AWN Headline News

The producers of award winning 2D professional animation software Animo announced key corporate and product changes at Digital Media World. As well as launching their new corporate image, Cambridge Animation Systems (CAS) announced a new reseller strategy that includes the appointment of 30 new resellers. The company also told press that the company had undergone some major management changes and restructures in fitting with their new strategy.

Discreet made several announcements at Londons Digital Media World conference, most of them revolving around the upcoming 3D Studio Max 4. The newly named product, 3D Studio Max 4, is to be released in January 2001, and Discreet announced that the details of the product were premiering on their new Animation Zone Website (www.discreet.com/animation). Version 4 of their award winning 3D app will feature new Inverse Kinematics tools and better rendering technology.

Ed Hooks is bringing his "Acting for Animators" seminars to book form. Arriving in stores in December, ACTING FOR ANIMATORS explores the connections between thinking and physical action and thinking and emotion. He also includes effective character analysis and the dynamics of a scene. The book also includes a CD-Rom featuring video-clips of improvs based on the seven essentials of acting and highlights of Rudolph Laban's movement theory. Hooks has taught acting for animators' classes around the globe since 1996. His new book will sell for US$18.95.

GLADIATOR director Ridley Scott and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer have teamed up to produce a new pirate picture entitled CAPTAIN KIDD, based on the life of the 17th century pirate. The film will be a co-production between Disney and Scott's Scott Free Films with Scott directing. Disney bought the idea in a near six-figure deal with writers Doug Cook and David Weisberg (THE ROCK and DOUBLE JEOPARDY).

The critically acclaimed animated flick, CHICKEN RUN, will fly into video stores on November 21, 2000. Fans of the US$105 million box office hit will be able to own the death-defying adventures of Ginger and the rest of the Tweedy Farm hens as they race time to avoid the chopping block. The film features the voices of Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha and Miranda Richardson. The DVD will feature audio commentary from directors Nick Park and Peter Lord, "The Hatching of CHICKEN RUN" featurette, a "making of" documentary and interactive games.

ATTIK, a global creative solutions company, produced and designed the new branding campaign to launch the Sony PlayStation game, MOTORACER WORLD TOUR. The campaign contains a 30-second spot with a 15-second cutdown, a full spread and single page print ad, the front cover of the game and its point of purchase packaging. The spot features game footage woven together with typography and a CGI motorcycle.

KING OF THE HILL creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge have teamed to develop a live-action series based off of the series' TV preacher Monsignor Martinez. Jim Dauterive, a supervising producer on KING, is set to produce the new show. Martinez is a recurring character on a TV soap that Peggy Hill and the rest of her family watch religiously. The spinoff would chronicle the vigilante adventures of the rough and tough priest. Insiders say that Fox TV is close to placing a script order for the series.

Jack Ozark, animator and newspaper sports cartoonist, died on November 16, 2000. He was 82-years-old. In 1931, Ozark started his career at the Fleischer Studios, animating on POPEYE, BETTY BOOP and GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and afterward moved to Los Angeles to work on the early Hanna-Barbera shows YOGI BEAR, FLINTSTONES and TOP CAT. He specialized in animating Snagglepuss and Wally Gator. He finished out his career at Filmation on HE-MAN and SHE-RA until his retirement in 1987. He was awarded the L.A. Cartoonists' Union 839 Golden Award in 1992.

Despite a report in the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER that the company is bankrupt, Internet animation producer and distributor Dotcomix is in discussions to be bought. AWN spoke with founder and chief creative officer Brad DeGraf and he said the company "just couldn't keep producing as it had in the past." DeGraf said the production staff has been laid off until the transition period is finished. However, president and CEO Damon Danielson has left the company to become the CEO of Video4I, a multi-platform video streaming company.

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BOXX Technologies, a leading provider of digital content creation tools for the entertainment and digital film industries, announced that James H. Moore has joined the company as chairman. Moore recently served as president and COO at Crossroads Systems, a high-technology manufacturer of fibre channel storage routers for the computer networking industry. Prior to joining Crossroads Systems, Moore was vice president and general manager of Crystal Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic.