AWN Headline News

Los Angeles-based CLASS-KEY CHEW-PO COMMERCIALS has signed VOLTAIRE as itsnewest director. Voltaire's style includes a combination of stop-motionanimation and live-action. He has done spots for British Nights, CrunchFitness, Cartoon Network, MTV, and The Sci-Fi Channel.

Read what Voltaire has to say about his unique techniques in "How'd They DoThat? - Stop-Motion Secrets Revealed" in the February 1998 issue ofAnimation World Magazine.

London-based PASSION PICTURES' CG animation director Chris Knott and postproduction house RUSHES' Paul Wratten have finished "Very Boggy," a :40spot for Nouvelle toilet tissue. In the spot a variety of toilets open andshut in time to the music of Handel's "Water Music." CG animator ChrisKnott reproduced the toilet seats which were first shot as live-actionreference. Mark Wilson completed all the builds, surfacing, lighting, andcompositing in Lightwave 5.6.

Newly released DreamWorks SKG's THE HAUNTING, with digital effects by ILM,finished first in the U.S. weekend boxoffice race, grossing an estimated$33 million. Also newly released, The Walt Disney Company's INSPECTORGADGET, with digital effects by DreamQuest, finished second, grossing anestimated $22 million. Warner's WILD WILD WEST, with digital effects byILM, finished seventh, grossing an estimated $5.4 million for a total of$104.2 million; Disney's TARZAN finished ninth, grossing $4.8 million for a

Mumbai, India-based GRAPHITI MULTIMEDIA has completed "The Case of theMissing Tooth" for Pepsodent, a 7-minute infomercial in which detectivesSqeezy, a tube of toothpaste, and Bristles, a toothbrush, work their waythrough a tooth maze, battle germs in a haunted house, peer into a foodcave, and are lectured by a dentist who explains to them the benefits ofgood oral hygiene. Traditional line drawings were used to create thecharacters, but environments were produced in 3D Studio Max. Cambridge

The British Academy of Film and Television Art's (BAFTA) InteractiveEntertainment Awards are open to entries from all parts of the world on allinteractive platforms. Categories include: Entertainment Website,Innovative Game, Moving Images, Sound, Interactivity, Design, ComputerProgramming, and more. Entry deadline is August 6, 1999. Awards will beannounced October 20, 1999. For more information contact BAFTA,195 Piccadilly, London, W1V 0LN, UK; Tel: + 44 171-7340022; Fax: + 44171-341792; e-mail: helenw@bafta.org; or visit www.bafta.org.

The International EMMA Awards are prestigious European-based interactivemedia awards. In 1999, there will again be an online announcement ofnominations and winners. In the months following the announcement, anotherseries of winners' celebration events will be organized to coincide with anumber of new media related events such as Invision in San Francisco andMilia in Cannes. Categories include: Business, Entertainment, GeneralInterest, Technology, Education, Games, Interactive, and Digital City.

This list of upcoming home entertainment releases includes some new titles,but most of them are new only to DVD. Disney has just re-released ROBINHOOD and ALICE IN WONDERLAND; their live-action RETURN TO OZ, whichincludes some stop-motion by Will Vinton Studios, will be released on DVDand VHS on August 10. Touchstone's WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? will bereleased on DVD on September 28. Warner Bros. has just released 1999'sanimated THE KING AND I on both VHS and DVD; WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE

French company Infogrames Entertainment has released 'Bugs Bunny Lost inTime' for Sony PlayStation. In this video game Bugs encounters old nemeses,including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Witch Hazel, Rockyand Mugsy, Merlin the Wizard, the Bull, and Daffy Duck in settings rangingfrom the Stone Age and Pirate eras all the way forward to Dimension X.Suggested retail price is US$39.95.

* Wednesday, July 21, 7 pm. Beverly Hills, California, USA.

Ray Harryhausen, director Nathan Juran, and genie actor Richard Eyer willbe on-hand for the screening of a newly restored print of THE 7TH VOYAGE OFSINBAD. Tickets (donations) are $20, which includes a souvenir booklet.Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949Wilshire Blvd. For more information contact The Argonaut Foundation, 101531/2 Riverside Dr. #290, No. Hollywood, CA 91602. Tel: 818-890-4492; fax:

The Attik/San Francisco has also named Ian Renton Studio Manager. Rentonwill oversee the day to day operation of the studio. He is also responsiblefor insuring that all equipment works correctly, handling briefings withclients, and shepherding design projects from inception to completion. Hecomes from The Attik's Huddersfield, UK office where he was Digital ArtworkManager/Studio Manager.

The Annual Society for Animation Studies (SAS) Conference will be hosted byGriffith University and will feature papers by Maureen Furniss on motioncapture, Chris Robinson on Estonian animation, Richard Leskosky onanimating between the lines, Jean-Paul Goergen on hand-drawn sound inGermany in the 1930s, Suzanne R. Williams on the aesthetics of computergames, Marilyn Carney on Australian women animators, Bryan Barker on theimpact of CinemaScope on animation production, Cathyrn Vasseleu on "Time

Hollywood-based Super 78 used Adobe After Effects 4.0 to design the 2Dgraphics for a :30 spot, "Wanna Bet?," for YouBet.com, a new thoroughbredhorseracing on-line wagering service.