VFX Apprentice at GDC 2026

Game Developers Conference (GDC) is right around the corner, so let’s talk about it! In this post, we give a quick rundown of the events our community may find interesting and where to find the VFX Apprentice team during the conference.

GDC 2026 takes place from March 9 through March 13 and will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. There’s still time to register if you haven’t already, so don't delay!

Register Here

This year is special because we are sponsoring the VFX Mixer event! Join in on Monday, March 9, 7pm - 10pm, at Monarch SF (101 6th St, San Francisco, California 94103).

Let’s review what GDC is and who could benefit from attending.

What is GDC?

GDC (Game Developers Conference) is a leading event for game industry professionals to exchange ideas and learn about the latest advancements in game development. It is an annual conference held in San Francisco, California and includes lectures, tutorials, and roundtable discussions led by industry experts, as well as networking opportunities and an exhibit hall showcasing the latest technology and tools. We at VFX Apprentice can’t stress enough how informative and beneficial events like this are for the industry.

One of the perks included with attending the conference is one-on-one meetings with other industry-leading professionals. Attendees can request meetings with any fellow attendees through the GDC event mobile app. Just be sure to search other attendees by job title, professional interest, and other filters, then send them a meeting request with a proposed date, time, and location. This is an amazing way to build your network and make beneficial connections down the road. There will also be speed networking, happy hours, and an awards reception.

So what will we be up to at the conference? Let's discuss it!

GDC 2026: Meet the VFX Apprentice Team

If you plan on attending the conference, you can meet a part of VFX Apprentice team! Jason Keyser — the founder of VFX Apprentice — will be hosting Days 1 and 3 of the Visual Effects Roundtable. We will get into more details of the topics for the Roundtable in a second.

If you want, contact [email protected] to make plans/schedules for breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, or salsa dancing if you plan on going to the conference. Also, we will have lots of free VFXA mascot stickers! Who doesn’t love stickers?

Here's a GDC 2023 talk our Mentor Kees Klop held with his former co-worker Miguel Ortiz Martin:

GDC 2026: Visual Effects Roundtable Overview

The tools and techniques of Real-Time VFX have changed dramatically over the past few years, and it's an incredible time! Join this roundtable to hear from other VFX artists, learn about their successes and failures, compare pie-in-the-sky ideas, and share your favorite tricks.

Hosts:

Jason Keyser (Founder, CEO, VFX Artist, VFX Apprentice)

Ellie Koorlander  (Creative Assembly)

DAY 1

Location: Room 312, South Hall
Date: Monday, March 9
Time: 10:30am - 11:30am
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All

DAY 2

Location: Room 312, South Hall
Date: Wednesday, March 11
Time: 10:30am - 11:30am
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All

DAY 3

Location: Room 306, South Hall
Date: Friday, March 13
Time: 9:30am - 10:30am
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All

 GDC 2022 talk by Simon Trümpler, member of the VFX Apprentice Community

GDC 2026: Visual Effects Summit

From Beautiful to Playable: Texture Compression Secrets Every Game Artist Should Know

Speaker: Jad Deeb  (Jin&Jaw LTD/Omeda Studios)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Monday, March 9 | 11:50am - 12:20pm
Where: Room 2001, West Hall
Audience Level: Entry-Level

Get the scoop on texture compression and when to use each type like a pro. You'll pick up slick tips on tackling texture issues, saving memory, and making materials pop so their art looks great and runs smoothly across any platform.

This session is for any artist working in Unreal—character artists, FX, UI, environment artists, and more. Anyone importing textures into Unreal, no matter their specialty, will learn how to avoid pitfalls and optimize assets for better visuals and performance across all platforms. No advanced engine knowledge required!

How to Win A VES Award

Speaker: David Johnson  (Undertone FX, Inc.), Sandy Lin-Chiang  (Insomniac Games), Eben Cook  (Naughty Dog), Janne Pulkkinen  (Remedy Entertainment)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Monday, March 9 | 1:50pm - 2:50pm
Where: Room 2001, West Hall
Audience Level: All

We hope to inspire real time visual effects for artists across the industry to strive for, to navigate their careers around, and modify their day to day approach such that their default mode is to create award worth work, and that this will result in them also winning a VES award one day.

Controlled Chaos: 12 Principles of Design for VFX

Speakers: Rachel Quitevis  (Beyond-FX)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Monday, March 9 | 3:10pm - 4:10pm
Where: Room 2001, West Hall
Audience Level: All

Learn how to apply the 12 principles of design to visual effects, gaining a clear understanding of how these practical tools enhance clarity, communication, and appeal. Through examples and demonstration, attendees will learn how foundational design choices can transform effects from basic to impactful—making their work more intentional, readable, and expressive.

