Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • ADV FILMS Launches Anime ADVocates

    Major North American anime producer and distributor ADV Films has announced a brand new official fan club program that will offer free anime preview DVDs to high school, library or college anime clubs. Dubbed Anime ADVocates, the program is designed to help clubs spread the joy of anime to others and keep fans up to date with the latest titles ADV has to offer.

    "ADV feels very connected to our fan base," says ADV Films director of marketing Anne Armogida. "We seek to help them in any way we can by supporting them through Anime ADVocates."

    Anime ADVocates will begin its premier round of anime preview DVDs in December. In addition to the free discs, ADV plans to provide exclusive games, contests and other fun activities for club members.

    ADV Films’ best-selling titles include Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon, Robotech, Full Metal Panic!, Hello Kitty and Azumanga Daioh. The company’s extensive library also includes popular live-action science fiction programs such as The Jim Henson Company’s Farscape, the nationally syndicated Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda and the Saturn Award-nominated Mutant X. ADV’s Parent company, A.D. Vision, Inc. encompasses a multitude of media divisions, including Anime Network, America’s first and only television network dedicated to Japanese-style animation.

    To join Anime ADVocates and find more information on ADV Films, check out the website at www.advfilms.com/advocates, or contact Kristen, ADV’s Anime Club Girl, at animeclub@advfilms.com.

  • War of the Worlds Site Arrives

    DreamWorks and Paramount have kicked off a web presence for the upcoming Steven Spielberg-directed adaptation of H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds. The new take on the classic alien invasion tale stars Tom Cruise and is scheduled to land in theaters this summer.

    First published in 1898, Well’s War of the Worlds takes place at the turn of the century as mankind’s marvelous advances in science and industry are crushed by the arrival of a much more advanced Martian civilization. The novel was first adapted for radio by Orson Wells and Mercury Theatre on the Air. The 1938 CBS Radio broadcast was presented as a fictional newscast but It caused mass hysteria when many Americans believed it to be a real warning of invasion. The story was then brought to the big-screen by George Pal in 1963. That film still stands as one of the greatest and most and influential genre works of all time.

    While Spielberg has kept details of his version tightly under wraps, we do know that it takes place in modern times. And, judging by the poster artwork, Spielberg tips his baseball cap to Pal’s enduring vision of the story.

    Right now, the site is only a single page featuring the film’s poster art and a notice that the official website is coming soon. There’s also a link where eager sci-fi fans can register to receive updates. Check it out at www.waroftheworlds.com.

  • Oregon3D Under New Management

    Oregon3D is undergoing some changes, according to a statement posted on its website recently. The Oregon school is now under new management and ownership but insists that it’s business as usual as far as quality education is concerned.

    We’re told that Oregon3D’s operations are being transitioned to a business partner, who will continue with educational and consulting services. Along with the changes in management comes a new classroom outfitted with the latest technology, new classes and new instructors to help the 3D animation and modeling school expand into industrial design training.

    The school’s website, www.Oregon3d.com, is also in process of being overhauled.

  • Turbo Squid Opens Mobile Game Developers Forum

    Turbo Squid, a leading provider of royalty-free 3D products for download, today launched a new discussion forum for mobile game developers. The Mobile Developer’s Forum, or MDF, was designed primarily for developers creating 3D content for Java M3G (JSR 184).

    The MDF was created with support from graphics technology developer Hybrid Graphics, whose M3G implementation is used in Discreet’s 3ds max 7 software to aid in mobile content creation. The forum is intended to give mobile content developers a place to discuss and find solutions to technical issues. It also aims to help artists and other content creators distribute their work.

    Several M3G experts from the industry, including engineers from Hybrid Graphics, have agreed to support the forums by answering technical questions and taking part in the discussion. The forum promises to become one of the major sources of information concerning mobile graphics content development for Java J2ME platforms. As it evolves, mobile-ready 3D content from Turbo Squid’s more than 7800 partner artists will be added.

    The MDF is being moderated by professionals from Hybrid Graphics and other mobile content experts. It will serve as a distribution channel for products developed in conjunction with Turbo Squid partners Face2Face and Versaly, as well as the partner artists who currently sell their 3D products at Turbo Squid.

    The Mobile Developer’s Forum can be accessed at www.turbosquid.com/mdf/. More information on Turbo Squid can be found at www.turbosquid.com, and more on Hybrid Graphics is available at www.hybrid.fi.

