All AWN Content

Macromedia and Discreet announced a strategic partnership that will accelerate the deployment of interactive 3D content to the Web by uniting the worlds of 3D authoring and Web design. The partnership will bundle Macromedia Director 8.5 within 3ds max. The co-marketing partnership and bundle arrangement will begin in mid-August 2001.

At QuakeCon, the world's premier multi-player gaming event, Discreet unveiled gmax, the company's licensable game development platform and free consumer game-content editor. The consumer version of gmax will be available as a free download to gamers in fall 2001 and will come with 3D modeling, animation, texturing and character building tools. Discreet previously announced that elements of gmax will be bundled with MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2002: PROFESSIONAL EDITION, shipping in Q3 this year.

Side Effects Software has announced that Walt Disney Feature Animation made a significant purchase of the company's Houdini 3D animation software package. Houdini has been used in many projects at the Walt Disney Company including FANTASIA 2000, GONE IN 60 SECONDS and TARZAN. "Houdini's flexible procedural paradigm helps our artists be more creative, while maintaining an efficient production environment," said John Carey, VP of technology at Disney.

The Sydney design and animation studio, alkamy has launched phase 2 of its Website, which includes 8 new works in the interactive section. Netizens can also catch new shorts featuring Dr. Leechfingers, who is the star of a series of short films alkamy has in development. Check it all out at www.alkamy.com Professional British cartoonist/animator Bill Greenhead was launched the new Flash toon CAPTAIN POINTY at his site www.billgreenhead.demon.co.uk Augenblick Studios' DRUNKY can be seen on CampChaos.com.

* Maximum Pictures: The Visionary Cinema of Ridley Scott: Friday, September 14 - Sunday, September 23, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA.

All films will be showing at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles. Tickets are: $8 General; $7 Student/Senior; and $6 Members.

- Friday, September 14 at 7:30 pm: ALIEN, 1979. Discussion following with director Ridley Scott. Special ticket price: $10 General; $9 Student/Senior; and $8 Members.

- Saturday, September 15 at 7:30 pm: GLADIATOR, 2000.

* Daniel Langlois Foundation's Grants for Researchers in Residence: Thursday, January 31 - Tuesday, December 31, 2002, Montreal, Quebec Canada.

Entry Deadline: Friday, August 31, 2001

With OSMOSIS JONES slipping out of the top ten, the U.S. box office remained mostly live-action. With AMERICAN PIE 2 claiming the top spot for a second straight week, RUSH HOUR 2 held tight to the #2 slot, grossing US$19.2 million. The kung-fu caper, with primary visual effects by Cinesite, has racked up $164.8 million. RAT RACE, with animated opening titles by Wild Brain, debuted at #3 with a gross of $11.8 million. At #6, CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, with primary visual effects by Double Negative, sung home $7.1 million in its premiere.

Oakland, California-based technology company Digital Element, with the help of NewTek and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the auspices of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Cities Initiative, has been working to open up "Closed Cities" in Russia. These cities do not appear on maps and up to now have been strictly military R&D and production sites. Digital Element trainers and engineers have helped form new Russian software development teams in Snezhinsk and other closed cities to help the towns integrate into the Western market.

Neptuno Films is launching a new animated show, 2020. Aimed at 8 to 12 year olds, the show is centered on a middle-class family, The Campbells, who live in a futuristic city where synthetic food and clones are in fashion. Josep Viciana will direct with a team of comic book designers. Production will start in 2002. Viciana said, "We are very excited with the challenge ahead. We have been able to set up for this project one of the most talented teams in Spain ever.

São Paulo, Brazil-based AD Studio has created the visual effects for latest music video from Brazilian band AD, entitled "Get Down." The video features an animated alien playing the role of lead singer, three robots hammering away on their musical instruments and over 13,200 dancing aliens. All the modeling, animation and rendering were done with Electric Image's Universe 3D animation system, utilizing some 3D party shaders and plug-ins and compositing separate rendering passes with Adobe After Effects.

U.K.-based kids animation producer Telemagination has cast the British comedy duo French and Saunders for the voices of the two main characters in their newest in-house animation series PONGWIFFY. The series was commissioned by U.K. broadcaster CITV. Targeted at 6 to 9 year olds, the series follows a group of dysfunctional witches. Dawn French (FRENCH AND SAUNDERS, THE VICAR OF DIBLEY) will voice Pongwiffy, a witch of dirty habits, while Jennifer Saunders (FRENCH AND SAUNDERS, ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS) will voice Sharkadder, Pongwiffy's obsessively vain best friend.