Asset Repository WG kickoff

Attendees

  • John Mertic (Linux Foundation)
  • Cary Phillips (ILM, OpenEXR, Sci-tech council)
  • Darin Grant (Animal Logic, ASWF Treasurer)
  • David Morin (Epic / ASWF Exec Director)
  • Eric Enderton (NVIDIA, DigiPro)
  • Joshua Minor (OTIO / Pixar)
  • Nick Porcino (OTIO, OpenEXR / Pixar)
  • Sean McDuffee (Intel)
  • Will Telford (ADSK)
  • Eric Bourque (ADSK)
  • Orde Stevanoski (Imageworks)
  • Lee Kerley (Imageworks)
  • Daniel Heckenberg (Animal Logic)
  • Bruno Sargeant (Unity Technologies Inc - M&E PM)
  • JT Nelson (Pasadena Open Source consortium / SoCal Blender group)
  • Roman Zulak (Imageworks)
  • Michael B Johnson (Apple)
  • Rob Bredow (ILM, ASWF Chair)

Agenda


Meeting Notes


Intros - some concerns:

  • OpenEXR images repo = an example of best practices
  • Testing / conformance
  • mentoring / canonical references
    • Individual assets
    • Scene structure (USD?)
  • portability of assets
  • repurposing for multiple markets / applications
  • film production quality e.g. Moana Island
  • research; help make research applicable for real world problems
  • no one at studio says no - but no one is authorized / motivated to say yes


Slides from Governing Board 09/22/20

  • Asset repo voted number one idea for ASWF “what else”
  • Community is open to assets for testing only as well as for production use
  • 3D, 2D, and ML were the top three asset repository types requested
  • License examples:
  • Licenses: Unmodified licenses are easier. As few as possible … ideally 2.
  • Quality levels: Could have badging / tagging (Testing Only, Stress Test, Production Asset, etc).  Production cruftiness; clean and portable; reference asset
  • Taxonomy badges (Material, mesh, image, etc)



Goals and Non Goals

  • Scope: Small set of exemplars.  Quality over quantity.
  • One asset per ASWF project?  A good place to start, but leaves out many other purposes.
  • Describe the MVP Minimum Viable Product.
  • Could pick a Blender film as a starting point, and ask each project, does this work for you? Draw out specific lacking features, scale, etc. 
    • Are there enough AOVs to make them interesting OpenEXR files?
    • Modernize OpenEXR Image lib. Have cameras, but what is most needed? Best to have specific demand.
    • Stress cases - abusing the format - can come from production or from project.
  • Level of goals: rather than “these exact outcomes”, look for value we want to deliver: “serve needs of our projects” or etc.
  • To turn “maybes” to “yeses” for studio participation: Establish selfish goals.  Such as help this ASWF project you use.
  • These could be on-boarding / mentoring / diversity projects.
    • Students could be a great help. Under the direction of an experienced studio person.
  • ASWF uniquely positioned to raise ideas in research community:  identify important new use cases, etc.
  • Remove licensing hurdle, hosting hurdle.  Make it viable for a studio to donate.
  • Identify or develop assets. But also maintain over time.
    • A snapshot in time is easier than maintaining over time. Keep it easy. 
    • PRMan tests vs USD backlot:  Freezing assets for testing over time versus updating formats to reflect current best-practice.
    • ABC and PBR shaders → Python script → USD files.  Wave changes the script periodically; source material constant, USD format evolves.


Next Steps and Meeting Cadence

  • Michael B Johnson steps forward to chair - Thank you!
  • Meetings @ 2 weeks, same time slot.
  • Homework: Look around your company for potential assets, let’s pool the list, see what’s rare or missing, etc.
  • Working Group mission right now: Create proposal(s), what should ASWF be doing about assets. We can boil the ocean later. :-)
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