  • Peanuts Hit the L.A. Fashion Scene

    While Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts gang never went out of fashion with comics fans and TV viewers, they’re set to become the latest craze in hip apparel. United Media has launched its new Vintage Peanuts apparel line by JEM Sportswear’s Awake division at fashion-forward retailer Kitson on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles. The three-year-old boutique has become a favorite stop for many celebrities and Hollywood elite.

    In addition to featuring Vintage Peanuts clothing in its front window, Kitson is supporting the exclusive launch by giving out customized Peanuts shopping bags and Pez candy dispensers with any purchase. Online shoppers will find the Vintage Peanuts collection available for purchase at www.shopkitson.com.

    Based on the look and feel of the Peanuts comic strip from 1962-1968, the Vintage Peanuts line captures the nostalgia of those early strips and offers retro appeal for fans 26 and older.

    Vintage Peanuts will roll out to retailers nationwide after the Kitson exclusive engagement. Plans are already underway for Lord & Taylor to host the line’s New York City launch this month. Nordstrom is also on board.

  • Emerson SpongeBob Consumer Electronics

    In addition to gracing movie theaters with his absorbing presence this holiday season, SpongeBob SquarePants is also occupying shelf space in the electronics departments of major retailers. Emerson Radio Corp., in conjunction with Nickelodeon, has launched a new line of branded products just in time for the busy shopping period.

    Emerson’s new line features a SpongeBob SquarePants compact DVD player that plays audio CDs, CD-R/CD-RW discs and CDs containing MP3 compressed audio files. The unit also includes a multi-language selectable on screen menu, a parental control function with user-selectable password and a 20-track programmable memory for CD playback. It lists for $69.95.

    Young fans can play their DVDs on a new 13-inch color television made to look like everyone’s favorite sea sponge. The TV also offers a 181-channel frequency synthesized tuner, a programmable on/off sleep timer and a character-themed on-screen display for $109.95.

    Other products in the line include a SpongeBob SquarePants Portable Karaoke CDG System for $59.99 and a personal CD/R-RW player for $34.99.

    With the movie earning nearly $60 million at the box office and 20 all-new new episodes of the series set to air on Nickelodeon in 2005, SpongeBob is bigger than ever and should be a hot commodity with holiday shoppers.

  • TCM Strolls Down Cartoon Alley

    Turner Classic Movies gets animated this month with the addition of a classic toon block. Cartoon Alley will premiere at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 4 and will repeat at various times during the month. The block will include three classic cartoons with a similar theme. Host Ben Mankiewicz, the cable network’s weekend daytime host, will provide wrap-arounds, offering factoids about the particular cartoons and the genre in general.

    Programming will be drawn from Turner Broadcasting’s library of more than 1,000 classic cartoons from MGM and Warner Bros. Many of the toons have rarely, if ever, been seen since their initial release.

    Kicking off Cartoon Alley on Dec. 4 are three Christmas-themed shows–The Pups‚ Christmas (1936), directed by Rudolf Ising; Peace On Earth (1939), which was nominated for the 1939 Nobel Peace Prize as well as a Best Short Subject Oscar; and the Tom and Jerry short The Night Before Christmas (1941), which was also nominated for a Best Short Subject Oscar.

    Turner Classic Movies is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System Inc., a Time Warner company.

  • TOKYOPOP Kicks Off Rising Stars Of Manga

    If you’ve been toiling away on your own manga project with little hope of getting it seen by anybody, don’t toss it in a drawer just yet. Manga publisher TOKYOPOP Inc. today launched the fifth annual Rising Stars of Manga, a competition that invites aspiring artists and writers to submit their 15-to-20-page comics for the chance to join the next generation of nationally published creators. The contest runs through February 15, 2005.

    Due to overwhelming demand, this year’s competition will introduce a brand-new People’s Choice on-line component where the top-20 finalists will have their entire entries judged by the fans on the TOKYOPOP website. “We are really pleased to open up the Rising Stars judging to the fans," comments TOKYOPOP editor Rob Valois. "Since so many people have been vocal on the message boards and at industry conventions, we’re offering them all a chance to shape the future of manga. I’m personally excited to see how the fans’ favorite will compare to our own."

