Are You Going To FMX 2016?

FMX 2016 has been officially announced, as well as the initial lineup of speakers/panelists and screenings that will take place throughout the week  of April 26-29 in Stuttgart Germany. Mirada will be participating in the VR demo area, and I will be on at least one panel and giving a presentation on storytelling in VR. This will be the first time that I will make it out for FMX, so I am very excited to finally see this show after hearing amazing things about it for years and years. As you can see from their official announcement, the topics they cover are extremely varied:

In 2016, FMX enters its third decade. As the place, Where Art, Technology and Business meet, FMX poses as platform for discussion and exchange, inviting its core communities from the Effects, Animation, VR, Games and Transmedia industries to Stuttgart.

“Blending Realities” is this year’s FMX theme. It zooms in on the different production modes and mindsets that exist in digital entertainment, whether this concerns Transmedia, VFX, VR, AR or other fields. Further topics encompass:

Realtime Storytelling | VR Business Models | Visual Communication | Virtual Reality for Production | Concept Art | Disruptive Technologies | Virtual Cinematography for Virtual Reality | Sound Design | Location-based Entertainment | Designing the Future | Virtual Human Forum | VFX in Commercials | Hack Art | Directing for VR | Business Leaders | Animation Wild ‘n Strange | Worldbuilding | VFX in TV | Stop-Motion | Lighting & Rendering (for VR) | Tools of Tomorrow | VR Cameras & Pipelines | G4Change Europe | Access to Finance | Highlights of SIGGRAPH

And here are a few confirmed people and events courtesy of Animation Magazine:

Attendees can look forward to presentations on Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated feature Inside Out, the visual effects techniques of six-time-Oscar-winning actioner Mad Max: Fury Road, virtual reality storytelling and more…

…And tackling the brave new world of virtual reality will be Kim Adams (Source Consulting, for Google Spotlight Stories), hosting the “Storytelling in Virtual Reality” panel discussion. Panelists include Jan Pinkava, who directed the Pixar Oscar-winning Ratatouille and is now working as Creative Director of Google Spotlight Stories, as well as Jason Fletcher-Bartholomew and Tim Ruffle (both of Aardman Animations), Chris O’Reilly (Nexus Productions) and Jacquie Barnbrook (The VR Company).

If you are planning on going to this year’s show please let me know and we can try to connect over there!  And finally, here is a highlight reel of 2015’s event: