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AWN Headline News

Events Headline News

New Additions To AWN's Calendar Of Events

By Guest (not verified) | Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 12:00am

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: Oscars In Animation: Thursday, August 01 - Sunday, October 06, 2002, Beverly Hills, California USA . . . The Machinima Film Festival 2002: Saturday, August 17, 2002, Mesquite, Texas USA . . . Morph 2002!: Tuesday, September 24 - Saturday, September 28, 2002, World Wide Web, Germany . . . The 4th Brisbane International Animation Festival: Wednesday, October 09 - Sunday, October 13, 2002, Brisbane, Australia . . .

Effects Headline News

Cinesite Inks X-Men 2 VFX Deal

Hollywood, California-based production house Cinesite will be providing visual effects for the 20th Century Fox feature X-MEN 2, scheduled to be in theaters May 2, 2003. In this sequel to 2000's X-MEN, Brian Cox (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) portrays the villainous Stryker, a former Army commander who holds the key to Wolverine's past - as well as the future of the X-MEN. The original cast from X-MEN will return, joined by Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, a mutant who can teleport himself from one point to another almost instantaneously.

Series Headline News

TechTV Announces New Program Line Up

Highlighted by the premiere of '60s cult series THUNDERBIRDS, U.S. cable network TechTV recently announced its 2002-2003 line-up, which focuses on a new programming strategy. "In addition to our existing original programming, TechTV has added more entertainment-based technology programming with a new line up of acquisitions and commissions," explained Greg Drebin, senior vice president of programming and production for TechTV.

Headline News

Splutterfish At Siggraph For Shave And A Haircut

SplutterFish, creator of the Brazil Rendering System, has announced Joe Alter's Shave and a Haircut for 3ds Max, and representatives from SplutterFish will be giving a demonstration of both Brazil and Shave at the Discreet booth (Booth #8062) at SIGGRAPH 2002, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, July 23-25, 2002. Shave and a Haircut is a hair grooming, dynamics and rendering system that creates photo-realistic hair for characters, animals and people, as well as creating leaves, grass and other organic systems. Shave and a Haircut for 3ds Max is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2002.

Animation Headline News

face2face Animation Unveils Wireless MPEG-4 Animation Player At Siggraph

Animation software developer face2face animation will be at SIGGRAPH to demonstrate its new streaming MPEG-4 animation player, the face2face Player. The face2face Player enables animators to output streaming facial characters over any wireless network or device, including laptops, digital cell phones and wireless PDAs. face2face has announced that its demonstration of the Player will be on a laptop with a wireless cellular modem, streaming high-quality facial animation with perfect lip sync. "This is the era of everyday animation.

Effects Headline News

Primetime Emmy Nominations!

Nominations for the 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced on July 18, 2002 and the Fox network ruled the Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) category with all three of its popular prime-time sitcoms FUTURAMA, THE SIMPSONS and KING OF THE HILL nabbing noms. They were joined by Comedy Central's SOUTH PARK and Nickelodeon's AS TOLD BY GINGER.

Animation Headline News

This Week At Animation World Magazine

By Guest (not verified) | Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 12:00am

New this week: Maureen Furniss reviews five short films fresh from the festival circuit, Jean Detheux explores how venturing beyond this "given" opens up an entire new realm of paradoxes, dilemmas and ultimately success, Don Duga returns to Annecy with his trusty sketchbook in hand and more...

Animation Headline News

The Acrobat Issue Of Animation World Magazine Is Now Online!

By Guest (not verified) | Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 12:00am

In this issue Paul Feldman details 25 years of Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation, Fred Patten discusses innovative animation techniques and Jerry Beck finds there is a lot to like about LILO & STITCH, Rick DeMott visits with Sony Pictures Imageworks to uncover SPIDER-MAN's visual effects magic and more...

