Autodesk Flow Studio software is a generative solution in the Autodesk Media & Entertainment Collection. This software helps artists produce layout, create content, and drive home visuals across film, television, and games. This solution can also be used in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) space to help standup Revit content and aid with visuals to maximize customer impact.

The next decade of physical product design will be defined by what teams choose to automate. Modern design tools should not just make things happen faster. They should free teams to focus on taste-making, creation, and human intuition, while quietly handling the repetitive work no one wants to do. This session explores how end-to-end product workflows, powered by AI and human collaboration, are enabling teams to design faster, more efficiently, and better for the world. See how Autodesk Fusion and Naya complement each other across the full design process, from first concept to manufacturing, and walk away with a strategic view of how Fusion and Naya enable a better design process, and where the next year of AI and workflow is heading.

Few characters in modern horror are as unpredictable as Pennywise, whose terrifying transformations lie at the heart of IT: Welcome to Derry. In this session, Rodeo FX Animation Supervisor Scott Holmes will reveal how the team used Maya software to design rigs and craft performances for Pennywise's many monstrous forms. Through production examples and animation breakdowns, the talk will explore the creative process behind building creatures that can shift from subtle unease to full nightmare, while remaining believable, expressive, and terrifying on screen.

Modeling is no longer just about clean quads and edge loops it's about data integrity for a global pipeline. As studios transition to OpenUSD, Maya artists must evolve their workflows to ensure assets are portable and performant. In this technical deep dive, we'll move beyond basic topology to explore the authoring of "smart" USD assets. We'll cover the latest Maya 2026 USD modeling tools, demonstrating how to manage complex hierarchies, variants, and metadata within a single file. You will learn how to optimize meshes for seamless deformation across platforms and avoid common pitfalls in a multisoftware environment. Stop modeling for a single scene start building assets that thrive in a universal production ecosystem.

This class will present an intermediate-to-advanced workflow integrating Maya software and Unreal Engine software to create more-complex and exciting game cinematics including characters animated with motion capture, manually animated vehicles, particles, and dynamics. This class will show you how to create and layout an advanced game cinematic in Maya, preparing it for export to Unreal Engine. Then we will show you how to import and set up the exported Maya scene in Unreal Engine, setting up materials, cameras, mocap, particles, and dynamics. Finally, we'll implement industry-standard best practices while working between Maya and Unreal Engine, and rendering the final cinematic in Unreal Engine. This hands-on class has the indie game dev and 3D artist in mind.

With nearly everything you need to make an animated film, Maya Entertainment Creation Suite software enables animators and directors to do some real guerrilla filmmaking. This class will walk you through some of the techniques we are employing to bring the feature film Dog Eat Dog to life on a budget of less than $1 million. From timesaving rigging techniques to at-your-desk facial motion capture, we are bringing our entire bag of tricks to bear in our quest to release quality animation on a grassroots budget.

In this class, we examine a creature modeling and detailing workflow using Autodesk® Mudbox® and Maya® software. Topics covered include concept techniques in SketchBook® Pro software, creating freely in Autodesk® Mudbox® without the worry of the underlying topology, and new retopology techniques that allow for the creation of an animation and rig-ready mesh. The class also takes an in-depth look at the processes of sculpting, detailing, and painting to bring our creature look and style to life.

In this class, you will learn how to improve your design process, increase your creative freedom, and reach your deadlines faster with Autodesk® Alias®, Autodesk® SketchBook® Pro, Autodesk® Maya®, and Autodesk® Mudbox® software. We will go through the entire process of creating a new product, from the conceptual level up through surfacing and prototyping. All class data will be available for download.

During this class, you will learn the best practices and typical approaches involved when developing custom tools for Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Maya®, Autodesk® Softimage®, and Autodesk® MotionBuilder® software. We will cover scripting and programming languages and discuss the numerous APIs and SDKs available from Autodesk. This class will help you grasp what you can do beyond what is available out of the box in Autodesk entertainment creation suites.

This session will take a look at the future of surfacing and digital design tools as used by automotive and industrial design. We will focus on key drivers and changes, trends, and observations from the field, as well as customer stories of best practices. The goal is to enable attendees to learn from best practices elsewhere and prepare for the future.

