AWN Headline News

Banjax, a new digital animation company based in Belfast and London, will be at MIPCOM Jr. and MIPCOM with four new animated projects: GENE-FUSION, SICK AND FAMOUS, GNARPH and THINGIES. GENE FUSION (26 x 22 minutes) is set in an authoritarian future society where mutant creatures, called Fusimals, battle a spectacular gladiatorial road show owned and run by the World Fusing Federation. The series is based on a comic book created by U.S. Publisher/IP House Beckett Entertainment. SICK AND FAMOUS (26 x 22 minutes) is a comedy about a series broadcast from an exclusive rehab clinic.

THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET.

Former MTV marketing director Greg Baldwin has been appointed vice president, marketing and talent relations, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI). Based in Los Angeles, Baldwin assumes responsibility for all of SPTI's promotional marketing and talent relations' activities in support of the company's three lines of business - licensing, international networks and international productions. Most recently, Baldwin served as the director, music marketing for MTV Networks in New York.

House of Moves Motion Capture Studios (HOM) has made more than 5,000 stock motion files available online. The moves can be browsed and ordered online by installing House of Moves custom 3D-motion viewer called DivaView. A free beta version of the viewer can be downloaded at www.moves.com/divaview/divaview.zip. Available libraries of moves include football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, special ops, medieval combat, dancing and more. Some moves are available in multiple formats, and all 3D motion-capture formats are available for an additional charge.

Warner Bros. Animation is bringing Daffy Duck back to television in an all-new half-hour series for Cartoon Network. DUCK DODGERS showcases the classic Looney Tunes characters Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in the 24th century as they attempt to protect the planet Earth from its enemies. "This series embraces the timelessness of the classic Looney Tunes characters," said Sander Schwartz, president, Warner Bros. Animation.

In an ongoing effort to reduce costs, Jim Morris, President of Lucas Digital Ltd., has announced a restructuring of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Key changes have been made to the leadership team in a move to streamline management. To this end, Chrissie England, a twenty-four year veteran of ILM, has been named senior vice president of production. England was most recently vice president of feature production, a post she held for the last two years. Reporting directly to Morris, England will oversee all aspects of ILM's feature effects work.

Nickelodeon recently collaborated with New York-based visual effects company Black Logic to create a 60-second promo for Nickelodeon.coms Jimmy Neutron Gotta Blast Rocket Race campaign. In "How To Play," Black Logic recreated the Jimmy Neutron character and his rocket ship, as well as countless effects sequences and CGI backgrounds in order to produce the effects packed commercial.

Visual communications software provider Eyematic has joined with Verizon Wireless to offer Shout Messenger, the first animated mobile messaging application in the U.S. Shout Messenger allows Verizon Wireless' "Get It Now" subscribers to personalize their mobile messages with Marvel superheroes animated in full color, including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men characters. Shout Messenger subscribers first enter their text, then select a famous hero from the Marvel universe and an animation corresponding to the emotional tone of their message.

UK-based entertainment and sports marketing company CSS Stellar has acquired a majority shareholding in Target Distribution from founder shareholder Tiger Aspect Productions (MR. BEAN). In June 2002, Target had agreed to a merger with the Just Group, with Just Group proposing a 54% stake in the company to be purchased with funds raised by shareholders. This deal fell through in late summer, although Target continued to pursue a financial and strategic partner.

TV-Loonland has started production on its latest animation series METALHEADS (26 x 11-minutes), a comedy adventure set in the Middle Ages and aimed at 6 to 11 year-olds. TV-Loonlands UK-based animation studio Telemagination is producing the series, which has an anticipated delivery of summer 2003. METALHEADS centers on a motley crew of five kids and their enthusiastic efforts to become knights. Its described by Loonland as a little bit Monty Python and a little bit THE KNIGHT'S TALE.

Electric Rain, Inc. has announced the release of Swift 3D version 3.0, a standalone application allowing designers to build and export 3D animations to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format, as well as other major vector and raster formats. This latest version provides realistic vector rendering with new RAViX III rendering options, photo-quality raster export and SmartLayer Technology for direct integration with Macromedia Flash MX.

Princeton Video Image, Inc. (PVI) and FOX Sports presented the first dynamic animated virtual advertisements on a live national U.S. broadcast. The ads debuted during the FOX NFL pre-game show on Sunday, September 22, 2002. Using the same technology as PVI's well-known Virtual First Down Line, which appears on NFL and college football broadcasts allowing viewers at home to see a "virtual chalk line" on the field, the three 10-second ads featured Ford F-250 Super Duty trucks rolling on to Ford Field in Detroit and interacting with the field and the stadium in different ways.