The Open Review Initiative (ORI), an umbrella project at the Academy Software Foundation working to build a unified open source toolset for playback, review and approval, has announced that ReviewPluginApi is now available. Developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, ReviewPluginApi is an open source library that contains a common plugin API and widget collection for building cross-platform plugins for review/playback systems.
“We initially developed ReviewPluginApi as a proof of concept for using Open RV to support our internal review platform, Itview 5,” said Michael Ford, CTO at Sony Pictures Imageworks. “Given the success of the development at Imageworks and as part of our longstanding open source efforts, we are excited to contribute it to the Open Review Initiative and look forward to feedback and contributions from the broader community.”
“One of our aims with Open Review Initiative is to lower the barriers to entry for teams to contribute to our projects, and in turn, drive iteration on best in class workflow and interoperability,” said Erik Strauss, Chair of the Academy Software Foundation’s Open Review Initiative and Director of Production, Unreal Engine at Epic Games. “This is a significant release and contribution by Sony Pictures Imageworks as it demonstrates a continuing commitment from studios to increase collaboration on playback and review tools that can benefit the broader community.”
What is ReviewPluginApi?
ReviewPluginApi is an open source library that contains a common plugin API and widget collection that can be used for creating cross-application plugins for review/playback systems. ReviewPluginAPI acts as a wrapper in front of the underlying review APIs supported by the respective review systems. Currently this API supports two review systems: Itview 5 and Open RV.
ReviewPluginApi library also contains reusable widgets and a sample plugin that demonstrate the functionality. The sample plugin is a professional color corrector with a custom color picker that runs on both Itview and Open RV. This plugin lets artists do professional color corrections right in their review system without having to go to another DCC software.
What problems are being addressed by ReviewPluginApi?
Similar to many existing open source libraries hosted by Academy Software Foundation, ReviewPluginApi attempts to provide foundational code for building VFX/Animation applications on top of. Specifically, it attempts to ease the following problems:
- Familiar workflow for artists: As artists move from company to company, review plugins created using this API could provide a consistent UI/UX no matter what the underlying review system is in use.
- Mix and match review systems: A company may choose to use multiple review systems in various departments based on unique core functionality provided by them. A common plugin API brings the same UI for certain common needs (e.g Artist Dashboard)
- Expand plugin user base: Each review system may contain its own ecosystem of various plugins developed by individual companies and individuals. By making them cross-application, they could reach a wider audience
- Easy plugin development: If you are targeting multiple review/playback systems, this API will let the developers write reusable code and reduce development time.
How to access and contribute to ReviewPluginApi?
ReviewPluginApi source code can be accessed from https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/ori-shared-platform
We are looking forward to community contributions on:
- Feedback on this approach, would you use this at your company/project?
- Contribute new plugins using this API (either port existing plugins or write new plugins)
- Implement the API functionality for other playback/review systems
