Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Animationsinstitut at FMX 2022

Ludwigsburg, April 19, 2022

On May 3-6, FMX – Film & Media Exchange, one of the world’s most influential conferences on digital entertainment, will go hybrid, taking place in Stuttgart and online. Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg organizes the event, its Animationsinstitut is responsible for the program. 

Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Animationsinstitut will welcome aspiring students at its booth at the FMX School Campus alongside other media and design schools from around the globe that present their curricula there. 

Furthermore, students and graduates will share insights into outstanding projects, that were created at the institute in recent years as part of the conference program.

FRESH VISIONS  

On May 5, 12:30 pm, room Tübingen, three alumni of Animationsinstitut enter the stage to talk about their award-winning graduation projects and their plans to develop them further as part of the Fresh Visions track within the Quest for Young Talents series. 

Filmmaker and digital artist Adrian Mayer, who graduated in Animation & Visual Effects at Filmakademie in 2020, presents his exceptional virtual reality experience STRANDS OF MIND. STRANDS OF MIND is a cinematic VR project, aimed to give the viewer an intense immersive and emotional audio-visual experience. The film has been screened at numerous festivals and won the “Special Jury Prize VR” at NewImages Festivals in Paris. 

In addition, director and 3D artist Sebastian Selg, and technical director and 3D artist Ramon Schauer, will discuss their transmedia experience and diploma project NEOSHIN. NEOSHIN is a unique hybrid between an animated series and a music album. Its story is set in the future after the invention of the so-called cryonic reality (CR). With the CR, mankind has access to a virtual utopia that serves as a substitute for the bleak real world, which is hardly inhabitable due to global warming and massive environmental pollution. The story begins when a new CR virus called Neoshin, which manifests itself in the world through a band with the same name, shatters the world of the girl Ayuko. In each episode of the series, which is inspired by the cyberpunk genre, one song by the band Neoshin plays a central role.

FILMAKADEMIE PROJECTS

On May 6, recent graduation and study projects of Animationsinstitut will be in the spotlight of the Filmakademie Projects track. These presentations are part of the online program and will take place from 12:30 till 4:15 pm. 

The program begins with a presentation of Animation and Visual Effects projects. Among other productions, the audience can catch a glimpse of the making of the stop-motion series THE LAST BAR. After that, students will present projects that they created during their Interactive Media studies. Among them will be the room installation SCHWEBEPUNKTE (engl. Hovering Points), which consists of seven audio-visually-interacting swings. In 2021 the project was shown at an abandoned industrial site as part of the Neuland Festival in Ludwigsburg. Furthermore, works from the Interactive Media module Anifilm/Aniplay will be presented, a project that allows students to create a fictional world, and conceptualize and realize a short film as well as a complementing interactive experience within only a few months. 

Lastly, the study specialization Technical Directing will discuss some of its technological innovations for the film and media industry. Study and research projects on topics such as inverse rigging and procedural animation will be at the center of attention. Moreover, students will talk about the field of virtual production, and demonstrate projects shot using new technology like high-resolution LED screens. Among other student works, the impressive VFX short film AWAKENING will be part of this program. It was created during the Set Extension Workshop at Animationsinstitut and holds some interesting approaches to innovative production processes.

FMX TRAILER BURNED

Students of Animationsinstitut traditionally create the official FMX trailers. In 2022, the conference takes us into the wild with its official trailer BURNED: A wooden creature in the shape of a fox discovers a seed and chases it down a forest hit by a wildfire. Close to reaching its goal, it ignores the dangers of the fire and needs to transform to survive. 

On May 5, Justin Braun (Director) and Isabella Braun (Creative Director) will share insights into the making of the trailer as part of the FMX Conference program. 

Alongside Justin Braun and Isabella Braun, Josephine Ross (Producer), Lukas Löffler (Compositing Supervisor), Mariia Prokopenko (Animation Lead) and Leonard Frederic Caspari (Director of Photography) were part of the team that created BURNED.

For further information on FMX, please visit www.fmx.de/program-2022.