Independent animation studio Wild Brain, Inc., has completed three new animated TV spots for the new Ford Focus ZX3, ZX5 and ZTS vehicles. Part of the "Focus on Animation" campaign, all three 15-second spots are currently airing nationwide. Conceived by J. Walter Thompson Agency in Detroit, this three-spot animated campaign features direction by Wild Brain's Mike Smith, Nicholas Weigel, Denis Morella and Gordon Clark.
The 6th Annual British Academy Children's Film & Television Awards in association with the LEGO company presented their awards on December 2, 2001. SHREK won for Best Feature Film and Collingwood O'Hare's ANIMAL STORIES took home the award for Best Pre-School Animation. Other animated winners included Right Angle's AUNT TIGER (BOOKBOX: ANIMATED TALES OF THE WORLD) for Best Animation and The Disney Channel's TEACHER'S PET, which won the International award.
Far away from the buzzing SIGGRAPH floor is the art gallery where high tech meets fine art. Annick Teninge reports on this fascinating realm.
Asia Animation is a 3-day trade exhibition devoted to animation. Organized by Reed Exhibitions Singapore, and supported by the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA), Asia Animation 2001 will bring together international creators, producers and distributors who will showcase their technology and expertise to the growing Asian animation industry.
Tom Hershey has been promoted to senior vice president of operations at Sony Pictures Imageworks, the visual effects and animation division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hershey's expanded role will now include leadership of console game development at Imageworks. Hershey recently forged a deal with the Institute of Creative Technologies (ICT), a joint venture between the Army branch of the U.S. Military and the University of Southern California (USC). Together with Pandemic Studios, Imageworks is collaborating with ICT to create simulation training programs via immersive technologies.
Hoping to get people back in theaters to see MONSTERS, INC. one more time, Disney/Pixar has announced that they will be adding a specially-created group of animated ``outtakes'' to the end credits of the film. Creating the animated bloopers is now a tradition for Disney/Pixar and has proved very popular with moviegoers. The outtakes will be shown in theaters beginning this Friday, December 7, 2001. Audiences will also be able to download a sneak preview of the outtakes beginning Friday at www.monstersinc.com and www.apple.com/trailers.
Ren & Stimpy is back on TV, thanks to VH1. After kicking off the series with a special four-episode mini-marathon on Friday, November 30, the music network will air one episode every weeknight at midnight during the month of December, concluding on New Year's Eve. Billy West, the voice of both Ren and Stimpy, will host the series, giving viewers a look at the creation of each episode, and (here's the VH1 tie-in) discussing how the music played such a pivotal part of the of the groundbreaking animated series' success.
Major U.S. networks Fox and NBC may soon be announcing who will take over their Saturday morning time slots. An article in the November 29, 2001 issue of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports the networks are in "serious negotiations" with outside programmers including Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Discovery Channel, DIC Entertainment, 4 Kids, Nelvana and others, to sell their Saturday morning time slots. Last year CBS leased its Saturday morning time period to sister channel Nickelodeon (both networks are owned by Viacom) and has seen its ratings nearly double.
THE SIMPSONS was back in its regular Sunday night time slot after a week off and ranked 34th with a 7.9 rating/12 share. CBS aired holiday specials FROSTY THE SNOWMAN and FROSTY RETURNS on Friday night beginning at 8 pm. The original FROSTY came in 53rd with a 6.3 rating/11 but his RETURN could only garner a 6.0 rating/10 share for 59th place. CBS also aired two RUGRATS specials on Saturday night in primetime. RUGRATS "Chanukah" and RUGRATS "Santa Experience" didn't fare so well, landing in 92nd and 93rd place respectively with around 4 million viewers each.
Are you wondering what to give someone, who works in animation or aspires to this holiday season? Well, wonder no more. The Career Coach has the answer.
Danny Fingeroth spins through the new book by Michael Mallory that covers everything Marvel in big, bold and glossy pages.
Kalamazoo Animation Festival, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Friday, May 17, 2002 Sunday, May 19, 2002. Entry Deadline: March 15, 2002 (students), March 31, 2002 (professionals).
John Grant's new book offers profiles of some of animation's greatest animation artists. While a nice collection, Jerry Beck has a few reservations...
Visual effects company A52, by way of FM Rocks, has completed 3D design and effects work for No Doubt's "Hey Baby," the first video and single from the band's upcoming release Rock Steady. The video, directed by Dave Meyers, debuted on MTV on November 7. Crafted as a tribute to the band's female groupies, the video involves live-action scenes shot in various locations around Los Angeles, as well as green-screen footage that was composited into three CG worlds created by the artists at A52.
