The Pipeline Conference to promote, elevate and evolve VFX/CG pipelines
TPC 2026 · Online · Free to attend

The 2026 online programme

Our in-person conference in Vancouver was cancelled. The programme our volunteers built for it is running online instead: two free half-days in October, and the tenth Pipeline Awards in December. Sessions are recorded where permission is given and published on The Pipeline Conference YouTube channel.

Half-day one

Tuesday 20 October 2026

09:00 – 12:00 Pacific Time

Online · Free to attend · Recorded

Register free on Luma

The Agentic Pipeline

AI and agentic workflows in digital media pipelines

Agents are turning up in production pipelines faster than anyone has written the rules for them. We present three sessions on the work that puts them under pipeline control, from why the prompt is the wrong place for it, to a studio and a games publisher who have built the alternative.

  1. 01 Keynote

    Hanno Basse

    This keynote deconstructs generative models from the pixel up, exposing why their built-in limitations require us to move control out of the prompt and back into our own pipelines.

  2. 02

    Bert Van BrandeandFermi Perumal

    Stellar Creative Labs, Vancouver

    Stellar Creative Labs, a Vancouver-based animation studio, walks through the process and the journey of developing governance, controls and artist-centric AI workflows — embedding generative workflows directly into established creative production pipelines. Together, these applications help artists retain control over asset creation, rights management and model behaviour.

  3. 03

    From Brief to Scene: Agentic AI for Asset Production at Ubisoft

    Cyrus Rahgoshay

    Ubisoft

    While generative AI often focuses on generating raw media, the biggest production bottlenecks lie in the operational overhead surrounding game and film pipelines. This presentation introduces an agentic AI framework which embeds autonomous agents directly into standard 3D software to translate creative briefs into production-ready scenes. By automating scene assembly, pipeline validation and asset handoffs, the architecture shifts AI from an unpredictable generator into an integrated engine for studio-scale efficiency.

    Read the paper

Half-day two

Tuesday 27 October 2026

09:00 – 12:00 Pacific Time

Online · Free to attend · Recorded

Register free on Luma

Core Pipeline Services

Pipeline engineering and operations at production scale

The unglamorous half of the job, taken seriously: the format, the storage and the automation that everything else in a studio sits on top of. Classic Pipeline Conference content on the practical problems that decide whether a show ships.

  1. 01

    Roadmap & Strategy to Accelerate OpenUSD Adoption within Pipelines

    Dan Englesson

    Previously Head of Pipeline at Goodbye Kansas, and at Pixar

    A structured, four-stage engagement that moves teams from initial evaluation to full production readiness. It opens with focused pipeline discovery and strategic roadmapping, then builds, converts assets and integrates OpenUSD directly into live production workflows. The objective is to leave studios able to independently maintain and scale their own unified 3D pipeline.

  2. 02

    Alan McSeveney

    Previously CTO at Preymaker and Head of Technology at The Mill

    Alan McSeveney, a veteran technologist, co-founded the entirely cloud-native studio Preymaker and spent over a decade leading technology at The Mill. He shares how unifying studio storage into a single high-performance architecture eliminates data bottlenecks across complex VFX rendering, real-time playback and cloud-bursting pipelines. Drawing on his deep studio background, Alan demonstrates how removing those I/O limits enables production teams to scale traditional visual effects while seamlessly preparing their infrastructure for next-generation generative AI workloads.

  3. 03

    Introducing Agentic Workflows into Core Pipeline Automation & Governance

    Cole Pearsall

    Founder & CEO at Symbiote

    Bringing an agentic QC capability to life means shifting from rigid, hardcoded scripts to a secure multi-agent architecture grounded in studio-specific knowledge. By pairing specialised AI agents with lightweight local proxies, studios can run complex DCC checks and scene evaluations directly on artist workstations without exposing proprietary data. The approach automates tedious layout-to-animation handoffs in seconds, delivering clear, evidence-based pass/fail reports, and scales across other pipeline bottlenecks.

October 2026

Tuesday 20 October 2026

14:00 Pacific Time

Online · Free to attend · Recorded

Register on Eventbrite

DPPA Online Speaker Series

Proudly sponsored by Miris

A one-off talk on the afternoon of our first half-day, and the one session of the three you can already register for.

  1. 01

    Large Scale Cloud Native Radiance Field Training for Streamable Assets

    Alex Hughes

    Senior Software Engineer at Miris, Vancouver, BC

    Alex works on 3D asset streaming at internet scale. His talk covers large scale cloud native radiance field training and what it takes to turn the results into assets that stream — the training infrastructure, the cost model, and the pipeline work in between.

The DPPA Online Speaker Series runs alongside the two Pipeline Conference half-days above, but separately from them.

