fmx/06, the 11th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content, will take place May 3-6, 2006, in Stuttgart, Germany.
Topics include the latest animated movies and vfx features, the convergence of games and movies, new fields of work for animators, the latest use of realtime graphics and current trends from the Far East. There is also new cooperation with the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, with overlapping programs, in addition to the festival award ceremony coinciding with the opening of fmx/06 on the evening of May 2.
Beginning this year, there will be a regular Virtual Humans Forum, which will include insights from Christophe Hery, lead research & development engineer, ILM; Mark Sagar, special projects supervisor for KING KONG, Weta Digital; George Borshukov, former technology supervisor for THE MATRIX trilogy, who recently moved to Electronic Arts.
Matt Aitken and other members of Weta Digital will participate in a special event as part of the Effects section. Other Effects participants will include Bill Westenhofer, vfx supervisor from Rhythm & Hues (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA) and Jeff Kleiser from Kleiser-Walczak.
DreamWorks will once again take part in the Animation section. In the expanded Games section, Jordan Mechner, game creator and screenwriter (PRINCE OF PERSIA), will be the keynote speaker. Lorne Lanning, president and creative director of Oddworld Inhabitants USA and creator of ABE'S ODYSSEY, will talk about convergence of games and films. Scot Brew, senior art technical director at LucasArts, will address production pipelines and technologies issues for next-gen games. Lee Sheldon, author of the reference book, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND STORYTELLING FOR GAMES, will discuss emotion in games.
The topic Digital Cinema will be presented in the context of the new fmx/technologies, by renowned companies such as Grass Valley, Quantel and Sony.
Sections include:* fmx/conference: with fmx/essentials and fmx/talks about Animation, Effects, Games and Production issues.* fmx/forum: fmx/expo, fmx/workshops and fmx/suites with all relevant hard and software vendors, fmx/technologies - focusing on Digital Cinema and Rendering.* fmx/talents: the successful Recruiting Event bringing students, graduates and freelancers together with specialists from German and international animation, post-production and game companies, European Talents and Eyes & Ears Junior Showcase.* fmx/events: Partner Events such as the animago AWARD:2006 by the trade magazine DIGITAL PRODUCTION, the Visualization workshop by MFG, Baden-Wuerttemberg, flashconference and "Developing Interactive Narrative Content" seminar from sagasnet.
Realtime Film Festival includes: * Realtime Screenings of selected submissions for the competition. * Realtime Sessions and Realtime Awards in the following categories: Cut Scenes, Flash, Machinima, Demos and VJ Visuals.
Organized by the Institute of Animation, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, fmx/06 (www.fmx.de) is a non-profit event, funded by the Staatsministerium Baden-Wuerttemberg, MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Wuerttemberg and FFA Filmfoerderungsanstalt, and supported by many partners from the industry. For fmx/06, the Institute of Animation is cooperating, for the first time, with the French company NX Publishing, which was previously responsible for the program and organization of Imagina. fmx is also supported by DIGITAL PRODUCTION, Eyes & Ears of Europe, sagasnet, flashconference and other media partners.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
