Fantome, one of Europe's premier producers of 3D animation, was founded in
1985 by Georges Lacroix. Fantome has gained an international reputation,
and garnered more than 40 international prizes, including an Emmy. Its most
notable credits are: THE GEOMETRIC FABLES (50 x 3 minutes), the first
computer-generated animation series ever made, and INSEKTORS (26 x 13 min)
which has sold in more than 160 countries. In 1998 after being faced with
Assistant editor JESSE REISNER has moved up to editor at New York-based
EDITING CONCEPTS. Reisner holds a BFA degree in visual arts from Brown
University. Despite his impressive academic career, he credits the staff at
Editing Concepts with the bulk of his education and technical experience.
Reisner's first national spot "Puppy Love," for Casio via Della
Femina/Jeary and Partners, debuted recently. His earlier work includes
regional spots for Bob Stores (KGA Advertising, CT, Spencer Antle
CYBERWORLD INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, a new-media company, has announced
that PAUL LYPACZEWSKI has joined the company as senior vice president of
strategic business & product development. Lypaczewski will oversee the
strategic business and product development group within CYBERWORLD to
further develop the company's software technology. Lypaczewski will also
help build strategic industry relationships to help make CYBERWORLD the
dominant provider of interactive Internet-based multimedia. Lypaczewski
RE:Vision Effects recently released ReelSmart Motion Blur, a plug-in for
After Effects 4.0, Commotion 2.0+ and Final Cut Pro. The plug-in is
designed to apply more natural looking motion blur to effects shots and
video sequences within After Effects. ReelSmart Motion Blur automatically
tracks every pixel in the shot which takes the handy-work out of the
process. Features include reduced strobing, fewer artifacts, and a tool
which lets one blur one image sequence using the motion of another
BOXX Technologies recently unveiled their RenderBOXX NT and Linux rendering
system, which relies on Intel Pentium III 800MHz processors to 'bolster'
rendering times. Currently shipping is the RenderBOXX 4000 series with
single or dual processors, and a price tag starting from US$2365. The focus
of the 4000 series is to streamline workflow for visual effects and video
game professionals, and because RenderBOXX is very easy to set, has a
completely open rendering system (it does not require special rendering
Acclaim Entertainment Inc., a leading worldwide developer, publisher and
mass marketer of software for use with interactive entertainment, reported
its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 ended November 30, 1999.
Net revenues for the quarter were $101.2 million, compared with $104.8
million in the first quarter of the prior year. Net earnings for the
quarter were $0.4 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, compared with net
earnings of $10.3 million or $0.16 per diluted share for the same period in
Three new Scandinavian markets surrendered their airwaves to Pokemania.
Worldwide sensation POKEMON was recently sold to TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in
Denmark and TV2 in Norway. The show will hit the new territories in January
and February 2000. Lacey Entertainment, the international distributors of
the series, also announced the sale of the Pikachu-vehicle to ATV in Turkey
and Noga Communications' Children's Channel in Israel. In Europe, POKEMON
began broadcasting in September 1999 on Germany's RTL2, The Netherlands'
The U.S. Recording Academy's premiere recording awards, the Grammies, have
put out their list of nominees and many toon-related tunes have made an
appearance. Nominations in the category Best Musical Album For Children
were: "The Adventures Of Elmo In Grounchland," "A Bug's Life Song-Along"
and Walt Disney's "Mannhein Steamroller Meet The Mouse." Best Spoken Word
Album For Children nominees include "A Bug's Life Read-Along" and Sesame
Street's "Let's Eat!" THE PRINCE OF EGYPT and TARZAN were included in the
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Canada has become the
first institution to bring ORAD video technology into the classroom.
Originally designed for the Israeli military's virtual reality training,
ORAD places real-time people into a virtual set. The ORAD system removes
the bluescreen behind a person and replaces it with a computer-generated
environment. Located at the Seneca York campus, students in the television
broadcasting, 3D arts and advertising programs will have the opportunity to
CARTOON NETWORK has named TIMOTHY HALL their new executive vice president.
