[florabuzzword]

Very cool.

Were there any projects outside of the VFX Platform (vfxplatform.com) you could point out?

As mentioned in this article, it seems that the VFX studios, even the small ones, are very siloed and protective. Of the studios with Github accounts, the software they release is usually stuff they don’t use any longer.

[pzone]

The reason for this organization is that many of the key components of the VFX platform are open source, but not open governance. They live inside Dreamworks, Disney, etc. but without any sort of public collaboration model. You can't contribute to the Alembic file format unless you work at Imageworks, you can't contribute to EXR unless you're at ILM, and you can't contribute to OpenVDB unless you're at Dreamworks.

[wandersandwich]

https://research.dreamworks.com/open-source-projects/

In particular look at OpenVDB (volume database). It is a wide and shallow volume format designed for performance around certain use cases. It also includes good lib support for the common simulation functions.

A lot of the other open source offerings from the animation/vfx studios are about common formats and pipelines and may be of less interest outside of the industry.

[florabuzzword]

I think you’re right. I should have specified formats and pipeline components. There are business reasons to not open source these things, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.

OpenVDB was a crucial step. It’s hard to live without it these days.