Awesome CG / VFX Pipeline

List of open-source technologies that will help in the process of building a pipeline for CG or VFX productions.

Any contribution is welcome!

Summary

Digital Content Creation Software (DCCs)
Libraries
- File path
- Ui
- CG Software API
- Geometry
- Colors
- Shaders
File formats
Job schedulers
Package managers
Asset managers
Production managers
Content validation
Docker images
- Misc
Plugins
IDE
- Pycharm
- SublimeText
- Vim
- VSCode
Databases
Monitoring Web Services
Communities
Resources / Tutorials
Free music for showreel
Contributors ✨

Digital Content Creation Software (DCCs)

2D

Cascade Image Editor - A node-based image editor with GPU-acceleration
Pencil2D - An easy, intuitive tool to make 2D hand-drawn animations, the best way to visualize your story
Inkscape - Professional quality vector graphics softwar
Imogen - GPU Texture generator using dear imgui for UI
Krita - A professional painting program
MyPaint - Graphics editor for digital painters with a focus on painting rather than image manipulation or post processing
Opentoonz - Animation production software
Storyboarder - Storyboard editor
Synfig - 2D animation software
TexGraph - A procedural texture creation tool that let you create textures by connecting nodes in a graph
The Gimp - A cross-platform image editor
Allusion - Allusion is a tool to help you organize your Visual Library. I'ts a complementary tool to PureRef or another Board tool, like PureRef or Kuadro - no open source software.

3D

ArmorPaint - A stand-alone software designed for physically-based texture painting
Animation Nodes - A node based visual scripting system designed for motion graphics in Blender
Blender - Modeling and animation
Dust3D - Dust3D is brand new 3D modeling software. It lets you create watertight 3D models in seconds. Use it to speed up character modeling for games, 3D printing, and so on. Source are available on Github.
FragM - Mikael Hvidtfeldt Christensen's Fragmentarium fork representing a compilation of features and fixes
glChAoS.P - RealTime 3D Strange Attractors scout on GPU
Mandelbulber v2 - Mandelbulber creatively generates three-dimensional fractals
Mandelbulb3D - A program designed for the Windows platform, for generating 3D views of different fractals
MeshLab - System for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes
Möbius Modeller - End-user visual programming in the browser for automating complex tasks
Possumwood - A graph-based procedural sandbox, implementing concepts of graph-based visual programming in a simple interface
Sorcar - A procedural modeling node-based system which utilises Blender and its Python API to create a visual programming environment for artists and developers
Tissue - Blender's add-on for computational design
VFX Fractal Toolkit - Set of tools for generating fractal and generative art
Wings 3D - An advanced subdivision modeler that is both powerful and easy to use
Gaffer - Gaffer is a great toolbox, it's a VFX application that enables look developers, lighters, and compositors to easily build, tweak, iterate, and render scenes.

3D realtime engines

Armory - 3D engine with Blender integration focused on portability, minimal footprint and performance
Babylon.js - WebGL engine
Bevy - A refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust
Godot - C++ based 2D/3D realtime engine (PC, console, mobile, HMTL5)
Filament - PBR engine
Fusee - A multiplatform 3D C# realtime engine with a strong emphasis on content transformation and manipulation
Material Maker - A procedural materials authoring tool, based on the Godot Engine
Neo Axis Engine - NeoAxis Engine is an integrated development environment with built-in 3D and 2D game engine.
Ogre - Open source graphical rendering engine
Panda3d - Python based 3d Engine (PC)
Three.js - WebGL engine
- Procedural GL JS - Based on Three.js, this framework is dedicated to generate a 3D Map experience on a web service.
Unreal Engine - C++ based 2D/3D realtime engine (PC, console, mobile, HMTL5)
Vengi - A C++ voxel game engine

Rendering Engines

AppleSeed - Physically-based global illumination rendering engine
Cycle - Physically based production renderer developed by the Blender project.
LuxCoreRender - Physically-based and unbiased rendering engine
Radeon ProRender Physically-based engine, product by AMD.

Photogrammetry

AliceVision - Photogrammetric Computer Vision Framework
COLMAP - A general-purpose Structure-from-Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS) pipeline with a graphical and command-line interface
openMVG - A library for computer-vision scientists and targeted for the Multiple View Geometry community

Photography

Darktable - Photography workflow application and raw developer
dcraw - A tool that decodes any raw image from any digital camera on any computer running any operating system

Video

CasparCG - A Windows and Linux software used to play out professional graphics, audio and video to multiple outputs as a layerbased real-time compositor
DJV - Professional review software for VFX, animation, and film production
ffmpeg - A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video
qctools - A free and open source software tool that helps users analyze and understand their digitized video files through use of audiovisual analytics and filtering
GStreamer - Pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows
Kdenlive - Video editing software based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt
Olive - Non-linear video editor aiming to provide a fully-featured alternative to high-end professional video editing software
MediaPipe - Cross-platform, customizable ML solutions for live and streaming media
Natron - Open Source Compositing Software For VFX and Motion Graphics
Shotcut - A free, open source, cross-platform video editor

UV/Unwrap library

Thekla atlas | This tool performs mesh segmentation, surface parameterization, and chart packing.
xatlas | Fork from theakla atlas, it's a library to generate an UV for -example- lightmap uv.

