At SIGGRAPH 2025, Lightcraft Technology, best known for its smartphone-based virtual production tool, Jetset, pulled the wraps off a new tool for filmmakers, Spark, a collaborative, browser-based production platform designed to help small teams make movies with the sophistication of a major studio. The company was founded in 2004 by engineer and designer Eliot Mack, creator of the Roomba. He describes Spark as a “soundstage for the next world”.
Mack’s journey to Spark reflects both persistence and timing. He began his career at Disney Imagineering in the late 1990s, when VR rides ran on $80,000 Silicon Graphics machines suspended from the ceiling. From there, he joined iRobot and designed the original Roomba, an experience that taught him how small teams could ship billion-dollar products with the right software tools. Lightcraft grew out of those lessons: what CAD software did for engineering, Mack wants to do for filmmaking.
The turning point came when Apple introduced LiDAR into the iPhone 12 Pro. Mack realized a pocket device could rival his custom rigs, so Lightcraft shifted from hardware to software. Jetset, released on iOS, turned the iPhone into a production-grade tracking system that indie filmmakers could actually afford. The app has already powered projects like Entrenched, a Star Wars fan film shot in a Simi Valley garage by a father-son team who 3D-printed props and stitched together effects on a treadmill. The resulting trailer, created with Jetset Cine, was strong enough to land them industry attention and meetings with established directors.
Spark is built around four modules: Shot, Live, Atlas, and Forge. Spark Shot allows users to assemble scenes in the browser, mixing 3D scans, USD assets, animation, audio, and AI tools into virtual shots that can later be reproduced on set. Spark Live integrates chat, video, and push-to-talk features with associated shots and assets, pulling external tools like Zoom into the same workspace. Spark Atlas parses scripts into a database, linking dialogue, actions, and assets to story elements, effectively serving as an artist-friendly production backbone. Spark Forge also automates post-production tasks, using metadata and batch processing to push out hundreds of composite shots in hours instead of weeks.
The design philosophy borrows heavily from Google Docs: multiple collaborators can log in, see the same scene in real time, and test ideas before spending money on sets, costumes, or crews. For Mack, the goal is to move the “non-fun parts” of scheduling and asset tracking downstream from the creative process, letting the machine handle logistics while the team focuses on story.
Traditional production still relies on hundreds of people standing around waiting for the next shot, a process that makes films expensive and slow. “No director is going to build their own 3D scenes for long,” Mack admitted. “But if you give them tools like Spark, they can actually collaborate the way they expect software to work now”.
The broader context is an industry under pressure. Studio monopolies in financing, distribution, and technology are eroding. Social media platforms have become powerful distributors, while new tools make it possible to produce professional-looking work outside the studio system. Spark positions itself as infrastructure for that shift.
The company isn’t promising an overnight revolution. Spark is still in development and will launch in 2026, with early pilots planned for small teams later this year. But Mack believes the next generation of filmmakers will grow up expecting tools like Spark, just as they once grew up expecting social media accounts. “It’s about giving people wings,” he said. “The joy is watching them fly”.
Header image credit: Unlimited Motion Ltd on Unsplash
Charlie Fink is the author of the AR-enabled books “Metaverse,” (2017) and “Convergence” (2019). In the early 90s, Fink was EVP & COO of VR pioneer Virtual World Entertainment. He teaches at Chapman University in Orange, CA.
More from AR Insider…
