Asset Repository WG - 2 Mar 2021

Attendees

[ ] Michael Johnson (Apple) + WG Chair

[x] Joshua Minor (Pixar + OpenTimelineIO)

[ ] John Mertic (Linux Foundation)

[ ] Nick Porcino (OTIO, OpenEXR / Pixar)

[x] Eric Enderton (NVIDIA, DigiPro)

[x] Sean McDuffee (Intel)

[x] Eric Bourque (ADSK)

[ ] Erik Hansen

[x] JT Nelson (Pasadena Open Source consortium / SoCal Blender group)

[ ] Lee Kerley (SPI)

[x] Phil Sawicki (Autodesk)

[ ] Roman Zulak (Imageworks)

[ ] Orde Stevanoski (Imageworks)

[ ] Cary Phillips (ILM, OpenEXR)

[x] Sebastian Herholz (Intel)

[ ] David Morin

[ ] Sam Richards (Disney Imagineering)

[x] Will Telford (Autodesk)

[ ] Carson Brownlee (Intel)

[x] Sergio Rojas(Arena World)

Apologies: 

Michael Johnson (Apple) + WG Chair

Notes:

• Last meeting was mostly a working session editing the proposal document.
• Researchers in light transport don't need the full scale, actually simpler assets are plenty useful.
• Proposal was presented to ASWF TAC last week.
• OTIO & Autodesk highlighted that it is a recurring struggle to get approval to show/present assets, so we would like the asset repo licensing guidance to allow for public presentation of the assets.
• Questions: will this be an actual repository, or just a list of links to assets elsewhere?
• Converting assets & making them usable outside the originating context can be expensive & time consuming.
• Netflix & Autodesk developing something called the Open Asset Model - will be presented to next TAC meeting. Not intended to be a repo, but rather a high level schema (above USD) for organizing reusable assets.
• Intel and Amazon have both offered to contribute assets to this effort.
• Blender is offering rendered media & cut lists from Cosmos Laundromat.
• Next step is for TAC to vote, and then the governing board can vote on funding?
• What will this group become after that?
• Next steps:
• Decide which licenses meet the project goals
• Start with a very small group.
• Disney representation would be helpful.
• Start with some existing assets + licenses to see if we can use the same one.
• Moana license: “The scene ... may only be used for research or software development (including benchmarking) purposes.”
• ORCA license per scene: a couple CC-BY 4.0, a couple CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
• Gather wish list from other ASWF projects & members
• Character assets will be particularly tricky in terms of license/approval
• Some open asset examples are already available
• Epic game assets?
• https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/paragon
• "Licensed for use only with UE4 based products."
• USD sample character
• See UsdSkel example here:
• https://graphics.pixar.com/usd/downloads.html
• License: "only for your personal, non-commercial testing of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description technology. All other uses of the USD ASSET by You are not permitted under this Agreement."
• Blender projects?
• Which license? Creative commons vs public domain?
• Are there other restrictions around the characters themselves?
• Wide variety of rigging setups