Tools

A set of small tools, DCC addons, python library... to complete or add feature on DCC softwares.

Capsule - Blender addon to export, manage and automate to shared between blender and Unreal/Unity or other realtime engine.
Genetic Drawing - Python library to generate a stylised rendering from an image
Glsl Texture - Create textures from Glsl fragment shaders on Blender (2.8)
OD CopyPasteExternal - Tool to easily copy/paste a geometry across 3D application like Blender <> 3DS Max <> Maya <> ... <> and more.
UE4 Env. project - An Environment Simulation project for Unreal Engine 4.

Libraries

File path

Clique - Another Python module for file sequence parsing and formatting
Fileseq - Frame ranges and file sequences parsing
gofileseq - A Golang port of the library above
Lucidity - String/filepath templates system inspired by SGTK's template mechanisms
pyseq - Another Python module for file sequence parsing and serialization

UI

NodeGraphQt - Node graph for Qt
Nodz - Node generator for Qt
Qt.py - Qt versions abstraction
QtWebengine - Render web content in Qt
SceneGraph - Ui for scene graph
Riffle - A filesystem browser for PySide supporting sequences grouping
Thonside - Python console for Qt apps

CG Software API

CGCmake - CMake modules for CG apps
Cortex - Libraries for VFX software development
Cross3D - Scene and node management abstraction
ExoCortex for Max 2018 - ExoCortex ported to Max 2018
mGui - Portable pure-python GUI library for Maya
minq - Maya query language for speeding up common scene operations
NXT - A layered code compositing application
OpenWalter - USD Plugins Arnold, Houdini, Katana, Maya and USD
Photoshop Python API - Python API for Photoshop.
Py3dsMax - 3dsMax API in Python
Pymiere - Python API for Premiere Pro
PyMEL - Python in Maya Done Right

Geometry

Blender Addons - Helpers for Blender
BlenderGIS - Geo data importer
CvWrap - Fast Maya wrap deformer
CGAL - A software project that provides easy access to efficient and reliable geometric algorithms in the form of a C++ library
Dem Bones - A library for skinning decomposition
Eigen - A C++ template library for linear algebra: matrices, vectors, numerical solvers, and related algorithms
MakeHuman - Parametric human character modeling
Open3D - A Modern Library for 3D Data Processing
QHull - Convex hull generator
libigl - A simple C++ geometry processing library
Instant Meshes - Remesher
mmg - mmg is an open source software for bidimensional and tridimensional surface and volume remeshing
Rigify - Auto-rigging Addon for Blender
PCL - A standalone, large scale, open project for 2D/3D image and point cloud processing
Partio - A unified interface that makes it easier to load, save, and manipulate particle files
OpenSubdiv - A set of open source libraries that implement high performance subdivision surface evaluation on massively parallel CPU and GPU architectures
Optimesh - Python library to optimise a triangular mesh, remesh with various
Quadriflow - Convert a mesh to a quadrangulation algorithms
Simplex - Blendshape Solver
SOFA - An efficient framework dedicated to research, prototyping and development of physics-based simulations

Colors

Colour - An open-source Python package providing a comprehensive number of algorithms and datasets for colour science
OpenColorIO (repo) - Unified color environment, a complete color management solution geared towards motion picture production with an emphasis on visual effects and computer animation

Shaders

BRDF Explorer - The Disney BRDF Explorer is an application that allows the development and analysis of bidirectional reflectance distribution functions
OSL - Language to manipulate shaders
Ptex - A texture mapping system developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios for production-quality rendering
SeExpr - An embeddable, arithmetic expression language that enables flexible artistic control and customization in creating computer graphics images

