Animation says anything goes

This year, the festival incorporates student work and big name animators' movies for two hours of entertainment.

The second annual animation mini festival will have one big difference from last year's: student work.

"Last year went really, really well … there were 125 student attendees and 25 participants in the kids' workshop," said Cable Hardin, assistant professor of visual arts.

This year, the festival will show around a dozen animated short movies. "Some shorts are highlights from the Ottawa Film Festival. There are shorts by Bill Plympton, Pat Smith (who spoke on campus last year) and PES, who does stop motion," said Hardin.

Shorts, as Hardin said, are one to ten minute movies. Hardin said he chose films from animation outlets that are aware of new animation. Some examples include the Ottawa Animation Festival, independent animators and students.

Three students who have their work in the festival are Isaac Windham, Lynette Lobien and Corey Beffert.

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Avid exits 3-D animation business

Avid Technology is exiting the 3-D computer animation market.

The company is selling its Softimage 3-D software business to Autodesk for an estimated $35 million. It may close the deal by year's end.

About 90 Avid employees who worked on the Softimage business will join Autodesk with the closure of the deal. An additional 410 layoffs are expected at Avid. The combined 500 staffers represent a reduction of nearly 20% of Avid's workforce, which the company said would "better align its cost structure around the core businesses" of video and audio.

Softimage's XSI is one of three key 3-D software programs used in entertainment production. The two others -- Maya and 3ds max -- already are owned by Autodesk, which controls the bulk of the market.

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Pixar Animation Goes to Poland

In the forthcoming months, animation fans based in Poland will have the chance to see all of Pixar Animation Studios' theatrical shorts on free-tv. In a series of broadcast deals signed within the past week, Disney-ABC-ESPN Television has come to an agreement with TVP (Poland) to air Pixar's fourteen animated shorts, in addition to other, live-action Disney Channel properties. Disney-ABC-ESPN Television is the content distribution group of The Walt Disney Co. which is chiefly centered on facilitating international television programming.

Poland's TVP, a public broadcasting station, has acquired the rights to air each of the fourteen Pixar theatrical shorts. Titles picked up naturally include the supernatural Driver's Ed tale of "Lifted" (2006), which tracks the humorous experience of a young alien student whose knack for flying a flying saucer isn't yet perfected; and "For the Birds" (2000), whose elegant and fluid portrayal of the perils of birds perched on telephone wires is indeed made of the stuff of theatrical cartoons past.

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Avid exits 3-D animation business

Avid Technology is exiting the 3-D computer animation market.

The company is selling its Softimage 3-D software business to Autodesk for an estimated $35 million. It may close the deal by year's end.

About 90 Avid employees who worked on the Softimage business will join Autodesk with the closure of the deal. An additional 410 layoffs are expected at Avid. The combined 500 staffers represent a reduction of nearly 20% of Avid's workforce, which the company said would "better align its cost structure around the core businesses" of video and audio.

Softimage's XSI is one of three key 3-D software programs used in entertainment production. The two others -- Maya and 3ds max -- already are owned by Autodesk, which controls the bulk of the market.

"Softimage is not a strategic fit for our business," said Gary Greenfield, who was named CEO of Avid in December.

Avid bought Softimage from Microsoft in 1998 for $285 million in cash and stock.

Softimage is headquartered in Montreal, where Autodesk's Media and Entertainment business also is headquartered.

On Thursday, Avid reported revenue of $217.1 million for the three-month period ended Sept. 30, compared with $226.8 million for the same period in 2007.

Source : http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

Animation boom!

Animation has come a long way, from the early phenakistoscope device of the 1800s to today’s photo-realistic, computer-generated, three-dimensional (3D) graphics.

Disney Productions’ early 2D animation film "Steamboat Willie" in the late 1920s was already considered revolutionary for animators then. But today, CGI (computer-generated imagery) animation continues to soar as the new standard in film animation.

This continuously evolving art form has captivated the imagination of new generations of artists, most especially Filipinos. Today’s young generation grew up either reading comics or watching cartoons, or both, and this may have influenced young Filipinos’ inclination towards the cartoon industry.

In the comics industry for example, publishing companies like Marvel Comics hire Filipino artists to draw for their famous comic pages. Because of the growth of the digital film and gaming industries, Filipinos are again tapped to be one of the prime professionals in the industry.

