FMX, Stuttgart’s renowned conference on animation, vfx, games and transmedia is putting the finishing polish on its programming for the 2013 edition, taking place April 23-26 in the German city. According to the event organizers, the key words this year are “lean, smart and agile” with a focus on the ongoing paradigm shift in these closely connected industries.
Highlights will include presentations, workshops and masterclasses by industry pros, the Recruiting Hub, Marketplace and School Campus. Plus spotlights on the vfx of Life of Pi and Cloud Atlas and animation feats like The Croods.
Program Highlights:
Animation
– DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming prehistoric family comedy The Croods (March 22) will be examined with a presentation on lighting techniques in this and other DWA films by R&D team member Eric Tabellion and an animation process overview by vfx supervisor Markus Manninen.
– Andreas Hykade is curating a “Wild ‘n’ Strange” series dedicated to offbeat indie highlights.
– The “Procedural Animation” series will look at the tech side of the artform; five European professionals will elaborate on their work with JavaScript, Flash, WebGL and Real-Time Animation. Flash-platform developer and consultant David Nenaerts (away 3D), creative coder Frederik Vanhoutte, designer and developer Sino Santavirta (Aphex VJ), creative developer Nicolas Barradeau and software developer Felix Woitzel (S&N Datentechnik) have confirmed attendance of the program, curated by Frank Reitberger, creative developer and former head of Flash development at anyMotion Graphics.
VFX
– Ang Lee’s fx Oscar-nominated literary adaptation Life of Pi will be up for discussion as Rhythm & Hues vfx supervisor Bill Westenhofer explains the R&H team’s work on the film. VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron will also illustrate the work MPC did on the film’s impressive storm sequences.
– Another book adaptation is on the table as Rise VFX supervisor Florian Gellinger discusses the studio’s work on the car crash, aircraft explosion and more in Tom Tykwer/the Wachowskis Cloud Atlas.
– Other key tracks will be “Virtual Human Forms”, “VFX in Commercials” and “Simulation”.
Additional focus will be placed on games and transmedia as well as teh questions of multi-platform and production and distribution. This year will see the presentation series “Games: Visual Arts” (curated by Joseph Olin), talks on “Game Cinematics” (curated by netherRealm Studios’ Dominic Cianciolo) and the “Game Characters” (Henry LaBounta, Microsoft), “Real-Time Rendering” (Wolfgang Engel, Confetti) and “Indie Games” (Inga von Staden, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg) tracks. Plus the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Films is taking place April 23-28, featuring an evening program including Oscar nomninated works curated by Barry Purves and insights on the local industry by host country India. ITFS and FMX will also jointly host Animation Production Day for industry pros April 25 and 26.
Learn more at www.fmx.de.
