You can find the program for fmx/07, the 12th International conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content, online at the website. The Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart will once again host the international digital community from May 1-4.
Highlights include:
* Making-of presentations for SPIDER-MAN 3 (Sony Pictures Imageworks), 300 (with vfx supervisor Chris Watts and Stephan Trojansky, Scanline), POSEIDON (Scanline & Moving Pictures Co.), PAN'S LABYRINTH (Framestore Animation), CHARLOTTE'S WEB (Rising Sun Pictures), ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES (BUF), DRAGON HUNTERS (Trixter/Futurikon), AZUR AND ASMAR (Mac Guff) and FLUSHED AWAY (Aardman Animations)
* The games' arena includes talks from Matthew Jeffery on the future of gaming and the gaming industry as well as Henry LaBounta on intelligent, believable characters (both Electronic Arts); LucasArts and Natural Motion talk on Dynamic Motion Synthesis in next-generation games; Lionhead Animation presents its work (BLACK & WHITE 2, FABLE 2), Midway Games talk on cinematic game design and Disney & Buena Vista Games to present MEET THE ROBINSONS.
* Other talks focus on new techniques and trends, including speakers such as Jean-Charles Hourcade, Thomson -- the media corporation encompassing companies such as Technicolor, Grass Valley and MPC -- and Paul Debevec, University of Southern California, who will present research on face scanning and rendering.
* fmx/essentials 2007 consists of two specialist forums -- the Virtual Humans Forum (with presentations from ILM's Christophe Héry, George Borshukov, EA's CG supervisor, Thomas Kang, senior consultant and engineer at Softimage and Face Robot developer, Volker Helzle, research projects director at the Ludwigsburg Institute of Animation, among others), and the Digital Cinema Day, curated by Katja Hofmann and dedicated to both stereoscopic films and the complete workflow of digital cinema, from pre-production through to distribution and projection.
* fmx/technologies offers in-depth looks at the newest technical developments, including interactive realtime animation and improved rendering.
* fmx/talents is a platform for new generations of talent -- project concepts will be pitched to a jury of decision-makers from production companies and broadcasters in European Talents, international film and animation schools present themselves in the School Offerings curated by Eric Riewer (Gobelins, France) and the Eyes & Ears Junior Showcase presents up-and-coming design talent.
* The new series fmx/review is committed to recent upheavals in the world of animation -- with current analysis of web2.0's virtual universe, including Second Life, the notable advances in performance capture and talks covering the history of visual effects and computer animation.
* fmx/forum focuses on applied knowledge with a top lineup of companies and speakers at the exhibition fmx/expo, the hands-on fmx/workshops and the fmx/suites with Adobe and Autodesk. Autodesk, for example, is preparing offerings as diverse as the myriad tasks asked of CG artists today -- from games and visualization, from archaeology and architecture to the virtual world of Papermint or the vfx from THE RED BARON.
* Last year's fmx/recruiting likely advanced to the most attractive contact and job platform in Europe. International studios, vfx and post-production houses look to the panels, desks and sessions offered here to help them find the talent they need. This year, this includes Aardman Animations, Crytek, Datascope Recruitment, Disney, Double Negative Visual Effects, DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, Framestore CFC, LIGA_01 Computerfilm, Lionhead Studios, Locomotion, LucasArts, Mackevision Medien Design, Parasol Island, Pixomondo, RTT, Scanline VFX, Sony Picture Imageworks, Trixter and Unexpected.
* The Animation Production Day 2007 is an event by the14th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film and fmx/07 in cooperation with Michael Schmetz Mediaconsult. For more information visit: www.animationproductionday.de.
* 9th flashconference at fmx/events--The largest German event focusing on the Macromedia flash format is now integrated in fmx. And once again it offers an outstanding overview of the newest developments in this prominent animation format.
fmx/07 (www.fmx.de) is organized by the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. It is generously supported by the Staatsministerium Baden-Württemberg, the Wirtschaftsministerium Baden-Württemberg, the MFG Medien -- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and the FFA German Federal Film Board.
fmx/07 partners include the 14th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, ACM SIGGRAPH, NXPublishing, the Stuttgart Media University (HdM) and Gobelins, L'école de l'image.
fmx/07 event partners are Eyes & Ears of Europe, sagasnet and flash conference.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
