Autodesk envisions cloud-based production ecosystem for Media & Entertainment
June 08 09:32:26, 2025
The demand for streaming content and gaming has skyrocketed during the global pandemic, pushing the media and entertainment (M&E) industry to undergo significant transformations. With film shoots halted and teams working remotely, studios scrambled to adapt. Although the industry had been gradually shifting towards cloud-based solutions, the urgency of the situation accelerated years of planning into rapid execution. Teams collaborated virtually, enabling production to continue from home.
This shift to the cloud presents an exciting opportunity to innovate and build resilience for the future. At Autodesk University (AU) 2021, we unveiled how we're advancing the industry through our data-driven, cloud-based workflows and strategic partnerships. Our vision aligns with the long-term production outlook outlined by MovieLabs.
At the core of our strategy is a foundation built on open standards like USD (Universal Scene Description) for 3D data exchange and OpenColorIO for color calibration. Collaborating with customers and the Academy Software Foundation, Autodesk actively participates in developing these standards while integrating them into our products to encourage their widespread use.
Thanks to extensive collaborations with Pixar, Animal Logic, Luma Pictures, and Blue Sky, Autodesk is refining the various versions of USD into a unified standard. We’re also implementing USD support in Maya and 3ds Max. This allows artists to manipulate large datasets quickly, enhancing pipeline efficiency and collaboration, making it easier to manage high-volume 3D scene workloads.
Cloud-powered workflows enhance both production speed and creativity. Autodesk's vision spans multiple industries, addressing similar challenges with a cohesive approach. We've invested in creating an extensive and flexible cloud platform called Autodesk Forge. Forge offers the necessary capabilities—security, scalability—to connect teams to their projects more effectively than ever before. Centralizing on one platform allows us to allocate more R&D resources and expertise than focusing on a single industry.
We're also investing in the future of M&E, particularly the move to cloud-based workflows. On Forge, we're developing a new, open, and secure cloud environment tailored for M&E production. Our industry-leading products, such as Maya, 3ds Max, Flame, and ShotGrid, are being updated to remain competitive as we prepare for this transition.
As entertainment projects grow larger and more complex, with teams collaborating from different locations, having real-time visibility into production is crucial. An upcoming Generative Scheduling service will empower customers with smarter business insights powered by Forge. New collaborative review features will enable teams to review materials synchronously, whether in-studio or remote, streamlining reviews and approvals.
Content creation tools like Bifrost, a low-footprint, low-code visual programming environment for creating advanced simulations and effects, are receiving investment. By integrating this technology into the Forge platform, we can offer superior performance, scalability, and new services like simulation wedging. Additionally, we're exploring future cloud-connected workflows with third-party tools like Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender, and Houdini.
We're also investing in AI-assisted workflows for media and entertainment. Recently, we've integrated several AI tools into Flame, aiding artists in automating complex compositing and retouching tasks. Moving forward, we aim to combine our robust machine learning tools with the immense computational power of the cloud, allowing artists to automate repetitive tasks, work faster, and focus on their creative endeavors.
The pandemic has also sparked a surge in interest in virtual production, an area where Autodesk played a pioneering role alongside Joe Letteri and Lightstorm Entertainment on "Avatar." As performance capture technology becomes more affordable and real-time game engines like Epic Games' Unreal Engine continue to improve in image quality, virtual production is becoming accessible to a wider range of production budgets. To support this, Autodesk is partnering with Epic Games to develop more robust workflows between our creative products and Unreal Engine. This includes live-linking between our content creation tools and ShotGrid integrations to simplify production management for virtual production and visual effects.
Autodesk industry partnerships are opening up new possibilities for artists worldwide. For instance, Weta Digital, known for "Lord of the Rings," "Avatar," and "Planet of the Apes," recognized the need to boost artist creativity and introduced WetaM, a cloud-based production pipeline toolset that seamlessly integrates with Maya. WetaM delivers Weta's signature artist tools and next-generation procedural workflows, raising the bar for production for all artists. WetaM productizes Weta's proprietary VFX tools built on Maya's open API and will be commercialized by Weta Digital as a subscription cloud service.
WetaM provides artists globally with access to the unique visual design and workflow automation used in "Game of Thrones" season 8 and in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s "BFG."
As film and TV production evolve, requiring flexibility to thrive, Autodesk is proud to assist creators in adapting to new pipelines, workflows, and creative demands across mediums. By unlocking the potential of powerful content creation and production management tools and bringing them to the cloud, we're paving the way for a more efficient, scalable, and sustainable entertainment production future.