The Visual Effects Society (VES) will present the VFX Spring Speaker Series, with some of todays leading visual effects artists sharing their craft. Topics will be free flowing and interactive, with a focus on problem solving.
Luxology Llc. announced that Spinoff Studios and Naked Sky Ent. used modo as the core modeling tool for ROBOHORDES, a 3D robot combat demo created to demonstrate the processing power of Intels dual-core processor during the 2005 Game Developers Conference (GDC, booth #726).
Vance Gerry, a veteran Disney animation storyman, layout artist and visual development artist since 1955, passed away on March 5, 2005, at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, of complications from cancer. He was 75 years old.
While the U.S. isnt seeing much hockey action these days, those Canadians stay animated about the sport as hockey star Trevor Linden is featured in Studio Bs animated series, BEING IAN, airing at 6:30 pm on March 15, 2005, in the episode 'Hockey Night In Burnaby, on YTV.
V FOR VENDETTA, the next futuristic thriller from the Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver (THE MATRIX trilogy), began shooting today in Berlin, Germany, marking the directorial debut of James McTeigue, who was first assistant director on THE MATRIX movies and STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES. Dan Glass (BATMAN BEGINS) will serve as visual effects supervisor and London-based Cinesite will provide CGI and model work.
NVIDIA Corp. announced the immediate availability of the NVIDIA Developer Toolkit at GDC in San Francisco, a comprehensive suite of cutting-edge content creation, code integration, performance analysis and educational resources for game developers. Designed to make it easier for game developers to take advantage of the latest advancements in graphics hardware technologies, the NVIDIA Developer Toolkit can be downloaded for free at http://developer.nvidia.com.
Katja Reitemeyer, formerly of Avid and NXN Software, has joined Pipelinefx as vp of worldwide sales. Reitemeyer was one of the founders of NXN Software, makers of asset management software Alienbrain, which was acquired by Avid last year for $44 million. Reitemeyer will be based in Los Angeles, where a large part of the market for the companys flagship product qube! Remote Control exists. She will coordinate the companys sales thrust into the interactive entertainment and 3D animation markets worldwide.
One of the hottest online threads, Gene Kelly break dancing in his iconic SINGIN IN THE RAIN routine over the new Volkswagen Golf GTI, was given the digital treatment by Moving Picture Co. The BMP DDB :60 spot, directed by NE-O at Stink, originally aired in the U.K. in late January.
To open Mötley Crües Red White & Crüe Tour 2005 Better Live than Dead, fans will be treated to a clay-animated short featuring members of the band saving the world from imminent destruction. The short is taken from Dream Ent.s upcoming feature film DISASTER! THE MOVIE. Additionally, highlights of Dreams full-length theatrical feature, in which the band appears in a cameo role, will be shown during intermission at each concert. The film is scheduled for worldwide release later this year, with several distributors in the U.S.
Walk of Game, the first physical landmark honoring the icons and pioneers of the videogame industry, today announced its list of 2004 inductees: Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of MARIO BROTHERS and DONKEY KONG) and Nolan Bushnell (creator of PONG and founder of Atari) were selected in the Lifetime Achievement category, and HALO, Link (THE LEGEND OF ZELDA), Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog received top votes for favorite Game/Character.
The Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA), the governing body for the Australian Videogame Industry, announced that Australian videogame companies are planning ahead and looking for talent at this years GDC to help fuel the booming games industry Downunder in years to come. During GDC 2005 in San Francisco, California (March 7-11, 2005), interested parties wishing to learn more are asked to stop by and visit the BigWorld Booth # 827 or Auran Booth # CP160 and talk with the GDAA executives.
BioWare Corp. announced its plans to continue the expansion of its development teams for its future videogame projects. The Edmonton-based company is actively recruiting for a variety of positions across numerous disciplines and will be taking those recruitment efforts across North America in the upcoming months.
On March 7, 2005, National Film Development Corp. Malaysia (Finas) Chairman Datuk Abdul Aziz Rahman urged Malaysian feature, documentary and animation filmmakers to look toward making films that appeal to an international market, reports BERNAMA. The Malaysian tends to make films that appeal to specific local tastes, which make quick profits.
Abdul Aziz said, "Most of them (movie producers) never think that messages conveyed to the audience should be given priority".
