What's new with FMX?

++ Focus UK, Focus China and Focus Scandinavia +++

In the Focus tracks FMX concentrates on individual regions. The Focus UK features Simon Stanley-Clamp (Cinesite) and Gary Brozenich (MPC) both on "Clash of the Titans" as well as Jonathan Fawkner (Framestore) on "Sherlock Holmes", Taylor James on CGI in 360° Advertising and Nexus Productions on Realtime Interactivity for Music, Broadcast and Art. The Focus China will include presentations by Kevin Geiger and Wen Feng (both Magic Dumpling Entertainment), as well as the Beijing Film Academy, Times Zuo You Animation Studio, Beijing Jin Ding Animation Studio, Int'l Copyright Exchange of China, Beijing Film Animation Association and Beijing Bureau of Radio, Film & TV. And last but not least the program also embraces the Focus Hamburg and Focus Scandinavia.

++ flashconference returns to FMX 2010 +++

The 12th edition of the flashconference will address the most recent developments for flash features and their application in games, film and TV, design, in-depth programming, art and iPhone apps. Don't miss Seb Lee-Delisle (Plug-in Media) on 3D flash games, Clayton Miller on complexity and abstraction in Uls, Florian Feiler on Creating and publishing an iPhone App and last but not least Raul Escolano (Nikomedo Animation) on flash animation from web to TV.

++ Joined forces: FMX and Quo Vadis +++

For the very first year, FMX 2010 and Quo Vadis developer's conference form a partnership by exchanging programs at their events. The Quo Vadis track at FMX will cover new developments in browser-based games with speakers such as Bernhard Falch, Managing Director at Sulake Germany, talking about "Habbo Hotel", Carsten van Husen, Head of Publishing at Gameforge and Oliver Heins, Producer at Bigpoint. The FMX track at Quo Vadis will present talks by Hannes Appell and Margherita Balzerani. Quo Vadis takes place April, 27 - 29 at the Berlin Congress Center.

++ Meet top names in the Company Showcase +++

In the Company Showcase global players present their very individual program. Be sure not to miss Autodesk, Chaos Group with Mackevision on V-Ray, NVIDIA, Pixar Animation Studios, the Echtzeit Lounge by Deutsche Telekom and the Faculty of Design at the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Walt Disney Animation Studios and last but not least: The Foundry.

++ Recruiting boasts 23 companies +++

Find out what jobs are coming up in the Recruiting Presentations and collect first-hand information from recruiters talking about corporate culture, job prerequisites, upcoming productions and the specific qualifications that their companies are looking for. You want to hook up with recruiters face-to-face and make most of your time? Then check out the Recruiting Desks and get in touch with attending recruiters ahead of time for appointments.
In a laid-back atmosphere of casual encounter, find out where to join the team: Aardman Animations, Animal Logic, ARRI visual effects, Black Rock Studio, Blue Sky Studios, Cinesite, Crytek, Deutsche Telekom, Double Negative, DreamWorks, Framestore, Ilion Animation Studios, Imageworks, LIGA_01 Computerfilm, Mackevision, MPC, Pixomondo, rise | Fx, RTT, ScanlineVFX, The Mill, Trixter Film, Ubisoft Studios, unexpected and Walt Disney Animation Studios.

++ MFG Games Track and MFG Education Track at FMX +++

Baden-Württemberg is one of the leading research locations in the field of visualization and simulation technologies and attracts many creative creative industries such as games. MFG Innovation Agency for ICT and Media Baden-Wuerttemberg hosts and presents the MFG Games Track to give young game companies from the region an opportunity to present their products and visions to an international audience. MFG Film Funding Baden-Wuerttemberg presents the Education Track where expectations and requirements in education and recruiting will be discussed. Sony Pictures Imageworks will send Don Levy and Ken Maruyama to explain education in the Age of Imagination with their IPAX Program. Following their presentation is a panel where school meets industry to discuss the challenges of today's teaching and recruiting.

++ School Campus features 22 schools +++

This year 22 schools from seven countries (Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and New Zealand) will be present at FMX with School Desks. Visitors can talk directly with trainers and inform themselves on their programs or exchange their experiences with students, other talents or professionals that might drop by as well. Some schools provide deeper insights on curriculum information, student films, making-ofs or results of academic research in their School Presentations.

++ Focus Hamburg +++

Every year FMX offers a special focus on the animation and VFX industry of a specific German region. This year, some of the most successful companies from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, present their newest projects and represent the region’s thriving creative business. We are happy to welcome Pablo Bach (LIGA_01 Computerfilm), Mate Steinforth (Sehsucht) and 3D-Artist Tim Borgmann.

