AWN Headline News

Cary, North Carolina-based LIPSinc. is offering a free beta version ofVentriloquist for MAX, a new lip-synching plug-in for 3D Studio MAX R3.0.Ventriloquist for MAX automates the process of synchronizing correct mouthmovements to dialogue for animated characters. For more information visitwww.lipsinc.com.

The new trailer for TOY STORY 2 will play online for one week beginningFriday, October 1 at www.toystory2.com before it screens in theaters. Thesequel, which features Buzz, Woody and the gang, plus new characters suchas Mrs. Potato Head and Emperor Zorg, debuts in US theaters on November 24,1999. The eagerly awaited sequel to the 1995 Pixar/Disney groundbreakingCGI feature, TOY STORY, continues the story of pull-string cowboy doll,Woody, and his action figure Space Ranger friend, Buzz Lightyear. The new

Studio B Productions has moved to a custom designed studio at 190 AlexanderStreet in Vancouver, British Columbia. The three-floor, 27,000 sq. ft.facility is home to Studio B's animation studio and production house aswell as Mercury Filmworks, a fully equipped digital animation facility, andDick and Roger's, a fully equipped sound studio which means that thefacility now has the ability to produce an animated show or series in itsentirety from script to post-production. The move to larger, custom

Los Angeles-based Rhino Records has released TIP OF THE FREBERG, a four CDbox set that also includes a video and a booklet. Stan Freberg is probablybest known to animation fans as the voice of Junyer Bear, Bertie the mouse,and Pete Puma in various Warner Bros. shorts, as well as the beaver in LADYAND THE TRAMP, but Freberg, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,has also won many awards for his comedy records and commercials. This greatcollection spans Freberg's entire career, 1950 to 1998, and includes many

HESTON, animation director J.J. Sedelmaier's final TV FUNHOUSE segment forSATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, aired Saturday, October 2 on the comedy show's seasonpremier, which was hosted by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Sedelmaier's finalvignette, which concludes his three-year collaboration with writer RobertSmigel, lampooned the NRA's pro-gun position by using real audio of NRApresident, actor Charlton Heston, addressing Congress combined withdialogue from his PLANET OF THE APES movies and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, in

The International Museum of Comic Art presents The Art of Charles M.Schulz, creator of the comic strip, PEANUTS. The exhibit displaysartifacts, photos, magazine covers, Broadway and movie posters, toys,dolls, blow-ups of historic strips and more tracing the decade-by-decadeevolution of Schulz' creation in the context of American history. Theexhibition takes place Saturday, October 2 - Sunday, January 30, 2000 inBoca Raton, Florida, USA. IMCA is located at 201 Plaza Real in Boca Raton's

Ray Harryhausen will appear at the REZNHEDZ Model and Toy Show at theHillside Holiday Inn just outside Chicago on October 9 and 10. The ChicagoInternational Film Festival is also sponsoring two events in conjunctionwith the REZNHEDZ show. On Thursday, October 7 the festival will show JASONAND THE ARGONAUTS and GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, and on Sunday, October 10they will have a tribute to Ray Harryhausen. The tribute will include clipsfrom the movies, and culminate in Ray receiving an Award from the Film

San Francisco-based Protozoa, with DotComix, the animation portal atwww.dotcomix.com, has produced a 3D animated rock video for Internetbroadcast with Garry Trudeau and his JT Thudpucker character from theDOONESBURY comic strip for NetAid, a UN sponsored global crusade againstpoverty. The video features JT singing a NetAid anthem, and debuts onWednesday, September 29 at www.doonesbury.com. Trudeau has integrated thepremiere of the Internet video within the plot of his daily Doonesbury