This year, TPC is presenting quarterly on topics relevant to Pipeline professionals. These events are virtual, with an in-person BoF and reception taking place at SIGGRAPH 2026 in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Events will be recorded if permission given, and can be found on The Pipeline Conference youtube channel.
March 2026
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 from 9am – 10:30am Pacific Time
Experiential Pipelines: An Intro to Technical Direction for Special Venues
Register here
via Google Meet
Video will be recorded and put onto the The Pipeline Conference youtube channel
With over a decade of technical leadership at ILM, Will has been at the forefront of some of the most groundbreaking projects in entertainment history. From his work on the revolutionary LED “Volume” technology for The Mandalorian to leading visuals for Dead & Company: Dead Forever at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Will specializes in bridging the gap between complex software engineering and high-end creative artistry. +3 In his upcoming session, “Experiential Pipelines: An Introduction to Technical Direction for Special Venues,” Will will dive into the unique challenges of designing for massive, non-traditional “canvases”—from theme park rides to city-block-sized architectural media. Key Session Highlights: The Shift to Spatial Design: How to manage perspective correction and anamorphic distortions for thousands of unique vantage points. Production Logistics: Strategies for moving petabytes of data across distributed playback systems without latency. The Future of LBE: A roadmap for transitioning traditional VFX workflows into the world of location-based entertainment (LBE).
Speakers
Will Muto – Lead Technical Artist & CG Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic
TODO – Bio here
Executive Host
Eric W. Shamlin – CEO, Firebringer.AI
TODO – Bio here
Monday, March 9 from 1:50pm – 2:50pm Pacific Time
Global Pipelines Roundtable
In Person at GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco, CA – Not recorded
As production demands grow and workflows diversify, developing and maintaining a robust, adaptable pipeline is more critical than ever. This casual roundtable invites pipeline developers, TAs, and technical leads to discuss evolving pipeline trends, common challenges across studios, and share practical strategies for building efficient, scalable systems. Topics span from the VFX Reference Platform to cloud-native workflows, storage strategies, and MLOps integration. Join this conversation to exchange ideas and experiences with peers who are shaping the future of production technology.
Speakers
David Vega has been a python developer in the games and tech industry for the past 15 years. He has worked at large places such as Rockstar Games and Meta as well as startups and indie game studios. David started out as a character rigger and transitioned into coding naturally. Eventually, he fell in love with helping create tools and automated systems, which shaped the trajectory of his career into the pipeline-focused developer that he still is to this day.
Fran Zandonella Benjamin is passionate about leading teams to build people-friendly pipelines for creative work. As the founder of The Pipeline Conference, she facilitates and promotes the interaction and knowledge of like-minded Pipeline professionals around the world. Her focus is on creating outstanding international teams that write great software and provide exceptional support for artistic endeavors.