Following one of our most important goals to connect young talents with VFX, animation and games industry professionals, FMX 2022 will present selected projects by students or recent graduates from schools participating in the Schools section. The presentations give an insight into development and production processes, making-ofs and behind the scenes at film and animation schools where innovative and high quality projects are produced.

Projects:

Plantasia | The Moonlight Circus | Bloom | Leo | Shroomsday | Cosmos Transport | Terminus Railways | Pirouette | Peak of Evolution | 3D Animation Demoreel

1.)  The immersive media installation Plantasia consists of 3 phases. First the visitors participate in an interactive game. Their movement is tracked, water containers are filled, nature is enlivened. Mother Nature guides through the installation. In the second phase real plants sing, when being touched. Finally, a large computer animation of a fantastic scenery can be observed, preceded by 4 animations of a magical nature created by an artificial intelligence.  

Hochschule der Medien

Lara Epple (Public Relations, Sponsoring, Stage Design and Construction),  Jürgen Popow ( Media Control, Sound, Video/Photography)

2.) The Moonlight Circus is an atmospheric VR horror game which was mainly developed by 4 students of the Animation & Game course as an evaluated semester project within 3 months. The focus lied on developing for a standalone system, the Oculus Quest 2, but the game can also be played on any SteamVR capable headset.

Hochschule Darmstadt - University of Applied Sciences

Benjamin Wührer (Programmer, Game Designer, Sound Manager), Lara Meyer (Art Director, 2D/3D Artist, Character Artist), Lea Wagner (Animaton, 3D Artist, Production Manager), Max Rupp (Tech Artist, Light/Shading Artist, 3D Artist)  

3.)  Bloom is a three minute, 3D short film aiming at a young audience. The story about a crooked tree and a hungry little monkey is an allegory about the poisoning impact of comparison on one´s self-esteem and the healing effect of friendship. The graduation project of Michael Dämmig and Philipp Kaufhold combines CG models and animations with elaborate grooming practices.

Ifs internationale filmschule köln

Michael Dämmig (Director, Modeling, Rigging, Animation)

4.)  Leo, a six-year-old orphan boy who suffers from the long-term skin condition vitiligo, tries to overcomestruggles with his pigment spots that he blames for him not getting adopted. Leo is a 4-5-minute full CGI Animated short film created by six computer animation students from the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg / Austria. We are working on the project since autumn 2020 and we expect to be finished in May 2022.

Fachhochschule Salzburg / MultiMediaArt

Daniela Mejía Ramírez (Director, Writer, Character modeling, Texturing, Character animation, Rendering), Victoria Perner (Project management, Environment modelling, Environment animation, Dynamics, Rendering, Post production)

5.) Shroomsday is a 3D-animated short film produced by four motivated students of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria as their graduation project. The comedic story is being told in a mostly stylized visual look and shows some ordinary people dealing with a fungal infestation taking over their beloved town in their own ways. This presentation gives a unique insight behind the scenes.

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria – School of Informatics, Communications and Media

Rita Weiss (Head of Animation), Daniel Denzer (Environment Designer), Marius Oelsch (Technical Director), Alessa Wolfram (Character Designer)

6.) Cosmos Transport is a sci-fi short film with VFX elements and features the interplay between human and machine behaviour through humorous as well as dramatic parts.In the face of their desperate situation the two figures Sarah and P-42 show opposing behaviours.This conflict creates the momentum of the storyline which tells us about their friendship and solitude in outer space.

Hochschule der Medien

Patrick van den Akker  (Director), Elwin van der Hoofd (Producer),Isabelle Kramer (VFX Supervisor), Anke Burkhardt (CG Supervisor), Erika Stolz (Animation Supervisor), Julia Schramm (Compositing Supervisor)

7.) Terminus Railways is a 1st person narrative-focused game that communicates the feeling of ambiguity and uncertainty experienced within a lived liminal time period in one's life. By talking to characters and exploring the environment, the player explores different character's perspectives communicated through their experiences and is encouraged to introspect.

Hochschule Darmstadt - University of Applied Sciences

Jonas Büttner ( Director, Concept & Environment Artist), Marah Siemko  (Production Manager, Narrative Designer, Game Designer), Elisabeth Möller  (Tech & Character Artist), Kai Vuthy Peters (Programmer, Sound Manager, Tech Artist) 

8.)  Pirouette - The film is a three minute, 3D animated short. The distinctive feature of this film is the animation of the ballerina that conveys a range of emotions from surprise, anger, fear, realization and happiness. The textures, lighting and compositing of the film transport the viewer into an abstract world to make the message of the film have a universal reach.

Ifs internationale filmschue köln

Ciara Borgards (Director, responsible for all aspects)

9. ) Peak of Evolution - The set was built and filmed in real-life, the fishmen characters will be fully CG integrated. Everything is on miniature scale in a colorful world and in the style-mixture of obvious miniature and hyperrealism. The sound design will be partly abstract such as oddly, unusual sounds for foley or the theme song for the fishman, a Jew's harp and a banjo.

Fachhochschule Salzburg / MultiMediaArt 

Julia Wunsch (Director), Valentina Kuttner (VFX Supervisior), Julia Wohlgemuth (Production Design),  Mustafa Özkan (Animation Artist)

10.) 3D Animation Demoreel

"This project shows my animation skills through bodymechanics and actingexercises. Through figure skating, I was interested in analysing how all body parts move in an organic way, dictating the principles of arcs, leading ad overlapping action, weight, gravity, anticipation, slow-in and slow-out.With the penguin, all such principles could be declined in a more cartoony way, giving more room to exaggeration. The acting shots were a great training to get inside human feelings and manage to convey them to the audience in an empathic way."

Serena Accardo,  University of Luxembourg/ Competence  Centre