DigiPro 2022
Contributors:
Luke Emrose
Curtis Black
Emanuel Schrade
Abstract:
For the past 8 years, Animal Logic has been using its custom Animal Logic Shading System (ASH) material definition and rendering technology for all film projects within our proprietary pathtracer Glimpse. We compare existing solutions for material binding and layering from MaterialX, PRMan, USD/USDShade, MDL and more, and show how our own system provides desirable features and solutions absent from other shading solutions and material binding/definition specifications. We propose that existing Open Source projects adopt support for true layered binding, shading and hierarchical assignment, and further propose such solutions provide controllable ordering to allow these layering mechanisms to adequately handle typical production scenarios and requirements. We provide and discuss production examples and further areas for research.