AWN Headline News

Do you have a series in production? Are you looking for financial partners? Are you about to sign a co-production contract and need to establish your production budget? Then you should be in Cardiff, Wales, U.K. on June 21st and 22nd for the CARTOON FINANCE Cartoon Master.

Discreet's plasma, a professional animation software for creating 3D content for the Web, is now available. plasma software allows animators to work directly in a 3D space to create high-quality visuals for Web services such as instant messaging, greeting cards and interactive games. plasma features integration with Discreet's 3D and Macromedia's authoring tools including Macromedia Flash MX and Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio, making the creation of 2D and 3D Web elements easier. plasma is available now for a suggested retail price of US$650.

Based on the Academy Award-winning short BOB'S BIRTHDAY, the 52-episode animated series BOB AND MARGARET has been acquired by Showtime Networks from Corus Entertainment's Nelvana, including 26 episodes never aired in the U.S. The series, created and written by David Fine and Alison Snowden, will premiere July 5, 2002 on Showtime Women, a channel devoted to programming in which women are instrumental, and will later air on other Showtime channels.

U.S. producer of anime and manga Viz Communications, Inc. has partnered with manga publisher Shueisha Inc. to launch a new mass-market boys' magazine. Viz currently produces Japanese animation and comics in English with over 20 monthly titles. The new monthly magazine, to be launched in November 2002, will be patterned after Shueisha's magazine SHONEN JUMP and will feature the manga from which many of the world's most popular anime properties such as DRAGON BALL Z and YU-GI-OH were derived. "U.S. kids know all about anime due to exposure on television," said Yamaji.

Three new releases took the top three spots at this weekend's box office. Number one was the live-action comedy SCOOBY DOO, featuring an all CGI Scooby courtesy of Rhythm & Hues and Warner Bros. Feature Animation. The Mystery Inc. crew debuted with $56.4M, making SCOOBY DOO the third highest grossing debut this year, after EPISODE II and SPIDER-MAN. In second place was the thriller THE BOURNE IDENTITY with a strong $27.6 debut. In third was the John Woo-helmed World War II pic WINDTALKERS, with visual effects by Cinesite, earning $14.5M for the weekend.

Boston, Massachusetts' Animation Technologies, Inc. is looking for a DIGITAL ANIMATOR . . . Hollywood, California's ASHELOCKE DESIGN GROUP is looking for a CHARACTER ANIMATOR (UNPAID) . . . Bangalore, India's Bionic Informatics Pvt. Ltd. is looking for a DIRECTOR PROGRAMMER . . . Toronto, Ontario's Bitcasters is looking for a SHOCKWAVE PROGRAMMER . . . Chennai, India's CHENNAI STUDIOS is looking for a MAYA CHARACTER ANIMATOR . . . Clay Pixel Studios - India is looking for an ART SCHOOL RECRUITER and a STRATEGIC ADVISOR/EXECUTIVE . . . Berlin, Germany's DFA is looking for a 3D MODELER . . .

Digital content and design studio Super-Fi has recently completed an original online game and a series of online trading cards for tvland.com, the classic TV cable channel's Website. Both the game and the trading cards are part of tvland.com's BATMAN Website, promoting the classic live-action series that originally aired from 1966-68. TV Land currently airs BATMAN daily at 7:00 pm. Super-Fi worked in collaboration with tvland.coms creative director Michael Gaylord and head producer Steven Wishnoff to ensure the aesthetic integration of the game and trading cards into the BATMAN site.

Children's videogame publisher NewKidCo International Inc. has announced that the company's first quarter 2002 results were in line with its budget. The net loss of $1.8 million versus net income of $.3 million for the same period last year was a result of increased selling and marketing expenditures as part of the overall plan by NewKidCo to support its broad product rollout for the year (selling and marketing costs have been expensed as incurred).

Wade Howie will be joining Ottawa-based animation studio NOITAMINANIMATION as production director, beginning July 1, 2002. In his new position, Wade will be helping grow the studio's commercials, FX and features divisions. Wade joins NOITAMINANIMATION from ILM where he spent 5 1/2 years, first as an animator in CG features then later in ILM's commercial production unit, where he worked on spots for Pepsi, McDonald's, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and Duracell, as well as trailers and music videos.