Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 6, 2014. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
As in previous years, FMX will take place from 22 to 25 April in Stuttgart’s Haus der Wirtschaft. In 2014, art, technology and business will once again come together at Europe’s most influential conference for digital entertainment to explore the differences and synergies between the fields of animation, effects, games and transmedia. Under the slogan “A Realtime Experience”, FMX highlights industry-specific changes and developments behind topics such as realtime, immediate feedback, virtual production, disruption and more. These aspects are not only the focus of the conference programme with its presentations, screenings, workshops and masterclasses – they will also be discussed at the Marketplace, the Recruiting Hub and the School Campus.
This year’s programme highlights include presentations on the dozen award-winning game “The Walking Dead” by Telltale Games, the creation of PDI/DreamWorks and the development of games such as “Beyond: Two Souls”.
Other FMX topics include:
- Disruption and Open Source
With the term disruption, this year’s FMX is picking up on the paradigm shift that is constantly changing the industry. This change not only creates new challenges, but also harbours great potential for technological progress. This year, FMX will therefore be focussing on the latest trends in the field of open source, which will be addressed by Jeremy Selan (Software Developer and Imaging Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks), for example. Selan will be giving a presentation on the OpenColorIO (OCIO) colour management project, for which he received an Academy Scientific and Technical Achievement Award this year. He will also talk about Katana, IBL and Scene Processing. Andrew Kaufman, Research & Development Programmer at Image Engine Design Inc., will demonstrate the use of the open source projects Cortex and Gaffer as part of the film pipeline of all Image Engine projects, including “Zero Dark Thirty”, “White House Down” and “Elysium”. In addition, Ken Museth, R&D FX Supervisor and Principle Engineer at DreamWorks Animation, talks about the C-based open source database OpenVDB, which includes a freely accessible sparse volume data structure and toolset. Lead Software Engineer Xiaomao Wu and Cinebox Product Manager Kirthy Iyver will round off the focus on open source with a presentation on the latest open source projects from their company Crytek.
- Animation: “The early days of PDI”
To trace the developments within the animation industry, FMX looks back at the beginnings of the animation studio PDI/DreamWorks. Under the presentation title “The Early Days of PDI”, there will be a panel discussion with PDI founders Carl Rosendahl, Associate Professor at the Entertainment Technology Centre of Carnegie Mellon University, and Richard Chuang, CEO of Cloudpic Global. PDI (Pacific Data Images) is now part of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. together with the animation department of DreamWorks SKG and is responsible for the “Shrek” and “Madagscar” film series, among others.
- VFX: Archiving Star Trek planets and more
Visual effects continue to evolve outside of blockbuster production. Sandra Joy Aguilar explains the importance of archiving visual effects and provides insights into her work at ILM, where she saved over 150,000 effects elements for posterity. She also explains the process of archiving new planets from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” using recording robots used at CBS Digital. Chuck Peil, co-founder and Head of Business Development/Strategic Partnership at Reel FX, will shed light on the topic of entrepreneurship in his presentation and explain what it means to build an animation studio from the ground up. He also analyses the challenges faced by a company that wants to establish itself alongside the big companies in the animation scene. The Reel FX team, which has now grown to over 350 employees, is currently working on the production of the CG feature film “The Book of Life” (German cinema release in October), with Jorge R. Gutierrez as director and Guillermo Del Toro as producer.
- Games: Beyond: Two Souls and Killzone: Shadow Fall
FMX attaches great importance to game technologies and workflows that set new standards across the industry. This trend is particularly noticeable in the area of game cinematics, for which Dominic Cianciolo, Cinematic Director at NetherRealm Studios, is curating a track. Animation Director Kenneth McDonald and Animation Supervisor Teppei Takehana from Quantic Dream will be shedding light on the successful action adventure “Beyond: Two Souls” for Playstation 3, which stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. The interactive drama blurs the boundaries between game and film and was even shown as a video game at the Tribeca Film Festival. The game section will be complemented by a real-time rendering track curated by Wolfgang Engel (see also DP issue 06/13 “Lara has beautiful hair”), CEO at Confetti. Dan Calvert and Alex Zapata, art directors at Guerillla Games, present their upcoming NextGen AAA asset production “Killzone: Shadow Fall” – one of just a handful of games being developed exclusively for NextGen consoles. In addition, curator Wolfgang Engel will present a talk entitled “Realtime Global Illumination in Games – Overview on the different Techniques that are used in Games today”.
- Transmedia: The Walking Dead and Collider
This year’s FMX is also focussing on the enormous range of transmedia experiences currently available to viewers and fans of current series formats. The Serial Storytelling track, curated by Alexander Herrmann from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, looks at these different platforms. Dennis Lennart, Cinematic Arist and Director at Telltale Games, will report on how his company conquered the market for episodic video game production and will also provide insights into the successes and critical moments of the company’s flagship game “The Walking Dead”, which received over 80 Game of the Year awards in 2012. New narrative forms are also being developed in Portugal: Nuno Bernardo, CEO and founder of beActive, is running a new transmedia project called Collider, which consists of a live-action internet series, a feature film, a CG series and a computer game. The same virtual assets are used and integrated on all platforms. Bernardo explains the concept of the project and the role that the cost-effective use of real-time production plays in it.
All further information about FMX can be found here: www.fmx.de
- FMX partner events: ITFS and APD
The Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS), one of the largest animation festivals in the world, takes place from 22 to 27 April. Directors, production companies, distributors and world sales companies will present their most beautiful and latest animated films – an ideal opportunity for FMX visitors to marvel at the latest animated films. The focal points of the ITFS include Abstract Experimental Animation, Animation in the First World War and the largest motion capture project in Europe, the 3D film Tarzan by Constantin Film. The Animation Production Day (APD), a business platform for the animation industry jointly organised by FMX and ITFS, will take place for the eighth time on 24 and 25 April. FMX, ITFS and APD will once again transform Stuttgart into a meeting place for industry experts, companies, artists and visitors from all over the world in April, demonstrating the importance of the region for the national and international film industry.
