Animation Magazine

Author: Claire Webb

  • Pixel Corps Extends Goals for 2007

    The new year should prove to be another important period for Pixel Corps, the organization that has created a community for aspiring and professional digital media artists worldwide and is developing a standardization process for its members and helping up-and-coming artists navigate the biz. When we last spoke with Pixel Corps, the brainchild of former ILM pro Alex Lindsay, the organization was striving to achieve a process that would create a standard of performance for a guild of artists that were contracted workers in film and television. The goal of PXC is to collect and teach artists to be the best in the world through a network that is based on training, community and production training.

    In 2006, the Corps moved forward in achieving its goals by often partnering with leading software providers to benefit members as well as creating a Member Hub where those involved can get the latest news from the industry as well as PXC announcements.

    Lindsay notes, ‘Over the past year, the PXC has not only grown in size but more importantly in experience. For example, early in 2006, the PXC partnered with the San Francisco School for Digital Filmmaking to acquire a Sony F-950 CineAlta. This has pushed the production level of our tests to a much higher level and forced our global pipeline to conform to true film hardened practices.’

    The organization will also strive to implicate a certification process that would test

    members and, in the future, facilitate a database for vfx companies to use when they are considering hiring artists. Lindsay says the membership certification is expected to be in place by fall 2007. ‘Our standardization process has moved forward a great deal over the last year’ he adds. ‘We’ve taken many of the processes that were handled on a case-by-case basis and begun to truly develop a pipeline that can be re-used across the system. By working on real productions, from broadband to film post, our system has become much more refined.’

    Find out more about Pixel Corps at www.pixelcorps.com.

  • AniBOOM Announces Winners

    Today the folks at aniBOOM.com announced a total of six winners in their first-ever awards contest. The site offers a large online collection of cartoons from around the world and strives to create a leading, cross-media animation hub to allow both professional and amateur animators to connect and gain exposure.

    The grand prize winner of the competition, receiving $25,000, is Chilean/Peruvian animator Jossie Malis with his film inspired by his cultural roots titled Bendito Machine. The short uses beautiful colors and unique shadow-puppet imagery to describe a modern tale about leaders, money, sex and religion. The four-and-a-half-minute film is directed, produced and designed by Malis and has gained popularity while circulating around European film festivals.

    Other category winners were also announced who include: Mr. Fortune, an animated music video, political drama Beton, the PSA cartoon Humans!, experimental video Chaos Theory and finally satirical film Back in Bush. Each of these category winners will also receive a hefty prize of $5,000.

    All the winners were chosen from thousands of films that were then narrowed down to 25 films on Jan. 15. The small group of finalists was chosen by the participation of the site users who ranked their favorite films since the launch of the site in September. Following the announcement of the finalists, AniBOOM then brought in a panel of well-known judges in the animation community including: animator Paul Driessen (The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine cartoon); former VP for companies like Universal, Turner and Warner Bros. Douglas Wood; Arlene Sherman (Sesame Street); and former president of Feature Animation at Warner Bros Max Howard. Howard commented on the competition saying, ‘I really admire this initiative, AniBOOM is providing a great service for animation fans and professionals alike. [I] really enjoyed being a part of this competition’there were some great films.’

    Although judges deliberated on the finalists, the majority of the decision lay in the hands of the users and animation fans since 70% of the final vote was based on the number of times each film was watched and voted on. For more info visit www.aniBOOM.com.

  • Nick Jr. Grabs Yo Gabba Gabba!

    This fall, a colorful group of TV puppets will be ready to sing, play and dance along for preschoolers! Produced by W!LDBRAIN and The Magic Store, Yo Gabba Gabba! mixes live action puppets and animation in a magazine-style format and has been picked up by Nickelodeon’s preschool block Nick Jr. for 20 episodes. The half-hour show will use beat-driven music and song with a retro feel to enlighten preschoolers on simple life lessons. Yo Gabba Gabba! is punctuated by animated segments, real kids and special guests as well as vibrant puppet friends. This will be the first project produced by neophyte studio The Magic Store following the viral frenzy the trailer created online.

    The series will also star Host DJ Lance Rock (Lance Robertson) who will bring life to the colorful, friendly puppet characters and thus facilitate the education of youngsters through song and dance. The show will air on Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. programming block that runs weekdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Yo Gabba Gabba! will begin production in Southern California in April and should surface on the network in the fall of 2007.

    ‘The Magic Store and W!LDBRAIN have created a hip, inventive and one-of-a- kind music series which furthers Nick’s commitment to be the place for top quality preschool music entertainment,’ raves Brown Johnson, exec VP and exec creative director for Nickelodeon Preschool. With characters like Muno the red Cyclops, Toodee the blue cat-dragon and Foofa the pink flower bubble, Nick’s new property will target little tykes ages 2-5 with its musical content. President and CEO of San Francisco shop W!LDBRAIN Charles Rivkin notes, ‘Shows like this come along once in a lifetime. Yo Gabba Gabba! is both fresh, fun, unique and truly original.’

