Epic Games and Ahead have teamed up to build the open-source Windows port of xStudio, a modern, flexible, and feature-rich playback and review application that was contributed to the Academy Software Foundation as an open-source project earlier this year. The Windows port is available on GitHub.
DNeg, a visual effects and animation studio renowned for its film and television work, created what it sees as a robust and feature-rich playback and review application that meets the diverse needs of those working across all areas of the production process, from those on set to those in an office setting. Called xStudio, DNeg early this year released the open-source beta version via the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), which began hosting and managing the open-source project for xStudio as part of the Open Review Initiative. Recently, Epic Games teamed up with Ahead studio to build an open-source Windows port of xStudio, which is available now.
xStudio is customizable and can be used as a stand-alone player or integrated into a pipeline via plug-ins and Python scripting APIs, as it is company and pipeline agnostic. The Windows version of xStudio complements the Linux open-sourced version and marks the first step to making xStudio a cross-platform solution for the open-source community and as solution across workflows.
The goal of the ASWF’s Open Review Initiative is to build a unified open-source toolset for playback, review, and approval of motion-picture and related professional media. DNeg and Epic are founding members of ASWF, while Ahead is an active open-source contributor.
Chas Jarrett, creative director at DNeg, said the vision for xStudio from the outset was to create a tool that enables seamless collaboration for everyone working in the media creation industries. And the open-source Windows port is the next step in bringing this application to a wider community of content creators.
Access to the code base for xStudio is available on GitHub. It is free to all.