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Alias|Wavefront, producers ofaccredited character animation and visual effects tool Maya, have announceda significant upgrade to the product; an upgrade which brings important newtools to 3D animators and effects artists. Version 2.5 comes complete withMaya Paint Effects: a revolutionary new tool which allows artists to createand animate stunning organic and painterly effects almost instantly. PaintEffects features an extensive library of 2D and 3D preset brushes, which

Warner Bros.' THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, with visual effects by Hollywood,California-based K.N.B. EFX Group, Inc., finished third at the US weekendboxoffice with an estimated $7.8 million, for a total of $28.1 million. Thefilm is a remake of the 1958 William Castle horror film that starredVincent Price. Buena Vista's THE SIXTH SENSE, with visual effects byDreamQuest, finished eighth, grossing $3.2 million for a total of $264.1million. The American version of Hayao Miyazaki's PRINCESS MONONOKE, which

Los Angeles, California-based Iwerks Entertainment, which specializes inhigh-tech entertainment systems, support services and film-based softwarefor Giant Screen, ride simulation and specialty venue attractions, recentlyopened a sales and support office in London, England. The office, which islocated at 59 South Audley Street, will be led by John Schreiner, VicePresident, Managing Director for Europe. The company is in the midst of aEuropean growth period that has included the addition of Iwerks Extreme

Four hundred guests crowded the second floor theatre at the ChicagoCultural Center, Sunday, October 24, for the 1999 Gala Awards Ceremony andClosing Night Party of the 16th annual Chicago International Children'sFilm Festival. The following awards for animated films were given out:

Children's Jury Prizes - Feature Films and Videos - Animation

1st Prize, KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS by Michel Ocelot (France)

2nd Prize, ANNE FRANK'S DIARY by Julian Wolff (France, Ireland, UK,Netherlands)

The 10th International Trickfilm Festival takes place in Stuttgart, Germanyfrom March 16 - 21, 2000. The entry deadline is December 1, 1999. TheInternational Competition will present the best animated productions fromthe past two years. More than 500 films will be screened at the festival.The Best of Animation includes a selection of the most interesting films inthe history of artistic, animated film. Young Animation is a competitionfeaturing animated films from schools and colleges. The festival will also

mental images recently announced that its high-end Mental Ray renderingsoftware was the first workstation application to run on Intel's firstengineering samples of the IA-64 Itanium-based platform. mental images andIntel have been working hand-in-hand to create a version of Mental Ray thatwas ported and optimized for the Itanium processor. The new platform wasdemonstrated to attendees of the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs byIntel CEO Craig Barrett on an early version of Microsoft's 64-bit version

Previously, we reported that Warner Bros. Home Video had announced that THEIRON GIANT DVD would be letterboxed at 1.85:1, which would have beenunfortunate because the film has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and Brad Birddesigned THE IRON GIANT partly in homage to the very wide CinemaScope filmsof the 1950s. But Warners has changed their mind and the DVD will beletterboxed at 2.35:1. THE IRON GIANT DVD will include letterboxed (2.35:1)and pan & scan versions of the movie, be 16X9, have AC3 and 5.1 surround

Image Entertainment is releasing Art Clokey's DAVEY AND GOLIATH on DVD andVHS. DAVEY AND GOLIATH was a stop-motion television series that was made byGUMBY creator Art Clokey for the Lutheran Church in America from 1962 to1977. It was usually shown on Sunday morning. In the series, Davey, a boy,and his dog, Goliath, would usually get into some sort of trouble, butlearn a moral lesson by the end of the story. The DAVEY AND GOLIATH DVDwill include eight 14 minute episodes. It is not region coded. Image is

OLAF OLAFSSON has been named vice chairman of TIME WARNER DIGITAL MEDIA.Olafsson's appointment becomes effective November 15. Olafsson will workwith Michael Pepe, president and chief operating officer of Time WarnerDigital Media, and the rest of the management team at Time Warner DigitalMedia to continue developing strategic business plans for Time Warner'sdiverse digital media businesses and identifying emerging growthopportunities for the company in the digital realm. Olafsson joins Time