Agenda
18 June
Workshops
9:00 - 9:45
Registration
9:45 - 10:00
Welcoming guests
10:00 - 12:00
Slot I
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Péter Sárhidai & Mihály Paseczki
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Every visualization project moves through three stages: preparing the scene, rendering it, and finishing the image.
In this two-hour workshop, Peter and Mihály from Pulze walk through a complete production pipeline built around three connected products: Scene Manager for organizing and batching complex 3ds Max scenes, RenderFlow for distributing the work across your local farm or bursting to the cloud, and Project Dream for AI-powered enhancement, upscaling, and concept generation.
We'll show how each product fits its stage of the pipeline, how they connect into a single workflow, and how the same setup scales from freelancers to large studios.
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Ludovit Nastisin
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Node-based approach can change the way you create, but only if you understand the logic underneath it. For this workshop, no prior experience needed, no prior knowledge required. You'll see what Figma Weave actually is, watch it work through real examples, and then build something with it live, in the room, together. It is about giving you a working mental model for node-based AI logic which you can apply. Figma Weave also directly supports this session and prepared something cool for you.
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Timo Maciel Ott
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Everyone is talking about the AI revolution, but few are talking about the headache of actually making it work for high-end brands. After 20 years in the advertising industry, Timo Maciel Ott (Co-Founder of relative.berlin) has learned that the secret to mastering Generative AI isn't a better prompt: it’s a better filter.
In this session, Timo cuts through the industry noise to show how relative.berlin integrates AI into complex, high-end production pipelines without losing the soul of the craft. From the technical "how-to" of character creation and social media content to the messy reality of client expectations and red flags, this is a look at the "dirty" side of innovation.
12:00 - 12:30
Break, free time & networking
12:30 - 14:30
Slot II
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Daniel Nagaets
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Architectural visualization is undergoing a major transformation driven by AI and rapidly evolving creative technologies. In this session, we will explore how the role of the 3D artist is shifting beyond technical rendering into a multidisciplinary creative profession.
Today’s architectural artist must combine artistic vision, storytelling, design thinking, communication skills, and AI-powered workflows to stay relevant in a changing industry.
This talk examines the evolution of the visualization artist, the new skill set required for the future, and why human creativity, taste, and emotional intelligence are becoming more valuable than ever in the age of artificial intelligence.
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Alina Kostiuk
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New perspectives on burnout as a career turning point.
Is burnout inevitable in the creative work? Maybe burnout is one of the biggest career crisis we can face? Crisis as an opportunity for change. Due to it we can learn about ourselves things we didn’t want to know. But here we go. We can’t run away from it any more. Burnout isn’t a death sentence. It’s a lesson about ourselves and our relationship with work. Let's look at burnout as a career development tool.
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Jerzy Drozda
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Jerzy Drozda, an expert trainer from IT Media, explores the cutting edge of creative efficiency in his session on the Adobe AI workflow. Attendees will discover how to seamlessly integrate Adobe Firefly Structure and Style References into their professional pipelines to accelerate conceptualization and design. This presentation provides a practical roadmap for mastering AI-driven tools to transform creative visions into polished visual realities.
14:30 - 16:00
Lunch break, free time & networking
16:00 - 18:00
Slot III
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Wellington Franzao
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Join me for this live sketch session, where I’ll share some of the most important principles of creating compelling images in low resolution.
We’ll explore the key elements that help achieve a strong first impression, and I’ll demonstrate how to apply these principles in a live sketching session from scratch.
It’s a chance to learn, experiment, exchange ideas, and most importantly, have fun.
See you there!
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Bartosz Domiczek & Artur Tamioła
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How do you turn a simple clay render into a finished 6K image - and keep the whole thing consistent? How do you automate the boring parts along the way? Welcome to the third edition of WVF workshop series, this time focused on post-production and vibe coding.
If you want to get up to speed with the latest Photoshop techniques, AI photobashing, and are just starting to build your own tools with vibe coding, this one’s for you. All in the usual CommonPoint style.
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Karim Moussa
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Every project has its own identity, theme, and spirit. The creative direction in the visualization lies in exploring those unique qualities to remain truly authentic to a project’s setting, vision, and personality. It is about finding the perfect balance between Architectural functionality and cinematic drama—searching for the emotional elements that build tension, connect with the audience, and leave a lasting impact.
