Cinanima 2000: Last Call For Entries
The deadline to register your film for the Cinanima International
Animated Film Festival competition has been extended to August 8,
2000. Categories include: Features, Shorts, Commercials, Educational
Films and TV Series. For more information about entries, email
[email protected], call (+351) 22734-611, or fax (+351)
22734-6015. Since 1977, Cinanima has been promoting the international
art of animation in Espinho, a city located on the Northern coast of
Ottawa 00 Workshop Program Now Available
In addition to the screening information, the Ottawa 00 International
Animation Festival Web site now offers a detailed program of
professional development and training workshops and panels.
Today's Hot Topics In Creative Planet's Discussion Forums
With host Terrence "T-man" Masson, Creative Planet's
forum has become a hot topic. Check out the new threads on careers in
visual effects, crash zoom shot transitions, the shrinking miniature
FX market and the use of Macs in effects houses. Join the party and
meet the visual effects pros.
In
New At Visual Magic Magazine
Check out the latest "behind the scenes" features and tutorials from
Visual Magic Magazine...
What's New In The Student Corner?
We've added a string of indexed new links to articles from Animation
World Magazine...
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
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia
Quiz...
Store Specials: Masters Of Russian Animation Volume 3 Now Available In DVD
The Masters of Russian Animation collection is an extraordinary
collection of Russia's most important animated short films. Volume 3
includes ten films from directors Yuri Norstein, Eduard Nazarov,
Valentine Karavaev, Fyodor Khitruk, Nikolai Serebryakov, Ideya
Garanina, Alexander Gorlenko and Andrei Khrjanovsky.
your copy today for $24.95 plus shipping and handling.
Shockwave Rolls Out Shockmachine 2.0
shockwave.com has rolled out the new version of their Shockmachine entertainment player. Shockmachine 2.0 lets users save shockwave.com titles and replay them full-screen offline. The new version also comes with a desktop compact mode that allows consumers access to hundreds of titles with the click of one button, and a new notification feature to keep Netizens in touch with shockwave.coms new releases. Shockmachine 2.0 is available as a free download at www.shockwave.com.
3dfx Interactive Merges With GigaPixel
3dfx Interactive Inc. announced the completion of its merger with GigaPixel Corporation. Subsequently, George T. Haber, a founder of GigaPixel, and Andrei M. Manoliu, a member of the GigaPixel board of directors, will join the 3dfx board. "The merger marks an important step in enhancing the 3dfx technology leadership and expanding our business for the future," said Alex Leupp, president and CEO of 3dfx.
SGI & Intergraph Form Strategic Alliance
SGI and Intergraph Corporation, two of the leaders in high-performance graphics workstations and software, have announced an alliance that allows both companies to share each other's products and expertise. Under the partnership, Intergraph will purchase US$100 million in SGI products and services over three years. In turn, SGI will obtain assets from Intergraph, including Intergraph Computer Systems' Zx10 family of ViZual Workstations and Servers.
netGuru Expands Into Animation
netGuru, Inc. (formerly Research Engineers, Inc.) has expanded its netGuruDigitalmedia facilities to provide animation, production and digital media services for U.S. and offshore producers. Based in both Yorba Linda, California, U.S.A. and Calcutta, India, the company offers animation services including 2D animation, clean-up, in-betweening, digital ink and paint, 3D animation, special effects compositing, audio/video editing, and Web and interactive animation and graphics. netGuru also markets AXA Team 2D Pro, a 2D pencil test and ink and paint software package, and newly released AXA-Web.
Hollow Man Far From Invisible At The Box Office
With three major releases this past weekend, Sony Pictures HOLLOW MAN was far from invisible at the U.S. box office, finishing in first place. The INVISIBLE MAN redux, with primary visual effects by The Ranch Entertainment, Tippett Studios and Sony Imageworks, grossed US$26.41 million, giving it the second largest August opening in history. Falling to second, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS dropped 58% from its debut weekend, with a gross of $18.17 million. The phat festival, with primary visual effects by Double Negative Ltd., has rounded up $76.7 million thus far.
New Jobs: Animators, Digital Artists, Directors, Visual Artists And More...
Northridge, California-based Lebedfilm Associates Ltd. is looking for
3D MODELERS and ANIMATORS to work on various animation projects and a
PROJECT MANAGER responsible for handling the day-to-day operations of
the company CG department. . . San Rafael, California-based
Stormfront Studios, Inc., a creative development house, is looking
for a 3D TECH ARTIST who is very familiar with 3D Studio Max. . . San
Bernardino, California-based Brooklyn Born Productions, in
Lions Gate Set To Purchase Harvey
Sources say that Vancouver-based film producer Lions Gate Entertainment is on the verge of purchasing Harvey Entertainment. As reported in VARIETY, Harvey chairman/CEO Roger Burlage has been shopping the home of Casper around to many companies. Last spring Burlage saved Harvey from acquisition by Artisans by securing US$17 million in funding from entertainment company Kushner-Locke and then-investment banker and current Lions Gate vice-chairman, Michael Burns. The funds came in the form of $11.5 million in cash and $5.5 million in Kushner-Locke stock.
Netgurudigitalmedia Expands Domestic And Offshore Animation Services
NetGuru, Inc. (formerly Research Engineers, Inc.), an integrated
Internet technology and software company, has expanded its
netGuruDigitalmedia (www.guruanimation.com) facilities to provide
animation, production and digital media services for U.S. and
offshore producers. The new Calcutta studio is equipped with the
latest software including AXA Team 2D, After Effects, Director, 3D
Studio Max and Flash. The studio has already completed various
Toon In: Web Animation Guide For Friday, August 4, 2000
Toon In is AWN's guide to what's new on the Net. This week's installment features Annecy aired shorts, Playboy contest winners and much, much more.
Get your Toon In here!
Every week AWN's associate editor Rick DeMott highlights what he thinks is the top new toon in cyberspace in "Rick's Picks!"
Rick's Pick For Friday, August 4, 2000!
face2face Adds New Directors Of Business Development & Marketing
face2face, a Lucent Technologies-owned facial analysis software developer, has named Kathleen Papera as director of business development and Rich Smith as director of marketing. In her new post, Papera will oversee face2face's marketing strategy, focusing on the gaming community. Papera will also be in charge of finding and managing relationships with complementary partners in the gaming industry, as well as supervising gaming customer's beta sites. "When I was first introduced to face2face's alterEGO, I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of this venture," said Papera.
Wild Brain Passes The Test For Sony Music
Wild Brain has finished three spots for Sony Music Entertainments "Pass It On" campaign. "Adventure," "Love" and "Street Party" air exclusively on MTV and highlight several of Sony Musics top artists by combining live-action music video footage with traditional cel animation. Creative director Ed Bell brought to the project his futuristic hip hop/anime designs, while director Robert Valley helped bring to life the surreal tone of the spots. "Ed Bell created a new genre of animation that isnt confined by stylistic boundaries," said Valley.
TOPIX/Mad Dog Sets Stunts For Clearnet Mike
TOPIX/Mad Dog has created the visual effects for a 30-second spot entitled, "Stuntman" for Clearnet Communications Inc. Highlighting their new wireless phone, Mike, the commercial is airing in Canada. The ad features a stuntman jumping from a building and making phone calls as he descends. Director Chris Wehfritz brought the spot to life without having a real stuntman jump from a building. Wehfritz took footage of a free-falling parachutist and rotoscoped each frame.
Ring of Fire Rises To The Challenge For Suntrust
Ring of Fire has created the newest completely CGI spot for Suntrust. "Sunrise/Sunset" is a 30-second commercial that brings to life fire-flies dancing, thunderstorms and a brilliant sun to ring in the banks name change from Crestar Bank to Suntrust. Using Maya 2.5, Ring of Fire created motion test rough landscapes for advertising agency West Waynes approval. Once the thumbs up was given Ring of Fire artists, led by creative director Jerry Spivack, added richer detail to the long tracking shot that changes from night to day.
Spontaneous Combustion Ideal For Estee Lauder
Spontaneous Combustion has designed, directed, produced and edited a 30-second spot for Estee Lauders new skin refinisher, Idealist. The commercial started with a wire-rail globe spinning and changing into a square, triangle and back to a sphere then finally revealing the new laser technology from Estee Lauder.
Rainbow Studios Acquires Motional Realms
Rainbow Studios, a creator of digital entertainment, announced its acquisition of Motional Realms, the developers of the ReelMotion real-time simulator that uses physics and collision detection to animate vehicles and objects realistically. By simulating the underlying physics, ReelMotion allows animators to animate any type of two or four-wheeled vehicle, a variety of aircraft and other objects.
Go Is Gone, Walt Disney Internet Group In
Go.com, Inc., the Internet group of the Walt Disney Co., has changed its name to the Walt Disney Internet Group. The name change was made to better reflect the new direction of the Internet company, which has moved its focus away from a Yahoo-like portal to a more Disney-geared entertainment destination. The Disney arm has been plagued with problems from the start. In the last quarter, the company reported a net loss of US$272.1 million, including amortization of intangible assets.
Nickelodeon Reaches Record High Ratings
In July, Nickelodeon saw the most-watched month ever in its 21-year history. The numbers were the biggest on a total-day basis in household delivery, total viewers (persons 2+) and among kids 2-11. According to the Nielsens, Nickelodeon's 24-hour average in July was a 1.7 coverage rating/5 share/1.3 million HH (1.7 million average total viewers). During Nickelodeon's Kids Day programming, the net posted its highest-rated month among kids 2-11 since January '98 and delivered its largest kid audience ever. In addition, Nick crushed its closest competitors.
