Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • Animation Show, Mobifest Join Forces in LA

    Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, and co-founder of The Animation Show, will host Mobifest LA, an independent film festival devoted to animated content created for mobile platforms. Submission are now being accepted for the show, which will take place at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 on Wilshire Blvd. on Tuesday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m.

    ‘Mobile is a fun new format and a totally different way for animators to reach a huge new audience,’ says Robert May, producer of The Animation Show. ‘Soon everyone will be able to carry a pocket full of animation with them wherever they go.’

    Established and emerging animators are encouraged to enter the competition for a chance to be one of five to have their work screened at Mobifest LA. Finalists will be selected by a panel of celebrity judges and the grand-prize winner will receive a trip to Los Angeles for the show, a creative session with Mike Judge, a mobile distribution agreement, a Palm Treo smartphone,and a Microsoft Zune digital media player.

    The deadline for submissions is March 28 at midnight (PST). All animations submitted must be 60 seconds or less, and shot and created specifically for the small screen. Submission criteria and tips for making made-for-mobile movies are available at the Mobifest website (www.mobifest.net). Animators can also submit original work for ‘Sweet Dreams,’ a special video contest category sponsored by Nestle Butterfinger. Animators and filmmakers are asked to create a dream sequence involving Butterfinger’s icon, ‘The Finger,’ who represents the promise to ‘Feed Your Appetite for Fun.’

  • Imagi Names Feeney VP of Production

    Computer graphics industry veteran Brett Feeney has been appointed VP of production at Imagi, the Hong Kong-based CG animation house behind the upcoming animated feature TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Feeney, who previously served as digital supervisor at Sydney-based Animal Logic, will be responsible for managing Imagi’s animation production pipeline and its staff of more than 400 artists, animators and technicians.

    During his ten years at Animal Logic, Feeney worked on such films as Moulin

    Rouge, Hero and The Matrix Reloaded. He also managed the production line that delivered Warner Bros.’ Oscar-winning animated feature, Happy Feet. At Imagi, he will begin working on preparing the production pipelines for big-screen adaptations of the anime favorites Gatchaman and Astro Boy, scheduled for release in late 2008 and early 2009, respectively. According to Imagi founder and co-CEO Francis Kao, the company is ramping up to deliver a film every eight months ad that Feeney will head that initiative.

    TMNT, Imagi’s first major theatrical project, will be released by Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company on more than 10,000 screens worldwide. Starting March 23. The movie is being directed by animator/comic-book artist Kevin Munroe from a screenplay he wrote with help from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird.

  • Comedian Jeni Dies

    Popular stand-up comedian and actor Richard Jeni died Saturday, March 10, from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Best known for his television comedy specials including Crazy from the Heat, A Good Catholic Boy and A Big Steaming Pile of Me, the 45-year-old funny man also lent his voice to episodes of the toon shows Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist and Batman: The Animated Series.

    Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jeni was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, both with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. and was named one of the top 100 comedians of all time in a special aired by cable outlet Comedy Central. His most notable big-screen venture was a supporting role in the Jim Carey hit The Mask. More recently, he appeared in The Aristocrats, a documentary about one of the dirtiest jokes ever.

    Police responded to an emergency call made by Jeni’s girlfriend from a West Hollywood home. Jeni later died at a Cedars Sinai Medical Center. His death is still under investigation and has not yet been declared a suicide.

  • 300, Host Battle in Theaters

    Live action and computer-generated imagery join forces to give moviegoers a unique, visceral experience in 300, Warner Bros.’ adaptation of the graphic novel from Frank Miller (Sin City). The stylized retelling of one of Western civilization’s most important battles opens nationwide today in both conventional and IMAX theaters. Meanwhile, the fantastic Korean creature feature The Host opens stateside in limited release, introducing North American audiences to one nasty CG beast created by the effects wizards at The Orphanage.

    Much like Robert Rodriguez’s cinematic treatment of Miller’s Sin City, director Snyder’s interpretation of 300 was shot mostly against green screens with digital artists creating the environments and adding animated elements. The film offers an account of the ancient battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas (Gerard Bulter) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Their valor and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite and prevent the end of democracy in the Western world.

