World of Hosers

Hhmm... Seems like MediaCaster Magazine may have jumped to conclusions about the Animax partnership with RocketOn. They connect a few dots about Animax and the upcoming "Bob & Doug" animated TV show featuring the McKenzie Brothers made famous by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis when in the article they posit: "Bob & Doug sipping a virtual brewski in a great white Web world?"

Or maybe they saw this placeholder site... World of Hosers - the first ever virtual world focused on the favorite pasttime of Bob & Doug McKenzie.

Animax & RocketOn

Animax announced at the Virtual Worlds Expo that we've partnered with RocketOn to produce and develop parallel virtual worlds. Read the coverage in Animation Magazine and Kidscreen.

Animax Wins Four Creativity Awards

Animax won four awards in the 38th Annual Creativity Awards, including two Platinum level awards. The wins included client work for the Ad Council and SocialVibe as well as wins for self-promotional material. Congrats team!

Virtual Worlds News & Other Press

Animax's announcement of the launch of KID KONCEPTS has been picked up by a few different news outlets.

• Virtual World News
• Worlds in Motion
  

KID KONCEPTS

Leading up to next week's Virtual Worlds Expo in Los Angeles that we are sponsoring, Animax announced the launch of its new KID KONCEPTS initiative. Read the press release.

KID KONCEPTS leverages Animax's expertise in entertainment and virtual world development, in order to simplify the complexity most brands face with getting into virtual worlds. This includes creative scoping, positioning, core functionality, site differentiation, business model development and financial modeling. Animax helps clients determine the business case, investment and launch plans for entertainment, toy, confection, publishing and other kid-focused brands interested in developing a presence in virtual worlds.

KID KONCEPTS was founded on the success of Animax's work in building kids virtual worlds from the ground up, developing components for existing worlds, and ongoing world maintenance. Currently, Animax has multiple KID KONCEPTS clients with virtual worlds scheduled to launch Q2 & Q3 of 2009.

Virtual Worlds Expo Sponsor

Animax is a sponsoring the upcoming Virtual Worlds Expo here in sunny Los Angeles. We'll have a table in the expo area - booth 117 so feel free to drop by.

Keep Oceans Clean Again

Animax helped out the Ad Council again on the Keep Oceans Clean website. This time around we added an ecard maker to help further generate viral buzz and interest through social networking, more animation, and more links to the new PSAs featuring Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Read the full press release from the Ad Council.

Seattle Casual Connect

Animax is a Bronze Sponsor of the upcoming Casual Connect Seattle 2008 event. So if you are looking for a development house to work with to produce casual games, virtual worlds or MMOs, look no further than Animax. Please contact us to set up a meeting.

Official Animax & McKenzie Brothers Release

Animax Entertainment issued a spanking new press release on the upcoming Bob & Doug McKenzie animated series and the recent announcement about Fox joining on board the TV pilot. Check out the trailer.

Bob & Doug & Fox

The Hollywood Reporter got it kinda right. Yes, a pilot of Bob & Doug McKenzie is being produced. Canada's Global TV was the first to come to the table ordering up 15 episodes (not 13). Now, Fox Broadcasting is on board with the pilot and a possible series commitment as well. Animax Entertainment developed the Flash animated show Bob & Doug - it's a property that we've been working on for awhile and to finally see it taking shape in such a big way is truly rewarding.

CTO, MMO, OMG!

Animax issued a press release about Sabri Sansoy joining the team as CTO and a few different outlets picked it up. Nice:

• Virtual World News
• Massively
• Gamasutra
• Paid Content
• GameDaily
• and many others
  

Speaking and Hiring at FITC Hollywood

FITC Hollywood 2007 is being held at the Hilton in Universal City and Animax Entertainment employees and alumni are speaking at it. This Sunday, October 21st, a Flash Animation Workshop is being hosted by Tim Jones, Barry Kelly, Al Rosson and Dave Wolfe, authors of the upcoming book Foundation Flash Animation Techniques. The 10-5 session is a pre-festival workshop that will walk "step-by-step through a “typical” Flash animation project, giving you hands-on experience at each phase of the production." Tickets are $199 and $125 for students.

Animax will also be hiring in full force - we are looking for ActionScript programmers (especially AS3) and game developers.

