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fmx/07 - the results
Stuttgart. Late yesterday evening, fmx/07 - 12th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content came to an end. The most important meeting for the digital community in Europe was again highly praised for its personal, relaxed atmosphere - and with over 40 % of the visitors from overseas, was more international than ever before. More than 400 lectures, panels, workshops and speakers gave an insight into the creation, production and distribution of every kind of digital images - in cinema and television as well as in games and mobile entertainment. A highlight with star character was given by director Roland Emmerich, who spoke on the final fmx day about his personal view on visual effects and computer-generated pictures.
fmx - An individual globalisation story
The excellent reputation which fmx has gained in the last few years is spreading. This was not only seen in the numbers of visitors, but particularly from the pronounced internationality of the event. A large number of decision makers and executives made their way to Stuttgart. The global and interlaced industry recognises fmx as the established European key meeting - particularly as the conference language is English, breaking down barriers. This has led to a large numbers of participants from overseas and extensive international media coverage of fmx. Speakers, industry representatives, visitors and journalists came from all over the world. 6,000 participants from 40 countries were registered at the cash desk in comparison to 5,000 visitors at fmx/06. A balance which many visitors really noticed: At some of the programme events there weren't enough seats...
So many highlights!
The high-quality and extensive programme gave the fmx visitor only one real "problem": the agony of choice. More than 300 programme points in up to 11 rooms and halls at the same time meant difficult decisions, particularly as the credentials of the first-rate lecturers left nothing to be desired. fmx/essentials encountered outstanding resonance in two special forums: the Digital Cinema Day which was dedicated to the complete digital cinema workflow and stereoscopy, as well as the Virtual Humans forum about virtual actors. A convincing demonstration for the efficiency of a European film school was supplied by the hosts themselves: Volker Helzle and his team from the Institute of Animation research department showed amazing "interview sequences" with a digitally revived 81-year old Klaus Kinski. At Digital Cinema Day, Buzz Hayes from Sony Pictures presented a case study of the stereoscopic version of Monster House and Neil Feldman from In-3 showed a 3D version of Star Wars.
The British director John Boorman (Point Blank, Excalibur) impressed his co-speakers and visitors alike with his presentation of his first animation project, a new interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. Packed halls and this year's record attendances were to be found at the Sony talks on Surf's Up and Spider-Man 3, as well as at the lecture from ILM about Pirates of the Caribbean and for Roland Emmerich's appearance.
Digital Characters - real feelings
One of the main topics evident in the fmx07 programme was "believable virtual characters". The development in the animation of virtual characters, is enormous; the speed of the innovations rapid. Effects are less noticeable in "normal" feature films - the main area of application for digitally produced figures is in computer games, particularly as convincing 3D characters are now developed for realtime applications, as shown in the Quantic Dream lecture. The refined optics are also something that the players notice: Identification and excitement rise. Completely new game worlds in cinematic look invite to more complex and differently structured games. There was a lot of discussion about connection techniques such as Performance Capture or dynamic Motion Synthesis based on biomechanical and kinetic findings, emotions in Games as well as the changing market. Relevant contributions were supplied here by Joseph Olin, director of the Academy for Interactive Arts and Sciences, as well as Matthew Jeffery, Electronic Arts, who risked a peek in the crystal ball with his lecture "The Future of Games".
fmx/technologies - digital world without boundaries
fmx/technologies brought its audience technically up-to-date on innovations. The lectures about development in realtime animation encountered a very strong resonance - the German game company Crytek with a nearly physically noticeable interaction with detailed virtual worlds, as well as NaturalMotion, who have created a flowing transition between animated sequences thanks to Dynamic Motion Synthesis. Completely different is the focus of the aquaTree project from the University of Konstanz and the digital artist David Maas: it's not photos, but paintings and designs which provide the artwork for the non-photo-realistic rendering. The talk from Adobe Research was astonishing. Intelligent blending joins photos automatically and harmoniously, intelligent rotoscoping strengthens the artistic possibilities in filming with an intuitive interface.
fmx/forum - Praxisreihe mit phantastischer Resonanz
Sign of success: The good reputation of fmx can be seen in the commitment of well-known companies. The list of the companies taking part with workshops, hands-on-trainings, demos and lectures at fmx/forum in 2007 was longer and more international than ever before. This led to a large variety in the topics and high standard of the programme. fmx/forum also offered more than information and training: International animation studios and VFX houses took part in extensive recruiting activities - from major players such as DreamWorks or Disney to creative craftmen like Aardman or German specialists such as Scanline or Crytek. A unique opportunity for the new digital generation in Europe to find their dream job or dream project.
fmx/07 is organized by the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. It is generously supported by the Staatsministerium Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Wirtschaftsministerium Baden-Wuerttemberg, the MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Wuerttemberg and the FFA German Federal Film Board.
fmx/07 Co-operation partners: 14th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film ITFS, ACM SIGGRAPH, Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg MFG, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart HdM, Gobelins, l'école de l'image, NXPublishing und Design Center Stuttgart.
fmx/07Event-Partner: Cluster Visual Computing Baden-Wuerttemberg, ComBOTS, Eyes & Ears of Europe, Fachhochschule Augsburg, flashconference, Michael Schmetz Mediaconsult, Robert Bosch Stiftung and sagasnet.
fmx/07 is financially and thematically supported by numerous partners from the industry, notably Adobe Systems, Autodesk Media and Entertainment, NVIDIA, Sony and TVD Trans Video Deutschland.
Further Information under www.fmx.de
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