From Origins To Open Source: The Journey of DreamWorks Animation's Production Path T...
summary
MoonRay is an open-source production path tracer that the studio uses on feature films (How to Train Your Dragon, Puss in Boots, The Wild Robot, Bad Guys 2). It integrates Embree, OpenImageIO, OpenEXR, OpenUSD/Hydra, OpenVDB, OpenColorIO and OpenSubdiv, builds with CMake, runs distributed on Aerys and scales to 96× linear speedup in tests. Notable numbers: ~4,000 beta signups, 100k+ rig control points, a 720‑core mocap render at ~24 fps, launched publicly 2023 with quarterly updates.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Moonray introduction
- 1:02What is ray tracing
- 6:37Moonray production renderer
- 9:26Moonray architecture and components
- 11:57Vectorization and threading
- 14:51AIS and distributed rendering
- 16:16Hydra render delegate
- 17:58Artistic features
- 19:51Early milestones: Orchid to Nova
- 23:29Convincing DreamWorks executives
- 26:00Production challenges
- 27:51Testing with Billby short
- 28:11Open sourcing timeline
- 31:03Post-open-source updates
- 33:12Why open source Moonray
- 34:35Moonray beyond films
- 37:24Key lessons learned
- 40:16Philosophy behind sharing
- 42:24Closing remarks
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