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AWN Headline News

Headline News

LA ACM SIGGRAPH Hosts Polar Express & Q&A!

LA ACM SIGGRAPH Hosts Polar Express ScreeningNorth Hollywood, California, USADecember 15, 2004

The Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH presents an evening with Sony Pictures Imageworks -- The Making of THE POLAR EXPRESS. The event is hosted by Sony Pictures Imageworks with participation by nVidia and Maxon USA. Sony Pictures Imageworks will present their work from the movie followed by a raffle and special screening of the film.

Headline News

X2 Villain Takes Lion Role in Narnia

Walt Disney and Walden Media have chosen the actor who will voice Aslan the Lion. X2: X-MEN UNITED actor Brian Cox will take the commanding role in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, directed by Andrew Adamson. The film is based on the first published book in C.S. Lewis classic childrens series.

Headline News

DAZ Prods. Unveils 3D Anime/Manga Product

DAZ Prods. has launched the most versatile 3D anime/manga product available -- AIKO 3.0. To mark the debut, users can download AIKO 3 base package for free. The 3D technology used in Aiko allows users to change character poses, shape morphs such as the character's eyes and add clothing and accessories. Users can utilize Aiko to create characters for anything from comicbooks to animation.

Headline News

Whodoo EFX Switches to ‘Ultra Chan’ Spot

After completing the vfx for THE STEPFORD WIVES, Whodoo EFX took on a series of commercial projects, which began airing this fall, including the new "Ultra Chan" spot featuring international action star Jackie Chan via ad agency Campbell Mithun for Hefty. The new spot, which includes Chan taking on a force of ninjas utilizing Hefty Ultra-Flex bags to fight back, broke last week.

Holiday Headline News

Digital-Tutors Offers Holiday Savings on Training

Digital-Tutors announced the Season's Savings Sale and companion gifts at Digital-Tutors. In celebration of the holiday season, Digital-Tutors is offering 20% off all training titles and free USB Flash Drives on select products purchased now and through Dec. 29, 2004. To receive the discount, enter dtseason as the discount code for all purchases.

Digital Headline News

Imagina 2005 Releases New Conference Program

Imagina 2005, the European Digital Content Creation Trade Show, held Feb. 2-5 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, announced its new conference program, including speakers from the games, feature film, visual effects, architectural visualization and animation industries.

Some of the highlights include:

Feb. 2:* HD Roundtable: Challenges and Strategies (participants to be confirmed)* New Tools, New StandardsStephane Donikian (IRISA)

Feb. 3:

Henson Headline News

Jim Henson Co. Re-Structures Television Department

In order to increase its network and cable programming portfolio, The Jim Henson Co. has hired Eric Poticha as vp of Television and Halle Stanford as head of children's television. Poticha will develop new comedy and drama series, miniseries and features for television as well as develop future Muppet projects to be produced by Henson for The Walt Disney Co. Stanford will lead development and production of all preschool and children's programming for both television and direct-to-video projects in animated and live-action formats.

Music Headline News

Destiny’s Child Gets Animated With Rudolph For AOL

AOL Music has premiered the new video from Grammy Award-winning artists Destinys Child for their version of the holiday classic RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER. The video transports the super group to the North Pole and animates them with the same stop-motion techniques used in Rankin & Bass RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER. Destinys Child recorded the single for an exclusive bonus CD included within the special 40th Anniversary Collectors Edition RUDOLPH DVD from Classic Media and Sony Wonder.

Film Headline News

Winslet Gets Flushed Away

Kate Winslet has joined the voice cast of Aardman Animations FLUSHED AWAY. Winslet will be Rita, the female sewer rat who helps pampered rat Roddy (Hugh Jackson) survive in Ratropolis after he is accidentally flush down the toilet. The cast also includes Sir Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis.

Headline News

Appleseed Grows 2 Sequels

With the original APPLESEED hitting the U.S. in January, Japanese-firm Micott & Bazara has announced a deal with Los Angeles-based Axis Ent. to co-produce two sequels in the franchise, reports VARIETY. The film will use motion-capture as well as "toon-shading," which gives 3D animation a 2D comicbook style like the original film. The two firms are looking for a distributor for the new films. Toho released the original in Japan and Geneon Ent. is handling the U.S. release.

Headline News

Google to Allow GIF Ads

Uber search engine Google announced it would now allow eye-catching animated GIF banners throughout its AdSense network for publishers. The mega-site will continue to charge advertisers on a cost-per-performance basis. It was only earlier this year that Google began allowing static banner on its site. Google will limit the size of animated GIFs to 50 kilobytes. AdSense publishers need only opt-in to receive image ads.

