series.
Industry veterans David Gioiella and Mark Littman have launched Mr. Wonderful, a new design and vfx company. The entity is an offshoot of their Northern Lights Post boutique and will cater to high-end broadcast design, feature film and television projects.
Robin Lyons new company, Calon, recently formed from the original Cardiff-based Siriol team, is bringing its new creation, SAFEHOUSE HOTEL, to Cartoon Forum this week in Denmark.
FOX and Burger King Corp. are serving fans of FOXs animated shows an opportunity they are sure to want to sink their teeth into a chance to attend a table read of their favorite FOX toon in Los Angeles in the HAVE IT YOUR WAY contest. Viewers can vote for their favorite show by logging onto www.fox.com/yourway, where they may cast their ballots for KING OF THE HILL, THE SIMPSONS, FAMILY GUY or AMERICAN DAD. Clips of each show are accessible from the site.
Frantic for an Adult Swim fix on Friday when the popular late night cartoon block for adults does not air? Well now you can access them on AdultSwim.com, the online adjunct to Cartoon Networks late night sister network of animation for adults. Adult Swims Friday Night Fix launches Sept. 16, 2005, offering select Adult Swim content via the Internet. Visitors to AdultSwim.com will be able to watch full-length episodes of selected Adult Swim original comedies, like AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE, ROBOT CHICKEN and SEALAB 2021 online, each week.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE-director David Cronenberg is trying to line up an adaptation of Martin Amis novel LONDON FIELDS as his next project, reports SCI FI WIRE. The story chronicles a psychic who senses that one of two men in a pub will kill and sets forth to make it really happen.
Lupus Films and Picture Production Co. (PPC) has started development on PINKY & PERKY, a new CGI series. The plot of the series will center on two Laurel & Hardy-liked brothers who are the hottest trotters in town. They have to overcome their differences once they are given their own live childrens TV show full of mad games, wild cartoons, gunge tanks and top celebrity guests.
As the cornerstone of his speech at the Tokyo Game Show's annual event, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata elaborated on the theme of the company's aim and proven ability to broaden the population of videogame players. Two shining examples highlighted in his keynote include the smash-hit sales of the highly innovative NINTENDOGS game for the portable Nintendo DS and the new controller that will be central to the company's upcoming console system, code-named Revolution.
Indie kids media company Planet Nemo has announced details of its first production. The company has teamed up with Canada-based Subsequence Ent. to co-produce a new preschool series called BALI, which will be pitched at Cartoon Forum Kolding, Sept. 21-24, 2005.
Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE) has just released the first expansion pack for EVERQUEST II and the 10th for the original EVERQUEST.
EVERQUEST II DESERT OF FLAMES, marking the game's first introduction to player-versus-player combat, is available now for the suggested retail price of $29.99. This expansion is in addition to regular updates subscribers have received throughout the past 10 months at no additional cost.
On Sept. 15, 2005, Animation Block Party ended the sweltering NYC summer with a festival that featured more than 60 short films in three September screenings at BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn. Animations from Canada, Australia and Europe meshed well with the top festival films from the U.S. The genres featured were diverse, ranging from stop-motion to experimental films, personal narrative work, music videos and gross-out humor.
With a jewel-encrusted carriage parked outside the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Walt Disney premiered the digitally restored print of CINDERELLA. The celebration was in anticipation of the two-disk DVD release of the film, retailing for $29.99, on Oct. 4, 2005. On the same day, Disney will also release a special platinum collectors edition of the film, featuring addition special features and a special booklet on the film for $49.99.
