In addition, Ray Feeney presents a retrospective on the history of Visual Effects. Feeney himself has created and implemented numerous new technologies, many of which have become industry standard techniques. Intimately familiar with Robert Abel and Associates (RA&A) from his time there, Feeney reveals how the innovative work of RA&A continues to influence various VFX developments and processes that are nowadays taken for granted - spanning from full ray-traced renders to fluid character animation.

Men in Black III and Sherlock Holmes 2 

Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) return once more to save the earth when Men in Black III premieres on May 25th. It's the first of the Men in Black movies to be released in 3D. Two weeks before its opening day, Jay Redd, Visual Effects Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, offers an exclusive look behind the scenes of the upcoming science fiction comedy. It's been ten years since Men in Black II conquered the screen and fifteen years since the original MIB first enthused movie goers. Since then, a lot has changed in Visual Effects technologies and approaches. Jay Redd analyzes how the mixing of old-school approaches and new-school techniques were able to create a large-scale, extensive variety of effects from nearly invisible to fully-virtual characters and environments all the while staying true to the spirit, look and feel of the first two films.

With Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows, FMX features yet another successful sequel. Ben White, CG Supervisor at Framestore, dissects several sequences of the blockbuster that stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, highlighting a wide variety of techniques that were used. In his presentation, White pays special heed to the impressive final slow motion waterfall shot.

John Carter: Environments and creatures

FMX is most happy to host three presentations on the adventures of John Carter as part of the "Effects: Showcase" track. Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs's 11-volume Barsoom series, Andrew Stanton's John Carter features over 2.000 visual effect shots delivered by four companies.

The major part of these visual effect shots were produced by Double Negative. Their Visual Effects Supervisor and Co-Founder Peter Chiang discusses how to raise the bar of visual effects production in his presentation "Creating the world of John Carter." In a similar manner, his colleague Ken McGaugh, Visual Effects Supervisor, explains how his team brought to life CG characters and creatures inhabiting the red planet. McGaugh speaks about the challenges of taking the various Tharks, Thoates, Woola and the white apes all the way from initial concepts, through modeling and rigging, and into animation.
Moreover, the British company Cinesite, which produced over 800 visual effect shots and converted over 87 minutes of the final film into 3D, will presents its approach to John Carter. Sue Rowe, Cinesite's Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, reveals how her team created a considerable part of the film's environments, amongst others the warring cities of Zodanga and Helium, the Thern Sanctuary, the big air battle and full-screen digi-doubles of John Carter and Princess Dejah.

Icy entertainment: Ice Age 4 & Arthur Christmas

The Ice Age movies, which were produced by Blue Sky Studios, rank among the most successful animation series of all times. The fourth installment Ice Age: Continental drift, which premieres July 13th, will continue this unique success story.