    TOKYOPOP says it is on a mission to identify and nurture the artists and writers who will define American manga in the years ahead. The company’s expanded competition invites creators living in America and working in English to submit their work. The top seven entries, as selected by TOKYOPOP’s editorial staff and the online People’s Choice selection, will receive monetary prizes and inclusion in the fifth Rising Stars of Manga anthology, to be published in summer 2005. In addition, all the winners will have an exclusive opportunity to pitch a full-length manga story idea to TOKYOPOP execs.

    Entrants are encouraged to submit content from all genres–comedy, drama, horror, science fiction, action, fantasy, romance, political, historical or instructional. Complete details for the fifth Rising Stars of Manga competition are available on TOKYOPOP’s website at: www.tokyopop.com/news/mangatalent/index.php.

  • Disney Channel Scores at PROMAX&BDA Asia Awards

    Walt Disney Television International-Asia Pacific’s Disney Channel won gold and silver PROMAX awards at the PROMAX&BDA Asia Awards held last night in Singapore. The honors join the 13 awards received by Walt Disney Television Int’l at the prestigious Int’l PROMAX&BDA Awards in New York last June and the six awards received at PROMAX&BDA Australia/New Zealand in Sydney last September.

    Disney Channel Japan took Best In-House Station Image Promo. In addition, WDTVI-AP’s creative services team, headed by director of creative services Joseph Liu and deputy director of creative services Natalie Gee, received the silver in the category Best Children’s Program Promo for a Wonderful World of Disney image spot titled "Every Night." The promo previously bagged the gold PROMAX for Best Use of Original/Existing Music at the PROMAX&BDA Australia/New Zealand Awards.

    This month’s wins brings the total PROMAX&BDA Awards won by WDTVI-AP to 32 Gold awards and 31 Silver awards from PROMAX& BDA Asia, Australia and New Zealand and USA .

    The PROMAX Awards is organized and presented by PROMAX, the world’s premiere association of promotion and marketing professionals in the electronic media. The BDA Awards is organized by BDA, the world’s leading association of designers involved in all aspects of electronic design for the broadcast, broadband and multimedia worlds. A full list of 2004 winners can be found at www.promaxasia.tv/asia04.html.

  • BAFTA Fetes Brush, Picks Potter Over Nemo, Shrek

    A series of toon-shaded 3D shorts titled Brush Head took top honors as winners of The British Academy Children’s Film & Television Awards were announced on Sunday, Nov. 28. The latest film in Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter franchise also pulled a stunning win out of its hat, trumping heavyweight contenders Finding Nemo from Disney and Pixar, Shrek 2 from DreamWorks and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King from New Line Cinema.

    The Brush Head shorts chronicle the daily exploits of a hapless, jabbering little guy with a big, round head topped with bristly hair. Produced by Jonathan Boseley, Andy Williams and Dan Berlinka of Dandy Productions, in association with Toon Disney, the series airs on Disney Channel U.K. For the title of Best Animation, it beat out fellow nominees The Blue Dragon from Glasshead Ltd. (C4), Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids from Honeycomb Animation/Elephant Prods/Carlton (CiTV) and Metalheads from TV Loonland (BBC).

    While Shrek 2 lost in the Feature Film category, it did take the LEGO/BAFTA kids vote. Young viewers went online to cast their votes for the hugely successful animated sequel. Nine other films were nominated, including Sony’s Spider-Man 2, New Line’s Elf, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of he Black Pearl and Warner Bros.’ Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

    Winner of the Preschool Animation award is Collingwood O’Hare Ent.’s Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! Produced by Christopher O’Hare, Tony Collingwood and Andrea Tran, the CiTV series bested The Koala Brothers from Spellbound Ent/Famous Flying Films (CBBC), Peppa Pig from Astley Baker Davies/Contender Ent. (Five) and Sam Tan (Fireman Sam) from Siriol Prods. (S4C).

    The British Academy Children’s Film & Television Awards were created in 1996 to raise the profile of the children’s industry. The Awards, sponsored by LEGO, recognize excellence in children’s feature film and various genres of children’s television, including animation, drama, entertainment, factual, pre-school, schools drama, schools factual and international. A full list of 2004 winners can be found at www.bafta.org/childrens/announce.htm.

