In nuce: According to a recent press release from 10 November this year, the FMX (Film & Media Exchange) conference will also take place as a hybrid event in 2023. As part of the announcement, the motto of FMX 2023 was revealed – it is called Evolving. The press release states: “The Evolving theme will highlight projects and processes that address the challenges facing humanity and the planet” – always with a focus on the creative industries.

Filmmaker Jinko Gotoh as Programme Chair: Bafta winner and Oscar-nominated producer Jinko Gotoh has also been announced as Programme Chair of the conference. Jinko Gotoh is known for her work on films such as Klaus, The Lego Movie 2, The Little Prince, The Illusionist, 9 and Finding Nemo. The press release continues: “Jinko is committed to the advancement of women and all underrepresented people in the industry. She is Vice President of Women in Animation and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, representing diversity and inclusion on various committees.”

When & where will FMX 2023 take place? FMX 2023 will take place from 25 to 27 April 2023 on site at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, followed by an online event day on 28 April 2023. As every year, FMX attracts creative professionals who are passionate about animation, effects, interactive and immersive media.

Click further: To the announcement on fmx.de.

The post Filmmaker Jinko Gotoh as Programme Chair of FMX 2023! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: The line-up for Autodesk’s “Virtual Vision” series has been announced. The event will take place on Friday 6 May. The various event offerings will extend over the entire day. It is an online event that will be broadcast live, but will also be available for trade fair visitors to stream afterwards.

What is Autodesk’s “Virtual Vision”? At the “Vision Series”, Autodesk will present top achievements from the visual effects industry and provide insights into the work-in-progress of artists. Experts from renowned brands such as EA Games, Rising Sun Pictures, Axis Studios, Inner-Freak and Lucid Games will be on hand to inspire visitors with in-depth discussions about industry trends, high-calibre VFX work and valuable workflow breakdowns. There will also be tips and tutorials on how to work with Maya, 3ds Max, Bifrost, Arnold and ShotGrid.

These five programme items await you at this year’s “Virtual Vision”. All programme items will take place on Friday, 6 May:

Trends in Media and Entertainment: what students need to know: Sophie Robinson from EA Games, Anna Hodge from Rising Sun Pictures and Alwyn Hunt from The Rookies will talk about: Networking during the pandemic, dealing with work-related stress and how students can prepare for the future of the media and entertainment industry. Time: 14:30

Bringing the characters of Magic: The Gathering to life: Axis Studios has worked on the cinematic trailers for Magic: The Gathering, including Innistrad: Crimson Vow and Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. Amy Ash, Head of Character Design, explains how the team brought the characters to life – with the help of Maya, Arnold and ShotGrid, among others. Time: 15:45

Maya Show & Tell: How do you create a fancy mech character? Artists Jonathan Reilly from Inner-Freak, Mike Waterworth from Lucid Games – and independent artist Aaron Humphreys – along with Jon Capleton from Autodesk, will be looking into valuable mech assets. Time: 17:00

Modelling Madness: Exprimente with 3ds Max: Technical artist Sergio Santos shows how artists are taking advantage of the latest 3ds Max update to optimise their creative projects. Time: 20:00

Rocking out with Bifrost: A workshop on modular crystal growth: Bifrost developer Jason Brown shows how to scatter crystals using Bifrost’s procedural tools. Time: 21:15

Clicked to continue: For more information on Autodesk’s “Virtual Vision” at FMX 2022, visit newpossible.autodesk.com.

The post The “Vision Series” rocks the FMX 2022! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: FMX – Film & Media Exchange starts next week at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, but also online. This year’s FMX is a hybrid event. Further programme highlights have now been announced: There will be presentations on absolute entertainment highlights, including “The Batman”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “The Witcher”. The programme will also focus on gaming, mental health and climate change in the context of entertainment.

VFX for Features: Below are some of the programme highlights of this track.

Wētā FX presents “The Batman”: Visual Effects Supervisor Anders Langlands and Compositing Supervisor Beck Veitch will take a look at the VFXs of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman”. In addition, Batman fans will have the opportunity to attend the presentation “Halon Entertainment Presents Visualising The Batman” by Jess Marley and Keith Fallon on location in Stuttgart.