And now experts are making a big pronouncement, that in a few years from now, digital arts, animation in particular will be the next big thing. "Ang forecast is next to Nursing, magbu-boom ang digital arts in the next 10 years, mainly because of the films and gaming industry," explains digital artist and 3D animation instructor Peter Honrade.

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Cartoon mania: Fox champions its animation hits

By now, a generation of TV viewers takes this for granted: Most Sundays nights, Fox has cartoons for grown-ups. And around Halloween, it has “Treehouse of Horror.”
Now “Treehouse” is back. It “airs Nov. 2, which is when we celebrate Halloween in our house,” jokes producer Al Jean.

That slight delay is due to the World Series. When “Treehouse” arrives, it dares to give “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” a dark twist.

“The Great Pumpkin comes to life and he’s so upset at what humans do to pumpkins that he tries to kill and eat everybody,” Jean says.

Hey, that sort of thing happens in “Treehouse.” Since these are just tales, anything is possible. This time, Homer kills celebrities; also, he ends up as a piece of a giant foosball game. All of that is part of a TV tradition. People might forget how unique such shows were.

“Everyone in the dorms would get together to watch ’The Simpsons,“’ recalls Mike Barker, now an “American Dad” producer. “It was a form of community.”

It was also just about the only TV show he watched. When a friend, Matt Weitzman, asked him to co-write a TV script on speculation, Barker says:

“I basically admitted, ‘I don’t watch a lot of television, so I don’t think I’m going to be very useful to you.’

“And he’s like, ‘Well, what if we wrote a ‘Simpsons’”?

They did and got work. After writing regular situation comedies for a while, they’ve spent the past eight years doing “Family Guy,” “Father of the Pride” and “American Dad.”

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‘Roadside Romeo’ marks new animated beginning in Bollywood boulevard

New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) With reigning romantic couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor lending their voices in the big-budget Disney co-production ‘Roadside Romeo’, Hindi cinema’s big daddy Yash Chopra adds a glamorous touch to the hitherto niche genre of animation with his first venture in the field.

‘Roadside Romeo’, which marks the entry of the Hollywood giant in Indian cinema in the avatar of a co-producer, is the most-hyped animated film to hit the theatres in this part of the world.

‘Roadside Romeo’ is getting released on a Diwali weekend, which is traditionally reserved for heavy-duty productions as the festive season guarantees big box-office gains. It is also a time when audiences expect nothing but the best of cinema, which is as much a religion in India as is cricket.

‘If industry old-horse Yash Chopra has chosen an animated feature as his best product fit to be released during the holiday season, then it is even more confirmation that animators are the newest stars of Bollywood,’ says a trade analyst.

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Admissions open for Specialisation in Animation

Graphiti School of Animation opens admissions for it's 6-month specialization course in animation called G CAT Expert.

Graphiti School of Animation is conducting counselling session and opens admissions for it's specialisation course.

The 6-month specialisation is targeted primarily at people who have some knowledge of animation and are looking for honing their skills or furthering their careers.

The specialisations are Modelling, Texturing, Rigging, Animation, Lighting and VFX & Compositing.

As per the requirement of animation industry various
studios are clearly identifying the need of specialisation in animation training. Many studios are shown requirements for specialised trained artist and are ready to pay a premium for the specialised students.

As per nasscom, to sustain the project growth, the training institutes should start offering specialisation courses in their training.

According to the heads of studios employing Graphiti School students, 'There is a marked difference in quality - the students are well-rounded animation professionals with their basics in place.'

According to Mr. Pandyan, CEO, Graphiti School of Animation, 'Given the requirement of the industry, we were the first training institute to offer specialisation courses. We got a very good response for the first batch of students'.

For information log onto www.graphiti.net. To register, call 022-32448544 / 9833841580 or write to training@graphiti.net

Source : http://www.pr-inside.com/

Agreement signed to expand animation education in India

New Delhi: An agreement has been signed between Frameboxx Animation & Visual Effects, an animation training institute, and Seneca College of Applied arts & Technology, Canada to offer post-graduate degree certificate programmes in animation, visual effects and gaming.

Seneca College of Applied arts & Technology is situated in Toronto and is internationally recognized for its leading edge training in 3D Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects.

