Village Gamer

Toon Boom Animation Inc. and California-based Bento Box Entertainment (“BBE”) have combined their expertise to develop an exclusive and state-of-the-art digital animation production pipeline uniquely designed for Bento Box’s production on prime-time animated television series, among them Bob’s Burgers, Allen Gregory, and the upcoming new series Brickleberry, Out There, and The Awesomes, as well as multiple Network prime-time animation pilots. The all-digital global workflow methodology set up under the arrangement is on the industry’s cutting edge, and Toon Boom and BBE will be promoting the innovative pipeline and processes to other studios around the world that could potentially benefit from this customized methodology. Read the rest of this entry »

Emmy® Award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. the market leader in animation technology, announced today its support of the MIPJunior first International Pitch Competition targeted to creatives, producers and decision-makers from all sectors of the kids’ entertainment business. Read the rest of this entry »

Online kids’ channel Toon Goggles, an innovative free portal that provides valuable viewing data to content producers, has signed an agreement with Malaysia-based Backbone Entertainment to bring two of the animation studio’s premier properties to Toon Goggles’ growing library of content. The agreement sees two of Backbone’s animated programs, 13 episodes of “Sugar Pals” and 13 Episodes of “Stryker,” now being available to Toon Goggles audiences throughout the US and Canada. Read the rest of this entry »

DHX Media Ltd. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the business of Cookie Jar Entertainment to create Canada’s largest children’s entertainment company. The combined company will own the world’s most extensive independent library of children’s entertainment, including more than 8,550 half hour episodes.  The transaction implies an enterprise value for Cookie Jar of $111 million, to be paid through a combination of approximately 36 million DHX shares, $5 million in cash, and the assumption of $66 million of debt. Read the rest of this entry »

Astral’s Disney Junior embarks on a colossal adventure with the premiere of the Canadian original series Justin Time on Sunday, September 16 at 8:30 a.m. ET. Showcasing friendship, teamwork and imaginative storytelling, Justin and his pals, Olive and Squidgy, star in the biggest adventures of all time told from every corner of the world. Viewers can catch a sneak peek on Saturday, September 8 at 9:50 a.m. ET, following the 45-minute Handy Manny special “Firefighter Manny.” Read the rest of this entry »

DHX Media Ltd. has licensed the fourth season of its popular series Martha Speaks to British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, with the broadcaster also acquiring the headline preschool show Rastamouse for its Canadian channel, BBC Kids. Read the rest of this entry »

Side Effects Software, a Toronto-based developer of 3D animation and visual effects software, is proud to announce new prices for Houdini designed to facilitate growth within the Houdini global community, simplified branding for the two Houdini workstation products and integration with the Orbolt™ Smart Asset Store to give Houdini artists access to the combined knowledge of the whole community. Read the rest of this entry »

Emmy® Award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc., a Montreal-based animation technology developer, is proud to announce the release of Toon Boom Harmony 10 at SIGGRAPH 2012 in Los Angeles, at Booth #1030. This new version delivers all the benefits that a 64-bit engine brings to your hardware, namely overall enhanced performance, a much faster user interface and interactive playback, as well as the ability to render projects and images in 2K, 4K, 8K and more. In addition, the 64-bit engine amplifies Harmony’s unique capabilities related to pencil line technology with textures, deformation tools, particles and 2D-3D integration. Read the rest of this entry »

Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) and Sony Pictures Animation (SPA), celebrating 20^th and 10^th anniversaries, respectively, will feature their renowned stable of effects and animation talent August 7 in special “behind the scenes” presentations of blockbuster live-action hits Men in Black 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man and the highly-anticipated animated feature film Hotel Transylvania during SIGGRAPH 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. Read the rest of this entry »

Rainmaker Entertainment Inc. is pleased to announce that the previously announced proposed sale of certain assets comprising substantially all of Rainmaker’s animation studio assets to Rainmaker Studios Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xing Xing Digital Corporation, was approved by 99.91% of the votes cast in person or by proxy at the special meeting of the Rainmaker’s shareholders held yesterday afternoon. The Transaction, which is expected to close during the fall, remains conditional upon, among other things, the receipt of all required regulatory approvals.