Building on the popularity of the Kids' WB! animated series Jackie Chan Adventures, Activision has licensed the property to create Jackie Chan Adventures: Legend of the Dark Hand for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance now available at retail. The game chronicles the adventures of Jackie Chan as he faces-off against the nefarious forces of the Dark Hand on a quest to uncover ancient mystical scrolls. The game combines anime-style animation with fast-paced comedy.
Anzovin Studio's beta of The Setup Machine, a software tool devoted exclusively to rigging a 3D character is now available for Windows and Macintosh. The Setup Machine is a 3D animation application that installs a high-quality animation rig -- the skeleton that allows control of a 3D character -- into any humanoid model created in Hash Inc.'s Animation:Master software. "A well-rigged character with efficient and accurate skeletal control systems is essential for successful 3D animation," said Steve Anzovin, co-founder of Anzovin Studio.
The 8th Annual Bradford Animation Festival (BAF), held at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, Yorkshire, November 16-18, 2001 attracted over 200 animation professionals and students from all over the U.K., and received more than 300 entries for the BAF Awards. In addition to traditional and computer animation demonstrations, there were seminars and screenings, capped off by the awards presentation, which saw Michael Dudok de Wit take home yet another award for his Oscar winning short father and daughter.
Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has become the top-selling video and DVD animated title of all time overseas, reported variety, with the DVD selling 8 million units since its release. Adding in the sales for the original video release in 1994, the total is 26 million units, stealing the crown from previous record holder The Lion King, which sold 24 million copies.
Even before DVD, Disney was making a killing in the home video market. Read about it in Dig This! Millions of Disney Videos.
Distribution outfit Oasis Pictures has picked up international distribution on Mischief City, a new series that Canada's Shaftesbury Films is developing. It takes place in a rule-bending world where kids escape when things go wrong and they are blamed for things they just know they did not do.
Cinesite Hollywood has appointed David Remba as manager of research and development, and Ray Mitchell, Jr. as director of engineering. They will report to Daniel Rosen, chief technology officer. Remba has been the managing technical director at Cinesite since the beginning of 2001. He worked with the character setup team on Megiddo and guided and assisted the development of the water animation and rendering pipeline for Cinesite Orange County. In his new role, Remba will be responsible for all software activities at Cinesite Hollywood.
Although its weekend take of $24.1M represents a 58% drop from last weekend, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERERS STONE, with visual effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Rhythm & Hues, remained number one for the third week in a row, and crossed the $200M mark after 15 days. HARRY has earned $220.1M after three weeks of release. The rescue drama BEHIND ENEMY LINES, with visual effects by Reality Check Studios and OCS/Freeze Frame/Pixel Magic, came in a strong second, earning $19.2M in its debut.
MIP Asia, the International Film Program Market for television, video, cable, satellite, licensing and merchandising, is the largest gathering of broadcast professionals in Asia Pacific. MIP Asia offers real opportunities to sell and co-produce in an expanding market.
"Hartt's shows are brilliant!" raves London, England's SUNDAY TELEGRAPH.
Find out for yourself.
7pm every Saturday night.
Reg Hartt sponsored animation symposia with Bob Clampett, Shamus Culhane, Friz Freleng and Grim Natwick from whom he learned the tricks they used to outwit scissor happy censors.
The great films from Hollywood's Golden Age of Animation were made for big kids (adults). Many are today banned. The rest are bowdlerized. See them as we were meant to.
Different program every week. 12 in each festival.
Well worth a trip to Toronto.
Digital television service provider DIRECTV, Inc. and Film Roman's multi-channel animation network LEVEL13.NET anounced their first annual animated film festival. The DIRECTV-LEVEL13.NET film festival will serve as a platform for working artists, undiscovered animators and student filmmakers, showcasing the best in independently produced animation from around the world. Festival winners will have their submissions showcased on DIRECTV as part of a DIRECTV FREEVIEW event series scheduled to air in December 2001.
French animation production studio Folimage is announcing its 7th Artist-in-Residence program. Every year, Folimage Studio invites two international filmmakers to be in residence at the studio to make their short film. Film projects should be personal and original, 6-minutes long or less, and should not be part of a series. Projects will be chosen by a selection committee consisting of members from Canal + and Arte TV channels, CNC-National Cinematography Centre and NFB-National Film Board of Canada, among others.
