- Microsoft will dedicate engineering resources to ASWF projects
- Apple will help ensure that ASWF’s projects run on Apple software platforms.
The Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), a collaborative effort to advance open source software development in the motion picture and media industries, has recently added Microsoft and Apple as premier members.
Launched in August 2018 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation, the Foundation provides a neutral forum for open source software developers to share resources and collaborate on technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound.
The addition of Microsoft has helped the organization grow past $1 million in annual funding.
“We are pleased to welcome Microsoft to the Academy Software Foundation. Their membership helps us hit a significant milestone as we surpass $1M in annual funding, a solid financial base that we will use to support our open source projects, the software engineers that develop them, and the open source community in general,” said David Morin, Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation.
As a Foundation member, Microsoft will dedicate engineering resources to support Foundation-hosted projects and will join the group’s governing board and its technical advisory council.
“We’re excited to become a member of the Academy Software Foundation and work together with the industry’s open source community to bring the latest cloud technologies to the Foundation and its projects,” said Tad Brockway, corporate vice president, Azure Storage, Media and Edge, Microsoft Corp.
ASWF’s projects to run on Apple operating systems
With Apple as a new member, the Foundation hopes to improve support for Apple platforms.
“Filmmakers everywhere use Apple products. We are delighted to welcome Apple as a new member, and we look forward to working with them to ensure that our open source projects run well on Apple software platforms,” said David Morin.
To support the continued growth of open source software across the industry, ASWF provides developers with tools that make it easier to contribute code and participate in the community.
“One of these tools is the Academy Software Foundation’s Continuous Integration (CI) build infrastructure, which streamlines development for build and runtime environments,” said Rob Bredow, Executive Creative Director and Head of Industrial Light & Magic, and Governing Board Chair of Academy Software Foundation.
“With Apple as a new member, we hope to work with them to improve support for Apple platforms, which will continue to democratize open source software development,” he added.
ASWF hosts OpenVFB, OpenColorIO, OpenEXR, OpenCue and OpenTimelineIO among its active initiatives.