Back by popular demand—again!! One of Autodesk University’s highest-rated classes, this is intended for emerging 3ds Max software and Maya software users. This session will explore the world of image-based lighting for rendering images using high dynamic range (HDR) maps and NVIDIA mental ray / NVIDIA iray software. We'll begin with the process of capturing the existing real-world environment lighting. From there we'll see the steps involved in creating HDR panoramic image maps that are used within 3ds Max software and Maya software for photorealistic scene lighting. Finally, we'll employ camera techniques that will create very real images that combine computer graphics and real photographs for completely believable and seamless final imagery. What’s new this year? This year we will focus on graphics processing unit (GPU)-based rendering, specifically NVIDIA iray and others.

3D visualization has become a very important part of the practice in today's design industry; it is no longer limited to just the film and game studios who have long-established pipelines that deal with rendering and compositing. These critical techniques are little known by other design industries, or they are typically practiced to a very limited degree, utilizing available software such as Adobe Photoshop. There exists a common misconception that the Hollywood-like compositing workflow is too expensive or beyond reach. Design companies that have 3ds Max software or Maya software can get help from the Composite program from Autodesk, Inc. From 3ds Max software, you will learn how to render by element, separating important layers that can be used in a compositing workflow. From Composite software, you will learn how to assemble your rendered layers and make post-production changes that impact the look and feel of your final rendered image or animation.

Movies do it, the most popular television series are basing most of their effects on it, and commercials love the opportunities, but what about architecture? Can it help the client to better understand their site, their design, and the direction and the impact of their company onto the community? This class will demonstrate the advantages of using the techniques of integrating computer graphics into live plates, the process, and the possible pitfalls—especially when using it with aerial footage.

This class will examine designing environments for visually capable Machine Learning Agents to train in. Looking at both modular, procedurally generated environments and non-generative spaces, the class will cover constructing environments to promote generalization and learning. Additionally, the class will give an overview of the design constraints imposed when training AI, including vision sizing, computing power, and graphic fidelity. The class will dissect the Unity Obstacle Tower Challenge environments, including their construction in Autodesk Maya, the modular structure, and procedural generation. The class will also survey the possible issues in adapting an existing digital environment to use with AI.

Take your first steps into the world of machine learning. Learn how a neural network can be used to dramatically speed up the removal of noise in ray traced images. In this lab you will learn about noise in rendered images, use a network trained to denoise sample images, and iterate and modify parameters improving the quality of the denoiser. By the end of the lab, you will have the tools and the knowledge to build your own AI accelerated denoiser.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools have found a niche in real estate sales and marketing, and they are having some impact on design decision making, but the real impact on construction lies just over the horizon when gaming technology, wearable computing, and machine learning will deliver a rapid proliferation of multiplayer collaboration environments for process planning to optimize design, sequencing, coordination, and safety planning. This class will take an industry look at where we are today, and what the near-future and long-term-future states of VR and AR are likely to be. This session features Autodesk Stingray and Maya. AIA Approved

This session will take a look at the Alias road map, research areas, and the latest tool developments in Alias software.

This class will tell the complex story of delivering models and design drawings for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art currently under construction in Los Angeles, California. This flagship museum is pushing the boundaries of architectural design and delivery. Brendan Mullins of Stantec Architecture will explain the challenges of modeling and documenting the unique aesthetic of the building. He will share workflows for integrating Rhinoceros 3D and Revit software using computational design software Grasshopper and Dynamo. The intelligent model, a complex A360 Revit project, pushes the limits of what Revit can accomplish as a tool for fabrication of architectural components. The project didn’t have a printing budget, and was delivered paperless and coordinated using a combination of cloud-based platforms, including A360 and Bluebeam, while utilizing virtual reality and drawing tablets. Through examples and stories, Mr. Mullins will share the journey of delivering this innovative design.

This class will cover the speaker’s experience in production of monumental sculptures with powerful technologies. We will find out what benefits 3D modeling, animation, simulations, and 3D printing provide to shape creation of the new era, and how advanced visual effects technologies can improve production of classical sculptures. We will show you several examples of actual projects and discuss the future of sculpture.

Using our large 3D model set, we take different parts of our attractions and put the moving pieces together. With geometry from across the project fed into the engine and presented in 3D. Like a 3D world from a game, but it’s a real place. While Walt Disney Imagineering is not developing VR rides, we use VR in various ways to help us design and test rides. This commitment to making the illusion complete for the viewer has led to some really fascinating advances from Disney R&D and Imagineering. From group experiences in simulator rooms to some more radical ways to simulate our attractions and experiences, VR is an integral design tool. That also means putting in media, animated figures, and other timed effects. Every piece of our puzzle to create our attraction, we put into a virtual reality simulation. With the VR, we make quick iterations with our creative team and ultimately this VR environment timing feeds real world controllers for the attraction in some really amazing ways.