Streamlining IBL workflows with computer vision and USD

DNEG is constantly improving its global tools and processes to make them more efficient and artist-friendly, while leveraging state-of-the-art technologies and trends in the industry. The special requirements for Sony Pictures'Venom movie were the perfect opportunity for us to improve our Image Based Lighting (IBL) workflows. In this paper we present the iblManager: a semi-automated system to allow fast and artist-friendly extraction of numerous lights from HDR images (HDRIs), using computer vision. The system uses LightCache, a USD-based implementation of light descriptions, to allow cross-DCC usage and pipeline integration.