GDC 2026: Art Direction Summit

When East Meets Western: Art Direction of 'Ghost of Yotei'

Speakers: Joanna Wang  (SuckerPunch Productions)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Wednesday, March 11 | 10:30am - 11:30am
Where: Room 2006, West Hall
Audience Level: Entry-Level

Learn how to define and maintain a clear stylized art direction, translate cultural and environmental inspirations into playable spaces, and streamline the production process for foliage, color palettes and worldbuilding, balancing artistic ambition with production realities to deliver a visually cohesive, deeply immersive world.

How 'Infinity Nikki' Turns Outfits Into Fantasy (And Why It Works)

Speaker: Dodie Gong  (Infold Games (Papergames))
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Wednesday, March 11 | 1:50pm - 2:50pm
Where: Room 2006, West Hall
Audience Level: Entry-Level

Discover how Infinity Nikki transforms outfits into storytelling vehicles—melding emotional design, fantasy worldbuilding, and advanced textile simulation—to deliver a wardrobe system that boosts immersion, authenticity, and enduring player attachment.

GDC 2026: Technical Artist Summit

Shader Like a Painter: Building Character Shaders with an Artistic Approach at Naughty Dog

Speaker: Rosy (Rong) Fu  (Naughty Dog)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Tuesday, March 10 | 11:50am - 12:20pm
Where: Room 2001, West Hall
Audience Level: Entry-Level

Learn to reinterpret traditional painting workflows (canvas prep, glazing, varnish) as shader stages in a PBR pipeline. Understand how "controlled errors" (intentional departures from photorealism) can define distinct art styles. Discover practical examples of stylized rendering techniques used in the Last of Us. Gain a new perspective on shaders as artistic tools for art direction, not just technical implementation.

Shaders 501: Compute for Tech Artists

Speakers: Matt Oztalay  (Epic Games)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Tuesday, March 10 | 1:50pm - 2:50pm
Where: Room 3002, West Hall
Audience Level: Intermediate

Epic Games' Matt Oztalay will show you just how easy it is to harness the power of compute shaders to build ever more advanced, and gameplay-relevant, graphics features for your next project.

Techniques for implementing compute-like shaders and custom distance fields in game engines, and example uses for those techniques.

How We Draw a 3D Sprite World: The Stylized Art of 'Never's End'

Speaker: Ryan Juckett  (Hypersect)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Tuesday, March 10 | 3:10pm - 4:10pm
Where: Room 2001, West Hall
Audience Level: Intermediate

Learn the many challenges of building a 3D renderer that behaves like a convincing 2D sprite engine, and how they were solved, along with the techniques used to build 3D art that can translate into 2D pixel art.

The Dynamic Weather Systems of ‘Borderlands 4: How They Can Apply to Games Without Dynamic Weather

Speakers: Brian McNett  (Associate Technical Art Director, Gearbox Software)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Friday, March 13 | 10:50am - 11:20am
Where: Room 2006, West Hall
Audience Level: All

An understanding of one AAA game's approach to creating dynamic weather for a large open world environment. Through practical examples in UE5, attendees will learn about a new method for approaching and optimizing global dynamic material effects, the tools and systems used to manage localized weather forecasts, and how this approach can benefit games that do not need dynamic weather.

Demistifying the Clouds of 'Borderlands 4': Adapting Volumetric Cloud Technologies to An UE5 Open World Game

Speakers: Spencer Luebbert  (Disbelief)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Friday, March 13 | 11:40am - 12:10pm
Where: Room 2006, West Hall
Audience Level: All

An understanding of one AAA game's approach to creating and shipping a dynamic cloud system, using industry standard techniques. Through practical examples, attendees will learn about industry standard cloud rendering concepts and techniques, how these these can be implemented in Unreal Engine, and strategies to make clouds art directable, dynamic and performant.

Mastering Massive Worldbuilding: Production and Optimization of Ultra-Large Scale Maps

Speakers: Wenya He  (Amazing Seasun Games)
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
When: Tuesday, March 10 | 4:30pm - 5:00pm
Where: Room 2001, West Hall
Audience Level: All

Explore 2 key advancements :
1. How to split the ultra-large map construction and runtime scene reconstruction pipeline into three independently operable production lines: Art Scene Construction , Runtime Scene Generation and Light Baking.
2. Three Optimization Strategies of Runtime Scene Generation.

To sum up, GDC is a great opportunity to meet new people and learn a lot on insights about the industry from the top professionals. See you soon!