Autodesk Universitys annual Autodesk Design & Make Platform conference in San Diego boasted plenty of new tech and software updates for animators, modelers and other digital artists and technologists to get excited about. From the buildings we live in to the products we use and the movies that inspire us, Autodesk has always been at the forefront of infrastructure and creativity for entertainment as well as the economy.While the conference hosted in-person and virtual panel sessions focused on preserving history with VR, the future of manufacturing and the frontier of film, TV and design, their Media & Entertainment Industry Keynote invited head of characters for Mikros Animations Mutant Mayhem Gespard Roch, Wonder Studio co-founder Nikola Todorovic, Digital Fish CEO Dan Herman, and others to discuss new creative solutions to animation work pipelines and how AI can be a valuable asset to a production, rather than an unwanted threat.Leona Frank, director of Media & Entertainment marketing at Autodesk, opened the hour-long panel with how story, more than any technology, is pivotal in making sure any project is successful. In her words, Storytelling is the uniquely human aspect that each of us brings to our work. It will never be replaced by any technology. But we use technology to help us release the stories from our imagination into the world. Productions like Inside Out 2 and Shgun are raising the bar. It's quality over quantity. It's visual effects that let the story take center stage. Today, we'll share with you how Autodesk is meeting the moment. We're lowering the barriers to good storytelling. For modelers, the storytellers behind the scenes responsible for defining each narrative and making them memorable, Autodesk has rolled out significant performance updates in 3ds Max.The Boolean Modifier, which combines objects into a single mesh, is now 50 percent faster, and the expansive Array Modifier, which lets you create arrays using multiple distribution methods, is now 200% faster.So, no matter if you're crafting the busy streets of the cyberpunk city or the desert landscape of your next big racing game, you can achieve more in less time, says Frank. And our efficiency updates arent just for modelers. For all the motion graphics or visualization artists out there, we've added support for SVG files in 3ds Max. This means no more manual, time consuming conversion of vector graphics. Now, if you're importing designs, like a logo or 2D illustrations, they'll be ready for use in your scene the second they're loaded, freeing you up on valuable time.Autodesk also continues to invest in open standards like OpenUSD by integrating them across their tools so you can collaborate and manage productions more easily. Universal Scene Description (commonly referred to as OpenUSD), is the most robust open-source software for data interchange within 3D scenes. This highly collaborative system can contain many different asset sources and is becoming the standard for 3D visual media production, architecture, design, manufacturing (US site) and other industries. With the latest update, users can now use USD cameras in the 3ds Max viewport box, select and edit prints in the USD Explorer and manage USD data with new controllers. One of the features of 3ds Max that makes it so popular with creatives is the flexible plugin architecture that allows users to create their own customizations and share them with the rest of the community. One example Frank referenced is tyFlows tyDiffusion, which brings Stable Diffusion right inside 3ds Max so different moods and artistic styles can be explored and then applied directly to 3D objects. It can be used to generate AI images and animations using a variety of ControlNets, LoRAs, prompt styles and other techniques, right in the viewport.Eloi Andaluz Fulla, a professional VFX artist, has been a beta tester for this tech and recently shared his experiences using not only tyFlow, but also the new 3ds Max update, Max 2025.3. The update includes bug fixes and the introduction to OpenPBR, the new material standard developed between Autodesk and Adobe, that will, in Fullas opinion, help compatibility between all Autodesk and Adobe software, making it easier to move materials around looking exactly the same.For animators using Maya, Frank announced Autodesks redesigned Dope Sheet in Maya, complementing the Graph Editor by letting animators make large scale timing adjustments to scenes. The hope is this, in turn, makes refining those moments faster and more intuitive. And Position Mode lets users post characters in just a few clicks while Channel Sets brings customizable color palettes and visual indicators to help you organize animation changes more easily.We know that animation is all in the details and that subtle change in a character's expression, like a slight eyebrow raise, can convey 1,000 words, says Frank. So, we are introducing powerful features to help elevate your craft and save time along the way. And yes, its dope. Another time saving improvement is Maya's advanced Motion Trails, which now support moving cameras and include new draw styles to visualize things, like velocity, in a scene. These Motion Trails are also now up to 100 times faster.The French studio Mikros Animation, known for the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and Paw Patrol film series, is using Autodesk Maya across their character pipeline, especially in character modeling, grooming and rigging.It's a software that is simple to use and very customizable, shares Mikros Animations Gespar Roch. It actually allows us to have that creativity in our films and with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, we were easily able to create set animation to create those lines, to create hand drawn lines, and then lines that were projected in the CG space. Maya allowed us to really go beyond what we've done before, to actually create diverse projects and unleash our creativity through all the different creative styles that we have in our studio.For productions with teams spread across various time zones, that's where Autodesks production