For those who don’t know the event: FMX is where post, VFX, and realtime folks compare notes, spot new workflows, and meet toolmakers from Foundry to AYON .

The 30th edition runs on site May 5 to May 7, with Online and On Campus on May 8, and On Demand from May 9 to June 9. Early Bird ticket options run until March 20. Tickets are sold through the ticket shop, and the full schedule is published as an online program schedule.

This year’s reveal is a broad spread across VFX, animation, and digital media creation, with more updates promised as additional speakers and topics get added. The headline message is simple: the program is live now, and it is designed to be browsed like a buffet. Get your preferred morsels here :)

RENO turns a studio inward

A newly confirmed session in the Shorts track focuses on RENO, an original sci fi short used as a live testbed for virtual production and machine learning workflows. The session names Tav Flett, Rob Hifle, James Pollock, and Paul Silcox, and describes how a traditionally post-driven VFX studio re-engineered its pipeline for a newly opened virtual production stage. It also calls out Gaussian splat scanning, automated rotoscoping, and marker removal as tools for streamlining production.

Generative video, now with shot notes

The hype cycle is almost over. The bubble tends to pop the moment somebody asks where this stuff fits into an actual production pipeline. That is the useful angle of Moonvalleys‘ session in the “The Road ahead” track. . Instead of treating generative video as a party trick, Ben Lock looks at what happens when studios try to use it for real: control, continuity, versioning, integration, governance, and all the other small details that usually kill shiny ideas on contact.

For VFX and animation teams, that is the point. Not more halfbaked sizzle reels, but a sober look at where generative video already helps, where it still breaks, which parts of the panic were never grounded in production reality, and when studios may begin hiring artists again once practical applications, and their many many limits, are easier to assess.

Predator: Badlands, built as a handoff

A joint presentation in the VFX for Features track names Laurens Ehrmann from The Yard VFX and Dominik Zimmerle from TRIXTER discussing work on Predator: Badlands. Shared assets, shared look development, and constant creative exchange across studios to ensure continuity while elevating environments, characters, creatures, and effects, plus a deep dive into selected sequences and the creative and technical challenges behind them.

And there is more to come! Much more!

https://fmx.de/en/program/program-2026/overview

The post FMX 2026 program goes live first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the event: FMX is an annual conference in Stuttgart focused on animation, VFX and digital media production. It connects studios, software vendors and production teams across features, commercials and games. Details and tickets are available via FMX.

FMX 2026 has confirmed new sessions covering large-scale feature VFX, stylised feature animation and high-end commercial character work. The programme additions include speakers from Wētā FX, Pixar and Illogic Studios, alongside new Premium Partners AMCRS, Accenture Song VFX and AYON. The event will take place on site from May 5 to 7, followed by online and on-campus sessions on May 8, with on-demand access running from May 9 to June 9. Early Bird ticket options are available until March 20 via the FMX ticket shop.

Pandora, fire and 3,100 shots

Senior VFX Supervisor Eric Saindon and VFX Supervisor Sam Cole from Wētā FX will present work from Avatar: Fire and Ash. According to FMX, the studio delivered more than 3,100 shots for the film.

The presentation will cover the integration of extensive native stereo photography with CG environments, fully digital performance captured characters and physics based coupled effects simulations. Native stereo photography refers to imagery captured simultaneously for left and right eye views, rather than converted in post. Coupled effects simulations describe interdependent simulations, for example fire interacting with wind and character motion, solved together to maintain physical consistency.

Saindon and Cole will also discuss a new tool called Kora, developed to provide more art directable fire. FMX states that Kora was created to allow greater control over flame behaviour while retaining physically based characteristics. No further technical specifications have been released at press time.

Stylisation as pipeline logic

In the Feature Animation track, Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright from Pixar will present Hoppers. The session is titled Stylization as a System.

The session will address how the team preserved physical realism to maintain emotional stakes while shaping surfaces for clarity and appeal. This includes coordination across modelling, animation, simulation and lighting.

A wolf, a supermarket and feature grade craft

The Shorts track will include a presentation by animation director Benoit Bargeton from Illogic Studios on the Intermarché commercial Le mal aimé. The campaign features a wolf attempting to gain the trust of other animals in the forrest by becoming vegetarian. The film went viral globally, and you propaly have already seen it.

Bargeton’s talk will focus on how feature film animation was achieved in a commercial context. This includes artistic and acting choices, as well as technical decisions supporting those directions. Cross department collaboration between modelling, rigging and animation will be addressed.

Commercial schedules typically impose tighter timelines and smaller teams than feature productions. FMX states that Illogic Studios adapted its workflow and resources to deliver a project of this scale. Specific software, renderers or proprietary systems used have not been disclosed in the announcement.

Premium Partners on the floor

FMX has also announced three Premium Partners.

AMCRS, the Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart network, represents more than 30 VFX providers, animation studios, game developers and interactive media companies, along with six colleges. The network was initiated by MFG, the regional media and film society.

Accenture Song VFX is an award winning team guiding projects from script and concept art to final delivery. FMX states that the team has earned nine Emmy nominations over the past six years and secured an Emmy Award last year for work on HBO’s The Penguin. No additional production credits are listed in the announcement.

AYON is presented as a production backbone for animation and VFX, combining pipeline and production tracking with review, planning, scheduling and resource management. Producers, supervisors, pipeline TDs and developers use AYON to unify creative data and automate handoffs. At FMX, AYON will host talks, demos, panels and Q&As in its dedicated room. The focus will include review, scheduling and resource planning updates, roadmap insights and practical studio case studies.

Many additional sessions are still to be announced!

The post FMX 2026 spotlights fire, fur and pipelines first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.