
Disney Open Source - craigkerstiens
http://disney.github.io/
======
j0j0r0
I work there, and am on the Disney Open Source Committee!

We also just open sourced a hybrid public/private blockchain platform
"Dragonchain" with some interesting features.

[https://github.com/dragonchain/dragonchain](https://github.com/dragonchain/dragonchain)

Architecture document:
[https://dragonchain.github.io/doc/DragonchainArchitecture.pd...](https://dragonchain.github.io/doc/DragonchainArchitecture.pdf)

Code is newly released, and rough around the edges. We're working to get the
docs up to par and some Docker containers ready for ease of use. Feedback is
welcome.

~~~
random567
What do you actually use Dragonchain for within Disney? Why does Disney need a
blockchain platform?

~~~
lstamour
Just tossing out wild guesses/ideas: Theme parks maybe? Or tracking/trading
movie ownership? Contracts? Points systems for games?

~~~
dllthomas
Most of those don't seem to benefit from block chain style decentralization
(where you still need to talk to the network).

------
lima
OpenSubdiv is a game changer in FOSS 3d software.

Blender is already using it:
[https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.7...](https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.76/OpenSubdiv)

Demo: [https://youtu.be/dzIl_S-qHIQ?t=115](https://youtu.be/dzIl_S-qHIQ?t=115)

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Like the entire game has changed, rules, board, pieces and everything? Or like
the game has been somewhat improved?

~~~
vidarh
Check out the video. In the example, rendering of an animated model goes from
0.25fps without it, to 4fps with it using CPU rendering, or up to 40fps using
CUDA for the example model....

I'd say that is large enough to have the potential to fundamentally alter how
people work.

~~~
FigmentEngine
"fundamental" seems to imply a magnitude shift. 100x seems the minimum bar
IMHO. Otherwise its just decimate..

~~~
ChristianGeek
In this case the frame rate went from 0.25 fps to 40 fps, a 160x improvement,
so "fundamental" it is.

~~~
vanderZwan
Also, diminishing returns apply: going from 0.25 fps to 40 fps is a game
changer when doing interactive modelling, in the sense that only one of the
two can be considered interactive. Going 40 fps to 4000 fps wouldn't really be
make things much better (I'm sure artists would simply push the tools to bring
that frame rate down again, and any improvement to render speed obviously
would matter for final exports, but you get what I mean).

------
yazaddaruvala
Just an FYI: Always be careful!

I opened up a couple of these repos and some seem to have modifications on
their licenses.

Some like OpenEXR say "BSD" but don't actually have a license file.

Others like, Ptex and Partio, have no mention of a license at all.

Edit: For anyone wondering why this is an issue. From a legal standpoint,
there is a huge difference between being able to read the code, and being able
to use the code.

~~~
ncannon
All those you mention do have licenses.

OpenEXR -
[https://github.com/openexr/openexr/blob/develop/OpenEXR/LICE...](https://github.com/openexr/openexr/blob/develop/OpenEXR/LICENSE)

Ptex - [http://ptex.us/documentation.html](http://ptex.us/documentation.html)

Partio -
[https://github.com/wdas/partio/blob/master/src/doc/license.t...](https://github.com/wdas/partio/blob/master/src/doc/license.txt)

~~~
viraptor
I don't think it changes yazaddaruvala's point. What happens when ptex website
goes away and disney lawyers decide there was no proof?

~~~
rtkwe
Luckily there are tools like the Wayback Machine from archive.org where you
can retrieve the previous versions. There's also some existing cases where
it's been ruled to be a legitimate source of evidence too so you're not
arguing that from scratch.

~~~
viraptor
If you request removal from wayback machine (either robots.txt or direct) the
history is gone too.

------
dragonshed
The DIY style management software for OS X/macOS[1][2] is interesting. I knew
commercial packages existed for this sort of thing (and more), but I'm
fascinated that Disney admins & engineers chose to implement their own
Software Update Servers.

[1][https://github.com/munki/munki](https://github.com/munki/munki)
[2][https://github.com/wdas/reposado](https://github.com/wdas/reposado)

~~~
chucky_z
How tied to Disney is munki and reposado? I use the Server app, but the
functionality is continually hamstrung and honestly these open-source apps
probably have more functionality than was ever in Server.

