2025-07-09 TAC meeting notes (#1101)

Signed-off-by: Jean-Francois Panisset <[email protected]>

Author: jfpanisset

meetings/2025-07-09/2025-07-09.md

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+parent: Meetings
+title: "2025-07-09"
+---
+
+# Academy Software Foundation Technical Advisory Council (TAC) Meeting - July  9, 2025
+
+Join the meeting at [https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meeting/97880950229?password=81d2940e-c055-43b9-9b5a-6cd7d7090feb](https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meeting/97880950229?password=81d2940e-c055-43b9-9b5a-6cd7d7090feb)
+
+## Voting Representative Attendees
+
+### Premier Member Representatives
+
+- [x] Andy Jones - Netflix, Inc.
+- [ ] Chris Hall - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
+- [x] Eric Enderton - NVIDIA Corporation
+- [ ] Erik Niemeyer - Intel Corporation
+- [ ] Gordon Bradley - Autodesk
+- [ ] Greg Denton - Microsoft Corporation
+- [ ] Jean-Michel Dignard - Epic Games, Inc
+- [ ] Kimball Thurston - Wētā FX Limited
+- [x] Larry Gritz - Sony Pictures Imageworks
+- [x] Matthew Low - DreamWorks Animation
+- [ ] Michael Min - Adobe Inc.
+- [x] Michael B. Johnson - Apple Inc.
+- [x] Rebecca Bever - Walt Disney Animation Studios
+- [ ] Ross Dickson - Amazon Web Services, Inc.
+- [x] Scott Dyer - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
+- [ ] Youngkwon Lim - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
+
+### Project Representatives
+
+- [x] Carol Payne - Diversity & Inclusion Working Group Representative, OpenColorIO Representative
+- [x] Cary Phillips - OpenEXR Representative
+- [ ] Chris Kulla - Open Shading Language Representative
+- [ ] Diego Tavares Da Silva - OpenCue Representative
+- [x] Jonathan Stone - MaterialX Representative
+- [x] Ken Museth - OpenVDB Representative
+- [x] Nick Porcino - Universal Scene Description Working Group Representative
+- [x] Rachel Rose - Diversity & Inclusion Working Group Representative
+
+### Industry Representatives
+
+- [x] Jean-Francois Panisset - Visual Effects Society
+
+## Non-Voting Attendees
+
+### Non-Voting Project and Working Group Representatives
+
+- [x] Alexander Schwank - Universal Scene Description Working Group Representative
+- [x] Anton Dukhovnikov - rawtoaces Representative
+- [x] Daniel Greenstein - OpenImageIO Representative
+- [ ] Daryll Strauss - Zero Trust Working Group Representative
+- [ ] David Feltell - OpenAssetIO Representative
+- [ ] Eric Reinecke - OpenTimelineIO Representative
+- [ ] Erik Strauss - Open Review Initiative Representative
+- [x] Gary Oberbrunner - OpenFX Representative
+- [ ] Jean-Christophe Morin - Rez Representative
+- [x] Stephen Mackenzie - Rez Representative
+
+### LF Staff
+
+- [x] David Morin - Academy Software Foundation
+- [ ] Emily Olin - Academy Software Foundation
+- [x] John Mertic - The Linux Foundation
+- [x] Michelle Roth - The Linux Foundation
+- [ ] Yarille Ortiz - The Linux Foundation
+
+### Other
+
+- Lorna Dumba - Framestore
+- Lee Kerley - Apple
+- Mark Jackets - Dreamworks
+- Doug Walker - Autodesk / OCIO
+- Randy Packer
+- Alex Forsythe - Academy / ACES
+- Jim Helman - MovieLabs / Zero Trust WG
+- JT Nelson - Pasadena Open Source consortium / SoCal Blender group
+- Karen Ruggles - DeSales University / D&I WG
+- Olga Avramenko - Sony Imageworks
+- Juan Buhler - Imageworks
+
+## Antitrust Policy Notice
+
+Linux Foundation meetings involve participation by industry competitors, and it
+is the intention of the Linux Foundation to conduct all of its activities in
+accordance with applicable antitrust and competition laws. It is therefore
+extremely important that attendees adhere to meeting agendas, and be aware of,
+and not participate in, any activities that are prohibited under applicable US
+state, federal or foreign antitrust and competition laws.
+
+Examples of types of actions that are prohibited at Linux Foundation meetings
+and in connection with Linux Foundation activities are described in the Linux
+Foundation Antitrust Policy available at
+[linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/antitrust-policy).
+If you have questions about these matters, please contact your company counsel,
+or if you are a member of the Linux Foundation, feel free to contact Andrew
+Updegrove of the firm of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, which provides legal counsel to
+the Linux Foundation.
+
+## Agenda
+
+- General Updates
+  - Open Source Days 2025 [#1005](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1005)
+- New Project/Working Group Proposal: RMTC (Rongotai Model Train Club) [#1075](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1075)
+- New Project/Working Group Proposal: Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) [#1091](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1091)
+- Annual Review: USD Working Group [#518](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/518)
+- Dev Days recap May 15, 2025 [#1070](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1070)
+
+## Notes
+
+- General Updates
+  - Open Source Days 2025 [#1005](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1005)
+  - David: schedule is up with most of the presentations, a great program. Emily is on vacation, are there any questions / pending items? Virtual town halls all lined up?
