The role of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) is to facilitate communication and collaboration among the Technical Projects. The TAC will be responsible for:
- Coordinating collaboration among Technical Projects, including development of an overall technical vision for the community;
- Making recommendations to the Budget Committee of resource priorities for Technical Projects;
- Electing annually a chairperson to preside over meetings, set the agenda for meetings, ensure meeting minutes are taken and who will also serve on the Governing Board as the TAC’s representative (the “TAC Representative”); and
- Such other matters related to the technical role of the TAC as may be communicated to the TAC by the Governing Board.
All members of the broad ASWF community are welcome to participate in TAC activities, such as meetings or online discussion. For voting matters such as project inclusion or graduation, TAC members are composed of:
- One representative appointed by each Premier Member;
- One representative appointed by the technical oversight body (e.g., a technical steering committee) of each TAC Project; and
- Up to three experts from the broader motion picture industry (who serve for one-year terms)
Current TAC Members are:
| Representative | Title | Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel Heckenberg - Chairperson | R & D | Animal Logic Pty Ltd |
| Sean Looper | Senior Solutions Architect | Amazon Web Services |
| Dr. Michael B. Johnson | Pro Workflow Architect, Systems Architecture & Design | Apple |
| Gordon Bradley | Senior Software Architect | Autodesk |
| Pilar Molina Lopez | Senior Software Engineer | Blue Sky Studios, Inc. |
| Michael O’Gorman | Distinguished Engineer | Cisco Systems Inc. |
| Henry Vera | Head of Production Technology | Double Negative |
| Bill Ballew | VP Research and Development | DreamWorks Animation |
| Matt Kuhlenschmidt | Lead Tools Programmer | Epic Games, Inc. |
| Brian Cipriano | Senior Software Engineer | |
| Sean C McDuffee | Graphics Software Engineer | Intel Corporation |
| Dave Fellows | Principal Software Engineering Manager, Azure | Microsoft |
| Michael Min | Manager, VFX Workflows, Creative Technologies | Netflix |
| Eric Enderton | Director of Film Rendering Technology | NVIDIA |
| Larry Gritz | Software Engineering Architect | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| Jean-Francois Panisset | Industry Representative | VES Technology Committee |
| Cory Omand | Supervising Lead Software Engineer | The Walt Disney Studios |
| Kimball Thurston | Senior Imaging Researcher | Weta Digital Limited |
| Ken Museth | OpenVDB Representative | |
| Michael Dolan | OpenColorIO Representative | |
| Cary Phillips | OpenEXR Representative | |
| Brian Cipriano | OpenCue Representative | (non-voting due Brian also being the Google voting rep) |
| Joshua Minor | OpenTimelineIO Representative |
Technical Projects are approved by TAC Members per the ASWF Project Lifecycle guidelines. You can submit your project for inclusion as an ASWF Technical Project by completing the Project Contribution Proposal Template and emailing it to tac@lists.awsf.io.
Each of the ASWF projects are open to participation by anyone subject to the governance each project has adopted. If you are looking for a way to contribute to a project, many ASWF projects maintain a list of "good first issues" ( linked to below ).
Current Technical Projects are listed below.
OpenCue  |
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OpenTimelineIO  |
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OpenEXR  |
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OpenColorIO  |
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OpenVDB  |
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Working groups may be formed by the TAC to focus on specific areas of technical interest or need within the ASWF. They report to the TAC which remains responsible for any formal decisions or voting matters.
You can follow the TAC discussions by signing up for the TAC email list. You can also review past meeting notes.