Open Effects Association Formed
May 20, 2009

Open Effects Association Formed

Las Vegas, Nev. - Seven companies joined forces at NAB to launch The Open Effects Association, a non-profit, UK-based company that aims to develop and promote open standards across the visual effects community. Founding members are Assimilate , Autodesk, Digieffects, FilmLight, The Foundry, GenArts, and RE:Vision Effects.
The Association’s initial focus is to improve the OFX image processing plug-in standard launched by The Foundry in 2004. The goal for the OpenFX API is to reduce the level of development and support required for plug-ins across different compositing and editing host platforms. The OpenFX API has, to date, been adopted by:

· Assimilate SCRATCH
· AutodeskToxik software
· FilmLight’s Baselight
· GenArts Sapphire plug-ins
· The Foundry’s Nuke compositor and Tinder, Keylight and Furnace plug-ins
· RE:Vision Effects' ReelSmart Motion Blur and DE:Noise plug-ins
· Digital Vision’s FilmMaster
· Grass Valley’s Bones
· Eyeon Fusion
· Avid DS
· Photron's Primatte Keyer

The Association hopes that as a new, independent organization, it will encourage increasingly open communication and collaboration between hosts and plug-in developers and establish a uniform specification to benefit everyone involved, starting with the artists.