Alembic is focused on efficiently storing the computed results of complex procedural geometric constructions. It is very specifically NOT concerned with storing the complex dependency graph of procedural tools used to create the computed results. For example, Alembic will efficiently store the animated vertex positions and animated transforms that result from an arbitrarily complex animation and simulation process which could involve enveloping, corrective shapes, volume-preserving simulations, cloth and flesh simulations, and so on. Alembic will not attempt to store a representation of the network of computations (rigs, basically) which are required to produce the final, animated vertex positions and animated transforms.

The production ready version of Alembic 1.0 was announced at Siggraph 2011 and released on August 9th, 2011 by Lucasfilm and Sony Pictures Imageworks with support from major vendors including Autodesk, Side Effects Software, The Foundry, Luxology, Pixar’s Renderman and NVidia.

Home Page: http://alembic.io/
Project Page: http://code.google.com/p/alembic/
Language: C++, Python
Platform: Linux, OSX, Windows
License: New BSD License
Sponsor: Sony Pictures Imageworks, Lucasfilm

Home Page: http://www.disneyanimation.com/technology/partio.html
Project Page: https://github.com/wdas/partio
Language: C++ Python
Platform: Linux, OSX, Windows
License: New BSD
Sponsor: Walt Disney Animation Studios

At the moment this project features the following shaders:

• Jupiter SGI Skin

Jupiter Spherical Gradient Illumination Skin is a 3Delight RenderMan shader that reads scanned RGB world space normal maps for 3 different wavelengths (red, green, blue), and a fourth normal map to be used in the specular term.

This technique, presented at:

http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/FaceScanning/

allows the user to re-create the appear of the subtle subsurface effects of skin, together with self-shadowing and inter-reflections.

Once the texture are acquired:

• The three normal maps for the Lambertian diffuse term contain increasing detail as the light wavelength decreases.
• The normal map for the blue wavelength contains more detail than the normal map for the green wavelength, which in turn contains more detail than the red wavelength map.
• The specular normal map is used to drive the specular contribution (and the reflections), with the specular term being comprised of two specular lobes based on the Torrance-Sparrow model.

The user has the possibility of selecting between two microfacet distribution functions used:

• the Beckmann microfacet distribution, as suggested in the publication by Robert L. Cook and Kenneth E. Torrance, “A reflectance model for computer graphics”

• a Gaussian distribution, which is cheaper to compute and produces slightly softer results.

The weight of each of the specular lobe’s contribution can also be controlled directly by the user, or it can be made automatically via the extracted data in the specular intensity image.

Notice also that this shader provides optionally a full two pass (point cloud based)subsurface term as well for greater flexibility.

This work has been sponsored by Srinivas M. Mohan (Indian Artists Computer Graphics Pvt. Ltd.) for the movie *Endhiran*, and it is based on:

• “Rapid Acquisition of Specular and Diffuse Normal Maps from Polarized Spherical Gradient Illumination”.
 By Wan Chun Ma, Tim Hawkins, Pieter Peers, Charles-Felix Chabert, Malte Weiss, Paul Debevec. 
University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies.
 Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2007.
• “Estimating Specular Roughness and Anisotropy from Second Order Spherical Gradient Illumination”.
 By Abhijeet Ghosh , Tongbo Chen, Pieters Peers, Cyrus A. Wilson, Paul Debevec.
 University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies.
 Eurographics Symposium on Rendering 2009.

Project Page: http://code.google.com/p/jupiterskin/
Language: Renderman Shading Language
Platform: Linux, OSX, Windows
License: New BSD License
Sponsor: Jupiter Jazz

It contains several C++ classes from simple string operations down to complex geometric operations. Essence can give you a boost when developing, by providing all of the basic framework you need.

Home Page: http://opensource.studionestbarcelona.com/studio_NEST/essence.html
Project Page: http://github.com/studioNEST/Essence
Language: C++
Platform: Windows, Linux
License: LGPL v3
Sponsor: StudioNest

Home Page: http://opensource.studionestbarcelona.com/studio_NEST/melena.html
Project Page: http://github.com/studioNEST/Melena
Language: C++
Platform: Windows, Linux
License: LGPL v3
Sponsor: StudioNest

Momentum allows you to do very precise rigid body dynamics with high performance including full control over the simulation using the ICE framework.

Home Page: http://opensource.studionestbarcelona.com/studio_NEST/momentum.html
Project Page: http://github.com/studioNEST/Momentum
Language: C++
Platform: Windows, Linux
License: LGPL v3
Sponsor: StudioNest

Home Page: http://opensource.studionestbarcelona.com/studio_NEST/kratos.html
Project Page: http://github.com/studioNEST/Kratos
Language: C++
Platform: Windows, Linux
License: LGPL v3
Sponsor: StudioNest

With StudioNEST Brigks you can build very efficient rigs that don’t require to setup overly complex object hierarchies. Since the source code of the kinematics solvers is provided, implementations of matching kinematic solvers can be achieved for other packages as well as standalone applications.

Home Page: http://opensource.studionestbarcelona.com/studio_NEST/briqks.html
Project Page: http://github.com/studioNEST/Brigks
Language: C++
Platform: Windows, Linux
License: LGPL V3
Sponsor: StudioNest

The Aqsis tools provide a comprehensive list of features that are considered necessary for production use, the following list details some of the important high level capabilities.

• Programmable Shading
• High Level Primitive Support
• Sub-Pixel Displacement
• Motion Blur (MB)
• Depth of Field (DoF)
• Shadow Mapped Ambient Occlusion
• Arbitrary Output Variables (AOV)
• Subdivision Surfaces (SDS)
• High quality texture mapping
• Level of Detail (LOD)
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Output
• Extensible through plugins (DSO/Procedurals)

Home Page: http://www.aqsis.org/
Project Page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/aqsis/
Language: C++
Platform: Linux, Windows, OS X
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

Aimed world-wide at media professionals and artists, Blender can be used to create 3D visualizations, stills as well as broadcast and cinema quality videos, while the incorporation of a real-time 3D engine allows for the creation of 3D interactive content for stand-alone playback.

Originally developed by the company ‘Not a Number’ (NaN), Blender now is continued as ‘Free Software’, with the source code available under the GNU GPL license. It now continues development by the Blender Foundation in the Netherlands.

Key Features include:

• Fully integrated creation suite, offering a broad range of essential tools for the creation of 3D content, including modeling, uv-mapping, texturing, rigging, skinning, animation, particle and other simulation, scripting, rendering, compositing, post-production, and game creation
• High quality 3D architecture enabling fast and efficient creation work-flow
• User community support by forums for questions, answers, and critique at http://BlenderArtists.org and news services at http://BlenderNation.com
• Small executable size, easy distribution

Home Page: http://www.blender.org/
Project Page: http://www.blender.org/development/
Language: C, Python
Platform: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD 5.4 (i386), Sun Solaris 2.8 (sparc)
License: GNU GPL