December 2026

Date TBA

Streamed on the TPC YouTube channel · Free

About the awards

The Pipeline Awards Show

The tenth Pipeline Awards, as a produced show

Our awardees' work on screen, each of them speaking directly to the audience, messages from the judges, and open rooms on Discord afterwards. Nominations are closed and our independent panel has made its decisions.

Registration for both half-days is open and free — sign up on Luma for The Agentic Pipeline and Core Pipeline Services. Newsletter subscribers hear about everything else first.

The rest of the 2026 calendar

September 2026

Thursday, September 17, 2026 — CANCELLED
The Pipeline Conference — In Person, BCIT Vancouver

This event will not take place. The Pipeline Conference will not be held in person in Vancouver in 2026; the programme has moved online as described above. Ticket holders have been refunded in full and automatically.

If you would like to help run what comes next, our working group is still recruiting! Join the TPC Conference W.G. channel on Discord.

July 2026

Tuesday, July 21 at 9am – 4:30pm Pacific Time
Pipeline BoF Sessions at SIGGRAPH
Location: JW Marriott - Plaza 1 in Los Angeles, California, USA
These events are in person and will not be recorded. Photos and notes will be taken.
NOTE: Attendees must register for a SIGGRAPH Experience or Full Conference pass to attend.

9am VFX Reference Platform
10am Renderfarming
11am Going Cloud Native
1pm Agentic Workflows for Technologists
2pm Studio Storage
3pm Global CG Pipelines
6:30pm Beers of a Feather at location TBD
Must attend 1 session to get the QR code, and space is limited!

Thursday, July 23 at 2pm Pacific Time
Pipeline BoF at SIGGRAPH: The Pipeline Conference – Organizer Meetup
Location: Room 512 LA Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, USA
This event is in person and will not be recorded. Photos and notes will be taken.
NOTE: Attendees must register for a SIGGRAPH Experience or Full Conference pass to attend.

Join us to discuss the near and far future of The Pipeline Conference.

June 2026

Thursday, June 4, 2026 from 3pm - 4:30pm Pacific Time
The Future of Experiential Services
Register here
via Zoom
Video will be recorded and put onto the The Pipeline Conference youtube channel

In the next generation of hospitality experiences, the venue is no longer a backdrop but a dynamic participant in the guest journey. We are transitioning from the era of static environments into a new age of ‘Shared Experiential Reality.’ This session explores how the convergence of curved 16K LED architecture and 3D audio beamforming allows leaders to curate communal, high-sensory experiences that were once physically impossible.

We will examine the ‘Responsive Venue’—a space that leverages real-time services to personalize the journey for audiences, delivering story-driven narratives to individual seats and breathing life into architectural surfaces with digital light. By analyzing the technology blueprints of icons like the Sphere, Disney, and COSM, we provide a strategic roadmap for design groups to move beyond traditional entertainment into software-defined environments that command audience obsession and redefine brand loyalty.

Speakers
Phil Galler – Founder & CTO at Seismiq & 180 Studios
Phil Galler is a pioneering creative technologist and entrepreneur renowned for his transformative impact on the film, television, and live event industries. Most notably, he co-founded Lux Machina, where he became a central figure in the development of Virtual Production and famously coined the term ICVFX (In-Camera Visual Effects). His technical leadership was instrumental in the success of landmark projects such as The Mandalorian, Rogue One, and House of the Dragon, as well as major live spectacles like the League of Legends World Championships. Beyond his production accolades, Galler is recognized as a strategic innovator who bridges the gap between complex software engineering and high-end creative storytelling, often collaborating with institutions like the USC Entertainment Technology Center and organizations like the DGA to define the future of intelligent creation and AI-integrated filmmaking.

Executive Host
Lionel Ohayon – Chief Creative Officer at Journey Studio
Lionel Ohayon is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Journey and the Founder of ICRAVE, a world-renowned innovation and design studio. With over two decades of experience, he has transitioned from reinventing New York’s Meatpacking District and award-winning airport terminals to pioneering the “Physical-to-Digital” (P2D) landscape. Most recently, his work has focused on the intersection of architecture and emerging technology, highlighted by his pivotal role in the experiential design of the Las Vegas Sphere and the development of immersive ecosystems for healthcare and sports wellness. Now based in Miami, Ohayon leads Journey’s creative vision by integrating AI, digital twins, and design thinking to solve complex social and business challenges, ensuring that the next generation of physical environments is seamlessly connected to the virtual world.

May 2026

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 from 2pm - 3:30pm Pacific Time
The Role of R&D in Next-Gen Pipelines
Video

Jonathan Gagnon will outline a visionary R&D strategy that transforms the way creative studios operate.

In the high-stakes world of immersive entertainment, the ability to scale innovation is the ultimate competitive advantage. Jonathan Gagnon will outline a visionary R&D strategy that transforms the way creative studios operate, replacing technical friction with streamlined, high-impact production workflows. Drawing on his experience leading PitchBlack’s journey from foundational pipeline enhancements to cutting-edge research, he provides the insights necessary to power the next generation of shared reality venues.

