FMX is one of our favorite conferences of the year, if not our favorite. It’s held in Stuttgart, Germany from April 24th through April 27th and tickets are still available. It has a wealth of fabulous presentations from artists around the world, as well as informative sessions run by manufacturers. If you live in Europe (or even elsewhere), this is one conference you don’t want to miss.

Here are some highlights of the conference this year, taken from the FMX newsletter:

Arrow Effects – The Shape of Water

Being part of the Creatures & Characters track, Trey Harrell (Mr. X) will explore the techniques used to bring the Amphibian Man in Oscar-winning The Shape of Water to life. Raphael de Almeida Pimentel (Luma) will get on stage to illuminate how the studio created rock giant Korg in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok. Pennywise, the creepy clown featured in IT, will be the center of a presentation given by Mikael Damant-Sirois and Dominic Piché (both Rodeo FX).

Arrow Virtual Reality at the Planetarium

After last year’s successful premiere, the Planetarium Stuttgart will host some fascinating VR content once again. Scot Stafford (Google Spotlight Stories) will present Sonaria, a sound-driven journey of light and music. Alex Henning (Magnopus) will take the visitors on a ride into the world of Coco VR, the corresponding virtual reality experience of the Disney Pixar movie success. Kim Baumann Larsen (The Future Group) discusses the challenge of creating a rich, compelling music VR experience that balances user interaction and direction. Last but definitely not least, Buzz Hays, Head of Production at Lytro, and Saschka Unseld, Producer and Director at Tomorrow Never Knows (TNK), will be part of the line-up at the Planetarium.

Arrow Technology – Lighting & Rendering

As in past years, Christophe Hery, Senior Scientist at Pixar Animation Studios, curates the Lighting & Rendering track again for the 2018 edition of FMX. Aside from that, he will present Flow, Pixar’s in-house shading tool. André Mazzone (Industrial Light & Magic) will describe the current material modelling paradigm in use at ILM, the history behind it, and some glimpses into the future. Sam Assadian (Isotropix) will explain Clarisse iFX, a new 3D lookdev, lighting and rendering software. Professor Tamy Boubekeur and Davide Pesare (both Allegorithmic) will elaborate on the challenges one has to face when creating digital materials and substances.

Prof. Wenzel Jakob (École Polytechnique Féderale de Lausanne) will talk about modelling, measuring and rendering the appearance of layered materials. Jan Jordan and Dr. Lutz Kettner (both NVIDIA) will discuss the basics of NVIDIA’s Material Definition Language. The track will be rounded off by a presentation given by Andrea Weidlich, Senior Researcher Rendering at Weta Digital.

Arrow FMX Forum – Backstage and latest confirmations

With Backstage, one more Main Partner can be announced. More confirmations for the Marketplace keep coming in, with the latest of them being Autodesk, Avid, NEC Displays and Unit Image / Scan Engine. INRIA and SolidAnim will have a joint booth on the Marketplace. Furthermore, Foundry, MAXON and Sohonet will invite the FMX visitors to participate in their Workshops. Double Negative, Goodbye Kansas and Mikros Image will be looking for new talents at the Recruiting Hub. Moreover, faculty staff, alumni and students of Hochschule der Medien, Staffordshire University and Victoria University School of Design are looking forward to potential students at the School Campus.