Image Interchange Framework
The Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is developing an architecture and supporting tools for digital motion picture mastering applications. In development for 5 years by the motion picture industry’s leading technologists and practitioners, the Image Interchange Framework (IIF) is now ready for evaluation by the larger community of those concerned with digital motion picture workflow and color management.
Background
There are no industry standards for the interchange of today’s digitally mastered motion picture elements, and the result is tremendous inefficiency, increased costs and reduced image quality. These problems did not exist with film, because the entire imaging system – film stocks, processing chemicals and procedures – was developed and standardized by two or three film manufacturing companies and a similar number of film laboratories. With digital imaging technology, every company can develop its own proprietary approach, and that is largely what has happened. Given that today’s motion pictures are collaborative efforts, generally involving many visual effects, postproduction and mastering facilities, the challenges faced by these facilities are made even more difficult when digital images can come to them in any one of a dozen (or more!) file formats and encoding schemes, with or without essential metadata.
In late 2004, the Council’s Advanced Technology Program Subcommittee initiated the Image Interchange Framework project. With the participation of more than 50 of the industry’s leading technologists and practitioners representing some of the leading technology, tools and service providers, the project committee developed detailed system requirements, a number of competing architectures and proof-of-concept prototypes. The Academy is providing the results of this development effort – documentation, software, reference images and targets – to the industry on an evaluation basis, with the goal of getting feedback on the Framework’s suitability for practical use in motion picture production.
The Image Interchange Framework – What It Is, What It Does
The Image Interchange Framework is a set of components that facilitates a wide range of motion picture workflows while eliminating the ambiguity of today’s file formats. The basic IIF components are:
- A file format specification and open source implementation in the form of an enhanced and “constrained” version of OpenEXR, the popular high dynamic range image file format widely used in CGI applications.
- A portable software programming language designed specifically for color transforms. Called The Color Transformation Language, or CTL, this technology is now a SMPTE Registered Disclosure Document (SMPTE RDD-15).
- Reference transforms to convert between IIF-defined encoding schemes
- A set of reference images and calibration targets for film scanners and recorders
- Documentation on the architecture and software tools
The IIF Toolkit is designed to support both “all digital” and “hybrid film-digital” motion picture workflows.
Benefits of Participation
The Academy is making the IIF Toolkit available, at no charge, in exchange for feedback on the architecture’s suitability and the Toolkit’s usefulness. The Toolkit is available for a limited evaluation period that is sufficient to fully assess the architecture and supporting tools under actual production conditions. Your feedback is essential to optimizing IIF “for the real world”. The long-term goal is to submit IIF components to SMPTE for standardization, thus solving many of the longstanding problems of digital image interchange in motion picture production and mastering.
The Evaluation Period
The Academy will make the IIF components available to Program participants for evaluation purposes until December 31, 2009. During the Evaluation Period, the Academy will receive and evaluate feedback from participants, provide technical support to participants, and will provide component updates when available. IIF components will be submitted to SMPTE for standardization as appropriate.
Intellectual Property
The Academy has made CTL available through an open source license, and is making additional IIF components available through a limited source license. The implementation of certain transforms in CTL and the application of IIF to digital motion picture production may require a license from third parties. Other intellectual property declarations related to digital motion picture mastering have been submitted to the SMPTE Digital Cinema Technology Committee (DC28), and IIF components submitted to SMPTE will go through a similar declaration process. Potential Program participants are directed to DC28 for more information, and are responsible for determining intellectual property issues with respect to their use of the IIF Toolkit.