It's really interesting to hear that they could be tied so closely to Disney
though.

~~~
brazzledazzle
As far as how tied to Disney they are: the project lead and initial sole
developer (others chip in quite a bit now) is an employee of Disney. My
impression is that he's open to changing things but not if those changes
interfere or complicate their deployment at Disney. So I'd say definitely
Disney-prioritized rather than a straight up community project. Affiliated
projects like AutoPkg are community driven and somewhat tool agnostic.

I think what you should use depends on your available time, inclination and
mindset. I meant for this to be short but it ended up being ridiculously long.
Sorry about that. Hopefully it helps save you and anyone else the time
required to get a broad understanding of this space. tl;dr at the bottom.

I wouldn't bother with Server App. It's complete crap. Maybe useful for >10
macs but I'm honestly not sure if that's even true given all the ways it can
totally shit the bed on you. Not well maintained. Probably best to think of it
more as a reference implementation for 3rd parties developing an MDM solution.

If you have time for the learning curve, want to apply the configuration as
code/automated testing mindset and want/need to save money go with the open
source tools. Don't expect to be able to commit the commercial versions to
source control. Munki+Reposado+Margarita+AutoPkg for sure:

Munki: Nothing touches it terms of the core/engine's package installation
abilities. Repo is configured by the admin/tools like autopkg so it's just a
static repo that can be hosted by any web server. Customizable self-service
app that's very similar to the app store app.

Reposado: Let's you do pipeline/canary testing/one-some-many deployments of
your official Apple updates since they can rarely mess things up on their own
but more frequently break some software.

Margarita: Web UI for managing Reposado, only needed if you want/need that or
just don't want to deal with figuring out how to manage/automate it.

AutoPkg: This is so amazing you'll want this even if you use something like
Casper but it was designed with Munki in mind. Using recipes it downloads
updates for software from the vendor's websites/repositories, repackages as
necessary and can be configured to automatically add those as updates for your
existing packages. So you can get security updates and force their
installation long before your average laptop user bothers to update. You can
do pipeline/canary testing/one-some-many deployments using your preferred CICD
tool (Jenkins seems to be popular for this). Recipes are maintained in a
community repo so even if a vendor changes their site and breaks things
someone has probably noticed before you and provided a fix.

Key differentiators for these: Open Source, configuration management as code,
automation, testing, CICD, etc.

Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Salt or GitHub's Boxen (Uses Puppet but has an
opinionated layer on top): If you want more configuration management and
distributing it via packages through Munki isn't your cup of tea use one of
these in addition to Munki. Key differentiators: Open Source, configuration
management as code, automation, testing, CICD, etc.

If you want easy as pie and very SMB oriented take a look at JAMF's Bushel.
It's clean looking and subscription based and probably the least amount of
effort overall. It's cloud-only I believe, so if on-prem is a requirement look
at the next one. Not sure if you can do custom packages or much in the way of
config but you can definitely distribute Apple App store applications. Key
differentiators: modern, easy to use and quick to get started with. Auto-magic
enrollment of devices you buy (as long as they are through the same account).
Distributed App Store apps.

If you want more control and a decent GUI (particularly if you have a decent
number of Macs) take a look at JAMF's Casper. Warning: The trial is limited to
14 days but you can purchase a 45 or 60 day trial+2 or 3 days of training for
a mere ~$4K or $6K. Training I think is provided by a VAR/Partner. No you
can't use it after that unless you buy it. Expect a hard and high touch sales
experience since this is more or less enterprise software. There's a cloud
version and on-prem version. On-prem will require some upkeep (MySQL instance
to manage, java app that runs on tomcat, etc.). You should use AutoPkg with
Casper too even if it's a bit annoying to get setup. Key differentiators: Big
community with a lot of answers and advice that are often universal enough to
be useful no matter what you're using. Very enterprise-y so good if you need
that (contract, support, feel good sales pitch to management). Easy to use for
junior admins or support people. Easy self-service that customizable per-
person/group. Auto-magic enrollment of devices you buy (as long as they are
through the same account).

Note: The JAMF sales people might bring in a rep from Apple's Enterprise
Support team during the sales process to talk about the benefits of Casper
(they use it at Apple) as well as (surprise) pitch their enterprise support
services and a package called enterprise connect. Enterprise connect is
essentially a workaround for bad UX/bugs in Apple's directory services support
that they want you to pay for. When the Apple rep told us that you'd be silly
to use open source tools we asked about Google and Facebook and he replied,
"Yeah... well they probably think they're pretty smart! Haha." Backpedaling
ensued and he said, "Well of course they're smart, they just have different
problems." When pressed about the problems Casper couldn't resolve for them he
said "scale" after conferring with another person at Apple.

There are others but either I don't know enough about them to offer any
insight or they aren't worth mentioning for various reasons.

tl;dr:

Munki/Reposado/AutoPkg: If you can afford the learning curve and need/want the
DevOps tools/automation/philosophy.

Bushel: If you want easy, no hassle and automatic device enrollment, SMB.

Casper: If you want a GUI, enterprise features and automatic device
enrollment, easy self-service, have a decent number of Macs.

------
mrcactu5
Pixar has a course through Khan academy. The algebra gets quite advanced!

[https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-
content/pixar/animate](https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-
content/pixar/animate)

I don't mind if the images are too realistic -- just some good shading here
and there

------
Pulce
Good. I have downloaded and viewed a lot of WD movies with torrents (I'm a
near homeless man in Italy, no money to buy/rent DVD). Now I can give back
something contributing to the open source project.