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz.
The 4th Tehran International Animation Festival opened March 6, 2005, at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) and will run through March 10. Four 2005 Oscar Award nominees are scheduled to go on screen in the festival. 1,450 Iranian and foreign animation films will be screen with 446 selected for the domestic and international competition sections. 211 are Iranian-made.
This week in AWN's Forums, a junior member asks whats the best way to prevent character designs from being ripped off.
Continuing our special event specific Flash Newsletters, we will be publishing a special edition for MIP-TV. The event is fast approaching and our editorial and advertising staff is gearing up for the Flash Newsletter series. Here are the dates for the publications. Please send releases to editor@awn.com.
MIP-TV Flash NewslettersMarch 23March 30April 6
As a way to cash in on the hype surrounding the July 8, 2005 release of the FANTASTIC FOUR live-action feature, Buena Vista Home Ent. will release a box set of the entire FANTASTIC FOUR animated series, which aired from September 1994 to February 1996. The 30-minute show aired as part of the Marvel Action Hour along with IRON MAN. Produced by Genesis Ent., Marvel Prods., New World Ent. and TMS Ent., 15 of the 26 episodes were direct remakes of episodes of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera FANTASTIC FOUR series. The first season contained introductions by creator Stan Lee.
Sony Corp. has created a new management structure designed to expand upon its core strengths as a global electronics, entertainment and technology company with Howard Stringer at the helm to unify the companys divisions.
Nicktoons, Nickelodeon's digital channel for kids' animated hits, has ordered SHURIKEN SCHOOL, a quirky playground comedy with a martial arts twist about a boy's adventures at Ninja school, from Paris-based studio, Xilam Animation. The 26x13 series is based on an original idea by Spanish studio Zinkia Entertainment and will air on Nicktoons in 2006.
Buena Vistas family comedy starring Vin Diesel, THE PACIFIER proved too much for MGMs GET SHORTY sequel, BE COOL, in the battle of the post-Oscar box office openers for the weekend ended March 6, 2005. THE PACIFIER (with vfx by ILM) scored $30.5M to BE COOLS $23.4M. Coming in third was Sonys Will Smith hit, HITCH, which raked in another $12.1M for a cume of $138M. Last weeks number one finisher, DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN, fell to fourth and pulled in $11M and $37M to date for Lions Gate.
British high humor and high school hijinks are in store for viewers tuning into BROMWELL HIGH, an animated comedy following the adventures of three exceptionally naughty schoolgirls, one maverick headmaster and a bunch of desperate, underpaid teachers, as it premieres on Canadas TELETOON March 7, 2005 at 10:30 pm.
Christian Slater has signed on to lend his voice for the title character, IGOR, in Exodus Film Groups CGI-animated short film, IGOR: UNHOLY FRIJOLES that precedes the feature length theatrical version Igor, due out in 2007.
Atari Inc. it has entered into an exclusive, long-term agreement with Spark Unlimited, developer of CALL OF DUTY: FINEST HOUR, for worldwide publishing rights across all media to all future titles developed by the award-winning creative team at Spark Unlimited. The first joint project is in development at Spark for the next generation of consoles, and will be unveiled in greater detail in the spring, with an anticipated launch during the holiday 2006 season.
3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. has released the Wildcat Realizm 800 PCI Express-based professional graphics accelerator, which beat competitors on six SPECViewperf 8.0.1 benchmark viewsets when compared to other PCI Express solutions. This achievement follows the recent 3Dlabs announcement that the very attractively priced Wildcat Realizm 100 AGP 8x-based graphics accelerator scored highest on seven Viewperf 8.0.1 benchmark viewsets when compared to other AGP 8x solutions. The Wildcat Realizm 800 is available for purchase through 3Dlabs OEMs, worldwide network of Wildcat System Integrators, Resellers and VARs for $2,799.
3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 800 achieves the highest performance numbers over any single professional graphics accelerator and is soon to become the defacto standard for performance in professional graphics, said Jerry Peterson, evp/gm of 3Dlabs. With dual VPU power and these Viewperf 8.0.1 benchmark scores, Wildcat Realizm 800 is the product that our OEMs, resellers and customers have been waiting to get their hands on...
