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Terminal Output

  • Welcome
  • Standards Discussion
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  • Ofx small
  • Welcome
    • Why a Standard?
    • For Implementers
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    • API Reference
    • Programming Reference
    • Programming Guide
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Ofx logo

Welcome to
The Open Effects Association

Welcome

The Open Effects Association (OFX), a non-profit organization, develops and promotes open standards across the visual effects community. The founding members come from Assimilate, Autodesk, Digieffects, FilmLight, The Foundry, Genarts and RE:Vision FX. These are companies which have helped artists create ground-breaking VFX shots on nearly every blockbuster movie.

The Association’s initial focus is to improve the OpenFX image processing plug-in standard. This goal of this standard is to reduce development effort and support needed for plug-ins across different compositing and editing host platforms.

News

The Latest from Open FX

  • Open Effects Association 2022 Annual Meeting will be Tuesday, May 10, 2022
  • Announcement: OFX Association 2020 Annual Meeting
  • Open Effects (OFX) at NAB 2019 - Monday April 8, 10:00 AM, Room N243

OFX Terminology

Host
A video compositing or editing application, such as The Foundry Nuke, Assimilate Scratch, Sony Vegas, or FilmLight Baselight
Plug-in
Video software, such as GenArts Sapphire or RE:Vison Effects which adds a wider variety of effects to a host application.
Open Effects
A standardized software interface between VFX host applications and plug-ins (also known as OpenFX and OFX).
Editor
An application which allows you to manipulate a video timeline by adding, removing, and changing the in and out points of video clips. Effects, Generators, Transition, Compositors and Retiming effects are commonly used in editors.
Compositor
An application which allows you build a video clip by layering video clips, still images, and effects.

Member Companies

  • Assimilate logo Assimilate, Inc.
  • Bm Blackmagic Design
  • New da logo3 sideways Digital Anarchy
  • Dft logo text gray 1 Digital Film Tools
  • Logo filmlight FilmLight Ltd.
  • Genarts logo GenArts, Inc.
  • Logo for email Grass Valley
  • Hitfilm website black text Hitfilm
  • Mocha ofx Imagineer Systems
  • Natronicon256 linux Natron
  • Newbluefx black color logo NewBlue
  • Re vision fx logo RE:Vision Effects
  • Sony creative software logo Sony Creative Software Inc.
  • The foundry logo black The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd.
  • Tuttleofx TuttleOFX
  • Why a Standard?

    VFX plug-in vendors were frustrated for years because host application vendors created proprietary plug-in interfaces. As a result, each plug-in vendor had to port their plug-ins to all the different hosts and hosts couldn't use each other's plug-ins, limiting the selection of effects available to artists. The need for a standard interface was clear, so Bruno Nicoletti of The Foundry led the effort to develop a standard. That standard is OFX.

    OFX is a win for artists because there is no waiting for plug-in vendors to port their cool effects to your application. Once a host compositing or editing application adopts OFX, all OFX plug-ins on the market instantly become available on that host.

    And OFX is a win for plug-in vendors because they can concentrate on what they do best: making cool effects.

    For Implementers

    Info

    Check out the links to the right for documentation of the OFX API. The key elements for implementing OFX are the C header files, located in the include/ directory on github. The OFX API reference is pulled from the source code with doxygen; it contains an overview of OpenGL acceleration of rendering, as well as class, module, and file documentation. Finally, About OFX gives an overview of the OFX project.   We also have some programming examples in the github repo.

     

    Useful Links

    • OFX Programming Guide By Example
    • OFX API v. 1.4 Reference
    • OFX API Programming Guide
    • OFX API Programming Reference
    • OFX Discussion Google Group
    • Github source repository
    • Sourceforge project page
    • OpenFX documentation
    • Register as a site user

      Association Business

      Standards Discussion

      • Parameter Interpolation Type
      • Parameter Suite - paramEditBeginWrite
      • Output clip constraints
      • All standard changes

      General Meeting Minutes

      • Minutes for AGM 2022
      • Minutes for AGM 2020
      • Minutes for AGM 2019
      • All meetings

      Directors' Meeting Minutes

      • Minutes for 6 Sep 2022
      • Minutes for 16 Jun 2022
      • Minutes for 11 Sep 2010
      • All meetings
      • OFX @ Github
      • Association Information

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