Hall will be responsible for integrating marketing to popularize the
network's brand in the U.S. and globally, and creating new business around
the world. Prior to Cartoon Network, Hall was senior vice president of
boys' toys marketing and product development at Hasbro, Inc. Hall was
responsible for the overall strategic direction, marketing and product
development of Star Wars toys and games, among other brands. He began his
CLAIRE ROBINSON has been named senior vice president, intellectual property
law, for THE WALT DISNEY CO. Robinson will oversee Disney's intellectual
property group, which is responsible for intellectual property matters for
the company and its subsidiaries worldwide. Previously, Robinson held the
position of vice president in the same department. Before joining Disney in
1989, she was with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington,
New Visual Entertainment, Inc., a 3D production company specializing in 3D
product development and distribution for special venue theaters, home
video, broadcast, and theatrical markets, has announced its completed
acquisition of Impact Pictures, Inc., a small San Diego-based multi-media
production house specializing in Web animation, streaming media and
high-end CD-ROM corporate presentations, in a stock for stock transaction.
New Visual plans to utilize the creative hardware and staffing assets of
QUICKBAND NETWORKS, a leading distributor of short-form entertainment, has
signed KIM ADELMAN as editor of SHORT, a compilation of award-winning
live-action, animated, experimental and documentary short films distributed
exclusively on DVD. The company also promoted CRAIG WELLS to director of
acquisitions. Kim Adelman joins QuickBand Networks from fXM: Movies From
Fox. At the Fox-owned movie network, Adelman launched the short film
division, fXM Shorts. During her tenure at fXM, Adelman produced 19 films,
METV.COM, a new Internet video-on-demand company, opens its feature film
licensing drive with the arrival of veteran film-buyer JOHN REWEDA as vice
president of content acquisition. "John's (Reweda) expertise will play a
key role in establishing contact with the leading movie studios and
independents as we move toward our June 2000 consumer launch date," said
Martin French, MeTV.com senior vice president. Reweda will help the
fledgling business develop and obtain content for its MeTV.com Web site,
3D animator ANDREW SINAGRA has joined the computer graphics team at San
Francisco-based RADIUM. With specialties including modeling, particle
effects and volumetric effects, Sinagra will be involved in creating 3D
animation and visual effects for commercials and music videos. Sinagra
joins Radium from Midland Productions, a Berkeley, CA-based computer
animation house specializing in special venue films, feature films and
commercials. While at Midland, Sinagra created 3D animation for ROBOTS OF
Animha Productions, a unique association of professionals dedicated to
independent film production and animation workshops, presents: Suspended
Animation...
TAIS, the Toronto Animated Image Society, will present "Creating Appealing
Cartoon Characters" with Peter Emslie...
Visual Magic Magazine, AWN's 3D animation and digital effects online
magazine, has posted a new article:
"The Buzz About Flash 4." Flash 4
claims to be the ultimate tool for web animation...and quite frankly, it
probably is.
Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy
Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz...
Three new Scandinavian markets surrendered their airwaves to Pokemania.
Worldwide sensation Pokemon was recently sold to TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in
Denmark and TV2 in Norway. The show will hit the new territories in January
and February 2000. The international distributor, Lacey Entertainment, also
announced the sale of the Pikachu-vehicle to ATV in Turkey and Noga
Communications' Children's Channel in Israel.
The Pokemon phenomenon began in America in 1998 with the release of the
Tippett Studio is a unique company in the visual effects world...
AWN's January 2000 Millennium issue of Animation World Magazine is a
special issue packed with indepth features and essays about the people and
events that made news in 1999 and are worth our attention in the year 2000...
ASIFA-Hollywood's Animation Expo 2000 will be held at the Glendale Civic
Auditorium in Glendale, California, USA on March 3 and 4, 2000. This 7th
annual animation trade and technology show focuses on the recruitment of
animation related talent and personnel, demonstrations of computer
technology, animation related products and services, and the sale of
animation art and collectibles. In addition, the Animation Expo offers
industry seminars and workshops, digital tutorials, and a showcase of
Sony's US$100 million plus grossing film STUART LITTLE couldn't hold off
the live-action comedy NEXT FRIDAY at the U.S. box office thus slipping to
second place. The mega-mouse flick, with primary visual effects by Sony
Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and
miniatures by Thunderstone, grossed US$9.7 million bringing its grand total
to $106.8 million. THE GREEN MILE, with primary visual effects by ILM,
Rhythm & Hues, POP and Matte World Digital, fell to 5th place grossing $7.6
