AWN Headline News

FlickerLab finished the animated TV commercial for MoveOn PAC, dramatizing the Republican effort to change Senate filibuster rules on Federal judicial appointments, in 44 hours for its debut April 26, 2005.

Samuel L. Jackson is set to voice and produce the animated action/adventure AFRO SAMURAI for Spike TV, with Japanese anime studio Gonzo and Japan's largest TV network, Fuji Television. The five-episode series will premiere on Spike TV in 2006.

From September 2005, the Department of Electronics at the University of Kent will complement its BSc in Multimedia Technology and Design with an MSc in Computer Animation. This MSc, which is a direct collaboration between the Department of Electronics and Mike Eames, head of animation at Framestore CFC, will equip students to become highly skilled professionals in the animation and visual effects industry.

Responding to the rapidly increasing performance demands of cinematic quality imagery, Pixar Animation Studios announced the release of version 12.5 of its award-winning RenderMan Pro Server software.

Key features of RenderMan Pro Server v12.5 include accelerated ray tracing, support for hierarchical subdivision surfaces, an API to read and write point cloud files, ray tracing visibility and shading attribute simplification and many other improvements and optimizations.

IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures announced that HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE will be simultaneously released to both IMAX and conventional theatres on November 18, 2005. The film is based on the best-selling J.K. Rowling book and is the fourth installment of the tremendously successful HARRY POTTER film series, which has grossed a total of more than $2.6 billion around the world. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE will be digitally re-mastered into IMAX's format through the company's IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology and released to the worldwide IMAX theatre network.

Cartoons on the Bay handed out its Pulcinella Awards on April 30, 2005, with AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER, FOSTERS HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS and PEPPA PIG all taking home two awards each. The event wrapped on Sunday with the awards shows having to turn away people because it was over capacity.

Alienware announced the availability of the new Alienware Aurora: Star Wars Edition, the first-ever officially licensed STAR WARS PC. Aurora: Star Wars Edition systems are based on AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processors and packed with exclusive STAR WARS content such as desktop skins, fan club membership and movie soundtrack samples. The systems are available in two versions, Dark Side and Light Side, which feature breathtaking STAR WARS artwork on the cases.