Hi everyone,
I am doing research on an USD based pipeline and it looks like lookdev tools like Gaffer, Katana or Clarisse are very well suited for scene assembly and exploiting the features of USD.
But I am facing the following questions :
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Does the render engine used in a lookdev software (like AppleSeed in Gaffer for example), is usually the same used for the final render? If it can be different, does a format like MaterialX would help to have the same look across different render engines?
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I don’t understand how the lookdev step integrate with the surfacing one. The lookdev artists are going to assemble the scene inside a node tree in Katana for example then apply the shaders. But it’s basically one scene assembly file. How does surfacing artists work on their materials and send it to the lookdev department?
If I understand well, lookdev tools are splitting the scene building and rendering part from traditional DCC into a different step. Because if I use Blender and Cycles as main tools for rendering and shading, I need to use the shading networks inside of Blender. I realize how nice it would be to have usd and materialX standards both integrated to have a common description of a scene to be processed by a renderer like Cycles or Arnold!
If you have resources on this topic and thoughts, feel free to share!