~~~
giuscri
Can I ask you why you're near homeless? It's because you find hard to find a
job?, or you've accumulated debt you're struggling to exinct?

I'm from Italy too but I'm a student and I'm curious: what are the troubles a
hacker has in Italy? — assuming you worked in tech.

I know it's rude to ask, I understand if you don't mind to answer. :)

~~~
Pulce
Thanks, I'll write to you soon. edit: :)

~~~
Taylor_OD
I'm also curious if you are open to sharing.

~~~
Pulce
Yes :) I'll write it toworrow!

~~~
Pulce
It's here: pulce.neocities.org Have fun :)

------
jedberg
I as really hoping all the projects would be named after Disney characters,
because it would be fun to say, "I think we should run Mickey, but we may need
to fork Donald to make it work in our environment".

~~~
cooper12
No thanks, Disney has already done enough to fuck over the public domain via
copyright. We don't need them using trademarks to fuck over developers too.
Besides, I doubt their lawyers would want them to dilute their trademarks like
that.

~~~
anchpop
Trademarks are only within a field. If Disney wanted to open-source something
and trademark its name, they'd have to get a new trademark

~~~
cooper12
That didn't stop Whatsapp from using DMCA to get a GitHub repo removed:
[http://boingboing.net/2014/02/21/whatsapp-abused-the-dmca-
to...](http://boingboing.net/2014/02/21/whatsapp-abused-the-dmca-to-ce.html).
The point I'm trying to make is that Disney's lawyers have already proven
themselves to be snakes (or whatever is the vilest creature you can imagine)
regarding their intellectual property. Giving them character names to work
with would not be in developer's best interests, even if the original comment
was meant to tongue-in-cheek.

------
alexkavon
Can't wait for the Mickey Mouse repo in 2024.

