Fox and Marvel have withdrawn a case filed in June against Sony and Revolution film ZOOM, reports VARIETY. The suit claimed the Tim Allen comedy is too similar to the X-MEN franchise and that its release two weeks prior to X3 was an attempt to ride the promotion of the third X-MEN film.
Konami Digital Ent. Inc. announced a multi-year agreement with Marvel Enterprises Inc. and Upper Deck Ent. that gives Konami exclusive worldwide interactive rights to develop games for current and next-generation videogame systems based on Upper Decks best-selling Marvel Trading Card Game. This is the latest addition to Konamis collection of interactive trading card based properties, which also includes the tremendously successful YU-GI-OH! series.
Taking its cue from the Motion Picture Academy, which holds a special visual effects nominees screening event shortly before Oscar ballots are due, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Title Design & Special Visual Effects Peer Group will host a Bake-Off" showcase of Emmy Award nominees and its Nominee Reception together, on Friday, Sept. 9, 2005, at 6:30 pm at the Television Academy's Leonard H. Goldenson Theater in North Hollywood, California.
Pixar story man extraordinaire and voice actor Joe Ranft was killed in an automobile accident Aug. 16, 2005, near Mendocino, California, at the age of 45.
Ranft was head of story on the original story teams for Pixars first two films, TOY STORY and A BUGS LIFE, and was a story artist on MONSTERS, INC. He was most recently working as head of story on John Lasseters next film, CARS.
Even though SIGGRAPH 2005 has come and gone, the VFXWORLD focus remains this month on new technology. Alias Maya 7 started shipping, so later in the week Fred Galpern explores the latest features. This newest Maya capitalizes on the Alias MotionBuilder full-body IK technology and makes animating characters faster, easier and more accurate. Plus there is new polygonal modeling and some new vfx tools, too, including a new Toon Shader and advanced render layering technology.
Warner Home Video has announced that BATMAN BEGINS will released on DVD Oct. 18 in both a single-disc ($28.98) and two-disc Deluxe Edition ($30.97), with the movie in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) and English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, DIGITAL BITS reports. The Chris Nolan-directed feature, which set an IMAX record for 2D DMR presentation, boasts vfx from The Moving Picture Co., Double Negative, Rising Sun, BUF and The Senate Visual Effects Ltd.
Curious Pictures visual effects department in New York has selected seven new computer graphics and vfx specialists for Curious ever-growing slate of branded entertainment projects. The new talent roster includes animators Seth Lippman of PDI/DreamWorks, Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks, who worked on SHREK 2, THE LORD OF THE RINGS and ANTZ, and Dr. John Alex, a former software engineer and technical director for Pixar, who led animation teams for TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO, and wrote software applications for THE INCREDIBLES.
NaturalMotion announced the forthcoming release of endorphin 2.5, the newest version of the companys award-winning 3D character animation software. endorphin 2.5s powerful new transitioning, blending and behavior features, combined with enhancements to asset repurposing tools and improved FBX support, allow animators to create realistic, fully interactive 3D character animation faster and easier than traditional keyframe or motion capture techniques.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced today (Aug. 17, 2005), the Emmy Award winners in Individual Achievement in Animation, as well as Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for the 57th Annual Emmy Awards. Juried awards do not have nominations and are selected by members of ATAS' animation peer group, which may choose more than one winner in a category or none.
The winners will be presented with their Emmys at the 2005 Creative Arts Awards on Sunday, September 11, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Nicktoons will present NEXTOONS: THE NICKTOONS FILM FESTIVAL, a week-long festival of shorts submitted by animators worldwide. The festival will kick off on Sunday, Aug. 21, at midnight (ET)/9:00 pm (PT) and will air nightly at midnight (ET)/9:00 pm (PT), leading up to the final episode on Sunday, Aug. 28. Created in partnership with Frederator Studios, NEXTOONS: THE NICKTOONS FILM FESTIVAL is the first on-air festival of its kind, and the only, on-air festival dedicated to showcasing the diversity of independent cartoon filmmaking by animators from around the globe.
