New HD Animation Technology Provides Highest Quality Experience For Animators And Fans Around the World On MyToons.com. Global animation community MyToons.com becomes the first animation website to showcase member’s animations in high definition online.

MyToons.com, the world’s premier online animation community, today announced the launch of HD Animation; a first for any online animation site. Animators and animation fans around the world can now experience both independent and studio animations in glorious high definition color and clarity – precisely as the creators intended them to be viewed – at MyToons.com

“MyToons has reached a significant technological and artistic milestone, making us the first animation community to showcase high definition animations,” explained Paul Ford, co-founder and president of MyToons.com. “Animators everywhere are really excited about this opportunity to upload and share their HD creations with MyToons’ global fan base.”

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ARTRMX COLOGNE VOL. 01, which will take place from 22 – 31 August 2008, searched for artists whose artworks embody a “young, fresh and self-reflective spirit.” From almost 400 applicants their competent jury choses about 50 artists who will exhibit their works for ten days in different off-site locations and open spaces throughout Cologne. The artworks will encompass different media like streetart, photography and painting as well as installations and special events at all participating locations and all based upon the theme, “Where is my mind?”.

To learn more about this exhibition, visit the Web site.

There is currently a totally fun exhibit on view up at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) put together by “a small group of people with extensive experience making big, insane projects.” The insane project in question is the Miss Rockaway Armada, a collection of recycled junk-rafts that spent two summers traveling along the Mississippi River in the spirit of an itinerant circus or a traveling medicine show. The cure-all and genuine good-health elixir of this project was sustainability, a theme the troupe has transferred onto dry land in an interactive exhibit featuring this experimental, floating eco-voyage. This exhibit will be on display until March of 2009.

Via: Inhabitat

Above: VISTOBRAHMA winner Toby Whitebread.

Brahma’s nationwide art competition VISTOBRAHMA has been a huge success, the winning designs are now appearing on bottles and packaging throughout the UK. The focus of VISTOBRAHMA now turns to the competition runners up with the launch of the People’s Vote - 15 of the shortlisted images have been selected to go into a public vote, with the five most popular images being included in a Brahma exhibition that will be touring the UK in June.

This is a great way to support your favourite artists in the competition and at the same time, simply by voting, you can win an overall prize of £1,000. There are also some great weekly prizes including Brahma, VISTOBRAHMA T-shirts, iPods.

There are some great images to see, so visit www.vistobrahma.com to get registered and start voting.

You know you want to do great design work. But do you dream about owning your own firm someday? Do you want to learn more about business strategy? Are you interested in leading a team? Discover your career goals and learn how to chart the course of your dreams.

You’ll learn:

• How to identify your hidden career goals
• How to create your 2, 5 and 10-year targets
• How to use your personality traits to reveal your career path
• How to look at your personal life to refine your professional life
• How to keep yourself on track while remaining flexible

The Webinar, presente by Jeni Herberger, will be held Thursday 9 June at 1pm ET. Visit the site to register.

Famed Photographer of Jack Nicholson, Marilyn Monroe, and Others Discusses His Craft and Passion.

lynda.com, the leading provider of software training videos online, today announced the release of Douglas Kirkland: Creative Inspiration, a video course featuring one of the most renowned photographers of the 20th Century.

Members of the lynda.com Online Training Library® receive on-demand access to this entire course, while non-members can access 10% for free by visiting the course page at lynda.com. Kirkland shares his insights on photography craft and technique, gleaned from 50 years photographing the entertainment industry. He also takes viewers to on-location photo shoots, and discusses cameras, Photoshop, and the art of capturing his images.

“Douglas Kirkland brings a lifetime of photography experience to this video course, having created some of the most iconic celebrity images of the last half-century,” says Lynda Weinman, CEO of lynda.com. “We are thrilled to have been able to profile Douglas’s passion, wisdom, and outstanding imaging skills, to provide our subscribers with this informative and inspirational view into the world of photography from one of its great practitioners.”

To view free demo video tutorials of this course, visit the Douglas Kirkland: Creative Inspiration course page. For more information on lynda.com, visit www.lynda.com or call 1-888-335-9632.

Changing perceptions about the men and women behind some of American pop culture’s most enduring slogans— “Does she … or doesn’t she?,” “I Want My MTV,” “Where’s the beef?,” “Just Do It,” to name a few— is the goal of “The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue - and Their Impact on American Culture,” a new exhibition opening on June 24 at The New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library.

Co-curated by The One Club’s CEO Mary Warlick and journalist Ann Cooper, the exhibition takes an unflinching look at the lives and work of the real heroes and heroines of Madison Avenue— those brilliant copywriters and creative directors who shaped the hopes and dreams of Americans on a daily basis over the past eighty years. This exhibition is on view June 24 to September 26, 2008. Be there or…

DESIGN 21: Social Design Network announced the top three winners of the Power to the Pedal online design competition this week from 222 entries worldwide. The online social design network, which promotes better design for the greater good through its members and non-profit partners, challenged designers to create a new bicycle accessory or add-on for existing bicycles that would improve the cycling experience and promote the use of bicycles as a primary means of transportation. The competition was open for 12 weeks and attracted entries from 41 countries and over 200 designers. Designs were judged by a panel of DESIGN 21 judges based on overall effectiveness, creativity, practicality, aesthetics and how well it responds to environmental concerns. Members of DESIGN 21 were also invited to vote online for their favorite design for the Most Popular award.

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iSpring Solutions announces the release of version 3.2 of iSpring Free, a no-cost solution for converting PowerPoint presentations into Flash. A few clicks get the job done. The tool makes high quality conversions and helps to publish converted files on the Web right away.

The benefits of converting PowerPoint files to Flash are apparent. Flash makes files smaller in size and with better compatibility, so it’s far more convenient for delivering your projects to a target audience. However, PowerPoint itself doesn’t provide you with such a valuable conversion feature, so you need a separate tool for this purpose. The problem is that many specially developed tools, even those that cost a lot of money, may fail to satisfy you with conversion results. iSpring Solutions invites you to try iSpring Free, a proven PowerPoint to Flash converter that provides outstanding quality conversion at no charge.

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A heads up for those of you in the Los Angeles area - The Second Annual Animation Book Look, a unique author/artist signature book signing event, will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2008 in Sherman Oaks, CA. Co-hosted by Van Eaton Galleries and The Creative Talent Network, Animation Book Look is a gathering of authors and artists from the animation industry. MyToons.com and Animation Magazine are co-sponsoring the event.

Animation Book Look provides an opportunity for professionals from the publishing and animation industries to promote themselves and their art to fans, collectors, and art aficionados. This festival of book signings and art(ist) sightings is the only event of its kind in the country, featuring appearances by well-known visual and literary artists, as well as, “undiscovered” animation authors.

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