History

At Disney there have been various expression languages. SeExpr started as a language for our procedural geometry instancing tool, XGen. Work was done to generalize it into something that could be used in other contexts. Later it was integrated into paint3d, our texture painting facility, which opened the door to procedural synthesis. More recently, we have integrated it as a way of defining procedural controls to physical dynamical simulations and render time particle instancing.

Expressions can be seen as a way of allowing customization of inner loops. This is contrast to scripting which is mostly aimed at gluing large parts of code base together. So in this sense, C++ forms the center of your application, python could be used to put pieces of it together, and SeExpr is used to customize tight inner loops.

Major Features

• Arithmetic expression of scalar/vector types
• Large library of builtin functions
• Extensible variables and functions (including with DSOs)
• Simple to embed in any program

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

OpenColorIO has been used on dozens of feature films including Alice in Wonderland, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, Spiderman(s), Surf’s Up, and Watchmen.

Home Page: http://opencolorio.org/
Project Page: https://github.com/imageworks/OpenColorIO
Language: C++, Python
Platform: Linux, OSX, Windows
License: Open BSD
Sponsor: Sony Pictures Imageworks

Home Page: http://kickstand.tv/openpipeline/openpipeline-information/
Project Page: http://openpipeline.cc/
Language: MEL
Platform: Linux, Windows, OS X
License: Common Public License 1.0

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