animago CONFERENCE 2015

Munich/Potsdam, 01 October 2015: Spectacular landscapes, unbelievable fantasy creatures, utterly impossible stunts, exploding cities, futuristic spaceships and magical animation characters – for filmmakers, there’s no getting around the use of visual effects (VFX) these days. The world’s most renowned contemporary digital artists are set to attend the two-day animago AWARD & CONFERENCE on 15-16 October 2015, including the VFX minds behind LORD OF THE RINGS, THE HOBBIT, AVATAR, KING KONG (Matthias Menz from New Zealand’s Weta Digital), MINIONS and DESPICABLE ME (Kyle Balda from France’s Illumination Mac Guff), RATATOUILLE, TOY STORY 2+3, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (Matthew Luhn from Pixar Animation Studios USA), THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and CLOUD ATLAS (Florian Gellinger from Germany’s RISE | Visual Effects Studios) and TERMINATOR: GENISYS, SKYFALL and TOTAL RECALL (Sheldon Stoppsack from England’s The Moving Picture Company), among others.

animago CONFERENCE 2015 is one of the industry’s most important trade events in Europe. It offers an ideal platform for networking, communication and information for international experts in digital media production, young talent and film and media enthusiasts alike. The animago is presented by the German trade magazine DIGITAL PRODUCTION.

Highlights of this year´s conference program

Kyle Balda | Director at Illumination Mac Guff, France, Topic: “Finding the Character of the Minions”

Laurie Brugger | Head of Rigging at Framestore, United Kingdom, Topic: “Paddington: Building the Bear”

Mike Chapman | CG Lead at The Mill, United Kingdom, Topic: “Making the unbelievable, believable; A case study of Audi ‘Birth’”

Gareth Cowen | Previs Artist Lead/Supervisor at The Third Floor, United Kingdom, Topic: “Fix it in Pre: How productions use previs and the role that The Third Floor plays”

Florian Friedmann | Animation TD at Pixomondo Stuttgart, Germany, Topic: “Creating the dragons of ‘Game of Thrones’”

Florian Gellinger | VFX Supervisor at RISE | Visual Effects Studios, Germany, Topic:  “How the Gang from R.I.S.E. helped Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’”

Matthew Luhn | Story Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios, USA, Topic: “The Art of Story”

Matthias Menz | Lighting Supervisor at Weta Digital Ltd., New Zealand, Topic: “The Art of Lighting Principles of classic Cinematography in digital Filmmaking”

Sheldon Stopsack | VFX Supervisor at The Moving Picture Company (MPC), United Kingdom, Topic: “MPC present: Bringing Arnold “back” for ‘Terminator: Genisys’”

Nicolas Trout | co Head Animation / Executive Producer and Simon Thomas | co Head Animation / Creative Director bei Mikros Image, France, Topic: “Asterix The Mansion Of Gods”

Special guest speakers from Finland and Estonia

At the initiative of the cluster ict, media and creative industries of the German capital region VFX-experts from Finland, Estonia and Berlin-Brandenburg will get together in the frame of the animago and held a workshop. The animago sincerely welcomes Troll VFX (Finland) andFrostFX (Estonia). In their making-of, Anti Kulmala and Samuli Torsson from Troll VFX provide insights into the wonderful world of “Iron Sky”. And in a presentation titled “Digital Liquids: Aesthetics of Liquid Simulation”, Marko Post from FrostFX uses the latest technology to show what kind of realistic results can be achieved in the field of liquid simulation.

On-Stage Panel Discussions at the animago TRADE FLOOR (Tradeshow Exhibition)
In addition to product presentations showcasing all the latest technologies generated by software and hardware companies, such as AUTODESK, MAXON, ESRI, WACOM, DELL and NVIDIA, there will also be two discussions focusing on current industry themes in the animago tradeshow area. Annegret Richter (Managing Director AG Animationsfilm e.V.) will present the topic „Made in Germany! How to keep talents and productions in the country and make the animation scene grow“. The participants are Katy Peichert (Wooga Berlin), Mate Steinforth (Sehsucht Berlin) and Jonathan Webber (The Big-B Animation Co.). Prof. Michael Coldewey (CEO Trixter Film) will talk with his guests Robert Hranitzky (freelancer), Nico Ostermann (digital studios) and Alex Weimer plus Tom Schirdewahn (MovieBrats) about “VFX Industry today: Between a self-exploitation for Independent Films and big orders for US Blockbuster”

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