FMX 2016 has come and gone and left us completely jetlagged (but inspired). This is the first time that I have made it to FMX, and after years of hearing great things from those who have gone I can say first-hand that it is a great conference and you should put it on your radar! FMX is interesting in that it skews more academic than CES, E3, and NAB but not quite as white paper-y as shows like SIGGRAPH. Someone described it as a conference focused on working professionals sharing their experiences, and I think that is the most accurate. There is a much greater sense of camaraderie amongst the speakers than I have experienced; it was a common sight to see two direct competitors having a coffee and discussing their work, sharing their findings.
I was on two different VR panels and did a presentation titled “Creating Narratives for Virtual Reality,” plus Mirada’s VR work was on display all 4 days in the VR experience zone. There was a nice write-up of my second panel in CartoonBrew, featuring a deeper look into the work of the panelists, including Jan Pinkava from Google’s ATAP group, Tim Ruffle and Jason Fletcher-Bartholomew from Aardman Animations, Nexus co-founder and executive creative director Chris O’Reilly, and Jacquie Barnbrook, producer of “The Martian” VR experience.
The “Creating Narratives for Virtual Reality” presentation was live-streamed – there is this extremely detailed review of it on inverse.com.
All-in-all, I would 100% recommend FMX to anyone working Film, TV, commercials, music videos, VFX, animation, games, VR, AR, interactive, or just curious about any of the above. In many ways, this conference has been a little bit of a ‘best kept secret’ in the US, and now I can understand why. Put it on your calendar for 2017 and beyond – you will not be disappointed.