~~~
gkoberger
Why? Disney has invested countless dollars into Mickey Mouse over the past 89
years. It's not like the Happy Birthday song, being hoarded without innovation
purely for profit; they're actively expanding/investing/improving and making
billions of people happy.

Why should random companies get to legally print knockoff Mickey t-shirts just
because enough time has passed?

~~~
s-phi-nl
Because that's what the US Constitution requires [1]:

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing _for limited
Times_ to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
Writings and Discoveries" (Emphasis added)

[1]
[https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States...](https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992#35)

~~~
cyphar
Copyright is limited. It's just that the Mickey Mouse collective is constantly
getting laws passed that push back how far away "limited" is. It's more like a
pay-as-you-go scheme for unlimited copyright while skirting around the US
constitution. And of course, because Disney has enough money they can also
convince Congress to apply the law changes retroactively.

~~~
eddieroger
The content Mickey Mouse has been in is copyrighted. Mickey Mouse himself is
trademarked. So you /may/ be able to reuse Steamboat Willie for whatever
purposes you wish (assuming Disney Legal doesn't get Copyright extended), but
you'll probably never get Mickey Mouse as a symbol to work with.

~~~
cyphar
"Mickey Mouse collective" is a term I use for the pro-copyright-extension
lobby. But yes, you're right that Mickey Mouse will probably never be a usable
character.

------
curiouscat321
I hope Disney does more of this! They're a tech company in a lot of ways. I
believe they're using Rails for their site (which would make it amongst the
biggest Rails sites in the world) and I hope they release some Rails stuff
too!

~~~
JustinGarrison
I hope so too. As an employee and an open source enthusiast. There are many
people inside the (very large) company pushing for more of this. Many of them
have replied in this thread. :)

------
sarreph
After my microeconomics lectures, these are two words* I never thought I'd see
together.[0]

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act)

*Yes, I am treating 'Open Source' as one word, you 'Disney Open' trolls.

------
6stringmerc
Oh, so that's what the replacements that Disney outsourced and canned those US
professionals will be using? Maybe not the most polite type of joke, but hey,
I just saw that a judge recently smacked down the class action the terminated
employees had submitted (using sound logic).

Be wary of anything with Disney's fingerprints on it. They are - rightly or
wrongly - seen as Public Enemy #1 to Copyright reform. Throwing some spare
change into the pond of Open Source should be measured.

------
santaclaus
Super cool! I'd be curious to see what bits of software here are from WDAS vs
ILM vs Pixar.

~~~
a_e_k
Pixar: USD, OpenSubdiv, jss-api-gem

WDAS: Reposado, SeExpr, Ptex, Partio, Dynamica, BRDF Explorer

ILM: OpenEXR, Alembic (with Sony)

~~~
berkut
Alembic was actually mostly Sony originally - ILM were mostly just a name on
the ticket, and ILM started using the format because it was much more Katana-
friendly (random access and lazy-loading) than their current format, and they
were starting to use Katana at the time.

The first version of Alembic was pretty much just Sony's internal geometry
format renamed.

~~~
bleair
I'm not sure what you're referring to as "first version". Did you work on
Katana at Sony, and are you referring to the choice to use HDF5?

The idea (a hierarchical organization of geom prims and transforms) was very
similar between ILM and Sony. The library API organization (for better and
worse) and hashing more more ILM but it was a pretty close collaboration all
along the way.

~~~
berkut
Version 1.0.

I was at The Foundry while this was happening.

ILM struggled to use Katana with their existing file format.

I'd be worried if the idea wasn't similar - it was the implementation that
mattered, and ILM's older format wasn't very good at random access and lazy
loading (which were things needed for efficient use in Katana).

Alembic 1.0 was very close to Sony's Taco format rebranded.

------
tajen
We don't need Disney to open-source their software. We need Volkswagen and
various bogus companies to open-source the software of safety-sensitive
material. Dangerous hardware, measurement tools (e.g. petrol stations,
security cams), voting machines, droids... Disney's open-source is merely dry
bread for the plebs: We'll take it but it's not advancing our situation.

------
agentgt
I was expecting to see some Squeak links (OSS Smalltalk) but I guess no one at
Disney is using it now? I think it was the Go.com group ala Alan Kay that was
doing something with it internally (I'll need to do some googling but it
appears the group moved to ycombinator according to wikipedia... my memory
sucks).

