Alex McDowell, co-director of 5D: the Immersive Design Conference, coined the term "immersive design" to describe the creation of coherent narrative worlds within a virtual workspace of collaborative teamwork. For the first time in Europe, at fmx/09, 5D will present a track of sessions themed to the interaction of creativity and technology in world building and storytelling in visual art, entertainment, and environmental design with a series of discussion rounds with world-class experts. The 5D panels are hosted by Alex McDowell ("Creation"); Chris Scoates, director of the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach and co-director of the 5D Conference ("Imagination"); production designer Kim Baumann Larsen, founding partner and creative director of Placebo Effects ("Construction"); Alex Laurant, art director, visual designer and concept artist ("Perception"); and Tali Krakowski, director of experience design, who heads a think-tank at WET Design ("Interaction").

Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), has also rounded up renowned colleagues for the fmx/09 Games track. Cinematic director Jim Sonzero (RESIDENT EVIL 5) reveals how to stay relevant in the era of convergence; Matt Aldrich, Art Director at Lucasfilm Animation talks about the JEDI ALLIANCE and THE FORCE UNLEASHED; Jan-Erik Sjovall from Ubisoft talks about PRINCE OF PERSIA; Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Director at Electronic Arts discusses the growing importance of small games and Lyle Hall, Vice President & General Manager at Heavy Iron Studios talks about adapting computer games from the popular Pixar films.

The talks about Animation are equally top-class; Danielle Feinberg, Pixar, discusses digital camera work in the Oscar award-winner WALL-E; illustrator Michael Faust discusses the highly-praised animated documentary WALTZ WITH BASHIR from Israel, creative director Viktor Antonov presents the European mega-production THE PRODIGIES and camera man Brad Blackbourn from Framestore presents "Painting with Virtual Light: THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX."

The Tech Talks take a detailed dive under the hood; Paul E. Debevec, University of Southern California, talks about live facial performance scanning and Parag Havaldar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, about the considerable advancements in motion capturing. Remi Arnaud and Rita B. Turkowski, Intel, illustrate that real-time gaming technologies have advanced from a handy previsualization tool to an industry pace-maker in practically all aspects of CGI and Steve Streeting, OGRE, discusses open-source realtime visualization. Dynamic realtime animation also plays a central role in the presentation of a virtual agent platform by Volker Helzle and Simon Spielmann from the research department of the Institute of Animation, whose very popular tools for facial animation have been publicly available for some years now.

The track fmx/spotlight illuminates further exciting topics:

-- The Echtzeit series, curated by Prof. Robert Rose from the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Faculty of Design
-- Automotive Design with contributions from Mackevision, the Daimler AG and jangled nerves
-- Focus on China, curated by Kevin Geiger, who has gained a wealth of insight into the region through his work as guest professor at the Beijing Film Academy and producer at Magic Dumpling Animation Studios
-- Early Days in France: As digital images were first earning their legs in the 80's and early 90's, French companies were at the forefront of developments in CGI. This glimpse back at the veterans of the industry -- among others BUF, Mac Guff Ligne and Medialab -- is both humorous and fascinating.

The future of animation is interactive. The series Interactive Content explores current trends in the dynamic relationship between consumer and media; Dan Moskowitz, Maxis, discusses SPORE; Inga von Staden, Studies Coordinator of Interactive Media at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg presents "User Generated Media -- Powered by Community" and a top-notch panel discusses the Creative Commons Community.