DIGIPENDENCE - declare yours!

In 2005, Shane Ackerman took gold in the Student Academy Awards for his short, 9. The film also took best in show at SIGGRAPH, first prizes at Animex for 3D character animation, as well as Best Animated Short at the Florida Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival, along with a number of other prizes. Working on and off for four-and-a-half years and with the help of five other animators and three other lighters, Shane used Maya 1.5–5.5, Photoshop for the textures, After Effects for compositing, and Premiere for editing. That short has now became a feature produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov. It stars Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, and Christopher Plummer. Read Sam Chen’s interview with Shane Acker on AnimationTrip.com. Here is Shane’s original short:

LG is sponsoring the Life’s Good FilmFest.

There are four categories: Animation, Sports, Fashion/Music, Narrative. There will be a winner in each category; three category winners will each receive C$10 000 and the category winner judged the best overall will be awarded C$100 000.

Entries can be from within or outside Canada, but may not be any longer than 5 minutes and must submitted in accepted HD formats such as WMV, H264, DVC Pro HD or BluRay DVD and have either stereo audio or Dolby 5.1. And good news for young filmmakers, if they’re under 18, they can enter with a parent’s permission. Films must be submitted by 4:59:59 p.m. on October 16, 2009.

Here are the Official Contest Rules (PDF) and the Official Entry Form (PDF). Visit the contest’s Official YouTube Channel.

Andrews McMeel Universal and Amazon.com are searching for the next great comic strip artist so they are sponsoring an international contest: Comic Strip Superstar.

Andrews McMeel will award a publishing contract with a $5,000 advance from Universal Uclick, and a monthly stipend for the development of 20 comic strips that will be considered for syndication. The ‘Grand Prize’ also includes “A full publishing contract with Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC to market and distribute a collection of the Grand Prize Winner’s comic strips or comic panels as a published book”. The deadline is September 12, 2009, and no late entries will be considered.

Each entry should be original, unpublished work in a .jpg file consisting of:

1. 10 daily comic strips
2. 2 Sunday comics
3. A title
4. A brief synopsis

Links of interest: Contest FAQ, Official Rules, Key Dates and Prizes.

From the submissions, Universal Press Syndicate will narrow the entries down to 250 quarterfinalists. The quarterfinalists will then be narrowed down to 50 semifinalists by John Glynn and Lee Salem, seasoned Universal Press Syndicate editors. In the semifinal round, popular comic strip creators G.B. Trudeau (Doonesbury), Lynn Johnston (For Better or For Worse), Scott Hilburn (The Argyle Sweater), and Mark Tatulli (Lió and Heart of the City) will choose 10 finalists and post feedback for each on Amazon.com. Amazon.com customers will then have the opportunity to view the finalists’ submissions and vote for the grand prize winner.

Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (AMP):

is an industry-leading publisher of humor, gift, general trade, cookbooks, and calendars with more than 300 new titles annually. Universal Uclick includes the nation’s largest independent newspaper and licensed property syndicate and the leading digital entertainment provider of humor, comics, editorial cartoons, daily games and text features for the desktop, Web, and mobile phones. Both AMP and Universal Uclick are divisions of Andrews McMeel Universal, which was founded in 1970 by Jim Andrews and John McMeel.

To celebrate the launch of Pixarpedia– Dorling Kindersley’s guide to the world of Pixar – DK Publishing and Pixar are sponsoring an animation contest. First prize is a trip to the Pixar Animation Studios in San Francisco!

To enter, animators must:

1. Create an original animated short film adventure, ensuring it meets the requirements below
2. Upload your animation to Pixarpedia Contest YouTube Channel and fill in the entry form below
3. Submit your entry before 30 November 2009

Full details may be found on the contest site, including the Terms & Conditions.

Via Machinima Expo:

Reallusion, the makers of iClone 4 and Crazy Talk 6, have agreed to sponsor the Machinima Expo this … petition categories.

Full details: Machinima Expo, including listing of prizes. See this link on digipendence.com for our continuing coverage on Machinima Expo.