++ Send your birthday wishes - make a video +++

FMX celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2010! And on this occasion we have launched something special: The FMX YouTube channel. Here you will be able to watch past trailers and many other clips. If you want to send us your birthday wishes by making a fun short (0.5 - 2 mins), just go here and upload your video.

++ "Alice in Wonderland", "Avatar", "District 9", "Iron Man 2", and "Shutter Island" +++

FMX 2010 features four hybrid movies, starting with a "2012" special including presentations by Volker Engel and Marc Weigert, Thomas Zauner (Scanline) and Rainer Gombos (Pixomondo). Or you can start with the full Screening of Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" and enjoy the following talks. John Bruno, Paul Kavanagh (ILM) and Shawn Dunn (Weta) will be presenting on "Avatar". Effects will include a talk on "Iron Man 2" by ILM speakers Ben Snow and Mohen Leo as well as a presentation by Executive Vice President of Visual Effects & Post Production at Marvel Studios Victoria Alonso. The VES Talks will be hosted by Eric Roth (President Visual Effects Society) and feature Andy Hendrickson (CTO Walt Disney Animation Studios), Dan Kaufman on "District 9" and Ben Grossman (Syndicate/ CafeFX) on "Shutter Island". And don't miss John Bruno's second talk in which he will share his experience of 25 years working with James Cameron.

++ 3D Stereo +++

In the 3D Stereo special you can join presentations on even more box-office hits: Sony Pictures Imageworks will explain the transformation to Alice in Stereoland. Jayme Wilkinson (Blue Sky) will present on "Ice Age 3", Bob Whitehill (Pixar) on Stereo in "Up", "Toy Story" and "Toy Story II", and Anthony Shafer (IMD) will open a New Dimension in Storytelling in "A Christmas Carol". Stereo offers new ways to see things, as we will hear by François Garnier, presenting on the new Wim Wenders movie "Pina", among others. For recent productions, there are a lot of challenges, transforming footage from 2D to 3D. Addressing this issue, Tomi Luostarinen (Stereoscape) will let us meet the "Moomins" and Martin Hobbs (Primefocus) explains Pre-production for 2D to Stereo 3D Conversion. And Michael Coldewey and Georg Wieland (both Trixter) will share their achievements in Converting Film into the 3rd Dimension. We will hear more about new ways of design, technology and plot with 3D Stereo for Games from Neil Schneider and Andrew Oliver of Blitz Games and Samuel Gateau (Nvidia) among others. Jens Schöbel (Crytek) addresses new ways of creating virtual worlds to make the player feel completely immersed in the action of the game.

++ Games +++

More presentations on games are hosted by Joseph Olin (President AIAS) in the AIAS Visual Arts track. Don't miss Christophe Brusseaux (Quantic Dreams) explain how art was used to create a movie experience in the game "Heavy Rain", or David Hego (Rocksteady) who will illuminate art direction for "Batman: Arkham Asylum".Art director Saku Lehtinen (Remedy Entertainment) will talk about the audiovisual experience offered by "Alan Wake". Presenting on the most anticipated game of 2010: "God of War 3" will be Lead Animator Bruno Velazquez (Sony Santa Monica) and Senior Staff Programmer Ben Diamand (Sony). For the very first year, FMX initiated a partnership with the Quo Vadis Conference, one of the most attended game developers' conferences in Germany. And last but not least, FMX also offers a platform for the MFG Games Track.

++ Animation +++

In the animation talks Simon Otto (Dreamworks Animation) will discuss his work on "How to Train Your Dragon". We will have Javier Romero (Illion) present on "Planet 51" as well as Mark Hammel  and Leo Sanchez Barbosa (both Disney Animation) on "Tangled". Disney will be present with another talk on "The Princess and the Frog" by Bruce Smith. Aardman will send Dave Alex Riddet and Bram Ttwheam for a presentation on "A Matter of Loaf and Death" and David Sproxton who will host a Panel on Archive.

++ Visualization and 5D +++

Visualization will be the topic for two different tracks. The Visualization & Film track will cover recent issues in virtual moviemaking. Among others, Ron Frankel (Proof Inc.), Kevin Tod Haug (FX Cartel), Maurice Patel (Autodesk) and Anthony Shafer (IMD) will talk on the challenges of producing movies easier, faster and more effectively by integrating realtime visualization. Visualization & Design will be hosted by Thomas Mueller (Autodesk) and covers topics like digital architectural design, pipeline set-ups and virtual cities.
The 5D|Europe Track will be curated by Tali Krakowsky and includes panels on World-Building as Culture, Interface as World and Play as Life with speakers such as Dave Gibbons ("Watchmen") and Don Marinelli (Carnegie Mellon University) among others.

