Alembic (computer graphics)

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; 22 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]

  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.