File formats

AL_USDMaya - Represent Maya data in Maya, and USD data in USD
Alembic - Animations
Assimp - A portable Open-Source library to import various well-known 3D model formats in a uniform manner
ACES - Color management
Cryptomatte - Accurate object ID mattes
Field3D - An open source library for storing voxel data
luma_usd - Plugins for USD
MaterialX - Materials and look-dev
Kiko - DCC-agnostic animation curves storage (works between Maya and Nuke, with more DCCs to come)
OpenCV - An open source computer vision and machine learning software library
OpenDCX (repo) - C++ extensions for OpenEXR's "deep" file format
OpenEXR (repo) - exceptional image format for visual effects purposes, pioneered by ILM
OpenEXRid - Object isolation
OpenImageIO - A library for reading and writing images in many common and VFX related formats
OpenTimelineIO (repo) - Editorial timeline
OpenVDB (repo) - Volumetric data
OpenVDB AX - Fast expression language for manipulating OpenVDB files
ImageMagick - Use ImageMagick to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images
pfstools - A set of command line programs for reading, writing and manipulating high-dynamic range (HDR) images and video frames
texture-synthesis - Example-based texture synthesis written in Rust
USD - Scenes
usd-arnold - USD Schemas and tools for exchanging Arnold shader information between multiple 3rd party packages
USD Manager - Program designed for lightweight browsing, managing, and editing of Universal Scene Description (USD) files
usd-noodle - Pretty node graph showing dependencies of a USD file
UsdQt - Qt components for building custom USD tools
USD-URI-resolver - A generic, URI based resolver for USD, support custom plugins

Job schedulers

Coalition from Mercenaries Engineering (developers of Guerilla Render)
CGRU is a CG tools pack that includes AFANASY, a free opensource render farm manager
OpenCue (repo) An open source render management system from Sony Imageworks
Flamenco from the Blender Foundation
Pandora Open-Source Renderfarm-Manager
Plow by Chad Vernon

Package managers

conda
Ecosystem
qip - Quarantined Installer for Python
Rez
Rez Packages
wiz

Environment Manager

Allzpark Based on Rez manager, Allzpark can manage your software to give an specific software, really usefull with old project.

Asset managers

Production managers

Attract - Production tracking for film makers (Blender Foundation)
Kitsu - For small to mid-size studios

Content validation

Pyblish - A Python framework that brings test-driven development to visual effects and triple-A game creation
- Blender Pyblish - Blender Addon to integrate the Pyblish framework

Docker images

Animal Logic's USD Docker - A set of docker build scripts which will download all the Open Source packages required to build Pixar's Universal Scene Description, as well as USD itself
Deadline - Docker images for Thinkbox Software Deadline
Foundry RLM
Kitsu/Zou
Maya

Misc

Jean-Paul Start - Small (with Ansible-like syntax) launcher with GUI
WSL Distribution Switcher - Change the distro behind Windows Subsystem

Plugins

AFX - Everyday compositing for Nuke
Cmt - Various Maya tools
FTrack Hooks Set of plugins for FTrack
OnionSkinRenderer - Onion Skin Renderer for Maya
Palladio - CityEngine Plugin for Houdini
Wiretap - Manage Flame Wiretap database

IDE

PyCharm

MayaCharm - Run and edit Maya scripts directly from PyCharm
USD - Plug-in for USD

SublimeText

MariSublime - Run and edit Mari scripts directly from SublimeText
MayaSublime - Run and edit Maya scripts directly from SublimeText
VEX - Houdini add-on for Sublime Text

vim

nuke.vim - Run and edit Nuke scripts directly from vim

VSCode

blender_vscode - Visual Studio Code extension for Blender development
Blink Script (Nuke) Language Syntax (repo) - for syntax highlighting support
MayaCode (repo) - Maya syntax highlighting support, along with autocomplete commands and send code to maya via command port
MayaPort (repo) - Run Maya code from VSCode
MEL Language Syntax (repo) - for syntax highlighting support
Pixar USD ASCII Language Syntax (repo) - for syntax highlighting support, courtesy of the folks at Animal Logic
SendtoMaya - Alternative to MayaPort, serving the same purpose
VEX Language Syntax (repo) - for syntax highlighting support

Databases

Graph

Relational

Document-based

Monitoring Web Services

Not really efficient, you can find more links on the sys admin awesome list ; on monitoring or metric collection

Communities

Resources / Tutorials

cgwiki
Beginning Python For Maya
Blue Sky Studios Tech Blog
Digital Video Introduction
Example of Python scripts for 3D Studio Max, Maya and Blender
Les Fées Spéciales Studio Tech Blog
Pipeline Patterns
Unit Testing in Maya
VFX good night reading - Curated collection of good reading about VFX and CG

Free music for showreel

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

_{Frank Rousseau} 🖋	_Hal 🖋	_{Alan Fregtman} 🖋	_{Nikita Musatov} 🖋	_{sreenivas alapati} 🖋	_Stilobique 🖋	_bob-white 🖋
_{Vincent Lamy} 🖋	_{Steve Theodore} 🖋	_{Cube Creative} 🖋	_{Toke Jepsen} 🖋	_{Santosh Kumar} 🖋	_{Alex Miarsky} 🖋	_{Justin Tennant} 🖋
_{Juraj Tomori} 🖋	_{Kuntal Majumder} 🖋	_{Jean-Francois Panisset} 🖋	_{Jesse Spielman} 🖋	_Corentin 🖋	_{Savio Fernandes} 🖋	_{Anvith Shivakumara} 🖋
_{Antoine Boellinger} 🖋	_{Mathieu Bouzard} 🖋