Core Concepts

• Book of USD: An introduction to core USD concepts from Remedy.

• USD Basics for Houdini Solaris: An introduction to USD from SideFX.

• Understand USD Fundamentals (video): An introduction to USD fundamentals from Apple.

• Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) for Developers (video series): Introduces 4 key features of OpenUSD and breaks them down over the course of the video series.

• Working with USD (video): An introduction to USD with Apple platforms and frameworks, from Apple.

• What is USD (video): An introduction to USD concepts from Robin-Yann Storm. Assets used in the video are available here.

• Last Mile vs Interchange formats: A taxonomy of 3d file formats based on the intent of the format.

Misc Reference

• Pixar Resources

  • openusd.org The official website

  • The History of USD, by F. Sebastian Grassia and George Elkoura

  • USD Interest Google Group

  • Introductory Videos Several video presentations by Pixar

  • UsdSkel All about skinning schemas for USD

  • USD based pipelines 2016 presentation on Pixar's use of USD in the pipeline

  • Simple Shading In USD Pixar's docs for USD preview material

• Using USD with Apple's technologies WWDC 2017 presentation

• USD at UTS Animal Logic Academy video presentations

• USD Cookbook Colin Kennedy's USD code and asset samples

• USD Survival Guide (GitHub): A practical and production oriented onboarding guide for pipeline TDs/software developers, that covers everything you need to switch your pipeline to USD.

• Dreamworks USD Integration

• Luma USD Integration Brief notes on Luma's pipeline

• Unity USD SDK

  • Unity USD SDK Presentation about the Unity USD SDK

  • Unity USD SDK Design notes on the Unity USD SDK's API

  • Unity USD SDK Details on using the Unity USD SDK

• Autodesk resources

  • Autodesk landing page for USD (includes recording of past presentations)

  • Experimenting with USD in Game Pipelines Autodesk Developer Summit, GDC 2022

• nVidia Resources

  • GPU Technology Conference (GTC - free, registration required)

    • Course: Getting Started with USD for Collaborative 3D Workflows 

    • GTC 2022 Sessions (free, registration required)

      • Exploring USD: The HTML for 3D Virtual World

      • Transforming Global Film Production Workflows with Omniverse

      • Best of Both Virtual Worlds: Bridging Ignition and Isaac Sim

  • usdview documentation by nVidia at the Omniverse site

  • USD as the language of the metaverse

  • Useful USD code patterns in the Omniverse documentation

• SIGGRAPH 

  • Building the Open Metaverse SIGGRAPH 2022 (slides here)