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

May 8-11, Stuttgart, Germany

Newsletter #3 - January 2012

While winter continues to freeze our feet, the FMX program is already beginning to blossom. New speakers confirm their attendance, and further exciting presentations and screenings fill desks and desktops at our FMX house. Just to give you an impression of the fantastic specialist crowd we are currently gathering at FMX: The internationally renowned media scholar and Transmedia pioneer Prof. Henry Jenkins has already confirmed his coming! What's more, we're happy to announce that Autodesk is now the first official Main Partner of this year's exciting FMX.

Here we go again! It's May again, so time to travel to Stuttgart, Germany to meet, to listen, to open the eyes and the minds, to feel the sense of wonder, the pulse of the future and to be amazed by the achievements of the many professionals, as well as those of the bold young students, who present their work. For the 15^th time the Conference on Animation, Effects, Games & Interactive Media starts today and — business as usual — this year's program let your mouth drool, if you are a big fan of those wondrous worlds.

Fifteen editions ago, in 1994, the small and tiny “Film and Medienbörse Stuttgart” was held for the very first time – Prof. Thomas Haegele and his team decided to translate the German term into English and the “Film and Media eXchange” in short FMX was born.

 

 

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.

AWNtv has posted sneak peeks of the interviews and attractions of day one through four of FMX 2010. Hear words of wisdom and impressions of the event from industry superstars like Marc Weigert, Volker Engel, Tim Sarnoff, Bruno Velazquez, David Schaub, Bruce W. Smith, Hendrickson, John Bruno, Stuart Sumida, Ben Grossman, David Sproxton, Mohen Leo, Victoria Alonso and Ed Hooks.

View them all at the FMX Channel on AWNtv!

 

 

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.

written by Johannes Wolters

You know what´s interesting about the fmx?. You stay there in the foyer, in the halls, you have this big accessibility to each and everyone. So I found myself talking to one of the big visual effects designers of this planet.

Kevin Tod Haugs worked on "Quantum of Solace," "The Kite Runner," "Finding Neverland," "Panic Room" and many more. An his opinion about the stereoscopic films is a technical one: “I just find it heartbreaking, that after years and years and years of dealing with resolution, we are finally getting to the point, where its 2k or 4k, we could make choices, its all gonna be fine, we get digital cameras, we get rid of scanning, its all gonna be fine and then we have to make it twice as complicated. Just, when its gonna be easy, we have to make it hard.”

 

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!

Where to begin? Information overload. Day 2. Fmx09.

The fmx may not be as big as SIGGRAPH, but like an American professional stated, it is superbly organized, which makes it a truly wonderful event throughout the world of Visual Effects, Animation, Games and Digital Media. Steffen Wild presented the work and the developments inside the beloved World of Jim Henson Muppets today. The famous creature shop made it bold steps into the digital realm, carefully keeping the original muppet touch alive. Like Jim Henson told his staff “Have an Idea? We try it out. Never be afraid of failure”. The successful use of digital puppeteering was successful used on the TV-show “Sid the Science Kid”. 40 episodes, together 20 hours had to be put together within only one year. Key to the success: strong characters, the excellent collaboration between the puppeteers, the use of live action disciplines, the clever utilization of new technology and a perfect real-world-compatibility. Just doing digital puppets the muppet way. On the live stage up to six characters can now be handled at the same time datawise. All to create webisodes, commercials, Television shows and direct-to-dvd material at the moment. And of course at some point in the future creating a feature film with a hybrid approach.

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.