This month’s Artist Spotlight is on Jon Finch, currently a Character and Environment Look Development Artist/TD on the film “Astro Boy” for Imagi Animation Studios! Check out his step-by-step process for modeling a CG character for a tv pilot, and our interview with this very talented artist.

Our June Artist Spotlight is now live, and we’re really excited about this one. Pamelina is a fantastic artist who has painted over 2000 guitars for makers like Fender, as well as special commissions for Motley Crue and Soundgarden. She’s painted murals on motorcycles and helmets for celebrities such as Shaquille O’Neal. She’s created merchandise art for Warner Bros. with all of the classic Looney Tunes characters. On top of all this, Pamelina’s original artwork has been published as calendars, posters, puzzles, body jewelry and, of course, t-shirts.

Check out Pamelina’s Spotlight in which she describes her process of painting a modern day pin-up girl for her client.

Ani-Jobs.com is proud to present the May Artist Spotlight with Dave Dorman!

The Artist Spotlight, located in our Resume Cafe, is a great place to learn about professional artists working in our industry and the techniques they use on a daily basis. It includes a bio, examples of their artwork and a discussion of their process, as well as an in-depth interview.

Our second spotlight is on the Eisner Award winning illustrator, Dave Dorman. He’s created artwork for comic, book, and game publishers, including Batman for DC Comics and the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series for Dark Horse Comics. See how he takes a project from conception to completion in our May spotlight. It’s an insightful read!

Ani-Jobs.com is proud to announce a NEW section of our site: The Artist Spotlight!

The Artist Spotlight, located in our Resume Cafe, is a great place to learn about professional artists working in our industry and the techniques they use on a daily basis. It includes a bio, examples of their artwork (personal or professional) and a discussion of their process, as well as an in-depth interview.

Our first spotlight is on an extremely talented art director, Darren Carney. See how he takes a project from conception to completion in our first spotlight. It’s a must read!

Ani-Jobs is pleased to announce a brand new section of our website– the Resume Cafe!

The Resume Cafe is a comprehensive resume and demo reel database. Job seekers can create a page in our database where they can upload their resume, import selected pieces of their artwork, and even embed a demo reel. Employers can easily search the database and find exact matches for their open positions.

The Resume Cafe is open for business!

In a press release today iZ3d announced they would be giving away 1 of the 5 grand prizes for the cgarena.com “Ancient Times” 3D Challenge. DBusinessNews reports

The contest began on February 15, 2008 and ends April 28, 2008. Contestants are to create a 3D image that addresses any city, culture, war, mystery etc. in the theme of Ancient Times.

“The commercial 3D image quality of the iZ3D monitor is an ideal solution for graphic artists to view their 3D art in actual 3D as they’re creating it. Many digital artists are embracing the new 3D graphics and video software programs in response to the growing 3D trend. So why design 3D objects on a flat 2D monitor? Our monitors offer smart capabilities so they can easily hot switch between 2D and 3D viewing to see their work in either dimension,” remarked Thomas Striegler, CEO of iZ3D, LLC.

Contest entries must be based on a time period that is at least 60 years old, but contestants can show time period from a current viewpoint. The challenge is a WIP (Work in Progress) Challenge. The purpose of a work in progress challenge is that everyone involved learns from the experience. The community offers critiques and everyone benefits from the discussions. Each challenger is required to regularly submit Work In Progress (WIP) images, from initial concept sketches to the final render.

You can find out all the contest details at www.cgarena.com

Softimage today has launched a forum based website called Softimage|NET for the 3d community that uses Softimage. It has galleries, support and a “How To” section. It is similar to Autodesk’s  ”AREA” Site which provides a place for users of Autodesk MAYA and 3DSMax to gather. Speaking of Maya,  Audodesk announced today that they are dropping the price of May Unlimited Standalone from 6,995 to 4,995 and the Network license version from 8,345 to 6,245. While Maya Complete 2008 users can upgrade to Maya Unlimited for only 2,995. All of this and they just released Maya 2008 Extension 2.

The Providence Journal reports that Director Michael Corrente is starting pre-production on an animated Horror film. 

Corrente and the three-man team from The Story Hat, based on Weybosset Street in Providence, will begin preproduction this week on a computer-animated horror film called Bloodline, which tells the story of tattoos that grow and change and wreak havoc on their bearers. The film, which could take upwards of 16 months to create, is touted by Corrente as “the first American animated feature-length [computer-generated imagery] horror movie ever made.” “You couldn’t do this in live action. It wouldn’t work. These elements come together perfectly and are suited for animation. Because you can watch it grow and actually morph into something really scary,” Corrente said. “You take that, and throw in a great story … and it was electrifying to me. I just thought this was a no-brainer. It’ll work.”   

 The Horror genre has not been attempted in animation as of yet but we are aware of at least 1 other production company that has an animated horror film in development. 

Business Wire reports that mytoons.com has just signed a deal with YouTube to provide a showcase for animation.

MyToons.com, dedicated to “everything animated,” offers both professional and amateur animators a platform to reach a world-wide web of talented animators, industry specialists and fans alike.

“YouTube is an important step on the road to much wider distribution for MyToons and our animation community members,” said Ford. “We’re always focused on providing additional enhancements to give our animators even greater exposure.”

Mytoons launched last March and provides a global platform for animators to share their work.

If this is your first time to Ani-Jobs.com, welcome! We are a brand new FREE job board resource that is dedicated exclusively to the Animation, VFX, and Gaming community.

Need to post a job listing and getting tired of paying an arm and a leg at other sites? Feeling like your post is getting buried among countless other posts NOT related to your field? Looking for just the right job? Then look no further! Ani-Jobs is your one-stop shop.

We’ll be continuously updating the site with new features as we go along, so if you have any suggestions or requests, please don’t hesitate in contacting us. This is YOUR community- tell us how to make it better!

~The Ani-Jobs Team