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Award-winning director, animator and author Tony White regularly answers student questions on animation in Imagine magazine. Here's his latest.

➔ Can you say something about ‘weight’ in animation? It is not dealt with much in books.
The creation of weight in animation is something that is a challenge to most animators. Weight is not an easy quality to define but there are essential, core rules and principles we can add to your animation which make everything you do more convincing.
There is not a lot of space to cover everything here but let us at least consider a few of them. Fig 01.

This summer animators in Birmingham and beyond are being challenged to animate their own short to one of several comedy clips by established comics such as Joey Page, Markus Birdman and Ian Cognito.

The Great Animation Challenge, a yearly contest for up and coming animators run by Animation Forum West Midlands and Wolverhampton’s Flip Animation Festival, will be awarding an Apple or Adobe-accredited training course at NTI Birmingham (subject to AFWM being successful in its funding application) to the animator behind the best short.

A new animation tells the story of the salvage of Brunel's great ship, the SS Great Britain.The Incredible Journey is told in three parts - the salvage, the voyage on a pontoon across the Atlantic Ocean, and the triumphant Bristol homecoming.
The film, created by animators from The University of the West of England, will form the centrepiece of the vessel's 40th homecoming anniversary celebrations, which open on 17th July in Bristol.

Five short films from France, UK, Norway, Sweden and Estonia, will compete for the Cartoon d'Or 2010, the pan-European award for the best animated short film of the year.

The finalists for this award were chosen among 29 prizewinning films from Europe's most prestigious animation festivals over the past year. Competition for the Cartoon d'Or is limited to winners of awards from one of these festivals.

The jury composed of directors Joanna Quinn (UK) and Géza M. Tóth (Hungary), and producer Valérie Schermann (France), have nominated the following films:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have clarified their position on motion-capture, saying that it in itself does not constitute animation or make a film eligible for consideration in an Oscar animation category.

In a press release the Oscar management said:

"In the Animated Feature Film category, a sentence regarding motion capture was added to clarify the definition of an animated film. The language now reads: "An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique.

Employers and workers are being asked to help Skillset shape the future of the sector by taking part in the largest consultation of the Creative Media Industries.

The 2010 Creative Media Workforce and Employer Surveys will help Skillset to provide the most comprehensive profile of working life in the UK's Creative Media Industries. They will also provide an assessment of how the industry is faring in the current global economic climate.

Those taking part will be asked about their skills needs, experience of training and recruitment, future plans and working patterns. Findings will be used to directly inform Skillset’s ongoing work with the Creative Media Industries – and make sure they remain a world leader.

The Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF) has issued its final call for entries for its 2010 event. Deadline for entries is 15 July 2010. Deadline entries in competition features category is 1 August 2010.
Categories include: international competition for features, competition for European student films, competition shorts, commercials, music videos, educational and information films, station calls and leaders.

To apply and find out more see www.haff.nl.

On the day of Ray Harryhausen’s 90th birthday, at the official opening of the exhibition "Ray Harryhausen - Myths and Legends" at the London Film Museum, the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation has announced its intention to deposit the Collection of the life’s work of celebrated special effects animator Ray Harryhausen at the National Media Museum in Bradford, UK.

The Ray Harryhausen Collection contains most of the material connected with the conceptualisation and realisation of his films – such as drawings, paintings and storyboards, together with his animation models and the original moulds used to make them. Examples include the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts and the Medusa and the Kraken from Clash of the Titans. The Collection also includes rare work by the pioneer special effects designer Willis O’Brien (1886-1962), the creator of King Kong, with whom Harryhausen worked early in his career and who was a major influence.

Animation producers from across Europe will present their latest projects at the next edition of Cartoon Forum, the platform to boost the co-production and distribution of European animation for television that will celebrate its 21st edition from 14 to 17 September in Sopron, Hungary. This will be the first time that the event is held in a new EU country since its creation in 1990.

British animation will play a leading role at the event, reflecting the UK animation industry's current strong momentum and its influence on the rest of Europe. British companies presented 7 of the 63 projects selected (and 2 others in co-production), tying it with host country Hungary for second place behind France with 20 projects.

Imagine has joined forces with leading technology supplier Acer and audio experts Dolby to bring you an exciting prize competition for the summer.

Dolby and Acer have secured a track from the stunning new Faithless album ‘The Dance’, and they want you to develop a piece of inspired animation to illustrate a specially prepared segment of the track, which has also been remixed in Dolby 7.1 surround sound.

Submissions can be submitted in any style or technique of animation. They must not be longer than 30 seconds. The winner will be the animation which, in the opinion of the judges, provides the best interpretation of the Faithless track, and as your reward, you will pick up a stunning prize. This includes a fabulous new Acer Aspire Ethos high performance HD notebook which comes complete with Dolby Home Theater for a first class surround sound audio experience. Your animation will also be used by Acer and Dolby for demonstration purposes around Europe, while you will get your own exclusive red carpet screening to show off your animation to a VIP audience.