    Snyder, who last helmed the 2004 remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, is also attached to direct an adaptation of Watchmen, the much-loved, Hugo Award-winning graphic Novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

    Judging by stellar advance ticked sales, 300 is sure to slash its way to the top of the box office chart, but genre fans shouldn’t overlook Magnolia Pictures’ release of The Host, the latest directorial effort from rising star Joon Ho Bong (Memories of Murder). The movie was released in Korea under the title Gwoemul and has become the country’s highest-grossing film ever. Read more about the movie in the latest editor’s note on this site, and be sure to catch interviews with the digital artists behind both 300 and The Host in the latest issue of Animation Magazine.

  • Editor’s Note: The Host Takes Hold

    Most people love a good monster movie, but more often than not moviegoers find themselves sitting through a mostly unwatchable film just to see a handful of mediocre creature attacks. Every now and then, however, a movie comes along that rises above the standard formula and lifts the genre out of the B-movie gutter. Jaws did it in 1975, and now we have The Host, a Korean import that utterly embarrasses most Hollywood horror flicks of late. The film opens today in limited release across North America and is worth seeking out.

    When an American doctor dumps gallons of formaldehyde into Seoul’s Han River, he unwittingly creates a mutant monster that one day crawls out of the water and begins devouring people. One victim, a young girl, survives and finds herself in the creature’s lair, hidden away in a vast sewer system. With the aid of a cell phone found on a dead body, she’s able to contact her family, rallying two generations to come to her rescue and put an end to the amphibious threat.

    Where American horror filmmakers like to focus on vapid teens getting hacked to pieces, director Joon Ho Bong (Memories of Murder) manages to weave a compelling family drama into The Host, giving us characters we care about while also delivering genuine thrills and chills. The creature animation and various other effects by The Orphanage are top-notch, but so is the acting and storytelling.

    Made for a modest $10 million, The Host isn’t the type of film you’d expect a major effects studio to get involved with, but it offered The Orphanage a chance to show the world what it is capable of in the area of creature animation, something the company hasn’t had many opportunities to focus on. With this addition to its reel, the studio appears to be gunning for some of the jobs that would typically go to ILM or Weta. Webster Colcord served as animation supervisor and Corey Rosen was creature supervisor.

    The Orphanage is also hoping to get the contract for the inevitable Hollywood remake of The Host. Universal Pictures, a studio built on such early monster movies as Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy, has picked up the rights and is likely to produce a subtitle-free version for American audiences. Let’s just hope they manage to hold on to the spirit of the original rather than unleashing a monstrous mess like Sony’s 1998 rehashing of Toho’s Godzilla.

    The Host is produced by Chungeorahm Film and Showbox/Mediaplex. Read more about the making of the film as we interview Colcord and Rosen in the latest issue of Animation Magazine.

  • Disney Dishes on Frog Princess

    Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, revealed details on upcoming animated features during Thursday’s annual meeting of shareholders in New Orleans. Set for release in 2009, The Frog Princess will not only mark Disney’s return to theatrical 2D animation, but also a revival of the cartoon musical. Meanwhile, Toy Story 3 has been put on track for a 2010 release with both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen returning.

    The Frog Princess is based on an original story by John Musker and Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules), who will also direct the tale of love, enchantment and discovery. Set in New Orleans, the pic will introduce the newest Disney princess, Maddy, a young African-American girl living in the French Quarter. The story also involves a soulful singing crocodile, voodoo spells and lots of Cajun charm. The movie’s songs and score will be written by Oscar-winning songwriter/composer and New Orleans native Randy Newman, who previously contributed to the Toy Story Films and fellow Pixar hits A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc. and Cars.

    “Like many of Disney’s most popular fairy tales, it has elements of magic, fantasy, adventure, heart, humor and music,’ says Cook. ‘The film’s New Orleans setting and strong princess character give the film lots of excitement and texture. We’re also thrilled to have John Musker, Ron Clements and Randy Newman lending their talents and creative energies to this project. John and Ron helped to usher in Disney’s second golden age of animation nearly two decades ago with The Little Mermaid, and are on track to create the Studio’s next great fairy tale adventure.”