+  - [Registration Link](https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-days/regi)
+- New Project/Working Group Proposal: RMTC (Rongotai Model Train Club) [#1075](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1075)
+  - Larry: do we have a representative from RMTC? Anyone from WETA?
+  - Let's move to next item in case someone shows up.
+  - Larry wanted to allow company experts in ML to comment. Being proposed as sandbox prooject, coming in sponsored by a well known member company we have a lot of trust in. Do people feel like they need more time?
+  - JF: how does this interact with ML WG? Larry: explicitly came in under WG, analogy to ORI is apt. ML WG doesn't really run those other projects, but coordinates between various ML efforts and projects to spin off, the more mature they are, the less they need to be under ML WG. Both are brand new sandbox projects.
+  - John: LFX vote coming after the call.
+- New Project/Working Group Proposal: Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) [#1091](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1091)
+  - Alex Forsythe presenting
+  - New ASWF Project Proposal: ACES
+    - Propose to move ACES to ASWF
+    - Short history
+      - Grew out of Academy investigation around a lack of digital filmaking best practices and standards circa 2005
+      - Convened many dozen of industry's top engineers, color scientists, researchers, creative technologies, VFX and post experts, and filmmakers
+      - Framework for a solution proposed by Ed Giorgianni (Sr Research Fellow, Kodak, retired) in 2006
+      - Tested various beta versions with filmmakers and productions before releasing ACES 1.0 in dec 2014
+      - Post 1.0 launch: focussed on filmmaker education, encouraged high quality implementations, collected feedback, refined the system, international standards where appropriate, added new transforms
+      - Released ACES 2.0 in 2025 - new output transforms based on a unified model
+      - 10 years is a long time between major releases! It's a balance. ACES provides a reference implementation, then vendors re-implement in their specific products to support their customers. It's about standards and best practices, walk the line between updating software yet providing a stable platform. Carol led group on Gamut Compression.
+    - Why move to the ASWF?
+      - Ensuring long term stability
+        - Transition ACES into ASWF's open development model, built on transparent governance, shared infrastructure, and collaborative engineering practicesn
+      - Fresh momentum through open development
+      - Expanded community participation
+      - Aligned with ASWF ecosystem
+        - OCIO is an enabler, allows us to get into wide variety of platforms with minimum of work. Can use OCIO to implement ACES
+        - EXR is major file format
+      - Shared stewardship
+        - Combine ASWF's strength in managing open-source projects with the Academy's...
+    - Transition Plan Overview
+      - New ACES TSC at ASWF
+        - A new TSC, chaired by SCott Dyer, will include key members of the current ACES leadership, providing continuity and historical context, with new voices from ASWF community who can bring experience in open-source development and governance.
+      - Ongoing Academy Support
+        - The Academy continues to provide support on standards, ACES branding, engagement with the creative stakeholder, and operates ACESCentral as the filmmaker community hub
+      - Infrastructure Migration
+        - Code, documentation and development infrastructure move to ASWF systems, adopting their tooling, workflows, and release process.
+      - Joint Communication and Outreach
+    - ACES Top Priorities under ASWF
+      - Expanded documentation, user guides, and reference implementation specs
+      - Stronger unit testing and continuous integration infrastructure
+      - Development of enabling tools to support adoption and integration
+  - Q&A
+    - Eric: who owns ACES now? Alex: project under Academy, has its own license, planning to move to Apache 2.0, current license is MIT-ish in its structure, very permissive, some language about "no endorsement from Academy". Eric: under Sci-Tech council? Alex: yes work fostered under Sci-Tech.
+    - Doug: there's already success stories between ASWF and ACES: OCIO, DPEL (StEM v2). I see why this makes sense. Original motivation was related to archiving, people were concerned about archiving digital movies. A key deliverable is standards to preserve creative intent. This is outside normal ASWF concern. How do we ensure that archiving remains a concern under ASWF? Alex: relationship with existing group, and Academy still engaged with this project, but in a different form. Standards piece is a big piece of it, and will continue to develop standards for those goals, in ISO and SMPTE, and will adopt new standards. Also a digital preservation project at Academy (picture and sound), Doug: will standards efforts still exist within Academy rather than under ACES project? Alex: there will be a close relationship, Academy is good at ushering documents through standards process, anything we can do to advance the goals of ACES, the Academy will continue to want to do.
+    - Carol: an opportunity for ACES to benefit from joining ASWF, but also ASWF can benefit as well. As an open source foundation there are things we don't currently do, but we would get access to people who have experience (like driving the standards process). The Academy "isn't going anywhere". Alex: an opportunity for Academy to advance ACES and to benefit the ASWF. There are certain things the ASWF is very good at, we want to take advantage of these for this project, but ASWF can learn from what ACES has done well, and communities ACES has built.