  • Z Animation Adds Ten Directors

    Z Animation, a TV spot animation company founded by exec producer Peter Barg, has brought on ten new directors for national representation. Bringing a broad mix of artistic styles are directors John Ryan, Robert Pope, Howie Hoffman, David Chomowicz, Gabriel Polonsky and David Russo, as well as a pair of design and directing teams–3D animators/designers Rob Cazin and Lauri Salladay and live-action puppeteers Tom Megalis and Jenn Bastien.

    Atlanta-based John Ryan is a traditional cel animator whose illustrative, outside-the-line style has graced projects for McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam, J. Walter Thompson, BBDO, Austin Kelly, Hallmark Ent., the Discovery Channel, Disney’s Yellow Shoes Creative Group and Cartoon Network. The former Click 3X/Atlanta director has received recognition from the BDAs, Tellys, Addys, Monitors, commercial Emmys and Animation Magazine’s Anicomm awards. His short film, Glimmer, received awards from Worldfest/Flagstaff (Gold), Hopes and Dreams Festival (Best Animation), and ASIFA East (Best Animation Design).

    Working in a more traditional vein is former Click 3X animator Robert Pope, who has directed spots for Cartoon Network, Culligan, Ronzoni, the Atlanta Braves, Raid and Chachere Spices, drawing on classic influences that include Warner Bros, Disney, UPA and Hanna-Barbera.

    Howie Hoffman recently directed the cutout animation short, Bad Phone Sex, featuring Chris Rock, for HBO. He also animated action figures for Nickelodeon’s Action League Now, pixellated kids for a series of Toon Disney promos and created spots for the launch of Spike TV’s animation block. For the past 20 years, he has taught animation workshops for kids at Camp Androscoggin in Wayne, Maine.

    Six-time Emmy winner David Chomowicz recently completed his first project for Z Animation–a four-spot package for BASF and agency Brighton/St. Louis. A leading broadcast designer and brander, his clients include HBO, Noggin, CBS, Broadway Video, PBS, and Bravo. The BDA, Print Magazine, the AIGA and the New York Art Directors Club have honored his work.

    Emmy-nominated Gabriel Polonsky is a specialist in stop-motion and clay animation. The former Olive Jar Animation director has also completed his first project at Z Animation–two spots for Alliance Health Care and agency Adamson/St. Louis. Polonsky is an adjunct professor of character animation at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College and an instructor of animation at Harvard and Brandeis Universities and the Boston Museum School.

    Seattle-based David Russo was recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. His two most recent short films, Pan With Us and Populi, premiered in sequential years at the Sundance Film Festival, with the former receiving honorable mention in addition to the Best Animation award at the 2002 San Francisco Int’l Film Festival. Self-taught, Russo’s non-narrative films are largely stop motion and animated in-camera. He is artist in residence at Seattle’s 911 Media Arts Center.

    The team of Rob Cazin and Lauri Salladay adds a true 3D design and animation dimension to the Z lineup. Their style of branded entertainment has garnered numerous awards, including a gold and silver Promax, as well as a national Emmy for Cazin. Recent projects include a series of six History Channel holiday IDs, A&E‚s War of 1812 campaign and show packaging for The History Channel’s Last Days of World War II and Full Throttle. Cazin and Salladay have also created a series of CGI shorts titled The Farminals, which debuted this year on INHD, the first all-HDTV network.

    The roster is completed by the team of Tom Megalis and Jenn Bastien. Megalis, a well-known illustrator, has directed hundreds of spots for clients such as Nestle, Herrs Chips and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Bastien, a former animation student of Megalis’ at Pittsburgh’s Point Park College, specializes in 3D sculpture, puppet animation, set design/construction and character design. Her credits include Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show and Kablam, as well as works for MTV, the Discovery Channel, Voice Net and The Pittsburgh Zoo.

    “Our entire emphasis is on the creative talent, not the technology,” says Barg. “Technology is finally doing what it was supposed to do–leave the animator free to create, cut down on overhead and markups and create more efficiency. We have put together a group of directors, animators, illustrators and creators who understand how to produce anywhere, under any circumstances.”

    Z Animation opened in July 2003 as a talent-based visual toolbox for both agencies and clients. The recent signings raise the number of directors represented by the company to 26. Z Animation is represented by Gilles De Bonfilhs on the West Coast and in New York by David Goldman.