++ Global Production and Siggraph Papers +++

The track on Global Production features the Retrospective: 35 Years of ILM, presented by their President & General Manager Lynwen Brennan, and ILM's Strategic Collaboration on a Global Scale. Furthermore Tim Sarnoff (Technicolor) explains Working Across the Globe while Ken Ralston returns for a second talk with David Schaub (both Sony Pictures Imageworks) to take you through a remarkable odyssey from initial conversations with the director, through design and final production for "Alice in Wonderland".
For the first time FMX collaborates with Siggraph presenting Papers from the 2009 Siggraph conferences. The track is hosted by Paul Debevec (USC Institute for Creative Technologies) including presentations by Ken Perlin (NYU Computer Science), Christian Theobalt (MPI Informatik), Jean-Francois Lalonde (Carnegie Mellon University), Adam Finkelstein (Princeton University) and Ramesh Raskar (MIT Media Lab).

There is a lot more in the program, so be sure not to miss the next newsletter and have fun clicking through the program.

++ Deadline: 360º Co-Production Market – Call for Projects +++

FMX 2010 calls for producers and artists to submit their multi-platform projects in order to present themselves and their projects at the 360º Co-Production Market. The market will enable media production companies to find co-producers from other media sectors for their multi-platform projects and ventures. Deadline for the sumissions is April 9th 2010.
The presentations will be flanked by a series of lectures and case studies on crossmedia content development, multi-platform production and the emerging business models. For more information, go here.

++ More top notch speakers confirmed +++

FMX is glad to welcome Daniel Jeanette, Animation Director and Visual Effects Supervisor on “Where the Wild Things Are” and Simon Otto, Head of Character Animation for DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon”. Other newly confirmed speakers are the Stereoscopic Supervisors Jayme Wilkinson (“Ice Age 3”) and Anthony Shafer (“A Christmas Carol”) and Todd Masters, who will talk on Prosthetics and SFX. Noel Sharkey, who is Professor of Artifical Intelligence, Robotics and of Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield, will discuss the question “How likely is it that one day we will have robot surrogates or robot avatars (robatars) representing us in the world?”

++ And the winners are… - Oscars, VES and Annies go FMX +++

And there are even more excellent speakers! Come and enjoy presentations by Oscar and VES Awards winner Joe Letteri on “Avatar”, Bruce Smith on the Annie Awards winning “The Princess and the Frog” and Bob Whitehill, Stereoscopic Supervisor for the double Oscar winner “Up”. The Oscar nominated film “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” will be represented by Paul Docherty.

++ Bring your skills to the next level - Masterclasses at FMX +++

In the Masterclasses visitors get the perfect opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge directly from experts in the industry. Detailed presentations will let you bring your skills to the next level:

- Joseph Gilland with “Elemental Magic - The Art of Special Effects Animation”
- Ed Hooks with “Acting for Animators”
- Kevin Todd Haug with “Surfing Paradigm Shifts: A Guide for Would-Be VFX Pros”
- Side Effects Software with “Go Procedural with Houdini”

++ Siggraph CAF and invaZion at FMX +++

Two hours of the best of the Juried screenings, as well as a few selections from their reel of Invited Studio screenings will be presented by the Siggraph Computer Animation Festival (CAF) in the Screenings section of FMX 2010. You will be able to see all award winners, most of the nominees, and some pieces they just had to include! And you still have a chance to submit your work here: please be aware of the submission deadline for animations on April 19. CAF has also launched the new Animation Clinic, a workshop for student thesis projects in development. The submission deadline for this workshop is May 10.
At FMX 2010, you can also join the award ceremony of the invaZion 2010 3-D Short Film Challenge, created by more3D, in the FMX 2010 Events section. With a high class jury including major Hollywood studios and prizes worth over € 20.000 from FMX, Panasonic, The Foundry and more3D, it's one of the most exciting contests for stereoscopic shorts today. Register and submit your commercial or non-commercial 3-D short film in March 2010 at www.invazion.org to be eligible for one of the awards in "Stereoscopic Storytelling", "Excellence in Visual Art" or the "Best Overall" grand prize.

++ Register and participate +++

Please mark FMX in your calendars and register on our website for your visit to FMX.
You can also benefit from the last chance to contribute to the event if you contact us before March 01.

