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Conduit: A Modern Pipeline for the Open Source World
Oliver Staeubli, Tim Hoff, Ryan Bland, Rebecca Hallac, Josh Smeltzer, Chris Rydalch, Karyn Buczek Monschein, Mark McGuire
Blue Sky Studios describes Conduit, a USD-centric open-source pipeline framework mapping legacy character and shot workflows into USD constructs for Nimona.
Abstract
We present our modern pipeline, Conduit, developed for Blue Sky's upcoming feature film, Nimona. Conduit refers to a set of tools and web services that allow artists to find, track, version and quality control their work. In addition to describing the system and implementation, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities of developing and deploying a pipeline with the intention of open sourcing the resulting toolset. We found that communicating concepts and progress updates both internally and externally throughout the development process ultimately resulted in a more robust solution.
How to read this
- Category
- Production talk / pipeline system description
- Contributions
- Presents Conduit, a USD-centric set of tools and web services for finding, tracking, versioning, and quality-controlling artist work on the film Nimona
- Describes the system and implementation, including mapping legacy character and shot workflows into USD constructs
- Reflects on the challenges and opportunities of building a pipeline intended to be open-sourced
- Context
- A Blue Sky Studios pipeline built around Pixar's Universal Scene Description, reframing legacy workflows in USD terms with open-source release as a design goal.Builds on: Universal Scene Description: Open Source Release
- Correctness
- Studio practice, not peer-reviewed; results are production-oriented and specific to Blue Sky's workflows, and the open-sourcing reflection is a process lesson rather than a measured outcome.
- Clarity
- Accessible system overview; one pass conveys the architecture and the open-source intent, with detail available for the USD mapping.
- How to read it
- Read for the pipeline architecture and the open-source-from-the-start lessons; one pass suffices unless you are mapping your own legacy workflows into USD.
Builds on
Built upon by
Related work
- The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars 2020 / Frontiers VR
- USD in Production 2023 / SIGGRAPH Courses
- Building Scalable and Evolutive USD Pipelines on Distributed Architecture at Ubisoft 2022 / DigiPro
- A Deep Dive into Universal Scene Description and Hydra 2019 / SIGGRAPH Courses
Keywords
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