AWN Headline News

Electric Rain, Inc. has announced an improved solution for incorporating Swift 3D vector animations into projects created in the newly released Macromedia Flash MX. The Swift 3D Importer, which will be accessed through the Macromedia Flash MX menu system, will recognize a new proprietary Swift 3D file format. Currently, the entire Swift 3D product line exports to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format. As a compiled format, SWF files inherently limit the type of 3D information able to be imported into Macromedia Flash.

With a weekend take of $30M, the newly-released thriller PANIC ROOM, with visual effects by ComputerCafe, took the top box office spot, but ICE AGE stayed in second place and crossed the $100M mark, making it the first 2002 release to reach that milestone. The animated buddy comedy earned $18.1M for a three-week cume of $116.8M. Disneys THE ROOKIE swung into third place with $16M, while last weeks number one film BLADE II, with visual effects by Framestore CFC, fell three spots to fourth, earning $13.2M for a total of $54.9M.

The 9th International Animation Festival In Hiroshima, Japan.

2002 Hiroshima International Animation Festival, Hiroshima, Japan.

Thursday, August 22 - Monday, August 26, 2002.

Entry Deadline: Wednesday, April 10, 2002.

Animation Careers is looking for a STORYBOARD ARTIST . . . Salt Lake City, Utah's Beyond Games is looking for a FMV ANIMATOR/MODELER . . . Godalming, Surrey's Designhive is looking for a CHARACTER ANIMATOR AND MEDIA SPECIALIST . . . Vilvoorde, Belgium's Djungo Productions is looking for a 3D CHARACTER ANIMATOR/MODELER . . . Emeryville, California's Ex'pression Center for New Media is looking for a PLACEMENT DIRECTOR . . . Kerala, India's Katuns is looking for a 2D ANIMATOR . . . Los Angeles, California's Krazytoons is looking for an ANIMATOR . . .

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: Great Women Of Film And How To Become One: Saturday, March 30, 2002, Los Angeles, California USA . . . The Art of Caricature: Tuesday, May 21 - Saturday, May 25, 2002, Toronto, Ontario Canada . . . Book Illustration: Tuesday, May 28 - Tuesday, July 30, 2002, Toronto, Ontario Canada . . . Sketching on Location Workshop: Wednesday, June 12 - Wednesday, July 31, 2002, Toronto, Ontario Canada . . .

Representing their first sale to Japan, TV-Loonland has sold the home video and DVD rights of the animated series LITTLE GHOSTS to Japanese home entertainment corporation TDK. The show has also been sold to Indonesian agent PT-NAINA, who will distribute all rights of the series to buyers in the Asia Pacific region. Australias public broadcaster ABC Australia is currently airing LITTLE GHOSTS and will be launching the series on home video through their subsidiary ABC Video in spring 2002.

ANIMAL HOSPITAL, an irreverent new animated series about an animal psychiatric hospital, has debuted on Icebox.com and the first six episodes may be viewed for free. Described by creator Dan Bell as "R. Crumb meets ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST with a touch of ANIMAL FARM thrown in," ANIMAL HOSPITAL features the voiceover talent of Dana Carvey, Steven Weber, Caroline Rhea, Mo Gaffney and Paul Hipp. Check it out at www.icebox.com.

Canadian entertainment company Cinar Corp. has released its audited financial statements for the year ended November 30, 2001 and reported a loss of C$42 million (US$26.5 million). The loss is due to a number of items related to the company's ongoing financial trouble, including improper claims for government incentives, which have been subsequently disallowed by both the Canadian and Provincial authorities, as well as monies reportedly embezzled by Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg, the cofounders of the company.

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.

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.

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.