A look behind the scenes of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”: Charles Abou Aad (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Eric Noel (Framestore) and David Cunningham (Digital Domain) take a look behind the scenes of the latest Spider-Man film. The presentation will focus on artistic and technological challenges in equal measure.

VFX for Episodic: The following is perhaps the most exciting item on the programme for this track.

How the creatures for season 2 of “The Witcher” were created: Madeleine Spencer will talk about what elements of the pipeline developed by Cinesite were crucial to bringing the Basilisk and Chernobog to life in this presentation.

Social Impact: Below are some of the programme highlights from this track.

Let’s Talk: Mental Health in the Creative Industry: In this panel Hugo Guerra (Hugo’s Desk), Jahirul Amin (CAVE Academy), Laurie Balvin (Scanline VFX) and Karin Larsson (Lecturer) will discuss: Working conditions in the creative industry, ‘crunch time’, corporate culture and personal wellbeing.

Let’s Talk: Climate change and sustainability in the creative industry: Hugo Guerra (Hugo’s Desk), Imke Fehrmann (Akkord Film Produktion GmbH), Elena Pfändler (SERU Animation), Volker Helzle (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) and Chris Ebeling (Virtually Human Studio) will discuss: the latest IPCC climate report from the United Nations, the right to recycle, the dark side of cloud computing, NFTs, and virtual production.

Games & Beyond: Below are some of the programme highlights from this track.

A Look at Art Direction with Riot Games: In this session, Almu Redondo (Axis Studios) will dive into the art of art directing for short films and game cinematics and show how Riot Games and Axis Studios work together.

The making of the “Sniper Elite 5” cinematic trailer by Rebellion Film Studios: Director Hugo Guerra and VFX Supervisor He Sun will talk about the making of the trailer, covering topics such as: MoCap, stunt performance, animation, modelling, lighting, rendering, compositing, USD pipeline and grading.

Changing The Game: This is perhaps the most exciting programme item on this track.

The Omniverse – a new way to collaborate in real-time and non-linear: Featuring Jeff Kember (NVIDIA), Jon Peddie (Jon Peddie Research), Gary Redburn (DELL) and Chris Vienneau (Jon Peddie Research) who will be lecturing on how Omniverse connects DCC programmes – and makes collaboration on creative projects more sustainable for the future.

Click to continue: All further information on the newly published programme items can be found in the corresponding press release on fmx.de.

The post Bats, spiders and witches: FMX 2022! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: FMX 2022 kicks off in the first week of May and the majority of this year’s event programme has now been finalised. Some of the highlights: Presentations on the Oscar-winning films “Encanto” and “Dune”, as well as special events such as a sound masterclass or the screening of “Ron’s Gone Wrong”.

The technology behind Encantos Casita: The creative minds of “Walt Disney Animation Studios” will present technical innovations that were used to create the remarkable animated film “Encanto”. The speakers will be: Scott Kersavage (Visual Effects Supervisor), Tad Miller (Technical Supervisor), Nadim Sinno (Associate Technical Supervisor) and the Technical Directors Justin Kern, Nellie Robinson and Annamarie Fuchs.

Ron’s Gone Right: How to realise a debut film with two start-up studios: Director JP Vine will take a look behind the scenes of the animated film “Ron’s Gone Wrong”. By the way: FMX visitors will have the opportunity to attend a screening of the film on 5 May. Further information can be found at fmx.de.

llumination – “Sing 2”: CG supervisors Boris Jacq and Richard Adenot will provide exciting insights. The two supervisors will talk about: how the film was created, but also about topics such as character animation, environments, texturing and lighting.

Browse through the conference programme of the “Feature Animation” track! You can find the corresponding event information on fmx.de.

Theo Green on sound design and music composition: Theo Green will talk about the fluid boundaries between sound design and music composition. He will also take a look at his work with Hans Zimmer on “Dune”. Theo Green is an Oscar-winning sound designer, supervising sound editor (e.g. “Dune”, “Blade Runner 2049”) and composer (“The Gambler”).

Special offer for sound enthusiasts: Theo Green will be holding an exclusive sound masterclass on Friday 6 May on the campus of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. The number of participants is limited. To register, please send an email to program@fmx.de.

Skywalker Sound presents:The Soundscape of “The Book of Boba Fett”: Bonnie Wild and David Acord will talk about how the team got the sound right for the creatures, characters, ships and locations from a galaxy far, far away.

