Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1144162
48 cgw s u m m e r 2 0 1 9 I n July 2017, Lucasfilm launched an open standard and codebase called Mate- rialX, the third open-source project in its history. MaterialX is used to represent rich material and look-development content in computer graphics. In con- trast with previous approaches, it focuses on describing art- ist-facing, networked materials in an application-independent way, with a well-defined, cus- tomizable library of connectable nodes and robust handling of data types and color spaces. MaterialX was authored as a collaboration between Doug Smythe, a veteran CG supervi- sor at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), and Jonathan Stone, a senior so- ware engineer in the Lucasfilm Advanced Development Group (ADG), with generous assistance from Lucasfilm leadership, de- velopers, and artists, as well as significant contributions from Autodesk, Pixar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Foundry. The MaterialX project has great- ly evolved in its journey from ideation, through production, to open-source release, and in this article, we will dis- cuss this history as well as provide some thoughts on the road map ahead. IN PRODUCTION AT LUCASFILM In preparation for a new generation of Star Wars films, Lucasfilm launched an internal project called the Unified Assets Initiative in April 2013, as a collaboration between ILM and the newly formed ADG. The goal of this project was to standardize the production of digital assets for sharing between differ- ent tools, facilities, and media platforms. Existing open standards such as Alembic, OpenSubdiv, OpenEXR, and OpenColorIO were recognized early on as key elements of this project, allowing geometric assets, tex- THE WHOLE LOOK MATERIALX TRANSFERS THE COMPLETE LOOK OF A CG MODEL FROM ONE APPLICATION OR RENDERING PLATFORM TO ANOTHER BY JONATHAN STONE & DOUG SMYTHE STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS WAS ILM'S FIRST SHOW TO LEVERAGE MATERIALX AS A CANONICAL MATERIAL FORMAT.