In this issue: F E A T U R E S ANTZ in their Pantz - the inside story from PDI By Darris Dobbs PDI's Rex Grignold and Ken Bielenberg give us the inside story of how they showed us the world from an Antz perspective. Scott Daugherty on Practical Magic By Paul Younghusband Cinesite visual effects producer Scott Daugherty talks about the work the company did on Practical Magic. R E V I E W S Character Studio 2 By Robin Lankes Character Studio, 3D Studio MAX's character animation plugin gets our feature review treatment this month. trueSpace 4 By Bill Boyce Caligari's flag ship 3D product has received a massive upgrade, and our massive review gives the low-down on version 4 of Truespace. paint* 2.0 By Paul Younghusband Photoshop for video? Discreet Logic's paint* 2.0 is given a once over in this issue. Outburst 1.5 By Brandon Davis This 3D Studio MAX effects animation plugin is put to the test this month. C O L U M N S Anatomy of an Explosion By Brandon Davis This new visual effects animation column kicks off by talking about how an exlposion works. T U T O R I A L S Boolean Jack-O-Lantern By Doug Sahlin Learn how to model, texture and light a Halloween pumpkin. Stenciling in Studio Pro - A Cautionary Tale By Tom Babcock Learn the art of stenciling with Strata Studio Pro and Tom Babcock.

EDITORS NOTE: Welcome to a new world...well, maybe not. But this month marks the launch of the new design (courtesy of Falkon Design) you see sitting in your browser window. If you've visited our site before then you know we've completely changes our look. This is to make the site easier to navigate and hopefully easier to maintain. This will mean more frequent updates (probably daily) and faster response times to your problems. Please do send us your comments on the new design, good or bad. The London Effects + Animation Festival will take place this month at Wembley Arena. The show will feature some of the best artists in the industry as speakers, including Volker Engel (Godzilla, Independence Day), David Andrews from ILM (Jumanji, Casper, Mars Attacks, Small Soldiers), Tim Jonhson, and Animation Director at PDI (Antz, Gas Planet), and Chris Landreth (Bingo) will be giving a Maya Masterclass. As with most major conferences and festivals, we will bring you a full review after the event has taken place, but if you can't wait that long why not come and see the show for yourself. Details can be found at www.digmedia.co.uk. We will be there to host a panel discussion on virtual actors, this will take place on Wednesday [day 2] at 5:15. I hope you enjoy this issue and the new design of the web site. Have a great month! Paul Younghusband Editor-in-Chief paul@awn.com