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Alembic (computer graphics)

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Alembic
Filename extension
.abc
Developed bySony Pictures Imageworks (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Industrial Light & Magic (Lucasfilm)
Initial releaseAugust 9, 2011 (2011-08-09)[1]
Latest release
1.8.4
November 11, 2022; 20 months ago (2022-11-11)[2]
Type of formatExchange format for computer graphics
Open format?Yes
Websitewww.alembic.io Edit this at Wikidata

Alembic is an interchangeable computer graphics file format developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Industrial Light & Magic.[3][4][5] It was announced at SIGGRAPH 2011,[1] and has been widely adopted across the industry by visual effects and animation professionals.

Its primary focus is the efficient interchange of animated geometry (models) between different groups working on the same shots or same assets, possibly using different applications. Often different departments in the same company or different studios are working on the same projects. Alembic supports the common geometric representations used in the industry, including polygon meshes, subdivision surface, parametric curves, NURBS patches and particles. Alembic also has support for transform hierarchies and cameras. With the latest version comes initial support for materials and lights as well. Alembic specifically is not focused on storing the complex dependency graphs of procedural tools but instead stores the "baked" results by sampling the model data at different points along an animated scene's timeline.[6]

Tools which support Alembic

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Tools with native support

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Application As of version Vendor
Flame 2016 Autodesk[7]
Adobe Substance Adobe Inc
Maya 2012 Autodesk[8]
3ds Max 2016 Autodesk[9]
KATANA 1.1 The Foundry[10]
Houdini 11.1 Side Effects Software[11]
iClone 6.5 Reallusion Inc.[12]
RenderMan ? Pixar[13]
Arnold ? Solid Angle[14]
MARI 10.2v1 The Foundry[15]
MODO 10.2v1 The Foundry[16]
NUKE 7.0 The Foundry[17]
Cinema 4D R14 Maxon[18]
V-Ray 2012 Chaos Group[19]
Guerilla Render 0.15.2 Mercenaries Engineering[20]
RealFlow 2013 Next Limit[21]
Maxwell Render 3 Next Limit
Clarisse iFX 2012 Isotropix
LightWave 3D 11.6 NewTek[22]
Keyshot Pro 4 Luxion
Octane Render 1.5 Otoy
Blender 2.78 Blender Foundation[23]
Fusion 7.0 Blackmagic_Design
Unreal Engine 4.13 Epic Games
Unity Engine 2018.1 Unity Technologies
EmberGen 0.7.5 JangaFX
Marvelous Designer ? CLO Virtual Fashion

Plugins

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Plugin Applications supported Vendor
Crate Suite 3DS Max, Maya, Softimage, Arnold Exocortex
AtomKraft Nuke, After Effects Jupiter Jazz[24]
Ortholab Mudbox Ortholab[25]
DF Plugin 3DS Max Digital Frontier[26]
Alembic Exporter Daz Studio Daz 3D[27]

References

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  1. ^ a b Sony Pictures Imageworks, Lucasfilm (August 9, 2011). "Lucasfilm and Sony Pictures Imageworks Release Alembic 1.0". PR Newswire. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
  2. ^ "Releases - alembic/alembic". Alembic. Retrieved 25 December 2022 – via GitHub.
  3. ^ "Sony Pictures Imageworks - Open Source". Opensource.imageworks.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  4. ^ "Lucasfilm - Film and Television Production". Lucasfilm. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  5. ^ "ILM, Sony Imageworks release Alembic 1.0". Variety. August 9, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  6. ^ "Alembic". Alembic.io. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  7. ^ "Flame - 2d/3d Compositing/Finishing/Editing - Autodesk". Usa.autodesk.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  8. ^ "Maya - Computer Animation & Modeling Software - Autodesk". Usa.autodesk.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-25. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  9. ^ [1][dead link]
  10. ^ "KATANA - Lighting & look development software - The Foundry". Thefoundry.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  11. ^ "Home - SideFX". Sidefix.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  12. ^ "3D Animation and 2D Cartoons Made Simple - Reallusion Animation Software". Reallusion.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  13. ^ "Pixar's RenderMan Products". Renderman.pixar.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  14. ^ "Solid Angle - Arnold Renderer". Solidangle.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  15. ^ "MARI Features :: 3D Texture Painting :: The Foundry". thefoundry.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  16. ^ "The Foundry Community :: TV :: Training :: View". Luxology.com. Retrieved 2016-05-27.[permanent dead link]
  17. ^ "NUKE 7.0 is coming soon | the Foundry". Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
  18. ^ "MAXON - 3D FOR THE REAL WORLD: Errorpage". Maxon.net. Archived from the original on 1 April 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  19. ^ "Chaos Group". Chaosgroup.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  20. ^ "Guerilla Render - Animation and VFX production rendering". Guerillarender.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  21. ^ "EC - Alembic I/O". Support.nextlimit.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  22. ^ "LightWave - 11.6 Features Overview". Lightwave3d.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  23. ^ "Dev:Ref/Release Notes/2.78/Alembic". wiki.blender.org. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  24. ^ Jupiter Jazz Limited. "AtomKraft, by Jupiter Jazz". Atomkraft.hk. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  25. ^ "Ortholab". CodePlex. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  26. ^ "デジタル・フロンティア-Digital Frontier - DF TALK - Alembic for 3dsmax". Dfx.co.jp. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  27. ^ "Daz 3D - 3D Models and 3D Software by Daz 3D". Daz3d.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
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