    Lasseter adds, “Aside from being longtime friends and colleagues, John and Ron are two of the most influential and imaginative filmmakers in the animation medium, and I am so excited to be working with them in bringing their creative vision for The Frog Princess to the big screen. They’ve come up with an original story that is deeply rooted in the fairy tale tradition, and it’s filled with great humor, emotion, and musical moments.’

    Producing The Frog Princess is Peter Del Vecho, a 12-year Disney animation veteran who has a background in live theater. His credits include production manager on Hercules and associate producer on Chicken Little. Frog Princess will also serve to launch Maddy as part of The Walt Disney Co.’s successful Disney Princesses franchise, which is exploited across theme parks, consumer products, publishing, the Internet and other Mouse House businesses worldwide.

    Disney CEO Robert Iger also mentioned during the meeting that he is reconsidering his opposition to releasing the 1946 feature Song of the South on DVD. The movie, which blends live action and animation to tell the tales of Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit, has long been shelved by the company in fear that some viewers may find the depiction of Jim Crow-era southern blacks offensive.

    Photo: John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and the Disney-owned unit Pixar Animation Studios, stands in front of the image of the black princess from the Walt Disney Company’s animated musical fairy tale called ‘The Frog Princess,’ which will be set in New Orleans and feature the Walt Disney Studio’s first black princess pictured on the screen Thursday, March 8, 2007 in New Orleans. The company unveiled the plans Thursday at its annual shareholders’ meeting in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni)

    AP via Yahoo! News – Mar 08 12:26 PM

  • EA Adopts Autodesk’s HumanIK

    Autodesk announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that it has licensed its HumanIK middleware to Electronic Arts (EA) for use in next-gen games. The customized development library enables animated game characters to interact more realistically with digital environments and has already been used in conjunction with Autodesk’s Maya and MotionBuilder on such EA ttitles as DEF JAM: ICON, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA STREET Homecourt.

    Built from the HumanIK character technology found in the Maya and MotionBuilder software, Autodesk HumanIK middleware is provides an on-target intelligent inverse kinematics (IK) animation system. It is designed to allow game developers to control character animation at run-time for a higher degree of realism. HumanIK also reduces artists’ reliance on integration programmers, who typically port the game data into the game engine.

    “EA’s DEF JAM: ICON, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA STREET Homecourt titles feature sophisticated animations that are impressing the industry and consumers with their realism and fluidity of motion,” says Marc Petit, VP of Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment division. “Next-gen games are visually stunning. But, if a game’s animation quality doesn’t match the quality of the game’s still elements, the illusion of realism is quickly shattered. With HumanIK, Autodesk is helping game developers add credibility to their games by offering a customizable solution for realistic human motion.”

    Glenn Entis, EA’s chief visual and technical officer, says the partnership with Autodesk has enabled the game maker to achieve a new level of character animation. “With HumanIK, the character behaviors we created remained intact when exported to the video game engine,’ he says. ‘That was a huge benefit; it eliminated the usual time-consuming and costly tweaking and toggling between the development software and the game engine. Autodesk HumanIK is the ideal solution for our next-generation game development.”

    Developed by EA Chicago, the hip-hop fighting game DEF JAM: ICON is now shipping. NBA STREET Homecourt is has been available for Xbox 360 and has just arrived in stores for PlayStation 3.

  • Vicon Says “FK It”

    Academy Award-winning motion-capture solution provider Vicon announced the launch of FKextreme, a system catering specifically to game developers and small studios. Introduced this week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Calif., the extensible setup is optimized for capturing both in-game motions and cinematic sequences with up to two performers.

    ‘There has been a perception in the marketplace that Vicon motion capture is out of reach of small to mid-sized animation facilities and game developers,’ says Robin Pengelly, business development manager for Vicon Ent. ‘FKextreme is an incredibly affordable and accessible motion capture system that delivers better price performance than any other professional mo-cap system targeting these customers. Over recent years a number of low-cost systems have been released, but they have significant limitations and technical roadblocks for production use. Vicon has taken our flagship system and pipeline and brought the price within the reach of small studios and first-time game producers.’

