The Academy Software Foundation released the full schedule for Open Source Days, its annual open source program for motion picture and media technology. The event runs July 19-20, 2026 at the J.W. Marriott L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
DreamWorks Animation CTO Bill Ballew keynotes on MoonRay's move from in-house renderer to community-run open source project. July 19 holds the main program, and July 20 runs a full day of open source Birds of a Feather sessions inside SIGGRAPH. Main program registration is $50, with complimentary passes for ASWF member company employees who register before July 1, 2026.
Bill Ballew keynotes on MoonRay's path from proprietary DreamWorks tool to ASWF project
The keynote tracks MoonRay's transition from a proprietary DreamWorks rendering tool to an open source project and ASWF community effort. We covered MoonRay joining the ASWF as a hosted project, and the Open Source Days keynote puts the studio's CTO on stage to walk through that shift.
Ballew's talk covers the work of moving a renderer that shipped DreamWorks features into a project that outside contributors can build on.
The two-day structure splits a main program and a SIGGRAPH Birds of a Feather day
The program runs across two distinct days:
July 19: Main Program. The full slate of talks at the J.W. Marriott L.A. Live, anchored by the MoonRay keynote.
July 20: Birds of a Feather sessions. A full day of open source working sessions held within SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics conference.
Co-locating with SIGGRAPH keeps the working sessions next to the broader graphics research community. We previously covered the ASWF open source track at NAB, where engineers and tech leads work through the same open standards in a trade-show setting.
Talks span OpenPBR, OpenUSD, MaterialX, color standards, and studio-safe AI
Beyond the keynote, the main program covers a range of open standards and production workflows:
Blender on OpenPBR. A session on the OpenPBR shading model.
ASC StEM3-VP assets joining DPEL. The American Society of Cinematographers' StEM3-VP virtual production evaluation assets are coming to DPEL.
Color fidelity standards for 3D artwork. A talk on standards for color reproduction of 3D artwork, the same open color management territory ASWF expanded when ACES joined the foundation.
Studio-safe AI open source workflows from Griptape by Foundry. Foundry's Griptape presents open source approaches to running AI inside studio pipelines, building on the Griptape AI agents Foundry brought into Nuke, Blender, and Maya.
MaterialX BSDF networks in RenderMan XPU. A Pixar and Lucasfilm session on running MaterialX BSDF networks in RenderMan XPU.
OpenUSD proposals from NVIDIA and Pixar. Proposed additions to OpenUSD from the two companies.
Registration is $50, free for ASWF member companies before July 1
Main program registration costs $50. Employees of ASWF member companies can register at no cost if they sign up before July 1, 2026. The Birds of a Feather day on July 20 sits within SIGGRAPH.
What Open Source Days signals for production technology
Open Source Days gives the studios and vendors building the open standards behind modern production a single venue to compare notes. The 2026 program puts DreamWorks, Pixar, Lucasfilm, NVIDIA, Foundry, and the Blender community in the same room around rendering, color, virtual production assets, and the open question of how to run AI safely inside studio pipelines.
For technical leads and pipeline engineers, the schedule doubles as a map of where the open source production stack is heading over the next year. The registration window for free member passes closes July 1, 2026.
