It’s been said here and there, that FMX is Europe’s answer to SIGGRAPH. Don’t believe it. FMX stands on it’s own as Europe’s biggest and broadest, most forward looking digital animation conference, with its own agenda and unique identity. The full name: FMX 2006 11th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content Creation, gives you an idea of its breadth. A quick look at the program at www.fmx.de is the only way you’ll really get a feel for the depth. An annual spring event at the Haus der Wirtschaft, Stuttgart’s biggest and most cutting edge multimedia venue (Built in the 1800’s it still retains the scars of various battles that have taken place at it’s feet,) FMX is definitely something you should be thinking about attending.

FMX has ‘ for 12 years ‘ been evolving along its own pathways. I find it a terrific place to network. Its smaller scale and more intimate surroundings provide a setting where you can actually find people you need to talk with, even do a little bonding. Wonder of wonders the Germans seem to grasp how important parties are for networking. They either don’t have loud bands, or if they do, there’s always a place to get away from the ruckus for a bit of intense conversation. In, fact I noticed that most party goers actually do avoid the music…but not the wine. If only LA could grasp that lesson as well. Oh and it doesn’t hurt that Stuttgart in the spring, is an idyllic place to stroll, watch swans and sip local wine with new friends, while taking a break from the show.

I find the intense networking environment at FMX leads to new and unpredictable friendships that have, over the years proven quite productive. The interesting mix of people from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, and the Americas is unique. Cross pollination takes place. Chinese media buyers hook up with East German film producers and Hollywood VFX houses discover Eastern European VFX facilities to which they can sub-out non-critical work and save a bundle. Bonding takes place over wine and gourmet food. As an aside, Stuttgart is a Mecca of gourmet food and the local wine is world famous, which certainly adds to the magic.

Hollywood, (the fictional one with an actual location just East of Oz,) really is the center of the mainstream movie world. It has influence over most movie conceptualization and production all over the globe. Indeed you’ll find Hollywood in force at FMX. FMX has become so prestigious that Hollywood now sends its very best to both share and stay on the cutting edge. Tim Sarnoff, president of Sony Pictures Imageworks said it all: “FMX has grown into one of the most innovative and forward-thinking events in the world of visual effects and animation. We are very proud to participate with Jenny, Troy and Doug and share the diversity of our work with such a distinguished group.” He’s speaking of Jenny Fulle, Troy Saliba and Doug Ikeler, who gave excellent individual talks on Imageworks and their key projects.

Big time studios from around the globe are all getting involved as they realize how important FMX has become. Here’s a short list of this year’s participants: Aardman, Adobe, A-Film, Arri, BFC, CA Scanline, Central China TV, Digital Domain, Disney, Double Negative, DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, Enjmin, Framestore, Gaumont, Grass Valley, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Industrial Light & Magic, Kleiser Walczak, LucasArt, Mental Images, Moving Pictures Company, Nvidia, Pixar, Quantel, Rhythm & Hues, Sony Broadcast, Sony Entertainment, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Studio AKA, SuperRTL, The Orphanage, WDR or Weta FX.

You’ll notice that a lot of Hollywood types were there, but importantly so were many cutting edge studios from across the globe. In our egocentric view of filmdom, we sometimes we forget that, for example, India produces more movies than we do. The rest of the world is doing really brilliant stuff and we only grow from knowing all about it. I was blown away by much of the work being done by studios I’d never heard of in far off countries I had not before associated with animation.

This was the first year for the new annual event: the Virtual Humans Forum, which I was privileged to MC. The panel members included prominent international experts such as the psychologist Paul Ekman, Mark Sagar (King Kong), Paul Debevec (University of Southern California) and Christophe Hà©ry (ILM) and Volker Helzle (Institute of Animation) presented the latest developments in virtual actors from both technical and artistic angles, and they even threw in a bit of animation philosophy that I grew from. Helzle even gave us a link to download his impressive face animation system plug-in for Maya. You can probably google it.

One highlight presentation in the Visual Effects section was the Weta Experience in creating King Kong. It was presented by the very tall and articulate Matt Aitken who charmed the audience with his coherent genuineness. In the Animation section I particularly enjoyed the talk about what went on behind the scenes at Wallace & Gromit given David Sproxton, co-director of Bristol School of Animation and Co-founder and President of Aardman Animation. David presents with great style and good humor. He is a true powerhouse in the animation industry, yet he always takes time to chat with up and coming animation students and lends his business and artistic acumen to the Bristol School of Animation, fostering the next generation of young animators.

The big story this year is profitable convergence of games and film. Keynote Speaker was Jordan Mechner, who, who is adapting his Prince of Persia game into a film, gave some interesting insight. Then Doug Cooper from Dreamworks gave a knock-your-socks-off talk about innovative ways that film companies can share assets and ideas with game companies very early on in the development cycle in order to optimize the film-game synergy factor. I walked in full of opinions about how it should be done and came out with many of my ideas altered by Doug’s remarkably clear vision. Joseph Olin (Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences), Scot Brew (LucasArts), Eric Armstrong (Electronic Arts), Christoph Biehn (Sony) and Lee Sheldon (The Adventure Company) also gave presentations in this trendy and exciting area.

There were a few first glimpses of up-coming productions given by Disney (A Day With Wilbur Robinson); Sony Pictures Imageworks (Open Season and Monster House), Dreamworks (Over the Hedge) and Pixar. I spent most of my time going to screenings of exceptional short animation. Shelly Page from Dreamworks and Dan Sarto from Animation World Network had particularly intense collections. I love the really short ones that I can use in my seminar on “How to get the job you want in computer animation” presented in the recruitment section. More on that in a minute

There was a lot of discussion about Digital Cinema, with presentations in co-operation with the Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart and others. Cutting edge stuff. It goes on and on. There were sections on focused on the work of European Producers, an exciting new Focus on Asia, Media Buyers and sellers panels and so forth. I couldn’t attend even a small fraction of it all.

I promised to get back to recruitment. FMX places great importance on nurturing the many animation students from across Europe who attend. One of the chief concerns of students is: “How do I prepare for the job I want?” “How do I present myself to best advantage with a killer demo?” To help with this we had a ton of mobbed presentations on these subjects. A large section of the Haus der Wirtschaft was set aside for presentations focusing on recruitment.

Disney presented a Portfolio workshop to help students market their skills. Then HR managers from 28 international companies outlined their needs, projects and vacancies ‘ from industry giants such as Dreamworks through to smaller, but very ambitious companies in Europe. I can tell you from my emails that a significant number of these contact resulted in job offers, right on the spot.

It is always with sadness that FMX begins to wind down and people begin to flow away to their far off homes. As the energy begins to wane I pack my roller bag and head out for the Bahnhoff to catch the ICE train to Munich, the next leg of my journey. On the train I sort out the dozens of business cards I’ve collected into little zip bags, trying to place a face with each one. When I get home, I’ll email each just to establish a connection that may or may not go anywhere. When I weigh the 8 hour time difference and the 12 hours of travel against what I’ve learned and experienced, there is no question that FMX wins.