Angels Defend BO Crown From Satan's Son Nicky
At this weekend's U.S. box office, CHARLIE'S ANGELS held back the debut of Adam Sandler's LITTLE NICKY, which has the comedian playing the Devil's son. ANGELS kicked in another US$24.61 million. The sexy super-agent flick, with primary visual effects by Flash Film Works, has seduced $75.01 million in just 10 days. LITTLE NICKY, with primary visual effects by VisionArt, Pixel Magic and Rhythm & Hues, had to settle for second with a gross of $16.06 million. Having its release date pushed from the heavy effects laden summer, Warner Bros.' RED PLANET still had a disappointing debut in fifth.
Cinanima 2000 Names Its Award Winners
Cinanima 2000 finished its week of screenings with the presentation of its awards on Sunday, November 12, 2000. This year's grand prizewinner was Michel Dudok Wit's FATHER AND DAUGHTER, which also won the Alves Costa Award given by journalists at the festival. In two categories the international juries awarded ties. Paul Driessen's THE BOY WHO SAW THE ICEBERG and Florence Miailhe's AU PREMIERE DIMANCHE DAOUT both took the Class B Prize for best film between 7 and 21 minutes and Mark Van Der Maarel's THE PINBOARD and Vários' DADDY AND I took home the best first film award.
Pixar Dives Into Nemo Feature
Pixar Animation Studios has started production on FINDING NEMO, its fifth CGI collaboration with Walt Disney Pictures. The studio described the film as an underwater adventure about a father who must find his kidnapped son. Andrew Stanton (co-director of "A Bug's Life") had been tapped to write and direct the project. The film is scheduled for a summer 2003 release, which would be the first for a Pixar 3D-animated picture. However, Disney's traditionally animated feature LILO & STICH is scheduled for release around the same time.
Entry Forms And Regulations Posted For SAFO 01
The 3rd International Student Animation Festival of Ottawa (SAFO) will be held October 18-21, 2001...
Short Attention Span Film Festival Screening At The TAIS
On Wednesday, November 22, 2000, TAIS is hosting two different shows of films from the Short Attention Span Film Festival. At 7:00 PM: a screening comprised of independent films under 2 min. in length, includes films by TAIS animators Mike Constable and Jonathan Amitay. At 9:00 PM: a screening featuring the greatest hits of the festival's eight-year run, also includes three of Mike Constable's animated shorts. Please note: mature content; admission restricted to ages 18+; each program contains about 40% animation.
Ask The Experts In The Discussions Forums!
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Plympton's Comic Of The Week
Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...
This Week's Animation Trivia Quiz
Store Specials: Classic Cartoon Shorts Collections
This Week's Web Animation Guide For Friday, November 10, 2000
AWN's Web Animation Guide is the place for what's new on the Net. This week's installment features kudos to Stain Boy, a few early pokes at the U.S. election fiasco and much, much more.
Get your Web Animation Guide here!
Also every week AWN's associate editor Rick DeMott highlights what he thinks is the top new toon in cyberspace in "Rick's Picks!"
Read Rick's Pick For Friday, November 3, 2000!
Dosch Design Drums Up More Texture CDs
Germany-based Dosch Design has announced the release of several new texture collections, further expanding its highly successful line of 3D-animation stock CD-Roms. The most significant addition to the Dosch family of products is a three-bundle set of texture CD-Roms called Dosch Textures Complete. Each of the three bundles is targeted at a specific area of 3D. The first collection, "Character Design," contains animal and creature eyes, human eyes and skin textures. The "Architecture and Design" bundle contains construction materials, industrial-design and reflection-maps.
Toon Boom Announced USAnimation SP#2
At Digital Media World in London, Toon Boom Technologies will release USAnimation Version 5's second service pack. In addition to bug fixes and general improvements, this service pack brings with it a number of new features. They include a New Line Texturing, which allows for different styles of line animation (like crayon, chalk, etc.) and in Sceneplanning, one can display all the keyboard shortcuts in an easy-to-use help menu. In addition, the pack offers a horizontal flipping of images, which means that one can now flip images horizontally when scanning.
Renegade Animation Launches Animation Service For Web Ads
Burbank, California-based Renegade Animation, which specializes in producing cel-animated television commercials, has launched a new service to provide cel-style animation for advertising on the Internet. As the service's first job, FMT Advertising, New York, has contracted Renegade to create an animated Internet cartoon series for its client BulkRegister.com. The series, consisting of five 90-second episodes, parodies "dot com" culture, while promoting BulkRegister.com's ability to register large quantities of domain names.
Das Werk To Acquire London-based Glassworks
Das Werk, a leading German provider of digital processing services, announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire a majority stake in Glassworks, a London digital effects studio which combines 3D computer-generated imaging with high-end compositing and special effects. In purchasing a share of Glassworks, Das Werk will further expand its international portfolio of post-production facilities and gain a hold in the high-profile London advertising and music video market.
