The final polish has gone on to fmx/07 – the 12th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content and can now be viewed at www.fmx.de! The primary European meeting of the digital community takes place at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart from May 01 to 04, 2007. Nearly 300 presentations, panels, workshops and speakers reveal the state of the digital image – the creation, production and myriad forms of distribution in television and cinema as well as games and mobile entertainment.

The fmx/07 series: thematic orientation in a comprehensive programme
fmx/conference – the heart of fmx:

• fmx/talks highlight the entertainment industry in the age of digital imagery, with making- ofs, project presentations and case studies from the world of animation, games, visual effects, design and production.
  These include the films Spider-Man 3 (Sony Pictures Imageworks), 300 (with VFX Supervisor Chris Watts and Stephan Trojansky, Scanline), Poseidon (Scanline & Moving Pictures Company), Pan's Labyrinth (Framestore Animation), Charlotte’s Web (Rising Sun Pictures), Arthur and the Invisibles (BUF), Dragon Hunters (Trixter / Futurikon), Azur and Asmar (Mac Guff) and Flushed Away (Aardman Animations).
  The games' arena also has top names and exciting insights, with talks from Matthew Jeffery on the future of gaming and the gaming industry as well as Henry LaBounta on intelligent, believable characters (both Electronic Arts); LucasArts and Natural Motion talk on Dynamic Motion Synthesis in next-generation games; Lionhead Animation presents its work (Black&White 2, Fable 2), Midway Games talk on cinematic game design and Disney appears together with its games-daughter Buena Vista Games to present Meet the Robinsons.
  Other talks focus on new techniques and trends, including speakers such as Jean- Charles Hourcade, Thomson – the media corporation encompassing companies such as Technicolor, Grass Valley and Moving Pictures Company – and Prof. Paul Debevec, University of Southern California who will present research on face scanning and rendering.
• fmx/essentials 2007 consists of two specialist forums – the Virtual Humans Forum (see below) and the Digital Cinema Day, curated by Prof. Katja Hofmann and dedicated to both stereoscopic films and the complete workflow of digital cinema, from pre- production through to distribution and projection.
• fmx/technologies offers in-depth looks at the newest technical developments, including interactive realtime animation and improved rendering.
• fmx/talents is a platform for new generations of talent – project concepts will be pitched to a jury of decision-makers from production companies and broadcasters in European Talents, international film and animation schools present themselves in the School Offerings curated by Eric Riewer (Gobelins, France) and the Eyes & Ears Junior Showcase presents up-and-coming design talent.

The new series fmx/review is committed to recent upheavals in the world of animation – with current analysis of web2.0's virtual universe, including Second Life, the notable advances in performance capture and talks covering the history of visual effects and computer animation.

fmx/forum focuses on applied knowledge with a top line-up of companies and speakers at the exhibition fmx/expo, the hands-on fmx/workshops and the fmx/suites with Adobe and Autodesk. Autodesk, for example, is preparing offerings as diverse as the myriad tasks asked of cg artists today – from games and visualization, from archaeology and architecture to the virtual world of Papermint or the VFX from The Red Baron.

Last year's fmx/recruiting likely advanced to the most attractive contact and job platform in Europe. International studios, VFX and post-production houses look to the panels, desks and sessions offered here to help them find the talent they need. This year, this includes Aardman Animations, Crytek, Datascope Recruitment, Disney, Double Negative Visual Effects, DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, Framestore CFC, LIGA_01 Computerfilm, Lionhead Studios, Locomotion, LucasArts, Mackevision Medien Design, Parasol Island, Pixomondo, RTT, Scanline VFX, Sony Picture Imageworks, Trixter and Unexpected. Virtual Humans Forum
Believable characters form the core topic of this year's fmx. We honor the advancing quality of digital performances with top-notch presentations by acclaimed speakers such as:

