FMX 2026 is packed. With sessions running in parallel across three days, it’s easy to miss something great. The program covers everything from blockbuster VFX breakdowns and AI pipelines to real-time rendering, virtual production, and spatial design.
We went through the schedule and pulled out the sessions we’re most excited about. Here’s our shortlist. You can find full session details on the FMX 2026 schedule and speakers page.
Trash Island: A Houdini to Unreal to 3ds Max + V-Ray Pipeline
This is one of the most pipeline-heavy sessions at FMX this year. Jan Hofmann (CG Supervisor at Telescope Animation) and Amir Ashkezari (FX Supervisor at PFX) will present the pipeline behind Trash Island, a procedural real-time segment from the animated feature The Last Whale Singer.
The pipeline moves Houdini-generated assets through OpenUSD into both Unreal Engine and a traditional 3ds Max + V-Ray workflow, connected by custom tools for cross-studio collaboration. If your studio works with any combination of these tools, this session is a must.
Trash Island: Building a CG Wonderland from Garbage - Session Promo
Generative Video in Production: The Moonvalley Session
Ben Lock, Head of Production Strategy at Moonvalley, will talk about what actually happens when you try to use generative video in a real production pipeline. Not the hype, but the practical stuff: shot intent, continuity, versioning, iteration, and all the places where things break down.
No matter what corner of the industry you’re in, generative video is showing up fast. Understanding where it works and where it doesn’t will help you make smarter decisions about when to use it in your own workflows.
The AI Track: Practical Production Use, Not Buzzwords
FMX’s Artificial Intelligence track this year is curated by Mike Seymour of fxguide, and it’s focused on practical production integration rather than tech demos.
Sessions include Ben Grossman of Magnopus, Mohsen Mousavi of Eyeline Studios, and Hao Li of Pinscreen (who recently completed AI work on Fallout Season 2). The common thread is where AI fits into real pipelines and how to keep the artist in the loop. If you’re exploring AI-assisted texturing, lighting, or concept generation, this track will give you a solid reality check on what’s production-ready and what isn’t.
Capturing the Lens Look for Photorealistic VFX
VFX Supervisor Victor Perez will present a session called GLASS, focused on how real camera lenses affect the look of an image: distortion, chromatic aberration, field curvature, vignetting, iris behavior, and micro-contrast.
Whether you’re working in VFX compositing, archviz, or any CG discipline that aims for photorealism, this talk digs into exactly that. Understanding lens characteristics and how to replicate them in CG is one of the fastest ways to push your work toward photorealism.
GLASS: Capturing the Lens Look for Photorealistic VFX - Session Promo
Pixar’s Hoppers: Stylization as a System
Beth Albright from Pixar will present how the team approached Hoppers, balancing physical realism with stylized surfaces across the entire pipeline. The session covers coordination between modeling, animation, simulation, and lighting.
This is less about matching the Pixar look and more about the thinking behind it. How do you make deliberate visual choices that hold up across an entire project? Anyone working on a project with a strong visual identity will find something useful in how Pixar approaches this at scale.
Space as Medium: VR and Spatial Design
Andreea Ion Cojocaru of NUMENA will present a session exploring space as the primary medium in VR, drawing from references ranging from ancient architecture to video game level design. The talk covers scale transitions as narrative devices and how spatial design principles shape immersive experiences.
This is one of the most conceptually rich sessions at FMX. If you’re working with VR walkthroughs, interactive presentations, or any kind of spatial storytelling for clients, the ideas here translate directly to how you design and present architectural spaces.
RENO: Virtual Production and ML Workflows
The Shorts track features a session on RENO, an original sci-fi short that was used as a live testbed for virtual production and machine learning workflows. The team will discuss Gaussian splat scanning, automated rotoscoping, and marker removal as practical production tools.
Gaussian splatting in particular is gaining traction across the industry for environment reconstruction. This session will give you a window into how these techniques are being refined in a production context.
Reno - Exploring new realms in visual effects through sci-fi filmmaking - Session Promo
AWS Cloud Rendering and Deadline Cloud
AWS is a partner at FMX 2026 and will be showcasing cloud-based solutions for visual effects and 3D content production, including scalable rendering, virtual workstations, and high-performance storage. They’ll also be highlighting AWS Deadline Cloud as a managed render management service.
If your studio is thinking about moving rendering to the cloud, or if you’re already doing it and want to see what the infrastructure options look like at scale, this is worth a visit at the Marketplace. On that note, we recently launched RenderFlow Cloud in beta, which lets you burst your local render farm to the cloud directly from RenderFlow. Come by our stand if you want to see how it works.
=> Sign up for RenderFlow Cloud Beta here.
The Marketplace and Networking
Beyond the sessions, the FMX Marketplace is full of tool makers, software companies, and studios showing their latest work. It’s a great opportunity to talk directly with the people behind the tools you use every day, try new products, and see what’s coming down the pipeline.
And while you’re there, come visit us at the Pulze stand (booth 1.3). We’re proud to be a partner of FMX 2026 and we’d love to talk about how Scene Manager, RenderFlow, and Project Dream fit into your pipeline. Whether you have questions about render management, scene organization, or AI-powered visualization, we’ll be there all three days.
How to Make the Most of It
FMX sessions run in parallel, so plan your schedule ahead of time. Browse the full program and mark the ones you want to attend. Leave gaps for the Marketplace and hallway conversations. Some of the best insights at FMX come from the people you meet between sessions.
See you in Stuttgart!
FMX 2026 runs May 5 to 7 on site in Stuttgart. Browse the full FMX 2026 schedule and get your tickets at fmx.de.
Cover image: FMX 2025 archive