Brace yourself, for FMX is about to unleash a VFX storm, an Indie Games tornado and a flood of other highlights ranging from Crowdfunding and Open Source to Animation both mainstream and Wild 'n' Strange. The current and future releases of Pacific Rim, Crysis 3 and the arrival of Ed Ulbrich and bestselling children's book author Cornelia Funke make you jittery? Then you'd better take a seat and read this calmly:

The preview of this year's FMX program is now online!

February 27, 2013. Two months before FMX opens its doors, Europe's most influential Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia is pleased to announce that two Pixar films are part of the FMX Conference program. Firstly, the Director and Scriptwriter Saschka Unseld presents his latest work, the Pixar animated short The Blue Umbrella, in Stuttgart. Furthermore, newly-awarded Oscar winner Brave has been confirmed for a presentation. In April 2013, the technical focus at FMX includes a series on "Cloud Gaming" and "Cloud Computing" opened by keynote speaker Jon Peddie (JPR). What's more, Austria, Toronto and Turkey count among this year's "Innovative Places." In addition, market leaders such as Adobe and Autodesk invite attendees to take part in exciting Workshops, while the premiere of the "Fast Forward Education" seeks to build bridges between academia and industry.

The FMX 2013 program is taking shape. Europe's most renowned conference on digital entertainment, which takes place two weeks earlier than last year, adopts the slogan "lean, smart and agile" and focuses on the ongoing paradigm shift in the animation, effects, games and transmedia industries. It zeroes in on how smart technologies, adaptive approaches and flexible strategies are shaping the business, allowing for integrated storytelling, affordable workflows, accessible budgets, independent initiatives, new players and global success. Highly esteemed industry professionals explore this change in various presentations, workshops, masterclasses, on the Marketplace, the Recruiting Hub and the School Campus. What's more, FMX focuses on VFX highlights such as Life of Pi and Cloud Atlas and animation adventures such as The Croods. In continuing its successful cooperation with the popular International Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart and the business platform Animation Production Day, FMX transforms Stuttgart into a meeting point for professionals, digital artists and decision-makers from all over the world.

The FMX Partners section is ready to set sail. This is your chance to become a part of FMX 2013! There are various opportunities to participate and present your company or school in Germany next spring. Choose from a range of different offerings from workshops to sponsoring activities and individualize your choice accordingly. Take advantage of our Early Bird Rates that end January 31, 2013, and jump on board!

Scorsese's Hugo grabs five Oscars: Best Visual Effects winner Rob Legato comes to FMX!
FMX mixes it up with Academy Award winners: In 2012, we dedicate two presentations to Martin Scorsese's first 3D animation feature Hugo. The critically acclaimed film has won five Awards including "Best Visual Effects" at yesterday's ceremony. Hugo features elaborate VFX that were created primarily by Pixomondo. FMX is thrilled to present Hugo's leading Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato as a main speaker at this year's event. Together with Ben Grossmann (Pixomondo) he talks about the challenges involved in making Hugo. What's more, in a second presentation you are able to get even closer to Hugo when Grossmann is joined by Matthew Gratzner (New Deal Studios) to dissect the impressive train sequence.

The short film a.maize won the VES Award in the category "Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project" at yesterday's 10th Annual VES Awards in Los Angeles. The short film and FMX 2011 trailer, that was created by Falko Paeper, Roman Kaelin und Florian Wittmann, was one of three entries from the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. a.maize was chosen as best of six nominated films at the VES Award ceremony. The VES Awards are annually bestowed by the Visual Effects Society (VES) and count among the most prestigious distinctions in the realm of Visual Effects. This year's Awards took place on February 7th in Beverly Hills.

FMX 2012 - 17th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia

May 8-11, Stuttgart, Germany

Newsletter #3 - January 2012

Preparations for this year‘s FMX are in full swing. The new subtitle "Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia" sums up the essence of the 17th edition of Europe’s largest conference on the creation, production and distribution of Digital Entertainment. In 2012, FMX focuses on new Animated Features, Visual Effects and Games as well as specific topics such as Virtual Production, Previs, Digital Worldbuilding, Lighting und Rendering, Cloud Computing, Industrial CG and Transmedia. While a majority of this year’s program is still being planned, FMX is delighted to announce that Transmedia pioneer Henry Jenkins has already confirmed. What’s more, FMX will offer four exciting days filled with world-class keynotes, presentations and workshops as well as excellent networking possibilities at the FMX Marketplace, School Campus and Recruiting Hub.

FMX 2012
17th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia

May 8-11, Stuttgart, Germany

Happy Holidays

The New Year is just around the corner ...and so is FMX! Each year thousands of visitors descend on FMX for the same reason - a passion for animation, effects, games and transmedia; combined with the opportunity to listen to the most exciting speakers in the industry! The program for 2012 is coming together nicely, now we can let you know some of what's in store next May...

Notice anything new about the FMX homepage? We have re-launched the FMX site for 2012 featuring our fabulous new trailer motifs and heaps of information how you can get involved.

New 2012 Trailer: Globosome

The new trailer for FMX 2012 has been released - we think it's stunning! In the vastness of space, there's a small speck of rock inhabited by the most peculiar life forms: Dark little dots that start to replicate fast and begin to show signs of intelligence. Globosome tells the story of the rise and fall of these little creatures. The trailer was created by the Institute of Animation's Diploma-year student, Sascha Geddert:

"The film is inspired by the special time we're living through on our own planet. I wondered what makes humans actually different from bacteria in a petri dish. Surely we have culture, science and art but what does remain of these achievements if you look at our world from a global perspective."

The trailer is completely realised in 3ds Max in Stereoscopic 3D. A vast collection of plugins was used for rendering, atmospherics, plants and the control of thousands of jumping dots. Controlling the crowds was one of the most challenging aspects of the film all together with the sheer amount of work caused by the depiction of a world in constant transformation.

If you haven't already been mesmerized already by Globosome, go and watch it immediately...

You may have noticed we've changed our subtitle - well, we've got to keep up with what's happening in the industry! Our program is taking shape and we'd like to share some of our interests for 2012: FMX encourages debate on topics as diverse as Virtual Production, Previs, Transmedia, Lighting and Rendering, Visual Effects in TV, Industrial CG, Character Animation in Games, Effects produced in Europe & India and Digital Worldbuilding by inviting speakers across these disciplines.

We are excited to announce the date for FMX 2012, the 17th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Transmedia: May 8-11, 2012.