Speakers
Jonathan Gagnon – Director of Research & Development (R&D) at FOLKS VFX, part of Pitch Black Company
Jonathan Gagnon is a prominent figure in the visual effects (VFX) industry, currently serving as the Director of Research & Development (R&D) at Pitch Black. Jonathan has a deep research background in computer graphics and pipeline development. He is well-known in the industry for his expertise in VFX workflows and is a featured speaker at major events, where he discusses R&D strategies and pipeline modernization.

Executive Host
Andrew Lazarow – Studio Leader and Director at LAB at Rockwell Group
Andrew Lazarow is the Studio Leader and Director of Lab at Rockwell Group, where he heads a multidisciplinary team at the intersection of emerging technology and the built environment. He specializes in bridging digital innovation with physical space, leveraging tools like projection mapping, motion capture, and interactive lighting to uncover the “emotional core” of a narrative. Under his leadership, the studio transforms corporate headquarters, branded environments, and public spaces into immersive, story-driven experiences.

April 2026

Thursday, April 16, 2026 from 9am - 10:30am Pacific Time
Location-Based Experiences: The Plural Pipeline Challenge
Video

How are production pipelines designed for Location & Experiential Services (LBE)?
Arnaud Grosjean will explore the issues and challenges, including:

Speakers
Arnaud Grosjean – Solution Architect and Creative Technologist at Moment Factory
Arnaud Grosjean is a Solution Architect and Creative Technologist specialized in the convergence of multimedia, IT, and interactive system design. As a key member of Moment Factory’s Pipeline Team, he leads the R&D of disruptive workflows that bridge the gap between digital content creation and physical venues.

Arnaud’s work focuses on future-proofing immersive infrastructure. He actively explores the potential of “Digital Twins” and simulation technologies to virtually commission complex multimedia systems—testing lighting, media, and interactivity before physical deployment.

A vocal advocate for open standards in the Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) sector, Arnaud promotes interoperability through open protocols and formats. His expertise in blending AV architectures with IT backbones has been pivotal in major technical refreshes and large-scale activations, including the IP-based overhaul of the iconic Cipriani 25 Broadway in New York, the AT&T Discovery District, and the Hong Kong International Airport.

Executive Host
Marc Petit – Board Member at Moment Factory
Marc Petit is a veteran leader in computer graphics and real‑time 3D technology with over four decades of experience spanning software development, media & entertainment, and immersive digital ecosystems. He is best known for his tenure as Vice President and General Manager of Unreal Engine at Epic Games, where he oversaw the platform’s expansion across industries, including gaming, film and television, architecture, engineering, automotive, simulation, and manufacturing.

Before joining Epic Games in 2016, Petit served as a partner and Entrepreneur‑in‑Residence at Montreal’s XPND Capital, where he co‑founded Taxelco, an innovative, sustainable urban transportation venture. He previously led Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment division from 2002 to 2013, directing the development and global market strategy for major 3D and VFX tools such as 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, and Flame.

Most recently, he has shifted focus toward large‑scale immersive experiences and strategic advisory roles, including consulting with Moment Factory on real‑world interactive media installations. His career reflects a consistent focus on pioneering real‑time content creation, innovation in digital storytelling, and the fusion of technology with creative industries.

March 2026

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 from 9am - 10:30am Pacific Time
Experiential Pipelines: An Intro to Technical Direction for Special Venues
Video was 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
Will Muto specializes in visual effects (VFX) pipeline development and tool creation for artists. He is a passionate, driven, and detail-oriented developer who is well-versed across the entire VFX production pipeline.

Executive Host
Eric W. Shamlin – CEO, Firebringer.AI
Eric Shamlin is a highly accomplished creative executive and producer operating at the intersection of traditional storytelling and emerging technology. Eric is currently CEO of Firebringer. Eric previously held leadership positions at a number of modern studios, including CEO of Secret Level, an AI-native entertainment studio that focuses on reimagining how stories are developed and produced across film, television, and advertising. With a career spanning three decades, Shamlin has held senior leadership roles at major organizations including Media.Monks, where he served as EVP Global Head of Entertainment, as well as positions at Apple and Omnicom. His work has been recognized with some of the industry’s most prestigious honors, including multiple Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, and over a dozen Cannes Lions.

In addition to his studio leadership, Shamlin is a prominent figure in the professional creative community and a leading voice on the ethical integration of AI in media. He currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Television Academy (the Emmys), where he chairs the Innovation Standing Committee and the AI Task Force. He also holds the role of Innovation Chair for the Producers Guild of America and serves as an advisor for the SXSW film festival. An educator and frequent keynote speaker, he has lectured at institutions like UCLA and USC, sharing his expertise on the evolution of immersive media and the “democratization” of production through new technological tools.

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.