  • BKN Titles to Shine for Morningstar

    Canada’s Morningstar Entertainment expands its library of over 1,000 DVD titles with exclusive licensing deals with global animation entity BKN International AG as well as deals with Montreal-based film company Atopia. The new partnership will boost the company’s roster of animated and feature films and aims to increase Morningstar’s profile in the home entertainment sector.

    The Canadian distributor will acquire the rights to distribute some of BKN’s most popular animated children’s films in English as well as French. This venture will be BKN’s first DVD distribution deal in Canada and is predicted to make an impact on the country’s home entertainment market. ‘Morningstar looks forward to growing its core family market in 2007 by building the BKN Kids brand, known for its cutting-edge films and superior 3D animation’key factors for today’s consumers who are leaning more heavily towards HD-quality programming,’ says Morningstar’s VP sales and marketing Jason Moring.

    The first Morningstar release in this new partnership with BKN, is Robin Hood: Quest for the King slated for a March debut, followed by the first of eight volumes in the The Legend of the Dragon series in April. For more info visit www.morningstarent.com.

  • Fantastic Four Flexes Sales Muscle

    Following the blockbuster 2005 film the recent launch on French channel M6, Marvel’s animated series Fantastic Four has captured the attention of broadcasters worldwide. Marvel, in conjunction with Taffy Entertainment, has just announced a slew of new deals to sell this popular comic book family outside the U.S. Broadcasters in Germany, Singapore, Spain, Canada and even the Middle East have noted the success of the series in France as it has acquired an average of 600,000 viewers and has been rated high on the children’s slot with no sign of slowing.

    ‘We are extremely pleased with the response from broadcasters worldwide,’ says Taffy Entertainment’s president of sales and distribution Lionel Marty. ‘The enormous success of the show, particularly in France on M6, is indisputable evidence that the characters and storylines translate well in every country and in any language where kids love superheroes.’

    A product of combined efforts from MoonScoop Productions, Marvel Comics and Cartoon Network Europe, Fantastic Four maintains colorful stories of an unlikely group of people that must brave the unknown terrors of space. A scientist, his best friend and a pair of siblings once changed by cosmic rays transform into the superhuman Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, The Invisible Girl and The Human Torch. The comic book heroes battle evil in classic Marvel character form and come from a long-standing tradition of character franchise success. It’s no wonder distribution and brand managing company Taffy Entertainment, who also represents top-notch animation producers Mike Young Productions and Europe’s own MoonScoop, jumped on the Fantastic bandwagon along with broadcasters. The property has already hit up the feature film division with the sequel due in June of 2007, and with the rise in popularity of the TV show, Taffy and Marvel will also emphasize brand expansion into video games, toys and other officially licensed consumer products in the upcoming year.

    ‘Since the film premiered in 2005, interest in the Fantastic Four brand has continued to grown exponentially,’ boasts president and COO of Marvel Studios Michael Helfant. ‘We’re looking at 2007 as another breakout year for the brand, particularly as word-of-mouth grows for the upcoming feature film sequel.’

    It looks like 2007 will be another fantastic year for Fantastic Four!

  • Aardman Animations Partners with Egmont

    Wallace & Gromit have a new publishing partner. The Bristol-based stop-motion animation studio has teamed up with the number one publisher of children’s books in the UK to produce literature for Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit. Egmont Publishing has just received rights that cover a tie-in with Aardman’s famed Wallace and Gromit as well as their upcoming BBC show Shaun the Sheep.

    The deal with Egmont will launch a plethora of titles to be released in 2007 with many more scheduled for 2008 and 2009. Shaun the Sheep follows the adventures of Shaun as he leads his flock into all sorts of sticky situations, and unbeknownst to the Farmer, they have fun running rings around sheepdog Bitzer. The series is primarily aimed for a child audience aged 4-8 years old and will debut in the U.K. on CBBC in 2007.

    ‘These are truly wonderful properties that fit perfectly with our portfolio of classic characters,’ raves Egmont Publishing director Davdi Riley Look out for some fantastic books!’ raves Egmont Publishing director David Riley.

    Among Aardman’s other recent projects is a new U.S. version of the series Creature Comforts, which is set to bow on CBS in the first quarter of 2007. Also on tap is Decode co-productions Planet Sketch and Chop Socky Chooks for Cartoon Network and Teletoon. The studio that boasts creative talent Nick Park is no stranger to partnering as they also have a five-picture deal with DreamWorks. Egmont is the leading publisher in the children’s character sector and prides itself on delivering quality, environmentally friendly books.