Animation Headline News

Job Opportunities For Animators, Directors, Producers, Instructors And More

By Guest (not verified) | Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 12:00am

San Francisco, California's Academy of Art College is looking for an ANIMATION/VFX INSTRUCTOR . . . Angry Chicken Productions is looking for a TRADITIONAL ANIMATOR . . . Artifact Entertainment is looking for a MAYA ANIMATOR . . . Boomba is looking for a STORYBOARD ARTIST . . . Clay Pixel Studios - USA is looking for a DIRECTOR - 3D ANIMATION, a FINANCE CONTROLLER/CFO, a PRODUCER - 3D ANIMATION and a SALESPERSON - 3D SERVICES . . . Glendale, California's DreamWorks Animation is looking for a 3D/2D CHARACTER LIGHTER . . . Mumbai, India's Famous Cine Labs & Studios Ltd.

Headline News

ASIFA-Hollywood Presents An Evening Of Beauty And The Beast

On Wednesday, July 17, 2002 at 7:00 pm, ASIFA-Hollywood presents "Walt Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - Eleven Years Later." BEAUTY & THE BEAST animator Tom Sito and a panel of veteran Disney artists will be assembled to recall the stories behind the creation of the only animated feature to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Among those tentatively scheduled to join Tom are director Gary Trousedale, Jim Hillin (CG supervisor, ballroom sequence), Nik Ranieri (creator of Lumiere) and Rick Familoe (animator of Lefou).

Series Headline News

Lilo & Stitch Inspires Video Sequel, Television Series

Disney has already announced plans to capitalize on the success of its 2D animated summer hit LILO & STITCH with a direct-to-video sequel and a television series. Thomas Schumacher, head of Disney Feature Animation, made the announcement. The video sequel, currently entitled STITCH! -- THE MOVIE, is slated for release in 2003 and will serve as a bridge between the feature film and the television series, currently under development with the working title of STITCH! -- THE TV SERIES, and set to launch on Disney Channel in fall 2003. In STITCH!

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks Goes Over The Hedge

DreamWorks Pictures has enlisted Jim Carrey and Garry Shandling to voice the main characters in its upcoming 3D animated comedy OVER THE HEDGE, based on the comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis. OVER THE HEDGE, slated for release in 2005, will be the second computer animated project to be produced entirely at DreamWorks animation studio in Glendale, following the comedy SHARKSLAYER, which is currently in production. Produced by Bonnie Arnold (TOY STORY, TARZAN), OVER THE HEDGE follows the adventures of mischievous raccoon R.J.

Free Headline News

Blender In The Mix At Siggraph

Blender, the free 3D software package that had been available through Dutch company Not a Number (NaN) until March 2002, when the company declared bankruptcy, is now making a comeback, thanks to Blender creator Ton Roosendaal. Roosendaal founded NaN in June of 1998, and the company offered the Blender Creator animation software free through their Website. Since the demise of NaN, Roosendaal has been working with shareholders to come up with a possible way to make Blender available to the 3D community as an open source development project.

Digital Headline News

Digital Domain Brings On The Nukes

Venice, California-based Digital Domain, the visual effects company responsible for digital effects in recent blockbusters like THE TIME MACHINE, LORD OF THE RINGS, X-MEN and ARMAGEDDON, will announce a new software venture at SIGGRAPH 2002. According to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, Digital Domain will be offering a public version of its proprietary compositing tool, Nuke. Digital Domain hopes to compete with Shake, the popular compositing software owned by Apple.

Headline News

Kaydara Announces Motionbuilder Training At Siggraph 2002

Kaydara Inc. will be providing free training sessions at SIGGRAPH 2002 for their real-time animation software package Motionbuilder. The training sessions can accommodate up to 30 people at a time, and will be held every hour on the hour, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Monday, July 22, 2002 at the Bonham Exchange, located at 411 Bonham Street in San Antonio. At the end of the day, Kaydara will unveil the most recent version of the software, Motionbuilder 4.0. For more information about Kaydara, including a SIGGRAPH calendar of events, visit www.kaydara.com.