The first batch of the programmes is scheduled to start from January 2009.

A world-wide attention was given to the centre in 2005 when work done in its facility by its faculty, students and graduates was showcased in the Oscar-winning animated short film Ryan.

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Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang: Movie Review

Voices of: Anjan Srivastava, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Asrani

Rating: * ½

Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang derives its title from an English flick but nothing else about this film appears international. For how long will we give sympathy votes to Indian films for attempting animation? Agreed that the art is still evolving in India, but if nothing from the form or format appeals, I ain't patriotic enough to approve of the effort only because it's experimental. Moreover with access to advanced animation movies across the globe, one simply can't excuse this muddled endeavour. Rather overlook it in entirety!

The story is about two rival groups of ants and you obviously don't expect the animation to be as enhanced as decade-old Hollywood flicks like Antz or A Bug's Life. But what bugs you off is that the storytelling doesn't show much innovation either. The black ants and red ants are at war and one mediator named Ghunn (seemingly a termite) double-crosses both kingdoms for his personal gains. The river-separated rival setting is as age-old as Subhash Ghai's Saudagar and what's more - the kids of the combating kingdoms are also in love.

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TeleToon to become Marvel Animation's home in Canada

Mumbai: TeleToon Canada Inc. and Marvel Animation have inked a multi-year output deal that sees TeleToon become the home of Marvel Animation in Canada.

Beginning in spring 2009, a broad spectrum of Marvel animated series will air on TeleToon networks in both English and French. The agreement sees Marvel deliver a minimum of 182 episodes of first-run animation for broadcast and includes rights for additional platforms including broadband, video-on-demand, mobile and other online opportunities.

"Super heroes have always been key demo winners on TeleToon. This partnership with Marvel is central to building our dominance with boys and attracting more young adults who have grown up with the Marvel Universe," said TeleToon Canada Inc. president Len Cochrane.

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Government to establish animation centre

The Indian government has announced plans to establish a visual effects and animation training center for aspiring artists.

The centre is slated to receive an RS 50 crore grant from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Additional funding will be provided by a future stakeholding partner. The government has also allocated Rs 6.5 crore for the National Film Development Corporation and designated an additional Rs 48 crore towards the rennovation of Satyajit Ray film and television institute.

The Indian 3D market has been rapidly expanding at a frenetic pace. NASSCOM figures indicate that New Delhi may receive projects totalling more than $2 billion over the next two years. As IT Examiner previously reported, Pixar and Maximus have embarked on a joint programme to offer RenderMan animation training courses in the country. Autodesk has also launched its own professional certification program in 135 locations.

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NFB To Celebrate Wordl Animation Day

The National Film Board is celebrating World Animation Day - October 28 - with a 13-city tour of Get Animated!, a series of free public screenings from the NFB's Oscar-winning animation studios.

The NFB is also offering free streaming of two acclaimed NFB shorts on its website through to November 9, 2008.

Get Animated! will showcase new creations from Canada's public producer, for young and old, from October 22 to November 9, 2008. The NFB website provides complete details, along with free streaming video of NFB animated shorts, at nfb.ca/getanimated.

After celebrating the 65th anniversary of NFB animation, National Film Board studios have found a fresh burst of energy, producing works that have garnered international acclaim, including a record-setting 70th Academy Award nomination last year -- more than any production company or organization outside Hollywood -- as well as awards across Canada and around the world. Get Animated! is part of a broader commitment at Canada's public producer and distributor to ensure that Canadians from coast to coast have access to outstanding NFB productions.

Get Animated! free screenings will take place in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, as well as five communities served by the NFB's pioneering e-cinema network for francophone Acadian communities, in Moncton, Bouctouche, Caraquet, Edmundston and Kedgwick, New Brunswick.

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Animation at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival

The stateside festival circuit for films produced domestically or abroad continues to wind its way across the nation as the fall season approaches. For moviegoers located in the midwest, the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) may occupy a few weeks of their time, as the 44th installment of the wide-ranging festival gets underway come mid-October 2008. Although not particularly devoted to the animation arts, the Chicago International Film Festival nevertheless features multiple screenings of quality feature-length and short form cartoon filmmaking that every animation enthusiast should see.

