Accolades For Animatopia Accolades For Animatopia An electric pink insect sporting a gold headdress and antennae does the Macarena; a disgruntled yellow alien hurls pizzas in an intergalactic food fight; bright hued grapes fall from a ceiling, bounce into place, pick up instruments, and start to jam. These are just a few of the 3D animation segments for which Animatopia, the graphics and animation studio of Atlanta's Weatherford Group, is winning awards and national air play.

Jose Acosta, an animator with the studio, recently won a 1998 Southern regional Emmy award for his work on "Salsa," a Georgia Public Broadcasting Spanish language children's show. Acosta, who has worked on "salsa" for one year specializes in 3D, 2D, and stop motion animation.

Animatopia won a 1998 Telly Award for its animation demo reel. In the sampler, a yellow and red salamander paddles a banana by, glowing hamburger space ships fly in from a blue night sky, and high above a circus arena French fries mount trapezes and flip down into a container.

Lancit Media Entertainment, Ltd. turned to Animatopia when it needed an outer space animation sequence for its nationally televised PBS show "The Puzzle Place." The animators crafted an intergalactic food fight between disgruntled alien the viewers. "The Puzzle Place," a joint production of Lancit and KCET-TV, is an award-winning show that encourages children to embrace differences and tackle everyday social problems.