Love is in the air… it’s time to celebrate a royal wedding! My Little Pony – Friendship Is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding is coming to DVD on August 7, 2012 from Shout! Factory in collaboration with Hasbro Studios. My Little Pony – Friendship Is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding features 5 episodes that everypony will love, including “A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1,” “A Canterlot Wedding, Part 2,” “Hearts And Hooves Day,” “Sweet & Elite,” and “The Best Night Ever.” Bonus features will include a coloring sheet and more! Girls can also act out imaginative stories of their own with delightful My Little Pony wedding-themed figures, play-sets, and vehicles from Hasbro.

When it’s announced that Twilight Sparkle’s older brother, Shining Armor, is set to marry Princess Celestia’s niece, Cadence, all the ponies in Equestria should be celebrating. But there’s one pony in Ponyville who’s not so thrilled with the news — Twilight Sparkle! Why is the young unicorn so concerned? And will the royal wedding go off without a hitch? Find out in the two-part special, and then join us for the perfect after-party — three more My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes, all included in the first-ever DVD release of My Little Pony – Friendship Is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding!

My Little Pony – Friendship Is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding is priced at $14.97 and is now available for pre-order at amazon.com.

The My Little Pony Friendship is Magic series is currently airing on The HUB TV Network in the US.

My Little Pony – Friendship Is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding Episodes Include:
A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1
A Canterlot Wedding, Part 2
Hearts And Hooves Day
Sweet & Elite
The Best Night Ever

Bonus Features:
A Coloring Sheet and more!

Total Running Time: +/- 2 hours

DUCK has sliced two birds with one stone, considerably escalating its presence in both the live-action and animation realms with the addition of versatile director Knife Party. The Sydney, Australia-based talent — also known as Simon Robson — will focus on ad campaigns, full-length feature films, and cause-based special projects.

“We’ve entered an age when clients demand a production studio that can deliver any mix of animation and live action, in any length or format,” stated DUCK EP Mark Medernach. “In Knife Party, we have that rare talent that can do both, capturing the essence of a brand and delivering it in any imaginable format.”

Knife Party’s recent projects include award-winning animated work in a spot for MasterCard and a trailer for the SBS series Immigration Nation. In the live-action realm, he helmed an impressive spot for Australian telecom brand Telstra. A trio of NBC Universal spots promoting sustainable living brought his two specialties together, as 2D line-art animation flooded live-action footage. Other short-form work includes spots for Adidas, Nike and Save the Children. Knife Party’s long-form work includes the animated film Coalition of the Willing, animation for the Chris Atkins feature film Taking Liberties, and the 2003 film festival favorite What Barry Says.

Aside from films screened at major festivals across the world, Knife Party’s work has collected honors at ADFEST and Promax World. The Guardian website has featured his work, and he has been shortlisted for The British Design of The Year Award and nominated for a BAFTA.

“DUCK is the perfect fit for me,” noted Knife Party. “I like to stay busy with varied projects, and this is a studio that is always seeking new challenges, new clients, new ways of doing things. I can guarantee I’ll never be bored working around a group this driven and talented.”

Shoran Software announced the six-point release of RenderPal V2, the well-known render farm manager. This new version brings many great new features, plenty of improvements and important bug fixes, as well as support for four new renderers out-of-the-box: Modo, Arnold, RVIO and Pdplayer.

In this release, the net job dependency has been extended: A net job can now also wait for similar chunks of one or more superior net jobs, not just for the entire jobs. The dependent net job will check if one or more of its own chunks can be rendered by matching either their IDs, frame ranges or image slices against those of its superior net jobs.

Many applications can be (or even have to be) controlled via external script files. RenderPal V2 now makes creating such script files extremely easy with its script templates: Every renderer can automatically create a script file based on a template that uses a simple but very effective template language.

The scene files as well as the output file and directory in a render set can now contain parameters from the selected renderer that will then be replaced with the corresponding value set in the render set for each chunk of the resulting net job. If a list parameter is used and the corresponding chunk has more than one value in its list, the chunks will automagically have more than one scene.