Highlighting the month of September on TELETOON will be a host of sneak peeks at new fall series as well as world and Canadian premieres.
Independent Games Festival 2006San Jose, California, USAMarch 20-24, 2006Deadline: September 6, 2005
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) honors innovation in videogames created by independent game developers and students. This year's festival will feature a $20,000 Grand Prize for the best game, a new modding competition and the student showcase competition. The deadline for the main IGF Competition is Sept. 6, 2005; the modding competition submissions are due Oct. 10, 2005; and student showcase submissions are due Nov. 15, 2005.
Paris International Short Film FestivalParis, FranceJanuary 9-17, 2006Deadline: September 15, 2005
Paris International Short Film Festival is open to filmmakers from all countries entering a recent short work (less than 60 minutes), of all kinds (fiction, documentary, animation, experimental). Films are selected to one of the following sections: French-speaking competition, International panorama, First European films and Night UFO. For more information, visit www.paristoutcourt.org/.
Deep Ellum Film Festival Dallas, Texas, USANovember 17-20, 2005Deadline: September 23, 2005
Tim Burton's stop-motion animation CORPSE BRIDE is among many features that will have their world premieres at the upcoming 62nd Venice Intl. Film Festival where animation film director Hayao Miyazaki will become the first Japanese to receive an honorary Golden Lion award for his career achievements.
Festival Director Marco Muller said Miyazaki's style expressed romanticism and humanism in spectacular narratives while the fictitious worlds the director depicts always contain something eye-opening to catch the imagination of adults, awakening their inner child.
Visual Effects Societys Education Committee has developed an exciting two-part event on Animation, coordinated by Janet Muswell and Susan Zwerman.
Chris Landreths Oscar-winning animated short, RYAN, has landed on DVD (Rhino, $19.95) in a special edition that puts the spotlight on both director and subject, the once successful but now homeless Canadian animator, Ryan Larkin. RYAN is presented in anamorphic widescreen in both stereo and a 5.1 mix. An hour-long doc supplements the celebrated 14-minute short about Larkins volatile and tragic life and career.
This week in the AWNs Theatrical Release Database, we have a host of new trailers and bunch of date changes.
SIN CITY, Robert Rodriguezs ambitiously stylized adaptation of Frank Millers graphic novel (with vfx divided between Hybride, CaféFX and The Orphanage, along with crucial assistance from the directors Austin, Texas-based Troublemaker Studios), lands on DVD Aug. 16, 2005 (Buena Vista Home Ent., $29.99).
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz.
MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS (1999) and POM POKO (1994), two animated features from director and Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, make their DVD debuts (Buena Vista Home Ent., $29.99) on Aug. 16, 2005. The former provides nine amusing comic book-style tales in the life of the quirky Yamada family, punctuated by a haiku.
This week in AWN's Forums, a junior member is looking for ideas on how to animation production in America. Another junior members continue to have questions about schools. Another member is organizing a group picture of forum members comprises of individuals drawings. Theres a thread on editing .SFW Flash animation. Others continue to discuss FOSTERS HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS. A musician is looking for animators to work with. There are additional posts with members artwork for others to check out.
IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures announced that BATMAN BEGINS: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE is now IMAX's highest grossing digitally re-mastered 2D release, reaching the milestone in less than nine weeks. With total grosses of $14.5 million on 72 worldwide IMAX screens, it eclipses the record set by THE MATRIX RELOADED: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE, which grossed a little more than $14 million in 22 weeks. For the three-day period from Aug. 12 to Aug.
Toon Boom Technologies is among the the recipients of the 2005 Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards recently announced by The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Recipients will receive their awards during the non-televised Primetime Creative Arts ceremony on Sept. 11, 2005, at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Following are the 2005 Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards recipients:
PIXCODELICS, a new series of shorts premiered on Cartoon Network Latin America Aug. 13, 2005, at 12:00 pm. PIXCODELICS, consisting of 65 five-minute interstitials, was produced with MoP Brasil Digital, a 3D animation studio in San Paulo (www.mopdigital.com.br) and features a group of kids fighting to keep the Internet out of the clutches of a web tycoon.
