FMX opens its doors at the end of this month. And there are still numerous new confirmations to be announced – animated film highlights such as Spies in Disguise and Ralph Breaks the Internet, several technology presentations on Incredibles 2 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as well as presentations on commercials and AAA game design.
Tickets for FMX 2019 are available via the website. In addition, the FMX 2019 app for iOS and Android is now available for download.
You can register for press accreditation here.
The Art of Animation – Ralph Breaks the Internet, Spies in Disguise & Manou the Swift
In The Art of Animation track, animator Jacob Frey and crowd artist Joyce Tong (both Walt Disney Animation Studios) will talk about some of the challenges they faced when creating “Ralphzilla” for Ralph Breaks the Internet. James Williams, Head of Layout (Blue Sky Studios), will give an insight into the upcoming action-packed, buddy comedy Spies in Disguise. Andrea Block and Christian Haas (both LUXX Studios/LUXX Film) will talk about the details of their first animated CG feature film Manou the Swift.
Stylized Lighting & Rendering – Spider-Man, Incredibles 2 and the physics and chemistry of colour
Curator Christophe Hery, Research Scientist at Facebook Reality Labs, brings together four experts for the Stylized Lighting & Rendering track, who will discuss various technical and artistic means of achieving better visual effects and explore the basis of colour as a starting point for stylisation.
Bret St. Clair (Sony Pictures Imageworks) will kick off the track by examining the look development of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Erik Smitt, Director of Photography at Pixar Animation Studios, will explain how a stylised approach inspired by live camerawork was used to create the look of Incredibles 2. Christos Obretenov, CEO and Shading Architect at Lollipop Shaders, will discuss the development of custom shading plugins that enable non-realistic shading & rendering in modern production renderers. In addition, VFX Supervisor Tarek Elaydi (Arctiq Circle) will explore the physics and chemistry of colour and how their interactions are represented in today’s path-tracing renderers.
Commercials – Football, Friendship & Love
A strong commercial draws attention to products and services by enriching its imagery with advanced design, execution and storytelling. The Commercials track at FMX 2019 presents a selection of the latest and greatest work in this field from the past year.
VFX Supervisor Adam Droy (The Mill), will give an insight into the creation of the spot Nike – Awaken the Phantom. In their presentation Wonderwoman and Chester Cheetah! Alexander Kiesl (Managing Director) and Steffen Hacker (Head of VFX, both unexpected postproduction) will show impressions of their filming in Iceland, London, Warsaw and Cairo. The creation of Penny’s Christmas Doesn’t Need Much. Only Love will be the topic of the talk by Rüdiger Kaltenhäuser (Director/Head of 3D) and Darren Macpherson (Director/VFX Supervisor & Senior 3D Artist) from Glassworks Amsterdam. Piglet Lucky, star of the VES-nominated commercial Best Friend for PETA, will take centre stage in a presentation by CG Artist/Associate VFX Supervisor Emanuel Fuchs, Animation Supervisor Bernd Nalbach and VFX Producer Francesco Faranna (all Mackevision Medien Design and alumni of the Filmakademie’s Animation Institute). Selcuk Ergen, Head of Effects at MPC Advertising, will present a behind-the-scenes look at the extensive VFX work that helped bring Ridley Scott’s otherworldly ideas to life for Hennessy’s The Seven Worlds.
AAA Game Design – exploring caves and open worlds
The AAA Game Design track – curated by Simon Jon Andreasen, Head of Animation and DADIU, The National Film School of Denmark – will highlight designers who have worked on recently released highly successful games, how they have designed them and where they see design and creativity heading in the future.
Soren Lundgaard, CEO of Ghost Ship Games, will explain how his Deep Rock Galactic team managed to create hundreds of hours of procedurally generated caves without the use of multi-million dollar budgets, keeping players engaged and challenged as they explore, scavenge and survive. Mark Estdale, founder of OM, will share how his team uses early casting to create hundreds of hours of immersive dialogue and performances for story-driven games like Horizon Zero Dawn. Curator Simon Jon Andreasen, an experienced AAA developer himself, asked friends and colleagues from the world’s leading AAA studios how they create exciting games without simply generating endless upgrades for players. In his talk Keeping it Fresh – Designing Versatile Mechanics that Never Grow Old, he will present the results of his survey.
Forum News: Epic Games, creator of Unreal Engine, is new FMX Main Partner
Epic Games, the studio behind Unreal Engine, can be announced as the new Main Partner of FMX 2019. In addition, the FMX Marketplace and the Recruiting Hub are sold out.
Epic Games/Unreal Engine, Blue Zoo, GritWorld, Nodal, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Shotsky, SWR Wissen and ZEISS have booked stands on the Marketplace. Amazon Web Services AWS, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are offering workshops. Other participants in the Recruiting Hub are Electric Theatre Collective, The Mill, Topalsson and Umedia Visual Effects.
FMX 2019 Games Trailer – Kinky Kitchen
For all those who have always wondered what kitchen utensils are up to when no one is at home – the short film trilogy Kinky Kitchen brings the truth to light! Kinky Kitchen is available as a trailer and as a game, both created by students of the Animation Instituteof the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Animation Director, Character Design: Bea Höller | Technical Directing, Compositing, Lighting/ Shading, Game Director: Daniel Schmucker | Animation-/ VFX-Producing: Laura Messner | Concept/Design: Tao Zhang | Assistant Director, Modelling: Steffen Oberle | Rigging: Mariia Prokopenko | Sound Design: Marco Dahl). Trailer Kinky Kitchen & Game Trailer Kinky Kitchen
In 2019, FMX released four different trailers for the first time. Each of the areas mentioned in the FMX subtitle – animation, effects, games and immersive media – is represented with its own trailer, which is unique in terms of technology, style and story.
Kinky Kitchen is the fourth trailer for FMX 2019, following Tiefenrausch for Immersive Media, Wonderful World, which represents the VFX area, and CatPlanets, which represents the Animation area.
Tickets for FMX 2019 are available via the FMX website.