In this session, we will go behind the scenes of various projects, ranging from still imagery to animations and short films, to uncover how we can capture these emotive, human qualities.We will walk through the making of these projects from concept to completion, exploring the initial ideation phase through to final execution.
By discussing both the narrative decision-making and the technical steps, we will look at how to bring a concept to life in the most powerful way possible.
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As part of this year’s World Visualization Festival, Women For Real opens a space for honest conversations about creative work, visibility, growth, doubts, wins, and the parts of the journey that rarely fit into a polished bio.
It’s a moment within WVF dedicated to women across the creative industry, to meet, share, connect, and exchange experiences with people who understand the path from the inside.
Less performance. More presence.
Less small talk. More real exchange.
18:00 - 22.00
18:00 - 22:00
Free time & unofficial Before-Party for the others
19 June
Presentations & Panel discussions
Stage A - Art & Creativity
Stage B - Technology & Business
9:00 - 10:00
Registration
10:00 - 10:15
Welcoming guests
10:15 - 11:00
Presentations
GRAPH
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Alberto Marin Navarro
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This talk traces our journey from photorealistic rendering to what we now call ULTRALOCAL, images rooted in place, culture and emotion.
We'll explore why the "wow, it looks like a photo" has become a ceiling rather than a destination, and what happens when you start making images of futures that feel like memories.
KUNKUN VISUALS
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Rheza Eka Nugraha
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How a studio from Southeast Asia disrupted itself before the market could—in an industry where AI changed everything.
11:00 - 11:30
Break, free time & networking
11:30 - 12:15
Presentations
NEOSCAPE
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Matthew Clarey & Corey Beaulieu
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As the boundaries between still imagery, film, realtime, VR, and experiential media continue to
blur, architectural visualization faces a new question: not just what can we make, but what
should we make?
Drawing from 30 years of work at Neoscape, this presentation explores how visualization
studios are evolving from image producers into collaborative creative partners — helping clients
navigate the intersection of storytelling, technology, audience, budget, and design intent.
Through projects ranging from surreal product campaigns to large-scale infrastructure films, the
talk examines how technical fluency, creative flexibility, and thoughtful client collaboration shape
meaningful visual experiences across mediums.
BINYAN STUDIOS
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Andrei Dolnikov
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Sharing BINYAN's philosophy & approach to innovation and creating the future of our industry.
12:15 - 12:45
Break, free time & networking
12:45 - 13:45
Panel discussions
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Host: Katarzyna Bartoszewicz
Guests:
MOZSES - Karim Moussa
GRAPH - Alberto Marin Navarro
PSYCHOLOGY FOR CREATIVES - Alina Kostiuk—
TBA
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Host: Ricardo Eloy
Guests:
BINYAN STUDIOS - Andrei Dolnikov
GABRIEL SAUNDERS - Veronica Saunders
INFERSTUDIO - Bethany Edgoose—
Architectural visualization is no longer what it was a decade ago. It once served to show the client a finished design - today it increasingly builds a property's brand, drives the sales narrative, interprets architecture, and moves into immersive formats that didn't exist before. The industry is changing, but is this a transformation we already feel in our wallets, or still a loose projection of the future? Andrei Dolnikov and Dr. Paul Loh have just written a book on exactly this, sharing its title with this panel - time to talk about where archviz really stands today and what's waiting just around the corner.
13:45 - 15:15
Lunch break, free time & networking
15:15 - 16:00
Presentations
MONDLICHT STUDIOS
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Dmytrii Glazyrin
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The CG industry is changing faster than ever. It’s not just about AI; it’s about a new global economy and new ways of working.
Dmitriy Glazyrin, CEO of Mondlicht Studios, will share his 20-year journey - from the days of slow renders to the modern era of real-time engines and AI.
This talk is about why "knowing the buttons" is no longer enough and how to build a stable career in an unstable world.
GABRIEL SAUNDERS
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Veronica Saunders
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How deliberate, heightened awareness of environment reveals hidden patterns, unlocks creative problem-solving, and transforms the way designers see, think, and create.
