<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;"> P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;} </style>
</head>
<body dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
Hi everyone,</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
I'm the pipeline supervisor at Tangent Animation.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
I am glad that you bring up some of the points. We are already somewhat involved into developing Usd handling in Blender, that goes beyond just im-/export.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
As we speak our main developer, Charles Wardlaw, has been trying to answer some of the question of how to handle edits of referenced Usd data.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
For us Layout and Rigs in Animation are the main use-cases, which someone dictates our approach.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
As opposed to Houdini we went with the Animal Logic-, now Autodesk, way of handling the references among the native blender hierarchy.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
We may also end-up representing our edits in an Usd SessionLayer, while exposing the controls via a native blender element (comparable to the ephemeral Proxy objects in Maya).</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
This work among the Usd im- and export on our side will be available shortly (currently awaiting clearance from legal).</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
The other work is hdcycles, already available in our github repository:</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<a href="https://github.com/tangent-opensource/hdcycles" id="LPlnk">https://github.com/tangent-opensource/hdcycles</a><br>
</div>
<div class="_Entity _EType_OWALinkPreview _EId_OWALinkPreview _EReadonly_1"></div>
<br>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
Some more additions to it are also planned to be released soon.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
We're glad that the Blender Foundation started the Usd integration and hope we can contribute our work based on it for a broader ecosystem of DCCs utilizing Usd.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
That being said - we are working under production constraints, so it may be a mere starting-point that needs more work to make if viable for a broader audience within Blender.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
We hope that this will get clearer once the code is released and spawn-off more discussions.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
Then we hopefully can also shed some light on our workflows that will allow asset, layout and animation work in Blender, while playing nicely with other workflows in Houdini via Usd exchange.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
I am also curious about the potential that this might bring to other studios, as blender shines in certain workflows and it would be interesting to see how opening it up to existing pipelines via Usd affects its role in the production landscape.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
Cheers,<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
Blazej Floch<br>
</div>
<div id="appendonsend"></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
<hr tabindex="-1" style="display:inline-block; width:98%">
<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Bf-usd <bf-usd-bounces@blender.org> on behalf of Mark Tucker <mtucker@sidefx.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, October 26, 2020 16:28<br>
<b>To:</b> bf-usd@blender.org <bf-usd@blender.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Bf-usd] Hello!</font>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<div id="x___MailbirdStyleContent" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: DejaVu Sans Mono; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
Of course! At least the first part of the question. The second part I can give some opinions...
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Houdini's USD integration sprang from a desire to implement a new (Katana-like) node based look development and lighting environment within Houdini, called Solaris. We determined that USD (combined with Hydra) provided many of the critical capabilities
that our users wanted in this new context, so we decided to build this new context from the ground up around USD.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So as of version 18.0, Houdini ships with the USD library built in. There is a new node context called LOPs which provides native editing of USD data. Which is to say LOPs load USD data directly, manipulates it directly as USD, display it in the 3D viewport
using the Hydra framework, and outputs USD. Many LOPs focus on look development and lighting-specific tasks, but we also provide LOP nodes for more generic USD authoring tasks (such as creating variants, adding references, authoring USD Point Instancer primitives,
etc).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Because this USD editing all happens within a specific Houdini context, the user can choose whether to use USD exclusively, of Houdini representations exclusively, or combine their capabilities using explicit translation nodes (import from LOPs into SOPs
or SOPs into LOPs). But our plan in the fairly near term is to convince users to move all lighting work into the Solaris/LOP context.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt">This is the front page of the Houdini documentation relating to Solaris for more information: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/solaris/index.html Or please feel free to ask more detailed questions.</span><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>As for Blender (and any DCC integrating with USD through explicit Import/Export translation workflows) the difficult part, I think, is the export step. USD is always read in as a composed stage (and so the import step can be handled like any other external
data format). But that stage is made up of many, many layer files. Often multiple files contribute to any given primitive in the scene graph. So authoring changes to the stage requires an understanding of how those changes will be consumed by the next application
in the pipeline. And there are limitations on what kinds of edits can be performed, depending on how the edits are applied. The application may want to directly edit one or more source layers. Or it may author overrides to a particular branch of the scene
