Category: Flash

Atomic Cartoons have announced a partnership with Punktuition LLC on the new animated comedy series, PUNKTUITION. Atomic will debut the project to buyers and broadcasters at the 2009 Kidscreen Summit in New York in February.

Fox's MARLEY & ME won the weekend box office (Dec. 26-28) with $36.4 million, earning a total of $50.7M since its Christmas Day release. The comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and 22 dogs had vfx by At The Post, LOOK! Effects and Lola Visual Effects.

The film's $14.75M first day was the largest Christmas Day opening in motion picture history.

Winning its opening weekend, Jim Carrey's comedy YES MAN (Warner Bros., vfx by LOOK! Effects) earned $18.26M, lower than expected because of bad, snowy weather covering much of the U.S.

Will Smith's mysterious drama SEVEN POUNDS (Sony, vfx by CafeFX) opened in second place with $14.85M. Animated feature THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (Universal, animation from Framestore Feature Animation) placed third in its opening weekend with $10.1M.

This week in AWN's Forums, a member wants to know where it's possible to find copies of animation series pitch bibles, either for free or for a fee. Moderator Larry Lauria has created an online Animated Christmas Festival on his blog. What's the best way to go about selling a concept to your employer? And there is cry for help with Flash PNG files. What codec should a person save to when streaming 2D Quicktime files. A discussion continues on how to quickly and efficiently add thick outlines in Flash.

THE DARK KNIGHT, DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO! and the fourth season of LOST arrive on DVD and Blu-ray, plus Oscar-winning Best Animated Short PETER & THE WOLF makes its U.S. DVD debut, and more.

THE DARK KNIGHT On DVD And Blu-ray

Bitfilm has released the first issue of its new BITFILM COLLECTION. It contains 12 groundbreaking digital animations, voted on the first ranks by the international audience of the Bitfilm Festival -- including all six winners of the Bitfilm Awards. Once a month, the digital film experts will select 12 films that they consider state of the art of digital animation.

Nathania Seales has been promoted to VP of production for Cartoon Network On-Air. Formerly senior director of on-air production, Seales will oversee production of on-air promotions, program production, ad-supported/sponsored promotions and branding material for Cartoon Network and Boomerang. She will continue to manage the assignment of projects and budget allocations to partnering production companies, writers, animation and live-action producers and on-air talent.

HP has introduced a high-performance thin client and blade workstation that provide virtualization customers a true workstation experience combined with the security, ease of management and lowered total cost of ownership of thin client computing.

Offering significantly more processing and graphics performance, the new HP gt7725 Thin Client and HP ProLiant xw2x220c Blade Workstation deliver a leading remote experience for 3D mechanical computer-aided (MCAD) applications, rich media, flexibility and performance.

The Fremantle Corporation has acquired the new and quirky CG animated series LIMO GUY from Comet Ent. and Kaleidoscope Productions. LIMO GUY is akin to the antics of SOUTH PARK with a twist of a modern day TAXI.

Expanding upon their existing relationship, NCircle Ent. signed a new multi-year DVD brick-and-mortar and online retail distribution agreement with The MoonScoop Group's Taffy Ent. NCircle will assume responsibility for the DVD roll-out of the new children's series CHLOE'S CLOSET in North America. NCircle, a division of Source Interlink Companies, has already begun elevating the North American presence of Taffy's preschool DIVE OLLY DIVE! series since June.

This week in AWN's Forums, discussion of freelance contracts continues, but the consensus is to consult a lawyer. IGOR's less than stellar opening weekend is dissected. A heated discussion is underway regarding fan creations of copyright-protected characters. What 2D animation software would you use for Web animation if Flash were unavailable? Some new animations were posted for member critique. A character designer is hoping to get into animation and is looking for advice.

Digital animation and visual effects studio Keyframe Digital Productions is co-producing and creating 3D animation for 26 new half-hour episodes of PINKY DINKY DOO for the second season of the animated preschool series produced by Sesame Workshop and Cartoon Pizza.

Keyframe co-founder Clint Green is also producer and production manager for Keyframe. Keyframe co-founder, Darren Cranford, is directing all 26 episodes, which include 52 segments and 104 games. JoEllyn Marlow is overseeing production for Sesame Workshop.