John Rodrigues breaks down Figma Config 2026's major launches: Figma Motion, Generative Plugins, custom Shaders, Code Layers, and Figma Agents. He explains how these tools consolidate design, motion, code, and AI onto one canvas, and shares what designers got most excited about at the event.
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So hi there, welcome to another video. In this video, we're going to talk about all the Figma updates that's happened, my takes on it, and for you to know what are the new updates that for you to watch out with Figma. So Figma 2026, there are more than 10,000 designers at in San Francisco. So I had a pleasure to visit this year. So Figma has this updates on like they launched Figma Motion, Generative Plugin, Shaders, VV Tool, Code Layers, FigJam, and Slide Agents and more. So, so basically I think Figma, so Figma this year had a lot of pressure with the AI industry moving so fast. And they also, you know, went to IPO, so they had to kind of expand their market. I think they, they, they did expand their product category and market segment and things like that. And I think that there was like mixed feelings from the crowd. People were very excited about the shaders, motion and things, but also they were like curious about what's happening with like design systems and things like that. So I think some of the side talks did cover them and there was definitely a lot of like, you know, questions around the Figma's expansion because now Figma is kind of almost like an everything tool. So you don't have to, that's the one good part about is what's like the good part about it is you don't have to switch between multiple tools before you have to like take the Figma designs and take it to After Effects or other tools and things like that. But now motion is within and then you need to go to another tool, create like videos, video generation and image generation. Now with Figma VV, so everything remains in the one canvas, so which makes this an awesome place for people who are building with, who are designing products or creatives exploring their ideas. Figma's canvas kind of gives you a suite of all the tools, sort of all the tools. So let's, let's go one by one. So let's go into one by one. But yeah, Figma gave kind of, gave this like 4 materials. So Figma kind of gave this 4 materials. So to work with motion, depth, texture, that is shaders, and code. So they also launched that Code Layers, which you can able to bring like a code and go back and forth between design and code through Code Layers, which is very exciting. And working on a lot of like the client's project on Human AI Studio. So I kind of find myself going between design and code all the time. So I think this bridge is super helpful. And Figma Motion, I think this is, they made it like so good actually compared to other motion design tools. There's like an agent here, you can just prompt what motion you want to create. And then it also generates like timeline So you can go and tweak and things like that, which makes it super easy to work with. So here is a quick motion pattern that I've created and it was super fast and you can see the timeline, you can control. And Figma Vivi, Vivi, they had acquired Vivi before. Now Figma Vivi is within the canvas. The co-founder presented it during the config. I also had a chance to kind of meet him and tell that how I've been like teaching this tool at AI Builder Academy and things like that. I've been a big fan of this. I think it shows how different LLMs work. How you can connect and automate, like create your workflows. So which is good. A very humble person, I met him in person. And another one is Figma Agents. Figma Agents are basically this, you can like create like custom skills, connect to different tools like your Confluence, Jira, Slack. So you can create whatever automations or kind of bring context all in one place. This is huge. I think this is a very unexplored territory and it has this kind of rolls out the features to public and things like that. So I'll definitely share more about it here. So make sure you are subscribed to this YouTube channel. And the custom shaders, I think, I think we are kind of trying to create a bit of like differentiator and life in our product nowadays because all products are trying to look the same and slobs. So shaders are now within Figma. So you can work with shaders, which is awesome. The another one is the generative plugins. So basically, you know, with the AI, rise of AI, there's a lot of like plugin development skyrocketed and there's a lot of, you know, hassle goes into building a plugin. So I'd built this Ollie AI for, you know, on, in canvas assistant kind of a thing for Figma. But now you can just like prompt and generate plugins. That's worth looking into. If your team needs some kind of a plugin, you can generate it quickly. Code Layers is definitely worth looking into, but these are some of the cool updates that Figma had. So during the config week, I also hosted like an in-person workshop on how to become AI native. So that was quite successful. It was good to see people's like reaction and takeaways they had. We also partnered with like Wonder and Loop. To kind of make this event happen and for the venue with Purefy and app and things like that. So it was quite a successful event that and workshop that I hosted. And then yeah, if your team need custom workshops and training, I also do that now through AI Human AI Studio. So which you can always reach out for me for that. And then also we hosted hike. We wanted to bring, create that sense of like calmness because with AI things are getting bit, you know, chaotic and we had like a happy bar. So yeah, it was a lot of fun, but I think the best part was like meeting all the people there from the design community. Community and the heroes and my friends and people that follow me and things like that. So it was quite a fun experience. So this is about Config 2026. So make sure you subscribe. Resources in the description, do check them out. I'll see you in another video.