graph that needs to be referenced onto the stage. Or it can author scene-wide overrides that must be applied as a sublayer. Or it can author only brand new data (no overrides) that can then be brought back onto the stage using any USD composition arc.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Looking at this document: https://developer.blender.org/T68933, it sounds to me like it might align well with the "author a new sublayer" approach? The Blender Collection sounds like it could contain the loaded objects from the USD stage, and hold configuration
information for writing out changes to the stage authored within the blender session? But I know nothing about how Blender would represent such edits internally prior to exporting them...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A simpler integration could take the last approach, where Blender is not capable of overriding existing scene graph data, and instead only authors brand new primitives. If Blender is being used primarily as a modeler this is a perfectly viable (if more
limited) style of integration, but it does not line up with all the use cases described in that design document.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt">Mark</span><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<div class="x_mb_sig"></div>
<blockquote class="x_history_container" type="cite" style="border-left-style:solid; border-width:1px; margin-top:20px; margin-left:0px; padding-left:10px; min-width:500px">
<p style="color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin-top: 10px;">On 10/26/2020 5:04:54 AM, Ton Roosendaal <ton@blender.org> wrote:</p>
<div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<p>Hi Mark,</p>
<p>A very interesting question for you then is: can you share info on how Houdini integrates with USD and how to make sure Blender will work flawlessly in mixed software pipelines?</p>
<p>Thanks,<br>
</p>
<div class="x_moz-signature">-Ton- <br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Ton Roosendaal - <a class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ton@blender.org">
ton@blender.org</a> - <a class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.blender.org">
www.blender.org</a><br>
Chairman Blender Foundation, Director Blender Institute<br>
Buikslotermeerplein 161, 1025 ET Amsterdam, the Netherlands<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="x_moz-cite-prefix">On 26/10/2020 00:57, Mark Tucker wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" style="min-width:500px">
<div id="x___MailbirdStyleContent" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: DejaVu Sans Mono; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
My intent was to stay on topic, but perhaps I was not clear in my question. Let me try again:
<div><br>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt">Is Blue Sky using Blender to produce USD assets in production at the moment? And if so, can you tell us a little bit about the process.</span></div>
</div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt">I am happy to have this conversation off-list with Chris if you would prefer, Ton. I am new to this list, and there has not been a lot of traffic, so I'm just making some guesses about what would constitute on and off topic
here.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt">Thanks,</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:10pt">Mark</span></div>
<blockquote class="x_history_container" type="cite" style="border-left-style:solid; border-width:1px; margin-top:20px; margin-left:0px; padding-left:10px; min-width:500px">
<p style="color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin-top: 10px;">On 10/25/2020 9:46:33 AM, Ton Roosendaal
<a class="x_moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ton@blender.org"><ton@blender.org></a> wrote:</p>
<div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>It looks like a diverse range of companies participate in this list now. Everyone's really welcome!<br>
</p>
<p>However, I always insist on a strict policy to stay on topic on our mailing lists. We are here to discuss how to improve Blender with USD integration.<br>
</p>
<p>If you are curious to hear who's using Blender for what, please use private mails.<br>
</p>
<p>Thanks,<br>
</p>
<div class="x_moz-signature">-Ton- <br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Ton Roosendaal - <a class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ton@blender.org">
ton@blender.org</a> - <a class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.blender.org">
www.blender.org</a><br>
Chairman Blender Foundation, Director Blender Institute<br>
Buikslotermeerplein 161, 1025 ET Amsterdam, the Netherlands<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="x_moz-cite-prefix">On 25/10/2020 04:19, Mark Tucker wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" style="min-width:500px">
<div id="x___MailbirdStyleContent" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: DejaVu Sans Mono; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
Hi Chris!
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Is Blue Sky using Blender in production at the moment?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mark</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="x_history_container" type="cite" style="border-left-style:solid; border-width:1px; margin-top:20px; margin-left:0px; padding-left:10px; min-width:500px">
<p style="color: rgb(170, 170, 170); margin-top: 10px;">On 10/24/2020 9:26:47 PM, Chris Rydalch
<a class="x_moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:crydalch@gmail.com"><crydalch@gmail.com></a> wrote:</p>
<div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Hello! I'm Chris Rydalch, I'm in Production Technology at Blue Sky, helping with our new pipeline. I’m primarily involved with USD Workflows and tools, particularly Houdini; but I’m really excited to see where USD and Blender will go.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Looking forward to joining the discussions!</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Thanks!</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Chris</div>
</div>
-- Bf-usd mailing list <a class="x_moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Bf-usd@blender.org">
Bf-usd@blender.org</a> <a class="x_moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-usd">
https://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-usd</a> </div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="x_mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset> </blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="x_mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset> </blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>