AWN Headline News

Assemblyman Paul Koretz, Chair of the California Assembly Labor Committee, has agreed to oversee an impartial election for union representation on behalf of writers on six Nickelodeon animated series. The election will take place Wednesday, October 3, 2001 at Nickelodeon Studios, 231 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. The polling place will close at 12:00 noon. Immediately following the vote Sequoia Voting Systems will tabulate the results and Assemblyman Koretz will announce the results.

* Friday, January 25 - Sunday, January 27, 2002 in Boulder, Colorado.

Entry Deadline: Monday, October 15, 2001

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.

Three new releases helped the weekend box office rebound from the poor performance of the past few weeks. Box office receipts were up 52% this weekend with the three debut films taking the top three spots on the chart. The fashion-world parody ZOOLANDER took second place with $15.7M in its debut weekend. ZOOLANDER is the first film to be released that has digitally removed the World Trade Center from the skyline of downtown New York.

In its continuing efforts to maximize the strengths of management, and to ensure the greatest operating efficiencies for the company, childrens video game publisher NewKidCo International Inc., has made several changes to its senior management team. Allan Blum has resigned from his position as VP marketing and Barry Fried will be joining the company as vice president and chief financial officer. As a senior financial executive with more than 20 years of public accounting and private industry experience, Fried will play a large role in NewKidCo's strategic plans.

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.

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.

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.

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.