Disney Headline News

Chicken Little Gets Cars Slot

With Disney/Pixars CARS being pushed back from Nov. 4, 2005, to June 2006, to maximize profits, Disney confirmed that the 3D-animated CHICKEN LITTLE, formerly a summer 2005 title, would now slide into the vacated Nov. 4 slot. Disney already has next summer covered with two live-action movies, THE LOVE BUG and SKY HIGH.

Animation Headline News

Arena Adds Animation Diploma

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at 12:00am

To meet the growing requirements of the animation industry, Arena Multimedia, a division of Aptech, has introduced a diploma in Animation Engineering. The course is designed to teach students animation techniques, keeping in mind the requirements and standards of the industry.

Boom Headline News

Toon Boom Launches Symphony Worldwide, Studio for PC

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at 12:00am

Toon Boom Animation has launched the customer release of Toon Boom Studio v2.5 for PC. In addition, Toon Boom has announced the calendar of launch events for the release of Toon Boom Symphony.

Similar to the Mac 2.5 version, Toon Boom Studio for PC now includes a number of features, including:* Support for scanning* Ability to draw in the 3D Sceneplanning space* Improved sound scrubbing* Visualization and manipulation of drawings and keyframes in the Timeline.

Headline News

Incredibles Cine-Manga Coming!

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at 12:00am

TOKYOPOP, in conjunction with Disney Publishing Worldwide and Pixar Animation Studios, will be releasing a Cine-Manga book based on THE INCREDIBLES in March 2005. Delivered in TOKYOPOP's Cine-Manga format, the book version will present the films plotline with vivid screen captures and manga-style word balloons.

Motion Headline News

Animazoo Shows Mocap Moves at Simulation Conference

Animazoo is demoing the GypsyGyro-18 motion capture system at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando Dec. 6-9, 2004 at the InterSenses booth, number 3234.

Animazoo, with more than 10 years experience in developing motion capture systems, has chosen InterSenses InertiaCube3 sensor technology for the GypsyGyro-18. The GypsyGyro-18 provides a completely wireless and accurate method of capturing human motion in environments that challenge other motion capture technologies.

Award Headline News

TELETOON Site Wins Boomerang Award

Canadian broadcaster TELETOON won the Boomerang Grand Prix "Version Internet d'un média télé" (Television Broadcaster Category) for its Website, www.teletoon.com, on Dec. 1, 2004, in Montreal. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the prestigious Boomerang is the only award that recognizes Internet productions and multimedia created by or intended for the Quebec market.

Disney Headline News

Disney Supports Blu-ray Disc Format

The high-def DVD war just got more interesting, as The Walt Disney Co. announced its non-exclusive support of the Blue-ray Disc format embraced by Sony and manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. This comes on the heels of last weeks announcement that Toshiba Corp. is getting support from Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and New Line for its rival next-generation DVD format, HD DVD.

Headline News

Double Negative Provides Invisible VFX in Finding Neverland

Double Negative's work on FINDING NEVERLAND, which recently won The National Board of Reviews best film prize, involved previs (Jesper Kjolsrud), on-set supervision (Hal Couzens), impossible camera moves, magic-moment enhancements and a host of invisible effects such as crowd replication and the removal of modern anachronisms and safety rigs.

Headline News

Rhythm & Hues Standardizes on NVIDIA Quadro FX Professional Graphics Systems

NVIDIA announced that Rhythm & Hues Studios has standardized its digital production pipeline on NVIDIA Quadro FX products. More than 500 digital content creation workstations in this leading-edge facility have already been equipped with NVIDIA Quadro FX boards, allowing some of Hollywoods best digital artists to make the most of their 3D effects, animation and rendering applications.

Animation Headline News

Janet Healy Named IDT Ent. President Of Animation Production

IDT Entertainment has appointed Janet Healy to the newly created position of president of animation production. In her new post, Healy will oversee all budgets, staff and production schedules for all IDT Entertainment animation projects. In addition, she will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan that will maximize the production effectiveness of all the IDT Entertainment animation studios.

Nickelodeon Headline News

Nickelodeon Movies & Paramount Pictures Team on The Anybodies

Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures have jointly acquired the motion-picture rights to THE ANYBODIES, written by best-selling author Julianna Baggott and illustrated by Peter Ferguson, about an 11-year-old heroine with special powers to change shape.

Digital Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

It was truly serendipitous when VFXWORLD was given the opportunity to publish Kim Libreris 12 Predictions on the Future of VFX this week. Not only does his insightful column fit in perfectly with this months topic concerning industry trends, but also it just so happens that the veteran visual effects supervisor and founder of ESC Ent. has now joined ILM. Great timing!

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