AWN Headline News
Plympton's Comic Of The Week
Plympton's new series of comics is extracted from the comic book "Polls Apart - How To Tell A Democrat From A Republican," by Kathy Paton & Bill Plympton...
This Week's Animation Trivia Quiz
This Week At Animation World Magazine
This Week In Gene Deitch's 'How To Succeed In Animation'
New Jobs: Animators, Production Managers, Software Developers And More...
London's AGI-UK, a game development company, is looking for an ARTIST/GAMER for computer games. . . Los Angeles, California's Back Alley Pictures, an independent film & Web content creation company, is looking for an ANIMATOR for a mock news show combining animation and live action. This is an unpaid job. . . London, UK's Change Limited, a game company, is looking for a LEAD ANIMATOR with 3D Studio Max and Character Studio experience. . . New York's Curious Pictures is looking for CHARACTER ANIMATORS (traditional and/or Flash) and INTERNS for upcoming broadcast projects. . .
Digital Media World And Leaf, Europe's Premier Event For Digital Content
Digital Media World and LEAF 2001 will be held November 13 -15, in London, UK. Launched in 1994, Digital Media World (DMW) has established itself firmly on the calendar of Europe's creative professionals. Whether they are responsible for creating digital content, managing digital assets or delivering digital content over the Web, digital media professionals know DMW showcases the best technologies and celebrates the best creative work through its festival, the London Effects & Animation Festival (LEAF).
SAFO Partners With AWN To Offer Exceptional Marketing Opportunities
If you want to market your company to the best emerging animators from around the world, be sure you have a presence at the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival, October 18 to 21, 2001...
Alias|Wavefront & Mental Images Form Strategic Alliance
Alias|Wavefront has announced a strategic alliance with mental images, makers of the world-renowned, mental ray renderer. The two companies will work together to develop a mental ray rendering option for Maya. "Image quality is a top priority to CG industry professionals," explained Peter Mehlstaeubler, vice president of product development at Alias|Wavefront. "With this priority in mind, Alias|Wavefront has pursued an aggressive rendering development path, one which will soon be expanded to encompass a mental ray solution.
Ubi Soft Beats Yearly Forecasts
Ubi Soft Entertainment, an international developer and publisher of interactive games, surpassed its predicted sales growth of 25% for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001. Ubi Soft reported net consolidated sales of US$236 million (259.8 million euros) up 39.4% over the previous year. This growth came in spite of a 5% decline in the video games world market for the same year. Net income for Ubi Soft during the fiscal year decreased to $4.2 million (4.6 million euros). This was attributed to slow sales in the next generation market.
DIC Entertainment Names Brad Brooks As President
DIC Entertainment has announced the appointment of Brad Brooks as president. Brooks joined DIC in February 2000 to facilitate the management-led buy back of DIC from Disney. He helped raise the necessary capital from Chase Manhattan Bank and DIC's equity partner Bain Capital, as well as negotiated the terms of the deal. Brooks' responsibilities have included hiring several key management personnel, establishing internal systems and procedures, and assessing potential acquisition targets.
Alex Ferrari Named EVP & CFO For MTV Networks
Alex Ferrari has been promoted to executive vice president and chief financial operator for MTV Networks. During his tenure, Ferrari has played a key role in virtually every major company project since joining the company in 1982. He was involved with the formation of Comedy Central, Nick Studios Florida, and the MTVi Group as well as the international expansion of the MTVN brands.
Digital.Art.Media Helps Rhythm & Hues On Dolittle 2
Santa Monica-based digital.art.media has announced their work helping DR. DOLITTLE 2 lead VFX studio, Rhythm & Hues, on 53 shots. digital.art.media helped created the lip synch needed to make many of the animal characters talk. "New systems could not circumvent the need for thousands of man-hours to be expended on very tedious artistic work," said Marc Kolbe, president of digital.art.media. "But the effort is worth it when you see the movie.
Spider Eye Animates Squire's Tale For TV
London-based Spider Eye has started production on a new 2D animated TV short based on Geoffrey Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES entitled THE SQUIRE'S TALE. The project is part of S4C and BBC's continuing animated series depicting the individual tales. THE SQUIRE'S TALE is a tale of the King of Sarai and the special gifts he and his family receive from the King of Arabia and India. Animation, rendering and backgrounds for the film were produced at Jumping Jack Productions Ltd. for transfer to Spider Eye, which provided direction, ink and paint and compositing.
