Pixar USD (Universal Scene Description) Fundamentals

• An understanding of 3D modeling and production concepts
• Python programming experience

Audience

• Design Engineers
• Architects
• Developers

Universal Scene Description (USD) is an open source framework developed by Pixar for exchanging 3D computer graphics data across different applications. It is designed to be flexible and extensible to other collaborative environments that run interconnected tools, such as NVIDIA Omniverse.

This instructor-led, live training (online or onsite) is aimed at design engineers, architects, and developers who wish to use Pixar USD to create, build, and share common 3D scenes or assets while working simultaneously from different graphics tools.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Set up the necessary development environment to start building 3D graphics and workflows.
• Understand the basic USD composition and apply modifications to enhance 3D assets and scenes.     
• Share, combine, and transform multiple assets using the supported USD plugins for 3rd party applications (Maya, Katana, and Houdini).

Format of the Course

• Interactive lecture and discussion.
• Lots of exercises and practice.
• Hands-on implementation in a live-lab environment.

Course Customization Options

• This course is focused on USD, but other software applications such as Maya, Katana, and Houdini may also be used. Please confirm if you have specific requirements.
• To request a customized training for this course, please contact us to arrange.

Introduction

• Overview of Pixar USD features and components
• Understanding the USD composition

Preparing the Development Environment

• Building and installing dependencies and components
• Setting the environment variables for Python

Authoring USD

• Creating a USD stage
• Creating and editing prims
• Referencing layers
• Converting layers into different USD file formats
• Traversing prims in a stage
• Creating and editing variants
• Applying transformations, animations, layer offsets, and shading

Working with Plugins and Examples

• Modifying variant examples in Katana
• Generating USD assets from Maya
• Modifying USD scenes with Houdini
• Setting up and using Usdview plugin
• Building schema classes

Troubleshooting

Summary and Conclusion