EM.TV Investors Take Company To Court
Munich officials are looking into several lawsuits that have been brought against kid media and merchandising company EM.TV. One case was filed by the German shareholders association DSW, which claims that EM.TV executives repeatedly held back information about their financial problems. EM.TV's financial concerns started when they first announced the cutting of revenues due to accounting errors in the acquisition of the Jim Henson Co. and Formula One racing.
Wild Brain Taps AniManagement To Rep
Wild Brain has picked AniManagement to represent the animation house in the U.S. The agency will work in Wild Brain's interest to find syndication deals for the company's film, television and Internet content. AniManagement's Aaron Berger and Rebecca Poole will handle Wild Brain's film and TV productions with James Strader handling the Internet content. Poole will also work with Wild Brain to increase their production slate.
NetImmerse To Support Nintendo Gamecube
Numerical Design Ltd. (NDL) and Nintendo of America announced that the NetImmerse game engine is now available to developers creating games for the highly anticipated Nintendo Gamecube. NetImmerse is a multi-platform game development tool that, according to NDL, can save approximately six months of development time and a year or more of engineering costs. It can be used for a wide variety of game genres and platforms.
REALVIZ Releases MatchMover 2.0
REALVIZ announced that the new version of their award-winning camera tracking software, MatchMover, is now shipping. The software is used to track the motion of a camera accurately so that the 3D elements can be seamlessly composited into place. The new version includes a graph editor that allows the user to edit camera parameters as curves on a graph easily. In addition, the new status-tracking feature also allows for the tracking and analyzing of project progress and results.
DreamWorks & Lucasfilm Make Forbes' 500
DreamWorks and Lucasfilm have secured places on Forbes 500 Private Companies list for 2000. Each year Forbes magazine ranks the top privately held companies in the U.S. based on revenue and number of employees. DreamWorks placed #174 and Lucasfilm was #219. If the companies on the list do not provide revenue data to the magazine they arrive at estimates based on analysts, trade organizations and competitor recommendations. For the year 2000, Forbes estimated that DreamWorks made approximately US$118 million in profits and $1.2 billion in revenue.
Grinch Snowballs Newcomer Vertical Limit
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS snowballed all the newcomers in its fourth weekend at the U.S. box office. The Who-ville hijinks, with primary visual effects by Digital Domain, shoveled in another US$18.65 million, piling its green up to the tune of $195.6 million. Therefore, the debut of VERTICAL LIMIT landed in second. The K2 rescue flick, with primary visual effects by Centropolis Effects, dug up $15.51 million. PROOF OF LIFE's premiere had to settle for a lackluster third place finish. The kidnapping love triangle, with primary visual effects by Cinesite, garnered $10.21 million.
This Week's Web Animation Guide For Monday, December 11, 2000
AWN's Web Animation Guide is the place for what's new on the Net. This week's installment features new Mondo Mini Shows, the conclusion of INDIEPLANET 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 Monday, December 11, 2000!
Turner Dons New Interactive Head
Stephen Johnstone has been named head of interactive for Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) Europe. He will oversee content creation across the Internet (including Cartoon Network), broadband, wireless devices, interactive and enhanced TV. Joining Turner in 1994, Johnstone played a key role in launching Cartoon Network in European territories including Holland, France and Spain. He will move back to London from the company's Madrid office where he was Channel Manager for Cartoon Network Spain, the number one channel on Canal Satellite Digital.
Rhinoceros Adds New CG Director/Project Leader
Rhinoceros Visual Effects & Design has added CG director/project leader David Barosin to its roster. He was a major factor in creating character animations for ad campaigns such as J. Walter Thompson's Orkin Man, "Primetheus" the Primeco alien for The Richards Group, the Statue of Liberty for Oldsmobile and Leo Burnett, and the "Virtual Lady" for Intel. "I really like the team that's here at Rhinoceros," Barosin said. "These are great people, many of whom I've worked with before.
hey! Adds Up Global Image Ad For Nickelodeon
hey!, a New York multi-disciplinary design and production studio, has wrapped on "Nick Arithmetic," a 40-second global network image spot for Nick's international markets. hey! took still photographs of kids in various poses. The images were composited, along with graphic elements built in Illustrator and Photoshop, with animated backgrounds that string together the entire spot.
Will Vinton Studios Plays With Midway Games Spots
Will Vinton Studios has finished two live-action/CGI spots highlighting Midway Games' NFL BLITZ 2000 and READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING ROUND 2. The humorous spots were directed by Mike Wellins, who in the past has directed spots for Almond Joy, Chili's, Kikkoman, Mirinda, Pringles and ABC. In "Good Clean Fight," highlighting READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING ROUND 2, a 3D animated afro style boxer warms up by punching a disco ball and by the end we know that he isn't going to give a good clean fight.
New Jobs: Animators, Digital Artists, Directors, Visual Artists And More...
