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Animation and production house Loop Filmworks has created a series of short films for Noggin, directed by David Chartier. "Noggin came to us with the idea of creating a series of short films told from the perspective of a precocious kid who uses his parents video camera to capture things he's curious about - such as which type of ice cream melts the fastest, and, how many ants could you fit at one time on a lollipop.

Mr. X, Inc. has completed the photo-realistic visual effects, compositing and online conform for Default's first music video, "Wasting My Time." The video was directed by Noble Jones. Wasting My Time is the third collaboration for Mr. X and Director Jones, who recently completed music videos for Doyle Bramhall II and Smokestack's "Green Light Girl" and Sugar Jones' "How Much Longer." The music video starts with a young woman looking at her watch.

Cartoon Network U.K.'s Scooby Week was a huge hit scoring a 1.8 overall kids rating, giving it the highest share of kids viewing at 10.3% over the week. The Mystery Machine gang scared 3.1 million people from August 6 to August 10. The special put Cartoon Network's share of kids viewing way ahead of all kids' channels including Nickelodeon, Fox Kids, Disney and Trouble as well as Sky One.

Curious Pictures' director David Kelley, in collaboration with photographer Butch Belair, has wrapped on a new mixed media spot for shoe designer Steve Madden. Based on a long running print and poster campaign, the spot was commissioned by New York ad agency Hampel Stefanides. The spot combines original photos, digital composting, pixilated photography animation and 2D animation. The commercial opens on a hip girl, wearing Steve Madden brown leather platform cowboy boots, at JFK airport.

Softimage Co. has announced the release of SOFTIMAGE|3D v4.0 and SOFTIMAGE|XSI 2.0. "SOFTIMAGE|3D, an industry-standard for more than 10 years, has been used extensively by more than 13,000 customers in the animation, special effects and games development industry. The product's great success is a direct result of our long history of listening and responding to our customers' needs," said Michael Stojda, managing director, Softimage.

Curious Labs, developers of 3D character and design tools Poser and Poser Pro Pack, has signed an agreement with Adobe Systems where the two companies have agreed to work together on technology, content and marketing activities for Adobe Atmosphere software and Curious Labs' avatar-creation tools. Atmosphere world builders will have an easy system for building custom avatars. Additionally, both Adobe and Curious Labs incorporate Viewpoint technology, resulting in smooth skinned, bending 3D characters from Poser Pro Pack that can be used as avatars in Atmosphere 3D worlds.

Click here to see the complete list of winners from the 2001 World Animation Celebration.