DNEG Releases Open-Source Media Playback And Review Application Xstudio

Vfx and animation giant DNEG has released the open-source beta version of its Xstudio software through the Academy Software Foundation’s Github repository.

Here’s what the software can do and why it may be significant to many studios:

• Xstudio is DNEG’s new cross-platform media-viewer, that the company designed to replace other playback and review tools in their production pipeline. The software was designed to promote simpler collaboration between teams by offering a single, flexible, generalized toolset across all review scenarios. Though the software is not necessarily intended as a replacement for other commercial software, it does have some overlapping features with software such as Ftrack’s Cinesync, Autodesk’s Shotgrid, and Unity’s Syncsketch.
• Xstudio can be integrated into any pipeline via plugins and the Python API. The application features a pipeline-agnostic core application, while also providing a full Python API, C++ plugin framework, and extensive use of open-source libraries to allow contributors full control of its integration into their pipelines.
• Xstudio is hosted and managed by the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) as part of the Open Review Initiative, an umbrella project working to build a unified open-source toolset for playback, review, and approval of film and related professional media.
• As an open-source project, Xstudio will be managed by a Technical Steering Committee (TSC) chaired by DNEG and populated by engineers and contributors from across the industry. The project will operate under the oversight of the Open Review Initiative alongside Open RV, recently contributed by Autodesk, and Itview, which will be released by Sony Pictures Imageworks in the coming months.
• Software engineers, developers, and users interested in contributing to the project and the community can join an ASWF Open Review Initiative Slack channel here and sign up for the Open Review Initiative mailing list here.
• The open-source beta version of Xstudio is available now here, and more information can be found here.
• DNEG creative director Chas Jarrett said in a release: “From its conception, Xstudio was designed to allow everyone working in the media creation industries to collaborate seamlessly. Vfx supervisors, artists, directors, DoPs, studio executives, producers – we all look at images every day in many different ways. Xstudio gives us a common industry toolset for organizing and displaying all types of media, annotating and editing them, and then securely sharing the results with each other, on our laptops, in screening rooms, or over the internet.”
• Paul Salvini, DNEG global chief technology officer, added: “In launching Xstudio as an open-source project, we hope that it will become a useful and standard tool in our industry. We encourage our clients, industry colleagues, and partners to use and develop Xstudio so we can all benefit as a community.”