+    - Larry: in ASWF the projects are very animation / VFX centric, but not a goal of the foundation. Helps to broaden our reach into broader film applications, this will be good for ASWF. Can you explain what you are bringing in code wise, and what you see developing going forward? Alex: we have a reference implementation, broken up into separate repos in 2.0, language is CTL (Color Transform Language). These would come over. We have input transforms, output transforms, look transforms. Using mkdocs for documentation generated from Markdown. Some ancillary tools, some are specifications like AMF (ACES Metadata File), an XML that allows you to describe a pipeline used to generate a set of images. People are building automated production that generates or reads AMF and processes images based on those files. Also an IDT generator for cameras we don't have a full characterization of. A lot of opportunities to build this toolset, like AMF tools others are building. Get closer to production and make integrations smoother.
+    - JF are these tools used in production and do you want binary releases? Alex: yes they are, although tools can use improvement. Have worked with partners like Netflix to rebuild these tools to rebuild them in a way that's more amenable to production workflows. We're trying to make these tools production oriented.
+    - Eric: looking at the website (gorgeous!), the software side I'm not worried that ASWF can manage, but what about marketing program, logo program, vendor list. Looks like this is done by Academy Staff? Alex: ACES may be different than OpenEXR / OpenVDB, primarily a best practices and standards project with some software to enable it, Academy feels we need to be engaged with ASWF to bring what it is good at, Academy will continue to engage with the community? Eric: would we have access to Academy resources for logo program et al? Alex: yes, our contractor (Steve...) should continue to serve in his role.
+    - John: would TAC do a vote? Do a LFX vote? Larry: is there anyone who feels there are burning questions? This is the right time.
+    - Larry: have talked to people around my company, answers were either "yes please" or "it wasn't already the case?". Eric: I'm asking about funding but have high confidence it will get sorted out. There's good expertise in the foundation that can help. Alex: your questions make a lot of sense, who is the Academy involvement structured. We feel like we have good answers.
+- Annual Review: USD Working Group [#518](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/518)
+  - Alexander Schwank / Nick Porcino: USDWG TAC Review
+  - [Presentation Slide Deck](./ASWF_USDWG_TAC_Review2025.pdf)
+    - What is USDWG?
+      - Primary USD community place
+      - Raise ASWF + M&E community issues
+      - Showcase community contributions and work
+      - Highlight OpenUSD-proposals of note to ASWF
+      - Educate on topics around USD
+      - Working groups have defined work products
+    - 1 TAC Vote
+      - USDWG is now a long-term working group!
+      - Thanks to TAC for trusting us
+      - Trust in the community we are building
+    - New Logo!
+      - Tesseract with USD colors, smiley face, represents our community
+      - Use as a language for sub working groups: assets, camera, games, materials, web
+    - 1260 members on Slack
+    - Growth
+      - USDWG continues to grow membership
+      - 200 new members since 2024 TAC review
+      - New members are a diverse mix of ASWF members and non-members
+      - Not just from the "usual suspect" companies
+    - 90+
+      - 90+ meetings per year
+    - SWG work products
+      - Assets
+      - Camera: established as a cross body meeting place for camera standardization (VES, ASC, ASWF, SMPTE)
+      - Games: driving adoption in games industry
+      - MaterialX: glue between MaterialX project and AOUSD Materials WG.
+      - Web: matured to fully transition to AOUSD. Getting USD into web standards.
+    - 48 Presentations
+      - Just in the main group
+      - Keep spreadsheet of presentations, have presenters from many different orgs
+      - Nick: cooperation from students for this spreadsheet effort. Callout to our members and D&I group, looking for someone to edit, we had backlog of presentation recordings. Within 24h we had 5 volunteers from D&I group which came from SLP, helping us get through videos, editing them.
+    - 15 proposals
+      - USD profiles
+      - OpenExec
+      - Alternate implementations of libwork
+      - LODs
+      - Physical Lighting
+    - 5+ ASWF Collaborations
+      - OCIO + CIF: color management in OpenUSD
+      - MaterialX: shipped 1.39
+      - CI: learn from CI work
+      - D&I: promote D&I
+      - DPEL: close collaboration with Asset SWG
+      - {add more here} <- ask for TAC, we want more! Anyone interested in closer relationship with USD WG, let us know
+    - 1 Community Production
+      - Collective Project 001
+      - Came out of Assets WG
+      - Putting together a proper shot, full USD pipeline, collaboration with o3de project (robot asset)
+      - Trying to show project at SIGGRAPH
+      - Explore a full USD pipeline
+    - 16 bake-off entries
+      - Virtual pastries
+        - entries from very various sources
+        - Someone from Sweden, Japan, India...
+    - Q&A
+      - Carol: I always look to USD WG as inspiration, an amazing model you have developed
+      - Nick: thanks to all our sub WG leaders, they keep the efforts going
+      - Alex: same to whole community. Nick: every group has unique leadership
+      - John: we will send LFX voting, any concerns?
+- Dev Days recap May 15, 2025 [#1070](https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/tac/issues/1070)
+  - John / Carol: let's bump this to next meeting.
+  - John: OpenFX review at next meeting, and maybe another project proposal. Gary: we'll be there!