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Cartoon Network U.K. Online is urging people to send their work to their Animation Awards before the closing date of August 31, 2001. The U.K. toon channel is offering £10,000 (US$15,000) in prize money with the winning films to air on both TV and the Web. First prize is £5,000 ($7,500), second prize is £3000 ($4,500) and third prize is £2000 ($3,000). The competition is open to all U.K. animators using Flash and entries will be judged by industry professionals. The winning entries will also be shown on both CartoonNetwork.co.uk and CartoonNetwork.com.

Discreet has announced combustion 2, the latest version of its award-winning paint, animation and 3D compositing software. combustion 2 will support new multi-format project capabilities, including video, HDTV, and 64-bit color, offering enhanced image quality and performance.

Cartoon Network has named Jim Samples the new executive VP and general manager of Cartoon Network Worldwide. He will remain as the general manager of Cartoon Network's online division, which he took over in March 2000. He will succeed Cartoon Network founder, Betty Cohen, who moved over to AOL Time Warner to develop new shows for teens and young adults. Samples takes over a channel whose advertising revenues are speculated to grow from US$133.6 million in 2000 to $162.5 million this year.

Due to its increasing debt, the International Museum of Cartoon Art will be leaving Mizner Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Its US$3.8 million building will be put up for sale to pay off the museum's $2 million debt and preserve its collection of more than 200,000 pieces of comic strips, editorial cartoons and other works. The museum is looking into several locations for a new home, including New York and Connecticut, where it was originally founded in 1972 by BEETLE BAILEY creator Mort Walker.

Santa Monica, California-based R!OT has wrapped on the visual effects and post-production for "Rexall," the first video from Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers' guitarist Dave Navarro's debut solo album "Trust No One." R!OT artists, headed by visual effects supervisor Deak Ferrand, created a 180-degree pan of a fire engulfed city. "We mapped the matte painting onto a sphere so that we could reframe it and match the angles of the live shots," Ferrand explained. "That gave us the freedom to move the camera through it in any way that we wished.

San Francisco-based Western Images has created a completely CGI spot entitled "Balloon Art" for Cingular Wireless and ad agency BBDO South. The commercial opens with the sound of stretching rubber and an expanding blue toy balloon. The following scene reveals the orange Cingular "X" logo named Jack blowing air into the balloon. At the end, Jack whips out a remarkable likeness of George Washington crossing the Delaware. The spot was directed by Mark Dippé, of Pandemonium, SF.

Cartoon Network U.K. has acquired 26 episodes of X-MEN: EVOLUTION from Warner Bros. The Film Roman-produced series follows the exploits of the X-Men as teenagers. The series will hit U.K. airwaves in September. Finn Arnesen, VP of programming, development and acquisitions for Cartoon Network Europe, said, "This series will appeal to X-MEN fans as well as drawing in new viewers with the strong story lines and an updated take on the X-MEN franchise. X-MEN popularity is building; X-MEN The Movie came out last year, there's a second movie coming in 2002.