FMX Press Release February 18th 2026
HELLO EVERYONE,
It’s time for some real treats!
Eric Saindon (Senior VFX Supervisor) and Sam Cole (VFX Supervisor) from Wētā FX are going to share how they made everything look even more splendid in „Avatar: Fire and Ash“. One task was in the movie’s title: creating spectacular digital flames.
Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright (Pixar) will go into detail about the stylized animation in the long-awaited new feature „Hoppers“. Scientists are in for some surprises when they manage to decipher the communications of animals.
And then there’s the lone wolf who becomes a vegetarian in order to find friends. The French Intermarché commercial „Le mal aimé“ went viral globally, and animation director Benoit Bargeton (Illogic Studios) is going to explain how an independent studio can pull off top-notch animation.
Premium Partners of FMX make an important contribution to the conference: Welcome AMCRS, Accenture Song VFX and Ayon!
Early Bird options are in place until March 20 in the FMX Ticketshop – go have a look!
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH: Taking Pandora to the Next Level
Academy Award® winning Senior VFX Supervisor, Eric Saindon and VFX Supervisor, Sam Cole, will overview the process of creating Wētā FX’s 3,100+ shots from „Avatar: Fire and Ash“. They will reveal how the team blended extensive native stereo photography with CG environments, fully digital performance-captured characters, and physics based coupled effects simulations.
They will also talk about how a new tool, Kora, was created for more art directable fire and the additional improvements that were made to Wētā’s muscle-driven facial system, to stay anatomically plausible, while preserving the intent of the performances. This film is the product of 20 years of close collaboration with filmmakers, and continual technical innovations to achieve the highest quality storytelling and visual spectacle.
This session is part of the FMX track VFX for Features.
HOPPERS: Stylization as a System
How do you design a world that can be funny, suspenseful, and epic—sometimes all at once? Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright (Pixar) breaks down the stylized visual language of Hoppers, from felted characters and tactile environments to an innovative brushstroke projection pipeline.
Learn how the team preserved physical realism to hold emotional stakes while shaping surfaces for clarity and appeal. It’s a deep dive into stylization as a system—across modeling, animation, simulation, and lighting—built in service of story.
This session is part of the FMX track Feature Animation.
LE MAL AIMÉ: Artistic Choices and Cross-Department Collaboration
In his talk, animation director Benoit Bargeton (Illogic Studios) explores how feature film level animation can be achieved in a commercial context. It takes the Intermarché campaign’s wolf as a central character and shows how an independent studio adapted its workflow and resources to deliver a project of this scale.
The session focuses on artistic and acting choices, and the technical decisions made to support these directions, as well as cross-department collaboration between modeling, rigging, and animation.
This session is part of the FMX track Shorts