  • Paris Hilton Goes Down to South Park

    Infamous heiress Paris Hilton is set to get a taste of the simple life on Comedy Central’s long-running animated series, South Park. The ambitionless blonde will be spoofed in an all-new episode premiering Wednesday, December 1 at 10:00 p.m.

    In the episode, all the South Park Elementary fourth grade girls idolize a certain spoiled socialite known for her jet-set lifestyle, television show and extra- curricular activities. They even have her brand new toy set that comes complete with video camera with night vision filter, play money and losable cell phone. In an effort to impress their idol, the girls begin pursuing the boys to make their own videos.

    Launched in 1997, South Park remains the highest-rated series on Comedy Central. The Emmy-nominated show repeats Fridays at 12:00 a.m., Saturdays at 3:00 a.m. and Sundays at 11:00 p.m.

    South Park is co-created and exec produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, directors of Paramount’s adult marionette comedy, Team America: World Police, which is now in theaters.

  • Avid Announces SOFTIMAGE|XSI 4.2

    Avid Technology Inc. today announced version 4.2 of SOFTIMAGE|XSI software for professionals working on complex CG productions including games, films, broadcast and postproduction projects. The new version adds such advanced features as crowd simulation and compositing with XSI Advanced and paint capabilities with XSI Essentials.

    XSI Essentials now comes with the resolution-independent professional compositing and paint features previously only included in the XSI Advanced package. In addition, XSI Advanced is now bundled with version 2.0 of SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR, the company’s behavioral crowd simulation software, which offers tight integration with SOFTIMAGE|XSI software and mental ray rendering, as well as an integrated development environment (IDE) with debugging functionalities. Users can now build CG crowd scenes and independently control any of the characters created in SOFTIMAGE|XSI software as part of a complex crowd consisting of more than 100,000 characters. Other highlights include terrain following, obstacle avoidance, dynamic path-planning, automatic motion blending, character rag doll and stunt force creation.

    SOFTIMAGE|XSI 4.2 also offers increased support for games, film and broadcast pipelines. For game developers, it features robust normal map generation, designed to simplify the process for creating sophisticated effects in real time. In addition, version 4.2 introduces new film and broadcast enhancements that streamline the workflow between editing and compositing tools. These additions include support for industry-standard file formats such as 10-bit and HD Material Exchange Format (MXF), which facilitate metadata and media exchange between products, and OpenEXR, the open-source extended dynamic range image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic. Enhancements to XSI Foundation include a new Linux version and increased rendering capabilities.

    Softimage customers who purchased any of the three packages of SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.0 software–Foundation, Essentials and Advanced–can immediately download the upgrade to v.4.2 at www.softimage.com/download.

    New customers can download SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 Foundation for $495, SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 Essentials for $1,995 and SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 Advanced with SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR v.2.0 for $6,995. The various packages are also available at authorized Softimage resellers.

  • Cassavetes to Direct Iron Man

    When you think superhero movies, directors like Sam Rami, Bryan Singer and Tim Burton automatically come to mind. In a surprise move, however, New Line Cinema and Marvel Studios have put their upcoming screen adaptation of Iron Man in the hands of Nick Cassavetes, son of indie legend John Cassavetes and director of The Notebook and the critically acclaimed Sean Penn/John Travolta drama She’s So Lovely. Iron Man is scheduled to hit theaters in 2006.

    Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad (Spider-Man, X-Men) and Angry Films’ Don Murphy are producing Iron Man from a script by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and David Hayter. Marvel and New Line say they will begin casting immediately.

    Based on the long-running comic book series, Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark, a driven inventor and enigmatic heir to the Stark Enterprises fortune. Like most Marvel characters, he leads a double life, commanding his empire by day and at night becoming Iron Man, the living embodiment of decades of defense spending and innovation. With billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art armor and weaponry at his disposal, Stark fights crime, terrorism and corporate espionage, but begins to crack under the strain of his fractured lifestyle.

    Arad comments, “Being able to work with such an acclaimed writer/director as Nick Cassavetes to bring one of our pre-eminent Super Hero franchises to the big screen is really special. Nick grew up reading Iron Man and personally loves the character. He shares our vision of how to bring Iron Man to life in a way that will appeal to a mass audience as well as the core superhero fan base."