    Based on the same Vicon motion-capture technology in place at major game development studios around the world, FKextreme is comprised of Vicon’s redesigned MX3+ cameras, new processing software and a full customer support package. It also features a new graphical user interface (GUI) that takes the user step-by-step through the process of running a motion-capture system. Also included is a sophisticated plug-in suite for many 3D packages including Autodesk MotionBuilder. The suite allows for real-time pre-visualization and enables skeletal data to be transferred from multiple characters and layered in real-time via a live remote control interface so users can essentially use MotionBuilder as an animation-recording tool.

    Vicon motion-capture systems are currently in place at such leasing game companies as Electronic Arts, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft Games, Midway Games, Square, Capcom, Konami, NAMCO, Nintendo and Sega, as well as top film effects studios including Industrial Light & Magic, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Animal Logic and Rhythm & Hues. For more information on the company and its products, go to www.vicon.com.

  • Gears of War Conquers at GDC

    Gears of War from Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios was the big winner at Wednesday night’s Game Developers Choice Awards, an annual kudo fest held in conjunction with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. The third-person tactical action/horror title was named Game of the Year, but the night clearly belonged to Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Shigeru Miyamoto, the Nintendo game designer often referred to as the Walt Disney of electronic gaming.

    The ceremony began with the Independent Games Festival (IGF), a celebration of developers working outside of the major studios. And it wouldn’t be a GDC awards night without a marriage proposal. In accepting the Best Student Game award for Toblo, one of the members of Grinding Elephants from DigiPen Institute of Technology popped the question and was met on stage by his sobbing girlfriend, who apparently accepted. His share of $2,500 prize should help cover the cost of the ring.

    Another big IGF winner was Queasy Games’ Everyday Shooter, an album of games exploring the expressive power of abstract shooters. The title picked up awards for Best Audio and Design Innovation, and was one of three games to get a distribution deal with Turner’s GameTap, an expansive online offering of video games and gaming related content. Accepting the award for Design Innovation, developer Jonathan Mak was self-effacing in light of a clip of his work, asking the audience, ‘I don’t know, does that make you question everything you know about game design? I thought some of the student stuff was pretty hot. You should go check that out.’

    Castle Crashers from developer The Behemoth received the Audience Award and Aquaria from Bit Blot won the coveted $20,000 Seamus McNally Grand Prize. The Bit Blot team was presented the award by Chris Delay and Mark Morris of Introversion software, which won last year with the game Darwinia. Delay and Morris first offered some tips for the up-and-comers, including ‘Don’t take any money from publishers, they’ll only screw up your game.’

    Nintendo’s Wii Sports was an obvious crowd favorite in the Game Developers Choice Awards segment. The game received an Innovation award, along with Bostjan Cadez’s Line Rider and Clover Studio/Capcom’s Okami, which also won for character design. Meanwhile, Titan Quest developer Iron Lore Ent. was named Best New Studio, winning out over Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms), Naked Sky Ent. (RoboBlitz), Ready at Dawnn Studios (Daxter) and WadJet Eye Games (The Shivah).

    On hand to accept the Maverick Award was Manifesto Games founder and CEO Greg Costikyan, who has designed more than 30 commercially published board, roleplaying, online, computer and mobile games. Half jokingly, he noted that it was a mistake to give him a podium and went on to admonish the many game companies that cater to the lowest common denominator and put out generic content. He said he believes there’s hope outside of the major studios and dreams of a day when game developers can tackle controversial subject matter and be praised, rather than condemned, for it. ‘Software is a plastic medium, and so are games,’ he commented. ‘If we can imagine it, we can make it happen.’

