The state of Animation & VFX Pipelines report
The latest Pipeline Report, recently updated for 2025, offers key insights into the Animation and VFX industry, based on survey responses from over 200 studios worldwide. Discover how studios are navigating technical challenges, leveraging new technologies, and optimising their pipelines for better efficiency.
Studios represented:
230+
Countries represented:
45
>10 years experience:
69%
Efficiency gain of Pipeline
(49% of respondents):
>40%
Pipeline efficiency gains
Over a third of studios spend less than 5% of their budget on pipeline development, and an even greater share (37%) don’t know their pipeline spend at all.
Only a small minority invest more than 10%.
Despite strong belief in the value of well-structured pipelines, most teams are operating with minimal or uncertain investment.
This begs the question: are pipeline departments getting the resources they deserve?
Software usage
Maya remains the industry standard, with over half of studios using it all the time. Houdini and Blender see strong regular use, while Unity and Unreal Engine continue to grow in adoption.
For a complete view, including detailed trends across 2D, 3D, and render software, access all three in-depth reports and see how your studio stacks up.
Barriers to adopting new technologies
Cost, lack of expertise, and integration challenges remain the top obstacles for studios.
Justifying investment is still tough, and finding pipeline experts who can implement new tech is as rare as ever.
With uncertainty around ROI and technical change, it’s no wonder adoption is slow.
Adapting to upcoming trends
Only 8% of studios feel highly prepared to tackle upcoming trends. The rest are somewhere between “we got this” and “we need a miracle.” Embracing change is tough, but essential for staying competitive.
AI and USD are expected to have the most significant impact on pipelines in the next 5 years.
Soon we’ll be prompting experts, generating full productions with a few lines of text… a miracle in the making ✨🤡
Remote collaboration challenges
Data transfer, security, and communication are the top three challenges. It’s like trying to assemble a puzzle with pieces scattered across the globe, tricky, but doable with the right tools, practices, and team.
78% see the biggest challenge as balancing technical complexity and ease of use.
The majority see training and onboarding new artists, and staying up to date with tech developments as other challenges. Think of effective training as providing a clear picture of the puzzle, suddenly, putting the pieces together becomes a lot easier! 🧩
