CG Today - Animation News

New Santa Monica Studio Marks Next Phase of Growth for Bicoastal Production Company

Stardust Production CompanyTo keep up with its growing roster and capabilities, bi-coastal production company Stardust recently moved its west coast office into new Santa Monica, CA headquarters. The 8,000 square foot studio is set up for both animation and production to accommodate Stardust's expanding team of directors, animators, producers and designers.

Moonscoop LogoMoonscoop, the worldwide brand management and entertainment company representing properties from some of the leading animation producers across the globe, is pleased to announce production on a brand new live action and 3D version of its animated hit Code Lyoko with co-production partners France Television and Canal J. The new season, which is the fifth in the series, will bring 26x26’ new episodes to fans of the show.

Lionel Marty, President, Worldwide Distribution at Moonscoop said: “Bringing Code Lyoko to life in live action mixed with 3D is an exciting new development as the series progresses into season five. The new dimension brings a wealth of new possibilities to the show’s direction, plus new events and emotions for the characters. We are also committed to providing the strongest online presence for season five, ensuring that for the first time Code Lyoko is accessible around the globe 24/7.”

Creative Reel Honors Inspiring Animated Work from Animation Mentor Students Around the World

Animation mentor - Student Showcase 2011Animation Mentor, the leading online character animation school created by animators for animators, has released "Student Showcase 2011: Back to Basics" featuring creative work from its students around the world. Fans of the Student Showcase will definitely note a different look. Unlike past showcase editions, this year's Student Showcase is a compilation of work that goes back to the basics of character animation. The 2011 showcase has been purposely stripped of all layers, backdrops and textures — thereby shining the spotlight squarely on the character animation. The overall effect pays homage to 1920s Hollywood — a time when the character was truly king.

Warner Bros. Animation Announces Three New 3D Theatrical Cartoon Shorts; Two of the Original Films Feature Voice Recordings Made by Mel Blanc

Looney Tunes“Thufferin thuccotash!” Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner will all return to theaters in three original Looney Tunes 3D theatrical cartoon shorts produced by Warner Bros. Animation and directed by Matthew O’Callaghan (Coyote Falls). Two of the new shorts — Daffy’s Rhapsody and I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat — will feature the voice of the late, great Mel Blanc. The legendary actor/comedian known as The Man of a Thousand Voices brought to life some of the most revered characters in animation history during a celebrated career spanning six decades. Blanc will appear in the shorts — which are created using state-of-the-art CG animation and rendered in stereoscopic 3D — via original songs he recorded in character in the 1950s.

NVIDIA GPU Technology ConferenceNVIDIA announced today that the third annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC), the world's most important event showcasing breakthroughs in computational science with the GPU (graphics processing unit), will be held at San Jose's McEnery Convention Center from May 14-17, 2012.

Los Alamos National Laboratory's co-located Accelerated High Performance Computing (HPC) Symposium will move to the same week, as will the new InPar 2012 academic conference, geared towards providing a first-tier venue for peer-reviewed publications in the field of innovative parallel computing.

A new online resource for attendees of GTC 2012, and entire GPU computing community, also went live today at http://www.gputechconf.com. The site is a year-round resource, featuring details of all keynotes, technical sessions and events, conference scheduling tools, social media resources and much more.