News | February 18, 2026
Latest Confirmations: Pandora's Splendour,
Animal Communication, and a Lone Wolf
HEY EVERYONE,
It's time for some real treats!
Eric Saindon (Senior VFX Supervisor) and Sam Cole (VFX Supervisor) from Wētā FX are going to share how they made everything look even more splendid in "Avatar: Fire and Ash". One task was in the movie's title: creating spectacular digital flames.
Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright (Pixar) will go into detail about the stylized animation in the long-awaited new feature "Hoppers". Scientists are in for some surprises when they manage to decipher the communications of animals.
And then there's the lone wolf who becomes a vegetarian in order to find friends. The French Intermarché commercial "Le mal aimé" went viral globally, and animation director Benoit Bargeton (Illogic Studios) is going to explain how an independent studio can pull off top-notch animation.
Premium Partners of FMX make an important contribution to the conference: Welcome AMCRS, Accenture Song VFX and Ayon!
Early Bird options are in place until March 20 in the FMX Ticketshop - go have a look!
Performance-captured heroes in "Avatar - Fire and Ash". © Disney AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH: Taking Pandora to the Next Level
Academy Award® winning Senior VFX Supervisor, Eric Saindon and VFX Supervisor, Sam Cole, will overview the process of creating Wētā FX’s 3,100+ shots from "Avatar: Fire and Ash". They will reveal how the team blended extensive native stereo photography with CG environments, fully digital performance-captured characters, and physics based coupled effects simulations.
They will also talk about how a new tool, Kora, was created for more art directable fire and the additional improvements that were made to Wētā's muscle-driven facial system, to stay anatomically plausible, while preserving the intent of the performances. This film is the product of 20 years of close collaboration with filmmakers, and continual technical innovations to achieve the highest quality storytelling and visual spectacle.
This session is part of the FMX track VFX for Features.
An inside look into the animal kingdom: "Hoppers". © Disney/Pixar HOPPERS: Stylization as a System
How do you design a world that can be funny, suspenseful, and epic—sometimes all at once? Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright (Pixar) breaks down the stylized visual language of Hoppers, from felted characters and tactile environments to an innovative brushstroke projection pipeline.
Learn how the team preserved physical realism to hold emotional stakes while shaping surfaces for clarity and appeal. It’s a deep dive into stylization as a system—across modeling, animation, simulation, and lighting—built in service of story.
This session is part of the FMX track Feature Animation.
A wolf aims to gain the trust of the other animals of the forrest: "Le mal aimé". © Illogic Studios LE MAL AIMÉ: Artistic Choices and Cross-Department Collaboration
In his talk, animation director Benoit Bargeton (Illogic Studios) explores how feature film level animation can be achieved in a commercial context. It takes the Intermarché campaign’s wolf as a central character and shows how an independent studio adapted its workflow and resources to deliver a project of this scale.
The session focuses on artistic and acting choices, and the technical decisions made to support these directions, as well as cross-department collaboration between modeling, rigging, and animation.
This session is part of the FMX track Shorts.
Companies and studios from around the world are joining FMX as Partners - to connect with creatives, showcase new products, share insights, explore opportunities, and initiate collaborations.
Premium Partners play a prominent role and are particularly committed. Meet three of them below! Find out more about Premium Partner options here.
Gold Partner: AMCRS
Baden-Wuerttemberg is Germany's top location for Visual Effects, Animation and Games. The Network ANIMATION MEDIA CREATORS REGION STUTTGART (AMCRS), initiated by the MFG media and film society, consists of more than 30 VFX providers, animation studios, games developers and interactive media companies as well as 6 colleges.
AMCRS is promoting the development of IP (Intellectual Property) and the establishment of technical and organizational structures to be able to offer the region's bundled capacity to international film production companies.
Silver Partner: Accenture Song
Accenture Song VFX is an award-winning team renowned for its collaborative approach, seamlessly guiding projects from script and concept art to the final screen. Dedicated to excellence, they prioritize timing, cost-efficiency, and quality at every stage of production. Over the past six years, the team has earned nine Emmy nominations and proudly secured an Emmy Award last year for their outstanding contributions to HBO’s 'The Penguin'.
Silver Partner: AYON
AYON is the production backbone for animation and VFX, combining pipeline and production tracking with review, planning, scheduling and resource management. Producers, production managers, team leads, artists, supervisors, pipeline TDs and developers use AYON to unify creative data, automate handoffs and stay aligned, delivering projects on time from a single source of truth. For smooth onboarding, our services team supports setup, configuration and training tailored to your studio.
Join the AYON team at FMX for a series of talks, demos, panels and Q&As in our room throughout the day, built for production and pipeline teams. Production, creative and technical teams will get a clear view of what’s new in AYON, what’s next on the roadmap, including review, scheduling and resource planning updates, plus practical tips and real studio stories on pipeline challenges, solutions, and delivering projects smoothly. Drop in, ask questions, take notes and meet the community in person.
Many more illustrious sessions are in the pipeline -
we will keep you posted!
FMX 2026: On Site May 5-7 | Online & On Campus May 8 | On Demand May 9-June 9
