AWN Headline News

* Friday, January 28, 2000. Los Angeles, California, USA.

Art In Motion focuses on innovative content and diversity. The criteria for

entry is time rather than medium based, and therefore video, film and

digital projects, animations, Websites, CD-Roms etc. are all eligible.

Hybrids are particularly welcome. There will be a $1000 "Best of Show"

award and "first place" allocations in each exhibition category. For more

information contact Jim Keller or Janet Owen, festival organizers at:

* Friday, February 4 - Saturday, February 12, 2000. Clermont-Ferrand, France.

This year, Clermont-Ferrand Short Films Festival will be featuring its 12th

international competition and 22nd French competition. The festival will

highlight animated films based off of comic strips. Filmmakers and buyers

can take advantage of the short film market, which attracted more than 50

TV channels, 50 distributors, and 60 international festival organizers last

On Wednesday, January 12, 2000, Walt Disney's legendary animator Marc Davis

passed away at Glendale Memorial Hospital shortly following a stroke. He

was 86 years old. Davis was a member of Disney's inner circle known as the

"nine old men." During his 43-year tenure at the studio, Davis brought to

life such classic characters as Bambi, Cinderella, Alice, Briar Rose,

Maleficent and Cruella DeVil. In addition to creating many of Disney's

female characters, he served as a key player in the development of many of

For over thirty years, Don Martin's crazy comics filled the pages of MAD

magazine. On Sunday, January 9, 2000, Marin died in a Miami hospital at the

age of 68. A representative of Baptist Hospital says the cartoonist died of

cancer. No further details were disclosed. Martin's weirdo humor disgusted

mothers and delighted young rebels for nearly three decades. No person or

tale was free from Martin's eye for twisted satire. For example, his strips

Bender will be back next year for more adventures on FUTURAMA. The animated

series from producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen has been picked up

for the 2000-01 season by Fox. A decision has not been made yet on whether

the number of episodes ordered will be 13, 22 or some number in-between.

At San Francisco's MacWorld which ran from January 4-8, NewTek introduced

LightWave [6], the product's most significant upgrade in 10 years. The new

version of the already popular 3D tool boasts more new features than ever

introduced to the product in previous upgrades, many of which have never

been seen on the Macintosh system before. On the modeling side of things,

LightWave [6] introduces a whole new modeling paradigm, which gives users

control over the manipulation and animation of their models to a degree

Alias|Wavefront announced that they would be developing a version of their

Maya software for Intel's forthcoming IA-64 Itanium processor, and

Microsoft's 64-bit Windows NT operating system. The IA-64 operating system

uses a 64-bit architecture and offers the robust performance required by

data-intensive 3D visualizations and computer graphics. Alias|Wavefront is

among the first software developers to port their software to Itanium, and

in doing so it will allow its customers to take full advantage of the speed

BRUCE GIONET has become BLACK LOGIC's new CGI Supervisor. Gionet will lead

the New York-based company's artists in the production of computer

generated imagery for film, television and advertising. For the last eight

years, Gionet was the Director of CGI at Cyclotron/Post Perfect in New York

City. His credits range from his work on the opening of THE LATE SHOW WITH

DAVID LETTERMAN to Emmy-winning design on WWOR New York's News opening.

Kellogg's Froot Loops spokesman Toucan Sam comes to life with help from

Santa Monica-based SIMEX STUDIOS for a new spot entitled "Time Flies." The

spot highlights the new 2000 Marshmallow Blasted Froot Loops by blasting

Toucan Sam through the air with an explosion of marshmallow "2s". SimEx

produced the spot for ad agency Leo Burnett of Chicago. The SimEx team on

the commercial was animation producer Christina Cox, animation director

Jean Perramon, live-action producer Bob McGinness and live-action director

New York-based SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION produced the 3D animation and visual

FXs for the newest Proctor & Gamble's Millstone Coffee spots. The 30 second

and two 15 second commercials entitled "Own the Mug" features a ceramic

coffee cup morphing into a boat. The spots were produced for New York ad

agency D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles. Tony Robins directed and Simone

Pillinger produced the commercials for Spontaneous Combustion. The spots

will continue to air through April 2000.