VAST на SIGGRAPH 2026: китайский 3D-стартап дал keynote наравне с NVIDIA и Disney

The Chinese company VAST, creator of the Tripo series of generative 3D models, became one of the central figures at SIGGRAPH 2026 — the world's largest computer graphics conference, held July 19–23, 2026 in Los Angeles. VAST's Chief Scientist Yan-Pei Cao delivered a keynote on the main stage alongside Disney, NVIDIA, and Bolt Graphics, and the company's team took home the top award in the Real-Time Live! competition — Best in Show.

Who is VAST and what did it show

VAST is a Chinese company in the field of generative 3D AI, known for its Tripo line of models, which create three-dimensional objects from text or images. At SIGGRAPH 2026, VAST turned out to be one of the most prominent Chinese teams: a keynote on the main stage, a Real-Time Live! win, and five accepted research papers in a single year.

Key facts (according to Jiqizhixin and SIGGRAPH 2026 materials):

• The conference was held July 19–23, 2026 in Los Angeles, gathering about 10,000 attendees from 69 countries
• Yan-Pei Cao's keynote was one of the conference's four main talks (alongside Disney, NVIDIA, and Bolt Graphics)
• Win at Real-Time Live! (Best in Show) with the project "Create Interactive 3D Assets in Seconds!"
• Five papers accepted into the main Technical Papers track
• The Tripo P1.0 model generates a topologically "clean" 3D model in about 2 seconds

What was in the talk

Yan-Pei Cao's talk reimagined a classic benchmark of computer graphics — the 1975 "Utah Teapot." Previously, this test checked how to show a scene; in the era of generative AI, according to the speaker, it now checks how to make it.

"The Teapot Test: First It Tested Showing.

Now It Tests Making" — that's the title of the keynote by Yan-Pei Cao, Chief Scientist at VAST.

Five papers in Technical Papers

VAST placed five papers in the main scientific track of SIGGRAPH 2026 — according to Jiqizhixin, they cover almost the entire 3D content creation pipeline. Each paper is linked to one of the company's products:

• Nexus — native polygonal mesh generation via diffusion; underlies Tripo P1.0
• DeG — generative 3D Gaussians with trainable density control; it spawned the open-source project TripoSplat, which made HuggingFace's trending list
• PixTex — consistent 3D texturing via multi-view diffusion in pixel space
• AniGen — unified S³ fields for generating animatable 3D objects
• TopoCap — learning topology-invariant motion priors for animation from monocular video

Why it matters

VAST's presence in the spotlight at SIGGRAPH 2026 shows that Chinese teams have moved to the forefront of generative 3D — a direction that overlaps with "world models." Beyond the scientific program, VAST held the "Worlds in Action" hackathon together with World Labs on July 18–19, 2026 (more than 500 participants), and on July 20 an industry mixer event for around 200 guests; discussion partners included World Labs, Sony, Meta, Legendary Entertainment, and the NBA.

What this means

Generative 3D is no longer a niche research field: at a single SIGGRAPH, VAST secured a keynote, the show's top award, and five papers, and its Tripo models already generate ready-to-use 3D assets in seconds. For the gaming, film, and simulation industries, this is a signal that "making" a three-dimensional world will soon be as fast as "showing" it.

Frequently asked questions

What is VAST and what are the Tripo models?

VAST is a Chinese company in the generative 3D AI space headquartered in Beijing and Shanghai; its investors include Alibaba. Its flagship product is the Tripo series of 3D models (P1.0, H3.1), which create three-dimensional objects from text or an image.

What did VAST win Best in Show for at SIGGRAPH 2026?

VAST won the top award of the Real-Time Live! competition for the project "Create Interactive 3D Assets in Seconds!" — a demonstration of real-time generation of interactive 3D objects. The award was presented at the conference in Los Angeles in July 2026.

Who represented VAST on the main stage?

The keynote was delivered by VAST's Chief Scientist Yan-Pei Cao — one of the four main speakers of SIGGRAPH 2026 alongside Disney, NVIDIA, and Bolt Graphics. On July 25, 2026, he also was named to MIT Technology Review's TR35 China list.

*Meta has been designated an extremist organization and is banned in Russia.