Suttgart, Germany -- 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 3D animated comedy Monster's University, the prequel to 2001's Monsters, Inc., is released June 21st. The highly anticipated movie is preceded by the Disney Pixar short The Blue Umbrella. Two months before the actual release date, Director and Script-Writer Saschka Unseld, who successfully completed his studies at the Institute of Animation at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2004 and started working at Pixar in Los Angeles in 2008, presents the short film at FMX. Unseld sheds light on the original idea behind the love story between two umbrellas in the pouring rain in a making-of presentation from both an artistic and a technical perspective. Furthermore, Unseld's Pixar colleague and curator Christophe Hery discusses Lighting & Rendering questions in The Blue Umbrella as well as other movies, while Production Manager Joshua Hollander gives an overview of the technical, production and creative processes behind Pixar's stereoscopic releases. Furthermore, Alexander Nehls, Character TD at Pixar, dedicates his presentation to simulation in Brave, the animated adventure that fascinated cinema visitors of all ages in 2012 and received an Academy Award in the Category "Best Animated Feature Film" last Sunday for its innovative realization.

Jon Peddie, digital media pioneer, much-cited specialist author and computer graphics marketer, gives two presentations at FMX. In his keynote for the "Cloud Computing" series curated by NVIDIA ARC's Ludwig von Reiche, the Jon Peddie Research (JPR) founder explores what Cloud Computing means for design, animation, visual effects and neighboring industries. Peddie demonstrates how devices, displays and other gadgets for immersive and augmented reality experiences in different environments offer new visionary perspectives for design and communication. Peddie is supported by JPR Vice President Kathleen Maher who also presents a talk on "Managing and Making Entertainment" that illustrates the advantages and challenges involved in the creation of digital content in the Cloud. The "New Technology" series features another presentation where Peddie gives a global overview of the latest technical changes triggered by the ongoing paradigm shift.