Project Fast-Forward

A Tour of the ASWF Landscape

Carol Payne - 2026 TAC Chair

ASWF Structure

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DPEL

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Continuous Integration platform

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Graduated

Digital Production Example Library (DPEL)

DPEL is a curated library of digital assets that demonstrate the scale and complexity of modern feature film production, free to use for researchers and developers to test, demonstrate, and inspire.

• Contributed by Netflix Animation Studios, ALab now contains a Gaussian splat representation, taking advantage of OpenUSD's new particle field schema
• Contributed by the ASC, the Standard Evaluation Material for Virtual Production (StEM3-VP) provides reference content for in-camera VFX and LED volume technology

Learn more in their talk this afternoon!

dpel.aswf.io

MaterialX

#materialx

MaterialX is an open standard for the exchange of rich material and look-development content across applications and renderers.

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• MaterialX v1.39.4 added support for WebGPU shaders, hex-tiled images, NanoColor spaces, 2D fractals, animated materials, and more
• MaterialX v1.39.5 added support for Slang shaders, 2D and 3D flake nodes, Graph Editor improvements, and more
• The upcoming MaterialX v1.39.6 will add formal mathematics for the Physically Based Shading Nodes

Open Shading Language (OSL)

OSL is a language for programmable shading in advanced path tracing renderers and other applications. It contains a compiler and runtime for CPU and GPU.

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Found in: RenderMan, Arnold, 3dsMax, Blender Cycles, Sony Imageworks, Pixar, Netflix Animation,

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• Released OSL 1.15.x with performance improvements and bug-fixes.
• Continuing to improve support and feature-parity on GPU.
• NEW: BDSL – Standalone BSDF library reference implementation of common BSDFs (OpenPBR, etc.).

#openshadinglanguage

OpenColorIO (OCIO)

A complete color management solution geared towards motion picture production with an emphasis on visual effects and computer animation.

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OCIO 2.5 Includes:

• Config Merging
• Hue Curves
• Color Interop ID Support

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And also - OCIO is now supported in FFmpeg!

opencolorio.org

OpenCue

An open source render management system.

• Redesigned rust monitor agent. 2x Faster, 4x Smaller and more stable.
• New Web Interface for interacting with the farm
• Integrations with metrics and monitoring systems like: Loki, Grafana and Prometheus.

#opencue

OpenEXR

OpenEXR provides the specification and reference implementation of the EXR file format, the professional-grade image storage format of the motion picture industry.

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New Features for 2026:

• Lossy HTJ2K compression
• Deep compression w/ZSTD

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And there’s more…

• 80+ “security advisory” patches
• 19 patch releases so far this year

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#openexr

OpenImageIO (OIIO)

OpenImageIO is a toolset for reading, writing, and manipulating image files of any image file format relevant to VFX / animation via a format-agnostic API with a feature set, scalability, and robustness needed for feature film production.

Recent highlights:

• Improved OCIO color management and working toward CIF conventions
• JPEG Ultra HDR support
• Lots of hardening against corrupt or malicious input files

#openimageio

OpenVDB

Library comprising a compact hierarchical data structure and a suite of tools for the efficient storage and manipulation of sparse volumetric data.

• fVDB, a PyTorch extension for spatial intelligence and ML applications..
• NanoVDB, which was introduced in 2021 as a static GPU port of OpenVDB v9, is now mutable and supports dynamics application like simulation.
• OpenVDB v13 supports in-memory half (16-bit) float grids.

#openvdb

Incubating

Academy Color Encoding System (ACES)

ACES provides a common color language so everyone can see and work with the same image throughout production, distribution, and archival. It enables filmmakers to preserve the intended look of their images when using different cameras, software tools, and displays.

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• ACES 2.0: Updated core math for more consistent results and modern workflow support.
• Pipeline Metadata: New tools to help track and maintain ACES pipelines

#aces

https://acescentral.com/get-involved/

OpenFX

OpenFX is an open standard for creating visual effects (VFX) plug-ins. It allows plug-ins (shared libraries) to interface with host applications, giving artists thousands of new tools and capabilities.

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1.5 Major Release Includes:

• Full ACES/OCIO color management
• Comprehensive GPU rendering support
• OpenGL-independent draw suite

#openfx

OpenTimelineIO

#opentimelineio

OpenTimelineIO is an interchange format and API for editorial cut information. It provides a toolset to exchange and query edits.

