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Film Headline News

Great Women Of Film And How To Become One

Spend an afternoon with Academy Award-nominated women filmmakers and learn about the different crafts and career opportunities the film industry offers. Many of the women profiled in the recently released book GREAT WOMEN OF FILM will be on hand to give advice to women interested in a career in the film industry.

Headline News

Exluna's Entropy Rendering System Available Through Digimation Inc.

Digimation Inc., publisher and distributor of 3D animation software, has agreed to distribute Exluna's Entropy 3.1 rendering system, which includes an integrated interface for Discreet's 3ds max software. Entropy 3.1 features a hybrid scanline/raytracing architecture and extensive feature list including analytic anti-aliasing, global illumination, sub-pixel displacement, depth of field, caustics, motion blur, comprehensive geometry support and programmable shading with full support for the RenderMan shading language.

Headline News

Former Cinar Europe Chief Joins TV-Loonland

David Ferguson has been appointed to the management board of TV-Loonland AG and has assumed the newly created position of chief operating officer and president, core activities. Based in London, he will handle the coordination of business operations and oversee the program business of the TV-Loonland Group. Ferguson joins TV-Loonland following five years as president of Cinar Europe, where he was responsible for staffing, executive producing, rights exploitation, joint ventures and acquisitions including the integration into Cinar of FilmFair Studios.

Series Headline News

Nickelodeon’s ChalkZone Draws Network’s Highest Ratings

The new animated series CHALKZONE premiered to Nickelodeons highest kids 2-11 ratings ever for a new series launch, outperforming broadcast and cable network competition in that same demographic. According to the network, the program, which debuted Friday, March 22, 2002 at 8:30 pm (ET/PT), scored an 8.6/27 rating and share (2.8 million average kid viewers) among kids 2-11 and attracted 4 million total viewers, a Nick record for a series launch. CHALKZONE chronicles the adventures of kid cartoonist-turned-action-hero Rudy Tabootie (E.G.

Trailer Headline News

Latest Spider-Man Trailer Hits The Web

Catch the latest theatrical trailer for SPIDER-MAN exclusively on the Internet. Premiering at www.sony.com/Spider-Man beginning Wednesday, March 27, 2002 at 9:00 am (PT) the QuickTime trailer will offer the final glimpse of the film prior to its debut on May 3, 2002. The trailer, which is being made available on the Internet prior to its theatrical screening, features new footage showcasing the films visual effects as Spider-Man patrols the city, using his webshooters to swing from rooftop to rooftop.

Games Headline News

V12 Gives X Games A New Look

Broadcast and commercial design collective V12 recently completed designing the new look for the X Games, the extreme sports version of the Olympics. Debuting at the Winter X Games and continuing through to the Summer Games, V12, lead by creative directors Juan Delcan and David J. Hwang, created all of the on-air packaging and design including logo ids, information graphics, backgrounds and on-screen scoreboards. For the visual transitions, V12 treated the live action footage to mirror the style of propaganda posters and provided an entire reel from which the client could choose.

Film Headline News

CinèGroupe And Film Roman Announce Strategic Alliance

Canadian production company CinèGroupe and animation producer Film Roman Studios have entered into a strategic alliance to produce new animated programming. CinèGroupe head of U.S. entertainment Ken Katsumoto and Peter Schankowitz, president of television programming and development at Film Roman, made the announcement on Wednesday, March 27, 2002. The first joint production will be announced next week.

Game Headline News

Game Developers Choice Award Recipients Named

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has announced the recipients of the 2nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, game development's highest honors. The awards were presented Thursday, March 21, 2002 during a ceremony at the San Jose Civic Auditorium as part of this year's annual Game Developers Conference (GDC). The celebration honored innovation as well as technical and artistic achievement in interactive entertainment.

Visual Headline News

Ice Age Drifts to Second

An alien resurrection and another dose of sword-wielding vampires went up against last weekends box office behemoth ICE AGE, and the vamps of BLADE II tapped a vein with audiences to extract $33.1M for the top box office spot. ICE AGE slipped to second, but still earned $31.1M for a mammoth two-week total of $88.3M. The 20th Anniversary re-release of E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL, including updated visual effects by ILM, landed with a respectable $15M in third place, and last weeks number two film RESIDENT EVIL, with visual effects by AMX Studios Ltd.

