The 3rd annual Week With The Masters Animation Festival will take place in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, October 29 - November 03, 2001. Each year the Week With The Masters is hosted by a select group of talented animators and filmmakers dubbed "Animation Masters." Past Masters have included: Will Vinton, Jeff Hale, Bill Matthews, Bill Plympton, Joanna Priestly, David Fine, Derek Lamb, Maurice Noble and Rob Coleman.
Curious Pictures' director David Kelley, in collaboration with photographer Butch Belair, has wrapped on a new mixed media spot for shoe designer Steve Madden. Based on a long running print and poster campaign, the spot was commissioned by New York ad agency Hampel Stefanides. The spot combines original photos, digital composting, pixilated photography animation and 2D animation. The commercial opens on a hip girl, wearing Steve Madden brown leather platform cowboy boots, at JFK airport.
* Women In Animation's Writers' Seminar Series: Thursday, October 11, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA.
PLATEAU is a quarterly magazine edited by BAC, the Institute for the Animated Image, in Brussels, Belgium. Plateau covers film festivals, the history of animation, computer animation as well as in-depth articles devoted to both the masters and the new talents of animation, with articles published in English, French and Dutch. Plateaus latest issue (vol.
Softimage Co. has announced the release of SOFTIMAGE|3D v4.0 and SOFTIMAGE|XSI 2.0. "SOFTIMAGE|3D, an industry-standard for more than 10 years, has been used extensively by more than 13,000 customers in the animation, special effects and games development industry. The product's great success is a direct result of our long history of listening and responding to our customers' needs," said Michael Stojda, managing director, Softimage.
* Animation Workout With Guest Director Cynthia McLean: Tuesday, October 16, 2001, Burbank, California USA.
Animators Jeffrey Dates and Lee Lanier have teamed on the animated short film entitled "Day Off The Dead" and have launched the official Website...
Curious Labs, developers of 3D character and design tools Poser and Poser Pro Pack, has signed an agreement with Adobe Systems where the two companies have agreed to work together on technology, content and marketing activities for Adobe Atmosphere software and Curious Labs' avatar-creation tools. Atmosphere world builders will have an easy system for building custom avatars. Additionally, both Adobe and Curious Labs incorporate Viewpoint technology, resulting in smooth skinned, bending 3D characters from Poser Pro Pack that can be used as avatars in Atmosphere 3D worlds.
* Television Business School: Wednesday, October 24 - Sunday, October 28, 2001, Lübeck, Germany.Entry Deadline: Monday, September 24, 2001
The Don And Bill Show: Slightly Bent is a unique showcase that will give moviegoers the rare opportunity to see the animated films of Don Hertzfeldt and Bill Plympton on the big screen...
* Angelus Awards Student Film Festival: Saturday, October 27, 2001, Hollywood, California USA.
The CoCarAn festival (COmix-CARicature-ANimation) will feature over 180 animated films, including a world premiere of Oz Adi
Due to its increasing debt, the International Museum of Cartoon Art will be leaving Mizner Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Its US$3.8 million building will be put up for sale to pay off the museum's $2 million debt and preserve its collection of more than 200,000 pieces of comic strips, editorial cartoons and other works. The museum is looking into several locations for a new home, including New York and Connecticut, where it was originally founded in 1972 by BEETLE BAILEY creator Mort Walker.
Random House Inc. and Classic Media Inc. have purchased, through a bankruptcy court auction, the assets of children's book publisher Golden Books Family Entertainment Inc. for US$84.4 million and the assumption of most of its debt. Industry sources estimate Golden Books' debt is close to $50 million. The Golden Books portfolio features over 500,000 titles including characters like Pat the Bunny and Poky Little Puppy, a vast comic book collection and 3,000 movies, television specials and cartoons.
Santa Monica, California-based R!OT has wrapped on the visual effects and post-production for "Rexall," the first video from Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers' guitarist Dave Navarro's debut solo album "Trust No One." R!OT artists, headed by visual effects supervisor Deak Ferrand, created a 180-degree pan of a fire engulfed city. "We mapped the matte painting onto a sphere so that we could reframe it and match the angles of the live shots," Ferrand explained. "That gave us the freedom to move the camera through it in any way that we wished.
Spontaneous Combustion has created computer-generated environments for a pair of 15-second spots for Johnson & Johnson's battery operated REACH Powerbrush. In "Braces," the camera flows down a roller coaster, which spells out "braces." Once the word is revealed, a cartoonish balloon pops up with a live-action close-up of white teeth in braces. In "Professional Clean," a dental mirror probes a CG mouth as portions of the word, "professional" are laid out like a curved row of teeth.
San Francisco-based Western Images has created a completely CGI spot entitled "Balloon Art" for Cingular Wireless and ad agency BBDO South. The commercial opens with the sound of stretching rubber and an expanding blue toy balloon. The following scene reveals the orange Cingular "X" logo named Jack blowing air into the balloon. At the end, Jack whips out a remarkable likeness of George Washington crossing the Delaware. The spot was directed by Mark Dippé, of Pandemonium, SF.
Cartoon Network U.K. Online is urging people to send their work to their Animation Awards before the closing date of August 31, 2001. The U.K. toon channel is offering £10,000 (US$15,000) in prize money with the winning films to air on both TV and the Web. First prize is £5,000 ($7,500), second prize is £3000 ($4,500) and third prize is £2000 ($3,000). The competition is open to all U.K. animators using Flash and entries will be judged by industry professionals. The winning entries will also be shown on both CartoonNetwork.co.uk and CartoonNetwork.com.
The 45th San Francisco International Film Festival has put out a call for entries for its 2002 festival to run April 18 - May 2. Submissions are open to narrative features, documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental and television productions on film, video and digital media. The entry deadline is November 30, 2001.
Discreet has announced combustion 2, the latest version of its award-winning paint, animation and 3D compositing software. combustion 2 will support new multi-format project capabilities, including video, HDTV, and 64-bit color, offering enhanced image quality and performance.
AtomShockwave has relaunched its Websites AtomFilms and Shockwave.com. The move is in hopes to quell rumors that the company is about to join the long list of dot-com disasters. New programming includes new games and an animated comedy series from Jim Belushi called THE GREEDY SHOW. The 2.0 versions of the sites will focus on AtomShockwave's long-term advertising and sponsorship deals with brand companies. These deals make up 70% of the company's revenue stream. An example of these deals is the one with Ford, where Ford's Focus automobile makes appearances in the Shockwave game, DJ FU.
Cartoon Network has named Jim Samples the new executive VP and general manager of Cartoon Network Worldwide. He will remain as the general manager of Cartoon Network's online division, which he took over in March 2000. He will succeed Cartoon Network founder, Betty Cohen, who moved over to AOL Time Warner to develop new shows for teens and young adults. Samples takes over a channel whose advertising revenues are speculated to grow from US$133.6 million in 2000 to $162.5 million this year.
The Tough Eye International Turku Animated Film Festival had its first run this spring, May 15 20, 2001, in Turku, Finland. Director/creator Fran Krause made the trip.
Studio B Productions has launched a new television commercial production department. The Vancouver-based animation firm specializes in traditional 2D and 3D animation techniques. Michael van den Bos will serve as the head of the new commercial department. Prior to working with Studio B, van den Bos was producer at International Rocketship and worked with clients such as Levis, Nintendo and Nickelodeon. In addition to in-house directors, Marv Newland and Dieter Mueller of International Rocketship will be working as freelancers for the Studio B commercial department.
