The Academy Software Foundation has also announced the addition of two new open source projects – OpenEXR and OpenCue.
The Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), a neutral forum for open source software development in the motion picture and media industries, has added three new members, including Nvidia, Red Hat and ftrack.
While Nvidia has joined the Foundation as a premier member, ftrack and Red Hat have joined as general members.
Launched in August 2018 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation, ASWF provides a neutral forum for open source software developers to share resources and collaborate on technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound.
Existing members of the group include Dreamworks Animation, Epic, Sony Pictures, the Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. and others.
Comments from new members
An American multinational software company, Red Hat provides open-source software products to the enterprise community.
“Open source technologies have been a source of innovation for the motion picture and broader media industry for many years, and Red Hat has been proud to collaborate with many of the leaders in this space to both enable their adoption of open source and to progress technologies in a way that has enabled this innovation,” said Red Hat chief technology officer Chris Wright in a statement.
He added, “We’re happy to join the Academy Software Foundation to expand this work and drive open standards that deliver sustainable interoperability.”
Nvidia is an American technology company, which designs graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market.
“Nvidia is committed to developing technologies that support the motion picture industry through accelerated graphics, 3D rendering, AI and deep learning, simulation and virtual production. Already a member of the Linux Foundation, we’re looking forward to working with the Academy Software Foundation to help shape the future of this creative industry,” said John Ison, Director of Media & Entertainment Partnerships at Nvidia.
ftrack is the project management and media review platform that teams in the creative industries use to collaborate on creative projects.
“The visual effects industry is built on collaboration – we make several ftrack components and extensions free to use, share and modify, and actively encourage customization of ftrack via our API with this in mind. The more our users can benefit from inventive new approaches to production tracking, the better the projects they produce and the more the industry can thrive. We’re excited to align with the ASWF in this goal and work to support a better, stronger open source community for all,” said Fredrik Limsäter, CEO at ftrack.
Academy Software Foundation projects
On Wednesday, the foundation also announced the addition of two new open source projects, OpenEXR and OpenCue.
Initially developed by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), OpenEXR is an Academy Scientific and Technical Award-winning high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format for use in computer imaging applications. It is a widely-adopted standard in computer graphics for linear and interactive media.
It has been used in all motion pictures that ILM contributes visual effects work to since 2000. The first movies to employ OpenEXR were “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Men in Black II,” “Gangs of New York,” and “Signs”. It was also used in recent films like “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Black Panther,” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
OpenCue, the other new project, is a fully featured, open source render manager for media and entertainment that can be used to break down complex jobs into individual tasks. Developed in collaboration by Google Cloud and Sony Pictures Imageworks, OpenCue is an evolution of Sony’s internal queuing system, Cue 3.
“Studios and developers are finding value in having a neutral home for the open source projects that our industry relies on, and we look forward to growing our projects and continuing to find new ways to support to the broader open source community,” said David Morin, Executive Director of Academy Software Foundation.
Some of the earlier open source projects overseen by the foundation include OpenVDB and OpenColorIO.