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1. Import and export now available in Adobe Premiere
2. Integrated in RØDECaster Video Core
3. Added schema to help preserve color labeling on tracks and clips.
4. Continued enhancements to Raven - the OpenTimelineIO viewer

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rawtoaces

#rawtoaces

rawtoaces is a framework for converting digital camera raw images into a common color space (ACES) and file format (OpenEXR).

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Recent highlights:

• Implemented lens correction functionality
• Expanded the spectral measurements database by 30+ camera
• rawtoaces is now available in homebrew

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Rez

rez is a cross-platform package manager for creating/managing standalone configured environments that reference centrally installed packages. Many studios rely on it to support versioning and usage workflows for their complex internal pipelines.

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• Latest releases added: type annotations, enhanced support for ephemeral packages (solver-only packages), shifted the supported python range to 3.8+<3.14,
• Exciting/promising developments around mypyc acceleration and long-awaited `provides` feature (system or software-suite-provided packages) are taking shape!

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#rez

Sandbox

Dailies Notes Assistant (DNA)

#dna

A two or three sentence description of your project, ELI 5 style

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• One or two cool things your project has released or done in the last year, (a sentence or two each), again, ELI 5 style.

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Your project image here (not your logo!!)

MoonRay

#moonray

MoonRay: a high-performance production path tracer with layerable shaders and a computation framework for local and distributed rendering.

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Recent Highlights:

• Joined ASWF
• Building our CI
• New date-based versioning scheme
• MaterialX support in progress
• Hydra 2 support in progress

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Open Path Guiding Library (OpenPGL)

#openpgl

An open-source library providing state-of-the-art path guiding algorithms that are ready to use by and easy to integrate into production renderers.��By improving the importance sampling process OpenPGL increases rendering efficiency of scenes with complex illumination setups.�

Recent Highlights:

• Joined ASWF
• Preparing first release (v0.8.0) under ASWF
• Used in two feature films: Zootopia 2 (Disney Animation) and Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Illumination)

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OpenRV

#open-review-initiative

Academy Award-winning review tool, leveraged by major studios for high-definition review and approval workflows

• Allows stakeholders easy access to review, comment and annotate assets
• Highly customizable due to it’s plugin architecture and configurable processing graph engine
• Recently released:
• OTIO-based Live Review integration
• Open source annotation framework

xStudio

xSTUDIO is a high performance, modern playback and review application with an artist-friendly interface. xSTUDIO’s unique architecture, based on the ‘actor model’, ensures the most is made of the available hardware and the UI stays responsive even under heavy loads.

• Recent development:
• Streamlined build steps for MacOS, Windows and Linux
• Fast rendering from offscreen viewport via FFMPEG.
• WebRTC based video streaming solution, including interaction via web client, for remote review (pending release)

#open-review-initiative

OpenAPV

#openapv

A two or three sentence description of your project, ELI 5 style

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• One or two cool things your project has released or done in the last year, (a sentence or two each), again, ELI 5 style.

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Your project image here (not your logo!!)

OpenAssetIO

OpenAssetIO defines a common set of interactions between a Digital Content Creator (DCC) host e.g. Nuke and an Asset Management System (AMS) e.g. AYON. It exists as a bridge, providing a shared language for exchanging asset information.

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• OpenAssetIO MCP Server An MCP server that exposes OpenAssetIO functionality as tools for LLM clients.
• OpenAssetIO-ComfyUI Custom ComfyUI nodes for resolving and publishing assets directly from a workflow via OpenAssetIO.

#openassetio

OpenQMC

#openqmc

OpenQMC is a high-quality Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) sampling library for feature film VFX production.

QMC is an integral part of rendering platforms and tools, reducing compute time and making render times tractable. This year we have had:

• OpenQMC adopted into ASWF and seen use in multiple projects.
• External contributions to the project implementing current research.
• New website, improved CI, etc
• New roadmap for upcoming changes including C-ABI and extended language support.

Rongotai Model Train Club (RMTC)

#rmtc

A provenance focused tracing, training & inference framework. Designed for responsible AI use in VFX productions.

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• Collaboration between Wētā FX, NVIDIA, RSP & Sony Imageworks
• Initial code delivered to public
• Python API, PyTorch, ONNX & Cypher graph DB support with Qt UI
• Injectable asset management and renderwall integration
• Refinement, inference, publish & tracing of simple foundational models with complex model support coming soon
• Burgeoning support for Nuke (CAT) and standard VFX asset types - USD/EXR

Working Groups

#AWSF

• Open Review Initiative
• Continuous Integration
• Diversity & Inclusion
• USDWG
• Wayland WG
• Zero Trust Working Group

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