Starting Pixel Live Reveals Its 2026 Line-up

Updated 5 October 2026 with the announced speaker line-up.

Starting Pixel Live has announced its 2026 line-up for 14 October at Rich Mix in East London. The programme includes production case studies from Vigil III and Netflix’s Berlin, a live VFX plate demo in Assimilate, real-time MetaHumans and AI-assisted virtual production pipelines. The humans now have names, and several of them are bringing workflows.

From Svalbard to a Madrid night

Albert Vidal brings experience from 300 shoot days to “Virtual production after 300 shoot days: lessons from ICVFX, AI and what comes next”. Ben Saffer follows the route “From Svalbard to soundstage: the virtual production workflow on Vigil III”, while Fernando Rivas-Manzaneque presents “Recreating Madrid at night in Unreal for Netflix’s Berlin”. These sessions put in-camera effects, location work and digital environments firmly on the agenda.

Eric Hasso’s “Capturing single-lens 360° for VFX plates, with a daring live demo in Assimilate” turns the attention to plate capture. A live demonstration is a useful way to discover which parts of a workflow require the presenter to say “normally”. Frankie Boyle adds “A conversation with light”, and Chris Bouchard presents “New real-time workflows for directors”.

AI gets a production brief

Joshua Kerr’s “Building the tools to make the film: an AI-powered VP pipeline for Cabbi” addresses a film-specific pipeline, while Tahir Palali presents “Directing AI: 3D control for virtual production”. Tim Doubleday covers “Real-time MetaHumans for live shows and GenAI pipelines”. The subjects span tool building, spatial control and digital performers, rather than treating every AI application as the same conversation.

Jodi Nelson-Tabor presents “Virtual production and AI: new tools, new workflows, new skills”, and Ed Tracy examines “Why the future of creative AI is collaborative”. Andy Harris contributes “Don’t teach the same robot twice”. Ross Floyd offers the less reassuring “The robots might eat us”. Between them, the titles leave room for both practical workflow questions and a modest amount of existential indigestion.

Sam Pittman rounds out the supplied line-up with the Student Showcase. The event also includes the Demo Jam, with two tracks of demonstrations and show-and-tell sessions across the day.

For those who don’t know the Name : Starting Pixel is a virtual production community and its annual Starting Pixel Live event connects previs, virtual art departments, digital humans, location capture, look development and on-set production. This year AI joins the machinery, but has not been issued a lanyard marked “Supervisor”.

Humans still required

Starting Pixel Live 2026 returns to Rich Mix in East London on 14 October with a broader remit: virtual production, AI and the continuing inconvenience of human judgement. The theme is “The Human in the Loop”. Across two stages, the programme covers AI alongside previs, digital humans, location twinning, virtual art department work and look development. The Demo Jam and Student Showcase also return.

Founder Rob Chandler says AI is already accelerating parts of virtual production, particularly early experimentation and previs, while people remain rather useful for lighting a volume, blocking a scene and noticing when a shot has gone peculiar.

Fast is not the same as finished

Virtual production already passes material through several hands before anyone calls it a shot. Location capture may feed environments. Previs informs planning. Virtual art departments build assets. Real-time systems bring selected material onto the stage. Editorial, VFX, colour and finishing then receive whatever remains standing. AI can appear almost anywhere in that chain.

A generated concept that has to be rebuilt from scratch may save less time than its first appearance suggests. A less glamorous automation that preserves scene structure or removes a repetitive handoff may save rather more. Pipelines remain stubbornly interested in what happens after the demo.

Starting Pixel says its 2026 sessions will favour demonstrations and show-and-tell presentations rather than panels. This seems particularly suitable for AI, where a live workflow can reveal the inputs, outputs and the mysterious interval in which somebody quietly fixes everything.

One day, two stages, several loops

Starting Pixel describes SPL26 as the fourth edition of its annual event. It runs from 09:00 to 17:30 at Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London. Current ticket pricing lists student admission at £49 including VAT and standard admission at £99 including VAT, plus a £2.48 service fee. The early-bird allocation has ended, having presumably flown south.

https://www.startingpixel.com/event-details/starting-pixel-live-2026