Sucker Punch Productions, developers of character-based games, is looking for 3D MODELERS. . . Stony Brook, New York's Inky Dinky Animation Studios is looking for 3D MODELERS, 2D ARTISTS and ANIMATORS. . . Ste Catherine, Canada's Wack Animation Limited, is looking for ANIMATORS for animated television series. . . Burbank, California-based Nickelodeon's Nick Digital Lab West, is looking for an ANIMATOR/MODELER for a cel-shaded production. . .
Acting For Animators, A Complete Guide To Performance Animation
Until now, animators who have wanted to learn about acting have had no option but to study the subject side by side with stage and movie actors, a group that uses acting techniques in a wholly different way...
AWN Welcomes Women In Animation
Women In Animation International has a brand new Website hosted by AWN...
Glenn Vilppu Drawing Classes In Florida
Prestigious life drawing instructor Glenn Vilppu will teach two drawing classes at Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, March 5-9, 2001: "Drawing Animals" and "Head Drawing, Expression And Drapery." For more information, call the school at (941) 955-8866. Plus, Vilppu's Sketching Tours Of Italy will return next summer. Take a tour of Italy where you will draw the sights and receive personal instruction from world class life drawing master Glenn Vilppu. Participants will go to places where most tourists never dream of going!
New At Visual Magic Magazine: LEAF Winners In The Limelight
Check out the latest "behind the scenes" features and tutorials from Visual Magic Magazine..
New In The Animation Showcase: Artists Lee Lanier and Pramod Sahoo
Lee Lanier is known for his gritty, black-and-white, absurdly surreal short films. Surprisingly, his work is a product of computer animation. Lee worked at Pacific Data Images as a lead lighter and lead modeler on "Antz" and "Shrek." His first short, "Millennium Bug" was shown at numerous festivals and such venues as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian Institution. Lee just completed his second computer animation short, "Mirror." Pramod Sahoo is the creator and founder of www.chachoo.net, India's only site showing Webisodes starting with the "Sandoo" series.
Ask The Experts In The Discussion Forums!
Leading experts in their respective fields are here to answer your questions and give you personal advice and insight...
Plympton's Comic Of The Week: Democrat Vs. Republican!
Plympton's new series of comics is extracted from the comic book "Polls Apart - How To Tell A Democrat From A Republican," by Kathy Paton & Bill Plympton...
This Week's Animation Trivia Quiz
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz. This week, we're asking questions about "Toy Story 2"...
Store Specials: Women Animation Directors
This week, in honor of the WIA Website launch, AWN is proud to highlight the works of various women as animation directors.
- Sally Cruikshank: Cels and videos are available from some of her popular works, such as "Quasi at the Quackadero" and "Face Like a Frog."
EuropaCinema & TV 2000 Dances Forth Toon Winners
The 17th
EuropaCinema & TV Film Festival has announced its 2000 winners. First
prize in the animation short category went to AU PREMIER DIMANCHE
D'AOUT by Florence Miailhe. The jury, composed by Francesco Tullio
Altan (Italy), Terry Inglese (Switzerland) and Georges Wolinski
(France), made the following statement about the winning film: "For
the grace and beauty of the drawings, for the refined work of
painting. For the editing and the music and also for the ability in
Fox Loses Interest in Icebox's Zombie College
It appears that Iceboxs announcement of a deal with Fox to take on their Webtoon ZOMBIE COLLEGE was premature and ill-timed. As AWN reported on November 29, Icebox announced that it had signed a deal with Fox to have FUTURAMA writer-producer Eric Kaplan draft a pilot script for a live-action rendition of the Webtoon ZOMBIE COLLEGE. If the pilot had been picked up the Internet company would have been able to claim executive producing fees. However, Fox is now reported to be miffed at Icebox for several reasons.
Microsoft To Acquire Gaming Company Digital Anvil
Microsoft Corp. announced it has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire Digital
Anvil Inc., a Austin, Texas games developer. Under the terms of the
deal, Microsoft would gain the rights to Digital Anvil titles, such
as FREELANCER, the highly anticipated space-combat simulation game.
This deal gives Microsoft more leverage in game development for its
forthcoming Xbox console. Microsoft and Digital Anvil have worked
together on PC games since 1997. Microsoft has recently acquired such
Comedy Central Animates TV Funhouse
On Wednesday, December 6,
2000, Comedy Central will start an eight-week run of comedian Robert
Smigel's TV FUNHOUSE, a live-action satire of 1950s children's shows
including twisted cartoons. Animated shorts include "Wonderman," a
superhero who uses his super powers to line-up dates for his alter
ego and "The Baby, The Immigrant and the Guy on Mushrooms," each of
whom always says, "Ahhhhhh." "I get a lot of pleasure out of writing
things that maybe I couldn't have WRITTEN when I was 10 years old,