Casting and Audio Production at Nickelodeon Animation: Justin Brinsfield (Director of Production Technology) and Roxanne Escatel (Director of Animation Casting) will show you how Nickelodeon Animation Studios ensures that outstanding voice recordings are created – even under remote conditions.

Browse through the conference programme of the “Sound Design” track! You can find the corresponding event information on fmx.de.

Sustainability & B-Corp certification: Blue Zoo Animation Studio and Dupe VFX are two studios that have undergone the rigorous process of B-Corp certification. Why? To check their ecological fingerprint. Tom Box (Blue Zoo) and Jonathan Harris (Dupe VFX) explain how it all works.

Browse through the conference programme of the “Social Impact” track! You can find the related event information on fmx.de.

The key dates: FMX 2022 will take place from 3rd to 5th May 2022 in Stuttgart. The last day of the event will be held online on Friday 6 May. Many of the presentations will remain available online until 31 May.

Click further: The corresponding press release on the newly announced programme items can also be found on fmx.de.

The post Animation fun “Ron’s Gone Wrong” at the FMX 2022! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: In less than six weeks, FMX 2022 will inspire its visitors with international speakers from the VFX industry. This year, the event will take place in hybrid form, both on site in Stuttgart and online.

Learning from the best, Tekkie Talk and “The Mitchells versus the machines”: this year, several masterclasses will take place on site in Stuttgart, including on the topics of “Story Development” and “Story Structure”. Storytelling: tailored to the needs of animators.

In addition, the latest research results from the technology sector will be presented as part of the “Tech Talks” track. For example, it will be about how it is possible to combine face-to-face events with mixed reality. Incidentally, one of the feature-length entertainment highlights will be the Annie Award-winning, Oscar-nominated animated film “The Mitchells versus the Machines”.

Other highly sought-after animated films that will cross your path at FMX 2022 include “The Bad Guys” by Dreamworks Animation, “Sing – The Show of Your Life” by Illumination Entertainment and “Encanto” by Walt Disney Animation Studios.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines: Physically Based Rendering: Kurt Judson (Sony Pictures Imageworks) and Christos Obretenov (Lollipop Shaders) will provide insights into the concept art and show how they adapted the final look of the film exactly to the concept designs. The Sony Pictures Imageworks team used their in-house Physically Based Renderer and combined it with specially developed look development and animation tools, as well as the Open Shading Language.

Masterclass with Victor Perez: Mind mapping for the conceptualisation of light: A core component of VFX work is the harmonious use of light. This should always harmonise with the other image components so that afterwards – to use a well-worn expression – everything “looks like it was cast from a single mould”. Visual Effects Supervisor Victor Perez uses an analysis structure based on mind mapping to achieve this. He uses photography to translate light and optics into mathematical formulae. It sounds complicated, but is highly interesting for VFXers.

Storytelling for animators: Storytelling is a much-maligned buzzword, even beyond the creative industry – but it’s still as relevant as ever. This year, Craig Caldwell, professor at the University of Utah, will once again be represented – with two of his masterclasses. The first masterclass, called Story Structure, will cover the basic story elements and various plot structures. The second masterclass is called Story Development. In it, participants will learn how the development of a story evokes emotions in the audience and enables them to identify not only with the protagonist, but also with the antagonist.

Technology location FMX: The Techtalks are curated by Prof Volker Helzle from the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. Perhaps the two most interesting programme items are those entitled “How to create real presence in mixed reality” and “Machine learning in the VFX industry”.

How to Create Real Presence in Mixed Reality looks at the challenge of creating compelling interactive experiences and the expertise required to deliver the necessary graphics, AI and technology. Darren Cosker from Microsoft will be lecturing on this topic.

On the other hand, the Machine Learning in the VFX Industry session will focus on machine learning in the visual effects industry and how this technology could enable more efficient ways of working. Mairéad Grogan, research engineer at Foundry, will talk about how she researches artificial intelligence and what CopyCat Nodes are all about.

Click further: For the complete list of animated films to be found at FMX 2022, click over to fmx.de . You can also find an overview of the masterclasses on offer at fmx.de.

The post The Oscar-nominated Netflix film is coming to FMX 2022! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.