May 27, 2020

Video Conference Link

Attendance

Cory Omand - WG Chair, Pixar/TWDS
Alan Blevins, Dreamworks
Alex Schwank, Apple
Aloys Baillet, Animal Logic
Andy Biar,  Warner Bros.
Carson Brownlee, Intel
Charles Fleche, Rodeo FX
Chris Rydalch, Blue Sky Studios
Daniel Heckenberg, Animal Logic
Dhruv Govil, Apple
Eoin Murphy, Animal Logic
Eric Enderton, NVidia
Francois Lord, Rodeo FX
Gary Jones, Foundry
Gordon Bradley, Autodesk
Henry Vera, DNEG
James Pedlingham, Foundry
Jeff Bradley, Dreamworks
John Hood, SPI
John Mertic, Linux Foundation
Jordan Soles, Rodeo FX
JT Nelson, Pasadena Open Source Consortium/SoCal Blender group
Kimball Thurston, Weta
Larry Gritz, SPI
Lee Kerley, SPI
Mark Elendt, SideFX
Mark Final, Foundry
Mark Tucker, SideFX
Matthew Levine, WDAS
Michael B. Johnson, Apple
Michael Kass, NVidia
Michael Min, Netflix
Niall Redmond, Foundry
Pilar Molina Lopez, Blue Sky Studios
Robin Rowe, CinePaint
Roman Zulak, SPI
Rory Woodford, Foundry
Sean Looper, AWS
Sean McDuffee, Intel
Serguei Kalentchouk, Apple
Shawn Dunn, Epic Games
Toby Jones, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Minutes

  • Action item follow-up [0:00-0:10]

    • Cory: Slack channel in ASWF slack

      • Prefer to keep most communications on usd-interest

    • Cory: Python documentation

      • Some current issues in docstring build and release of Python documentation.

    • Cory: TAC ratification

  • Outline current proposals (determine scope, identify lead)

    • Continuous integration [0:10-0:25]

      • Since USD 20.05, CI already running in Azure, no binaries yet.

      • Build flavours create a large matrix

        • Main switches are: Python on/off, Imaging on/off

      • Testing in the public Azure CI is limited (Linux only, no GPU), much Pixar-internal testing is currently image-based around linux-only perceptual diff

      • Daniel: CI working group progress on distribution/testing. Find the right way to share infrastructure between the GH Actions/Azure pipelines. Support the effort without needing to duplicate effort.

      • Kass: Can see if possible to donate GPU hardware or GPU compute instances for testing effort.

  • Best practices/Knowledge base [0:25-0:50]

    • Cory: USD documentation editing / publishing workflow currently not suited to non-Pixar contributions

    • Cory: Discussed PEP-style best-practice approach with USD team, who want to avoid fracturing docs / API samples. Also want to manage the problem of versioning of docs, best practice against code.

    • Kass: Would a public wiki be acceptable?

    • Cory: USD team concerns about accuracy / maintenance

    • Kass: Wikipedia model shows robustness of decentralised and crowd-sourced contributions and maintenance. May sit alongside a more moderated PEP-style process.

    • Alan: Collection of examples need not be best-practice to be valuable. Cory: Wiki formatting much better for later discovery than email. SeanLooper: Wiki allows for discussion to be captured with examples for later distillation into best practice

    • Sue: An important factor is making examples accessible to less technical community, this includes richer media

    • Daniel: USD-wg GitHub repo does have a wiki with configurable access mechanisms: https://help.github.com/en/github/building-a-strong-community/documenting-your-project-with-wikis

    • Daniel: There may be IP / licensing questions around contributions. Cory: Action item to check with ASWF

  • Determine action items/next steps [0:40-0:50]

Action Items

  • Alan: Propose categories for knowledge base

  • Cory: Create knowledge base category wiki doc in wg-usd.

  • Cory: Discuss wiki approach with USD team.

  • Cory: Discuss Azure/GH Actions GPU testing with USD team.

  • Cory: Check with ASWF about legal framework for contributing to a public wiki.

License: CC BY 4.0, Copyright Contributors to the ASWF USD working group.