The London Effects & Animation Festival Opens Next Week!
November 14-16, 2000 the 7th annual London Effects & Animation Festival (LEAF) will once again showcase some of the best achievements of the past year in computer-generated animation and special effects...
Annecy Fest President Passes
Pierre Jacquier, who served as president of the Annecy Festival from 1977 to 1984, has passed away after a long illness. Jacquier was instrumental in the festival's growth and helped push the festival toward highlighting cutting-edge work in animation. Along with Nicole Salomon, Jacquier also helped establish the festival's market. In addition to his festival duties, he was a board member of the Annecy Town Council. AWN's Annick Teninge, former assistant director of Annecy, said, "I always admired his long-term vision, his dedication to the festival and his immense cultural appreciation.
Bill Plympton Around The World
Bill Plympton has updated his appearances page. In the upcoming months, his films will be appearing in various festivals and other events, including the Regensburg Short Film Week in Germany, November 17-25, 2000; Cinanima festival in Portugal, November 6-12, 2000; Puchon International Student Animation Festival, Korea, December 16-24, 2000; and the Animation Cinema Festival in Valencia, Spain, January 16-28, 2001.
New Jobs: 3D Animators, 3D Modelers, Flash Animators, And More...
Aaronson Ltd. is seeking an EDITORIAL CARTOONIST for mid distribution start-up newspaper. . . Aileron, Inc. is looking for a CONTENT WRITER for a new Internet site focusing on cutting-edge cartooning technology. . . Sioux Falls, South Dakota's Animation Factory, a leading destination for animated clipart and media for Internet and multimedia presentations, is looking for 3D MODELERS/ANIMATORS. . . Aristocrat, a gaming software industry leader, is looking for a GAME DESIGNER, GRAPHIC ARTIST, SOUND ARTIST and VIDEO GRAPHIC ARTIST at their newest location in Tucson, Arizona. . .
New Animation Lesson At The Toon Institute: Timing
Holland Festival Unveils More Animated Delights
The Holland festival will be held in Utrecht, November 15-19, 2000. Besides the official competition for Independent Short, Applied Animation and Student Films in Belgium & The Netherlands, this year the festival will offer a variety of retrospectives and special programs.
Film Roman Promotes Clifton
Film Roman has promoted director of television development Sidney Clifton to vice president in charge of TV. In her new role, Clifton will oversee all television projects from development to sales as well as the acquisition of literary properties for live-action and animated productions. Clifton joined Film Roman as development coordinator and moved up to manager of television development before assuming the role of director of television development. Before Film Roman, she was a journalist for Exodus and Essence magazines and an executive assistant as Fox Sports Network.
Cartoon Network Italy Appoints Three New Staff
Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) has appointed three new staff members for its Rome Cartoon Network Italy office. Jaime Ondarza has been named marketing manager and will oversee the establishment of the Cartoon Network brand in Italy. Previous, Ondarza worked for international advertising agency Young & Rubicam. Andrea Castellari joins as sales director and will be in charge of the development of all commercial activities relating to Cartoon Network's channel and Website as well as work to strengthen the co-operation with Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
J.J. Sedelmaier Goes Godzilla With Three-Series Promo
J.J. Sedelmaier Productions has created a Godzilla-themed promo for ABC's TV series SPIN CITY, THE DREW CAREY SHOW and WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONARE? "It all started last May with a call from Michael Benson, senior vice president (advertising and promotion) and Alan Cohen, executive vice president (marketing, advertising and promotion) for ABC-TV (LA), on the referral of Fred Seibert (former president of Hanna-Barbara)," said animation director J.J. Sedelmaier. "They wanted a cool animation spot for one of these shows to break through the clutter and attract attention.
Natterjack Spots Cartoon Network's Scare-A-Thon Promos
Vancouver-based Natterjack recently completed 19-minutes of animation for Cartoon Network's "Scare-A-Thon Sweepstakes" Halloween promotion, featuring characters from SCOOBY-DOO and COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG. The overall project involved the design and animation of 16 1-minute bumpers and 3 1-minute ads. The promos have the cast of both shows telling ghost stories, which frighten Scooby and Courage. Viewers, after witnessing the two dog's reactions to the various scary tales, are encouraged to call in and vote for the 'scardiest' dog.
Nothing Real Shakes Up Linux
Nothing Real announced recently that their popular compositing tool Shake is now available on the Linux operating system. Version 2.3 is the company's first release to support the Linux platform, making Shake available on Windows NT, IRIX and Linux operating systems. The new release, which was Beta-tested by Cinesite Europe on the Linux platform, includes several new features and improvements. New color correction tools allow artists to color match different elements of source material quickly and easily. In addition, the new tools allow for selective color replacement.