* Wednesday, April 4 Sunday, April 8, 2001. Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.
The fifth annual KC Filmmakers Jubilee is a celebration of independent filmmaking. All experimental and animation entries must be 30 minutes or less. A US$1000 prize will be awarded in each category. For more information contact: Tel.: (913) 649-0244; E-mail: kcjub@kcjubilee.org; or Web: http://www.kcjubilee.org/.
There's no better way to stay current with animation trends than the Brussels 2001 Film Festival Catalogue...
Motion Theory designed, animated and finished three 30-second TV spots for Suzuki motorcycles, ATVs and street bikes. Creative director Mathew Cullen described the style of the spots as reminiscent of "vintage boxing posters." In the commercials, the use of animated stills of the vehicles make posters seem like they come to life. Once the footage was color timed the final compositing and onlining was done by Motion Theory.
AWN's Web Animation Guide is the place for what's new on the Net. In this week's installment a new Bill Plympton Webtoon, THUGS ON FILM's 2nd Tosser Nominees, an interesting looking Yogi Bear short and much, much more.
Get your Web Animation Guide here!
Also every week AWN's associate editor Rick DeMott highlights what he thinks is the top new toon in cyberspace in "Rick's Picks!"
Bugshop, a New York motion graphics and effects shop, has completed four spots for the Animal Planet imaging campaign, "Life is Better with Animals." Ross Shain, creative director at Bugshop, served as visual effect supervisor, compositor and designer. He completed seven composite shots and designed the endtags, which involved compositing exotic animals such as a mountain ram, mandrill and alligator on green screen to hide then reveal the Animal Planet logo and tagline stamped into the background.
Black Logic has added five 3D artists to its CG department. The new Black Logic CG staff members include: Scott Petill, senior animator; Sebastian Bilbao, technical director; Julio Soto and Andrew Dayton, CG artists; and Glenn Harper, visual effects animator. Prior to joining Black Logic, Petill was at Post Perfect and earlier at ad agency Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer. In addition, he has consulted with Pixar on their commercial software releases, and designed a library of 3D textures for broadcast and print applications. "Scott is a wizard with motion and light.
Nicolas Gorse has been appointed distribution director for France and French-speaking Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg for TBS Europe. Gorse will be responsible for the distribution of all three Turner channels, CNN International, Cartoon Network and TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Previously, Gorse served as development and marketing director of SOFIRAD. "Nicolas has an excellent knowledge of marketing and distribution, as well as of the various satellite platforms and their specific offerings in France.
In this issue we are looking at a few current topics in the technology realm. What does the future hold for the high-end computer software/hardware companies? Have their glory days passed? Are all these new software versions really necessary? With the help of industry veteran Richard Taylor, Bruce Manning tackles a few of these topics and more. Mark Winstanley is outlining how software packages are becoming Web-export capable and John Edgar Park profiles and offers advice on low cost software/hardware systems which offer high-end results.
Austin, Texas' Austin Community College, a higher education institution that offers degrees in graphic design, multimedia and Web design, is looking for a 3D ANIMATION INSTRUCTOR to teach a variety of traditional animation, 3D modeling and 3D computer-based classes. . . Worthington, Ohio's Big Fish Animation, a production company, is looking for ANIMATORS and ARTISTS to create 3D environments for commercials and other projects. . .
ASIFA-Hollywood is presenting a "Best of Ottawa Festival" screening. Ottawa Festival director Chris Robinson will present some of the highlights of the festival.
The University of Washington is presenting a lecture by Isaac Kerlow, director of digital production for new technology and new media at Disney Animation Studios. Kerlow will discuss the convergence of classical and digital animation at Disney. The event will be held in Room 108, in the Student Union Building on the UW campus at 4:30 pm. The lecture is sponsored by the Animation Research Labs and the Department of Computer Science & Engineering.
Accepted into Sundance's first online festival, Romanov creator Chris Lanier heads off to Hollywood, Utah as one of the few, the proud, the animators in a sea of live-action hype. A must read!
* Thursday, March 8 Friday, March 9, 2001. Chennai, India.
Traveling all the way to la Rnion, an island in the Indian Ocean, Jean Detheux discovers a remote location struggling to join the technology revolution and raising questions about our rampant globalization.
* Saturday, October 27 Monday, October 29, 2001. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1st Entry Deadline: March 8, 2001
2nd Entry Deadline: March 22, 2001
3rd Entry Deadline: April 5, 2001
Jacquie Kubin visited New York City's Toy Fair and has a full report on the hot properties for 2001 and beyond. What's going to be in your Happy Meal? Read on...
* September 2001. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Early Submission Deadline: April 30, 2001
Final Entry Deadline: May 15, 2001
What good is technology?
Disney has signed a new licensing deal with Coca-Cola to place Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on a new line of juices. No financial terms have been released for this 15-year marketing deal. However, Disney will receive royalty payments for Coke's use of all Disney characters on packages, in-store promotions and advertising. The first drinks, "Mickey's X-treme Coolers" and "Pooh's 100 Acre Wood Apple-Berry," will be sold in supermarkets in single-serve boxes and multi-serve plastic bottles.
Over the past five years the changes in special effects technology for film and television have been monumental, causing large shifts and new issues for production companies and the software/hardware companies that service them. Bruce Manning outlines the issues and then sits down with Richard Taylor to discuss. Includes an image gallery from industry veteran Richard Taylor!
Swimming against the recent tidal wave of dotcom disasters, Heavy.com has announced a new US$3 million round of financing. In addition, Heavy has announced that David Pachter has been named president and COO. Prior to Heavy, Pachter served as senior VP of business development for Interactive Video Technologies, a streaming video solutions firm. "We feel extremely fortunate to have attracted a person of David's caliber," co-CEO David Carson said.
With today's new software packages becoming more and more efficient for less and less money, one can definitely do more with less. John Edgar Park discusses the different software and hardware combos that can get you on the fast track to great looking CGI work.
Exporting your animation to Flash so that it plays smoothly and soundly over the Internet is getting more complicated with every new product crowing about its 'Flash-export capability.' Mark Winstanley is here to make sense of it all for you.
From Russia to his new home of Norway, Pjotr Sapegin is bringing his own twisted sense of humor to his re-worked fairy tales. Who is this man behind a salt controlling troll, a genital loving cat and a rat seeking romance? Chris Robinson investigates.
The innate pitfalls, and opportunities, in successfully adapting a television show to the big screen are many. With millions in profits going to those who achieve the magic combo, and straight-to-video relegation for those who fail, it is a tight rope more studios are trying to rush across. Gerard Raiti takes a look.