~~~
qwertyuiop924
If you must Squeak to a company, attribute it to Apple. That's where the
project started. The team behind it then moved to Walt Disney Imagineering
(Disney's R&D Arm). From then, the team's corporate sponsorship becomes a
tangled mess, but according to Wikipedia, they've been with HP Labs, SAP Labs,
and... Y-Combinator.

Well, that's a name I didn't expect to see there.

------
smegel
They make light-hearted animations, but their software looks seriously
hardcore.

------
zump
How can I apply for a job at Disney? Someone send me an email that won't lead
to a black hole!!

~~~
n1gels
Technology jobs at Disney
[http://disneytechjobs.com](http://disneytechjobs.com)

~~~
zump
Site is still terrible :/

------
baccredited
Steps:

    
    
      1. Fire all the old programmers
      2. Make them train their cheap H-1B visa replacements
      3. Open source some code
      4. Have a magical day!
    

[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-
layoff-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-
disney-train-foreign-replacements.html?_r=0)

~~~
bmuon
Did the NYTimes actually do any research for that piece? H1Bs are required to
have a higher salary than average precisely to avoid that from happening

~~~
pzenger
I believe it is based on the average for the country, which is much lower than
the average in certain areas, like California.... But I may be wrong.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Hope it isn't based on what the government pays developers. I've seen some
java devs making upper 30s to low 40s within the past few years. That's just
crazy.

~~~
flukus
Last time I worked with a government department here the entire IT/development
team were the local equivalent of H1Bs

------
gdamjan1
is it coincidence that disney gets on hacker news at the same time as they are
"The empire strikes back: Disney to sue school that teaches lightsaber skills"
[http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/17/star-wars-
disney...](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/17/star-wars-disney-
lightsaber-school-lawsuit)

???

------
shredwheat
This is a showcase of larger open source projects used in the visual effects
and animation industry. Several of them are contributed to by Disney
engineers, but most people would not consider these Disney projects. Disney
has open sourced and released some impressive open source projects over the
years, and it's exciting to see their endorsement on these others.

~~~
ykl
Project: Originating and maintaining organization

USD: Pixar

OpenSubdiv: Pixar

jss-api-gem: Pixar

Munki: WDAS

Reposado: WDAS

SeExpr: WDAS

Ptex: WDAS

Partio: WDAS

Dynamica: WDAS

BRDF Explorer: WDAS

OpenEXR: ILM

Alembic: ILM and Sony Imageworks

So which one of these is not a Disney project, considering they all originated
from and are maintained by Disney engineers?

~~~
berkut
Alembic was originally Sony's thing, which ILM started using in their early
Katana days because their own file format wasn't good enough for use with
Katana (random access and lazy loading).

Sony gave it to ILM to start using, and then open-sourced it.

I'd quibble that while ILM and Pixar employees are technically now Disney
employees, it's not as if they work for Walt Disney Animation Studios
directly, so it's not as clear cut as you make out.

~~~
ykl
Fair enough about Alembic.

ILM and Pixar are very much Disney employees though, as in employees of the
wider Walt Disney Company (which this page is for; the specific page for WDAS
is here [1]). If you get a Silver Pass and your pay comes from TWDC's bank
account, I'm pretty sure you are a Disney employee. WDAS, Pixar, and ILM are
all just individual subsidiaries under the wider TWDC umbrella.

[1]
[https://www.disneyanimation.com/technology/opensource](https://www.disneyanimation.com/technology/opensource)