16:00 - 16:30
Break, free time & networking
16:30 - 17:15
Presentations
JOURNEY
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Vincenzo Damato
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Through the lens of 55 India project, this presentation explores how AI is evolving from a standalone tool into an integrated creative production partner. The session will walk through CGI and animation workflows, AI-generated actors, Luna platform integration, and the collaborative production processes required to deliver complex projects at scale.
Alongside the technical and creative pipeline, the presentation will also focus on the client relationship as an active creative partnership - showing how close collaboration, trust, and iterative development between production teams and clients become essential when navigating emerging AI-driven workflows and new production realities.
THE SCOPE
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Faruk Heplevent
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This presentation introduces Scope City 2.0, a procedural city generation system developed by The Scope to create photorealistic urban environments for modern CGI productions.
The talk will explore how a small studio approached the challenge of building scalable digital cities and developed a production pipeline combining Houdini, Maya, and Substance Designer to enable fast generation, high performance, and strong artistic control.
Attendees will get an inside look at the procedural asset creation workflow, material and texture systems, and the use of OpenUSD and MaterialX for interoperable pipelines.The presentation will also demonstrate how procedural tools can support a wide range of applications - from automotive CGI and VFX to virtual production, game environments, and emerging AI research scenarios.
Through production examples and technical insights, the session will outline how procedural approaches can help studios build flexible, reusable city environments while maintaining photorealistic quality and creative direction.
17:15 - 17:45
Break, free time & networking
17:45 - 18:45
Big panel discussion
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Host: CUUB - Alina Godunova
Guests:
THE SCOPE - Faruk Heplevent
BRICK VISUAL - Jason Bergeron
BINYAN STUDIO - Andrei Dolnikov
OMEGARENDER - Artem Kupriianenko—
Business is a game - it has its rules, its conventions, and the little tricks only seasoned players know. Years of experience - the mistakes, the successes, the wins - teach everyone how to carry themselves at the poker table. But how do you break into the top league? How and when can you talk to the biggest brands as an equal - and is that even possible? Production and creativity matter, but everything starts with the business conversation, the negotiation, and closing the deal. Without that, there is no business. How do you play the game - what can you get away with, and what's a faux pas? The rules are simple; it's the nuances that decide who closes deals and who only estimates them. Time to see how the best do it.
18:45 - 19:15
Break, free time & networking
19.15 - 19:45
Award ceremony
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The CGConnect 3D Awards were established in 2004 to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of architectural visualization. 2026 marks the 22nd anniversary of our annual awards.Past ceremonies have been held in Vienna, Austria; Los Angeles, San Diego and Boston, U.S.; and La Coruña, Spain.
19.45 - 20:00
End of the day
20.00 - 2:00
Official After-Party for Everyone
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Location: LINK
20 June
Presentations & Panel discussions
Stage A - Art & Creativity
Stage B - Technology & Business
10:00 - 10:45
Morning awakening
10:45 - 11:00
Welcoming guests
11:00 - 11:45
Presentations
NOVAVERSE
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Mauro Sansoni
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In this talk, Mauro Sansoni, Technical Director at Novaverse (part of HH Group / Visualhouse), will share how the studio made the strategic shift from traditional architectural visualization workflows to a fully real-time pipeline built on Unreal Engine.
Starting from a single asset, the team is able to generate a wide range of outputs, including high-end cinematic films, interactive web applications, AR and VR experiences, touchscreen sales suites, and immersive rooms.
The presentation will also cover the process of building a specialized real-time team from the ground up, developing large-scale digital twins of cities such as Dubai, and showcase case studies including the Dubai and Hong Kong immersive rooms.
JOHANNES WOLFGANG KÖNIG
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Johannes Wolfgang König
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A personal career journey from competition architect to partner at bloomimages and narrativ and how and why I went other directions since without losing touch with the beautiful minds and characters that form this industry.
11:45 - 12:15
Break, free time & networking
12:15 - 13:00
Presentations
RECOM FARMHOUSE
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Kate Booker & Owen Silverwood
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‘Quadrilateral’ is a VR reinterpretation of Samuel Beckett’s Quad, turning its choreography into a contemporary exploration of automation. Human performers are replaced by industrial robots, examining repetition, control, and the alienation of individual presence. Sitting between performance, sculpture, and simulation, the VR experience, created with director Owen Silverwood, is the first in a series of Recom Farmhouse R&D projects exploring human engagement through digital work.
