Open Source

SIGGRAPH 2026 Launches New Games Summit Track

The opening-day program, running July 19, brings studios and indies together for talks and networking on how games are made; sessions span accessibility, audio, VFX, performance capture, pipelines, and game development economics, with games programming continuing throughout the July 19-23 conference.

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Technology Headline News

DreamWorks' MoonRay Renderer Joins the Academy Software Foundation

The open source path-tracing renderer has powered every DWA feature since 2019, including ‘The Wild Robot’ and ‘The Bad Guys 2;’ ASWF’s Open Source Days set for July 19-20 in LA.

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AI in Animation Headline News

NVIDIA Open Sources Audio2Face Animation Model

Audio2Face accelerates the creation of realistic digital characters by providing real-time facial animation and lip-sync driven by generative AI.

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Advancing Entertainment Tech Standards Headline News

AMPAS ‘ACES’ Joins the Academy Software Foundation

The open source framework for color management and image interchange across the entire motion picture production life cycle has been developed and maintained by the Academy for more than a decade.

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Technology Headline News

Raynault VFX, Stability AI Join the Academy Software Foundation

The newest group members bring with them ‘the artistic talent and the technical know-how that will help strengthen open source development in the motion picture industry.’

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Technology Headline News

Academy Software Foundation Announces ‘OpenFX v1.5’ Release

Coming later this summer, the significant update boasts a suite of new features and promises to streamline workflows and boost creativity for VFX artists and developers.

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On the road to Annecy Headline News

ASIFA-Hollywood Heads to Annecy 2024

The organization’s ‘ASIFA Global Meet and Greet’ mixer, co-sponsored with ASIFA Hellas and ASIFA China, is set for June 12.

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GenAI in Animation Production Headline News

Kartoon Studios Announces Gadget A.I.

New proprietary GenAI integrated toolkit, developed on NVIDIA Omniverse, is designed for development, production, and post-production of new animated content as well as upgrading existing catalogs.

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Technology Advancing Art Headline News

NVIDIA Holoscan for Media Now Available

The software-defined platform helps developers in broadcast and streaming deliver AI-enabled media solutions.

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Technology Advancing Art Headline News

NVIDIA Releases NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation GPU

The new GPU delivers the company’s latest AI, graphics, and compute technology to compact workstations, taking better advantage of Generative AI’s sweeping changes, such as seamless editing of high-resolution videos and images and its use for realistic visual effects and content creation.

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The Next Wave of Generative AI Headline News

NVIDIA’s AI Workbench Beta Coming Later This Month

At CES, company announced a host of new generative AI technology updates and releases, including TensorRT GPUs, the TensorRT-LLM open-source library, tools for RTX PCs and workstations, RTX-accelerated GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs, and new developer AI tools to create, test, and customize pre-trained generative AI models and LLMs.

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DCC Pipeline Data Integration Headline News

Autodesk Unveils ‘Flow’ Cloud Platform for M&E

Revealed at Autodesk University 2023: The Design and Make Conference, the new platform connects entire production pipelines with Maya and 3^rd party artist tools from SideFX, Avid, and Foundry. plugging directly into the open ecosystem.

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Technology Headline News

Foundry Rolls Out Nuke, Katana and Mari Updates

Now available, Nuke 15.0 bolsters doubles training speeds in CopyCat tool; all product updates include compliance with VFX Reference Platform 2023; Katana 7.0 and Mari 7.0. coming soon.

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Technology Headline News

Academy Software Foundation Launches OpenPBR MaterialX Subproject

The new open source shading model succeeds Autodesk Standard Surface and Adobe Standard Material; Open Source Days ‘23 event kicks off August 6.

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Technology Headline News

Academy Software Foundation Adopts OpenImageIO

The Foundation’s newest hosted project, created by Larry Gritz in 2008, is widely used by VFX and animation studios and integrated into leading production software products; don’t miss the OIIO ‘Birds of a Feather’ session at SIGGRAPH August 7.

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MoonRay Arives for Everyone! Headline News

DreamWorks Animation Releases Open Source ‘MoonRay’

Previously announced at SIGGRAPH 2022, the production renderer is now available, in an industry standard CMake environment, complete with a new documentation website, restructured libraries, reduced dependencies, and referenced open source packages.

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Technology Headline News

Framestore and HP Join the Academy Software Foundation

Organization’s flagship Open Source Forum at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles is set for February 16.

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Technology Headline News

DNEG Releases Open-Source xSTUDIO Playback and Review Application

Now available on the Academy Software Foundation GitHub, the flexible, feature rich program is designed to meet the diverse needs of a broad range of review scenarios across teams of connected users, whether on set, in office, or remote.

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Technology Headline News

Autodesk Debuts Maya Bifrost Update with Open Source USD Integration

Feature-rich release includes a host of simulation, scattering, and USD workflow enhancements for the company's node-based visual programming system for procedural creation.

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In the Cloud! Headline News

AWS Thinkbox Plugins Released as Open Source

Artists and studios gain broader accessibility to products and tools with Krakatoa and XMesh source code available for Autodesk Maya under Apache 2.0 open source license; artist tools simplify rendering, VFX, and simulation workflows.

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Technology ANIMATIONWorld

Animal Logic Gets ‘Unhinged’ with ALab Phase 2, Unreal Engine, and a Sock Puppet Scientist

Art director Grant Freckelton and director David Peers talk about the studio’s groundbreaking open-source USD ALab, its expansion into ALab Phase 2, and the Unreal Engine-created short film that grew out of their R&D efforts.

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Let’s Review! Headline News

Autodesk Releases RV Media Review Software as Open Source

Joining with code contributions from DNEG and Sony Pictures Imageworks, RV will help shape the Open Review Initiative, the ASWF effort to standardize VFX and animation standards while building a unified, open source toolset for playback, review, and approval.

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Technology Headline News

NVIDIA Plans to Accelerate Evolution of USD

The company will pursue a multi-year effort to expand USD’s capabilities beyond VFX, working with its inventor, Pixar, along with Adobe, Autodesk, and Siemens.

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Open Source Headline News

Academy Software Foundation Announces Open Review Initiative

Technical Steering Committee members from Autodesk, DNEG, and Sony Pictures Imageworks will make RV, xSTUDIO, and parts of the itView ecosystem available to the open source community.

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Technology Headline News

DreamWorks Animation to Release MoonRay as Open Source

Studio’s state-of-the-art MCRT renderer, used on the upcoming ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ and previous films like ‘The Bad Guys’ and ‘Croods: A New Age,’ includes a USD Hydra render delegate and multi-machine / cloud rendering via Arras.