It is now possible to select an action if the rendering time is too short or too long: If it is too short, the chunk can either be restarted (the old behavior) or it can be cancelled; if it is too long, the chunk can be restarted, cancelled or skipped.

Other new additions and improvements include selecting additional user accounts in net jobs who should receive email notifications, combined scene lists for renderers (multiple scenes will not be automatically split into individual chunks) and the ability to control net job chunks via command-line.

After the success of the 7th edition of the World Festival of Animated Film in the city of Varna 2011 we are delighted to announce its return as a global annual event.

We are honoured to invite you to participate in the 8th World Festival of Animated Film that will be taking place in the city of Varna between the 10th and the 15th of September 2012.

In order to participate please visit our website where you can complete the entry form online and find further information about your application. Entry forms will be accepted until the 5th of June 2012.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at any time.

We are looking forward to seeing your films at our festival.

Yours faithfully,

Festival coordinators
Denitsa Hristova
Silvia Ivanova
Bogdan Nedkov

VIII  World Festival of Animated Film Varna 2012,
Festival and congress centre Varna,
10th – 15th September

SAN JOSE, CA — Adobe announced the immediate availability of Adobe Creative Suite 6 software. The CS6 product line includes powerful new releases of Photoshop, InDesign, lllustrator, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash Professional and other products as well as four suite versions – Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium; Creative Suite 6 Design Standard; Creative Suite 6 Production Premium; and Creative Suite 6 Master Collection.

Adobe Creative Cloud, a radical new way of providing tools and services for creatives worldwide is expected to be available on Friday, May 11.  A subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work and it is centered around a powerful release of Adobe Creative Suite 6 software, packed with innovation across its industry-defining design, Web, video and digital imaging tools. CS6 point product subscriptions will also be available May 11.

“We announced Creative Cloud and CS6 two weeks ago and these releases have caught the imagination of creatives everywhere,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media Business, Adobe. “Today we’re shipping CS6 and look forward to the beginning of an exciting new era as we introduce Creative Cloud later this week.”

Top new features across the CS6 product line include:

• New levels of performance with tools that take advantage of Adobe Mercury Graphics functionality, allowing users to go from ideas to finished work faster than ever before.
• Enhanced user interfaces that vastly simplify workflows, so users can focus on their content and achieve results quicker.
• New capabilities that streamline the creation of responsive content, ensuring website and apps look great across virtually all screen sizes and form factors.
• Remarkable new science, integrated into imaging and video apps, makes previously impossible tasks suddenly possible.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership delivers:

• Access to download and install all CS6 applications, new HTML5 desktop products – Adobe Muse 1.0 and Adobe Edge preview – and deep integration with Adobe Touch Apps.
• Easy storage and sharing of content across desktop, mobile devices and the cloud.
• Integrated website publishing and hosting.
• Ongoing innovation that provides members with the most up-to-date products and services

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 6 products are immediately available through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store in North America and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for the suites is US$2,599 for CS6 Master Collection, US$1,899 for CS6 Production Premium, US$1,899 for CS6 Design & Web Premium, and US$1,299 for CS6 Design Standard. Upgrade and education pricing as well as volume licensing are available. For more information visit www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.html.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership is available to customers in 36 countries and in multiple languages. Pricing for Creative Cloud membership for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership and US$74.99 per month for month-to-month membership. A special introductory offer of US$29.99 per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available.  Education pricing is available.  Learn more at www.adobe.com/go/creativecloud.

This summer, Cartoon Network brings to DVD an all-new world of unimaginable hilarity with its newest comedy release, The Amazing World of Gumball “The DVD” DVD. Packed with 12 episodes from series’ first season – including the titular episode “The DVD” – and a character gallery special feature, the compilation DVD follows the misadventures of 12-year-old Gumball. By all accounts, his world is pretty run-of-the-mill, as long as you think a blue cat with a giant head (Gumball) being chased around school by a T-Rex (Tina), befriending a piece of toast (Anton), hard-core crushing on a girl peanut with antlers (Penny) is normal! Marking the ratings-hit series’ home entertainment debut, The Amazing World of Gumball “The DVD” DVD will be available on August 28, 2012 for the suggested retail price of $14.97 and the order date of July 31, 2012.

