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Luc Besson’s ‘Valerian’ in the Spotlight at FMX 2017

Production sessions at Germany’s international conference on animation, visual effects, VR, games and transmedia also to include ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ and Kraftwerk 3D.

Luc Besson’s sci-fi feature ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ in the spotlight at FMX 2017.

Ludwigsburg, Germany -- Two months before the film’s release into theaters, organizers of FMX 2017, Germany’s international conference on animation, visual effects, VR, games and transmedia running May 2-5 in Stuttgart, have announced that Luc Besson’s much awaited sci-fi film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets will be in the spotlight with a production session led with production VFX supervisor Scott Stokdyk alongside Weta Digital’s Martin Hill, ILM’s Philippe Rebours and RodeoFX’s François Dumoulin.
In addition, various presentations examine Rogue One: A Star Wars Story from concept art to virtual production. A powerful track on Sound Design, curated by Nami Strack (Nami Strack Filmton/ Sounddesign) and Jean-Pascal Beaudoin (Headspace Studio), spotlights groundbreaking projects such as the Kraftwerk Blu-ray production Kraftwerk 3D.

Effects: Valerian and Star Wars: Rogue One

Helming the set of very powerful VFX case studies is Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets two months before its official release. The adaptation based on the ground-breaking comic book series Valérian et Laureline is the visually spectacular new adventure film from Luc Besson, the legendary director of The Fifth Element. VFX Supervisor Scott Stokdyk, Martin Hill (Weta Digital) as well as Philippe Rebours (Industrial Light & Magic) and François Dumoulin (RodeoFX) will zoom in on this fabulous universe in a two-hour presentation, showcasing images that have not yet been revealed to the public. Renowned industry heavyweight John Knoll (Industrial Light & Magic), Chief Creative Officer & Rogue One Visual Effects Supervisor & Executive Producer, contributes a case study on the challenges of making
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, from concept to post production. Knoll will also team up with Margaux Durand-Rival (The Third Floor) to explicate the collaboration between ILM and The Third Floor and director Gareth Edwards that brought the movie to life. The film’s concepts as well as art work for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will also become the focus of Christian Alzmann’s (Industrial Light & Magic) presentation.

Further VFX Case Studies and VFX for Commercials

A Cure for Wellness will be in the limelight during two talks from Ben Wiggs (Double Negative), who delves into creature creation, and Florian Gellinger (Rise FX), who will also speak about Doctor Strange. VFX for Commercials features Diarmid Harrison Murray (MPC Advertising) and Dan Phillips (MPC Creative), who will not only focus on the highly successful John Lewis Christmas campaign, but also on the development of the accompanying interactive VR project. Steffen Hacker and Alexander Kiesl (unexpected) present VFX-Making-ofs, stories and insights from four commercials unexpected realized last year. Hugo Jackson and Ashley Tilley (both The Mill) add their learnings from working on the latest The Mill ads.

Animation: The LEGO Batman Movie, Moana and Smurfs: The Lost Village

IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz interviews Aardman Animations studio co-founder, director, producer and writer Peter Lord. The Director of Smurfs: The Lost Village, Kelly Asbury (Sony Pictures Animation), will join FMX in person to showcase key artwork. Dale Mayeda, Justin Weber and Brian Whited (Walt Disney Animation Studios) talk about combining hand-drawn and CG animation for Moana. And Grant Freckelton (Animal Logic) spotlights the The LEGO Batman Movie, which is based on Lego properties.

Art: Sound Design from Skywalker Sound and Facebook through Google to Kraftwerk 3D

David Fluhr (Disney Digital Studio) shares how he created convincing audio experiences for Vaiana, Zoomania, and further animated delights. He will complement his talk with a hands-on Masterclass on immersive sound mixing at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg (pre-registration is obligatory via program@fmx.de (link sends e-mail)). Kevin Bolen (Skywalker Sound) presents how his company brings audio experiences for VR and 360 video experiences such as The Jungle Book: Through Mowgli’s Eyes to life. Tom Ammermann (New Audio Technology GmbH) details the challenges of involving a listener emotionally with immersive and 3D audio for the Kraftwerk Blu-ray production Kraftwerk 3D. During two new conference formats, experts from the following prestigious companies will deliver keynotes and participate in moderated discussions focusing on immersive audio technology as well as new forms of expression and storytelling: Audiokinetic Wwise, BBC, Facebook, Fraunhofer ILS, Google, Headspace Studio and Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe.

VR: VR research and scanning, tracking and localization technologies

MFG Foundation presents the work of the following VR-related research projects: Prof. Uwe Schulz and Kasimir Blust (Stuttgart Media University) offer a live-presentation of the award-winning VR game Elena, and an inside-look into the research project InViRa. Prof. Matthias Woelfel (Hochschule Furtwangen) takes up Etienne Souriau’s concept of diegetic facts and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Scheible (Stuttgart Media University) ventures into the realm of drone art. Three presentations explore the current state of the art in scanning, tracking and localization: Valérie Allié (Technicolor) explains how light fields improve immersive VR experiences, Edward Miller (Scape Technologies) elaborates on the use of localization technology for AR experiences and Sebastian Marino expounds on the practicalities that need to be considered for volumetric filmmaking.

Technology: From real-time workflows to high-performance computing

Kathleen Maher (Jon Peddie Research) will host two panel discussions at FMX that deal with real-time experiences and the future of real-time workflows, where pioneers cover real-time technologies for previz, on set and for VFX on the one hand, and discuss the collaboration between content creators and tool providers on the other. Jon Peddie (Jon Peddie Research) rounds off the panels on real-time production pipelines with a look at VR and AR and how they impact present and future entertainment. The track “Tools of Tomorrow” looks at future technologies. Paolo Selva (Weta Digital) showcases current R&D with a specific focus on crafting tools that manage scale. Annekatrin Baumann (High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart), Dr. Ari Harjunmaa (Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg) and David Koerner (Stuttgart Media University) present research findings in high-performance computing that have been accumulated as part of the Media Solution Center BW project. And Jonathan Stark (The Foundry) ponders the question of how live-action VR can be made better with “6dof VR.”

Further program updates are available on the FMX website.

Source: FMX 2017

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.