AWN Headline News

Canadian visual effects and animation studio Calibre has hired a new team of talent to aid in the companys expansion into production of animated childrens series. Calibre is currently creating the CG portion of 26 half-hour episodes of the AAC KIDS/BBC UK co-production, ACE LIGHTNING AND THE CARNIVAL OF DOOM, a live-action/CG combination childrens series for broadcast on CBBC, the BBCs new childrens block in fall 2002.

Sydney, Australia-based visual effects and animation company GMD (Garner MacLennan Design) has completed its latest character animation project with the launch of a series of commercials for telecommunications company Telstra. Produced for the Singleton Ogilvy & Mather (SOM Sydney) agency and the Flying Fish production company, the 30-second spots show people in various situations interacting with animated numbers, the message being that Telstra can make numbers work for people, not against them.

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of 3D animation and video products, has released a maintenance update for the immensely popular LightWave 3D version [7]. LightWave [7] was announced and released on August 13, 2001 during SIGGRAPH, and has been embraced by the 3D-user community since that announcement. Only a month later, the LightWave development team has completed massive speed increases and optimizations for both the Intel SSE2 instruction set and the Apple AltiVec instruction set (also known as the Velocity Engine), allowing for an unprecedented performance improvement.

Banja in the World Championship: Friday, November 23, 2001, Shibuya, Japan. Entry Deadline: Monday, October 15, 2001. The Europe-Japan Media Exchange (MEX2001) has announced the BANJA-IN-THE-WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP and is accepting submissions for animated shorts (no longer than 5 minutes) featuring characters from BANJA, the free Internet-based game. Submitted works will be posted on the MEX2001 Website, and the champion and second place finalist will win the opportunity to attend the celebration ceremony to be held in Shibuya, Japan on November 23, 2001.

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:

- Animation - What The Heck Is It?Gene Deitch tackles the shifting definition of animation in this excerpt from his book, How To Succeed In Animation, (Don't Let A Little Thing Like Failure Stop You!), published exclusively on AWN.com.

Toluca Lake, California's Babos and Stuhley Toons, an independent animation studio, is looking for a CHARACTER ANIMATOR . . . West Vancouver, Canadas Eyeball Networks, an interactive video technologies developer, is looking for a LEAD DIGITAL ARTIST . . . London, England-based recruiter EmailYourCv Interactive is looking for a TRAINEE MAYA SLAYER who has previous games experience with 3DS MAX and who is looking to train on Maya . . . Hagenberg, Austria's Fachhochschule Hagenberg (Polytechnic University) is looking for a LECTURER IN COMPUTER ANIMATION.

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include:

Pixar Animation Studios executive vice president, creative and animation director John Lasseter (Toy Story, A Bug's Life) will be joined by Lee Unkrich (co-director Toy Story 2) and Pete Docter (director, Monsters, Inc.) for a discussion and demonstration of the creation of computer animated graphics, featuring clips from the soon-to-be-released Monsters, Inc. Director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Proof of Life) will guide the conversation, covering the production process from beginning to end.

High Falls Film Festival: Wednesday, October 17 - Sunday, October 21, 2001, Rochester, New York USA. Animatus Studio is proud to be a sponsor of the High Falls Film Festival, running October 17-21, 2001 in Rochester, New York. Focusing on women in film, the festival is honoring animator Faith Hubley this year with a retrospective of her independent work.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the nominees for the 16th Annual Gemini Awards, celebrating excellence in Canadian English-language television. The nominees for Best Animated Program or Feature are: ANGELA ANACONDA, CAILLOU II, CHILDREN OF CHELM, FRANKLIN, OLLIE'S UNDER THE BED ADVENTURES and YVON OF THE YUKON. The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA, NUREMBERG PART 1, STARGATE SG-1 and THE OUTER LIMITS.

Prolific animation music composer Denis M. Hannigan is currently scoring RECESS CHRISTMAS: MIRACLE ON THIRD STREET, an OAV to be released on VHS/DVD November 6, 2001. This feature follows the adventures of the RECESS fourth graders as they attract fun and trouble during the holiday season. Along with scoring RECESS CHRISTMAS, Hannigan is also arranging parodies of classic Christmas songs that will be featured in the film. Hannigan has written music for animated features and many of today's most popular children's TV series including RECESS, CATDOG and RUGRATS.