San Francisco-based animation studio and Internet producer Dotcomix will launch a new teens and tweens website called Giant Orbit early next year. Jeffery Beer, formerly executive producer of new technology at Nickelodeon, is executive producer of the web initiative for kids ages 10 to 15.

‘We’ve been working on some great original stuff and are essentially ready for launch,’ says Beer. The Dotcomix producers are actively looking for partners to either co-sponsor or co-own the Giant Orbit property.

In October, the company brought aboard Beth Sandell as COO, Edward Burke as general counsel and VP of business affairs, Peter Katz as VP of marketing and BZ Petroff as head of production. In the wake of the new hirings, Dotcomix also announced that co-founder Marc Scaparro has left the studio. Scaparro also served as head of production and chief animation officer.

Dotcomix has had a successful year developing a group of zany characters and concepts on their existing website for adults (dotcomix.com) via brand new cartoons each day. Sister Randy, a Dotcomix original, was bought by the BBC America cable network for daily broadcast, and the studio produces Marvin The Martian, Dilbert and Garry Trudeau’s Duke 2000 for Warner Bros. Entertaindom.

The company uses a motion-capture technique to produce a large quantity of daily animated spots. In addition to originals, the studio has licensed comic strips This Modern World and The Fusco Brothers for webtoon production.

The studio raised US$8.5 million in financing last July from such highly respected companies as Intel, Media Tech Ventures, Rogers Communications and Freedom Communications.