On February 12th in Paris, the very first Kitsu Summit brought production professionals together for a full day of learning, sharing, and connection.
On February 12th, 2026, in the heart of Paris, the very first Kitsu Summit became a reality.
What began as an idea to bring the Kitsu community together turned into a full day of talks, roadmap reveals, pipeline debates, shared meals, and real human connection.
From the moment people walked through the doors, you could feel it 🧡
👕 Swag, Smiles, and a Familiar Mascot
Before the first keynote even began, something special was waiting in the lobby.
Our exclusive Kitsu Summit swag was on display, embroidered white Kitsu T-shirts, tote bags, and stickers. And of course, the Kitsu mascot was there to greet everyone.
It was a simple way to mark the occasion and bring everyone together.
🏛 A Venue Worthy of the Occasion
The summit took place at Cap Digital, a beautiful venue near Gare du Nord.
We ran two conference rooms simultaneously, with talks happening in both English 🇬🇧 and French 🇫🇷, making the event accessible to a broader community.
Both rooms were full throughout the day. At times, people were standing at the back.
💬 There is real appetite for open conversations about production workflows.
🎤 15 Talks, Real Production Stories
Across animation, VFX, and hybrid studios, speakers shared how they:
• Produced award-winning feature films
• Managed hundreds of projects at scale
• Built fully open source TV pipelines
• Redfined 3D asset management
• Mixed 2D and 3D in hybrid workflows
• Applied 3D techniques to 2D pipelines
• Integrated AI thoughtfully into production 🤖
The diversity of approaches was striking. There is no single way to use Kitsu and that flexibility is one of its strengths.
🚀 Major Announcements
The summit was also where we unveiled:
• Our new plugin system
• Revamped developer documentation
• The 2026 Kitsu roadmap
The new developer documentation is already live:
🔗 https://dev.kitsu.cloud/
Shout out to CGWire CEO Frank Rousseau for hosting and MC’ing the entire day, guiding the sessions, keeping everything on track, and quite literally staying on his feet from start to finish.
🍽 Production Meets Gastronomy
Let’s talk about the food.
Marie Julien Cuisine delivered a beautiful breakfast, lunch, and cocktail, with vegetarian options and dishes prepared with care and intention.
And yes, the wine selection deserved its own mention 🍷
We enjoyed Pierres Blanches by Domaine de Brin and Groseille from Domaine de Montaillant, bringing a distinctly French touch to the summit lunch.
Some of the most valuable discussions happened over plates and glasses, meeting studio teams we had only spoken to remotely before.
🤝 For many of us, Kitsu now truly has a face to the name.
🌍 From Slack Messages to Real Conversations
One of the most rewarding aspects of the day was finally meeting in person the people we have collaborated with for years through tickets, calls, and review notes.
- Production managers.
- Technical directors.
- Studio founders.
There is something powerful about moving from remote conversations to face-to-face exchanges.
- New projects were discussed.
- Ideas were challenged.
- Connections were strengthened.
🥂 And We Didn’t Want It to End
The closing cocktail turned into long conversations.
Long enough, in fact, that we were eventually (politely) asked to leave the venue.
Which naturally led to the speaker dinner, a relaxed evening to thank the people who made the summit possible.
A huge shout-out to all our speakers who travelled to Paris to share their expertise. Some came from as far as Hyderabad and New York to be there with us 🌎
That level of commitment means a lot.
Your generosity in sharing your pipelines, your challenges, and your lessons learned is what made this summit meaningful.
💛 A Milestone for the Community
The first Kitsu Summit proved something important.
- Studios want to share what they are building.
- They want to see how others solve similar challenges.
- They want honest conversations about workflows, tools, and production realities.
And most of all, they want to meet the people behind the projects. Seeing so many familiar names become real faces was one of the most rewarding parts of the day.
Thank you to everyone who attended, spoke, supported, and stayed until the lights went out. This was not just a conference. It was the beginning of something bigger 🦊
A big thank you to our sponsors Ranch Computing, TVPaint & Lenovo for supporting the Kitsu Summit and helping make the event possible, including generously sponsoring the lunch buffet.
Lenovo’s high-performance workstations power demanding productions across animation and VFX, and we were proud to have them alongside us in Paris.
🔗 Lenovo: https://www.lenovo.com/
🔗 TVPaint: https://www.lenovo.com/
🔗 Ranch Computer: https://www.ranchcomputing.com/
See You Next Year 👋
If this first edition proved anything, it is that production professionals want spaces like this.
- More transparency.
- More shared pipelines.
- More honest conversations.
We cannot wait to build the next one with you.
