Technology
At Netflix Animation Studios, our Technology department is dedicated to empowering creativity and innovation at every stage of the filmmaking pipeline. We work side-by-side with artists, storytellers, and production teams to develop the tools and solutions that bring imaginative worlds to life.
As a subsidiary of Netflix, we are uniquely positioned to leverage world-class technical infrastructure and resources, empowering us to develop state-of-the-art solutions tailored to the needs of animation. With the acquisition of Animal Logic by Netflix, we combine industry-leading technology with proven expertise in end-to-end animation pipelines. This powerful partnership allows us to push the boundaries of animated storytelling and ensures our artists and filmmakers have access to the very best tools, support and innovation in the industry.
Find your place at NAS
Software Engineers
Our Software Engineers work in the following areas:
Animation & Rigging: Help bring characters to life!
Rendering: The minds behind our proprietary path-tracer renderer, "Glimpse."
Procedural Geometry & Simulation: Be at the forefront of technical artistry.
Production Systems: Power the engine that keeps our studio running.
Pipeline: Build the backbone of our studio's workflows.
Toolchain: Equip our developers for success.
Technical Directors
Our TDs empower artists through developing, maintaining, and automating innovative tools and techniques tailored to the unique needs of each craft group.
Front End (Art, Vis Dev, Story, Previz): Lay the creative foundation of every film.
Core Assets (Modeling, Surfacing, Rigging): Build the essential components of our worlds.
Procedural Assets & FX (FX, Character FX, Crowd): Deliver complex simulations.
Performance (Layout, Animation, Editorial): Bring stories to life.
Lighting: Sets the mood and tone of every shot.
Imaging (Compositing, Matte Painting, DI): Polishes each frame to perfection.
Pipeline: Design and maintain the studio-wide pipeline & workflows.
Digital Resources: Manage our in-house render farm and oversee data storage and processing.
Project Managers
Our project managers ensure the successful planning, execution, and delivery of complex technology projects across the studio. This group leads high-impact, high-visibility engineering initiatives that span multiple teams and disciplines. By maintaining a broad perspective on how diverse technical components connect, they help align our engineering efforts with both production needs and strategic objectives—driving innovation and supporting the success of our animated films.
Partnerships
We believe in the power of collaboration beyond our studio walls. Our Technology teams are constantly looking to innovate. We work closely with commercial software vendors, academic institutions, the open-source community and institutions such as the Academy Software Foundation.
At Netflix Animation Studios, we recognize the essential role open source software plays in powering creativity and innovation throughout the animation industry. We rely on and contribute to a wide variety of open source tools to bring our stories to life, and we are committed to giving back to the global creative and technical communities that make this possible.
Our dedication to partnerships reflects Netflix’s values of curiosity, creativity, and selflessness in sharing knowledge with the broader community. Through open collaboration and our commitment to advancing industry tools, we live the Netflix principle of being great—while always striving to be even better.
A-Lab
A great example of our commitment to open source is our ongoing stewardship of ALab, a full USD (Universal Scene Description) production scene originally developed by Animal Logic and now maintained and shared by Netflix Animation Studios.
ALab provides artists and developers around the world a robust, production-level resource for demonstrations, training, and testing USD support across various software and pipelines. By making ALab freely available, we help accelerate the industry’s adoption and advancement of USD-based workflows, fostering greater interoperability, flexibility, and efficiency in content creation.
Pipeline
At Netflix Animation Studios, our pipeline is the backbone of every animated film we create. With over 130,000 frames in a finished film and hundreds of talented people collaborating over years, the coordination and efficient flow of assets and information are essential to our success. Our approach to pipeline design is shaped by the Netflix culture, embracing values of context, innovation, feedback, informed decision making, and continual improvement.
End-to-End Collaboration Our pipeline supports the entire production process—from story development and asset creation to rendering and final output—enabling seamless collaboration across departments and global locations. This ensures every team member has the context they need to do their best work.
Proprietary, Third-Party & Open Source Innovation We balance custom, proprietary tools with third party software, industry standards and open source solutions—like Universal Scene Description (USD)—to solve unique creative challenges and foster interoperability. Our early adoption and contribution to USD reflect our curiosity and commitment to industry leadership.
Context is King We know that great creative decisions require accurate, timely context. That’s why we review all material as it’s meant to be seen, with as much production context as possible—lighting, simulations, effects, and more.
Automated, Continuous Integration Using robust automated rendering & review workflows, we continually share error free data between all departments. This enables a high degree of parallelisation and an up-to-date context for everyone, which in turn facilitates rapid creative iteration. Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery is not just for software.
Atomic, Trackable Workflows By breaking down artist work into atomic, versioned elements, we empower our teams with the freedom and responsibility to iterate quickly and independently on only the things that need to change.
Scalable, Global Collaboration: Designed for scalability, our pipeline supports large productions and collaboration between teams in Sydney, Vancouver, Burbank, and beyond. This global mindset is core to our culture of inclusion and teamwork.
Automation & Efficiency: Extensive automation in rendering, asset publishing, and quality control frees artists to focus on creative problem-solving and innovation.
Artist-Centric Design Our pipeline is built for artists, providing intuitive tools and removing technical barriers so creative teams can realize their vision. We strive to empower every individual, fostering an environment where everyone can do their best work.
These principles facilitate creative iteration on a grand scale and guide every decision we make when configuring show pipelines.
Publications
At Netflix Animation Studios, we are committed to sharing our research, insights, and technical advancements with the global community. In the same spirit of open innovation that we apply to our partnerships, we’re proud to share our work with the industry and have had fantastic representation at conferences such as SIGGRAPH - whether presenting or as key contributors to the events themselves.
For the latest research, case studies, and technical breakthroughs from our teams, visit our Netflix Animation Studios Publications page. Here, you can browse online publications from SIGGRAPH, DigiPro, and other leading conferences.
Explore our archive of Animal Logic Publications for a rich history of technical papers and presentations that have helped shape the industry.
By making our work accessible, we aim to inspire collaboration, spark new ideas, and contribute to the ongoing evolution of animation.