16th Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Interactive Media

FMX 2011

May 3-6, 2011.

Stuttgart, Germany.

The 16th FMX Conference on Animation, Games, Effects and

Interactive Media ended yesterday achieving remarkable successes! FMX 2011

brought in larger crowds than ever before, with 3,500 visitors attending each

day. The increase in visitor numbers has been overwhelming; during the

conference extra special efforts were introduced to keep up with the demand.

The conference included high profile animated films such as

"Rango", "Cars 2" and "Rio". Oscar-winning

"Black Swan" and "The King's Speech" and forthcoming movies

such as Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous". Technical discussions

surrounding Transmedia, Global Production, Open Source and Virtual Humans

remained constant topics during the conference. FMX has developed into one of

the world's greatest conferences the successes of FMX can be attributed to the

quality of the speakers and the convergence that exists betweens all of these

areas. FMX fosters relationships in the industry and unites first-class

speakers with students and professionals - especially those travelling from the

USA and Australasia.

Volker

Engel, Visual Effects Supervisor and co-founder of Uncharted

Territory described FMX, "I

am super happy to see that more and more great artists and speakers from all

over the world come to FMX and everyone influences each other".

Throughout the inspiring conference many topics fundamental to

the development of the industry were discussed in lectures, panels and

presentations. FMX 2011 has once again been at the forefront of the animation,

effects and games industries. Visitors to FMX enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere

allowing them to network freely and publicize the latest developments. Tim Alexander, VFX

Supervisor, Industrial Light & Magic commented, "I've been really impressed with all the panels

and I've been learning a lot; the panels are really diverse. It's a great

experience!"

Prof.

Thomas Haegele, FMX Conference Chair commented on the successes

this year, "FMX 2011

was highly successful, I am very pleased that FMX provides exceptional

networking opportunities for the audience and for the speakers to exchange

ideas freely. It is a wonderful achievement that Stuttgart plays host for 4

days to an elite crowd of international animation professionals from all over

the world".

Visitor numbers increased this year to 3,500 attendees per day,

including more than 250 speakers. This comprised of approximately 60%

professionals and 40% students, from 49 countries and reflected the interest in

the conference topics and the potential recruitment opportunities. Despite the

increase in capacity the conference managed to cope with the increase in

visitor numbers reaching maximum capacity in the Haus der Wirtschaft.

Harry

Potter Tribute

The exclusive FMX Harry Potter Tribute proved to be extremely

popular this year, the tribute honoured the completion of the series. For 10

years the Harry Potter Films have captivated audiences. The presentations

focused on the franchise's impact on global VFX production as well as

highlighting the evolvement of look, tools and technology over the years. FMX

attendees were shown exclusive scenes ahead of the release of "Harry

Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2". Visitors were shown footage of a

majestic dragon flying over London and then bursting through the huge dome of

Gringotts Wizarding Bank in London.

Case

Studies

FMX Case Studies featured some of the most exciting

developments from Lighting and Rendering and Visual Effects. Mohit Kallianpur,

Walt Disney Animation, presented on Disney's "Tangled" and provided

an inside look at the visual challenges and inspirations of creating a world

around Rapunzel, the girl 70 feet of hair. Andrew Beddini, Blue Sky Studios,

discussed creating the look of Blue Sky Studios' latest animated hit,

"Rio". Tim

Alexander, Industrial Light & Magic and Patrick Cohen,

Lucasfilm Singapore, talked about the production of ILM's first animated

feature "Rango". Thomas

Zauner, ScanlineVFX, revealed the developments in CG water

technology and how they were used in "Hereafter". Volker Engel,

Uncharted Territory gave an exciting presentation on Roland Emmerich's period

thriller "Anonymous", ahead of the general release in October 2011.

Open

Source

The use of open source in the hardware and software industries

is rapidly expanding, with Hollywood's top studios continuing to make

contributions to open source projects. Dan

Candela, director of Technology for Walt Disney Animation

Studios, was joined by Marc

Petit (Autodesk), Sebastian

Sylwan (Weta) and Rob

Bredow (SPI) to give their perspectives on open source and its

involvement in the post production process from an infrastructure standpoint in

order to make workflow more efficient.

Exclusively at FMX 2011 Dan

Candela announced several new open source initiatives which

will be released in 2011. Disney Animation has created a ready-to-animate

character "Dee"; a pre-rigged Maya model that has taken a lot of time

to develop. Alongside this they will offer "SeExpr", a universal

expression language that can be used in a variety of packages; it is currently

used in-house at Disney.

Stereo

3D

This year FMX took a fresh look at Stereo 3D, looking at how

this can be used as a storytelling tool and how far this has progressed beyond

the big screen into wider-contexts. 3D for Theme Parks featured Sebastian Sylwan who

discussed the unique design challenges faced while producing "King Kong 360-3D"

and the creative solutions that were applied to deliver one of the world's

largest stereo experiences. David

Cohen, Variety, reported in his lecture the history of 3D

Stereo technology and revealed the struggle of the film industry to master 3D,

and how today's 3D issues echo those of the past.

New

Trends in Games

In the games track, contributors from the Academy of

Interactive Arts & Sciences and Quo Vadis conversed on the most significant

changes in the gaming industry. Presentations included amongst others Joseph Olin, President

Emeritus, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, on how gaming culture is

transforming to the point of cultural significance; Benjamin Joffe,

Cmune, presented on Uberstrike - the largest 3D First-Person-Shooter on

Facebook and Boyd

Multerer, Xbox Platform Microsoft, reported on how transmedia

is affecting the entire gaming industry as well as TV and mobile devices. 

Developments in Stereoscopic 3D Games were discussed including contributions

from Sebastien

Schertenleib, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Dr. Bill Kapralos,

University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

Fantastic

Forums

The Schools

Campus

featured 26 schools, from countries including Austria, Denmark, France, Great

Britain, Hungary, Switzerland and the USA. The engaging School Presentations

allowed schools and graduates to present their projects to the wider community

while picking up praise along the way.

The Recruitment Hub was

an important aspect to the conference, having quickly established itself as the

premier European job fair for the animation, games, visual effects and

interactive media industries. Visitors took advantage of the bursting

recruitment presentations to improve on their application skills and discover

how to make an application successful. Company

Suites included packed presentations from Autodesk, Adobe

Systems, The Foundry and weltenbauer. Many companies recorded receiving 200

applications per day! The bustling Trade Floor featured interesting new tools

focusing on Research and Development, demonstrating the future developments in

the industry