Created by Ben Bocquelet and directed by Mic Graves, The Amazing World of Gumball is the first UK-produced full-length animated series out of Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe. Fueled by a combination of 2D and 3D animation in a live-action setting, the comedy series has garnered two 2011 BAFTA Awards for Writing and Animation, a 2012 Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production Children, and a 2012 Kidscreen Award for Best Animated Series; Best Animation; Best Kids Program (viewers choice award).  Additionally, it has earned excellent critical acclaim from a variety of media sources, including Variety, which lauded it as “first-rate silliness.”

During its first season in the U.S., 19.8 million Kids 6-14 and 11.4 million Boys 6-14 tuned in to The Amazing World of Gumball.  Furthermore, it was the number one show in its timeslot for Boys 6-14. Fans of the series can watch episodes on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network, with the series’ second season premiering in summer 2012.

Cartoon Network will support the DVD release of The Amazing World of Gumball “The DVD” DVD with targeted on-air spots on Cartoon Network, a digital media buy in kids and mom-targeted websites, as well as an online marketing and social media campaign on CartoonNetwork.com, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

LONDON, UK, 3 May 2012 – Turner Broadcasting has confirmed the launch of Ben 10: Omniverse, the latest animated installment of the hit franchise that debuts on Cartoon Network globally in 2012.

Ben 10: Omniverse sees a new character design for Ben Tennyson who has aspirations of being a solo superhero but Grandpa Max has other ideas!  He assigns him Rook, a new by-the-book partner who is highly skilled with his Proto-tool but lacks any field experience, especially on Earth.  They work together to beat the bad guys, explore the quirkier side of things in the alien underground and discover enemies from Ben’s past looking for a re-match, all while the mysterious Khyber the Huntsman is hot on their trail.  But even with 10 brand new aliens at his disposal, Ben may have finally met his match.  He’ll have to rely on his wits, his partner and a little bit of luck if he wants to survive!

Injecting a whole new lease of life into the top performing property, Ben 10: Omniverse opens up fresh licensing opportunities for new and existing partners, led by Turner CN Enterprises in the EMEA region. Partners including master toy licensee Bandai who has committed to the new series with the launch of a dedicated Ben 10: Omniverse toy line featuring action figures, role play items, vehicles and play sets due to hit retail this Autumn.

Alan Fenwick, Vice President, Turner CN Enterprises, EMEA says, “The strength of the Ben 10 franchise has always been our unwavering commitment to investing in engaging new content that grows with our core consumer and inspires loyalty and interest amongst licensees.  Ben 10: Omniverse with its new artwork, characters and engaging storylines marks another exciting chapter in Ben’s evolution and continuing success.”

Toronto, ON – TELETOON Canada announced that the Canadian launch date for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim has been set for July 4, 2012. In advance of the big day – and to whet the appetites of eager Canadian viewers – TELETOON will begin broadcasting a weekly Cartoon Network programming block on the main network as of Saturday, May 5. To further support the launch, on Friday, June 1, a weekly block of fan-favourite Adult Swim shows will premiere on TELETOON at Night. And finally, TELETOON Retro delves deeper into the Cartoon Network programming library to broadcast a block of classic Cartoon Network shows every week beginning on Saturday, June 2.

Cartoon Network Nested Blocks

TELETOON
Premieres Saturday, May 5

The Amazing World of Gumball
Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. ET/PT

Regular Show
Saturdays at 12 p.m. ET/PT

Dexter’s Laboratory
Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. ET/PT

TELETOON Retro
Premieres, Saturday, June 2

Dexter’s Laboratory (Classic Episodes)
Saturdays at 7 p.m. ET

Powerpuff Girls
Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. ET

Codename: Kids Next Door
Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. ET

[adult swim] Nested Block

TELETOON at Night
Premieres Friday, June 1

The Venture Bros.
Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Squidbillies
Fridays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Fridays at 10:45 p.m. ET/PT

Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Fridays at 11 p.m. ET/PT

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Fridays at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT

The excitement continues online, with websites for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim – each featuring video clips, games, extra content and programming information – launching simultaneously with the network.