Xencelabs at GDC 2025

Bringing Innovation to Animation with Anim Revolution

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025 Expo took place from March 19-21 at the San Francisco Moscone Center and was an incredible gathering of industry professionals, students, and innovators in game technology. Xencelabs was thrilled to be a key part of the Anim Revolution team at booth S341, collaborating with JALI Research, House of Moves, Ozone Story Tech, Immersive Enterprise Laboratories, mcsGear, Lenovo, NVIDIA, and Vicon. We also had the pleasure of teaming up with visiting artists Mark Andrews, the director of "Brave," and the talented Sketch To Animate duo, Travis Blaise and Wink Winkler.

ANIM REVOLUTION: A GAME-CHANGER FOR CONTENT CREATION

Anim Revolution is a pioneering initiative that unites leading software and hardware providers to demonstrate a seamless, fully integrated animation workflow. The live interactive demos at GDC 2025 showcased the entire creative pipeline—from concept art with Xencelabs digital drawing tools, to 3D modeling and rigging with mcsGear and Ozone Story Tech, facial animation with JALI, and motion capture powered by House of Moves. All of this came together in real-time, with live animation and improv performances orchestrated by Immersive Enterprise Labs, directed by Mark Andrews.

This cutting-edge workflow highlights an iterative approach that enables faster, more efficient, and cost-effective content creation across multiple media formats. The demonstrations at GDC illustrated how seamlessly these tools integrate, setting a new standard for production pipelines.

Check out this PR release about Anim Revolution to learn more.

In addition to the Anim Revolution booth, Xencelabs showcased its technology at partner booths, including Maxon ZBrush, Intel private suites, and the Laguna College of Art and Design booth, highlighting various creative applications.

GDC HIGHLIGHTS:

Mark Andrews Directs Live Animation – One of the standout moments at the show was seeing Mark Andrews directing the Anim Revolution pipeline live on the GDC show floor, proving just how fast and interactive the process can be—going from concept to final art in minutes.

Hands-on Demos at the Xencelabs Booth – Attendees had the chance to test out Xencelabs' Pen Displays and Tablets with the guidance of visiting artist Travis Blaise and educational partner Pete Bandstra (Full Sail University). Meanwhile, Maxon’s booth featured our Pen Display 24, showcasing ZBrush in action.

Intel Game Dev Suite - Intel Corporation in collaboration with Xencelabs shared their hardware setups including the Pen Display 16 met and shared with over a 150 different game developers throughout the show. It highlights the ease our products have with other companies' hardware & software solutions.

LCAD Artist Demonstrations – Xencelabs devices were also featured at the Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) booth, where talented faculty members, including Ethen Bienert (Riot Games) and Amanda Fisher (ArcanForge), showcased 3D modeling with ZBrush on our Pen Display 24.

Sponsoring Bit Reactor’s Game Career Seminar – Xencelabs was proud to sponsor the Bit Reactor Game Career Seminar: Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer Part 1: Advice from Industry Artists, featuring Greg Foertsch (CEO of Bit Reactor). As part of our commitment to supporting emerging talent, we donated a Pen Tablet Medium Bundle SE for a lucky winner.

Congratulations to Imran Batra, a Computer Science student from the University of Illinois, for taking home the prize!

Alternative control games that had attendees buzzing –

Clench The Stench – A game where you drove an office chair in precarious positions.

How To Pet Your Cat – A next-level cat-petting simulation.

The Shower Must Go On – A hilarious challenge to try and fix a shower while using it.

The Xencelabs Americas team - Hannah Imperial Cannon, Michelle Martorell and Bill Lindsay (included in photo are a GDC attendee, Mark Andrews and Pete Bandstra from Full Sail) - were grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with our Anim Revolution partners and contribute to such an innovative showcase. We can’t wait to see what GDC 2026 has in store!