Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 20, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The animated film "Monsters, Inc. 2: Monsters University" opens in cinemas on 20 June, together with the latest Disney Pixar short "The Blue Umbrella", traditionally shown immediately before the main film. Director and screenwriter Saschka Unseld, who graduated from the Animation Institute of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg in 2004 and has worked at Pixar in Los Angeles since 2008, will explain at this year’s FMX making-of the idea behind the story of two umbrellas that fall in love in the rain and how he developed it into a short film.Joshua Holannder will also report on the theme of "3D Re-Creation" at Pixar, while Alexander Nehls addresses the simulation processes in "Brave".
Cloud Computing: From Smartphones to Virtual Reality
Jon Peddie, a pioneer of the digital media industry and frequently cited author on complex multimedia subjects, will give two presentations at FMX. In his keynote for the "Cloud Computing" series curated by Ludwig von Reiche (NVIDIA ARC), the founder of Jon Peddie Research (JPR) examines what the cloud means for design, animation and visual effects. He concentrates on augmented reality, displays and different end devices, explaining why users must also make compromises in multi-platform visualisation despite attractive new possibilities.
Fast Forward Education and International Market Leaders
Companies such as Ncam and Solid Anim demonstrate hardware used in the production of the Oscar winner Hugo Cabret. Workshops come from Adobe, Maxon and Shotgun, which present their brand-new 5.0 release for artists and supervisors, as well as Side Effects, Next Limit Technologies and Imagineer Systems, whose Mocha Pro software received a Technical Academy Award. Market leader Autodesk invites FMX visitors to demos and workshops in its Company Suite on all four event days. Despite the current crisis in the visual effects industry, notable VFX companies such as MPC (Life of Pi, Skyfall) and Method Studios (Cloud Atlas, Argo), as well as games company Crytek and regional companies such as the CG specialists at eder Medien Management, are looking for young talent in the Recruiting Hub. On the School Campus, more than twenty predominantly international universities from Europe, the USA and New Zealand present their latest projects. As part of the first "Fast Forward Education", FMX bridges the gap between academies and industry: renowned film, media and design universities from around the world present their best young talent work to industry experts in five-minute short presentations.
Focus: Austria, Turkey and Canada
FMX is traditionally an excellent showcase for regions not primarily known for their digital entertainment industries. This year’s "Innovative Places" series focuses on Austria, Turkey and Toronto. Max Höfferer, curator of the Austria series and Secretary General of IG Computergrafik, presents the CG industry of Germany’s neighbouring country. Producer and Lead Animator Kris Staber (Arx Anima) explains how the music video You get me by Walt Disney Records was created entirely in CG, Reinhold Fragner (Industrial Motion Art Filmproduktion) shows animated microscopic images under the heading "Microworlds", and Roman Saravia (Friendly Fire Communications) discusses alternative pipelines in film production.
The VFX and animation industry in Turkey is also growing. Curated by Digital Colorist and ColorMeUp! founder Andreas Brückl, the programme includes presentations by 3D Animator and Director Murat Izzet Arslan, Post-Producer Cenk Koksal, both working for 1000 Volt, and Anima Istanbul Director Mehmet Kurtulus. The Toronto series is curated by William Cheng, who worked as Set Designer on Total Recall, Resident Evil 4: After Life and the new Guillermo del Toro film Pacific Rim, among others, with support from the Ontario International Marketing Centre Munich. Confirmed speakers include Bill Skolnik, Executive Director and CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada – Ontario, and Randy McLean, Acting Film Commissioner of the City of Toronto Film Commission.
Image: Pixar/Disney Brave
