Netflix has joined the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) and will begin contributing to the OpenTimelineIO (OTIO) project originally created by Pixar, the ASWF said today.

OTIO is an open-source API and interchange format for collaboration between story, editorial and production departments, making it easier to track changes in shot length, notify collaborators when shots are added or removed, and conform new renders into a cut.

OpenTimelineIO was used on Pixar’s Coco for transitions and linking media to the latest renders
Pixar/Academy Software Foundation

Already employed on feature projects at Pixar and elsewhere, it is the fifth project to be hosted by the ASWF. The others are OpenColorIO, OpenCue, OpenEXR and OpenVDB.

“Collaborating with a diverse community of creative partners and service providers demands a precise and uniform way to store and exchange the relationships between media assets in a timeline,” said Netflix Director of Post-Production Engineering Erik Strauss in a prepared statement. “We are excited to be able to contribute to OTIO as an opportunity to improve the interchange of this essential production data and standardize its authoring for our community of filmmakers.”

Tomorrow is Open Source Day at SIGGRAPH, with a full day of Birds of a Feather sessions scheduled at the JW Marriott covering open-source projects including OpenEXR, OTIO, and ACES. The OTIO Meet-UP is set for 1 p.m. in Diamond Ballroom 7-10.

The ASWF was founded in August 2018 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation.