B2B Investor Beefs Up Heavy.com
Digital Creative Development Corporation (DC2) announced that it has entered into a strategic distribution alliance with Heavy.com, a Web destination blending music, video and animation. Under the terms of the deal, DC2 will provide programming and various other business services to Heavy.com. In turn, DC2 will have access to Heavy.coms distribution pipeline that reaches over 135 million Internet users.
WB’s Baby Blues Gets Second Season Pick-Up
The WB TV network has decided to pick-up its newest toon, BABY BLUES, for a second season. The channel has ordered 13 more episodes of the series, which debuted in late July. The toon has preformed well in a tough Friday time slot for the WB and is one of the highest rated comedies the network has ever had. BABY could serve as the WBs quick replacement series if any of its new live-action comedy series dont work out. BABY is based off the newspaper comic strip of the same name and features the voice talents of Mike O'Malley, Julia Sweeney and Nicole Sullivan.
CICFF Is The Largest Kids' Film Fest In North America
* Thursday, October 12 Sunday, October 22, 2000. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
DRAGON TALES Writer To Speak At WIA Writers' Group Seminar
* Thursday, October 12, 2000. Westwood, California, U.S.A.
Jeffrey Scott will be guest speaker at the Women In Animation Writers' Group Seminar Series at Saban Entertainment, 10960 Wilshire Blvd., at 7:30 pm. Jeffrey has written over 500 animation scripts, including the recent PBS DRAGON TALES. For more information and/or to RSVP contact Jean Ann Wright at: Tel.: (818) 360-8321; or E-mail: [email protected].
Imaging With Live-Action
High Dynamic Range Imaging is quickly becoming a prevalent digital technique. The ability to light quickly to live-action footage with such accuracy and quality is unmatched by any other technique. Lightwave has already incorporated HDRI into its latest release. Which other packages will follow suit? Rendering with HDRI is time consuming, but will the strong points overcome the deficits? The high quality results of THE MATRIX work by Manex, and the James Brown project, FUNK BLAST by Digital Domain suggest much more work in HDRI will be created as CPU's gain speed and the software evolves.
Messiah Stands Alone
Messiah, the plug-in softbody and character module for Lightwave, has developed a stand alone package, messiah:studio, that should prove to be strong competition to 3D software packages. With Renderman capabilities, a low price tag (US$1600), softbodies for creating cloth and realistic characters, inverse kinematics for simplified animation, and radiosity for realistic rendering, it will be interesting to see how other packages react to messiah's strengths.
Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Tigger Bounces High In Sweden, Scary Debuts In IBO
The international box office this past weekend saw a strong debut by SCARY MOVIE in the U.K. and THE TIGGER MOVIE bounced high in its Swedish nod. Disneys orange idol landed in #2, with a gross of US$280,418. Slipping to fourth, CHICKEN RUN laid another $184,548, bringing its total take in Sweden to $589,026. THE PERFECT STORM sank from #2 to sixth with a gross of $146,588, raising its Swedish cume to $834,053. X-MEN fell from fifth to eighth, with a gross of $78,087, lifting its Swedish cume to $1.43 million.
iFilm Sets Up Web Screening Room For Agents
iFilm has set up an online screening room specifically for agents to check out iFilm shorts before they are released to the public. So far agencies CAA, ICM, the Gersh Agency and the United Talent Agency have signed on to participate in the program. Even before the new "Screening Network" was established iFilm short, 405: THE MOVIE, by Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt, landed the filmmakers CAA representation. iFilm is a content destination site that contains its own shorts and links to various work around the Web.
LIMA Exec Conference's Keynote Speaker Is Commissioner Of Trademarks & Patents
* Wednesday, October 11 Friday, October 13, 2000. La Quinta, California, U.S.A.
BKN Int. Launches New Media Division
BKN International AG, a childrens animated production, distribution and marketing company, has launched a new media division, BKN New Media Ltd. The division was established to help BKN better exploit its properties over the Internet. The first venture for the new arm will be the launch of its consumer-based community Website featuring THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACIES.
Image Comics’ Powers Optioned By Columbia
Columbia Pictures has optioned the feature film rights to Image Comics POWERS, created by writer-artist Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. Financial terms of the deal were listed as the duo receiving low six figures up front leading to high-six figures following the films release. The comic follows the cases of two homicide detectives -- who live in a world full of superheroes and villains assigned to the "powers" division to investigate superpower-related murders. Bendis will either receive a co-producing or an associate producing credit on the film.
Deadline Nears For MIPCOM's Net Scribe Awards
* Tuesday, October 3, 2000. Cannes, France.
Entry Deadline: September 15, 2000.
Last Call For bit by bit's On-Screen Art Honors
* Saturday, October 14 Saturday, November 18, 2000. Manitou Springs, Colorado, U.S.A.
Entry Deadline: September 15, 2000.
Saint Gely Celebrates Short Films & Its 15th Anniversary
* Friday, October 6 Sunday, October 8, 2000. Saint Gely, France.
Objectif Image Saint Gely presents the 15th annual Saint Gely Short Film
Festival. The festivals categories are documentary, fictional-dramatic, animation and experimental. Past festival chairmen have been Jean Pierre Mocky in 1998 and Claude Pinoteau in 1999. For more information contact Jean Pierre Mas at: Tel.: ++33 4 67 66 69 69; or Web: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/herve.lebrouster.
Toonz Conference Touches On The Challenges Facing Animators
* Tuesday, October 10 Wednesday, October 11, 2000. London, U.K.
I Catelli Animati Festival: Toon Fest Italian Style
* Wednesday, October 4 Sunday, October 8, 2000. Genzano, Italy.
Cinanima Announces Their 2000 Nominees!
Since 1977, Cinanima has been promoting the international art of animation in Espinho, a city located on the Northern coast of Portugal. The 24th edition of the Festival will happen November 6-12, 2000. The Festival announced their 2000 nominees in official selection -- competition and panorama sections -- and the films competing for the Young Portuguese Director Prize. The selection jury consisted of Jordi Artigas (Spain), Paulo Cambraia (Portugal), Artur Correia (Portugal), Guy Pirotte (Belgium) and Amélia Martins (Portugal).
Britt Allcroft Co. Transforms Into Gullane Entertainment
The Britt Allcroft Company plc announced that as part of its global expansion, the company has changed its name to Gullane Entertainment and hired new key staff members. The companys former managing director, William Harris, has been appointed CEO and commercial director and group entertainment president, Charles Falzon, will serve as president. The move is an opportunity for founder Britt Allcroft to hand over the operations of the company to focus on more creative endeavors.
TAIS Fall 2000 Events
TAIS, the Toronto Animated Image Society, will present the following events this Fall...
Mondo Media Signs Gundam Designer
Mondo Media has signed GUNDAM WING character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto to design characters for an upcoming Mondo Mini Show. Currently the project is entitled SPIRAL, a sci-fi action adventure series which will be available on MondoMedia.com later this year. Kawamoto is best known for his character designs on COWBOY BEBOP, several GUNDAM series, GOLDEN BOY and the cinematics for THE GHOST IN THE SHELL video game. Also brought onto the project as key animator is Cindy Yamauchi, whose credits include AKIRA, VENUS WARS and RANMA 1/2.
Animha Productions Latest News
Based in the Northern Arts Region of England, Animha Productions is an association of artists, writers, animators and filmmakers dedicated to independent film production and animation workshops. Animha has updated their web site. View clips and find more about Animha's workshops and other projects at http://www.awn.com/animha.
Today's Hot Topics In Creative Planet's Discussion Forums
Do you have specific questions about how they do certain visual effects? A community member offers his advice on how to shoot background plate shots when intending to add CG elements. Hosted by Terrence "T-man" Masson, Creative Planet's Visual Effects forum is not about specific software packages, but about how to improve and educate yourself by asking questions and getting constructive and honest feedback from those who have gone before. Join the party and meet the visual effects pros.
What's New In The Student Corner?
The newest Career Coach, our monthly column by Pamela Thompson, is online...
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...