This year, the CIFF is bringing its usual small but powerful line-up of animated presentations for viewers to feast upon; titles produced mostly by independent animators. Films such as Bill Plympton's soul-searching dark humorist tale of Idiots & Angels (2008) and Nina Paley's fun but emotionally sensitive endeavor Sita Sings the Blues (2008), are currently on the bill alongside other intriguing items.

Although the Chicago International Film Festival appears to no longer have in place its "Anime Focus" program--which in the past has spotlighted a handful of insightful Japanese animation productions such as Hosoda's dramatic film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)--the film does still have a single anime title on its schedule, called ICE (2007). The festival itself lasts two weeks, from October 16th through the 29th

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MyToons Launches Animation Contest for Political Cartoons

MyToons today announced the launch of its latest artwork and animation contest, Red, White, and Who?

Focusing on the funny aspects of the political arena, Red, White, and Who? invites artists and animators worldwide to upload their political creations and share in a little positive reprieve from this year's election battlefield between Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin and Democrats Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

"Politics are a serious business and one that should be closely monitored and constantly questioned," says Paul Ford, president and co-founder of MyToons.

"Of course, there's no reason that we can't do what animators do best and have a little fun while we keep those politicians in check!

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Fatkat Animation Studios fined for software piracy

Fatkat Animation Studios in Miramichi, N.B., has been fined $36,000 for software piracy.

The commercial animation and graphics studio was among five companies fined under the Canadian Copyright Act after an investigation by the Business Software Alliance.

The alliance conducts investigations into alleged under-licensing of software. That's a form of copyright infringement, which sees a single copy of software used to install a program on multiple computers without proper authorization.

Internal audits revealed Fatkat ran unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Autodesk programs.

Fatkat Animation's founder Gene Fowler said the infringement by his company was due to an oversight.

"Somebody that wasn’t very experienced was perhaps purchasing or installing the software, and they got themselves in the position where they weren’t licensed properly. It does happen," Fowler said Wednesday.

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FatKat attracts other animation company

A small animation company has been attracted to the Miramichi from Ontario by the prospect of freelance work with FatKat Animation Studios, its founders say.

Black Willow Digital, a two-person company made up of two graduates from the animation program at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ont, moved to Miramichi in September.

One of the animators, Tim Martin, said the company initially planned to set up in Windsor, but the economy in that city was moving in another direction. They then applied to FatKat to do in-house freelance work on the studio's show "Three Delivery," and moved to Miramichi soon after to be "closer to the source."

He said Black Willow's dealings with FatKat had been good so far.

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Bollywood to be a part of global animation phenomena

It does come as a surprise to hear Indian character names like Charlie Anna resonate through the iconic Walt Disney headquarters in Burbank, CaliforYash Raj Films-Walt Disney's
guffaw when what one would imagine is typical ‘Mumbaiiya’ lingo spoken with a heavy South Indian accent say, “Tension Not, I Yam the Boss.”

But then Bollywood is the name of the game in the hushed portals of big Hollywood studios since the last few years. Each holds a long-term view and every possible research report is being done. In a nutshell, all the mind-boggling figures and research point out that the only way to ensure an Indian eyeball is to get him to the movies, if not to a game of cricket.

But, mind you, Indian movies for Hollywood, through all these years, are still at the low end of the revenue pie, even with all the languages they are now dubbed in. This, paradoxically, is also the reason why they have headed to Indian shores - some with JVs, some with tie-ups - trying to see if they can tap the right local talent and nurture it to grow as a good, sustainable entertainment business in India.

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Animation training institutes fail to produce talent

PUNE: Ramesh Patil, a college dropout, was picked up by an animation studio two years ago and was trained for six months. He now works as part of its core character designing team. Alongside him sits Venkatesh Rao, who spent five years in a fine arts course before the studio hired him. Jaideep Singh, on the other hand, enrolled in a twenty-month, Rs 2 lakh course, and is still jobless, in spite of the animation training institute having promised him placement.

Ramesh, Venkatesh and Jaideep (names changed) represent the workforce in the animation industry. The contradiction is that new training institutes are opening almost every other week just as many studios have either closed down or have laid off artists over the past two years.

Four years ago, there were 640 animation studios across the country. This number is now down to around 300, with UTV Toons being the latest to do so. Sources claim that Reliance ADAG-owned Big Animation recently laid-off a sizeable number of its pre-production artists.

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