    Another industry veteran in attendance was Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov, who received a standing ovation when he accepted the First Penguin Award, a distinction that recognizes the bravery of a developer who leapt in to test uncertain waters. Pajitnov created the simple, but addictive, puzzle game in 1985 while working for the Computer Center of the Moscow Academy of Science, an R&D center founded by the Soviet government. He joined Microsoft in 1996 as the company’s first staff games designer and currently creates games for MSN as part of the Microsoft Zone Group.

    While showing their love and respect for Pajitnov, the crowd reserved the rockstar treatment for Shigeru Miyamoto, the celebrated creator of such enduring franchises as Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and Pikmin. With Wii Sports, he has proved that he is still on the cutting edge of the game design industry and shows no sign of slowing down. ‘Getting awards like this makes me feel old and like you expect me to retire soon,’ he quipped. ‘But making games makes me feel young and I plan to do it for a long time.’

    The Game developers Choice Awards is produced and hosted by the Game Developers Connference, and presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).

    The recipients for the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:

    Best Game‘Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios), Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

    Audio‘Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems/RedOctane), Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

    Character Design‘Okami (Clover Studio/Capcom Entertainment), Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

    Game Design‘Wii Sports (Nintendo), Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

    Technology‘Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios), Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

    Visual Arts‘Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios), Jerry O’Flaherty, Chris Perna

    Writing‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo), Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

    New Studio‘Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest), Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan

    Innovation‘Line Rider, Bostjan Cadez; Okami (Clover Studio/Capcom Entertainment), Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya; Wii Sports (Nintendo), Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

    Recipients for the evening’s special awards were:

    Lifetime Achievement

    Shigeru Miyamoto

    First Penguin

    Alexey Pajitnov

    Maverick

    Greg Costikyan

    Community Contribution

    George “The Fat Man” Sanger

    For a complete list of winners, go to www.gdconf.com/events/index.htm#choice.

  • REAL D Expands Its 3D Reach

    Digital 3D company REAL D has announced contracts with several theater chains to expand its global footprint, says a report in Daily Variety. REAL D manufactures and installs software and hardware that enable digital cinema projectors to show movies in 3D. Under the terms of the multiple contracts, REAL D will install an additional 104 systems on AMC screens, 75 for Regal Entertainment, 16 for Cinemark, five for Rave Motion Pictures, eight for Portugal’s Cinemas Lusomundo and two for Village Roadshow in Greece.

    The new installations bring REAL D’s total install base worldwide to 680 screens. The company is aiming to hit at least 1,000 by the end of the year.

    The life of the once moribund 3D technology had new life breathed into it a decade ago when the IMAX Corp. saw it as a way to pack large screen theaters at science museums and those in multiplexes. Since then, a number of big Hollywood films have been released day-and-date as 2D and 3D large-screen prints.

    Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, set for release March 30, will use REAL D technology. Disney plans to project the toon digitally in at least 500 theaters.

  • El Tigre Premiere Has Teeth

    Nickelodeon’s new original animated series, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, enjoyed the best premiere performance ever for a Saturday morning series on the network. The show debuted with back-to-back episodes on Saturday, March 3, at 10 a.m. and attracted 3.4 million total viewers.

    During the first half hour, 2.3 million kids aged 2-11 tuned in for an introduction to Manny’s world of superheroes and super villains. The 10:30 episode did slightly better as both plays increased Nickelodeon’s Saturday Morning performance by more than 4% over the previous week. Nickelodeon says the premiere even outperformed that of SpongeBob SquarePants, which made its debut in July 1999 and still reigns as the top cable show with kids 2-11.

    Created by the Mexican-born husband-and-wife team of Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, El Tigre is Nickelodeon’s first Flash-animated comedy series. Manny Rivera (voiced by Alanna Ubach) is a well-meaning kid who lives with his father, Rodolfo (Eric Bauza), and his grandfather, Granpapi (Carlos Alazraqui), in Miracle City, a spicy urban melting pot full of colorful heroes and nefarious villains. When he spins his mystical belt buckle, Manny transforms into El Tigre, a brave and powerful masked warrior who possesses the spirit of a good guy but also has potential to be a great baddie. Nickelodeon will air the series regularly on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

  • Peter Pan Goes Platinum

    The classic 1953 animated feature Peter Pan soars out of the Disney Vault once again with today’s release of a two-disc platinum edition DVD. In addition to digitally restored picture and sound, fans get a number of bonus features including previously unreleased footage and a few words from Walt Disney himself.

    Directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson, Peter Pan is an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale of a magical boy who refuses to grow up and pulls three young children into the enchanted and perilous world of Never Land. There, the kids meet Peter’s band of Lost Boys and tangle with the nefarious pirate Captain Hook.

    The platinum edition disc features a never-before-seen alternate opening set in Never Land rather than the Darlings’ home. Also included are the featurettes In Walt’s Words – Why I Made Peter Pan! and You Can Fly: The Making of Peter Pan, and a new music video for a song performed by T-Squad. Kids can also play three multi-level games, take a virtual flight with Peter over the London skyline, read a DVD storybook and catch a sneak peek at the upcoming Tinker Bell movie. The Buena Vista Home Entertainment release lists for $29.99. A trailer for the film and some behind-the-scenes material featuring the original reference model for Tinker Bell can be found at http://home.disney.go.com.

  • South Park, Foster’s Home on Disc

    Leading this week’s pack of TV on DVD releases are two very different shows about the lunacy that ensues when childhood imagination runs amok. Paramount Home Video today released the complete 9th season of Comedy Central’s South Park and Warner Home Video presents the full first season of the breakout Cartoon Network series Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends.

    South Park: The Complete Ninth Season is a three-disc set containing all 14 episodes from the 2005 season. Standout installments include ‘The Death of Eric cartman,’ ‘Erection Day,’ ‘Ginger Kids,’ the Emmy-winning ‘Best Friends Forever’ and the much-talked-about Tom Cruise episode ‘Trapped in the Closet.’ Extras include commentary by series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker on all episodes,as well as a selection of Comedy Central “Quickies.” The set lists for $49.98.

    All 13 episodes from the first season of Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends are available in a two-disc set retaining for $19.98. The show from PowerPuff Girls creator Craig McCraken debuted in 2004 and has been a favorite with Cartoon Network viewers of all ages. McCraken provides some commentary on the disc set, which also includes never-before-seen footage.

  • Stan Lee Nests With Starz for Condor

    Legendary comic book creator Stan Lee has again teamed with Starz Home Entertainment to create a new feature-length animated movie titled Stan Lee Presents: The Condor. The direct-to-video production is written by famed comic scribe Marv Wolfman and stars Wilmer Valderrama from That ’70s Show as the voice of a young skateboarder who becomes superhuman with the aid of NanoBot technology. The title will be available at retail on March 20.

    Following on the heels of the recently released Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic, Condor is the second animated feature films from Starz and Lee’s POW! Ent. In the movie, a college dropout named Tony Valdez (Vallderrama) resists working for his family’s robotic corporation as he strives to became a champion skateboarder. After a viscous attack that leaves his legs destroyed and his parents dead, Tony turns to his father’s experimental technology to get back on his feet and kind the men who killed his mother and father.

    The DVD will include an introduction by Lee, a making-of featurette, a skating game and 16 page Mosaic comic cook, which Lee created. The disc will carry a suggested retail price of $14.98.

  • ShoWest Fetes Shrek Directors

    Chris Miller and Raman Hui, directors of DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming Shrek the Third, have been named Animation Directors of the Year by ShoWest, the annual motion picture industry convention taking place March 12-15 in Las Vegas. Both Miller and Hui made their feature directorial debuts on the third Shrek installment and will receive the ShoWest award during the closing night ceremony at Bally’s and Paris.

    ‘With their innovative work on Shrek and Shrek 2, Chris Miller and Raman Hui have continually raised the bar for animated features and helped DreamWorks Animation become one of the leaders in animated comedy,’ says Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of ShoWest.

    Miller joined DreamWorks Animation in 1998 as a story artist on the studio’s animated comedy,Antz. He stayed on as a story artist on the first Shrek, for which he wrote additional dialogue and provided the voices of Magic Mirror and Gepetto. His other credits include head of story for Shrek 2 and voice of Kowalski the Penguin in Madagascar.

