Volker Helzle & Andreas Dahn
Head of Research & Development & Film + XR-Director @ Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Animationsinstitut & www.andreas-dahn.de
Volker Helzle (DE) is in charge of Research and Development at Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. After graduating from HDM Stuttgart Media University (Dipl. Ing. AV-Medien) in 2000 he moved to California and worked for three years at Eyematic Interfaces (later acquired by Google). Volker quickly advanced to team-lead in charge of the Los Angeles based Content Development Group where his team pioneered facial performance capture substantially contributing to the engineering and development of the Eyematic Facestation.
In 2003 he joined Filmakademie as supervisor of the research and development department at Animationsinstitut. The primary focus of his first few years at Filmakademie has been the development of facial animation tools. This led to one of the first plausible technology tests, realizing a virtual actor in an exemplary VFX production. During the past 15 years he raised funding for a substantial amount of regional and European Union funded projects in the scope of Animation, VFX, Virtual Production and Immersive Media.
In 2013 Volker Helzle received the honorary professorship of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. In addition to the technical research Volker has initiated and lead the Technical Director course until 2024.
As a program consultant he contributes to the organization of the annual FMX conference.
Being a C-64 kid of the 80ties, Volker’s life was strongly influenced by video games and early computer graphics. To this day he is a passionate gamer but also finds interest in completely analogical activities like mountain hiking, gardening or yoga.
With a foundation in traditional filmmaking and visual effects, Andreas Dahn (DE) became known for his effects work on GAME OF THRONES, Wes Anderson’s GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, Marvel’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2.
During his studies at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, he directed award-winning short films and was honoured with a scholarship at the University of California (UCLA). His adaptation of the German gothic novel DER SANDMANN received international recognition, made its way into German television and continues to be showcased worldwide.
Since his residency at the Zurich University of the Arts, Andreas has been exploring performance capture and real-time rendering for virtual production and interactive experiences. He realised innovative projects for the media production company UFA, Intel Germany and Europa-Park.
Within the European Media and Immersion Lab EMIL he directed the scalable VR experience FATE OF THE MINOTAUR for Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg which is on display now at Ars Electronica. Furthermore, he recently finished the non-local virtual production CAT CONTENT – a short film in collaboration with the Trans Media Lab of Design Academy Eindhoven and Aalto University Helsinki, which is soon coming to festivals.
Based in Ludwigsburg and Berlin, Andreas inspires all generations of media creators with international workshops on virtual reality, special effects and visual storytelling.