Conference
Tools of Tomorrow
Tech Talks
ON SITE
Bertha-Benz-Saal
Tuesday, May 05, 12:30
Introduction to Carl Laemmle Institut for Research & Media Innovation (CLI)
Video on demand
The Carl Laemmle Institut (CLI) serves as a vital interface between education, applied research, and industry partnerships, consolidating the R&D activities of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH (FABW). Emerging from the former research department of FABW’s Animationsinstitut, the CLI is strategically positioned to advance emerging technologies in film, games, and immersive media.
This presentation explores the Institute's dual focus on immersive environments and responsible artificial intelligence. First, we examine two key regional projects funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor, and Tourism: VISTA (Virtuelle Immersive Standort- und Architekturplattform), which develops automated pipelines for photorealistic digital twins in collaboration with RECOM Film and lohrmannarchitekten; and the Industrial Metaverse Reallabor (IMRL), a collaborative effort with Fraunhofer IAO/IPA and ARENA2036 designed to bring XR technologies to regional SMEs.
Building on this foundation of immersive tech, the talk shifts to the Institute's frontier research in AI. We present an R&D sprint focused on transforming generative AI from a "black box" into a directable professional tool, benchmarking VFX workflows against historical accuracy and evaluating the trade-offs between local data control and cloud scalability. Finally, we introduce Colibri, a lighthouse startup collaboration dedicated to sustainable, privacy-preserving AI. By exploring how AI can augment rather than replace human creativity, Colibri demonstrates the CLI’s commitment to building media workflows that prioritize authorship, transparency, and ethical integrity.
Carl Laemmle Institut: https://cli.filmakademie.de
Colibri: https://colibri-project.eu
Volker Helzle, Director, Carl Laemmle Institut for Research and Media Innovation at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Prof. Volker Helzle is the director of the Carl Laemmle Institute for Research and Media Innovation (CLI) at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. CLI focuses on artistic-technological research, digital innovation, and future proof production methods. It has its origins in the 20+ years of experience of the former Research and Development Department of Animationsinstitut.
After graduating from Stuttgart Media University in 2000, Volker moved to California and worked at Eyematic Interfaces on the eve of markerless facial tracking tools and content. In 2003 he joined Filmakademie to supervise Research & Development at Animationsinstitut. He established the Technical Directing course and is FMX program consultant. In 2013 Volker received the honorary professorship of Filmakademie.
During the past 20 years Volker raised funding for a substantial amount of regional and European Union projects in the scope of Animation, VFX, Virtual Production and Immersive Media. The most recent projects are EMIL, the European Media and Immersion Lab (emil-xr.eu) and MAX-R (max-r.eu).
Being a C-64 kid of the 80ties, Volker's life was strongly influenced by video games and early computer graphics. To this day he is a passionate gamer, and he also finds interest in analog activities like mountain hiking, gardening or yoga. As of January 2019, an improved version of Volker is available that keeps him busy day and night.
Adrian Meyer, Freelance VFX Supervisor & Artist | Houdini TD | GenAI Technologist
Adrian Meyer is a multidisciplinary digital artist from Germany, focused on creating moving images that push the boundaries of what's possible with cutting-edge technology. As VFX Supervisor, Houdini Technical Director, and Creative Technologist, he has worked on international feature films, commercials, music videos, and XR productions, earning multiple festival awards including Best Visual Effects at the German Film Awards. His current focus is on generative AI and AI-driven pipelines, which he also shares through workshops, talks, and mentorships.
Jonas Trottnow, Research Engineer AI, Carl Laemmle Institut for Research and Media Innovation at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Jonas Trottnow is the founder of the Colibri Project, a startup building AI-powered media management software that runs entirely on local hardware — private, GDPR-compliant, and independent of cloud services. Colibri uses multiple specialized AI models for intelligent analysis, transcription, semantic search, and knowledge graph exploration of photos, videos, and audio.
As a Research & Development Engineer AI at the Carl Laemmle Institut (CLI) of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Jonas works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and media production. He previously served as contact person for the regional "KI-Lab Animation & VFX," bridging AI research and the needs of VFX and animation studios, and contributed as R&D engineer to multiple EU-funded projects including SAUCE and Dreamspace.
With a background in documentary filmmaking and a lifelong passion for cinematography and image processing, Jonas studied Media & Computer Science at the University of Tübingen, specializing in computer vision and computer graphics. He holds a Master of Science in Visual Computing from Saarland University, where he worked with the DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) and the Intel Visual Computing Institute.