At SIGGRAPH 2025, Chaos unveils major updates to Vantage and Arena that significantly expand real-time ray tracing workflows. Product managers Simeon Balabanov and Georgi Zhekov join Chris to break down the new capabilities, including native USD and MaterialX support, Gaussian splats with ray-traced lighting, volumetric caches, and a streamlined pipeline that keeps the same asset across previs, virtual production, and post. This episode arrives just in time for SIGGRAPH, where these features are being officially announced, giving listeners an early look at what will be showcased in Vancouver.
The conversation dives into key production tools like mimic lights for realistic set illumination, in-volume color correction, real-time depth of field, and live lighting adjustments. Simeon and Georgi explain how these innovations reduce conversion work, improve on-set flexibility, and allow for advanced asset previews even from a home studio using Vantage with camera tracking. They also highlight new camera tracking protocols, a standalone material editor, and Arena’s watermark trial mode, showing how Chaos is making high-end virtual production more accessible and adaptable for filmmakers.
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Chris is a CG industry veteran and Director of Chaos Labs. He can also be heard regularly as the host of the CG Garage podcast which attracts 20,000 weekly listeners. With a background in both VFX and Design, Chris has worked for Gensler, Digital Domain, Imageworks and Method Studios. His credits include Maleficent, Oblivion and Tron: Legacy.