    Hui has been a major force at PDI/DreamWorks for more than 15 years, guiding the animation team from commercials and shorts to feature films. He started at the studio in 1989 and worked his way up to lead character designer/supervising animator on Antz. He also served as supervising animator on Shrek and Shrek 2, as well as the Universal Studios theme park attraction Shrek 4D. Hui also wrote, directed and produced the PDI/DreamWorks short film Sleepy Guy.

    Set for release on May 18, Shrek the Third finds the green ogre in a lurch when his father-in-law, King Harold, suddenly croaks, leaving him in charge of the kingdom of Far Far Away unless he can find a more suitable heir. With the help of Donkey and Puss in Boots, Shrek sets out to make a king of Fiona’s cousin Artie, an underachieving Medieval high school slacker.

    ShoWest, an international gathering devoted exclusively to the movie business, is expected to draw more than 5,000 members of the motion picture industry to Sin City. Each year, the convention attracts delegates from more than 50 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. ShoWest is managed by the Nielsen Business Media, a division of The Nielsen Co.

  • MyToons.com Hosts DRAW

    New online animation community MyToons.com will host the internationally acclaimed traveling art exhibit, DRAW, in conjunction with the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Film/Interactive and Music Festival. Honoring the connection between animation and artistic drawing, the installment will be in place March 9-31 at Gallery Lombardi’s new location in Austin, Texas.

    The DRAW exhibit pays tribute to the fundamental building-block of visual and graphic art, the drawing. Featured works will include pieces from world-class animation artists, influential musicians, graffiti artists, tattooists, pop artists, fashion designers, skaters and comic book legends.

    ‘In today’s digital world, we often forget that animations and graphics are rooted in the historic art of the basic drawing,’ motes Rusty Mills, a five-time Emmy award-winning animator and director of animation for MyToons.com. ‘As a supporter of all artistic ventures, MyToons.com recognizes DRAW as the perfect outlet to bring us back to the root of pure and raw art; not to mention a great opportunity to see works from so many creative visionaries all in one place.’

    DRAW debuted in New York in October of 2006 to an audience of more than1500 people. The exhibit’s stop at SXSW will feature original works by more than 150 vanguard artists including Mills, HR Giger, Clive Barker, Moby, Barry McGee, KAWS and Ron English. MyToons.com has additionally invited to local animation artists to feature their work amongst these renowned artists.

    The MyToons.com DRAW exhibit is free and open to the public. Gallery Lombardi hours are noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with extended hours for other special events. In conjunction with DRAW and SXSW, MyToons.com is also sponsoring several events Gallery Lombardi and the Austin Museum of Art throughout the month of March. For more information, go to

    www.mytoons.com and www.fusegallerynyc.com.

  • NaturalMotion Ships morpheme

    NaturalMotion Ships morpheme

    NaturalMotion Ltd., developer of the euphoria and endorphin Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technologies, today announced the immediate availability of morpheme, a new animation engine for next-generation game development. The company will demonstrate the product publicly for the first time at booth No. 118 during the 2007 Game Developers Conference, taking place this week at in San Francisco, Calif.

    Available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, morpheme features a flexible 3D authoring tool chain and is designed to give animators unprecedented creative control over the look of their final in-game animation by allowing them to author and preview blends, blend trees and transition graphs in real time.

    ‘We developed morpheme to improve the workflow for next-generation game developers,’ says NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil. ‘By backing up a next-gen animation engine with a strong 3D authoring application, animators and programmers are now able to work hand-in-hand, in real time, to create fluid in-game animation that truly reflects the quality of the source data.’

    The morpheme engine consists of two components: morpheme:runtime, a run-time engine that ships with full source code, and morpheme:connect, a 3D authoring application that allows animators to graphically author blend trees and transition logic (based on hierarchical finite state machines), modify and edit parameters through sliders or game pads, and view the results in real time. Designed as a flexible and open system, morpheme does not require the licensing of any other product but is made to seamlessly integrate with other leading 3D animation software and middleware technologies such as physics engines.