First-Ever Original Fundraising Videogame

Animax leads the charge on another first. Who said video games are bad for kids? We've been creative lead on the first ever downloadable casual game that doubles as a fundraiser for our all-time favorite client: Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. Here's more from the press release...

Starlight Starbright Produces First-ever Original Fundraising Videogame: The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures

Expected to Launch 4Q, Starlight Starbright's Charity Challenge Breaks New Fundraising Ground to Benefit its Seriously Ill Children and Family Members

Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation® is pleased to announce the development of The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures: Starlight Starbright Charity Challenge, a casual videogame that pairs having a good time with doing good. A first-of-its-kind fundraising initiative, Starlight has partnered with Legacy Interactive®, a leader in games for the mass market, on the game's development and publishing.

Dave Thomas and his comedy team at Emmy Award-winning studio, Animax Entertainment, developed the game's original script and characters. In 4Q 2007, Starlight will invite people from around the world to play the game and help lift the spirits of seriously ill children and their families in this novel way.

"The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures is a high-quality, engaging game that stands out among other casual games on the market," said Ariella Lehrer, President of Legacy Interactive. "The experience that we have created for the benefit of Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation is truly unique." Click here to read the full press release.

The Cold Hard Truth

We're in Cold Hard Flash again - and we didn't even know about the AdAge article - Off-Mikes is on the iPhone!

Hummer Fuels 4th Season of Off Mikes
By Aaron Simpson(Aaron Simpson)
The series, which is animated by Culver City-based Animax Entertainment, has already earned two Emmy nominations and one win. This season features a new cast member - Hummer. The auto maker is sponsoring the 4th season ...

Animation Magazine Articles Us!

In Animation Magazine's SIGGRAPH issue there is a nice article about Animax Entertainment. You can get a sneak of it here. A few corrections:

• We won the Emmy last year. This year we were nominated again but we didn't win.
• We haven't opened up in Van Nuys yet - we are desperately seeking 10,000 sqft of space so if you have some in your backyard, let us know.
  
• Michael's last name is Bellavia not Begroskjlsi - the print edition supposedly butchers it.
  
• They left out that we are super duper people.
• There were other items that shouldn't have been in the article but we can't really talk about what those items are and why they shouldn't have been in there but trust us when we say they shouldn't have been.
  

And by the way if you're at SIGGRAPH - we'll be there too tomorrow so hunt us down.

More Good News

The press coverage on Off-Mikes and Animax keeps on coming. The latest write-up and digital ink comes courtesy of AWN - Animation World Network.

Animax in Cynopsis

Wow, Cynopsis has nice things to say about Animax and our work on Off-Mikes.

I SPOT ANIMAX

Shoot Magazine just ran an article on Animax's work on the Dippin' Dots mashup tool. Very nice. And top billing in the email blast that went out. So get out there and make your own animated movie!

Animax is Flashed, Cold and Hard

ColdHardFlash covered the Animax Entertainment Emmy news. Thanks, Aaron.

Adweek on Animax

Adweek wrote an article about viral buzz marketing and included Animax Entertainment and TCS's campaign for Kodak - InkIsIt.com - to support the launch of their new all-in-one inkjet printers. While Adweek didn't include the "Ink Is It" campaign url (drats!), it was nice that they included our efforts.

Love and Kisses and Shrugs

Everyone's got an opinion about InkIsIt.com. The ad trade press has started covering it and the thoughts are pouring in about the site. Here's a sampling of the links - the good, the bad, and the ugly (yes, some bloggers are just downright ugly. That's why they're bloggers instead of talk show hosts like the stunningly camera-friendly Max & Nathan.)

• Ads of the World - nice spread
• MIT Ad Genius At Large - smart people are hot!
• Laboratory101 - this guy gets it. we feel his pain.
• Jim Lyons - we made this man smile
• The Ad Feed - our site in lights
  
• Adverblog - the answer to her question is: yes. Her sense of humor expired around the same time she chose the didactic name for her blog.
  

Animax Entertainment in AdAge

Animax Entertainment is in a front page article in today's edition of AdAge for the work we've been doing on InkIsIt.com http://www.InkIsIt.com for Kodak to support the launch of their new line All-In-One Printers. The Ink Is It campaign is an intentionally grassroots effort to get the word out. Spread the link around!