• Christophe Héry, Industrial Light & Magic, "Digital cloning at ILM, in particular Lemony Snicket's baby and Pirate's Davy Jones" The "technical Oscar" winner (Technical Achievement Award) drives the development of shading and rendering in ILM's research department. Christophe Héry is curator of the Virtual Humans Board and member of the fmx advisory board.
• George Borshukov, CG Supervisor, Electronic Arts, "Universal Capture: from The Matrix Films to Interactive Entertainment Applications" George Borshukov was the technical designer behind the bullet-time sequence in The Matrix. The Technical Achievement Award winner switched to Electronic Arts in 2004 where he has been developing universal capture techniques for realtime applications.
• Thomas Kang, Senior Consultant and Engineer, Softimage, "The Changing Face of 3D Character Animation" Truly believable animation of the human face remains one of the most difficult of tasks. However, a radical change in methodology has been initiated: away from laborious individual tools towards intelligent visual systems. Thomas Kang has been integrally involved in the development of such an advanced system for facial animation, Softimage|Face Robot.
• Volker Helzle, Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, ”Recreation of a passed-away actor” Volker Helzle directs research projects at the Ludwigsburg Institute of Animation. His team demonstrates the digital re-birth of a famous actor who has long-since passed away – as he would appear today, at 81 years of age.
• Steven Stahlberg, Freelance Artist, "Creating Realistic Attractive Women" Internationally renowned digital artist Steven Stahlberg talks about the process of creating digital imagery of women, both technical and creative – from idea and anatomy to modeling and shading.

The ties that bind: fmx and the 14th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film ITFS
When two quality organization share the same obsession for animation, a partnership is only natural. Last year's cooperation proved that fmx, a leading conference and ITFS, one of the most important animation festivals in the world belong closely together. The overlapping day of May 1st has been filled with a whole series of mutual and / or mutually relevant events, such as the Animation Production Day (see below), the presentation of international animation schools by the French film school Gobelins and the panel Writing for Animation with the MFG Filmfoerderung. On top of all this, the presentations on the first day of fmx/conference all deal intimately with animation for cinema, television and interactive media. The official opening takes place that evening, by the way – at the ITFS awards ceremony. The Opening Keynote will be held by Kevin Geiger, co-founder of the independent film- makers platform The animation Co-op.

Animation Production Day (APD) – finding solutions, knowing where the problem is
The cost of producing an animated feature film has grown considerably over the last few years. Often, its the infamous 10 to 15% that peers out of the budgeting concept as a dangerous gap in the financing. The animation Production Day brings producers, global distributors and potential financial partners together in arranged one-on-one meetings. Strict criteria have been set in order to raise the chance of success: participation is restricted to 50 and producers must have several successfully produced films to their credit. Their projects should possess international commercial potential and be expandable into television, gaming or mobile concepts. In addition to inofficial business chats, the APD will have an outlet to the fmx: in the afternoon on May 1st, European studios such as Films Action (France), A. Film (Denmark/Scandinavia), Scopas Media and TOONS'N'Tales (Germany) talk about their production strategies.

The Animation Production Day 2007 is an event by the14th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film and fmx/07 in cooperation with Michael Schmetz Mediaconsult.

9th flashconference at fmx/events
The largest German event focusing on the Macromedia flash format is now integrated in fmx. And once again it offers an outstanding overview of the newest developments in this prominent animation format. Reporting are among others:

Scholz & Volkmer, "Mercedes-Benz E-Class Experience Paris Paris – Beijing" The leading flash agency from Wiesbaden accompanies a rally with 33 E-Class cars from Paris to Beijing with the help of google maps. Fans can thus follow the long trip in realtime on the Mercedes site. The Greek illustrator Ilias Sounas won last year's Realtime Film Festival at fmx/06 with The Circle of Life – O Kyklos tis Zois. This year he presents the world premiere of his newest work Space Alone. There will also be talks covering the new Wii from Nintendo, the Brasilian scene, the development of 9UI components – and many new films.

Attention, journalists: online accreditation now possible
Visit the press area at the fmx website http://fmx.de/E.5.html . Direct accreditation is now possible. If you are planning to visit fmx/07, you should register in advance. Registration upon entry is less comfortable and usually takes more time.