fmx/09: 14th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media May 05-08, 2009 Haus der Wirtschaft, Stuttgart , Germany www.fmx.de
fmx/news #4 from April 08, 2009
Preparations in full swing!
fmx/09 is only 4 weeks from now! Be sure to bring enough time, for the conference starts Tuesday, May 05 at 10:00 a.m. and ends Friday, May 08 at 7:00 p.m. Check out our schedule and share our anticipation.
In this Edition:
Pick your favorites - the fmx/conference program
Pick your favorites - the fmx/conference program
May the force be with us! The German garrison of Darth Vader's 501st legion has dispatched stormtroopers and other Star Wars figures to bring a galactic touch to the opening day of fmx/09 and the talk by Xavier Nicolas, Lucasfilm Animation. John Scheele will ring in fmx/09 discussing visualization, while Bob Osher, President of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, and Hannah Minghella, President of Production, Sony Pictures Animation, offer an “Inside Look” at innovative production methods and new projects at both Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Check out this year’s excellent Visual Effects Society (VES) program. VES president Eric Roth talks with Chris deFaria, Executive Vice President, Digital Production, Animation and Visual Effects at Warner Bros. Pictures, about the creative opportunities of new technical options. You can also look forward to an encounter with two true VFX pioneers – the two-time Oscar-winner Richard Edlund (Star Wars, Alien 3, Die Hard) and visual effects designer and supervisor Harrison Ellenshaw (Star Wars, Tron). Further VFX highlights: Habib Zargarpour, Senior Art Director at Electronic Arts, Nicolas Aithadi, VFX supervisor at The Moving Picture Company (Quantum of Solace, Prince Caspian, Sweeney Todd); Tom Rolfe, Double Negative, on Hellboy II: The Golden Army as well as speakers from the French BUF Compagnie on The Dark Knight, Speed Racer and Dante 01 and talks on Ninja Assassin, with visual effects by Pixomondo and Trixter. Bjoern Mayer and Alessandro Cioffi report about the new martial arts blockbuster from director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), produced by the Wachowski brothers (Matrix).
Delve into the world of the Watchmen in an afternoon special on Zack Snyder's adaptation of the cult comic with talks by production designer Alex McDowell (Minority Report, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Corpse Bride) and VFX supervisor John DJ Desjardin while Pete Travers from Sony Pictures Imageworks reveals the making of Doctor Manhattan.
If you want to know how Digital Domain created Brad Pitt's digital old age in the Oscar-winning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, don’t miss the Virtual Humans Forum, where CG supervisor Jonathan Litt and animation supervisor Steve Preeg will pass on their wisdom.
Advancements in 3D Stereo will be brought to you with Bolt, Coraline and Monsters vs. Aliens. Further commercial stereo 3D applications such as games, theme parks, corporate presentations, sports coverage and even home entertainment also have a place in this series of talks.
Don’t miss the 5D sessions at fmx/09, themed to the interaction of creativity and technology in world building and storytelling in visual art, entertainment, and environmental design, including discussion rounds with world-class experts. Among the panel moderators are production designer Alex McDowell, co-director of 5D Conference, whose panel is titled “Creation”; Chris Scoates, director of the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach and co-director of 5D (a panel on “Imagination”); production designer Kim Baumann Larsen, founding partner and creative director of Placebo Effects (“Construction)”; and Tali Krakowsky, director of experience design, who heads a think-tank at WET Design (“Interaction”). Participating among others are: Martyn Ware, Malcolm Garrett and Ed Cookson.
In the fmx/09 games track, Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), is joined by renowned colleagues: 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 Sjøvall from Ubisoft presents 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 on animation are equally top-class. Experience Danielle Feinberg, Pixar, discussing digital camera work in the Oscar award-winner Wall-E and illustrator Michael Faust illuminating the highly-praised animated documentary Waltz With Bashir from Israel. Chris Williams, director of Bolt, examines storytelling, creative director Viktor Antonov presents the European mega-production The Prodigies and Director of Photography Brad Blackbourn from Framestore talks about “Painting with Virtual Light: The Tale of Despereaux”.
Take a detailed dive under the hood in the Tech Talks: 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. Rémi Arnaud and Rita B. Turkowski, Intel, illustrate that real-time gaming technologies have advanced from a handy previsualization tool to an industry pace-maker, whereas Steve Streeting, OGRE, discusses open-source realtime visualization.
Learn about further exciting topics in the track fmx/spotlight:
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 Take a humorous and fascinating glimpse back at the veterans of the industry in Early Days in France. As digital images were first earning their legs in the 80's and early 90's, French companies – among others BUF, Mac Guff Ligne and Médialab – were at the forefront of developments in CGI
Explore current trends in the dynamic relationship between consumer and media in the series Interactive Content Creation. 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.
Join in on the long-standing FMX partner flashconference. In its 11th edition it now presents the most relevant of developments within the popular format, including the integrative approach of experience design, realtime flash apps for multi-user systems as well as noteworthy artistic usage such as the cult Spanish flash comic nikodemo. For more visit www.flashconference.de.
fmx/09 is an event by Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in cooperation with VES Visual Effects Society, AIAS Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, ACM Siggraph and 5D Conference. It is funded by the Ministry of State Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Baden-Wuerttemberg, MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg Public Film Fund & Public Innovation Agency for Information Technology and Media, the FFA German Federal Film Board and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. It is organized by the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and NX Publishing.
Stay informed!
This newsletter informs you about all the current issues concerning fmx/09. You can subscribe & unsubscribe to this newsletter at www.fmx.de.
Imprint:
Publisher: Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg - Institute of Animation - Am Akademiehof 10 - 71638 Ludwigsburg - Germany Editorial staff: Natasa Atanackovic, Karen Kispert, David Maas, Sebastian Sponsel Editor-in-Chief: Thomas Haegele
Contact:
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction Am Akdemiehof 10 71638 Ludwigsburg Germany
For technical questions, please contact our webmaster: viet.nguyen fmx.de, for further information: info fmx.de