Anime Network, the first cable channel in North America dedicated to anime, is expanding from a Video-On-Demand service to a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week network with multisystem cable operator Insight Communications, which expects to roll out the Anime Network on its digital tier in several markets.
MGA Ent., which owns those hugely successful Bratz fashion doll line, is more aggressively translating its intellectual properties into entertainment with the launch of its new production unit, MGA Ent. Films. MGA has recruited animation vets Jay Fukuto as vp of the entertainment division and Ellen Levy-Sarnoff as senior director of creative for Bratz Ent.
Kids' WB! Call this month MegaMay with the return of the futuristic-adventure series MEGAMAN NT WARRIOR to its Saturday morning lineup as of May 1, 2004 (10:30 am ET/9:30 am PT), teaming up with anime smash-hits POKÉMON: ADVANCED and YU-GI-OH!: ENTER THE SHADOW REALM. The second season of the cyber-saga has 26 energetically charged original episodes from ShoPro Ent. In conjunction with its Saturday morning premiere, the series also will highlight Kids' WB!'s weekday lineup with original episodes from May 3 through Friday May 7 at 3:30 pm.
Oregon3D Inc., The Academy for Digital Arts & Sciences, is offering a four-week Oregon3D combustion 3 Boot Camp, May 12 - 28, 2004. It features a series of three comprehensive courses devoted to Discreets combustion 3, an award-winning motion graphics, vector paint, visual effects and 3D compositing desktop software.
Hash Inc. has created the A:M Films Website as a repository of animations created with its 3D character animation software Animation:Master. A:M Films can be viewed in any web browser that supports QuickTime at http://AMFilms.hash.com
Shuffle Inc., an international television commercial production company with offices in Venice, California, and Tokyo, Japan, has named David Bando as its new exec producer.
In his new position, Bando will work with advertising agencies and Shuffle directors on the production of TV commercials worldwide. He will oversee all aspects of television show and TV commercial production, as well as post-production, and will also be responsible for the companys expansion and development of its TV commercial division and overall growth.
Attention all Animation World Magazine readers: the February Acrobat is now live. This month are crack staff of writers tackles the business of animation. All you kids and kids at heart can learn all about what's going down in the merchandising world in Karen Raugust's "Licensing 101" piece. Janett Hetherington profiles veteran toon factory Bardel Animation.
In 2003, AWN launched its newest resource site, the AWN Book Corner. Looking for books related to animation, then the Book Corner is the best place for you to visit. Readers can search through tomes dealing with 2D & 3D graphics, animation, applications, cinematography, digital video, entertainment, gaming, history & theory, post-production, programming & scripting and Web & multimedia. You can also browse books by title, author or publisher.
Cartoon Networks Boomerang will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its U.S. television debut of BATTLE OF THE PLANETS with an all-day special edition of Boomeraction, the networks weekly showcase for animated action-adventure programming. The 24-hour salute starting at 8:00 am April 25, 2004 will showcase newly remastered versions of the landmark series first 16 episodes of the epic interplanetary struggle that inspires five young orphans to join forces to help save the Earth and other planets from malicious invasion.
Apple has introduced Motion at NAB2004, a new application that redefines motion graphics by giving artists the creative freedom and power to deliver stunning results faster and more intuitively at a price of $299. Motion features interactive animation of text, graphics and video, with instant previewing of multiple filters and particle effects, and introduces "Behaviors" that allow artists to add natural looking movement to type and graphics, such as gravity and wind, without the use of complex keyframes.
Apple introduced Final Cut Pro HD at NAB2004, the latest version of its Emmy award-winning editing software, now with the realtime performance of high-quality native DVCPRO HD in addition to realtime support for DV and SD. Final Cut Pro HD delivers the ability to capture, edit and output broadcast-quality high definition (HD) video over a single FireWire cable, without requiring any additional hardware an industry first. Final Cut Pro HD supports native DVCPRO HD editing with no recompression or image degradation and enables HD preview monitoring on an Apple Cinema HD Display.
Bauhaus Software announced the availability of Mirage v1.2 for Mac OS X and Windows. Designed for artists, Mirage integrates realtime video paint, animation and effects functionalities into a single product, freeing visual artists to explore entirely new creative ideas and techniques. Designed for resolutions ranging from HDTV and film to Web video, Mirage is a complement to existing packages such as Final Cut Pro and Shake, and is a key part of a seamless pipeline for 2D animation film and broadcast production.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM) and The Jim Henson Co. have signed a two-year first-look deal to produce live-action feature films. The Henson-MGM deal came together after a successful relationship working together on the hit family comedy GOOD BOY!, a live-action film produced by Jim Henson Pictures, which one of the most profitable releases for MGM in 2003.