management tools come in. With efficient collaboration at the center of its inspiration, Flow Production Tracking is designed to help dispersed teams effectively track projects and optimize resources. And Flow Generative Scheduling, powered by Autodesk AI and connected with Flow Production Tracking, teams can automate the creation of different scheduling scenarios and explore how they impact production.It lets you make critical decisions in minutes, notes Frank. Where Flow Production Tracking connects production and creative teams in post, Flow Capture bridges the gap between production and post production, helping teams review footage seconds after capture and allowing them to get feedback from stakeholders during production.This year, we reimagined Flow Captures user experience, putting your media assets right where you need them, says Frank. It is now much simpler to find, access and review media all from one central place, and we'll be taking things a step further by building integrations to streamline the editing process. Editors will find a Flow Capture panel directly in Avid, making importing dailies faster. No more dealing with servers or hard drives slowing you down. With a simple drag and drop, you'll be able to bring footage into Avid and easily pull cuts and timelines back into Flow Capture. This is something many of you have been asking for, so we are so excited to be bringing it to you soon.Earlier this year, Autodesk acquired PIX, a leading collaboration and asset sharing service, and the partnership has already garnered a first integration with Flow Capture.At its heart, Flow is a data model, one that can represent all of your data and in a consistent way so that can be shared throughout the entire production process, from onset to editorial to post, and all between applications, whether they are Autodesks or from third parties, says Maurice Patel, VP of M&E Strategy at Autodesk. On top of that data model is an asset management system, one that keeps track of your data, no matter where it is or who is using it. Now, as productions get bigger and more complex, it becomes harder for one part of the production to know what the other part is doing.Connecting different teams and artists from around the world is becoming a more mainstream part of production. Enter Animating in Context, a new Flow capability coming to Maya. Today, when animating in Maya, you can only see the shot you're working on, says Patel. Wouldn't it be great if you could actually see what was happening before and after the shot you were working on and had more context? By connecting data from Avid to Maya using Flow, with Flow Production Tracking as the go-between, Maya users will see a timeline with the shots occurring before and after the one they are working on. With this context, you can better fine tune your animation and keep it in sync with the surrounding shots. This will help avoid continuity errors in the scene. By helping artists better understand the editor's creative intent, we make it easier for them to deliver higher quality content.Providing more context isnt just important for animators, its also vital for live-action filmmakers and VFX artists. Digital Fish, an innovative technology company focused on digital media and building immersive content for companies like Pixar, Disney, LEGP and NASA, is working on bringing previsualization and vision OS on top of the Flow graph right into the hands of the director.With a laser scanner in their hands, GPS, spatial video and an augmented reality lens, we wanted to see what we could do with the device in your hand and the power of the cloud, says Digital Fishs Herman. What they ended up with was On Site, a service for streamlined VFX production that connects AR capable mobile devices with Flow, enabling live-action virtual production in the field with minimal infrastructure. Filmmakers can simulate what a scene will look like and make adjustments as they film.It offers to all content creators the high end VFX simulation and compute capabilities previously available only to the larger studios, says Herman, who says it took five months to develop the tech, now ready to use. Patel adds, There's so much to be excited about, whether it's connecting workflows or teams or building new capabilities. Flow will enhance your pipeline, making production more efficient and more collaborative. Our goal is to make your life just a little bit, if not a lot easier by empowering you as storytellers.Another technology that will do just that is AI.Wonder Dynamics (an Autodesk company) just recently announced the beta launch of Wonder Animation, which is powered by Video to 3D Scene technology that enables artists to shoot a scene with any camera, in any location, and turn the sequence into an animated scene with CG characters in a 3D environment with fully editable elements (animation, character, environment, lighting, and camera tracking data) in their preferred software, such as Maya, Blender or Unreal.Wonder Animation, now available to all Wonder Studio users, aims to bring artists closer to producing fully animated films, while enabling the artist to retain full creative control unlike other generative AI tools that rely on automated outputs.See the demo here: https://youtu.be/xad1ajxln28Its been five months since we joined Autodesk, and the time spent has only reinforced that the foundational Wonder Dynamics vision aligns perfectly with Autodesk's longstanding commitment to advancing the Media & Entertainment industry through innovation, says Wonder Dynamics co-founder Todorovic. Together, we believe in using artificial intelligence (AI) more intentionally to enhance creativity and efficiency, so artists can spend more time on the creative aspects of storytelling. Rachael Appleton, Sr. Director for M&E Business Strategy at Autodesk, adds, The team is about to release a beta showcasing new underlying technology that will show how new models like motion prediction enable entirely new workflows in Wonder Studio. So, stay tuned for more announcements after AU. Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.