AWN Headline News

Digital effects plug-in provider GenArts Inc. has released version 1.0 of its Sapphire plug-in for Shake 2.5 for Mac OS X. The company is also reducing the price of Sapphire plug-ins for Shake on all platforms by 25%. "Shake users tell us that Sapphire Plug-ins are a natural extension to their systems, so it was important for us to make our plug-ins available for Mac OS X," said Karl Sims, GenArts' President and Founder.

Germany's EM.TV found success with its first installment of the whimsical series FAIRY TALE POLICE DEPARTMENT (FTPD), which has sold to broadcasters in France, Italy, Spain, Latin America, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Africa and the Ukraine. Therefore, EM.TV will be bringing another round of FTPD to this year's show. The second series of FTPD (13 x 24-minutes) follows a special unit of the secret service that fights crime in the fairy tale world. FTPD agents Johnny Legend and his partner Chris Anderson ensure that all fairy tale favorites really do live happily ever after.

Realviz has announced that MatchMover 2.5 Professional is now available. The software is a professional solution used to track 3D camera data and motion from videos and film sequences. With this new version, users can move smoothly back and forth between automatic and manual tracking with no interruption of workflow.

France Animation has signed a number of deals across its children's programming catalogue. Following the success of the first 26 episodes of animated series WHEEL SQUAD, Disney Channel Asia has made a commitment to the second season with a deal for a further 13 episodes. Radio Canada has also picked up all 39 episodes for broadcast beginning in September 2002. The series, which has also been sold to Disney Middle East and Fox Kids Latin America, is a co-production with Rai, M6, Praxinos and Colorland Animation.

Curious Labs has begun shipping Poser 5, the new version of their award-winning 3D-character animation tool for artists and animators. Dynamic cloth and strand-based hair, photo-based facial mapping, and the new FireFly render engine are some of the new features included in Poser 5.

How will Jar Jar look when he is 8 stories tall? This question will be answered on November 1, 2002, when a large-format version of STAR WARS: EPISODE II "ATTACK OF THE CLONES" debuts in IMAX theatres in the United States and Canada. The film will be digitally re-mastered using the proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology, which allows live-action motion pictures to be inexpensively converted into the 15/70 format for presentation on the giant IMAX screen, while maintaining and even enhancing the conventional image resolution.

September 14, 2002 marks the premiere of kid-friendly programming on most network and some cable stations. The Kids' WB will kick off the season with a "Scoob-Tacular-Saturday Sweepstakes," which offers kids the chance to win one of thousands of prizes throughout the morning. The network will introduce three new series to the fall schedule: the all-new WHAT'S NEW SCOOBY-DOO?, the buddy-cop comedy OZZY & DRIX and the new Mexican wrestling comedy ¡MUCHA LUCHA!, which had an early sneak-peek debut on Saturday, August 17. Kids' WB!

Barrie Usher, president and CEO of Canadian children's entertainment company Cinar, has submitted his resignation effective September 15, 2002. George Rossi, senior vice president and CFO, will replace him in the interim until a new president and CEO is appointed. Cinar is emerging from a series of financial scandals that began in 1999, stemming from illegally obtained Canadian tax credits, non-approved investments in offshore accounts and the misappropriation of funds by senior executives.

DIC Entertainment announced today that they have signed Nancy Bassett to head up all of their licensing and merchandising sales initiatives worldwide. Bassett comes to DIC from Viacom Consumer Products where she was the vice president of worldwide sales for Paramount Pictures' licensing division. During Bassett's tenure with Viacom she served as the general manager of Viacom Consumer Products Canada and as managing director of Hamilton Projects. Bassett also held executive positions at Alliance Atlantis Entertainment and Sega of Canada.

Michael Dudok De Wit's short film FATHER AND DAUGHTER continued its winning streak at the 2002 edition of the Hiroshima Animation Festival. Winning both the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize, Dudok De Wit can now add Hiroshima to the slew of honors he has received for his film, including the 2001 Annecy Grand Prix, the 2000 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, Grand Prize at Zagreb 2002, the 2001 Cartoon D'or and many others. Below you will find a full list of winners:

Grand Prix

FATHER AND DAUGHTER by Michael Dudok De Wit (The Netherlands)

BOXX Technologies has announced that its R and H series of high-performance 3DBOXX workstations and its RenderBOXX rendering systems now feature the AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ with QuantiSpeed architecture and Smart MP technology. BOXX stated that the 3DBOXX and RenderBOXX series featuring the new AMD Athlon MP processor provides optimal performance for compute-intensive applications such as 3D modeling, CAD, animation and digital video editing. "Our customers are eager for processing power and continually driven by deadlines," said Rick Krause, president and CEO of BOXX.

Mike and Sully will get a new look when U.S.-based manga publisher Tokyopop releases a graphic novel based on the Disney/Pixar property MONSTERS, INC. The 104-page paperback manga version of the hit CG-animated film, which features collectible stickers of the entire monster cast, will hit the shelves of bookstores and comic book retailers in October 2002, just after the film's North American DVD/VHS release.