    Iron Man marks Marvel’s second big franchise deal with New Line. The two entities previously teamed up to launch the Blade franchise, which continues on Dec. 8 with the release of Blade Trinity, starring Wesley Snipes.

    Cassavetes also has a standing relationship with New Line. This summer he adapted the best-seller The Notebook for the studio and previously directed the 2002 Denzel Washington vehicle, John Q. He is currently in production on the drama Alpha Dog, which features an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone and Emile Hirsch.

    Production president Toby Emmerich is overseeing Iron Man for New Line, along with senior VP of production Stokely Chaffin, VP George Waud and creative exec Jeff Katz. Spearheading the production for Marvel Studios are Kevin Feige and Ari Arad.

    Marvel is also currently in production on the much anticipated adaptation of Fantastic Four, which hits theaters July 1, 2005.

  • e-magiciens Casts Spell in Northern France

    While Americans were celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, young European artists converged on Valenciennes in the north of France for the sixth annual e-magicians festival of European digital creation. The event, organized by the Valenciennes Chamber of commerce and Industry, concluded Friday, Nov. 26 with a best of 2004 animated short film screening and the presentation of awards. The ceremony capped off three days of workshops, meetings, debates, exhibitions and more.

    The "Coups de Cœur" awards this year went to a diverse offering of works from students and other young digital creators from all over Europe. One of the big winners was the bittersweet CG-animated short, Overtime, by Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland and Damien Ferrie, students at Supinfocom in Valenciennes. The five-minute piece has a group of puppets (which look suspiciously like Kermit the Frog) attempting to animate their dead creator. The filmmakers used black and white images and photo-real rendering to tip their hats to the late Jim Henson. The short won the press jury award.

    Another favorite was the beautifully animated and fun CG short, True Color, by Bertrand Bey and Pierre Ducos, students of Supinfocom Arles in the south of France. The piece takes place in an all-white, LEGO-inspired world where some mischievous robots get fed up with the status quo and decide to introduce a little color to the landscape. The seven-minute romp took the Softimage award, while the CANAL + award went to La Migration Bigoudenn by Eric Castaing, Alexandre Heboyan and Fafah Togora from Les Gobelins in London.

    The award for direction was bestowed upon Frédréric Martin from Ecole Emile Cohl in France for his existential Round About, which has a confused motorist trapped on a deserted stretch of road from which he can’t escape. Meanwhile, music and sound kudos went to The Loop by Julie Rancoeur, Emilie Boyard and Charles Blanchard from Supinfocom Arles.

    Scam, the commission of digital art, gave its 2004 award to 1916, a WWI drama created by Fabien Bedouel, an animation student at ENSAD. The short employs stark images and 2D animation to portray the horrors of war and trench warfare in particular. The film also received special mention for direction and sound. Another special mention went to No Limits, a 1:15 children’s rights PSA by Heidi Wittlinger, Anja Perl and Max Stolzenberg from Filmakademie Baden-Wurttenberg in Germany.

    Highlights of the Best of 2004 screening included The Microwave, a hilarious take on popular films set in the microcosmic world of a kitchen. The short was created by Jérémy Passerin. Pierre Lopes, Houtin Benoît and Nhieu François-Xavier from EESA (Ecole Européennne Supérieure d’Animation) in France. Another crowd pleaser was Twin on Speed, Mickaël Sanlaville’s (Ecole Emile Cohl) anime-style, 2D comedy that explores the exciting secret lives of to twin toddlers.

    Another important feature of e-magiciens is the chained animation program, which this year saw eight different teams working on individual parts of a short film to be assembled at the end of the festival. Each team was responsible for producing 10 seconds of 2D or 3D animation that incorporated a single word, which was part of a complete phrase revealed later when all the parts were edited together. The chained animation was done in conjunction with a web jam, which had another set of teams working around the clock for three days to produce interactive websites that offer fun with the alphabet, since Typography was a major theme of the conference.

    e-magiciens is held every year at the Phenix Theater in the northern French city of Valenciennes. More information on the festival can be found at www.e-magiciens.com.

  • Vfx Wiz Rostami to Speak at Art Institute, Calif.

    As part of its 2004 Animation Lecture Series, The Art Institute of California, Los Angeles will host computer animation and visual effects veteran Greg Rostami on Thursday, Dec. 2. The discussion will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Big Room, located at 2900 31st Street in Santa Monica, Calif. Admission is free and open to the public.

