News Stories

ICYMI: ETC Examines Realities of Multiverse at Digital Town Square

4.13.2022

“Preparing for the Multiverse” was the subject of ETC@USC’s latest virtual Digital Town Square half-day event (February 16th, 1:30pm – 4:45pm). As the culture, art and commerce spaces rebalance to incorporate blended physical and virtual options, it is clearly important that we understand early on how changes will impact our business and creative endeavors. Making up the list of speakers were Eric Holdener, Founder & CEO, and Rachel Joy Victor, Director of Strategic Insight & User Experience at Kinestry, an Innovation Studio; Edward Saatchi, Founder of Fable Studio and Organizer of The Culture DAO; Krista Kim, Founder of the Techism movement, contemporary artist, and Mettaverse world builder; Caitlin Burns, Director of Story at Palm NFT Studio; and Catherine D Henry, SVP Growth: Metaverse & Innovation Strategy at Media.Monks.  Phil Lelyveld, Director of ETC’s Immersive Media Experience project moderated.  Our speakers spend their days thinking about how the emerging metaverses will impact creativity, business development and the fabric of society. We chose the word “multiverse” because we expect many metaverses to develop and compete — some designed top-down by multinational corporations and others developed bottom-up by DAO communities.  The program and recorded sessions are available at ETCentric.org/multiverse

ETC Releases Its Latest Archive Working Group White Paper

4.13.2022

ETC@USC’s Archive Working Group, a committee within its Adaptive and Virtual Production project, is releasing its most recent white paper, “Practical Cloud Archive,” an ongoing exploration of digital asset preservation challenges, proposing “a number of avenues to introduce cloud storage and cloud technology as part of an overall archive solution, without compromising the basic tenets of preservation.” Led by co-chair, Denis Leconte, VP of technology at Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, the paper is the next step toward the continuing process to study “more precise experimental data on cloud storage characteristics in terms of durability as measured using the fixity process” as discussed in the previous white paper, “Guideline for the Preservation of Digital Audio-Visual Assets in the Cloud.”  Erik Weaver, director of ETC’s Adaptive and Virtual Production project, is also co-chairs this working group. Go here for a copy of the Practical Cloud Archive white paper.

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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