openSourceVFX.org » particles

Partio

Philippe Leprince — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:08:14 +0000

Particles are an important part of effects work, because they allow free-form information in 3D space. Unfortunately, there is no standard format for particles akin to Wavefront .obj. Most animation systems have their own proprietary particle formats. For example Maya uses the binary and ascii particle database formats .pdb and .pda file formats. Houdini uses the .geo and .bgeo geometry uber formats. Renderers typically have their own point cloud format such as RenderMan’s PTC format and Houdini’s .pc. All of these formats share a common theme. They allow particles to be iterated or indexed and associate a customizable set of attributes with them. The goal of Partio is to provide a unified interface akin to unified image libraries that makes it easier to load, save, and manipulate particle files.

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

Blender

Rob Bredow — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:33:56 +0000

Blender is an integrated application that enables the creation of a broad range of 2D and 3D content. Blender provides a broad spectrum of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing functionality in one package. Through its open architecture, Blender provides cross-platform interoperability, extensibility, a small footprint, and a tightly integrated workflow.

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

GTO

Philippe Leprince — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:53:36 +0000

GTO is an open source file format designed for computer graphics. It was developed by Tweak Films to serve as the core storageformat for our geometry and rendering pipeline. GTO is used by VFX and animation facilities, post-houses, and game developers for a wide variety of applications. It’s small size and versatility make it useful for animation, modeling, particle dynamics and 3D paint. It can be used to replace file formats such as PDB/PDC, obj, and binary RIB.
At heart GTO is just a clean and optimal way of storing large, named, and organized arrays of binary data (although there is a text version of the file too). GTO naturally lends itself to a “least common denominator” role between computer graphics applications. The storage mechanism and the data layout are independent, so that the format can be easily adopted without regard to how the format is used by any particular application. The GTO library has bindings in C++ and Python making it relatively easy to develop custom tools to read, write and manipulate GTO files.

The GTO library includes the low-level reader and writer classes, a slightly higher level raw data reader/writer, and source code for a Maya scene and particle export, particle display, a Maya deformer to use GTO as a geometry cache, Houdini plug-ins, a number of command line tools, a Wavefront .obj parser (for a command line converter), and a Python module for reading and writing GTO files. The GTO reader/writer and tools have been tested thoroughly in feature film and game production on GNU/Linux and OSX as well as Windows XP, Vista, and 2000. GTO is also used as part of Tweak Software’s commercial products.

Home Page: http://www.tweakfilms.com/products/open-source-software/gto
Project Page: http://github.com/jimhourihan/gto
Language: C++
Platform: Linux, Windows, OS X, etc
License: GNU Library General Public License with exceptions for static linking.
Sponsor: Tweak Films