Sony Imageworks Goes Open Source

Sony Pictures Imageworks announced an open-source development program that will start with the VFX studio releasing five technologies.

The initial releases will include:

• OSL, a programmable shading language for rendering
• Field3d, a voxel data storage library
• Maya Reticule, a Maya plug-in for camera masking
• Scala Migration, a database migration tool
• Pystring, python-like string handling in C++

The releases, on which information will be made available at http://opensource.imageworks.com, can be used freely by large and small studios and artists anywhere. The intention of the release is to build communities that adopt and further refine the code.

“Some of the smartest and most dedicated engineers in computer graphics have put their experience and passion into the development of these tools,” said Rob Bredow, Imageworks’ CTO. “We are very excited to be able to share them with a much wider audience.”

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