FMX'2018 : fake is the new real
Two weeks ago, the biggest European gathering of VFX producers, studios, concept artists and movie industry geeks took place in Stuttgart. It was my first FMX (organized by Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg) and I really enjoyed the way speakers shared on state of the art tools and pipelines, cool immersive experiences, innovative business models, from best practices to useful tips... truly a "behind the scene" experience! Here are my key takeaways.
VR as a creation tool
"VR builds a bridge between 2D sketches and 3D conception, it is very cinematic, and it gives so much freedom. I can become my character while creating it!" Jama Jurabaev, concept artist/Art director.
Digital human will be soon a reality
"The virtual human Siren is a milestone moment in realtime CG", David Morin LLC.
A good immersive content begins with the sound experience
"Ambisonic sound is a must for VR" Benedict Green, Ecco VR.
Virtual Reality is here to stay, whatever the size of the market.
Nobody can really tell how big the VR will be in our daily lives, within 10 or 15 years. Even if you can count on a majority of fans among FMX attendees and speakers, everybody easily admits it's still a challenging medium and market. But from storytellers to production consultants, there is no doubt that the potential and benefits of the medium are huge and that VR won't fail like other image technologies did before.
"Maybe VR is the perfect medium of and for our time", Saschka Unseld, director.
"VR and AR are new immersive media that will take their place alongside more traditional media" David Morin, LCC.
Fake worlds mean good business (for VFX studios)
Attending FMX is, in some ways, like diving in another world. From Pixomondo session ( presenting the LBE project "National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey" ) to "Adam" Making Of with Oats and Unity speakers, 2 observations remain obvious: 1/ everything around us will get more and more fake and we love it ( or don't even realize it!) 2/ the VFX studio and visual artists are in the best position to take advantage of this huge trend. The markets of gaming, animation and movie are blurring and the skills of VFX studio now spread in B2B fields, thanks to the rise of AR and VR in professional applications.