    Rostami honed his skills by building miniature X-Wing and Tie Fighters, and designing early computer graphics on such primitive systems as the Radio Shack TRS80, the Apple II, and the Amiga. He created flying logos and other types of animation through his company, Infinate Image. This line of work led him to be an early adapter of Hash’s Animation Journeyman, a spline-based 3D modeling package. He soon caught the attention of Hash, who promptly hired him to demonstrate the software. This also led to work at DreamQuest and other visual effects studios, working on such movies as Batman Forever, Mortal Kombat and Outbreak. Rostami’s talent and skills have also taken him to Disney and EDS Digital Studios. He is now extensively involved with Hash Inc., where he is involved in sales and promotion for its Animation Master software.  

    Rostami’s film credits include: Space Shuttle America, Species, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Heat, Forget Paris, French Kiss, Before and After and Deep Blue Sea. Among his television credits are Unsolved Mysteries, Married with Children, WB promotions and Law and Order.

  • Spider-Man 2 Slings to Home Vid

    Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man today makes his way to your friendly neighborhood video retailer. Sony’s mega-blockbuster sequel netted more than $780 million at the worldwide box office and is sure to set a few records on DVD and VHS as holiday shoppers snatch up the stocking stuffer.

    Tobey Maguire is back in the red-and-blue leotards and Kirsten Dunst returns as his love interest, Mary Jane. Also returning to the cast are James Franco as Peter Parker’s best friend, Harry Osborne, and Rosemary Harris as Aunt May. J.K. Simmons also takes another scene-stealing turn as the crusty, fast-talking J. Jonah Jameson, editor-in-chief of The Daily Bugle. Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead trilogy, Darkman) is back at the helm, turning in a decidedly more personal film than the first Spider-Man. His roots in horror also peek out from time to time as he unleashes the fury of Doc Ock, a classic Spidey villain played brilliantly by Alfred Molina.

    The film has been praised for its digital effects and the sophisticated puppetry involved in bringing Doc Ock to the screen. Sony Pictures Imageworks handled the lion’s share of the work, with Edge FX, Zoic Studios, Entity FX, Pixel Magic, Ring of Fire and Radium all contributing under visual effects supervisors John Dykstra (Spider-Man, Star Wars) and Scott Stokdyk (Spider-Man, Hollow Man).

    The two-disc, widescreen special edition DVD comes complete with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround sound and such extra features as commentary by director Sam Raimi, actor Tobey Maguire, producer Ari Arad and co-producer Grant Curtis. There’s also technical commentary, a "Spidey Sense 2" pop-up trivia track, a blooper reel, four original online featurettes, a music video for Train’s “Ordinary,” a 12-part documentary titled Making the Amazing, the "Ock-umentary" Eight Arms to Hold You, a Peter Parker analysis titled Hero in Crisis, a featurette titled Interwoven: The Women of Spider-Man, a multi-angle look at the making of the film, an art gallery and behind-the-scenes look at the Activision video game.

    Spider-Man 2 is rated PG-13 for stylized action violence. The widescreen special edition lists for $29.96 on DVD. Also available is the Spider-Man 2 Superbit Collection for $29.96, and a special four-disc gift set that includes an exclusive, limited edition portfolio featuring Spider-Man 2-inspired artwork by more than 25 well-known comic book artists. Also included are a postcard collection of Spider-Man 2 artwork, a collectible concept-to-screen comparison portfolio and The Amazing Spider-Man #50 comic book–a reduced-size reprinting of the original edition in which Peter Parker decides to give up being Spider-Man. Fans can pick it up for the suggested retail price of 49.95.

    Spidey isn’t the only superhero returning to video stores today. Mark Steven Johnson’s director’s cut of Daredevil leaps to shelves as well. The film stars Ben Affleck, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau, Joe Pantoliano and Coolio in another page from the Marvel Comics Universe. This edition features twenty minutes of additional footage and commentary by director Johnson and producer Gary Foster. Fans also get a featurette titled Giving the Devil His Due: The Making of Daredevil Director’s Cut. The Fox Home Entertainment release lists for $19.98 on DVD.