Blue Rocket Announces New 3D TV Series
Brisbane, Australia's Blue Rocket Productions has started pre-production on their new 3D animated television series entitled HOOTA & SNOZ. The interstitial series of 26 episodes are being co-produced with RTV Family Entertainment and Pacific Film and Television Commission. The show follows the antics of two creatures that constantly bicker about everything. The characters speak in squeaks and grunts, which breaks down the culture barrier and has allowed the series to be sold into nearly 40 countries since its release at MIPCOM last October.
WB Online Launches New Webisodes Of Steppenwolf
WB.com has launched the first of eight all-new installments of the highly popular STEPPENWOLF: THE X-CREATURES PROJECT Web series. Additionally, the original eight installments, which launched on Warner Bros. Online in April 2001, are now available at Netscape.com. The new Webisodes will debut every three weeks on WarnerBros.com, while the first-story-arc installments roll out biweekly on Netscape. The series sends a group of adventures into the deep jungle in search of the x-creatures.
Aspyr Releases Tomb Raider For Mac
Aspyr Media Inc., in partnership with Eidos Interactive Inc., has shipped TOMB RAIDER: CHRONICLES for the Macintosh. The game takes place at a memorial service for Lara Croft -- her body still not found. It offers insight into Lara Croft's mysterious past, featuring four untold adventures, which take our heroine to the city of Rome, a German U-boat, a small Irish Island and a hi-tech tower block. New features include tightrope walking, parallel bar swinging and a hand-to-hand stealth attack.
Discreet Posts Latest Update For 3ds Max
Discreet has posted a downloadable update to version 4.2 for 3ds max. This update includes enhancements across the entire product that will ensure quality, workflow, performance and stability. Some of these enhancements include overall memory efficiency; performance increases in TrackView, TrackBar, Particles, RPF and ActiveShade; workflow enhancements in Skin, Custom Attributes, Render Elements, Subdivision Surfaces (HSDS, Meshsmooth), Parameter Wiring, Groups, ActiveShade and PolyObjects. The 3ds max update is downloadable from the Discreet Web site at www.discreet.com.
Cartoon D'or 2001 Nominees Announced
The five nominees for the coveted Cartoon d'Or Prize have been announced. Florence Miailhe's AU PREMIER DIMANCHE D'AOÛT (France); Thomas Stellmach's CHICKEN KIEV (Germany); Michael Dudok de Wit's Oscar winning film, FATHER AND DAUGHTER (Netherlands/U.K.); Trylle Vilstrup's LOVEBIRDS; and Andreas Hykade's RING OF FIRE (Germany). The winner will be announced during the Cartoon Forum's closing event on September 22.
A.I. This Week's Box Office Champ
Warner Bros. & DreamWorks SKGs A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, Steven Spielbergs futuristic tale about a boy robot (Haley Joel Osment), who dreams of being something more, finished at the top of the pack in this weekends box office. In its first weekend of release, the film took in an estimated $30.1 million. 20th Century Foxs DR. DOLITTLE 2 dropped one spot to #3. Starring Eddie Murphy, the sequel to the 1998 remake of the 1967 film about a doctor who can "talk with the animals," took in an estimated $15.4 million, for a two week cumulative of $51 million.
Interactive Agency D-2 Forms
d-2, a Dallas-based interactive, multimedia and Web development firm, has formally announced its grand opening and spin-off from its former parent, D Animation, one of the most successful interactive, multimedia and Web development firms in Texas, having served over 300 clients, including American Airlines, Canon, Anderson Consulting and Nortel. d-2 began operations on February 15, 2001 and is currently on track to exceed $2 million in yearly billings. d-2 will focus its business services on the real estate, telecommunications, technology and manufacturing industries. Darjon R.
Wild Brain Goes Global With Launch Of Munich Subsidiary
San Franciscos animation studio Wild Brain, Inc. is expanding its global operation with the launch of a subsidiary in Munich, Germany. Wild Trixx Media GmbH will identify co-production partners for television and feature film projects, coordinate sales and merchandising for the companys future and existing programming, such as Wild Brains new 26-episode series POOCHINI, throughout Europe, and attract European-based commercials.
Study Discloses $5.847 Billion Generated In Royalty Income In 2000
Licensing proves to be a viable and growing industry, according to the most recent study sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association (LIMA), in conjunction with the Yale School of Management and the Harvard Business School. According to the report, property and trademark owners received royalties of $5.84 billion from manufacturers who paid for the right to use trademarks, characters, logos and artwork to sell products in the United States in 2000, representing a $248 million increase (4.4%) in the last year.