Adobes After Effects 6.5, a new version of its award-winning motion graphics and visual effects software features Animation Presets, an advanced clone tool, as well as tighter integration with the other Adobe video products, help professionals meet production challenges and demanding deadlines.
Alias, a Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) company, has brought out the next version of its award-winning 3D animation and special effects software Maya 6, featuring hundreds of new features and enhancements requested by Maya users from both large and small organizations working in film, broadcast, game development, digital publishing and visualization markets. These developments can be seen at NAB in Alias suite #S111 at the Las Vegas Convention Center where Maya artists will conduct demos hourly.
Apples new Shake 3.5, features new shape-based morphing and warping tools for advanced compositing and new shape shifting special effects, fine-tuned to take advantage of the performance and architecture of the Power Mac G5 and Mac OS X version 10.3 Panther.
In conjunction with NAB, NVIDIA has announced the release of Gelato, the first 3D final-film renderer accelerated by industry-standard graphics hardware; the Quadro FX 4000, a professional graphics solution; and Quadro FX 4000 SDI, a workstation-based graphics solution enabling weather, news, sports and virtual-set broadcast as well as video and film post-production.
TOKYO GODFATHERS, the third feature by Satoshi Kon, arrived April 13 on DVD on (Columbia TriStar Home Ent., $26.96) and demonstrates further thematic and stylistic growth of this anime director. Taking inspiration from John Ford's classic THREE GODFATHERS, and produced by the Mad House animation studio, Kon focuses on Tokyo's oddest trio of homeless in search of the parents of an abandoned baby on New Year's Eve.
Buy KILL BILL, VOL. 1 on DVD April 13 (Miramax Home Ent., $29.99) and watch it again or for the first time before checking out VOL 2 in theaters this weekend. That was always the shrewd marketing plan and, if Quentin Tarantino has his way there will be an anime prequel in the future. For now, enjoy the orgasmic blood and gore of this Hong Kong samurai/spaghetti western homage with left for dead assassin Uma Thurman getting her revenge. Splashy color, anime (from Production I.G.) a climactic swordfight in black and white (to appease the MPAA), flashbacks, flashforwards - it's a '70s dream.
ADV Films and ADV Manga will be releasing five new manga and four new anime titles as well as the third season of GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA on April 20, 2004. ADV Film's anime DVDs will include AURA BATTLER DUNBINE, KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC, MAGICAL SHOPPING ARCADE ABENOBASHI and WEDDING PEACH. ADV Manga's titles include ARIA, Volume 1 of 3, THE RULER OF THE LAND, Volume 1 of 31, TO HEART, Volume 1 of 3, AZUMANGA DAIOH, Volume 4 of 4 and FULL METAL PANIC! Volume 4 of 5.
Discreet has begun shipping its smoke 6 system on the Intel-based IBM workstation running Linux. The smoke 6 editing and finishing system is already available on the Silicon Graphics Octane2 and Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations. The addition of Linux workstation support and new pricing ensures that the smoke 6 system is accessible to broadcasters and the growing segment of mid-range post-production facilities.
Sci Fi Channel has its extensive slate of new series and specials for the next season. New series include a live-action WITCHHUNTER ROBIN series and the new CG series AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD from HELLBOY creator Mike Mignola. In addition, the slate of specials sees several productions based on popular book series and a three picture series created by Stan Lee.
HarperCollins Childrens Books will launch a book series based on the new television series, ASTRO BOY, produced by Sony Pictures Ent. Japan and Tezuka Prods. HarperKids Ent. has been granted North American English-language rights from Sony Pictures Consumer Products. HarperCollins will launch the 30 book program in September 2004 with seven titles: one color and activity book, one color and sticker book, two beginning readers, two storybooks, and one chapter book.
Cartoon Network has announced that it will change its action-adventure programming line-up by shifting the Toonami block to Saturdays and creating the new block Miguzi.
Beginning April 17, Toonami will air from 7:00 11:00 pm. The Saturday night version of Toonami will continue to be hosted by TOM and feature series such as DRAGONBALL Z, YU YU HAKUSHO and TRANSFORMERS: ENERGON. Other series to air exclusively as part of Toonami's include GUNDAM SEED, DRAGONBALL GT and RUROUNI KENSHIN.
Anime Network has acquired the U.S. TV rights for COMIC PARTY from Right Stuf Int'l. Anime Network has obtained all 13 half-hour episodes of the anime comedy series.
