DigitalFilm Tree CEO Ramy Katrib used a NAB 2026 interview with postPerspective to describe how the company is adapting its post-production and VFX workflows as virtual production, real-time imaging and high-volume media pipelines become more tightly connected.
The Los Angeles-based company, whose credits include work on shows such as Ted Lasso and Shrinking, is exploring 3D and 4D Gaussian Splatting as part of its virtual-production and VFX toolset. In simple terms, Gaussian Splatting is a way of turning captured real-world spaces into detailed 3D scenes that can be rendered quickly. Instead of building every surface as traditional geometry, the technique represents a scene through large numbers of spatial points, or “splats,” that together recreate the look of the original environment.
For producers and post supervisors, the appeal is not the terminology. It is the possibility of capturing environments faster, reviewing them earlier and giving directors, VFX teams and post houses more room to make creative decisions before expensive choices are locked. If the technique continues to mature, it could become useful for previs, set extensions, virtual-production planning, background environments and other cases where a production needs a believable digital version of a real space without building it from scratch.
Katrib’s comments also point to a wider shift in the role of post-production companies. DigitalFilm Tree describes itself as working across offline editorial, color, VFX, finishing, dailies and production technology, supported by a Los Angeles media campus with significant data infrastructure. That kind of operation is increasingly being asked to solve problems that start well before final post, from moving large volumes of footage to supporting creative review, remote collaboration and technically complex finishing work.
The broader lesson is that post is becoming less of a final-stage service and more of a production partner. As shows rely on larger data sets, more visual effects, remote workflows and real-time tools, decisions about capture, storage, review, VFX and finishing have to be made earlier. A post vendor that understands those connections can help a production avoid painful handoffs later.
For MSR readers, Gaussian Splatting is worth watching less as a standalone buzzword than as a sign of where production workflows are heading. The practical question is whether tools like this can reduce friction between location capture, virtual production, VFX and finishing. If they can, they may give creative teams more flexibility while putting even more pressure on producers to involve post and workflow specialists before shooting begins.