Headline News

Mainframe Animates A New Direct-To-Video Barbie Feature

As a follow-up to Barbie's direct-to-video debut in Mattel's BARBIE IN THE NUTCRACKER, CGI animation company Mainframe Entertainment has been contracted to animate the second direct-to-video Barbie feature, BARBIE AS RAPUNZEL. Scheduled for a fall 2002 launch, BARBIE AS RAPUNZEL will feature the voices of Anjelica Huston as the evil stepmother, Cree Summer as Penelope the dragon and Kelly Sheridan reprising her role as Barbie. In this new adaptation of the classic fairytale, Barbie portrays an artist who paints her way out of the castle tower to save her beloved prince.

Headline News

Krumme Pumps Life Into Integris Heart Center Spots

German director Raimund Krumme has just completed work on two 30-second spots for the Oklahoma-based Integris Heart Center by way of Dallas advertising agency latitude and producers Acme Filmworks. Krumme is well known for his sophisticated line art and "Pushing the Edge" and "Multi-Speciality Resources" were created in Krumme's signature character animation style. The animation was hand drawn and animated on paper by Krumme, who also directed the spots. "Pushing the Edge" (top two images right) finds a physician standing on the edge of an undefined lined surface.

Final Headline News

EA And Square To Distribute Final Fantasy X In Asia Pacific

Interactive entertainment publisher Electronic Arts has entered into a publishing and distribution partnership with Square Co., Ltd. for FINAL FANTASY X in Asia Pacific. The deal grants EA the rights to distribute FINAL FANTASY X INTERNATIONAL for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. FINAL FANTASY X was released in July 2001 in Japan and December 2001 in North America.

Animation Headline News

Victory Media And ASL Launch Animation Series On German TV

Victory Media AG and the Hamburg, Germany-based animation studio ASL have completed animation on the 26-episode series WINNETOONS. Based on characters created by German author Karl May, the Wild West-themed series will debut on German channel KinderKanal on April 24, 2002. ASL (Animationsstudio Ludewig GmbH) is best known for its recent digital production for Warner Bros. and Cartoon Film for the German animated feature DER KLEINE EISBÄR (THE LITTLE POLAR BEAR). ASL also recently completed the digital production of Illuminated Film's CHRISTMAS CAROL-THE MOVIE directed by Jimmy Murakami.

Animated Headline News

Shrek And For The Birds Take Home Oscar Gold!

On March 24, 2002 at the brand new Kodak Theater inHollywood, California, the Academy of Motion PictureArts and Sciences announced the winners of thisyear's Oscars. For the very first time, an award wasgiven in the category Best Animated Feature, and thewinner was DreamWorks SHREK. Taking home the prizefor Best Animated Short was Pixars FOR THE BIRDS. Another animated film was represented when Randy Newman won the Oscar for Best OriginalSong for the MONSTERS, INC. theme If I Didnt HaveYou.

Animation Headline News

This Week At Animation World Magazine

Each week, Animation World Magazine offers new articles, special features and theme-based coverage of the art, craft and industry of animation. New this week:

- Force of Hobbit: Mythmaking at Weta

It is said that love is the mythology that two people create together. At Weta, Ltd., in New Zealand, it is love at first byte.

- Deitch on Pintoff

Animation Headline News

Job Opportunities For Animators, Programmers, Producers, Instructors And More

Animation Careers is looking for an AFTER EFFECTS EXPERT and a HEAD OF ANIMATION SALES . . . New Paltz, New York's BASSARTS.com is looking for a 2D GAME FUNCTIONALITY DEVELOPER and a 2D GAME PROGRAMMER . . . Valencia, Spain's BLACK MARIA STUDIOS is looking for an ANIMATION AGENT/REPRESENTATIVE . . . A Los Angeles, California-based company is looking for an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF

Animation Headline News

AWN's Discussion Forums - What's New?

Visit THE ANIMATION CAFÉ, THE BUSINESS OF ANIMATION and THE ANIMATOR'S DESKTOP to stay in touch with the animation community! New threads this week include:Who do you think will win the Oscar? Also, post your thoughts about "Ice Age" and the upcoming DreamWorks 2D feature "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron."

Effects Headline News

Orloff & Meyer Shine At Radium

Visual effects artists Andrew Orloff and Steve Meyer have joined digital visual effects studio Radium. Orloff has been appointed head of CG in Los Angeles and will work closely with his San Francisco-based co-head of CG, Andrew Sinagra. Formerly the head of 525 Post's 3D department, Orloff first came to Radium as a freelance visual effects artist before officially joining the company in January 2002. A graduate of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television with an emphasis in animation, Orloff is also an instructor at Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

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