WIAK STUDIO
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Michał Wiak
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In his talk, Michał will reflect on how transition has shaped his business, influenced his decision to stay small, and become a source of inspiration in his work. He will explore the challenges and opportunities that transitional times bring to small studios and freelancers.
13:00 - 13:30
Break, free time & networking
13:30 - 14:30
Panel discussions
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Host: Wellington Franzao
Guests:
FUTURE DELUXE - Raj Davsi JOURNEY - Vincenzo Damato
LUDOVIT NASTISIN - Ludovit Nastisin—
The conversations driven by fear and denial are over. Time for the next level - AI can be your partner in everyday work. Where is artificial intelligence genuinely better than a human today, and where will it never replace us? How can the creative industry lean on these new tools without losing what matters most? There are many threads to pull, but the key to a real workflow upgrade is a single one: crash-testing ideas and having open conversations with people whose experience differs from ours. Where opinions collide is the best place to level up. AI is already here and it's here to stay - now it's our move.
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Host: Ricardo Eloy
Guests:
BLOOMIMAGES - Lisa Della Dora
ILM - Delcio Gomes
GOSPL - Johannes Wolfgang König—
The creative industry is a universe of options - archviz, interiors, advertising, film, VFX, product design, motion. There's no shortage of fields to play in. But what do you do when boredom sets in, burnout catches up with you, or you feel it's time to fly higher? Which paths are realistic today, what carries over between roles, and what has to be built from scratch? What challenges should you be ready for, and what's waiting around the corner? A career is a road with many stops - let's talk about how to change direction with a clear head, not out of panic.
14:30 - 16:00
Lunch break, free time & networking
16:00 - 16:45
Presentations
VITTORIO BONAPACE
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Vittorio Bonapace
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In this talk, Italian digital artist Vittorio Bonapace explores the evolving relationship between technology, creativity, and human emotion through the lens of digital art and architectural visualization.
Starting from his background in 3D visualization, Bonapace reflects on how technical tools became a personal artistic language, transforming rendering into storytelling and emotional expression. Through personal experiences, creative crises, and selected artworks, the talk addresses themes such as visual overload, AI-generated imagery fears, authenticity, and the search for meaning in contemporary digital culture.
The presentation concludes with a new chapter in his artistic journey: the opening of a physical atelier dedicated to canvas-based works, representing a return from virtual images to material presence
FUTURE DELUXE
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Raj Davsi
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Raj will share how risk, failure, and reward shape our constant pursuit of experimentation, driving us to create fresh, innovative work. From the first pitch to the final production, it's all part of the process.
17:00 - 17:30
Break, free time & networking
17:30 - 18:15
Presentations
DELCIO GOMES
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Delcio Gomes
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What if the secret to high-level VFX isn't a better schedule, but a better mindset? After 20 years in the industry, I’ve learned that true leadership isn't about enforcing order—it’s about surfing through the chaos.
This talk is a deep dive into the "invisible" side of directing: identifying individual strengths, motivating through example, and building a safe, fun environment where artists feel empowered to fail and grow.
We’ll look at the making of Everlasting and The Alchemy of the Storm to see how letting go of control actually allows a global community to achieve the impossible.
INFERSTUDIO
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Bethany Edgoose, Nathan Su
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In Prototype Worlds, we will peek behind the curtain at Inferstudio's worldbuilding process and technological innovations as a small creative practice. We share stories on how a team of five created the fantastical environments and characters of 'Daughter of the Inner Stars' - a 50 minute original animation accompanying a live orchestral performance at the Sydney Opera House. We will explore how collaboration across disciplinary boundaries led to 'Ocean Futurisms' - a series of speculative films presented at the 2025 UN Ocean's Conference. The lecture will also offer a window into some works from our investigative portfolio, looking at the tools and design processes used to visualise complex datasets in both artistic and research contexts.
18:15 - 18:30
Closing of the festival
19:00
Free time & unofficial After-Party on your own
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Location: LINK
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