At once a clever publicity angle, deftly rendered, and a tale in itself of a backroom boy who never grew up, but found fame as a weird laugh and a plush toy.
As the industry grows happily - 'an extra two lakh of jobs by 2010' - local animators are complaining that Indian animation is being outsourced to other countries.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, parachuted into Singapore with a squad of heavies to tell the 3D conference that "In five to seven years, all films, regardless of budgets or type, will be made in 3-D."
It was like watching democracy at work: totally confusing much of the time, with little chance of seeing a clear result and all likely to change in three years' time.
So, Kevin, Iron Man did pretty well. What shall we do next? Well, Ari, how about Iron Man 2? Sounds like a great idea. Catchy title. How's Robert feel about it? He's up for it. Great! Let's get him back in the suit, then. Houston, we have a problem.
Happy Feet 2 will be made in Sydney – it’s now official – with a nice payroll tax incentive. The big news, though, is that they will be building a new digital production facility.
According to Joseph Olin, whatever time of day you're reading this, over two million people around the world are online, playing Call of Duty 4. Keith Barclay covers the international Animfx conference in Wellington.
Back in the real world away from SPAA. Tina Kaufman tracks the disquiet among documentary filmmakers about Screen Australia's new directions. The news for the bureaucracy is Not So Good.
No faster on the planet. Faster than a speeding bullet. Batteries not included. Seriously, its ' the world's fastest 3D accelerator for remote graphics visualization and rendering'.
It looks like West Australia’s City of Bunbury might have stuffed up its deal with Alan Lindsay’s Vue DC. The development would have seen Bunbury house the WA end of a major international render farm facility.
Pirated videos on MySpace won't be removed - an annoying and tricky process. Instead, ads will be put on them automatically. Mind you, if they make a mistake, they get to profit from your content. What's that? My baby was born in a Chrysler? Zounds!
Pay television operator Showtime Australia (SHOWTIME, SHOWTIME +2, showcase and SHOWTIME Greats) has signed up Pilat Media to handle the licensing, implementation and maintenance of its Integrated Broadcast Management System (content programming, channel management and commercial traffic operations), on the new .Net-based IBMS. Work on the project has already commenced.
The Canadian Origin camera, a digital cine-camera contender from Dalsa, has been discontinued and the guts licensed to german company Arnold & Richter Cine Technik GmbH. (Vivitar has been bought too, for those who care about its fine lenses.)
Yes, Phillips is starting to build large screen HD TV's in 3D with the lenticular screens replacing glasses. Only one small problem: they make viewers vomit. The manufacturer reckons that directors should simply learn to restrain themselves - a plea which has never worked before.