++ Joe Letteri special guest at FMX 2010 +++

You simply cannot ignore "Avatar" these days: as most successful movie of all times, it has now been nominated for 9 Oscars, breaking new ground in technology and design. Senior Visual Effects Supervisor for Avatar Joe Letteri has now received his 5th Oscar nomination and already won Academy Awards for his work on Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and King Kong. At FMX Joe Letteri will talk on how he created the world of Pandora in James Cameron's masterpiece. Emmerich's "2012" will also be at FMX at large scale: Visual effects supervisors Volker Engel and Marc Weigert will discuss the blockbuster's effects work, while Pixomondo will talk about pre-vis.

++ Recruiting lines up top names +++

Our Recruiting section is growing constantly. So far Aardman, Animal Logic, ARRI, Black Rock Studio, Cinesite, Crytek, Disney, Double Negative, DreamWorks, Framestore, Ilion Animation Studios, Imageworks, Mackevision, MPC, Pixar, Pixomondo, Red Vision, rise|fx, RTT, ScanlineVFX, Trixter, Ubisoft and unexpected have confirmed their participation. Ramping up for shows to come, some will be present to up to four days in the Recruiting. We are glad to welcome them at FMX 2010!

++ 3D stereo is everywhere +++

Animation films have been integrating 3D for years already. Bob Whitehill, Stereoscopic Supervisor on Disney/Pixar's "UP", is a 3D expert and will share his special knowledge at FMX this year. Expanding its function as dramatic device in life action movies only, 3D has become the base for many other fields of digital imagery. FMX will have a presentation on "The Eye - Life and Science on Cerro Paranal", a documentary fully filmed 3D. Managing Director of KUK Filmproduktion Josef Kluger will discuss the new grammar for 3D stereo language and illuminate the freedom and limits of stereoscopy.

++ Technology enables art, content and design +++

CTO of Disney Animation Studios Andy Hendrickson, will share his view on the influence of technology on art, content and design, especially taking into consideration most recent developments such as stereo 3D, simulation sciences and non-photorealistic rendering among others.

++ VES partners with FMX - News on VES Awards +++

The Visual Effects Society (VES) will host presentations in the Effects section of the FMX program again. Before contributing to our event in May, VES is pleased to announce the 8th Annual VES Awards on February 28 in Los Angeles where James Cameron will be honored with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Dr. Ed Catmull will receive the VES Melies Award for Pioneering. To find out more about the Awards, click here.

++ InvaZion supports FMX 2010 +++

For the 2nd time InvaZion is contributing to the FMX 2010 program. We’re happy to welcome InvaZion in our Events section and to continue this successful partnership!

++ Watch the FMX 2010 Trailer +++

FMX selected “Only Human” created by Benjamin Swiczinsky to be the 2010 trailer due to its look and the top notch technology behind it. At first the film appears rather two-dimensional - an intended homage to opening credits of movies from the 50s and 60s. Soon enough the spectator is suprised witnessing how everything turns into 3D, a world created with humans only. Benjamin used Massive for crowd simulation, something he claims could only be achieved by this special software, which was used in a student project at the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction for the very first time.

Benjamin is already excited about FMX: "The days at FMX are always an amazing time full of exchange, information, inspiration, fun and something to look forward the whole year. So I feel very honored that 'Only Human' was selected to be the trailer for
FMX 2010".

++ The hot topics for FMX 2010 +++

The binding theme of FMX is the convergence of film, television, computers, consoles and mobile devices. Hot topics for FMX 2010 are 3D Stereo, Hybrid Imagery and 360° Media. There will also be presentations on Cross Media, Realtime Visualization as well as Immersive Design and Virtual Humans. If you want to stay posted and not miss any program updates, subscribe to our newsletter and visit our website regularly.

++ Mark your calendars for FMX, APD and ITFS +++

The conference week will be full of things for you to do. FMX will be hosting the 4th Animation Production Day (APD) in joint venture with the Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart ( ITFS). The Festival will take place from May 04-09 and the APD from May 04-05, 2010.

++ Strong partners for FMX 2010 program and Advisory Board +++

We are happy to continue our cooperations with ACM Siggraph, AIAS Academy of Arts and Sciences, VES Visual Effects Society and 5D Conference.

Strong support also comes from the FMX 2010 Advisory Board. Welcome to the following members:

Viktor Antonov
Doug Chiang (ImageMovers Digital)
Michael Coldewey (Trixter)
Elizabeth Daley (USC School of Cinematic Arts),
Oliver Deussen (University of Konstanz)
Thomas Ertl (University of Stuttgart)
Markus Gross (Disney Research Zurich)
Andy Hendrickson (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Pierre Hénon (Paris ACM Siggraph Chapter)
Isaac Kerlow (Computer Animation Festival 2010)
Andy Lomas (Framestore)
Terrence Masson (Northeastern University).