By the way, for the second time, fmx allowed a special look at India.

Prashant Babu Buyyala, managing director of Rhythm & Hues India, reported about their stunning work on The Golden Compass and Alvin and the Chipmunks. He stated that R&H India is not treated like a minor appendix to the studio in L.A. but is actually part of the same studio, being fully integrated with the L.A. team. So the studio at India is held to the same quality standards and expectations. While working on The Golden Compass, 50% of the staff were students coming right out of the apprentice program of the studio. The staff also had tremendous benefits from a well-established production pipeline. But there are still some negative perceptions and myths about stealing jobs in the U.S. Prashant stated, that the contrary is true. With the establishing of Rhythm & Hues India, more jobs were created in the U.S. than in India. The studio is currently working on many projects, including Cirque de Freaks, Land of the Lost, The Fast and the Furious 4 and They Came from Upstairs. Work on The Incredible Hulk and on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has already completed.

Also very impressive was the presentation of Saraswathi Balgam, president and founder of ASIFA India. It took her seven years to bring ASIFA India to life. The renowned animator works as the founding director of Rhythm & Hues India. Besides that, she also is president of the Women in Animation chapter in India. With several projects, such as the International Animation Day Celebration or various special events, ASIFA India tries to raise the awareness of the community and of the people towards animation and visual effects.

On a smaller level, fmx focused on Hungary and presented the progress in the development of modern state-of-the-art studios in the country. Studios like the very experienced Cinamon have modernized their 2D facilities and can offer now a complete paperless digital animation department, including 30 workstations of ToonBoom Storyboard Pro and ToonBoom Harmony. Low labor costs and highly creative artists, trained by the renowned animation program at MOME, the Maholy-Nagy University of Art and Design lead by Jószef Fülop, make Hungary attractive for producing animation for television, games or feature films. Andras Erkel, who has a distinguished background in animation, founded his Studio Baestarts in 2004. He emphasized also the new tax incentive law by the Hungarian state. Baestarts is producing animated films, visual effects for live action, commercials and music videos. Together with Zentropa Film from Denmark, Erkel is already producing an animated feature film.

For all the friends of Flash animation, check out the Hungarian Flash Filter Lab, which will soon be renamed Sourcebinder. This open source software allows the ardent student to experiment with a variety of modules in a very easy way. The new AS3-powered version of Flash Filter Lab will be released soon; you can already sign up for the new platform.

Tibor Gubsco presented the Gyár Post Production, a facility specialized in complex vfx works and 3D character animation. The fledgling studio has just begun its journey.

At the end of the first day, Page from DreamWorks Animation sweetened the pain of too much information with her own special "eye candy" films from all over the world she has collected in her bag to bring to the studio. On Tuesday, AWN/VFXWorld Co-Founders and Publishers Dan Sarto and Ron Diamond showed the current Animation Show of Shows in excellent HD quality. Both shows screened the wonderful Camera Obscura (2007) by Matthieu Buchalski, Jean Michel Drechsler and Thierry Onillon, all three students at the Supinfocom school at Valenciennes, France.

Peter Plantec again did a wonderful job presenting a stunning cast of speakers at his Virtual Human Forum. Jeff Kleiser presented a nostalgic presentation of the history of Synthespians from the very beginnings in films like Tron to the sophisticated attempts of our times.

Character animator superstar Carlos Baena from Pixar gave a highly informative lecture about the differences between realistic and stylized human animation.

Character animator superstar Carlos Baena from Pixar gave a highly informative lecture about the differences between realistic and stylized human animation. Having worked in both fields, he showed many examples of his work on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II and compared them with his work on Pixar's Ratatouille, for which he animated the character Skinner, who was actually based on French actor/comedian Luis de Funes. More recently, Baena animated the character WALL•E from Pixar's upcoming movie.

David Hanson presented his research on robots as intelligent character media. One of his results will probably change generations of children to come, as he invented the robot Zeno as a toy for them. Zeno is equipped with artificial intelligence modules. He memorizes the voice and the face of human counterparts. Made out of "Frubber" skin material, another invention by Hanson robotics, which allows interactive, humanlike facial features, the robot is also able to talk back to the kids using the latest AI software. It will be heavily launched in 2009, the toy will be available for $300, a much more sophisticated version can be purchased from AI studies for $2,000. The panel discussion "The Blurring Line Between VFX & Animation" hosted by Eric Roth, exec director of the VES, offered a creative talk between leading authorities in this field. Jenny Fulle (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Sarto and Michael Coldewey (CEO, Trixter Prods.) talked about the difficulties in defining animation as a part of the visual effects or as a medium of its own. Films like Monster House, The Polar Express, the Spider-Man franchise or especially last year's Beowulf don't fit into any categories we have been accustomed to throughout the years. The panel, however, didn't offer any concrete solution for the problem.

Meanwhile, next year's fmx/09 will be held from May 4-7 again at the House of Trade at Stuttgart, Germany.

Johannes Wolters studied German history and literature at the University of Cologne. He is now working as a freelance journalist for daily newspapers, film magazines and radio concentrating on animation and visual effects. In 1995, he created the International Nights and Days of Animation Cologne (INDAC), a small animation festival. He is currently transforming the festival into a network for German animation and visual effects artists and rebuilding the German ASIFA.