Mass Animation, Sony Pictures, and Intel Corporation announced that the ground-breaking animated short film “Live Music,” a worldwide collaboration by animators using a unique application built on the Facebook Platform, will be attached to TriStar Pictures’ animated feature “Planet,” on Nov. 20, 2009.

“Live Music” is directed by Yair Landau, former president of Sony Pictures Digital, and produced by Landau and Jacquie Barnbrook. It is the first production from Mass Animation, an effort sponsored by Intel Corporation that brings together the worlds of computer graphics, Hollywood, and Facebook.

The 5-minute computer-generated animated short is inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and early CGI films. You can see a preview for the short here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_2NcijwPWE.

Announced last year at SIGGRAPH, Mass Animation invited artists around the world to animate individual shots from “Live Music.” The collaboration gave animators two months to submit work that was voted on by the Facebook community at www.facebook.com/massanimation. An international jury of animation experts selected the shots to be considered for the film.

As director, Landau had the final say as to which submissions made the final cut. Animators whose work made it into the finished product received on-screen credit and cash compensation. In addition, animators whose creation was rated best by the community on a weekly basis received cash prizes from Dell and Intel.

Mass Animation’s partners in making “Live Music” include Dell, Autodesk, Reel FX Entertainment, and Intel. Look for more information about each company’s contributions to the film on the Entertainment Engineering Facebook and Twitter pages during the month of August.

Bruce Wiebusch