    In keeping with the hero theme, Miramax today released its presentation of the Chinese action hit, Hero. Directed by Zhang Yimou, the film stars Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao Ming and Donnie Yen in a multi-layered epic about a nameless warrior who protects an emperor from famous assassins. Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, storyboards and Inside the Action: A Conversation With Quentin Tarantino and Jet Li. The disc lists for $29.99.

  • Harryhausen Disc Set Animates Holiday Frame

    If the Ray Harryhausen fan on your shopping list already has the legendary stop-motion master’s lavishly illustrated autobiography, An Animated Life, another great gift idea is the new five-disc collection Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen: Legendary Science Fiction.

    The Columbia TriStar release includes the timeless favorites First Men in the Moon (1964), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), Mysterious Island (1961) and It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955). These are the films that inspired all of the top visual effects artists working today.

    The set represents a diverse sampling of Harryhausen’s talents. In First Men in the Moon, he tackles Jules Verne with giant caterpillars and creepy-looking, ant-like moon men. Extraterrestrial life takes on another form in 20 Million Miles to Earth, in which an expedition to Venus brings back a creature that grows to monstrous proportions, much like the giant Octopus that attacks the Golden Gate bridge and terrorizes San Francisco in It Came From Beneath the Sea. Harryhausen took a break from animating monsters to bring UFOs to the big screen like never before in the innovative hit Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers.

    Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen: Legendary Science Fiction carries a suggested retail price of $57.95.

  • Toons Thankful for Holiday Weekend

    The long Thanksgiving weekend was good to the handful of animated features in release at North American theaters. All three held onto top-five spots with a couple even getting big boosts. Most remarkable is the 73% spike enjoyed by Sony’s The Polar Express, a $170 million gamble that suffered a disappointing opening. The digital Tom Hanks vehicle gathered enough steam to pull in more than $27 million, bringing its cumulative take to a healthy $82 million. The quickly approaching Christmas frame should also shovel some much-needed coal into the pic’s furnace.

    While Buena Vista’s vfx-laden action/adventure romp, National Treasure, scored the biggest bounty with $46 million, Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles went up 25% from last weekend, holding onto second place with an estimated 5-day take of $33.2 milllion. The superhero toon has earned a super $214 million since opening four weeks ago.

    The Sony/Revolution Studios holiday comedy, Christmas with the Cranks, debuted at No. 3, jingling all the way to the bank with an estimated $32 million, despite abysmal reviews. Also panned by critics, The Oliver Stone-directed Warner Bros. historical epic, Alexander, disappointed studio execs with a lackluster $21.6 million since Wednesday, bowing at No. 6.

    The only animated entry to take a hit during the Thanksgiving frame is Nickelodeon Movies’ and Paramount’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which dipped about 27% with $23.4 million. Still, the film managed to hang in at No. 5 having made nearly double its production budget after only two weeks. The hit comedy has earned $58 million so far and should also prove leggy through the Christmas season.

  • Godzilla Gets Star in Hollywood

    Tokyo may be tired of being trampled by it’s prehistoric tormentor, but Hollywood loves the big green guy. Godzilla, the star of more than two dozen movies and a cartoon series, today got his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

    The star ceremony was just one of many events held this year to celebrate Godzilla’s 50th birthday. The fire-breathing, radioactive dinosaur first exploded on the big screen in 1954 with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which was recently restored and re-released in select theaters.

    The Big G has continued for decades to thrill audiences worldwide with a satisfying blend of camp and catastrophe. The latest film in the franchise, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., premiered in the U.S. over the summer. Fans are now looking forward to the next and supposedly final installment (for at least a decade) in Toho’s long-running film series. In Godzilla: Final Wars, the title terrible lizard will have another go at nearly every monster he’s battled in the past. Word has it he’s even going to take on his computer-generated version.

    While Godzilla has traditionally been played by a man in a big rubber suit, he got a CG makeover for Roland Emmerich’s and Dean Devlin’s ill-received 1998 U.S. remake. Though that effort flopped, Toho’s rubber Godzilla has continued to build a dedicated cult audience. The American Cinematheque, for one, regularly draws crowds for sell-out screenings of new and classic Godzilla films at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

    Fans are hoping Godzilla: Final Wars will get some theatrical distribution in the U.S., and perhaps all the 50th birthday attention will entice a distributor to give it at least a limited run. The film is slated to open in Japan in December.