Asset Repository WG - 5 Jan 2021

Attendees

[x] Michael Johnson (Apple) + WG Chair

[x] Joshua Minor (Pixar + OpenTimelineIO)

[ ] John Mertic (Linux Foundation)

[X] Nick Porcino (OTIO, OpenEXR / Pixar)

[x] Eric Enderton (NVIDIA, DigiPro)

[X] Sean McDuffee (Intel)

[ ] Eric Bourque (ADSK)

[ ] Erik Hansen

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

[ ] Lee Kerley (SPI)

[ ] Phil Sawicki (Autodesk)

[x] Roman Zulak (Imageworks)

[x] Orde Stevanoski (Imageworks)

[x] Cary Phillips (ILM, OpenEXR)

[x] Sebastian Herholz

[x] Philippe Sawicki (Autodesk)

[x] Sam Richards (Disney Imagineering)

[x] Will Telford (Autodesk)

[x] Sebastian Herholz (Intel)

[x] Carson Brownlee (Intel)

Agenda Items

Nick Cannon replied on Slack: “Definitely only hosted ourselves because there was no other obvious place to host such a large asset. ASWF providing or even standardizing on a hosting service for large assets would be beneficial.”
Review last mtg
Eric E: Propose 4, uh, 5 Milestones.

Meeting Notes

Cary: OpenEXR example images: Not to benefit the project, as much as for other implementers, here are images your software should handle.
Samples as best practice / requirement for projects...
Wave: conversation with Blender short producer, on-going.
Cary: Moana is canonical example. Rendered OpenEXRs with AOVs etc would be even better. Disney? Intern?
OTIO assets now: a few unit tests, but no representative film making. Need to prove out at scale. Got all of Incredibles 2 in OTIO viewer, but don’t have permissions to show yet. Timeline without media OK, but with media much better, including the media that’s trimmed out. No one but Blender is likely to give us cutting-room floor. Don’t know how similar their process is to e.g. Pixar process. It’s probably in Premier / Media Composer / … . Wave and Josh to discuss w Blender producer / editor / ass’t editor.

Here is an example of what we are seeking: http://www.avidblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/highres/Mission-Impossible-Rogue-Nation-Eddie-Hamilton.png
But the actual timeline/project files, not just a screenshot.

#5: Most of our projects already are file formats, so no further conversion will be needed.
#5 is mostly for 3D assets, outside of a specific ASWF project -- USD, MaterialX, etc.
Sean: This group is the one place where everyone’s in the room to make cutting-edge 3D studio content available.
Wave: Want it. But no one’s getting paid for it, so how do we get it done.
Sean: We make it easy, we make the pitch, people promote it.
Wave: True, and we “use all parts of the animal”: get rich EXRs, OpenCue, VDBs, etc out of it.
Wave: Can we restate as: “#5. Conversion to formats of interest to ASWF projects.”
Will: If studio willing to export in our format, great, and they can make sure it matches artistic intent; if not, ASWF can take it the last mile.
Sam: Later, need metadata collection? E.g. All versions of shots in a timeline. OpenCue: During a day, what’s a typical job submission load. Asset management software: Here’s the scale. Doesn’t need actual data files.

Sean: One-stop shop is valuable. Would want licenses to be uniform and permissive. “I know I can use this.”

Licensing a barrier for animated characters, generally.
Maybe a “you can’t re-purpose but you can render it” license.
Pixar’s Spark Shorts. Could propose to a studio, next short could be licensed out? Goodwill clear from Moana.
There’s a USD animated char, background char.
Rigs would be great, AI research etc. Hard to get full rigs donated. OK maybe that won’t be our first ask :-)
ML (Machine Learning) training makes legal issues muddier.

Action Items

Sam + Cary to discuss with Nick, is there a way to get rich OpenEXRs out of Moana USD release.?
Wave + Josh to discuss with Blender producer / editor / ass’t editor.
Wave to ask John M about licenses.
Wave to ask John M, Joseph G about Sci-Tech interns.