Series Headline News

John K. Is Back With All New Ren & Stimpy

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! John Kricfalusi's revolutionary animated series THE REN & STIMPY SHOW is back with six new original episodes. Cable network The New TNN (part of the MTV Networks family) has signed Kricfalusi to produce new original episodes of THE REN & STIMPY SHOW to air as part of TNN's new primetime adult animation block, scheduled to launch in the spring of 2003. The six new episodes will be presented in addition to all 52 episodes of the original series.

Animation Headline News

Oscars In Animation Exhibit

If you live or are going to be in the Los Angeles area between August 1, 2002 and October 6, 2002, be sure to stop by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Gallery for the exhibit "Oscars in Animation 7 Decades of Animation Art." Culled primarily from the private collection of Mike Glad and the Glad Family Trust, this comprehensive exhibition displays rare and original animation art from every year since 1933 to the present, all of it from Oscar-nominated or winning films.

Creative Headline News

Guru Brands YTV With Creative Characters

The crew at guru animation studio in Toronto was recently presented a Silver Promax/BDA award for their work on 3 of 15 "very, very short films" for Canada's YTV network. Begun in July 2001, the spots were commissioned for YTV's 2001 fall branding campaign. The 3 1/2 second spots feature various characters, each of whom convey an abstract emotion, a weird concept or just a simple visceral pleasure.

Headline News

Men In Black II Stays On Top

Four new releases failed to attack the MEN IN BLACK's box office hold. Despite a 50% drop from last weekend's monstrous box office, MEN IN BLACK II is still number one, earning $25M and breaking the $100M mark after just 8 days. The film, with primary visual effects by ILM, has earned $133.3M since its July 4 debut. DreamWorks' THE ROAD TO PERDITION, debuted in second place with $22.1M. In third was the dragonslaying thriller REIGN OF FIRE, with visual effects by The Secret Lab, which brought in $16M, and HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION managed to scare up $12.3M for fourth place.

Headline News

Nelvana Lays Off 65

On July 9, 2002 children's television producer Nelvana laid off 65 staff in its production department across all positions. According to a Nelvana spokesperson, the move was part of a strategic reorganization of the department to shift towards a team-based production unit with a smaller full-time staff, allowing the incorporation of more contract positions. Some of those laid off were given call-back dates for employment on future Nelvana projects. Nelvana is owned by Corus Entertainment, a Canadian-based media and entertainment company.

Alien Headline News

Ubik's Alien Takes Two Bites Out Of Maxibon

Italy's Ubik VFX Studio recently completed animation and visual effects for the new Maxibon Motta commercial, directed by Dario Piana and produced by FilmMaster and the Red Cell Agency. The spot opens with a live-action scene on a sunny and crowded beach on a hot summer's day. A space ship appears and a friendly alien with two mouths appears, which he uses to eat a Maxibon ice cream sandwich, before returning to outer space. The model artists and animators at Ubik VFX developed the concept, design and model of the alien and spaceship.

Headline News

Infogrames Creates Videogames Based On Terminator Sequel

Infogrames, Inc. has signed a deal with producers C-2 Pictures and Intermedia to develop and distribute video games based on the third film in the TERMINATOR series, TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES, scheduled to be in theaters summer 2003. Through the agreement, Infogrames has secured the exclusive interactive rights for video games based on the property for all home video game consoles and the personal computer. Infogrames also secured the exclusive first option for interactive rights to any TERMINATOR 4 film through the deal, subject to certain conditions.

Headline News

Firaxis Licenses Netimmerse For Upcoming Game Titles

Maryland-based game development company Firaxis Games has licensed the NetImmerse 3D graphics engine and toolkit from software developer NDL to use on multiple future titles. Firaxis was founded in 1996 by veteran gaming executive Jeff Briggs and designer Sid Meier. The company selected the NetImmerse engine after extensively researching many different options, according to Mike Gibson, director of development for Firaxis.

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