    Morpheme is not based on NaturalMotion’s DMS technology, which utilizes Adaptive Behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human-nervous system. It is, however, designed to complement euphoria, an innovation that synthesizes 3D character animation in real time to eliminate canned animations in favor of unique gameplay moments. For more information on NaturalMotion and its products, go to www.naturalmotion.com.

  • Doomsday for Superman

    Super toon producer Bruce Timm (Justice League Unlimited, Batman: The Animated Series) and Warner Bros. Animation have been busy adapting the best-selling graphic novel of all time and fans will be able to get their hands on it this summer. Based on DC comic The Death of Superman, Superman Doomsday will be released by Warner Home Video on Sept. 18 with a PG-13 rating.

    Superman Doomsday is the first in a new series of animated features to be released under the DC Universe banner. The movie will feature the voices of Adam Baldwin (Independence Day) as Superman, Anne Heche (Men in Trees) as Lois Lane and James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Lex Luthor. Written by Duane Capizzi (The Batman, The Batman vs. Dracula), the story has Superman taking on intergalactic serial killer Doomsday and making the ultimate sacrifice to save Metropolis and those he loves.

    The DVD will come with collectable packaging and more than 70 minutes of bonus materials. A featurette titled The Clash of the Juggernauts will take a retrospective look at the mayhem that ensued when millions of fans were subjected to the death of the Man of Steel. Paul Levitz, other DC staff and comic book artists throughout the industry go on record about The Death of Superman as news clippings, reports and archival testimony from fans tell the rest of the story. The doc will also include a closer look at the dark Superman that emerges in the graphic novel The Return of Superman.

    Another featurette titled The Artists’ Playground’From Art to Sound Design in Superman Doomsday will have Timm and his creative team of writers, animators and designers taking fans on an exciting journey of character evolution. This documentary will focus on early character concept drawings, final character art, various stages of modeling, storyboards, animatics, layering of colors, voice talent and final animation. The disc will also include a sneak peek at the next DC Universe original movie, Justice League: The New Frontier, as well as a game called Defeat Doomsday: Battle Challenge, a test of dexterity lets the users relive the epic battle with footage from the movie inter-cut with gameplay. The DVD will carry a suggested retail price of $19.98.

  • Age of Empires III Goes Mobile

    Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile has inked deal with Microsoft to adapt the real-time strategy game Age of Empires III for mobile phones. The announcement was made today at the 2007 the Game Developers Conference (GDC), taking place all week long in San Francisco, Calif.

    Originally developed for PC by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, Age of Empires III is a popular installment in a series that has sold 16 million copies worldwide. Glu’s mobile version is scheduled to launch worldwide in 2008.

    Glu and Microsoft previously teamed to launch Project Gotham Racing Mobile worldwide earlier this year. Other titles developed by Glu include the originals Super K.O. Boxing!, Stranded and the Ancient Empires franchise, as well as games based on major brands from Atari, Harrah’s, Hasbro, PlayFirst, PopCap Games, SEGA and Sony. Founded in 2001, Glu is based in San Mateo, Calif. and has offices in London, Hong Kong, France, Germany and Brazil.

  • Age of Empires III Goes Mobile

    Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile has inked deal with Microsoft to adapt the real-time strategy game Age of Empires III for mobile phones. The announcement was made today at the 2007 the Game Developers Conference (GDC), taking place all week long in San Francisco, Calif.

    Originally developed for PC by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, Age of Empires III is a popular installment in a series that has sold 16 million copies worldwide. Glu’s mobile version is scheduled to launch worldwide in 2008.

    Glu and Microsoft previously teamed to launch Project Gotham Racing Mobile worldwide earlier this year. Other titles developed by Glu include the originals Super K.O. Boxing!, Stranded and the Ancient Empires franchise, as well as games based on major brands from Atari, Harrah’s, Hasbro, PlayFirst, PopCap Games, SEGA and Sony. Founded in 2001, Glu is based in San Mateo, Calif. and has offices in London, Hong Kong, France, Germany and Brazil.